The boat ride was no more awkward than the train ride and been. Two hours of Mr Leopold (Mr Leopold, really? Cocky little twat.) blabbering about how safe Phineas was going to be because he had the best hunters in the world protecting him.
Oh he felt ever so safe with the man child and creepy black eyed mute. What were they hunting? No one had even told him yet? The most dangerous animal in Scotland was what, an adder? They were kind of venomous. There were no bears in Scotland, nor wolves, the most they would have to hunt were red squirrels.
If that were the case though then what happened to the group of archaeologists before him and why would the company hire people to protect him if there was nothing?
The question weighed heavy on his mind as they arrived on the island. As the grey waves of the sea lapped against the hull of the ferry, the island gradually clawed its way out of the mist and into the view. Like a sea monster of legend, it grew ever closer and all the larger the further they got from civilised society.
The thing that struck Phineas forget about the island wasn't its obvious remoteness or solitude, but it's pure density of trees. The landscape was spiked with trees taller than he'd ever seen. He couldn't make out any houses or signs of any population upon the island, just trees.
When the ship finally docked at a pier that clearly was not used very often, Phineas felt an almost primal instinct urging him to remain onboard. Had this place ever known man? It seemed nature ruled here and he didn't want to mess with the hierarchy. His head ached and stomach churned as he was helplessly shoved off by Mr Leopold. Before he knew it, he was on the crumbling pier and watching his one route to escape sail off into the mist.
"Are you alright?" That deep gravelly voice sent shivers down his spine. He could not pinpoint what it was about Sebastian that frightened him so, no that was not true, his eyes frightened Phineas. He was stuck on this island with these two men for the foreseeable future, he had to get used to it.
He looked up at Sebastian. Oh those eyes. Never had he known such a shade of black. Was the night itself ever so dark? He smiled nonetheless and said: "I'm fine, thanks. Just kind of realising that I've never really been out of the city for very long. I used to live in London, didn't leave it a lot really."
Mr Leopold laughed boisterously. "So we got a spoilt city boy here, 'ave we? Even more the reason for us to be here, right Seb? You've never gotten your hands dirty, you've never done actual hard work or physical labour. Don't deny it! Seb and I will risk our lives and toil away for your peace of mind. Put up your delicate feet and protect your finger nails, Phineas, for Seb and I will handle the actual work." He grinned like a maniac to himself as he spouted his nonsense.
"What are you talking about?" Asked Phineas. "I'm an archaeologist. My entire job is getting my hands dirty."
Mr Leopold gave him a quizzical look. "How is designing houses getting your hands dirty?"
"That an architect, you pillock."
"Those... aren't the same?"
"No."
Mr Leopold looked out across the sea and the for the first time, Phineas saw him with a slightly embarrassed expression. He felt slightly happy at humbling him, but he was also reminded of just how young this kid was. Mr Leopold looked eighteen, nineteen at a push. He supposed it was typical for people that age to try and assert themselves with false boasts of bravado.
"It's an easy mistake to make." Phineas assured. "I get it all the time."
He meant it as words of encouragement, but Mr Leopold turned on Phineas in a rage. He grabbed Phineas by his shirt collar and with a face of malice stated: "I don't make mistakes. I can't."
What were they feeding children these days? How did a teenager get that strong? Freak of nature. Any sympathy Phineas had for him was quickly gone.
"Put him down." Seb placed a hand on Mr Leopold's forearm that wrapped all the way around. Phineas hadn't realised he was being accompanied by giants. Initially, he had recognised that he was with some very tall men, but to actually see their sizes in a comparative way... it was frightening.
Where were these bones and relics he was supposed to dig up? The people of the past would not bother him nearly as much as those living in the present.
Mr Leopold let go off Phineas' collar, turned on his heels and stormed away. What a petulant child. He had some nerve calling Phineas pampered. He bet that Mr Leopold was a spoilt daddy's boy or something like that. How else does someone get an ego that big.
"Is he always like that?" He readjusted his collar and straightened out his shirt.
Sebastian shook his head, his hair swayed with him like curtains caught in a breeze when the windows are open. If it wasn't for his eyes, he would probably be a very popular man. "Please don't misunderstand him. He has more to deal with than most."
"We've all got shit to deal with. It all depends on how you deal with it." He went to pick up his luggage until Sebastian picked it up and placed it on his wide shoulders as if the mountain of clothes and equipment he had brought weighed nothing.
"Allow me." Was all he said.
Sebastian refused to let Phineas carry his own luggage or even Sebastian's no matter how many times he asked. Phineas helplessly followed the giant along a gravel track that winded it's way through the dense forest of the Isle. Dense was not enough to capture it though. The trees fought amongst themselves for space and sunlight. Wrapping and trapping their bark limbs around one another. Some trees were melded into each other, where one began and another ended was a secret now lost to time. Their spindly fingers rattled above Phineas' head as an icy wind blew through. There were familiar sides like birds singing and the sound of squirrels scurrying from here to there, but every once in a while he heard what he thought to be a heavy footfall.
