Erin and Artur made their way through the jungle, Artur taking the lead with his shield out. His sword easily hacked a clear path through the brush. Erin focused on the plants around her, and on occasion, she would stop and kneel, picking away a part of a plant and putting it in a pouch. She was harvesting the seeds of the plants for those with them and would later incorporate them into her curse.

It was part of the new ability she gained with her second-grade curse. She could grow and replicate any seed she consumed inside herself, modifying the plant to do things that it already did, but better. Every island they went to, when she had the opportunity, she added new plants to her repertoire, but now she could actively use them from a garden she carried inside herself at all times.

The problem was harvesting the seeds, so she would take pieces of the plant and harvest them later. That also left out plants that used pollen instead, but she hadn't figured out how to incorporate that into her curse. She was sure she could. She just needed to figure out how.

"There are too many vines in the way," Artur said as he cut through another bit of brush with his longsword. "We may reach the end by the light of day!"

"At least having a clear way will help Wen keep an eye on us," she said, bending down and plucking a flower off a vine with a seed and tucking it in her bag. "I don't like the idea of splitting up to scout."

"That is the thrust." Artur slashed through another bit of the brush. "But the key is to rely on trust."

Erin resisted the urge to rub at her eyes, mainly to keep the various saps of the plants she kept gathering out of them. Artur was the most recent edition to the crew, and his constant rhyming couplets made him difficult to talk with at the best of times. He was mostly harmless beside that quirk, though he was one of the nobility, and she couldn't fully trust him.

Ting.

Artur stopped in his next swing, and Erin's eyes tracked to where he held his sword mid-swing. He had been cutting through the brush, but something in it had resisted the blade. Some of the vines covering the structure fell away, revealing a tarnished metal surface beneath it.

"What is it?" Erin asked.

"A metal surface hidden beneath the vines," Artur said, sheathing his sword and pulling away some of the vines. "It looks like it has succumbed to the ravages of time."

"Can you pull more off it?" Erin stepped next to him, pulling away some of the vines. "There shouldn't be anything made of metal out here, right?"

"I will set about this task." Artur grinned. "You only needed to ask."

He pulled at the vines, ripping them away from the object until it was fully revealed. Erin stepped away as he pulled up the brush, and soon she saw it was a statue of sorts with stylized heads of creatures stacked one on top of the other. One she thought might be a serpent, and another looked almost feline. Once Artur was done, she reached out and touched the metal.

It was surprisingly soft to the touch, and she pushed on it with her thumb. The metal moved a little with her push, and some of the wear on the outside smudged with it. Even with only the faint moonlight behind her, Erin could see that the layer beneath the grime glowed gold.

"This statue is covered in gold," Erin whispered, reaching into her cloak and taking out a rag.

She rubbed at more of the statue, polishing away the much and grime to reveal the metal beneath. It wasn't a great job, and she would need actual chemical solvents to restore it fully, but the entire statue was covered with gold across its surface.

"Why would someone pay such a price?" Artur asked, kneeling next to the statue's base and running his hand across the bottom of it. "To waste such material is surely a vice."

As he pushed away some of the dirt on the ground, he revealed a layer of metal beneath the statue that stretched further out. Erin raised her eyebrows. A path lay hidden beneath the dirt, and it, too, was covered with tarnished gold. Artur began to pull at the edge of the path and soon came up with a perfect square of tarnished gold.

"Look and let it be known," Artur said, turning the bottom of the square to her. "The bottom is made of stone."

"Gold over the top of it, like a plating," Erin nodded, looking back at the statue. "I wonder if it's just this area or if it goes further into the forest."

She looked deeper into the jungle, but the path was impossible to make out, especially in the dark. How many years had these structures been buried underneath the dirt and vines? She didn't know, but it had to be a long time. This made her wonder about what else was hidden in the jungle around them and, more importantly, where the people who had made it all were.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"There's only one way to find out," Artur said, scraping away more dirt to reveal the path. "That is to charge ahead and rout!"

Erin couldn't help but smile a little. Instead of finding strangers or monsters out in the jungle watching them, they had stumbled on a mystery. She preferred that so much more than having to get into a fight. Artur stood and drew his sword, stepping ahead of her as he led the way forward.

She held her hand over her stomach to suppress the building pressure there. Excitement or otherwise, a twist in her gut told her to be cautious. Erin followed behind, looking for any other structures on their path deeper into the jungle.

