Dale sat there on a log, recreating the posture of The Thinker with the log beings its pedestal, trying to figure out a question. As he couldn’t achieve a satisfying one, he asked the party. “How is it that there’s birdsong in these woods, but we haven’t seen any birds?” He wasn’t the only one that meditated that question but now seemed a good moment to resolve it. “I mean, this is our third day in the forest, and we haven’t seen anything beyond trees and mantises.”

“What do you want to do about it?” Mike asked him. “Search for the birds?”

“That’s exactly what I am going to do.” Dale got up and approached a tree.

“You aren’t going to do what I think you are going to do, right?” His sister asked him.

“I’m gonna do that.” Dale responded.

“You are a fucking idiot,” Kayle told. “Go on.” And then motivated her brother to do it.

“What’s he going to do?” Aby asked her as she took a sip of water from her cup.

“He wants to climb the tree in order to see the birds.” Kayle explained Dale’s train of thought.

While those two were talking, Dale already proceeded to climb the tree. The forest was composed of high trees, similar to oak, but with the height of a pine tree. Falling from a tree like that could prove lethal, but Dale had his high [Fortuna], and Axel was watching his back. Leaves moved around as Dale traveled across the branches, trying to find any bird.

If this was Earth, birds would already have flown away when they sensed the danger. But here, he couldn’t find anything. The birdsong was there, now more vibrant than ever, its rhythm accelerated. Dale was getting nervous, so he climbed to the treetop in order to see if the birds were resting at the highest point. It became harder to keep balance as Dale climber the thinner branches that composed the summit. He finally got his head up over the forest, only a sea of green filled his vision. No sight of an unidentified flying animal.

When he decided that the birdsong was a collective hallucination of some sort, he started descending through the branches, then he saw it.

“Bloody hell!” Dale cried out.

“What? What happened? Are you okay?” Aby’s words were as fast as a bullet, her concern over Dale was clear.

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“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” He responded even if no one had a clear line of sight over him. “I still can’t believe it.” Dale said as he grunted.

“What?” Her sister asked. “Did you find the birds?”

“Yeah, I find the culprits. No birds, tho.” His answer surprised the rest. “They are insects like cicadas fused with crickets. It’s weird af when you see them sing. I mean, it’s like a bird was trapped inside an insects’ body.”

“Crickets that sing in the day, that’s close to one of my worsts nightmares.” Aby joked, some truth hidden in her words.

“Why? I don’t see a problem there.” Kayle responded to her as he saw her brother climbing down the tree.

“Look at it this way.” Aby started. “If there are diurnal crickets, the normal ones would make a sound at night. It would be 24/7 torture.”

“Yeah, I think you are the one who is watching it wrong,” Kayle told Aby. “If there are cicadas and crickets, they would sing all day long.”

“I don’t understand.” Aby said.

“Cicadas sing at day, while crickets do it at night?” Kayle explained to her.

“Do they?” Aby had no real knowledge of insects thanks to her phobia. “Axel, is that right?” Aby decided to ask the man who seemed to have more awareness of the subject.

“Yeah, I think so.” Axel responded while he kept looking at Dale, just in case.

“Huh.” Aby now knew why she heard the cicadas all day during summer. They were combining to terrorize against her person. “Why those stop singing during the night?” Aby asked as she pointed the tree.

“I dunno.” Dale answered once he got his feet on the ground. “But I think that shouldn’t the first thing you ask if you saw an insect that sounds like a bird. Exactly like the real deal.”

The conversation between the two was broken by a whisper. Mike’s whisper. “Sides of the same coin…” His voice was low but captivated the attention of the party. “Now that I think about it…” His monologue was cutting in parts as he kept thinking out loud but also in his mind. “That’s odd.”

“Nah, fam. What’s odd is the serial killer vibe you got on right now.” Dale told Mike. The boy jumped out of his log as Dale approaching scarred him. “Jeez, you were really hitting the brains,” Dale commented Mike’s jump scare. “What were you mumbling about?”

“Nothing, really,” Mike told. “It just seemed strange to me that all the [Tarot] cards we got are more based on the upright side.”

“Hold on. I don’t know anything about Tarot, could you explain yourself?” Axel explained at the little guy.

“Sure,” Mike answered. “There are twenty-two cards in the Tarot deck, but even then, the cards have another meaning depending on the side it was revealed. That means there are forty-four different outcomes, technically. But all the [Tarot] cards we got so far are closer to the upright side than the reverse. Even though both sides of The Hermit are pretty similar…” That last part was whispered to the point no one could understand it.

“And?” Dale intervened.

“Nothing, just a curiosity. A coincidence that can be funny.” Mike explained. “I also want to say again that I am not a Tarot expert sooo I could get a lot of things wrong.”

“Ignore Dale.” Aby said with some poison in her tone. “Surely there’s some message hidden.” She comforted Mike a bit.

“I mean, there could be,” Mike told. “Upright meanings are mostly positive, while the reverse, well… are the reverse. It makes sense if we consider these are useful abilities that we use.”