"WHAT SHOULD I TELL THEM?!" -Stan questioned himself mentally about what he would tell his friends. The truth? NO! No one was supposed to find out about that, not now.
Stan decided to dodge the question with a diversion.
"Hey; I saw something move! Maybe it's Craig!" Stan said as he pointed to a path with some rose bushes.
"Let's go!" Clyde said as he start running in the direction of the rose bushes while Tolkien was behind him, to prevent him from getting hurt.
"Ufff" — Stan let out a relieved sigh — "So close, I can't tell them about Kyle…" He said to himself before going after the boys.
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"Girls; did you hear that Kyle is single?" — Said the blonde mermaid as she combed her hair.
"What? Is he broken up with Heidi?" The red-haired mermaid asked in amazement.
"But they made such a cute couple! — Exclaimed the one with curly black hair.
"I know! But I think a Wendigo and a Fairy don't go together" — Bebe said disappointed.
"Too bad, although we always knew they wouldn't last long" — Red said.
"Yeah, knowing Kyle he probably broke up with her to have more time to do his: Duties as the second in command," Nichole said making quotation marks with her fingers.
The mermaids kept talking until they heard a familiar voice approaching.
"Hello sea beauties" — Kenny said as he walked towards the falls.
"KENNY!!" — Said the three in chorus when they saw the blonde arrive.
"How are you, cuties?" Kenny said.
"We were fine, but now that you've arrived; we're super fine!" — Said the red-haired mermaid approaching the shore.
- I'm glad to hear that. Pigeon, aren't you going to say hello? — Kenny questioned his feathered friend who was still holding his hand.
"Oh? Yes... Hello girls" — The Harp greeted.
"Hello, Butters!" The Blonde greeted enthusiastically.
"And why are you here, Kenny? You haven't been to see us in a long time," Nichole said.
"Hehe, well, you know. Now I have two responsibilities and I haven't had time to come see my favorite pearls" — Kenny said, winking at the mermaids.
It would be a lie to say that in a certain way the mermaids of the falls did not attract him, they were beautiful and despite not having legs, they had a good body, especially Bebe, he considered her the most attractive of the three, but of course, it was only attraction physical. He wasn't planning on having anything relatively serious with any of the three of them.
"Well, I've come to take a bath" — Kenny said to start taking off his skull and his wolf skin cape.
"That's weird for you, Kenny" — Red said as she chuckled.
"Well, Butters and I had a little problem with a skunk" — Kenny said entering the water with his pants still on, they stank and also had to be washed — "Don't be nosy" — He told the mermaids as he got completely into the water.
"Are you not coming?" — He asked his friend.
"Kenny, you know very well that I can't swim" — Butters said still on the shore.
"I understand friend, well, I'll be back in a few minutes; don't run away!" — He said the last joke and then went swimming to where the mermaids.
Butters watched from the shore as Kenny played and flirted with the mermaids, he wouldn't lie, he didn't like it when Kenny talked that way with the mermaids, not because he was attracted to one of them but because he couldn't stand it when Kenny talked that way with them. He didn't hate mermaids, he just resented the way Kenny behaved towards them. It was a strange feeling that only came when Kenny did that.
He and Kenny had been together for five years since they were assigned as partners to watch the forest, their relationship at first was not pleasant at all, but with the passage of time they began to get to know each other better, get along better and ended up in what they are now.
"BEST FRIENDS"
Butters decided to ignore that feeling again and wait for Kenny instead.
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- STAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! Clyde said.
"What?" Stan said as he walked.
"Can we rest? My legs can't take it anymore!" Clyde said.
"But a moment ago you said you would not rest until you find Craig," Tolkien said.
"I know, but I'm hungry!" - He complained. — "Please, let's stop to eat" — Clyde begged.
"Okay, let's stop here" — Stan said.
The three boys sat down on the forest floor to rest for a moment.
"Okay Clyde, get the food out" — Tolkien said to his friend.
... -
Clyde was silent.
"Clyde; you brought the food, right?" — Questioned Stan as he looked at Clyde — "RIGHT?!" He asked louder.
"I THOUGHT TOLKIEN WOULD DO IT!!" Clyde yelled.
"CLYDE! You were supposed to bring the food, you idiot!" - Tolkien said annoyed.
