genocide

act 2, chapter 13- the decision

The sun was peeking over the horizon, and the rain still hasn't stopped.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Ivor angrily exclaimed, voicing everyone's thoughts. "It's been almost a day!"

"Well," Lucas said nervously. "I'm sure it's possible for rain to last this long."

"But what if that's just a quirk of this dimension?" Harper asked, antsy. "What if it just rains a lot here, and we're waiting for nothing?" There was a moment, as everyone processed the idea. "Look," Harper continued. "I know we said to Jesse that when the rain stopped, we would continue searching, but for all we know, this could last days!"

"Yeah..." Lucas realized. "We'd better leave now before we're too behind!"

"But..." Ivor protested weakly, waving his hands about. "The rain!"

"Stop whining, you big baby!" Harper scoffed. "We need to get out there and get that heart back!"

"Oh, fine," Ivor grumbled, blushing slightly. The three of them got up and patted themselves down, mainly to get rid of the remaining grime from the cave. Lucas stuck a hand out of the mouth of the cave, into the open air, where it was still showering.

"Ah, jeez." he sighed. "Let's get going."

---

Jesse trudged through the fog and mud, huffing with each step. The sun is now rising, and the rain is still falling, albeit not as harshly as before. There was mud all over his pants now, and the rain lasting this long, it had also started to seep through the cracks in his armour, making him shiver slightly. He winced when the rainwater dripped into a wound on his hand where a skeleton had grazed him with an arrow the night before.

"Rain is the worst," he hissed under his breath as his boot once again sank into some particularly annoying mud. "Petra is dealing with the same thing too, isn't she?" he then realized, with another glance at the trail of footprints in front of him, which of course belonged to Petra.

He trudged on in the rain for a bit more, still following Petra's footsteps, when he suddenly tripped on a root sticking out of the ground.

"Ack!" he cried, and swung his arms wildly to try to balance himself, but he still fell face first into the mud. "Great, now this mud is all over me!" he complained, spitting a bit to try to get the goo out of his mouth. "Mud is the worst!" he angrily exclaimed. "Can't this rain just stop already!" he shouted at the sky. Shaking himself off, he stood up again and tried to brush the mud off his face with little success. His grumbling and complaints however, were quickly cut off by a shout in the distance. Jesse froze.

"IS SOMEONE THERE?" A distant voice shouted, almost angrily.

Wait a minute... Jesse thought. That sounds like Petra!

"PETRA!" he shouted back. There was a pause.

"JESSE?" Petra, as Jesse assumed, shouted back.

"I've got to get over there!" Jesse said to himself, speeding up, or at least trying to, with the mud and all. He scrambled over a log, and almost fell again in the mud. "Come on, stupid mud!" he almost growled. He broke into a full on sprint, no longer caring about falling in the mud. There was one more log, a thorny thicket, and some more tree roots in his way, but he managed to avoid everything without falling, and burst through a bush into a forest clearing lit up with some torches, where Petra was sitting on a log, appearing to be resting.

"Finally I caught up to you!" Jesse huff in relief, slightly out of breath.

"I..." Petra said, raising an eyebrow. "Wasn't actually expecting anyone to come after me, with the rain and all. Don't know why I didn't."