Phineas would've called it his imagination or paranoia if not for the way Sebastian's body would tense up and turn slightly towards the sound. He wanted to ask him what he thought the sound was, but he didn't dare.
The forest grew darker the deeper they wandered into it. The trees crowded each other more. The dirt trail they had been following -the reassuring sound of their feet crunching against the path- dribbled out until there was only small splashes of gravel to suggest the way they should go.
He was glad, so very glad in that moment to have Sebastian with him after all. He walked unafraid and with a confidence that made Phineas believe he knew where he was going. What if Mr Leopold had gotten lost along the way? He found himself surprisingly worried about that little twat. Knowing what little he did about that idiot, he would get cocky and get himself lost along the way.
"Where are we going?" He asked Sebastian.
"To the hotel."
"Does Mr Leopold know the way."
"He does."
That was a small reassurance he supposed.
"You've been to this island before?" He asked another question, he wanted Sebastian to be anything but quiet right now.
"I have."
"Did you live here?"
"Briefly." There was a snapping of a branch to the left of the path. "When I was child I lived here." That was probably the loudest he'd ever heard Sebastian speak, as if he was not speaking only to Phineas, but to someone else as well.
Phineas looked around him. Trees, trees and more trees. "Are your parents still here?"
"No." There was a thump on the right side of the path this time. Then another. "Have you been here before?"
Phineas nodded his head then realised how silly that was when Sebastian was in front and couldn't see him. "Yes. Only once. My mum took me here." There was another thump, then a twig snapping, then a sickening crunch. "We were supposed to meet someone, but in the end," thump, snap, crunch, "we just stayed in a cabin for a day then left."
"Sounds boring." Mr Leopold came waltzing out the bushes from the right side. His arms hung lazily by his side and his face was tilted up towards the sky. "Who knew trees could be so spooky."
This stupid little...
"Where gave you been?" Phineas asked.
Mr Leopold kept his face upturned and shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"Does it matter? Does it matter!" He punched Mr Leopold in the chest. Fuck that hurt. He shook his hand to relive the pain as Mr Leopold just stared down at him with a confused look on his face.
"Did you just... try to punch me?"
"I'll punch you harder next time if you don't start shaping up. Wandering off on an island that you've never been to. In a forest that has got god knows what in it. Don't you ever do that again!"
Me Leopold stuttered out some sounds of indignation. "Wh- you're not my superior, you can't tell me what to do."
"Yes, I can, Mr Leop-" he paused before he said it, "what's your first name?"
"None of your business. You can call me Mr Leopold."
"No." Phineas shook his head. "No, I'm not doing that. If you won't tell me your first name, I'm calling you Leopold. No Mr for you, mister."
"It's Mr Leopold!"
"It's just Leo now because you said that."
"Don't call me that!" Shouted Leo. His face was flushed with rage and slight embarrassment.
"Too late. Come on, Leo. Best get going before it gets dark."
Phineas led the group for a few steps, filled with the righteousness of telling off a boy two years younger than him. "Which way is the hotel?" He asked Sebastian once the trees looked like the same trees from before and the trees from even before that.
"For fuck sake." Leo shoved past Phineas, nearly knocking him over if not for Sebastian reaching out a hand to hold him steady.
"Oh, thanks." He couldn't look him in the eyes. He kept his eyes trained on Sebastian's chest, from this angle it almost looked like there was a small tattoo peeking out form the top of his vest.
Sebastian placed a hand over his chest and pulled up his vest. Whoops, it must be a pretty embarrassing tattoo to get that reaction. As they all kept on walking, Phineas imagined a variety of silly tattoos on Sebastian's chest. Perhaps he had Live, Laugh, Love on his chest or a skull that was done wonky. It was funny to imagine him like that.
They arrived at the "hotel" which it was not. It was a shabby cottage in the middle of the trees. The walls were covered in white paint and plaster that had picked away to reveal grey brick, the roof was thatched and ivy was scaling every side of the house. Sebastian had to pull some of the ivy away to get the door open. The inside was quaintly decorated with wooden furniture with the odd blanket here and there, a fireplace that had obviously not been used in a very long time, long beams of wood stretched across the ceiling and there was dust on about every surface it could get itself on.
Phineas retired to his bedroom for the evening, he was exhausted and cold and didn't waist to have an awkward dinner with Leo and Sebastian no matter how hungry he was. The sun had log since gone down and as the moonlight began to trickle through Phineas' bedroom window, he could've sworn he heard a howl far off in the distance.