Running.

That's where it started. Like a thunderbolt, one special, chosen person was supposed to run straight into the maws of the monsters to buy time for the other members of our imprumtu party to enact their plans

Was it James/Rock Lee, forester who apparently could do backflips and run on tree branches.

No. It was not.

Was it Chris Prattalike, the senior forester scout, a mature dude who seemed likeable and yet somehow grounded?

No. It was not.

Was it the displaced college student with no super powers?

If you guessed yes, then you get a prize! (By the way, do not accept that prize. It is most assuredly a call to adventure and that will take you really far away from any plans you may have had for your life.)

Where was I?

That's right.

I was running out of the Shelter and into the mist, just like a crazy person. My poor common sense was crying in a corner, but it was comforted by my sense unreality that this was all a stressed induced nightmare and if I died I'd probably just wake up in the hospital.

The rest of me was happy that some part of me thought that was true, but as I felt the rough forest floor underneath my slippers, I felt very much that this was real.

My sense of heroics kept me going forward.

I was screaming, of course. My heroics were only so strong...

Please, please, please, don't have Chris Prattalike be a twist villain.

Finally, as I reached the swirling mist, I saw the steam-starved for the first time.

It was probably good that I had not seen them before I agreed to this stupid crazy plan.

So...

Has everyone seen barney? If not, look it up. Barney was a kid's show back in the 90s and onward. Growing up I had seen reruns and what not, mostly at my grandparents house. Barney was a talking dinosaur who taught kids to be nice to other kids and stupid stuff like that. It was mostly harmless.

This barney was not like that all.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Think raptor, like in the Jurassic Park movies. But think taller, so their heads would come out just over your head. Their bodies were long, and covered with short ruddy purple feathers. Their chest was green though. Their forelimbs were long, and weirdly jointed.

I only saw a glimpse before they disappeared back into the mist. But that was enough for me to run faster and harder.

Ehheeheheh came the sound of the steam-starved on my left.

Hissshesshhess. rumbled another on my right.

Coreah coraeh. answered one exactly in front of me.

Well, I had drawn them here. Good job me. Now James/Rock Lee and Prattalike could do their parts of the crazy plan.

I may be terminally naive.

The sounds started to encircle me. Jokes on them.

Time to trust my common sense.

I hurled a stripe of cloth that had just been soaking in the steam powering the shelter into the thicket to my left.

And the sounds around me halted.

So...Barney wanted something doused in steam above nice and juicy me stakes. That was good.

However, I had walked through steam not long before getting on that train, so I was probably still a target.

I kept running, but in the silent forest I kept hearing the steam-starved confront each other over the scrap of cloth. There was sounds of a struggle, and then a scream that sounded uncomfortably like a sound effect from a horror film. Then there was a victorious sound of whatever barney had won the prize.

Then the sounds were after me again.

Ehheeheheh and Hissshesshhess rumbled after me.

Apparently they liked to play with their food.

Of course. I still had Jesseme's glove. And I had also literally jaywalked (twice apparently) through concentrated steam before I got on the train.

I ran harder, but my haste proved dangerous as I slipped on a slick mossy branch. The ground came up fast, a flutter of red and brown and green, and I closed my eyes tightly.

The good news:

I did not die.

The bad news: the barneys had surrounded me.

"You know what I know about Rock Lee?" I said, to the dinosaurs. Look, maybe they could talk.

They continued to prowl around me, not daring to come closer.

I swallowed hard. Please random strangers, please be good people.

More steam-starved came, hanging around the edges of the mist, watching me. More came, some even from trees.

Apparently they could climb trees. Well darn. Stupid super predators.

"Rock Lee never gives up on his friends."

A canter filled with steam was hurled at the steam-starved, hitting one squarely on it's uncannily barney like head. Another was thrown the other way.

I was back on my feet again, running. Suddenly a green clad James descended and unceremoniously scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder. He passed a bag filled with steam canisters to me. "My teacher said we just need a little more time!" He did these crazy kicks between tree trunks, and then he was running through the tress, back toward the shelter (I think).

And finally, I got to be part of a Naruto run. I was basically a sack of potatoes, but who cares! When I craned my head so I could see forward, it was like one of those 3d rides, where you sit on a moving platform and a video plays on the screen in front of you. It was scary, because James was reacting a lot faster than I could. He would also take these huge leaps over huge gabs that felt impossible. Somehow it was better when I looked behind us.He ran, like he weighted nothing and the branches barely swayed under his feet.

I took a canister and hurled it at the ground.

We needed this pack to follow us.

Because that shelter was about to be these horror film rejects final resting place.

There was a sound of an explosion.

"Well, that was unexpected." Said James.

It sounded like it came from the train.

"We really really need to hurry up." I said.