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Scarlet

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My eyes open slowly, I’m still drowsy in spite of having just slept. I raise myself up into a sitting position and am slammed by a pain in the center of my head.

Collapsing back down, I groan, “Why…"

“It’s Scarlet!” I hear Zenith shout together. “You’re back!”

Even through my pain, I notice something wrong with what they said. “What do you mean, back? I just woke up." A grumble slips out of me. “Why do I hurt all over?”

They then begin a rapidfire rant, shooting words out fast enough for me to worry about them. “Well, you weren’t you and you fought a monster in the woods, but then you passed out and became you again. As in girl you, and not the man you."

A few moments pass in silence as I mull over their words.

“What?”

They don’t give me a chance to say another word before returning to their nervous stream of words. “You were a boy when I came back from getting firewood, but you acted like you didn’t know me. The boy-you helped me look for you and got ambushed, and when I found him he passed out and changed back into you. Now you’re awake! And you!” The two bodies heave up and down after finishing their spiel.

Alright, then… “So I became someone else?” A hint of doubt sneaks into my tone.

Nodding, they help me up.“Yeah! You looked similar but different enough that I thought it wasn’t you. Are you okay now?”

Their worried look makes me squirm a bit. “I’m fine! I’m fine!” Trying to reassure them, I pat them on both sets of shoulders. “So, ignoring all of that, what is our plan?” I glance between them.

Their brows furrow before they respond, “I wish we knew if there were any towns or villages nearby."

“Why don’t we find somewhere high up?” I say, pointing to a nearby incline. “The ground slopes upwards here, maybe there’s a cliff or hilltop we can check out the surroundings from." Without waiting, I start moving. Eventually I look back, and sure enough they’re following me. Communication isn’t their strength, I guess.

No kidding.

Stopping in my tracks, I glance around. “Who said that?”

“Said what?” Zenith asks, startled.

“You didn’t hear it?” Looking back at them, I see only confusion… I must have imagined it. As the two of us slowly make progress up the gentle incline, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot is the only sound to be heard.

While we travel, the trees around us gradually change, from deciduous to coniferous. Not long after that, the gentle slope becomes not-so-gentle. The animal path we’re using transitions to a crude trail of gravel between larger stones and boulders. Stopping, I gasp for air while checking on Zenith. While the male Zenith is sharing in my misery, also choking down the cold air, their girl half is totally unaffected by the climb. At least I’m not suffering alone.

After I finish staring at Zenith’s female half, I ask her, “Have you seen any water? I’m dying." They shake their heads at me, and I sigh. “At this rate we’re gonna be killed by dehydration instead of monsters." Grumbling curses, I sit down on the boulder that looks the kindest.

Zenith meets eyes with me, a glint of anxiety in her gaze. “Are we gonna be okay?” she asks timidly.

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After I’m done being surprised by her visible emotions, I respond, “Probably, we just have to find water." A rock rolls down the path after I give it a good kick.

Zenith looks up when the rock rolls into his foot. His shoes look nice, but probably suck for hiking. I’m taken off guard as they both give me a grin before he points his finger at me. My brain is assaulted by an intense cold as water sprays into my eyes.

As I’m knocked off the kindest boulder by the pressurized stream, I yell, “Why?!”

Zenith grins with both faces and says in a snarky tone, “You said you needed water."

A groan sneaks out of my lips. “But why did you spray me?” I glare at them instantly, still annoyed by their horrible joke. It wasn’t even a pun. A few seconds later I hear some mumbling about how it was funny. I give up on getting an answer and relent. “At least tell me how you did that." Perching myself back on the kindest boulder, I give them an annoyed stare.

“I just thought about how I made the fire, how I wanted fire, but thought of water instead. Some water came out, so I thought maybe if I thought about wanting water harder it would come out faster. So I tried it… in your face." The guy hides behind his female counterpart.

“Are you hiding behind yourself? I don’t think that’s very effective.” Letting out a laugh, I continue, “Well, we have water and fire figured out, now we have to figure out food." Thinking about what types of plants would be safe to eat, a large amount of knowledge suddenly leaks out of a mental door.

Plants, mushrooms, lichen, trees, berries - all sorts of knowledge on edible plants surge into my mind, along with a deluge of other information on plants. The surprise knowledge doesn’t come free, and I soon fall to my knees with a scream of pain. Red hot pokers stab into the back of my eyes, covering my vision with red.

My escape from the pain doesn’t come for a few hours, until the sun sets. As the pain completely fades, I sit up, slowly. I learned that lesson earlier, thanks. A quick glance around reveals a sleeping Zenith, their two bodies leaning against each other while sitting against a boulder. Awwwwww! I mentally squeal.

A small fire flickers between me and the duo, gently lighting the space around us. Frustration rises as I stare up at the dark night sky. What was the point of all that pain, if it's too dark to find the damn plants?! After misguidedly hitting the stone ground in anger, I hear an odd trickling sound nearby.

I — of course, in the safest way possible — go to see what the strange noise in the dark woods is. Alone. Shockingly, I quickly find the source of the noise, and am not attacked by some horrible night thing. I watch as a small object falls into a small pile of what look like walnuts. The pile sits at the bottom of a stoney cliffside, and I notice other nuts stuck along the rockface. The sound must’ve been the nuts tumbling down the cliff face and hitting the stones on the way.

Glancing around, I make sure that these aren’t somehow someone else’s before grabbing them. Using my taut shirt as a makeshift bucket, I scoop up the nuts. After making sure I got them all, I quickly make my way back to the campsite.

Zenith stirs as I noisily move back into camp, almost a hundred walnuts clunking together in my shirt. They sit up and stare as I toss the entire lot of nuts straight into the fire. I can’t help myself, and start laughing maniacally. Despite the strange looks from Zenith, I am soon rewarded for my shenanigans. The first of many loud explosions bangs from our small fire, and I cackle into the night.

I make eye contact with a confused looking Zenith. “Some nuts explode when you throw them into a fire, did ya know that, Zenith?” The look they send my way could curdle milk, but that doesn’t deter my manic grin.

“You could’ve told me that they would pop like that!" His grumbling is cut off by the other body speaking.

“Yeah! It would’ve been nice to be given a heads up!” She gives a hmph as she pouts at me.

“Nice job, you practicing your acting?” Giving the boy body a sideways look, I nod in approval. “That’ll be useful… in towns and such."

“That’s what I was thinking," Zenith says, sitting down twice. “I didn’t want to be a spectacle everywhere we went."

I let out a laugh. “You sure I’m gonna stick to traveling with you?”

The two-for-one special looks at me, suddenly worried. “You’re not?” she asks, her voice shaking a little.

Immediately I regret my joke. “No… I am. I was just teasing you a little, is all." The two bodies relax, and my guilt rises. I’ll need to be more careful with my teasing from now on. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry!”

Standing, I eye the fire before stomping it out. While letting the coals cool for a bit, I spit into the pit to hear the hiss of the embers. I giggle like a moron at the small sounds, extremely amused. I am a mature adult.

When the firepit is cool enough I reach into the ashes and start collecting the small nuts. With Zenith’s help, gathering the nuts doesn’t take long. Soon enough the munching of three bodies fills the darkness around our little campsite.