Chapter Text
The peak was far more beautiful than they could’ve ever imagined. They just assumed it’d be yet another hunk of ugly looking mountain, but… no. It was… way better than that.
It was a small hill covered in grass and various types of flowers. At the top of it sat a flag and a crate, though the contents of the crate were unknown. Neither a campfire nor statue were present. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no food either, so they probably shouldn’t linger for too long.
It wasn’t much but it was far more inviting than every other part of the mountain they’ve been on. It gave them a proper place to rest, which everyone was in dire need of, until rescue arrived.
Riley again felt bittersweet at the sight. As much as they wanted to revel in the fact they were going home, they knew very well that things wouldn’t just end there. Their own life and the fate of their children were still waiting for them beyond the mountain.
They weren’t ready to go back to their monotonous life, and above all else, they weren’t ready to let go of these kids. Even though they promised to take them in, they knew they were in for one hell of a journey to even make that happen. They just weren’t ready to be separated from them so soon.
And yet, life still had to go on. They needed to accept that. Things weren’t going to be easy but they didn’t climb all the way to the top just to start giving up.
The final challenge that stood between them and the peak was a grass-covered bridge. Fortunately, it didn’t have any gaps unlike the other ones. They were starting to get tired of jumping across gaps and nearly losing their kids to them.
“What are we doing just standing here?” Jamie asked. “C’mon, let’s go!” They then bolted off towards the peak, disregarding the fact they needed to stick together.
“Jamie— gah, they’re not going to stop, are they…?” Jade sighed. “I suppose I’ll see you two up ahead.” Jade ran off after Jamie, leaving Riley alone with Luna.
Riley really wished Luna could’ve been awake to see the peak. They definitely would’ve loved such a sight.
For a split second, they considered waking them up. However, given what they’ve been through, they really needed to get some rest. The poor kid’s probably been through a lot more in those past few days than they have in their entire life.
Though… given they were stuck with Edmond…
Riley shook that thought out of their head and began walking towards the peak. They did have to take caution with Luna in their arms, meaning they couldn’t run after the siblings. They really had no reason to run anyways, they were safe.
They sighed in relief as the ground slowly transitioned from stone to grass. Their feet were killing them, so that was a much-needed change.
They soon caught up and saw that Jamie had settled down near the base of the hill and was fidgeting with some flowers. They were using said flowers to make something that looked a little bit like a flower crown. Riley wasn’t entirely sure who it was for, but they did have a suspicion that it was for Luna.
Jade, on the other hand, seemed to be missing. They were likely close though, since Jamie didn’t seem panicked about this information. That, or they were unaware their older sibling had disappeared. Either way, Riley should probably inquire about their whereabouts.
Jamie spotted Riley and beckoned them over. Once Riley got closer, they patted a patch of grass directly beside them, which Riley assumed meant “set Luna down here.” Their assumption was confirmed correct when they set down Luna and Jamie smiled at them.
With nothing pressing left to do, Riley sat down for a moment to have a chat with Jamie. “Whatcha making, bu—uh, Jamie?”
“A flower crown, for Luna,” Jamie replied. “And, uh… I don’t… mind if you call me that. It just reminded me of…”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. You didn’t know.”
They really wanted to steer the conversation away from that now.
“Well, I look forward to seeing it when you’re done. I’m sure they’ll love it.”
Jamie smiled warmly. “Yeah. I’m sure too.”
“Alright, I’m gonna leave you alone so I can find Jade.”
“They’re at the top. Dunno what they’re doing there but… that’s where they said they’d be.”
“Cool, thanks Jamie.”
“No problem.”
Riley then got up to head towards the hill but didn’t get very far before Jamie called out to them.
“Wait!”
“Huh?”
“Listen… I’m not really an ‘I love you’ person like Luna is but… you and Luna are… pretty cool.”
Riley smiled. “You’re pretty cool too, Jamie.”
Jamie initially didn’t respond, instead staring at the half-made flower crown in their hands. Riley could’ve sworn they even saw a tear roll down their cheek.
“Thanks,” they finally replied. Their voice sounded a bit shaky but they cleared their throat. “You should check on Jade now. We’ll be okay here,” they suggested.
“Alright… I’ll be back soon.”
Riley then continued up the hill until they reached the top. Just as Jamie said, Jade was there. They were sitting down faced towards the sun. Before approaching them, Riley caught a quick glance at the box and confirmed there were flares in there. They then sat down to Jade’s left.
“Hello, Riley,” Jade said.
“Hey, Jade.”
“This is it, huh? It looks like our journey is about to be over.”
Riley sat down besides Jade. “Seems like it.”
