Ever Ending

Chapter 3

Don't we have anything to cover his mouth with?", Leafy hissed. They'd been walking for nearly an entire sun up at this point. None of the trio had offered any explanation to Fringe. Instead, they looked at one another like three lost children stumbling into a gangster's den when he had demanded some answers.

Jahan was the first to move. His large dark frame grabbing the smaller man with no issue. He grunted, ignoring Fringe's protests and linked an iron chain around reinforced wrist binds. Chains were rare, but not unheard of. It shouldn't have set off any more alarm bells for their prisoner. Except that he was piecing that together with everything else he'd seen and his mouth had been racing just as fast as his mind. Even when they had finished packing up and moving on from their campsite.

Jahan pulling Fringe by the chain. He didn't protest, or try to escape. There were bark feet covering slapping his soles at every step and he was too curious to leave. "I think I've figured it out", he'd said at one point and Seball had looked back at him curiously. "You lot are from The Before!", He exclaimed and she couldn't help but giggle as Leafy let out an exasperated sigh. "No! You are! What? Did you hole up in some underwater metal too? Turn on some weird machine to make sure you slept without aging?". He looked between them, though he could tell that he wasn't quite on the mark. Jahan's brow furrowed as though he were trying to figure out a puzzle he didn't quite get either. "I didn't expect he'd have an imagination too". He wasn't talking to Fringe. The statement was directed toward his companions. Low and near concerning. "It is fascinating", Seball replied. Her response was more perky than the other two. As it always seemed to be. Like she didn't have the slightest clue what a hard life was. Did she? We're there really people out there on Rumos that didn't actually struggle to survive? Plep. Plep. The sound of the strange coverings on Fringe's feet suggested that he might just be right in that respect.

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They walked without stopping even once. From sun up until sun down. The prisoner had lost his sense of direction at some point. The desert seemed to keep stretching on. Were they truly this far away from any settlement? Or were they purposely avoiding anymore human contact? Fringe suspected the latter. Especially seeing as the three seemed to have a very clear sense of where they were and where they were going. At least they shared their water. Water that, he noted, tasted very clean indeed.

At last, they settled atop a dirt hill, making it easier to see the ocean of sand surrounding them. Mittas' legs were screaming for a rest, though he realized his feet weren't quite as bad off as they had been before the coverings. Jahan reapplied the stake in the ground with Fringe's chains attached. They no longer seemed to be in the mood to be friendly toward him. Which was all well in good, though he wished they'd help squish his curiosity, even a little. The silent treatment felt a bit insulting. More so given the fact that the trio clearly thought he'd be no more than a simpleton when they first knocked him unconscious and he clearly was not.

He watched as they busied themselves with camp setup. Leafy starting a new fire, Jahan pitching their single tent. Seball, the curious creature that she was, was rummaging away in her sack. Seconds later she emerged with two odd looking gadgets. The first was what appeared to be two lenses fastened together by tubes. The other was a circular object. So small that it fit comfortably in the palm of the woman's hand. From his position, Fringe couldn't quite make out what either were. Though he had a feeling he'd saw versions of the lenses before on barter stands.

She must have sensed his eyes on her as her oddly colored ones found them and noted the inquiry without so much a grunt from the prisoner. "This", she held up the small circular object, "is a compass. From the original survivors. Well, not this one specifically, but a version of theirs. It points you in the direction you are going". Jahan cleared his throat loudly, but Seball ignored him. Her voice gentle as she continued. "These are called...well, we don't have a name for them. But you look through this side here and it will make things far away look a lot closer, or bigger, if you will. Easier to see". Fringe simply wondered what he could possibly get for those if he managed to sneak off with Seball's sack. He looked away with a sharp shrug, pretending to be uninterested. He could see Seball shrug too, as if to say she tried, and get up from her position. She had those two items and what looked like a writing book. Though he hadn't seen one of those since he was a child.

Seball sat on the far end of their sand mound with her back to the group. Jahan was just finishing the unpacking and Leafy had some type of soup heating over their fire. She took the lenses and placed them over her eyes. Holding them steady mid tube. She scanned the horizon back and forth for several long minutes before speaking. "There", Seball pointed to something only she could see. "How long?", Jahan asked. This was clearly a normal routine for the trio. Seball looked down at what she had called 'the compass' as she sat the lenses down. "Due south. Another sun up and a half, perhaps. I spotted no settlements in the way. No obstacles". What were they hunting exactly? She scribbled something down in the writing pad with a weird dipped stick. What Fringe would later discover to be a map of their journey.

Leafy pulled him out of his thoughts by dropping a bowl in front of him, none too kindly. "Looks like you'll be traveling with us for a few sun ups, at least. Best to keep your strength". Her voice was flat, void of emotion, but Fringe couldn't help feel awkward from the strange kindness. If it hadn't been for their reluctance to explain anything and the binds, he might have felt like just another comrade. But why? To what end? Rumos people didn't have emotional connections. They died off too quickly to get attached. You looked out for you and for you alone, but these people. They cared. Not just for themselves and one another but for strangers as well. If they weren't from a time way in the past when that was normal, then where were they from? Certainly no settlement like Guinevere's Stand.

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The rest of the night was uneventful. The trio avoided Fringe like he had the Waste and he was too tired to irritate them any further for his own amusement. They huddled close to the fire. Leafy relaxed oddly in Johan's big arms. Their heads were all three bent close and their voices low enough that Fringe knew he was being kept in the dark, near literally. He didn't remember falling to sleep, but he must have. For he was being shaken awake in what felt a blink of an eye. "Come on, Mister Fringe. We've got to get a move on. Places to be and all that". It was Seball, with her annoying joyful voice.

The sun was barely over the sand. He grunted and turned over awkwardly on his side. Forgetting his blasted wrists were bound to the ground. "I refuse to go any further with you strange lot. Either leave me chained here for the elements like normal people or release me and let me attempt to fend for myself". Seball gasped and stepped back away from him. "Normal? Normal?! We would..never!". Fringe huffed and closed his eyes once more, trying to fall back into a quiet sleep. Only this time the stake in the ground was being ripped up once more before he was lifted, himself, into strong arms. So quickly he couldn't even attempt to fight back. "What is wrong with you, man?!", He hollered at Jahan's back. The only thing he now had a face to face encounter with. Hefted over the brute's shoulders. He swore he felt them shake in silent laughter, but Jahan, nor the women, said anything more as they took off toward the spot Seball had pointed out the night prior.