The sun rose and set as the days steadily passed by with no rush nor care. The sky's colors morphed into a rainbow of colors as the days passed by, occasionally blocked by floating white puffs.
A small breeze flew through the cave, brushing past the small group of teenagers who were scattered through the few feet within the cave in which sunlight reached.
The sun was slowly climbing the mountain of a sky and had reached the top of the trees before it seemingly appeared to take a break.
"I'm hungry," Scarlett whined as she rolled around on the ground, acting like a child and gathering dirt on her blonde hair and clothing.
Crystal sighed as she sat up and grabbed her backpack. She unzipped it, reached in and pulled out a bag of chips. Then she threw it at Scarlett's face.
Scarlett let out a yelp of surprise as the plastic made contact with her face. She quickly sat up and reached for the bag of salted potato chips with a grateful smile aimed towards Crystal when she realized what was thrown at her.
Scarlett gleefully opened the bag and started to eat the chips in triumph.
Crystal smiled back as she got up and stretched. She walked to a pile of rocks and moved one to a smaller pile. "We've been here for four days."
Madison lifted her music player from her dark blue hoodie's pocket and looked at the screen, all without moving her head from her makeshift backpack pillow. "Four days," Madison said in agreement before returning the small device to her pocket.
Destiny coughed. "We need to get out before we all get really sick," she roughly said.
Aiden let out a sigh as he ran his hand through his pink hair. "We do but all we've been doing for the past three days since we got here was staying here in this cave and eating from backpacks and berries."
"Do you have any ideas on how to get out. then?," Scarlett asked before she placed another couple of chips into her mouth with frown.
"So it is true, " a male voice softly said as it echoed through the cave,
Daniel snapped up, "Who was that?!"
Crystal got up and looked down the dark cave, "Who's this?"
Scarlett quickly finished what was in her mouth so she could add her two cents as well. "Show yourself," Scarlett boldly stated as she stood up. Her eyes widened as she started coughing violently. Aiden shook his head as he looked over at Madison who was getting ready to throw a half full water bottle at Scarlett.
Ava hid behind Riley who once again didn't seem like anything was bothering or surprising her. She quietly watched the water bottle fly a few feet before it smacked Scarlett, making her lose her balance and fall to the ground with a thud.
Don sighed as he looked at Scarlett. "You made us look so great," he sarcastically said. He then looked around.
A laugh escaped Scarlett's lips in response as held a thumbs up. "All in a day's work," she joked before drinking from the water bottle. "Wait...this is who he wants," the male questioned. It once again echoed through the cave.
Meanwhile, Marley was sleeping through all of this. A loud snore came from him as he shuffled.
Crystal looked at him with a bemused look. "What," she quietly said.
Madison sat up as brushed off clinging dirt from her hoodie. "We're making quite the impression," she stated with a slight roll of her odd colored eyes as she removed her headphones from her head and wrapped them around her neck.
Destiny sat up, "Okay, is anyone else gonna do something idiotic? No? Good! Now, who are you?!" Destiny dryly asked as it echoed.
"My, my, aren't they quite demanding ," quietly huffed a female voice.
"Marley?!" Crystal yelled. Marley flinched as he snapped up, "26! No! 27! Oh...wait."
Aiden let out chuckle, "Wrong answer, Marley. This isn't math."
He let out an awkward laugh, "Right..."
Scarlett placed the empty bottle on the ground before she stood up and cleared her throat. "As I was saying, whoever you are, show yourself!," Scarlett said before she eyed her bag of chips which were peacefully lying next to the bottle.
"Why would we take orders from you? You don't have a right to do that." The male voice calmly said.
Scarlett stayed quiet in surprise before she shrugged and sheepishly said, "Because I have chips?"
Aiden lowered his head into his hands, trying to look disappointed but in reality, he was trying not to laugh at the whole interaction happening before him.
Crystal walked away from Marley and closer to Destiny
"And I have better places to be then with you idiots!" The male snapped. "Now, should we introduce ourselves or continue this?" He asked.
Madison looked over at the dark and narrowed her eyes before letting out a small hum and moving her attention to a bump on the roof of the cave. "If you have better places to be, then why are you here?"
A person had jumped in front of the cave entrance. All you could see was the outlines of him, he was rather tall and buff. "That's classified," he muttered.
"And I'm a magical balloon. Unless you're working for some top secret organization here, I doubt it's that important," Madison muttered, under her breath, in response as she scrolled through her music player with a huff.
"So there's another person here! That makes eleven of us!" Matt sarcastically said. Destiny looked back, "Matt?"
She looked at Marley, whom was laying on the ground.
"Yup! That's me!" He smiled, then he turned his attention back to the figure.
Scarlett sat back down and proceeded to finish her bag of chips. "So, who are you finally?," she asked as she crumbled the now empty bag. She aimed at the ground next to Madison and threw it before she turned to look back at the figure.
