Leaves crunched under Aru's shoes as she trudged forward. The sky had turned a shade of pink and orange, and Aru still felt like she had just jumped into a pool and immediately gotten out and didn't have a towel with her. She shivered despite the warm weather. Her shirt had mostly dried out, but her jeans and underwear still felt wet. Aru had let her hair out of her braid, in an effort for it to dry faster. It hung down her face in wet strands that stuck to her face, not to mention, she had lost her hair tie somewhere in the path. And none of the other members had an extra. Surprisingly, not even Aiden. She groaned and put her hands on her knees, coming to a halt.
"Can we take a break?" She asked the rest of them. Rudy, who looked like he had aged ten years during their small hike, nodded frantically.
"Yes, pleeeease!" He moaned, and flopped to the ground. Mini nodded as well. "I didn't even have time to pack my inhaler!" She gasped loudly and flung her hand to her mouth. "What if I get an asthma attack! Then, I could lose my breath, stop breathing, and-"
"Die?" The rest of the Potatoes said simultaneously. Mini crossed her arms and sniffed. "It's not a joke! It really could happen!"
Aiden snapped a picture of the evening sky, and said, "I guess we should camp out here for the night." Aru agreed. They had stumbled upon a small clearing in the woods. Leafy trees surrounded them, casting shadows on the ground as the sun went down. Birds cooed and fluttered off to their nests, and crickets began to chirp. Aiden stepped forward and pulled out a couple coins and tossed them on the forest floor. Three tents popped up, and Aru recognized them from the time they got stranded on the Smoky Mountains.
"You still have those?" Aru asked him, and he turned away before nodding. Aru was low-key annoyed. Alright, she got that it's all awkward and everything, but Aiden was getting a little irritating. The least he could do was at least face her while talking to her! It's basic human decency, she thought to herself angrily. And besides, he was the one who kissed her first, not the other way around!
She sighed loudly and held her stomach as it grumbled. Brynne rubbed her stomach as well.
"Is there anything to eat?" Brynne eyed a squirrel that chittered and ran away in fear.
Aiden dug into his satchel and pulled out a couple of snacks- a few bags of chips, popcorn (yay!), a container of fruit, water, granola bars, and bags of...marshmallows?
"Marshmallows?" Mini asked in confusion. "Why marshmallows?" Aiden shrugged.
"I was in a rush, so I just grabbed whatever I could find. I didn't think about it too much." Then, he glanced around. "Maybe we could find some firewood? We could have toasted marshmallows, and that way, Shah could dry off as well."
Aru nodded eagerly, and they split into pairs. Mini and Brynne were in charge of setting everything up, Rudy was to stand guard (though he was forced to because he lost against Mini in a game of 'nose goes'), and Aru and Aiden had to find some wood for the fire. As Mini dragged Rudy to the edge of the clearing to stay guard, Brynne hummed while she tried to get rid of the leaves on the ground for the make-shift fire pit. Aru and Aiden, however, were standing off awkwardly to the side. Brynne looked up and wiped her sweat off her brow.
"What are you two doing?" She yelled at the two of them.
"Nothing," Aru called back. "Don't worry, we're about to leave!"
"So," Aiden turned to her and scratched the back of his neck. "Shall we go?"
"We shall," Aru said with a grin, and snickered. Aiden smacked his forehead and followed her out of the clearing and into the deeper woods.
They walked around in silence for a while, trying to look for firewood. It was harder than Aru thought. Aru guessed that it had rained or something recently, because all the sticks that she found were wet. Not to mention, Aiden kept nagging her about the type of wood she collected.
"Not that one, Aru," he said exasperatedly, as Aru picked up a couple of sticks. "They have to be denser and thicker. No, not that one either. It's wet."
Aru huffed and dropped her bundle of sticks. "If you know so much about it, then you do it!" Aiden sighed and bent down, carefully choosing the right wood and gathering it in his arms.
"So," Aru started to say, turning a little red. She was glad it was dark. Aiden tilted his head, indicating that he was listening. "Um, about what happened...you know at my party...''Aru stopped, unsure of how to go on. Aiden stood straight up abruptly, startling her.
"Maybe," he hesitated, and went on. "Maybe we should talk about it some other time. Not-not right now. We have too many things going on."
Aru was a little hurt, but she agreed with him. They had other things to worry about at the moment. "Fine, but let's stop acting awkward with each other. I'm pretty sure the rest of the Potatoes are getting kinda annoyed with it too."
"Awkward?" He asked, looking away from her. "What do you mean..."
Aru raised an eyebrow, and she sensed that Aiden could feel her questionable look even though it was dark.
"Okay, okay," he relented.
"Friends?" Then she added, "At least, for now?" She held out her hand in front of her, and he shook it. "Yep," he responded.
Aru felt like a huge burden was lifted from her shoulders, and she began searching for firewood again, when she suddenly heard a sound. Snap! Aru slowly turned around and looked at Aiden, who had turned around at the same time.
"That was you...right?" She asked timidly. Aiden, his eyes wide, shook his head. "No, I thought that was you."
