Follow The River

Chapter 4

Around midday, Kate piped up.

"Do you think that maybe we shouldn't keep following the river?"

"What do you mean?" Till asked.

"I mean we've been doing that this whole time, but we haven't gotten anywhere."

"Rivers always lead to civilization, so even if we haven't found anything yet, we will eventually. Besides, the alternative would be to venture into the woods, and that'd be even more of a crapshoot."

Right at that moment, Aaron pointed in the distance.

"Guys, look!"

There looked to be some sort of bird flying in their direction over the river. It dipped into the water and came out clutching a fish in its mouth. It quickly landed on the bank about 30 feet from where they were standing, and it was then that Till could get a proper look at it.

"What the hell is that thing?" he exclaimed.

It didn't resemble a bird, having the body of a lizard, four legs, and a pair of scaled wings. It was roughly the size of a housecat, and Till thought it resembled a small dragon. It began eating its fish, but it wasn't too long before it noticed Till and the others.

"Oh crap," Aaron muttered.

Till's heart was pounding with fear. Luckily, the creature didn't take much interest in them, simply looking at them for about 2 seconds before taking off and flying into the trees with its meal.

"Where the hell are we?" Doug asked.

"Well, I'm fairly certain we're on Earth," Till responded.

"Are you really sure about that?"Aaron asked.

"What, you think we're on a different planet or something?"

"I might not have paid that much attention in school, but I paid just enough to know that our planet doesn't have goddamn dragons."

Till shook his head.

"But how would that even be possible?"

"I don't know, but apparently it is!"

"Have you considered that maybe we're just on a part of Earth that has weird animals?" Doug suggested.

"Where? What kind of place would have the things we've seen?" Aaron almost yelled.

"Aaron!" Till exclaimed, "Calm down! Look, I know that we're in a strange place, but it's gonna do us no good if we keep on talking fairy tales about different planets. It'll just make us more anxious, and that won't be pleasant for anyone." Till didn't really believe this, but he didn't want to accept that maybe they were in such a setting that maybe they would never get back home.

"Well, what do suggest we do?" Aaron asked, a little quieter, although very clearly still agitated.

"We gotta keep moving. That's the only way we're ever going to get out of wherever we are."

"Alright, well you can keep going this way. I'm going into the trees."

"What?!"

"Look, we've been following this river for like two days now, and we haven't gotten anywhere. You all can do what you want, but I think maybe we should try to find a different way out since this one sure as hell isn't working."

"Come one, man," Till said, "We're going to come across-"

"Oh cut it out!" Aaron interjected," You've been saying the same thing this whole time! Have you considered that maybe we won't? I say it's about time we try something else!"