"I'm sorry!! But I was so excited about looking for Craig that I forgot" — Clyde said.
"Perfect, we don't know where fagot Craig is, we're lost and we've got no food!" Stan exclaimed leaning against a tree.
The trio fell silent until the one with blue eyes and dark hair spoke up.
"Anyway, I'll go get something to eat. You guys stay here!" — Stan said and then left the area where they were.
Tolkien and Clyde ignored him and followed Stan at a distance.
Stan walked down a path until he came to a very beautiful apple tree, from which sweet little apples were sprouting.
"You've grown a lot since the last time" — Stan said placing his hand on the trunk of the tree, Tolkien and Clyde who were watching him hidden in a bush looked at each other confused; How did Stan know that tree was there?
"Fine mate, I'll have some of those if you don't mind" — He told the tree as he pointed to the apples.
Stan climbed the tree and climbed on a branch to reach the red fruits of the treetop, he knew that those were the sweetest, he saw a handful of these so he carefully walked over the branch and stretched to reach them, but when he was centimeters from them, the branch he was standing on began to crack and broke, letting him fall some meters high.
Stan expected the impact to be painful and stiff but instead it was soft and loud as he had landed on top of a pile of dry leaves; Where had they come from? He wondered since the leaves obviously hadn't fallen from the apple tree, plus they were oak leaves.
"Almost..." — Listening a few meters from him, Stan looked up and he met a pair of green eyes and red hair.
"Kyle..." — Stan said as he watched as the redhead had his arms outstretched towards him and the palms of his hands open.
"STAN?!" Kyle asked exalted when he recognized who he had rescued.
"Kyle!" Stan said standing up.
"KYLE?!" Tolkien asked as he was already close to the two of them.
"TOLKIEN?!" Stan asked.
"Tolkien??" Kyle asked in confusion.
"Stan!" —Tolkien yelled.
"Kyle!" Stan yelled.
"Clyde!" Clyde yelled, introducing himself.
... —
The four got into an awkward silence.
"Stan; what the fuck are you doing here?!" — Asked Kyle crossing his arms — "You know it's forbidden to enter here!" Kyle said.
"I know, I know I promised never to come back, much less get close to you, but here I am, again looking for an asshole who got here" — Stan said.
"What, what do you mean?" Kyle asked.
"Yes, you see Kyle, some idiot named Craig Tucker came up with the wonderful idea of going into the woods; and now the whole village is looking for him like crazy!" Stan said.
"WHAT? There's no way..." — Kyle was silent for a few minutes before yelling at the top of his lungs.
"KENNY!! BUTTERS!!" —
The scream was so loud that it frightened the birds, who flew in the direction of the falls.
Butters was almost asleep on the shore, Kenny had finally finished cleaning himself, he approached his feathered friend and patted him on the shoulder.
"Come on, pigeon, I'm done with..." — Kenny whispered in Harp's ear.
"Mgh? Oh, you don't suck anymore!" said Happy Butters. "Now...
Butters was interrupted by the sound of a bird making a tremendous racket.
"What...? K-Ky-Ky What? No. Isn't that Kyle? KYLE!" — Butters exclaimed when he understood what the bird was trying to tell him — "Kenny, Kyle needs us!" Butters said.
"Now? Ugh!" Kenny said as he turned back into a wolf and started running, sniffing out Kyle's scent to get to him.
When both creatures arrived at the place, they approached Kyle.
"What's up Kyle?" Kenny asked in his human form.
"Kenny; is there a human in the forest?" Kyle asked.
"What? Obviously not. Why do you ask...?" — Kenny turned his eyes and looked at Stan — "Stan! Man, how long" — Kenny said happily.
"Hello, Kenny," Stan greeted.
"KENNY! Stan says there's a human here. You want to explain to me how you couldn't tell if you were watching?" Kyle said angrily.
"A human…? Uh, well Kyle, I…" Kenny was abruptly interrupted by Kyle.
"NO EXCUSES! WE PUT OUR LIFE IN YOUR PAWS, KENNY!!" Kyle said annoyed.
"Kyle, it's not all Kenny's fault" — Butters said in defense of Kenny.
"You're right... IT'S BOTH'S BLAME!" Kyle yelled angrier than before. — "I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY TWEEK PUT YOU TWO IN CHARGE OF THIS!! YOU'RE AN IRRESPONSIBLE COUPLE!!" Kyle exclaimed, releasing all his anger.
