Chapter Text
The four of them stood over the edge of a canyon that cut deep into the ground. It had ledges of varying shapes and sizes jutting out of both sides. It seemed like a nice change of pace from the tomb with the added benefit of protecting them from the sun.
A small detail that they noticed was that there were small cacti balls spread intermittently across both walls of the canyon. While they were far and few between, they was still worth keeping an eye out for. They doubted anyone would want to have to deal with thorns stuck to them, especially after what happened to Jamie with the tumbleweed.
Jade couldn’t actually see it from their angle, but they presumed there was visible ground at the bottom of the canyon. The depth of it was yet to be known, but it was better than staring, or falling, into an endless void.
Looking past the canyon, they could see more clearly the cave system sprawling out and up to the top of the mountain. It had the advantage of being mostly shaded, so they could start to take things a little easier if—no, when they got there.
But… they needed to focus on the canyon for now. Their mind was thinking too far ahead… and far too pessimistically, too.
“Well, what are we standing around for?” Jamie jumped down to the ledge just a few inches below them. “Let’s go!” They then turned around, but rather than seeming pleased, they seemed… confused? Concerned? Whatever it was, they were looking just past Jade.
Jade looked behind them to figure out what Jamie was looking at. They spotted Luna staring blankly down into the canyon. Had they zoned out? Maybe something was on their mind? Either way, they needed to be snapped out of their daze so everyone could begin the descent.
Jamie climbed back up from the ledge and gave Luna a shake. It wasn’t too rough, but just enough to get their attention.
Luna blinked rapidly and looked around. Once they realized that everyone’s eyes were on them, they blushed in embarrassment. “S-Sorry… w-we can go.”
Jamie rolled their eyes. “Do you even know what we’re doing?”
“Uh, i-it’s a canyon. I-It can’t be t-that hard, right…?”
Jade chuckled. “You’ve really been rubbing off on them, haven’t you Jamie?”
Jamie raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, the sarcastic comments? Stuff like that?”
“They’re just learning from the best!”
“Riiiiight.”
Jamie cleared their throat. “Anyways! We’ve got some more stuff to climb, so let’s go already!” They then dropped back down to the ledge they were once on.
Luna giggled at the siblings’ antics then followed Jamie down. Maybe Jamie rubbing off on them wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
The ledge appeared to be too small to hold anyone else, so both Jade and Riley stayed behind. They only jumped down once both Jamie and Luna safely jumped down to another one just a few inches lower.
This trend of short descents continued until suddenly…
The four of them reached a wider ledge overlooking a massive drop. They could very clearly see the bottom of the canyon from there, and that only put into perspective just how deep it went. If one of them fell, they were unlikely to survive. Even if they didn’t suffer physical trauma from hitting every ledge on their way down, they’d still hit the ground too hard.
“Huh. We can actually see the bottom here.” Jamie rubbed their chin. “Gimme a sec to figure this out. But, uh, feel free to look around too.”
Luna made no effort to search. In fact, they only got a little closer to Jamie. Jamie didn’t seem to mind though. Riley, on the other hand, started scouting off to the right. Jade took that as their cue to do some scouting to the left. It was unlikely to yield any results, but it was better than staring down hopelessly towards the bottom.
It felt strange to be alone again. For the past few days, they’ve been constantly surrounded by people, both familiar and unfamiliar. They had wandered off to forage for food back in the forest, but even then, they were being monitored by Riley the entire time. This time, they were unsupervised.
They were thankful for the change. As much as they loved Jamie and liked the others, they were starting to get antsy constantly being in close proximity to them. The space gave them some time to think and work things out alone.
They wandered for a few minutes before coming across a short drop. They had considered turning back and telling the others, but they didn’t want to lead them to yet another dead end. They knew it wasn’t wise to wander too far away, especially in wake of Scoutmaster Myres making his presence known, but they preferred to do this alone.
That was, until they were reminded of the so-called “buddy system.” They remembered that Riley had brought it up a few days ago back on the beach, and that Jamie had scolded Riley for almost forgoing that same system in the forest. It was entirely possible that if they went alone, it wouldn’t go unnoticed, and they would certainly get some kind of lecture about it.
