Where You Go - A Kai Satou Fanfiction

Chapter Three - The Air is Thick Tonight

It had been a couple hours, and so far our rowboat of doom hadn't done anything bad to us yet. Alice and I haven't really had any meaningful conversations yet either. I decide that now would be the best time to speak up. Unlike Meena, this elephant in the room couldn't be ignored anymore.

"Alice," I started. "Do you have any idea where Sara Island is, by chance?" He seemed to ponder this question for quite a while. I already knew the answer- no- but his response would be worth hearing. Alice was a pretty funny guy, even if he never intended to be.

I expected a response, but I got none. Perhaps he was just tired? I mean, he had been paddling across the Atlantic Ocean for a couple hours now. I took this opportunity to ask him if I could take over. "Hey Alice.." I said. He made a humming noise that egged me to continue. "Could I take over? I feel bad, you've been rowing for hours. You should probably rest."

Although I couldn't see his face, I could tell he was smiling greedily. "I do not require your assistance. However since you are offering, I will comply!" And with that, we stood up and awkwardly shuffled around each other so I would be in the middle of the boat to row. Surprisingly, the boat didn't tip this time.

After what felt like years, we saw land in the distance. Already this is going better than our journey to Egbenedia.  This time it was definitely land and not eggs benedict. Alice and I conversed in small talk for a while, and finally, we were there.

"Nice weather, eh?" He asked. This is a common question asked in small talk (I learned that in a book), but in this situation it was odd. The weather was not 'nice'. I could barely see in front of me. It was extremely foggy outside, so much so that the land in front of us was almost unrecognizable. "No?" I said. What was he thinking?

"I love the fog. It moisturizes my skin." He responded. I had no idea how to respond to that, so I just didn't. We rowed for around 30 more minutes before finally reaching sweet sweet land. As soon as the boat could come to a stop, Alice jumped out and started kissing the ground.

"Land! Land! Oh how I missed you, Land! Mwah! MWAHHHHH! MWAHAHAHAHA!" He yelled.

His yelling was so loud it could attract the attention of anyone living on this island. Which was a good thing, we were looking for the ginger's friend, but I didn't like the idea of their first impression of us being Alice's maniacal laughter.

Just my luck, a figure came out of the bushes. Is that a sheep? Oh- no- my bad. It was a person.

"Hello..?" The sheep-man said. "Is anyone there?" He looked around and eventually spotted us. He looked young, maybe in high school? I couldn't quite make out what he was wearing. His entire outfit looked odd, not in a bad way, just- difficult to describe. The only part of his outfit I can explain is his gray cropped turtleneck open jacket. I know, odd.

"You guys don't look like you're from around here. How did you even get here? Streetpass and Spotpass have been deemed illegal by our King. You shouldn't be here. No- let me correct myself- You can't be here. It's impossible." The sheep-man spoke in a frantic tone.

Alice stopped making out with the beach and stood up, dusting off his clothes. We both looked at each other, not sure how to explain how we were here. We just... weren't here. And now we're here. We didn't do anything special to get here.

"I- It doesn't matter. You guys need to come with me. You can't be seen." Sheepy sheepishly said. Just then, he took both of our arms and grabbed them. Just then, a man with a scarf started speed walking forward. It was as if he was searching for something... Was he searching for us?

I look at sheep man and he has a finger over his mouth, silently shushing us. I looked back through the bush and could see the scarved man standing still. He turned his head directly at us.... Oh no. I covered my mouth with one hand as to quiet my breathing. He started walking closer... and closer... and closer, still.

He was going to find us. This was it. We were going to be caught and sent to who-knows-where. Maybe he'd have us walk the plant. As soon as he took one step closer, that was it. But then...

Rustling. Oh thank goodness, a squirrel ran out of our bush. Scarfy turned around and continued walking. After a little while had passed and we were sure he was gone, we all simultaneously let out a sigh of relief. We let the sheep-man walk out of the bush first just to make sure he wasn't there anymore, and then we followed.

"Thanks for staying so silent, you guys." He said.

"Of course!" Alice started. "You would have been dead shee- I mean- dead meat if we let out a squeak. We wouldn't want you to be in trouble."

Glad to know Alice was thinking the same sheepy thoughts I was. Though, that was a really embarrassing place for it to be known. Sheep-man didn't seem very pleased.

"I'm Ranmaru. Nice to meet you both." Sheepmaru said. "We need to find a place for you guys to stay. You ready?"

Alice and I looked at each other. We needed to stay with the gingers' friend, but how were we supposed to know who that was? Maybe it would be best to stay with Ranmaru- or at least stay with someone Ranmaru trusts us to. I nodded my head and soon enough we started walking through the deep green forest.