Even though Kyle said that just because he was upset, those words were enough to break poor Harp's heart. He felt so useless and ineffective, Kenny quickly realized this and decided to act, he will not tolerate someone talking about his friend like that.
Kyle! — Kenny said and then took Kyle by the neck, looking at him with a murderous look.
"Look, tree boy, being second in command after Tweek doesn't give you the right to talk all the shit you want, scold me, I'm the irresponsible one, but don't talk to Leo that way again. Or I swear I'll snap you like a branch" — Kenny said, with the iris of his eyes red and his fangs starting to protrude from his jaw.
Kyle understood the Nahual's warning, so he stepped away from him and resumed his calm posture.
"Fine, whatever. Haven't you seen anything strange in the woods?" — He asked both blondes more calmly.
"Well, this morning Kenny caught the scent of a strange creature, but thanks to it we had an accident with a skunk" — Butters said.
"Well, we don't know what Craig smells like, but could you tell us what that creature smelled like?" Clyde kindly asked.
"Hey; who are these guys?" — Kenny questioned the redhead.
"There will be another time for introductions later, now tell us Kenny; what was that smell?" Kyle asked.
"Well, it smelled like mint" — Described the blond.
"It's not Craig" — Stan snorted.
"And sweat" — Kenny continued.
"Many animals sweat" — Tolkien said.
"Mm; Oh yeah! It smelled like a guinea pig too" — Kenny said.
"IT'S CRAIG!!" — Said the three adventurers as a celebration.
"Yes, yes, at least he's still alive" — Kyle said without encouragement.
"Kyle, cheer up a little, won't you?" Stan said.
"Come on friend, before you used to smile like an idiot every time I came to see you" — Stan said forgetting that his friends were still there.
"WHAT, HAVE YOU CAME BEFORE?!!" — Clyde questioned, amazed by Stan's statement.
"That's not relevant now, we'll help them look for your friend, but when you find him you'll leave... And won't come back" — Kyle said.
"Got it, Kyle…" Stan said.
"Okay, Kenny, Butters, they're going to look in the south area. Maybe the boy is looking for a way out of here, we're going to see Tweek to tell him about this" — Kyle said.
Both blondes, upon receiving Kyle's order, attended and left the place, leaving the four in the center of the forest.
"Tweek lives in the north wing, it will take us a while to get there, so we'll start tomorrow morning" —
Kyle said as he looked up at the sky, the morning and afternoon had flown by, it was nearly dark.
"We'll go to my tree, you'll be comfortable there" — Kyle said to walk towards his tree.
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"Damn, it's going to be night and I still smell like a skunk" — Craig said annoyed by his scent.
Craig, despite not stinking as much as he did a few hours ago, still had the smell of skunk, but the world decided to give him some luck.
"Huh? Those are... Lavenders," Craig exclaimed.
Seeing how some sprouted from the ground, he quickly approached them and took three of them, the first he passed through his clothes, the second through his hair and the third he decided to keep in his backpack, it could become useful later. Now Craig had a fragrant scent of lavender with which he could blend into the woods undetected.
But now he had another problem, he didn't know where to spend the night, first he decided to sleep on a log but he remembered the incident with the skunk so he discarded that option, he decided to wander through the forest, maybe he would find a safer area, he walked a couple of minutes until he saw a huge oak, he could climb it and sleep in one of its branches, and so he did, when he was at the top of the tree he left his backpack on a branch, but not before taking out the blanket that he had inside it, his canteen, a piece of bread, and his chum Stripe.
Craig ate the bread and drank the water, saving some for tomorrow, he spread the blanket over him and curled up as best he could on the tree branch while Stripe slept on his hood, the night would be long.
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"We're here" Kyle said to the boys following him.
Finally! — Clyde said tired, while he took a deep breath.
Kyle had guided them to a tree that had some torches illuminating it, the top was illuminated and he showed some roots that were on the ground, these formed a kind of stairs through which they could climb to the top.
"I'll let you spend the night here, but tomorrow we'll look for your friend. You'll need to get your strength back" — Kyle said starting to climb the roots.
"So... do you know each other?" Tolkien questioned Stan.