They sighed and turned back before anyone could notice they were gone. They’d just scoop up whoever they saw and send the other with Riley. Being alone seemed like too much of a luxury to have here anyways.
When they returned, they noticed that Riley had already partnered up with Jamie. Luna was close by, constantly scanning the area until their eyes met Jade’s. They then waved at Jade and approached them.
“H-Hi Jade! Riley t-told me to wait for you t-to do some s-scouting. Y-You weren’t here, so…”
“Hello, Luna.” Jade suddenly felt bad for making them wait. “I apologize for making you wait. I wasn’t aware that you were.”
“I-It’s okay!” Luna smiled, though that did little to ease Jade’s guilt. In the grand scheme of things, it was extremely minor, but they still felt bad about it.
Jamie groaned. “Cool, everyone’s happy now. Can we get moving?” They tapped their foot impatiently.
Riley nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. Let’s get going, Jamie.” They waved to Luna and Jade. “See you two in a bit. Stay safe.” The two of them then went to the right and disappeared around the corner.
Jade stared at that same corner until Luna tapped on their right arm. They didn’t say anything, but it was clear that they were ready to go.
They returned to the drop that they were once at. Now that they had Luna with them, they didn’t feel so guilty about jumping down. There was a ledge just a few feet below them, so neither of them should have any issues reaching it.
As anticipated, both of them scaled down to the ledge with no issues. However, Luna did almost fumble the landing, but Jade was there to catch them.
The two of them walked around for a while, scouring every inch that they could. Jade peered over the edge and spotted a ledge a little off to the left and beneath them. The drop was a little farther down than the previous one, but it seemed relatively safe, so it was certainly an option. It seemed like the only way down—
“W-What’s this over h-here, Jade?” Luna inquired. They were pointing at what appeared to be a shortcut. It was a few feet from where they stood. “Y-You, uh, I t-think you missed it.”
“Oh.” Jade felt silly for not noticing the shortcut. “I… didn’t notice that. I did find another way down over here, but we can check out what you found if you’d like.”
“C-Can we…?”
“Sure. It doesn’t hurt to have multiple options.”
Luna responded with a warm smile and led Jade over to the shortcut. Jade wasn’t entirely sure why Luna responded the way they did, but they didn’t bother to pursue it. They seemed happy in wake of all of the bad things happening to them, so Jade didn’t want to disturb them.
They noticed that part of the ledge they were standing on had a small protrusion pointing towards a much larger protrusion from the ledge all the way across the canyon. It was wide enough that it’d support whoever decided to cross, and the gap itself was maybe a few feet at worst. The ground on both sides seemed stable enough to support everyone’s weight.
Assuming everyone would be on board with making the jump, they could clear the entire canyon this way and scale up the other wall. If not, Jade did have another path figured out. Deep down, they hoped that everyone would be fine with the shortcut though. The sooner they could make it to the caves, the better.
“What do you make of this?” Jade asked.
Luna peered over the edge and into the depths of the canyon. They shuddered. “Looks s-scary…”
“Yeah, but… consider this.” Luna tilted their head. “You made it through the tomb with that scary endless pit, right?”
“R-Right…”
“Now, I’m not saying you should be arrogant because of it but… give yourself some credit. We all overcame that, I think we can overcome this too.”
Luna seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. However, they examined the gap one more time and then gave a thumbs-up. “Okay. I t-think I c-can do this.”
Jade smiled. That was a better response. “I think so too. Let’s go tell Jamie and Riley about this and see what they think.”
They didn’t have to worry about seeking out Jamie and Riley though, because as soon as they turned around, they spotted those two heading down towards them. They seemed to be a bit disgruntled, so it was possible that going to the right only led to a dead-end. As expected, Jamie was the one to lead the duo.
Luna nearly tackled Jamie in a hug. Jamie stumbled back from the sudden shift in weight, but they managed to keep their balance.
Jamie seemed confused by the affection. “Jeez, you act like I’ve been gone for a long time.” When Luna didn’t respond, Jamie decided to return the hug. Jade could’ve sworn they saw the corners of their mouth curl up a bit. “You happy now?”
Luna finally let go and hugged Riley too. Riley was much more willing—and much less vocal—to return to gesture.
