Globe Tracers 3: Heritage of Triad

Chapter 13: Her Light

J-Star:

I woke up seeing the sun was already in the sky. I stretched, seeing the two boys sleeping on either side of me under the rock cleft. I had to massage my back a little to get out the stiffness of sleeping on the ground, but I was glad I was young at that moment.

Kyle was kind of adorable when he slept. He almost had his thumb in his mouth. I grinned at him.

Kyle and Xao slowly got up after me. I yawned watching them get up.

"So you guys have a change of clothes for me?" Kyle raised an eyebrow looking at me. "What?"

"We didn't even have water bud," Xao said over my shoulder. "You're wearing what you're wearing unless you got a change."

I looked at the backpack that I had planted under the cleft with us. "I got a tent, matches, a few knives, and an inflatable raft..."

"Why a raft?"

"Figured we could sleep on it then I forgot about it," I said.

"That is- actually not a bad idea," Kyle said. He had stretched a bit more to get over his own stiffness. "Wish you had remembered."

I scrunched up my nose as the idea of not being able to change but... "We gonna fish or hunt or something?" I asked, moving on.

"We have to cook meat, which calls for fire and- well the leprechauns will be looking for smoke thanks to what you did last night. Got any food in that bag?"

"Um... not really," I admitted.

"Plantlife it is," Xao said. "I'll show you how to make potable water without a fire- off to see what I can russell up."

"You the better survivalist or Kyle?" I asked.

Xao shrugged. "For foraging? Me mostly. Kyle and Jess had to push me to remember for a few years, but the information was all up here somewhere," Xao tapped his head. "I'll be back."

Xao walked off into the woods alone.

I pulled a book out of my bag- a book was something I never left home without. "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens was on the mental menu for today.

After reading a few pages I looked over at Kyle. He was pouring over his notes with a pen, writing new notes again and again. He was gritting his teeth and grinding sand in his fist as he worked, clearly pretty frustrated.

I remembered how I wanted to help these guys before. Well, no time like the present. If nothing else I could be someone to talk to.

"So um... how are you holding up?" I asked.

"You really wanna know?" he looked up at me. I nodded with a genuine smile. He looked back to his notes. "Well... you never met Jessica... it's hard to explain. She and I could talk for hours... she could always make me laugh. I haven't genuinely laughed since yesterday morning. Doesn't seem so long ago but... what if it's forever?"

"You know we can do this right?" I thought that was a good thing to say- well he laughed.

"Ha! Jess is the battle strategist of the group, not me. I make toys like this wrist device, make travel plans and... I'm the leader any time we're not talking about fighting."

"Thought you said she was the funny one."

"A total goofball," he said with a grin. "She's definitely the entertainer of the group too- but we're a small group, everyone wears a couple hats. Xao is the survivalist and sometimes our muscle- ya know, cause he's bigger."