"I don't know!" Avery moaned, absolutely miserable. How were they going to last the night at this rate? His heart leaped at the thought. Oh gods, it would be worse at night, with all the hungry things that came out and hunted under the cover of darkness...
He shivered, feeling sick at the thought, and looked skyward. He couldn't see much through the trees, but the woods seemed to be growing darker, and what he could see of the sky was grayish.
Crouching down beside Aidan, he hugged himself, trying hard to fight back panic. But he just felt nauseous and terrified. "Aidan, we need to do something. It's gonna get dark," he whispered, as though afraid to say those words out loud.
"What? NO!" Aidan's head shot up and he starred at Avery in shock and horror. He couldn't even fathom the idea of spending the night out in the woods. It wasn't an option. You couldn't sleep outside!
"We can't! I mean, there aren't beds! And there will be...be...rain! And cold and...Averyyyyyyyyy!" The whore burst into tears, clinging to Avery, wailing loudly. That always worked with Nadia. She made everything better.
Avery grunted when Aidan clung to him, and his wailing was not making matters any better. If anything, it was making him even more panicked, validating his fears that they were completely, positively doomed.
"What're we supposed to do, then?!" he demanded, voice rising with terror. "We're nowhere near home! There's animals and wolves and dirt and mud and we have to do something! We have to figure something out! If we don't, we're gonna die, Aidan! I don't wanna die! Do you wanna die?"
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!?" That snapped Aidan out of his tantrum and he made a high pitched sound, "No! I don't want to die! We-we-oh gods!" He looked around, trying to remember anything he had heard about surviving in the wilderness.
Trees! Yes! He remembered something about trees! "We have to sleep in the trees or bears will eat us. I heard that!"
"Trees! Okay! Trees. That's good. There are lots of trees around here. There's no shortage of trees. We can do trees," Avery said, trying to take deep breaths to calm himself so he didn't hyperventilate, though the effort was making him feel light-headed.
"Okay, so we just have to climb the trees. Sleep in them." He gnawed his bottom lip. He'd never climbed a tree in his life. "Good, good, alright, so we got shelter. What else. Oh, food. We have to find food. Water too. There's lots of plants, so that should be food, right?"
"Plants? What plants can we eat? None of them look like food." With shelter having been established, Aidan was going into whiny mode, "I don't want to eat leaves or anything!"
Avery was rapidly taking Nadia's place as the person he could whine at until they made everything better.
"Uh, things with berries! Fruit. Things that look fruity. Mushrooms. And leaves! Aidan, we may have to eat leaves! We have to eat something! And if animals can live on leaves, we can survive this!" Avery said, hugging the other man. "I don't wanna eat leaves either, but I wanna go home, too!"
"Oh, I like fruit...but Avery! We need a fire. How do we make a fire." Aidan's arms flailed, voice raising in panic again, "Avery I wanna go hoooome! I don't like it here!"
"Uhhh..." Avery strained to think. "Sticks. You need sticks to make a fire. And, uh, I think you just rub them together and then you get a fire or something...?" He grimaced, squeezing Aidan tighter.
"Come on, Aidan! Think! I wanna go home, too, but we can't go home if we die! What else do we need? Oh! Do you know the stars? Uh, north star! Which one is that? If we follow that, I think it's supposed to take us home."
"What? There is a north star? What the hell is that?" Aidan made a squealing sound, "I don't want to die. Averyyyyyyy!" Aiden grabbed Avery's arm, "Help me! What do we do? Sticks? We have to find sticks? What kind of sticks? Avery!"
"North, I think!" Avery said. It was the north star after all, so it had to be in the north! Whichever way north was. And never mind that there were a lot of stars in the north.
Petting Aidan's arm, Avery took deep breaths. "Uh, uh, stick sticks! Like...tree...sticks. Any kind of stick! Then we can rub them together and we'll have a fire and it'll be okay. Maybe someone will see it. And rescue us. Oh spirits, I wish I was a fire mage!"
"How do we know which way is north?!" Aidan then blinked, face lighting up, "Oh! Oh! Avery! I'm a fire mage! I can make the fire!" In his panic, he had forgotten his own power, "We have shelter and fire and we aren't going to die, right?!"
"You are?" Avery blurted, and then hugged him tightly again. "Oh, bless you! We're gonna be okay, Aidan!" Then he paused. "Except we still need food and water. And sticks. Uh, we should start getting sticks so we can make the fire. And quickly. It's starting to get dark."
"Aren't we going to eat mushrooms? I ate roasted mushrooms once..." Aidan looked around, "Um...um...maybe this is like um...camping? Or something." His lower lip trembled slightly, trying to remain calm, but it was hard.
"If we can find mushrooms..." Avery said slowly, not quite sure where to even look for those. He tried to put on a smile but it came out shaky. "Yeah...that's right. Camping. Camping's supposed to be fun, right? This can be fun."
Except Avery had never been camping and he hated nature because it was dirty and vile and had things in it that could eat you. "We should start looking for food..."
"Um...what does the food look like?" Aidan looked around again, staring at the trees. He had no idea where to even start. And despite the camping...idea, the forest looked frightening and dark.