"I tell you, but only if you'll answer my question." He said as he walked to the side of the entrance and leaned on it,
Aiden kept his gaze on the stranger, not entirely trusting the person. "Depends, what's your question?"
"Did you come from what is so called 'Earth'?," he asked.
Aiden raised an eyebrow in confusion and he turned to look at everyone else to see if they heard the same thing.
Madison spoke up, "You didn't?" She titled her head and eyed him, hoping to see a tail or something that could make him "non-human". Seeing nothing, she frowned and averted her gaze back to her device.
"No, I was born here as was my sister," he mumbled.
A girl, who appeared to be around the same age as the group, walked out from the dark within the cave with a seemingly judging look on her pale face as she strutted over to the black haired male. "I was expecting a grander entrance but it seems as if this will do for now," she stated with a regal-like voice.
Matt scoffed, "You want a grander?" He walked over to her and drew his fist. The male had all of a sudden appeared in front of her. He grabbed Matt's arm and twisted it. Then he pushed Matt's arm back which sent him flying out the cave.
The female peered over from behind the male. She frowned and crossed her arms as she looked over to the rest of the group. "I sure hope not all of you are this barbaric." She looked over at the male and gave a grateful smile, "Thank you, dear brother."
He smirked back, "Anytime."
"What the hell was that?!" Matt yelled as he got up. "How did you push me out the cave?!"
Scarlett watched with slight amazement in a frozen like state for a few seconds before she jumped up. "That was amazing! How'd you do it?!"
Aiden held his hands out in an attempt to calm people down. "First things first. Who are you two?," he asked motioning over to the two strangers.
"My name is Lucas," he said as he stepped aside to reveal his sister.
Celeste gave a small curtsy before introducing herself. "I'm Celeste. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"So, do we introduce ourselves?," Scarlett asked everyone else. "I'll start!"
She turned to the two siblings and gave a small smile, "Name's Scarlett. Likewise, nice to meet you."
"I'm Don,"
"And I'm Daniel!," the twins said after each other.
"I'm Aiden," the pink haired said with a smile.
Riley stayed quiet while Ava was peeking over Riley's shoulder with slight curiosity.
Scarlett pointed to the two and decided to speak for them, "That's Riley and Ava."
"I'm Matt, and the guy laying over there is Marley." Matt grumbled as he walked back in.
Madison looked up from her player and promptly placed it into the safety of her pocket.
She looked up at the two with a bored expression before turning her attention to Crystal and Destiny. "Are you two going to introduce yourselves?"
"Uh...I'm Destiny and that's Crystal," Destiny said as she pointed to Crystal who gave a small wave.
Aiden looked over at Madison, "How about you?"
Madison turned her gaze over to Aiden and shrugged, "Why should I introduce myself to someone I rather not?"
"Manners!" Lucas grumbled, "If you don't give me your name, I'll make one up. How about little bitc-"
"Brother! How dare you speak such foul words?!," Celeste scolded. "No less to a female acquaintance!"
Madison scoffed, "Manners?! You should learn a few before lecturing someone about them, you ass!"
Scarlett gave an awkward chuckle as she made her way over to Madison to try to calm her down before anything bad happened.
"At least, I didn't finish the word," Lucas mumbled.
"I'm sure we can all be adults here," Aiden hesitantly said in an attempt to reduce the chance of a fight.
Madison rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "He started it, anyway," she huffed.
Matt gasped and disappeared. Then Marley's eyes snapped open.
"Oh, so we have a Morfity," Lucas mumbled as he looked at Marley.
"Morfity," Scarlett repeated in confusion. "What and how?"
"Morfity is when a person has a split personality. In this word, that split personality gets its own body for a limited amount of time. In this case, Rat was the split personality of Harley." Lucas explained.
Aiden frowned and corrected Lucas on the names. "It's actually Marley, not Harley and-"
"It's Matt, idiot." Madison blurted out, her eyes never leaving her backpack which was sitting in front of her. "Unlike you, he isn't a rt," she quietly added since she was still ticked off at Lucas even though she couldn't say why. Of course, she wouldn't admit that out loud.
Scarlett coughed in hopes of covering up what Madison said. She looked over at Lucas and Celeste and gave a bright smile. "Lucas, Celeste. What brings you guys to our-uh-humble cave home?," she asked with a small chuckle.
"To invite you to ours," Lucas said with a struggle. He sighed, "To see if you wanted to stay at ours until you can return."
"Do you have food?," Scarlett asked in a dead serious manner.
"Yes, we have what is most needed for you. Just not as you're used to it." He smiled.
Celeste added, "Do not worry. It's not a bother, really."
Scarlett turned around and looked at her peers. "I say we go. Any objections?"
Aiden closed his eyes for a moment before he responded, "Why not? It must be better than this cave."