Once Jamie spotted the shortcut, they ran up to it and gazed at it in awe. This didn’t come as a surprise to Jade; they were fully expecting that response. Jamie loved these kinds of challenges after all.
That left them with only needing Riley’s approval now. Everyone else seemed to take interest in it, but it could all fall apart if one person said “no.” Riley often erred on the side of skepticism, so it was entirely possible they’d refuse to go.
“Yo! Check it out, Riley! I think we found our way across!” Jamie beckoned to Riley.
Luna let go of and decided to trail behind Riley so they could investigate the shortcut.
Riley frowned when they noticed the gap between both sides. ”You sure this is the right way?”
Jamie huffed and crossed their arms. “Well, it’s either this or going down that one creepy way!”
Jade’s brow furrowed. “Creepy… way?”
“Well, maybe ‘creepy’ isn’t the right word but… it was sketchy even for me.”
“I see.” If Jamie thought it was sketchy, then… “I think we’re better off taking our chances here.”
“I…” Riley groaned. “Okay. I guess this is safer than what we found. The jump doesn’t seem so bad, so I think we can go this way.”
Jamie shrugged. “Eh. We either take one kinda risky jump or keep climbing deeper and risk falling or… something like that. What sounds better to you?”
“Well… in terms of speed, the risky jump, but—”
“That’s what I thought.” Jamie took a step back. “Alright. Make some space for me!” Everyone complied, giving Jamie adequate space to jump across.
Jamie cleared the gap by a considerable amount and landed on their feet. They turned around to face the group and gave them all a double thumbs-up. They then took a few steps back to give everyone some extra clearance.
Luna was the second one to ready themselves for a jump. This took Jade by surprise since they always got the impression that Luna leaned more towards going last, or as close to last as they could. Regardless, they cleared the jump with ease and beamed with pride when Jamie praised them.
Jade motioned for Riley to go next, but they shook their head, so Jade instead jumped across themselves. Much like Jamie and Luna, they had no issues. They did stumble a bit when landing, but recovered quickly.
Riley was the last to jump across. They didn’t get quite enough speed, so their right ankle ended up catching the lip of the ledge. They face-planted just a few feet away from the kids, much to Jamie’s entertainment. Jade nudged Jamie very hard in the side—stopping their laughter immediately—and Luna dropped down to their knees to ensure that Riley was okay.
Thankfully, Riley only suffered minor scrapes as a result, none of which required any attention. They did whine a bit and rub the arm that had been messed up from the crash, though it appeared to not be bleeding, so they chose not to pursue it.
Riley got up and brushed their front side off. “Well, that mishap aside, it seems like we got a lucky break from that canyon.”
Jade nodded. “Agreed. It probably wouldn’t have been too bad regardless, but I’m glad we could skip most of it.”
Jamie groaned. “Yeah yeah, that’s cool and all, but can we get going? We’re still in the middle of a desert.”
“Well, do you have any—” Jade suddenly spotted a slope out of the left corner of their eyes. “Nevermind. I think I found our way up.”
They all approached the slope. It didn’t seem too steep, so they decided to walk up it. Conveniently, the slope led all the way to the top. They definitely got a lucky break.
With the canyon behind them, they could finally start making some progress again. All that stood between them and the cave system now was another stretch of the desert. Many of the threats were still present here, so while they were on the home stretch, they still needed to be alert.
However, the sun was starting to creep towards the horizon, which also meant that it was starting to cool off. That did eliminate a couple threats, but that didn’t mean the others would magically disappear.
Jamie hummed. “You know… I just had a random thought. I haven’t seen any tornadoes on this side of the desert.”
“Really?” Jade inquired.
“Yeah. Or tumbleweeds, as a matter of fact. I think we can take it easy now.”
“Huh. Good to know. We should probably still make our way to the caves though. We’ll have plenty of shade there to ‘take it easy.’”
“I guess you’re right. Let’s stop wasting time here and go then.”
Everyone seemed to agree, so they all set off towards the caves.
Having survived both the tomb and the canyon, Jade felt pretty good about their odds. They still needed to remain alert though. If the desert was any indication, there was no way the caves would be merciful to them.
Nothing could be worse than a tomb rigged to the brim with traps or a canyon though… right?