Worlds Combined

8. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer

Such a cliché saying but I guess it works in a war.

Triston

"What are you doing here Garrison?" I asked him.
"Oh, I wanted to join my old friend and meet some new ones," he tried an innocent smile. Like I was gonna fall for that.
"C'mon why are you really here? Fiona told us that you forced into spying for you," I folded my arms over my chest.
"Ok. You got me. Word is spreading about you guys. I came to help. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have a Shapeshifter in your midst, and none of you guys are going to be able to convince the Shapeshifters to knock off the war," he smirked.
"Ok. You can come. But I and everyone else will be watching you. At. All. Times." I took Fiona's arm and Garrison let go of her.
"Perfect. Let's go," he said.

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"Are you sure it's a good idea to let him come with us Triston?" Greyson asked me. It was a while later and Garrison was out with Mason chatting with the girls.
"I don't know, but he has a point. Penny said a person from each tribe and we didn't have a Shapeshifter," I explained. Greyson just stared at me.
"Ok. I trust you though. Don't make me think otherwise," he walked over to where the others were sitting around our small campfire talking and trying to forget the task we had to face eventually.

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The next morning I woke up early for fear of having water thrown on me. Everyone else was still asleep and Garrison had even fallen asleep. Didn't he know that if I didn't trust him I could've killed him in his sleep? I mean, I wasn't going to kill him but, Garrison was smart. He knew these things.
I didn't have long to ponder over this when Greyson woke up.
"Hey," he said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Morning," I replied. "What do we do for breakfast?"
     "Don't know. Go and kill something. We haven't eaten in who knows how long. We need something to eat. You kill it, I'll build a fire to cook whatever you get," he said. I nodded and went into the surrounding woods.

Greyson

     After Triston left Penny woke up. "Morning Penny," I said.
     "Hey. Where's Triston?" She asked.
     "Went hunting. We haven't eaten in what? Three or four days? We need food," I said. She nodded, understanding.
     "So, should we wake up the others?"
     "Nah. Let them sleep. I just have the bad habit of being an early bird," I said. Everyone else looked so peaceful in their sleep.
     "Same here," she said.
     "You know," I started, "we have a lot in common. Who would've thought?"
     "Yeah I guess it's a bit surprising. A Demigod and a Mermaid having stuff in common. Crazy," she laughed. It sounded like a conch shell— like the ocean. I guess that was just part of being a mermaid.
     "But... uh... Triston should be back soon," I stammered. She laughed and I felt the blood rush to my face.

Penny

     He was embarrassed. He was so cute— cute what the heck I shouldn't be thinking this. What would my family say if they knew I was mentally calling a Demigod cute?
     "Penny?" His voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
     "Hmm?" I asked.
     "I don't know. You like disappeared from out conversation," he touched my shoulder. "You know what we also need to get?"
     "What?"
     "New clothes. Ours are filthy," he said. I looked his shirt, covered in grass stains and dirt.
     "Thanks for the compliment," I joked. "But I don't know where we can get new clothes."
"We can always go home-" he started but I cut him off.
"No!"
"What?"
"I can't go home. My parents would be so disappointed in me," I explained. "Plus I'd be teased and mocked for life, and I'd be called a liar."
     "Well, we need to head back to our homes for a while. Try to see if we can convince our parents to help us. I mean, I can't, but that's another conversation for later," he shook his head. He didn't have parents? I couldn't imagine my life without my family.
"Hey! I got an idea! You said you didn't have parents right?" I started.
"I didn't-"
"You could come stay with my family! They'd love to have you there and-"
"And I can't," he said, cutting me off. We seem to cut each other off a lot.
"Why not?" I asked, confused.
"You're a mermaid!" He put his hands out to me for effect. "I can't breathe water. Control it, yeah, but I can't stay submerged in it for long."
"Oh. Yeah. Right. Sorry, sometimes I don't think things through all the way," I blushed.
"Hey Grey. I'm back," Triston called. "And I got breakfast." Me and Greyson jumped away from each other. I didn't realize that we had scooted closer to each other during our conversation. "Morning Penny."
"Hey," I said.
"What is that?" Greyson asked.
"Some animal I found. Don't judge, just cook it. I'll wake up the others," he replied. He then went over to where the others were sleeping and shouted for them to get up.
Eventually everyone was up (including Garrison) and we had all eaten whatever it wa that Triston brought back. It tasted fine so I didn't mind the fact that I had no clue what o was eating.
"Ok everyone. We have to go home," Greyson said.
"Why?" Mason asked.
"Because. We've all met. We need to try and stop the war. So far we've found each other and gotten used to each other," he explained. "Everyone good?"
     We all nodded. He was designated leader so hey, what could go wrong?

Garrison

     "I'm going to go ahead and go. When will we see each other again?" I asked.
     "One week from now. Today's Sunday so next Sunday. Here," Greyson replied.
     "Gotcha. See you guys later," I changed into an eagle and flew off.

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     "They're spreading out? Already?" Arson boomed. "Why didn't you try to stop them?"
     "They've designated Greyson Pines as their 'leader'. I couldn't compete with that," I explained, putting air quotes around leader.
     "Ok then. I guess we'll just have to have Greyson have a little 'accident'." He chuckled.

A/N: hello again! I am in Florida! I'm gonna be busy but I'll try to put up more updates.

Word count without a/n: 1156
Word count with a/n: 1088