The three adventurers went deeper into the forbidden forest. Strange sounds such as squawks, growls, and shrieks were coming from everywhere. However, the fellow adventurers decided to ignore them and stay as far away from them as possible. At dusk, they decided to stop to rest and light a fire to spend the night.
Suddenly, hundreds of insects began to arrive everywhere.
“What the hell?” shouted Mike.
They swarmed at them like raindrops. The three of them took a branch each and lit them with the campfire and began to beat them away from the swarm of beetles raining down on them.
Beetles began to wound the uncovered skin, many of them clinging tightly to their clothes trying to get at the flesh. Nibbling with their small jaws.
Alexandra in an attempt to ward off the insistent insects once and for all, swung her branch hard, so hard that it flew out of her hands away from her. Left helpless, she ran towards where it had fallen but before she reached it she noticed that the bugs were lashing towards the burning branch instead of herself.
“'They're attracted by fire! Get away from it!” she shouted.
They all dropped their branches and ran away from the campfire in different directions, tearing the few insects that still lingered on their clothes.
Alexandra ran as far as she could into the darkness, away from the fire and her friends. In desperation, she tripped over a tree root and fell flat on her face. She lay on the ground, her heart pounding in her chest as much as in her ears. She could barely feel her knee bleeding. She gasped, drenched in sweat, which ran desperately down her forehead and neck. She shouted as loud as she could the names of her friends.
“Mike!”
“Jason!”
There was no response.
No matter how hard she strained her eyesight she could see nothing. She squeezed her eyes hard to adjust them to the darkness. A fleeting glow appeared in front of her. For a moment she thought her imagination was playing tricks on her, but she could see a few meters away from her a few small dots of light. At first, she feared that bugs would come raining down on her again. But those little dots did not emit heat, their light was dim.
On closer inspection, she realized that they were small worms crawling on the ground and emitting their own light. Surprisingly, their light was immune to the carnivorous bugs.
So she took a bottle from her backpack and emptied its contents and began to fill it with the slimy maggots. They were totally drooling, slippery, and even disgusting to her taste; for a moment she felt nauseous. She took a deep breath. It's the only way to have light, she told herself. And also the only way to find the boys.
So she held her breath and grabbed them one by one and stuffed them into the bottle. Her body arched in search of expelling what little she had in her stomach, each time they struggled to break free from her fingers.
“God, why of all bugs, did it have to be worms?”
When she was satisfied that she had enough grubs to light the way; she scrubbed about 50 times her hands on her skirt and after spitting and shaking her whole body 100 times, she set off in search of her companions.
Mike struggled to stay afloat, but no matter how hard he tried, he sank deeper. The tar was already covering his chest. He decided to stay still to avoid sinking further. But just as he was about to give up hope, he thought his eyes were deceiving him. A strange light was filtering through the branches of the trees. It was then that his smile returned as he saw the red tangle of hair that accompanied it.
“Alexandra!” he shouted.
“Mike!”
Alexandra was startled to see that there was barely her friend Mike's head and one outstretched arm left.
“Don't move! You'll sink deeper!”
Alexandra's mind hurriedly searched for something to grab her friend with before he was swallowed by what looked like a swamp. But there were no branches long and strong enough to reach her companion.
Jason arrived unexpectedly guided by the screams of both of them and the strange light Alexandra was holding.
“Jason! Tell me you brought with you a rope?”
Jason nodded nervously.
Fortunately, Alexandra had found on her way back the bow and quiver. She took one end of the rope, tied it to one of the arrows, and aimed her bow at a large tree behind Mike. The arrow passed very close to Mike's fingers and stuck in the tree.
Mike held on to the rope and his friends pulled with all their strength to pull him out.
Mike fell on top of them after getting out of danger.
Happy to find the three of them, they laughed for a while before falling asleep on the spot.
Soon the sun of a new dawn made its presence known. The three of them were still sleeping together lying at the foot of a tree.
Alexandra nudged Jason, who was still snoring loudly.
“You sure could sleep like a baby in the middle of hell.”
“Another little while longer,” Jason pleaded with his eyes closed.
Alexandra got up and shook out her clothes which were filthy from everything that had happened the night before. What would her mother say if she saw her in those facades and having spent the night between two men?
“Ha!” she laughed at herself. Thinking about that sort of thing mostly where she was. She glanced at her two friends who were still sleeping peacefully.
She grabbed her backpack to get some water but then remembered that she had emptied the only bottle she had, precisely to fill it with the disgusting worms. With a grimace of distaste, she threw the bottle away.
“I'd give you some of my water, but I think it was left at the bottom of the tar lake,” Mike replied without opening his eyes.
Jason stretched his arms, scratched his back, and reached into his backpack to pull out a leather skin and offered it to his friend.
She knew it wasn't water, but any liquid at that moment was welcome.
“I want to thank you guys for being here.”
“Can you explain to me why the hell you did it? I'm sure you didn't do it for the fame, riches and gold,” asked Mike.
“Do what?” asked a confused Jason still sleepy.
Alexandra looked up at the sky, or the little that could still be seen above the large trees that surrounded them. She knew very well what Mike had asked.
“Erica is the kindest, most generous person I've ever met.”
Alexandra took a swig from the skin, the warm wine caressed her throat. She closed her eyes and paused to take one more sip.
“A long time ago, when I was a young girl, my family was very poor and we barely had enough to eat; my father had fallen ill and I knew very well that the food would not last long; so I left home to find something to eat. I went to the market but I had no money, so I waited until the baker was careless to steal some bread and feed my parents. I thought he had not seen me, however, he caught me in the act; I tried to run away but I wasn't fast enough, I was weak because of hunger and couldn't escape, so it was a matter of time before he caught up with me. Not only did the baker catch me, but some guards who were passing by also helped. And without any judgment or consideration, they decided to give me the ultimate punishment: cutting off my hand.
That's when she appeared. She gave a warning shout and everyone knelt before her and in that way, she prevented them from hurting me. She was the only one who had the consideration to listen to my story and understand why I had done it. Then, she paid for the food I had stolen and then, she paid for the food I had stolen and then took off a gold bracelet she was wearing and gave it to me to sell so I could help my family.”
“Without ever ever asking me for anything in return.”
“Many times she would send her messengers to find out if my family and I were well.”
“My father got better and with the money, he built an oven and bought flour. And between all us, we created a sale of loaves of bread of all kinds. Then messengers from the palace would come to buy them. In this way, many others did too and so we had a means of livelihood. All thanks to her.”
Mike and Jason were dumbfounded; as much as they knew their friend, they had never heard the story.
Alexandra wiped the tears from her face, as did Mike.
“The best reward for me is to see her healthy, so I'll do whatever it takes to make it happen,” she added.
“Well, all the more reason we should hurry to find the cure,” Mike replied.
“But we're still going to split the loot, aren't we?” asked Jason.
Alexandra sighed and handed the pelt back to Jason.
“You can have my share if you want it,” she added.
