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“Food!” Oscar exclaimed, breaking from the group and reaching out for a dark blue fruit that looked delicious. “I’m hungry. No offense, but those dried meat things are so overrated and not even that filling. I can’t believe you survive on those.”
He took a bite before anyone could protest. Charlie froze and felt everyone else freeze with him, including Riva, who was holding on to Diego’s hands, and Diego, who tried to shake off her grasp. Oscar didn’t notice the eyes on him until he was on his third bite, too enraptured as he savored every chew. He gulped, blushed, and smiled gleefully, holding the fruit towards them.
“It’s not poison,” he declared. “I’m still alive. Stop looking at me like I’m going to drop dead anytime soon.”
Riva was quick to pick another piece, biting into it with no finesse. Diego wrinkled his nose, then plucked another one more elegantly and offered it to Sona. Sona took it with thanks and the two women ate, matching Oscar’s reaction. He turned once more, then blinked when he found Daria already eating a red one.
“How is it?”
“Sour,” she said, but she didn’t seem to mind. “They are right. It’s not poison.”
She was soaked to the bone and shivering slightly, but the smear on her lips from the fruit didn’t wash away. The haunting sweetness of the image did things to his stomach, but it was her smile that had him taking a step back. He swallowed, looked away, and erased the vision from his mind. He turned to address the group.
“Take what you can, and let’s go. The faster we find shelter or the next place, the better.”
Everyone wordlessly agreed, even the vampire who was finishing an emerald green fruit. Diego then eyed Oscar with a hint of hunger. It had Charlie bracing, on edge, until the vampire’s gaze focused on what Oscar was gathering in his hands. With a roll of eyes, Diego stalked forward, a blur of motion that stopped in front of Oscar and grabbed all the fruits from him—from behind, because Diego’s wrists were still tied up.
“Hey! Those are my—”
“Hands should be free,” Diego said. “Take off that dress shirt and spread it.”
The male human stared, then shrugged his dress shirt off and left his undershirt on. Diego arched his body and dropped the fruits on the shirt, then faced everyone’s open scrutiny.
“In case you need it. This place is foreign and you are human. You have no defense except your hands.”
“You don’t have your hands,” Charlie pointed out.
Diego bared his fangs. “These will do.”
It proved a point: that having his hands tied behind him didn’t make him helpless, contrary to what everyone believed. Riva looked particularly chastised and didn’t like it. But Charlie just observed Diego all the more and noted how the vampire deliberately moved away from Oscar when the attention was no longer on them. What was the man up to?
“A penny for your thoughts.”
Daria’s words pierced him out of his reverie, and he shifted his gaze away from the rest.
“You should get your blanket out.”
“And get it wet, too? No, thanks. Let’s just keep going as we did at the beach.”
“Ah!”
Oscar’s screech was alarmed, and they all turned in time to see his dress shirt burning smaller by the second. With a hiss, the vampire kicked it out of Oscar’s hands while Riva nudged Oscar aside. In synch, the two glared at each other.
“What was that? What does that mean?” Oscar asked, patting his stomach worriedly.
“It means you can’t take them with you,” Sona deduced. “The jungle won’t let you, and that was a warning.”
The others checked where they stored their fruits, and a round of swearing went on as they dropped bits of melted clothes and fruit. Daria, who only held one in her hand, gobbled it up and tossed the seeds to the ground. She looked so serene, as if she didn’t mind the weather and the constant interruptions at all. It gave him the boost to ignore the wetness as he matched her pace and they trudged through the squishy, muddy grounds before they came upon a raging waterfall. They stopped to fill up.
“We have to cross the water to get past it,” Charlie finally said. “It’s clear water, and the current’s not too strong, so I think we will be fine.”
No one argued and the warm rushing water was a bonus. Somewhere along the way, the water turned murky and the current slowed down. There was no land in sight, another dilemma they needed to get out of.
“Let me view things up there and see if we are getting close.”
He climbed the tree, surveyed the space, and spotted two opposite areas that towered above the rest.
“Land. Northwest and northeast. We just have to choose.”
