Jamal XI

PA 1 – April

After weeks of travel deeper into the l continent, the forests and mountains of the coast slowly gave way to dense jungle. As the air turned humid and the foliage dense, they were forced to slow down for the mortals in their group, their frenzied rush west turned to a slow crawl.

Eventually, they’d had to admit they probably weren’t being followed anymore—if only because they’d passed through at least three other kingdoms so far—and calmed down, taking their time to traverse the new biome.

Unwilling to repeat the same mistakes they’d made last year, Jamal made sure to take the time to talk with the locals and learn what they needed to survive in the jungle. That had led them to trading one of their tents for a set of hammocks—as sleeping on the jungle floor was apparently an easy way for poisonous insects to crawl all over you—and hired a local to guide them for a few days, explaining what was and wasn’t safe to eat, along with what dangers they should look out for.

Surprisingly, tigers were not high on the list of dangerous animals, despite their being tigers. Bees, on the other hand? Pray you don’t run into any of those.

He’d nearly had a heart attack when he discovered a nest of goddamn Asian Giant Hornets in their path one day. Thankfully, he’d been able to turn them around without getting swarmed, but each day they stayed in the jungle it felt like they were further tempting fate.

Unfortunately, none of them knew how far the jungle sprawled, only that so long as they kept travelling west they’d eventually reach the end.

Things had been gradually getting rougher and rougher for them as the weeks went on, but at the very least the still had their moments of peace.

This evening saw the group of them sitting along the roots of the intertwined trees. Their hammocks were already set up above them, while they sat around a fire burning low in a hollowed-out turtle shell, the wet mud of the jungle not allowing them to start a fire on the ground. Fei sat leaned over the fire, preparing dinner by stirring their leftover meats in a pot of stew. Behind them their other supplies were hung in a series of bags off a nearby tree branch, kept dry and away from animals.

Khalila, their youngest and newest member, had latched onto Ishi like a lifeline, as the only one in their group that she was comfortable with. Even now she sat half-curled into his side, huddled beneath a pile of furs. Jamal sat on her other side, close but with an uncomfortable distance between them, one that grew smaller over time but which would probably remain for a while yet.

On his other side was Fei, grumbling and cursing as he cooked their dinner today, while on his other side was Yue, the brunette flexing her mangled hand open and closed in a habit she’d picked up recently. Every few moments her eyes would flicker to the pot between them, before she’d glance away, biting her lip with a guilty look on her face.

The rest of them politely pretended not to notice, as they knew the reason why she did so. Today would normally be her turn to cook, the four of them taking turns every night. But with her hand ruined as it was, it made it too difficult for her to do certain tasks like she used to, and so the other three of them had taken over some of her duties—just as they’d taken over some of Fei’s—until she relearned how to work with only a single hand.

But under her anxious eyes dinner was completed without fanfare, and Jamal leaned over the pot, pouring out bowls of soup for everyone.

“Here, Khalila,” he smiled softly as he handed her her bowl, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. “Be careful—it’s hot.”

The girl flinched, but didn’t hesitate to grab the bowl from his hand. And though she didn’t look up from her lap at all throughout dinner, she still sat calmly as they chatted around her. It wasn’t much, but after the first few days where she couldn’t even sit near them without having a panic attack, the fact she could sit so calmly next to him was relieving.

‘Baby steps,’ he reassured himself. ‘Let her get better on her own time.’

It was his own fault she was afraid of them, after all. If he could have just been a bit faster, or a bit smarter, or somehow managed to talk those hunters down, they might have been able to have gotten away peacefully, and Khalila wouldn’t have been traumatized by their deaths.

The five of them ate slowly, the tough and unseasoned chunks of meat making for a dry meal. Quiet conversations came up in sporadic bursts, but for the most part they ate in silence.

It couldn’t be called awkward, but there was a definite space looming between them that hadn’t been there before Khalila arrived.

Eventually Ishi yawned, his mouth opening wide, only for it to suddenly cut out with a choked cough.

“Are you alright, Ishi?” Yue asked worriedly, leaning over to grab his shoulder.

“Ah… ah, yeah, I’m fine,” Ishi let out one more cough, shaking his head. “Just some old aches acting up. But after that, I think I’m going to retire for the night. What about you, Khalila, are you ready?”

There was a long pause, before the bundle of furs sitting next to him quietly nodded her head.

“Alright, then let’s get you to bed,” he murmured, pulling her up gently.

The other three watched quietly as he pulled her over to her hammock, helping her climb in. Giving her a calm smile, Ishi made sure she was secured before shuffling over to his own hammock.

“…Hey, does she even need to sleep?” Fei asked after a moment of silence. “I mean, she’s like you, yeah? And I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen you sleep.”

“Even if she doesn’t need to sleep, she can still get tired,” Jamal shook his head. “She’s young, though, so there might be something else going on I don’t know about.”

“…Hey, Jamal, does that mean you get tired?” Yue asked quietly.

He sat quietly for a moment, unsure how to answer.

“…If you’re tired, you should sleep, Jamal,” she sighed softly, taking his silence as answer itself. “You don’t need to stay up so late every night. It’s not healthy.”

“Better tired then dead,” he shook his head firmly. “Someone needs to stay up and keep watch. Might as well be the man who doesn’t need to sleep.”

Yue frowned tiredly, but didn’t argue.

“…Yeesh, y’all are depressing tonight,” Fei scoffed, flopping onto his back. He immediately regretted it when he landed in a puddle of mud. “Oh, yuck, ew, ew! I forgot that was there, fugg’n—!”

Yue snorted at the sight, hiding her face in her hands as her shoulders shook with repressed laughter. Jamal himself was no better, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

“Oh, sure, laugh it up!” Fei scowled at them, scrambling back up, hiding a grimace of pain from his injury. “Just you wait—next time it rains, I’m shoving the two of ya into your own puddles!”

“Then I’ll just drag you down with me,” Yue drawled back, waving him off. “Then you’ll just have gotten muddy twice!”

“Gah!” Fei threw his hands up, before stomping away from them towards his bag. “No sympathy, either of you! Prepare yourselves then—because justice will be swift, brutal, and wet!”

They laughed after him, the tired, gloomy mood that had overtaken them swept away by Fei’s antics. And as they settled in for the night, the jungle no longer looked quite as dark—and the end no longer felt quite so far.

And perhaps, by the wide grin he tried to hide on his own face, that might have been his plan all along.

(Fei would make good on his promise not a day later, shoving Yue down into a pile of wet muck.

Yue would also make good on her promise, dragging him down with her.

In the end they were cold and wet and had ruined another pair of clothes. The whole party had to stop for the rest of the day to dry them off, having made no progress at all.

Despite that though, neither of them regretted it, sporting wide smiles on their faces for the rest of the day.)

9,873 God-Kings Remain