“Before I lose the chance to, I just want to thank you. I know you probably feel like you don’t deserve it at times, but you’ve done a good job in keeping us together and getting us out alive.”
“It’s a team effort, Jade.”
“I know, but give yourself some credit too.”
Riley sighed. “I’ll try. And, uh… you’re welcome.”
“Oh, can I confess something to you?”
“Of course.”
“I’m a little scared to go back.”
“You’re not ready to face your grandparents again, are you?”
“Not really, no. Not after the time I’ve spent with all of you.” Jade chuckled. “It’s selfish, I know…”
“It’s not selfish to want what’s best for both you and Jamie. You all have my support.”
“I… thank you.”
“Now… I’m still a bit young myself so I don’t have much wisdom to part ways with, but if you need some help or someone to talk to… I’ll give you my number when we get back.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind. I’m just used to handling things on my own, so don’t take it personally if I don’t call often.”
“Yeah. I’m all too familiar with that. And don’t worry, I won’t be upset. We’ve all got our own lives to tend to, after all.”
“I guess… hopefully none of that happens though.”
Riley’s heart immediately sank. “W-What?”
Jade seemed panicked. “Wait, no! I meant like… hopefully I won’t have to settle with just your number. Hopefully…” They grimaced and stared at their lap. “Hopefully we can just… go with you instead.”
“Hopefully,” Riley echoed. “But… you do realize that’ll take time, right?”
Jade frowned. “It will?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how long exactly, but there needs to be time for me to even apply to foster, then all of the processes involved in that…”
“I see.”
“Look, if I could just run off into the sun with all of you, I would. That’s literally just kidnapping though.”
Jade chuckled. “How unfortunate.”
“Indeed.”
“Well… regardless of what happens after, I suppose it’s nice that we’re finally leaving. I imagine we’re all getting real tired of this place.”
“Oh, right! On the topic of leaving… when are we actually doing that?”
“Whenever you and Jamie are ready, we can light one of the flares. Jamie seemed pretty insistent about doing something before leaving though.”
“Yeah, they’re making Luna a flower crown.”
“Oh… that’s sweet.” Jade smiled. “So… yeah. When they’re done with that and you’re both ready to go—”
Suddenly, a pair of footsteps came stomping up from behind. Jamie’s footsteps. “Hey! Luna’s awake!”
Well, that just changed their plans entirely.
Riley snapped their head back towards Jamie. “Wait… Luna’s awake!?” both Riley and Jade asked in unison.
“Yeah! They’re, uh… kinda slow at waking up, but they’re awake! C’mon!”
“Holy shit…” Riley muttered under their breath.
They and Jade rose up and followed Jamie back to Luna.
When they arrived, Luna was in the midst of rubbing their eyes. They still seemed quite tired but Riley was very grateful that they were conscious again. Now, Riley needed to make sure they were okay.
Given they were still visibly tired, they’d probably end up going back to sleep later. As long as they stayed awake long enough to confirm they were fine, they were okay with letting them go back to sleep later.
Riley dropped down to their knees in front of Luna. Luna quickly acknowledged this and wrapped Riley in a hug.
“R-Riley! I… I thought… I thought…”
Riley patted Luna on the back. “Hey, it’s okay… you’re here with us. It’s okay. You’re safe.”
Luna tightened their grip and broke down, which only made Riley feel worse. They failed to save this kid before they could be put in such a predicament and yet, there they were, finding solace in their presence.
“I’m sorry, Luna—”
“S-Stop that…”
“Huh?”
“Stop…” Luna patted Riley on the back. “D-Don’t apologize…”
“But…” Riley sighed. It really wasn’t worth starting an argument. “Okay.”
The two of them remained embraced for a while. However, Luna soon pushed away gently.
“O-Okay, no more hugs f-for now…” They then yawned.
Riley complied and let go of Luna. They backed up a bit to give them some space and that’s when they once again noticed their left hand. Fortunately, the bandages didn’t seem stained that time, but they still needed to figure out how it got hurt in the first place.
“Hey, uh… quick question. What happened to your left hand?”
“Huh…?” Luna looked down at and flexed their fingers on their left hand. “O-Oh. I…” They sighed. “I s-saw Edmond’s f-face in a rock and… h-hit it.”
Huh. I didn’t know they were even capable of violence…
“Dang, practicing to kick his ass without me?” Jamie teased. Luna giggled in response.
“Well, regardless of what happened, last I checked it seemed fine. Hopefully it’s nothing major,” Riley interjected.
“Y-Yeah. I t-think it’s fine… I w-wouldn’t be able to flex m-my fingers if it wasn’t…”
“Probably gonna need to get that checked out when we get back to the airport anyways,” Riley suggested.