As if they were in a horror movie, the two slowly rotated their heads around and came face to face with a salivating rakshasi.
Aru screamed and got up to her feet and ran, with Aiden by her side.
"Ohmygodwhattheheckisthat!" she yelled.
"I don't know!" Aiden shouted back. "Just keep running!" Aru's mind immediately started singing the Just keep swimming song from Finding Nemo.
"Swimming, swimming," she muttered under her breath.
"Are you seriously singing that song now?" Aiden yelled at her incredulously.
"Shush, it's my coping mechanism for potential death situations!"
They ran through the woods, bursting through bushes and shoving branches out of the way. Aru had no idea where they were, or where their camp was. She had a feeling that Aiden wasn't paying much attention to that either. Suddenly, Aru jerked forward and fell down face-first on the ground. A large branch on the ground had snagged her shoelaces, and Aru desperately tried to untangle it.
Stupid, stupid shoelaces, she thought to herself in a panic. I knew I should have gotten velcro.
"GRAHHHHH!" the rakshasi roared. Aru finally freed her shoelace, but when she tried to get up, a burst of stinky, hot breath forced her down again. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Aiden trying to make his way towards her, but Aru was more focused on the rakshasi in front of her.
Aru scrambled backwards, keeping her eyes trained on the demoness, who had leaned down and was now face to face with Aru. Now that she had a better look at her, she could see that she was more or less the size of a building. She had pale green skin, and horns curled up two feet above her head. The monster's beady red eyes held Aru's brown ones, and two gleaming, white tusks emerged from her mouth. She wore a long, tattered, white sari and wore a necklace of skulls. The strangest part of the necklace was that the skulls were incredibly small. They were definitely not the size of the skull of a grown adult. It was almost as if, Aru realized in horror, they were once the heads of...babies.
The female monster roared and opened her mouth. Saliva dripped down to the ground in front of Aru. She gagged and suddenly realized something. The sticks weren't wet from the rain! It was from the saliva of the rakshasi!
"Aiden," she squeaked. "What do we do?" She kept her face and body still, and slowly started to crawl backwards. No sudden movements, she told herself. The rakshasi kept staring at her, also not making any moves.
As soon as she continued to inch closer to Aiden, however, the demoness roared and shouted, "WHO DARE ENTERS MY FOREST OF BLOOD?!?!"
Aru yelped and scrambled away, grabbing Aiden's hand as they ran away from the screaming monster.
"I really wish I had Vajra!" Aru whined, as they raced through.
"This is not the time for complaining!" Aiden replied as he jumped over a bush. "The question is, how do we beat her?" He pulled out his scimitars (well technically, scimitar because Aru had accidentally destroyed his other one. That's okay though. He got a cool golden sword to make up for it).
Aru didn't answer him, as she was too busy dodging the humongous axe the rakshasi kept swinging at them. She swept a large stick off the ground and brandished it in front of her like a sword.
"Stop!" She yelled, and surprisingly, the rakshasi did. "Listen, Ms. Baby-skull necklace demoness! We didn't know this was your forest! We're, uh, just staying here temporarily." She peeked at Aiden, and he gave her a quick, encouraging nod. "No worries, though. We'll leave if you want us to! Um, just let us go back to our friends, and we'll be out of your hair and your, uh, horns!" Aru gave what she thought was a huge, friendly grin, but the rakshasi scowled and she immediately stopped.
The rakshasi smiled. She put her hand on her chin, as if she were thinking very deeply about something. Her stomach rumbled, sounding like a bulldozer. Uh oh. Well, on the bright side, there was no way the rest of them hadn't heard the demoness. Maybe they'll get help soon.
"I'm not too sure about that," she said in a raspy, gravely voice that at the same time somehow sounded like slightly high-pitched nails scratching a chalkboard. If it were possible, more saliva dripped from her mouth and landed on the ground in huge puddles. Which made her think about the one that she had landed in when Brynne dropped her. She shuddered, and hoped that she hadn't landed in monster spit.
She peered down at Aiden and Aru. "I haven't had humans in so long! Ah, what an appetizing midnight snack!" She licked her lips and started grabbing for the two of them. Aiden leaped back and sliced the demoness's forearm. Aru jabbed her calf with her stick, and the rakshasi howled in pain from both attacks (well, mainly Aiden's). She began swiping through the air, and at one point, she advanced on Aru. Aru ran away, tripping over various things, but the rakshasi's hand soon loomed over her and scooped her up.
"Shah!" Aiden yelled, and he ran forward and started to hack at the monster's feet, but it didn't seem to bother the huge monster.
"EWWWW!" Aru screamed. She really hoped that the demoness at least washed her hands (which wasn't likely). Ugh, she was totally going to have to take like an hour-long shower after this.
"MARSHMALLOW ATTACK!"
Aru squinted in the darkness, and from the height that the monster was holding her, she could just barely make out Brynne and the rest of the gang, each one armed with a bag of...marshmallows?
A/N: Btw, the description of the rakshasi is probably different than how the actual mythological one looked. I just made up the description.