"We'll talk about that later, I'm tired" — Stan said climbing up the roots.
"Do you think they were friends?" — Clyde asked his friend.
"I don't know, but if Stan doesn't want to talk about it, it's better not to bother him" — He said.
Tolkien started climbing up the roots and Clyde followed him.
The top of the tree was wide and the branches simulated the ground, creating a kind of platform, the rest of them were holding books and other objects.
"This place hasn't changed at all," Stan said, watching.
"You know I don't like changes. Why do you go with them? It didn't seem like you had much desire to find that guy" — Kyle said.
"They insisted until I agreed" — Stan said, approaching the redhead — "By the way, thanks for what happened a while ago" —
"It's nothing, I thought you were Kenny or Tweek" — He said.
"Kenny and Butters look closer, maybe they already..." — Stan was interrupted by Kyle in a monotonous way.
"No, Butters still doesn't dare and Kenny is blind as a mole" — Kyle said with a certain grace.
"How can Kenny not notice? Butters gave him a necklace, it's always stuck to him like gum; and he doesn't notice?" — Exclaimed Stan — "But what a fool."
"I know! Kenny is being a jerk" — Kyle said — "So… how have you been?" Kyle said.
"Well, it's been hard to get over what happened with Shelly. I tried to distract myself with other things, I took a training to learn combat. I got better with the guitar. And I started hanging out with those guys" - He look at Clyde & Tolkien, who were waiting from the roots.
"WE'RE NOT SPYING!!" — Clyde yelled when he realized they were discovered.
Stan and Kyle laughed at the same time.
"And what about you?" Stan asked now.
"Well, I haven't had it easy since you walked away from here... When you walked away I decided to have some time for myself, I met a very smart and nice fairy, although not funny at all, but nice" — Kyle said remembering the fairy with brown hair.
"Uh-huh" — Stan said dryly at what Kyle had said.
"Well, we started dating a few months ago," Kyle said.
"Oh, how interesting" — Stan said without any interest in that.
"But I decided to break up with her" — Kyle said.
"Oh, and why is that?" Stan asked, now with more interest.
"Well, now I have to put more time into my responsibilities in the woods" — Kyle said — "By the way, I'm sorry about Shelly..." —
"Sure, I understand that you regret having killed my sister" — Stan said crossing his arms.
"Stan; for the last time! I didn't kill Shelly!" Kyle said.
"You're a liar! You know what? I'm glad I got away from you. Murderer!" — Stan shouted the last thing — "I want you to know that I only accept your help to find Craig and get out of here" — Stan said angrily.
"Oh yeah? Do what you want, I don't give a damn what you do!" Kyle said.
"You don't know how much I regret putting my trust in a cocky asshole like you!" — Stan reproached — "I wish I had never met you!" Stan yelled at the redhead, who attacked him with a slap in the face.
"You're a complete idiot, Stan Marsh. Go to hell" — Kyle said as he quickly lowered the roots of the tree.
Clyde and Tolkien, who had witnessed the whole thing, just fell silent and helped Stan to his feet.
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The night had finally ended and the sun was beginning to rise, Craig woke up suddenly when he felt a branch fall on his face, so quickly he woke up that he forgot to be in a tree and suddenly fell to the ground along with his backpack.
Craig fell from the tree to the ground but luckily he had fallen into a thornless bush, Stripe was still on the tree branch looking at his father on the ground.
"Ugh, shit," Craig said, standing up.
"Gha!" —
It was what Craig heard in front of him, he was confused so he looked up to see who had caused that little scream. Looking up, Craig's eyes met the gaze of a boy with tousled blonde hair, from which some kind of branches emerged as if they were horns. He had white skin with small freckles, he had blue sky eyes with green edges, it was like seeing a constellation in his iris, Craig looked carefully and amazed at the boy.
The blond did the same, only instead of looking at him in amazement, as the other did, he looked at him confused and strange, he realized that the dark-haired boy was human, he had no branches that sprouted from his body, he was not small like fairies, he didn't have scales or a tail like mermaids, he didn't have a tail or claws like Kenny or feathers like Butters, that's how he realized he was a human, he had never seen one, but he knew they didn't have any spatial peculiarity like him and those who lived in the forest.
Both boys looked at each other carefully while the same question was formed in their heads.
Who is that?
• [ To be continue... ]•
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