Sqaishey stirred awake a while later and looked over to check on Mitch. She seemed content to see he was getting rest now instead of trying to stay awake.
Mitch was fast asleep, his jacket wrapped around him like a blanket. Jerry still rested on his stomach and was also dozing off.
She chuckled and smiled. She came over and tapped his shoulder gently. "Mitch?"
"Mmh...?" He slowly opened an eye.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better." Mitch moves up and leaned on his arm, rubbing his eyes. "I think the bleeding has stopped."
Jerry made a noise of agreement as he woke.
She smiled. "Good! Just take it slow and we should be able to get looking for the others."
Mitch nodded and frowned. "I feel like they should have found us by now..."
"Yeah..." She offered her hand. "Ready?"
"Yup." He reaches out and grabbed his hand, slowly getting on his feet and stretching.
"Great, Let's get started." She turned and headed into the forest.
Mitch followed her. He looked down at Jerry and gently nudged him, telling him that it was okay if he moved off of him.
Jerry hesitated before slowly moving off his side and wrapped around his arm instead making a small noise.
Sqaishey looked around for any sign of the others. "Should we call for them?"
"Maybe... who knows how far away they are though..."
She nodded and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Jerome? Tyler? Jordan?! Can you hear me?" She called.
"HELLOOOOOOOO?!" Mitch yelled, his voice echoing amongst the trees. "Anyone there?!"
Birds chirped and flew away from the noise but that was all that answered them.
Sqaishey sighed. "Guess not..."
Mitch sighed. "Guess they're further than we thought." He stepped over a crack in the ground.
She nodded. "Yeah..."
"I'm sure they're still out there though!" Mitch smiled at her, trying to be as positive as he could.
She smiled and nodded. "They have to be."
"Yeah!" Mitch reached another crack, this time having to hop over it. Were they getting bigger?
Sqaishey looked at the cracks as she followed him. "I wonder what caused this..."
"I'm not sure... Probably Mr. Demon or something." He had a mocking tone in his voice.
She giggled. "Probably."
"Looks like the ground is getting worse though."
"Yeah... that's a bit concerning..."
Mitch continued to jump over the cracks and holes in the ground, each progressively getting more difficult.
Sqaishey was struggling a little more than he was but was doing her best to keep up.
It wasn't long until they reached a large pit in the ground that they wouldn't be able to cross.
"Well... Now what?" Sqaishey asked.
"I don't know..." Mitch looked over the large gap. "They couldn't have gone across here!"
"I don't know... Jordan can apparently teleport..."
"You got me there... But what about the others?"
She hummed. "I don't know... You make a good point."
Mitch began to walk alongside the side of the gorge. "Maybe we can see them from this side without having to cross."
She nodded. "We might as well try." She agreed.
Mitch nodded and continued to walk, occasionally calling out to the others.
Sqaishey joined him in calling out for the others as they searched.
Across the gorge Jerome's ears twitched and he awoke, hearing the distant call of voices. He reached over besides him and nudged Tyler. "Do you hear that?"
Tyler sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hm...? hear what?" he sounded a bit grumpy from being woken up.
"That." Jerome fell silent, another call faintly echoed across the area.
"Is that?"
"Mitch!" Jerome practically screamed and stood up, looking more than excited. "HELLOOO?!" He cupped his paws together over his snout.
Sqaishey looked up. "Did you hear that?"
Mitch perked up. "Y-yeah! This way!" He ran off into the distance.
Sqaishey ran after him. "Mitch! Slow down! You aren't fully healed!"
Mitch only ignored her, but tried his best to be careful when it came to watching his step.
Jerome looked around, expecting the others at any second. He wanted to run after their voices, yet Jordan was still passed out cold on the ground.
Tyler stayed next to Jordan's sleeping body, gently patting his back and scanning the area.
Sqaishey caught up with him and ran beside him. "You need to be careful, I know you're excited."
"I know..." Mitch panted between his steps. "But we gotta hurry before the ground decides to break on us again!"
She nodded. "Right."
"Then what are we waiting for!?" Mitch grinned and picked up speed.
"Just be careful!" She called, stumbling after him.
"Whatever you say mom!" He teased.
Sqaishey was caught off guard by that comment and just stared at him in shock before huffing. "Alright then! When we get home you're so grounded!" She teased back.
"Hey! That's not fair!"
"You're the one who gave me the power to do it!" She shrugged and laughed.
He rolled his eyes. "Fine whatever you say."
Jerome's ears continued to twitch as the sound of footsteps and yells grew closer. He nervously paces along the ground, waiting for the others to return.
"I think I see them!" Sqaishey pointed out.
"Y-yeah! G-guys!" Mitch waved his arm in the air.
Tyler was the first to notice them and called back. "Mitch! Sqaishey!" Jerome looked over to the others and grinned, but his smile quickly faded when he realized something. They were on opposite sides of the gorge.
Sqaishey ran forwards, giving a wave back but stopped a few feet away from the ledge. "Glad to see you guys are alright."
"You too!" Jerome called back. "We're good here... for um... the most part." He glanced over at Jordan.
"Uh, is he okay?" Sqaishey called.
"To be honest... We aren't sure." Tyler shook his head.
"What happened?" She asked, as she started looking for a way to bridge the gap.
Jerome sighed "A lot. Long story short, I don't think Jordan is completely human..."
Sqaishey turned to him in surprise. "Wait, what?"