“Maybe…” Luna’s eyes widened a bit. “W-Wait… are we…?”
“Well, we’ve still got to wait on a helicopter and all that but… yeah. We’re just about ready to leave.”
“W-Wait… were you all w-waiting on me…?”
“Nope. We just wanted to relax and…” Riley glanced over at Jamie, who was very clearly hiding the crown behind their back. Luna seemed to not notice that. “Do some stuff before leaving.”
“Oh, okay!”
They suddenly recalled the time Luna said they loved everyone again and…
“By the way… I’m sorry for not saying this earlier but… I love you too, Luna.”
“W-Wha…?”
Jamie walked up and dropped the flower crown on Luna’s head. “Me too, I guess. If that crown and being your friend didn’t prove it… I dunno what will.”
“J-Jamie…”
“It’d be nice to have another younger sibling,” Jade added with a warm smile.
Luna broke out into a mix of laughing and crying. They then dragged everyone closer to them and wrapped them all in a hug.
Riley realized that this was the moment that really turned them from some ragtag troop into…
A family.
No matter what happened from this point forward, nothing was breaking that bond. Even if they weren’t legally one yet, they could still acknowledge each other as such. Grandparents and Edmond be damned, they were a family.
So many ideas and possibilities suddenly swirled through Riley’s head. They could take them all on such wonderful trips or watch some movies or…
They were getting ahead of themselves. They still needed to leave the island and actually take all of them in before any of that could happen.
Luna pulled away from everyone, prompting everyone to back off a bit.
“S-So… can we… leave now?”
“Are you ready to?” Riley asked.
“Y-Yeah…” Luna rubbed their eyes. “I t-think so.”
“Alright. Jade?”
“Sure. We should go to the top and enjoy the view while we wait,” Jade suggested.
“Yeah, that sounds nice,” Jamie replied.
Riley put out their left hand to Jade, who took it after staring at it in confusion for a moment. They then put their other hand out to Luna, who quickly accepted without having to think about it. Luna put out their free hand to Jamie, who similarly accepted it quickly.
“Alright. Let’s get off of this island.”
Riley started to lead everyone up to the top but it seemed that something caught Jade’s attention, evident by the fact that they tugged on Riley’s arm a bit.
“What’s the matter, Jade?” Riley asked.
“I could’ve sworn I saw the tip of some kind of bridge or something over there.” They used their free hand to point towards the far-left side of the hill.
“A detour? This close to the end?”
“Yeah! Let’s check it out!” Jamie added eagerly. Luna nodded in agreement.
Maybe it was selfish, but Riley was ready to stop. They’ve had enough with climbing for a long time, so they really didn’t want to do more. However… Jamie and Luna seemed interested, so they decided against shutting that idea down. It wouldn’t kill them to check out whatever Jade saw.
Riley sighed in defeat. “Okay, fine… lead the way, Jade.”
Jade dragged everyone along the left side of the hill’s base until they reached the end of the platform. Jade then pointed downwards towards what appeared to be a ruined bridge. “There.”
Riley’s eyes narrowed on the bridge, taking note of the distance between it and them. “That… seems like a pretty long drop. Are you sure it’s worth checking out?”
“I mean… I’ve still got some rope if we wanna explore a bit?” Jamie suggested.
“Oh, right. I guess it wouldn’t hurt then.”
Jamie pulled out the spools of rope that they had in their bag; one unused and the other partially used. They first slung the used one down until it was completely unraveled and staked it in the ground.
Riley watched as Jamie slid down the rope and landed on a small platform just below them. They gave a thumbs-up, prompting the others to follow.
When they got down there, they noticed that the rope seemed to drop just far enough to be comfortably within arm’s reach. How convenient.
“Perfect!” Jamie exclaimed. “Time for the next rope…”
Just like the first, the second rope spool reached down to yet another platform below them. Given that it was a little longer than the first, the end of it bundled up a bit on the ground.
They all once again slid down the rope and landed safely on the platform. All that was left between them and the bridge was… a natural, walkable, path down. If only it was this easy the entire time…
When they got down to the bridge, the first thing Riley noticed was a statue leaned up against the base of the hill. It seemed to be holding some strange gem but more importantly, it had four empty sockets for… something.
Wait… Myres had mentioned “four amulets” earlier… and this statue had four sockets… Was this statue the key to Nadir…?
Well, even if it was, it didn’t really matter. They didn’t have the amulets and it was far too late for them to backtrack. At least they knew for next time, assuming they actually stuck to their word and went back for Myres.