Riley looked at Ava and held her pinky out to her. Ava looked up at Riley and smiled before she linked her own pinky with Riley's. Riley looked at Scarlett and stated, "We'll go to check it out. If it seems more dangerous than it's worth, we're turning around.
"Okay," Daniel sighed as he got up. He walked to Destiny and piked her up. He put his left arm under her legs and his right on her back. He stood up and walked to the group with Don following.
Crystal shrugged as she held a hand out to Marley, "Come on! You don't want to be left here alone do ya?" Marley looked at her hand before he gladly took it.
Aiden stood up and quickly brushed himself off. He glanced over at Madison who was leaning against the wall with her backpack hanging from her shoulders and her hands inside her hoodie's pockets.
"What? You guys are taking a long time to stand up," she stated when she noticed Aiden's gaze. She got a hold of her headphones and placed them on her head but kept the volume down so she could still listen to what everyone was saying.
Crystal quickly grabbed her backpack, zipped it and caught up to the rest.
Celeste looked over at her brother and quietly asked him, when she was sure others wouldn't be able to overhear, "Are you positively certain we have the capability of doing this?"
"We have to, or you know what will happen to them." Lucas quietly whispered to her before he started walking.
A small frown appeared on Celeste's face as she cast her gaze downwards towards the floor for a couple of seconds before she looked up and started to walk towards Lucas, trusting his decision.
As she walked, she thought of the necessities she would have to prepare for ten more people causing her to gain a sudden sense of being tired.
"Where exactly do you guys live?," Scarlett asked as she sped up her walking so she could walk besides Lucas.
"In the middle of the forest," Lucas blankly said.
"Why? Doesn't it get lonely?," Scarlett asked. "If you guys were born here, then there must be some sort of village or something like that."
"No!" Lucas quickly snapped. "There's-uh n-no villages, "Lucas said as he looked to Celeste for help.
Celeste walked on the other side of Scarlett, unintentionally trapping her unless she stopped walking, keeping pace with her and Lucas. Celeste let out a small hum to make Scarlett aware of her presence.
Scarlett looked over at Celeste with a confused look. Celeste gave a sad smile which was fake but realistic enough so her words world seem that much more as the truth.
"You see, Scarlett. Our birthplace is an ill subject to either of us. Horrid, unspeakable events occurred leaving us to fend for our own in this incredible forest and we rather not go into details for it beings back terrible memories we prefer not to recollect."
Scarlett looked away from Celeste and kept her eyes forward. "Oh. I'm sorry if I brought up bad memories."
Celeste gave a gentle shake of her head. "It's all well, Scarlett. You didn't know so I don't hold you for any sort of blame but please, refrain from mentioning it again."
Scarlett gave a single firm nod. "Don't worry. You guys are letting us live with you so it's the least I can do."
Celeste quickly flashed her brother a triumph smile before the sad smile returned to continue the facade. "Thank you, dear. I truly am grateful. Aside from that, I do believe the lot of you will enjoy your stay."
"So what magical qualities did you guys gain?" Lucas asked aloud.
Madison perked up and quickly lowered her headphones back down to her neck. "What do you mean by 'magical qualities'?," she asked as her need for answers grew.
Aiden motioned over to Destiny, "Does that explain why she burst into fire?"
"Ah so you, my darling, are a Fire Concealer?" Lucas asked as he looked at Daniel, who was carrying her, and then at Destiny.
"And is that why Matt gets his own?" Marley asked as Crystal looked around.
"But that doesn't make sense. Magic or rather magical abilities don't really exist," Madison said. "At least, where we come from."
"Exactly, this is not where you come from," Lucas said as he stopped and turned around.
Aiden placed a hand on his neck in hopes of finding a source of reassurance or comfort. "Then where are we?"
Lucas opened his mouth before he closed it. "Uh..." He looked at Celeste, "Where are we?"
Celeste let out a small gasp. "Leaving me to do all the explaining, now are we?"
Celeste turned away from Lucas and face the ten students.
"You're the eldest!" He replied.
"By mere seconds! It shouldn't be the factor that determines who does what," Celeste hastily replied. "But for your sake, I will do it. Be grateful, dear brother."
Celeste straighten her posture before she started to talk. She motioned to the forest around the, while she spoke, "As you can clearly see, we are in a forest. That is all. Let us continue on our short journey to our residence which is, as well, located in this very same forest."
Scarlett stayed quiet for a few seconds before she burst out laughing. "Didn't think you were that type of person but really, where are we?"
Celeste shook her head as she turned around on her heels so her back was facing the group. "Like I said, we're in a forest and everything is in this forest, regardless of how many trees are around the are. It's all one continuous forest."
Celeste stayed silent for a few seconds. Before she continued walking, she added, to end conversation on the topic, "I do believe that answers your questions on our location."
Lucas nodded his head as he turned around and began to walk once more.
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