"W-we aren't sure... Some weird enderman creature showed up, one that could talk, and uh... told him that." Tyler shrugged, the events washing over him again.
Sqaishey looked very confused but went with it. "Okay... Uh, let's figure out how to get to each other then we can talk about this more."
"How'd you guys get over there in the first place?" Mitch asked.
"Jerome jumped before it got too big, Jordan teleported, and I... only reached the edge. Jordan had to come back and teleport us both back." Tyler explained. "Knocked him out cold though, he could barely handle it..."
Sqaishey looked concerned. "How long has he been out for?"
"Hours... I've honestly lost track at this point..."
"That's... not good... Mitch, do you see any way over?"
"Nope." Mitch looked around. "Nothing but endless void and a few trees."
"Hmm... Maybe... Maybe we can knock some trees down for a bridge?"
"We have nothing to do that with though." He frowned.
Jerome shook his head and took out his axe, giving it a small twirl. "Y'know, you're kinda stupid sometimes Biggums."
Mitch's face went red. "S-shut up!"
Sqaishey giggled. "Aw, leave him alone, Jerome. He's had a rough day too."
"We're all in the same spot." Jerome sighed and walked over to a nearby tree. It was fairly large and rested right by the edge of the gorge, had it been there before? Taking a deep breath Jerome swung his axe and began to chop at the wood, the thumping of his axe echoing in the air. Before long the tree had nothing but a sliver of its trunk still intact, and Jerome used all of his strength to push the tree over, the top branches landing with a large crash on the other side.
Sqaishey jumped slightly but smiled. "It worked!"
"Heck yeah!" Mitch threw a fist in the air and ran over to the fallen trunk.
"I told you to be careful Mitch!" Sqaishey scolded him but followed him over.
Slowly but steadily Mitch began to walk across the log. It was luckily very thick, and he could easily stand on his without having to balance himself. When he reached the end he hopped off and immediately ran up to Jerome, jumping up and pulling him into a hug.
"Yo I thought I'd never see you again!"
"We weren't even separated for a day..." Jerome remarked, taken aback but returned the hug regardless.
"Yeah... but you still had me worried sick!"
Sqaishey followed behind them and Jerry leapt off of Mitch and made his way to Jordan, making small noises of concern at him.
Tyler squatted down by the slime and held a hand out to him. "He's gonna be okay... just give him some time."
Jerry looked at him before hesitantly wrapping around Tyler's arm, still watching Jordan who was still flushed but the temp had gone down.
Sqaishey came over. "Have you tried waking him?"
Tyler gave Jerry a light pat on the head and turned to Sqaishey. "Yeah, we've tried nudging him a few times but he just won't wake up. I don't think he'd want to either."
"Well if we're going to get out of here then he needs to get up..."
"I know but... Jordan can't physically move! He hasn't moved an inch for hours!"
Sqaishey looked at him. "That's... Not good... Are you sure you can't wake him?" She asked as Jerry moved from Tyler to Jordan and sat on his chest, making a small noise.
"Not sure..."
She sighed before gently shaking Jordan's shoulder. "Jordan, Jordan, you need to wake up..."
He gave a small groan but otherwise barely stirred.
"See? Completely out of it..." Tyler sighed.
She huffed. "Jordan. You need to get up!" She shoved his shoulder a little rougher which stirred him more.
"Mmm.... Stop...." He mumbled.
"L-leave him alone! You might make him angry!" Tyler warned.
Sqaishey looked at him. "You sound scared of that idea."
"I mean... who knows what he's capable of..."
"And? He's still Jordan." She replied and tried to get him awake again.
"He could be different now."
She rolled her eyes and shook him again. "Come on, Jordan. Get up." She poked him and he finally stirred awake, wincing at the light even through his shades.
"Fine... Fine I'm- JERRY!" He exclaimed the second he saw the slime and pulled him into a hug. "Oh thank goodness! You're okay!" His eyes still glowed faintly from beneath his shades but it was hard for them to see.
Sqaishey laughed. "He took good care of us."
Jordan turned to Sqaishey and Mitch and smiled. "I'm glad you both are alright as well." He sat up and leaned against a tree. His head still hurt a bit but he ignored it.
Mitch grinned back. "Great to be back with you guys!"
Tyler looked at Jordan with concern. He walked over to the other and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey uh... are you doing okay? You were out for a long time..."
Jordan turned to him. "I... Yeah... I think so... My head still kind of hurts and I'm not feeling 100% but I think I'll be okay..." He replied.
Sqaishey glanced at Tyler.
"That's good, you had me worried..." He Tyler let out a sigh of relief.
Jordan gave a small thumbs up. "I should be fine in a minute hopefully." He replied. Jerry looked at him and gave a small noise of concern, noticing the faint glow.
"You sure...?" He asked, still a bit worried.
"I mean, it feels like my eyes are bit more sensitive than normal which is making my head hurt but yeah... Other than that I'm okay I guess."
Tyler nodded, slightly fidgeting his hands.
"So we're good to go?" Mitch asked.
Sqaishey nodded. "I guess so." she answered.
Jordan slowly stood up, wincing a little. "Y-Yeah." He agreed.
"Alright let's go then!" Mitch exclaimed, grabbing Jerome's paw and beginning to walk away from the gorge.
Tyler nervously looked at Jordan. "Need any help?"
"I wouldn't mind an extra hand." Jordan agreed. He still looked a bit pale but was trying to hide his discomfort.
Tyler moved closer to Jordan and wrapped Jordan's arm around his shoulder before following the others.