“I think this statue takes the amulets that Myres had mentioned, but since we don’t have them…” Riley said.
“At least we know where to find it next time,” Jamie replied.
“N-Next time…? And w-who’s Myres…?” Luna asked.
Oh, right. Luna still wasn’t aware of his existence. Riley had completely forgotten they’d kept him a secret from them.
“Uh…” Riley and Jamie stared at each other nervously. “He’s, uh… or, well, was a scoutmaster. He crashed on this island a long time ago and died. Now, both his body and his ghost are stuck on this island.”
“I-Is he the ghost I s-saw right b-before I fell asleep in the v-volcano…?”
“Most likely, yes. He did say he saw you. As for what Jamie meant by ‘next time,’ it’s…” Riley sighed. “Complicated. We’re gonna have to come back when we’re more prepared to rescue him.”
“Oh… okay.” Luna frowned.
“Well, if that’s all… I think we should get going,” Jade suggested. “I think we’ve learned everything we can from here.”
Everyone silently complied and started returning to the peak the same way they went down. Thankfully, that was a very easy task with all of the rope they had set down. It was a shame it couldn’t really be used anywhere else during their time on the island, but at least it could come in handy for once.
“Now… let’s actually get out of here,” Riley said.
Riley once again locked hands with Jade and Luna and lead everyone up to the top where they sat down around the flag. Luna and Jamie immediately laid down and gazed up at the sky in awe while Jade grabbed a flare from the box.
Jade stared at the flare for a moment before offering it to Luna. “You want to do the honors, Luna?”
“Oh! Uh, s-sure!”
Luna sat back up and carefully grabbed the flare from Jade. They then lit it and watched as orange smoke bellowed from it. They staked it down in the ground, taking care to not let it roll off or catch the surrounding grass on fire.
After a few minutes, they heard the faint sound of a helicopter buzzing in the distance. After a few more seconds, they saw the silhouette of a helicopter appear on the horizon. It appeared to be getting larger, which meant someone definitely saw the flare.
Which was a good thing, considering the flare just puffed its last little bit of smoke. Had that happened before the helicopter could spot them… well, at least they had more flares to try again.
“I-It’s a…”
“Helicopter!” Jamie gasped.
The helicopter was soon above them. Nobody in the helicopter said anything but they did drop a rope for the scouts to climb up.
Jamie went first followed by Luna then Jade. Riley didn’t climb it at first, opting to get one final look at the volcano they recently emerged from.
What they weren’t expecting to see was Scoutmaster Myres’ corpse—or what they now called Evil Myres—standing in the distance.
In spite of being evil, he still seemed to respect the fact that Riley managed to get everyone out alive. He saluted them and they instinctively saluted in return.
With a wicked smile on his face, he let his arm down and jumped back into the volcano, never to be seen again. Weird…
“YOU COMING OR WHAT!?” Jamie yelled over the sound of the helicopter’s blades spinning.
Riley gave a thumbs-up in return. There was no point in trying to talk over the helicopter. They grabbed onto the rope and began their ascent into the helicopter.
They reached the top and scrambled into the cabin of the helicopter. They took their seat beside Luna who, as expected, fell asleep again. They gently moved Luna’s head so it was resting on their shoulder. In response, Luna subconsciously leaned all of their weight on Riley.
Sitting across from them, Jade and Jamie were in a pretty similar position. Neither of them had fallen asleep yet, though it was clear that both were on the brink of it. They weren’t entirely sure how Jamie was that close to sleep considering they were just calling out to them moments prior. At the same time though, they’ve also gone without sleep for a while, so…
“We were about t’ leave you behind…” Jamie said, followed up by a yawn.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Yeah… whatever…” Jamie then drifted off to sleep.
“I guess I’ll get some shut-eye too while we’ve got the chance to,” Jade said.
“Good idea. Get some rest.”
“You get some too, Riley.”
“Don’t gotta tell me twice.”
Jade scoffed and close their eyes, falling asleep just as quickly as Jamie did.
The male co-pilot in the cockpit gave a thumbs-up and Riley gave one in response, which prompted him to give the female pilot a nod. Immediately after, the cabin doors closed and the helicopter started moving.
They’d probably be flying for a few hours, and nobody else was awake, so they figured they should actually follow Jade’s advice and get some rest. Much like everyone else, they had gone without sleep for a while too, and they were going to need it to be able to deal with all of the noise at the airport.
For now, they felt at ease, allowing themselves to be dragged into the depths of unconsciousness. Their biggest problem at hand had been resolved and everyone was leaving alive and in good spirits. They couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
However… there were still a few more problems waiting for them at the airport and beyond.