***

Wen watched through her scope as each of her colleagues faded into the brush. Alex was the first to disappear completely, ducking through the trees with a wave at Jean. Sayed, Erin, and Artur lasted much longer, mainly because they were actively cutting their way through the brush; however, even they faded around turns at some point in their path.

Soon, Wen was alone, with only Mari to keep her company. Wen finished a final scan of the shoreline before glowing blue lights filled her scope. Wen sighed and pulled away from the scope, giving a withering glare to Mari as she bent over to be in front of the lens.

"What do you need, Mari?" Wen asked.

"Where did everyone go to?" Mari asked, her head tilting and her long white hair falling further to the side.

"They went to scout the area after Artur felt like we were being watched." Wen sighed, standing up and slinging her rifle over her back. "We're going to stay here to watch the ship and keep you safe."

"Ah." Mari looked over the deck and then up to the trees above them.

So far, every interaction with the android had been strange. Mari acted so much like a child, but then she would suddenly change and act like a machine in specific moments as well. Wen didn't know what to make of that and had no idea how Mari worked.

In fact, no one on the crew, as far as she knew, understood how Mari worked. Mari had a doll-like body with marble white skin and blue eyes. Lines covered a lot of her body, marking panels that covered the outside. However, with her clothes on, most of her non-human features were harder to see.

Now, she was acting more like a child.

"Do you want to go below deck?" Wen asked. "I can watch up here while you're inside."

"No, that's not a good idea," Mari said, walking over toward the lake and leaning on the rail.

The ship rocked back and forth in the small waves from the lake, and it was Wen's turn to tilt her head. Mari leaned against the railing on the side of the deck and looked out over the dark waters, her long white hair flowing in the light breeze blowing over the lake.

"Why do you say that?" Wen asked, her hands instinctually resting on her revolvers.

"I think they're waiting for you to be alone."

Snap. Thud.

Wen spun toward the trees, drawing both revolvers as she scanned the shore to try and find the source of the noise. The moment her back was turned, though, she heard the sound of something landing on the deck behind her. She winced but spun again, already knowing she would be too late to react.

Five dark humanoid figures stood on the deck, their hands holding dark black blades as they faced Mari down. In the moonlight, their most visible detail was their slitted yellow eyes. Wen brought up her guns, keeping two of them in her sights. However, one had already taken hold of Mari and held a blade against her neck as it glared at her.

"Put your weapons down, outsider."

As her eyes adjusted to the creatures, she could see them better. Each had a human face, though their eyes revealed a more bestial nature. Their ears were long and pointed, and their black figure was covered in spotless fur. They were each dressed in small bits of cloth that draped from their shoulders over the rest of their body, and each was armed with. Their blades reminded Wen of obsidian blades from South American dig sites.

"I don't want any trouble," Wen said, keeping her guns ready. "But this is our ship, and you're trespassing."

"This is our jungle, and your ship is trespassing here," the leader growled. "Put down your weapons, and I'll not slice this pup's throat."

Wen narrowed her eyes. She might be able to freeze a few of the figures. There were five of them on the deck, and only one had a hostage. If she hit the one with Mari first, he would freeze, and the rest would probably come for her. She might be able to land a shot on them all.

However, if she missed, she didn't doubt that the leader would cut Mari's throat. Wen might have been cold, but she wasn't going to sacrifice Mari just to maybe win a fight. She lowered her guns and holstered them, but she didn't drop them to the ground. She was willing to talk, but not much more.

"We didn't know it was your jungle," Wen said. "We landed here to repair our ship as best we can. My friends went out to scout around because they thought we were being watched."

"You were being watched outsider," the leader said, pulling the blade away from Mari's neck but still holding onto her. "We saw your ship come through the sky and saw it was going for our sacred grounds. We came out to find you before you entered, but it seems we are too late."

"Too late for what?" Wen asked.

"Your people stepped into our sacred grounds, and they walk into danger now." The leader shook his head. "While we do not wish you harm, we cannot let you wander our home freely. Death and misery await those who walk into the next realm while still bound to the flesh."

"You're saying that by walking into your sacred grounds, my friends might die," Wen said. "So are you going to let me stop them, or are you just going to keep me here until they die?"

"James will bring them back," the leader said. "Of that, I promise you. Stay here for now, and we will await his return. Once they are all back, we will decide what to do with all of you."

Wen wasn't sure how someone would bring the rest of them back, considering that if they tried the same method with Alex, Jean, or Sayed, they likely wouldn't walk away whole, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she resigned herself to waiting and kept her eyes on the five figures.