Never lie

"I went out" said Curtis as he did not give a straight answer, and that irritated Annie.

"Out to where?" asked Annie.

"Around" replied Curtis as he walked to his bag and he opened the zipper as he zipped it back again after he put something in his bag.

"Around to where?" asked Annie as she raised an eyebrow at Curtis, she was getting tired of him disappearing and not telling them where he went at all, just coming back here as if everything was alright, and as if they were babies who did not need to know what was going on.

Curtis sighed as he knew that Annie would not let this slide at all, she was very demanding that he tell her where he went to, even though she did not need to know at all, he was not doing anything dangerous, but they just did not need to know where he was, it was not necessary for them to know.

"I checked around the terrain, that's all" replied Curtis as that still did not answer Annie's question.

"But you did that yesterday as well, and you said that everywhere was fine, why do you keep on going out?" asked Annie as she needed to know, their last conversation about him carrying them along had not ended at all.

"Yes, but that was in the night, I could barely see anything, so I went to recheck it early this morning" said Curtis.

"Are you sure that you are not lying Curtis?" asked Annie as she was just tired, she did not know, ever since she had lost her powers, Curtis was treating her more and more like a baby, as if she was clueless, and she did not know what was going on, when she did, but she did not at the same time.

How would she know if Curtis didn't carry her along? If he treated her like she was some naïve little girl, who didn't know that her life was at risk because of all this.

"Why would I lie to you Annie?" asked Curtis as she did not look fazed at all, and that made Annie even more annoyed, the fact that he looked so calm, like everything was okay, when it was not so at all.

"That's what I would like to know Curtis" said Annie.

"I will never lie to you Annie, so relax and calm down" said Curtis as he spoke in a very gentle tone, he did not want Annie all worked up over nothing serious at all, it was not good for her, especially in the state that she was in now.

"Fine Curtis, Fine, I will calm down" said Annie as she sighed.

"But you better not be lying to me Curtis" said Annie as she did not know why, but she felt like Curtis was hiding something from her, and it was not just about Caligo, or getting her powers back, but she felt like he was hiding something about himself as well.

"Never" said Curtis as he smiled at Annie and she sighed, how could she stay angry at him when he was so gentle, and he spoke to her with what she hoped was honesty, because in the end, she just did not want anything bad to happen to him, he was her best friend more thana anything else.

"So, did anything happen while I was away?" asked Curtis as he changed the subject, he did not need Annie talking about this anymore, it only made her more upset.

"Nothing happened Curtis, I'm just making breakfast, which happens to be eggs" said Maddie as she looked at Curtis and she smiled at him, she felt like hitting him, Maddie did not trust Curtis at all, she was sure that he was lying to Annie, just how many times could he go and check if the areas was secure.

And if he really was doing so, it would have been better for him not to go alone, he should have asked Matt to go with him, so if there was something actually dangerous out there, then Matt would be able to protect him.

He seemed to forget that Annie was not the only one weak here, he was weak as well, he was just as powerless as she was.

"And your powers?" asked Curtis.

"Gone" said Maddie, Matt and Ollie all at the same time.

"Oh yeah, which reminds me Curtis, does the mist do more than take away your powers?" asked Annie as she looked at Curtis.

"What do you mean?" asked Curtis as he looked at Annie.

"Well I mean, I feel like the mist does more than take away your powers" said Annie.

"I can't seem to remember my dreams from last night, and I was out cold" said Annie.

"Same here, none of us can remember our dreams" said Maddie as Matt helped her.

"Weird, I have never heard anything about that" said Curtis as even he himself looked confused, which he was, he had never heard of the mist taking away someone's capability to dream, that was just too much, sure it did take away their powers to protect Caligo, but to take away their dreams as well, it was just too much.

He was starting to get concerned, but of course he could not say anything at all, he was just going to have to watch and observe.

"You think it may be something even more dangerous?" asked Annie as she looked at Curtis with concern.

"Hopefully not, it may just be a one time thing" said Curtis, he would not know for sure, he did not necessarily sleep, mostly because he could not sleep at all, he was keeping watch, and mostly because he had not been feeling too good.

"We just have to watch and not worry ourselves unnecessarily, it might not be the mountain responsible for every single bad thing that may or may not happen to us while we are still on it" said Curtis as he wanted to put everyone's mind at ease.

"I hope you are right about that Curtis" said Matt as he finally spoke up.

"I really hope so" he said.

"Yeah, or else, I will start to feel even less safe than I already am" said Maddie as she laughed and the thought did not make Annie felt any better at all.

"Anyway, Breakfast is served, eggs, camp style" said Maddie as she smiled and she handed Annie her own plate of scrambled eggs, and she handed Curtis his own as well, but when it came time for her to serve Ollie, she frowned, and then she gave Matt his own plate and Ollie's plate as well, because she could not bring herself to serve that guy.

Matt didn't say anything as he just handed Ollie his own plate of eggs and he sat down on the other log as Maddie smiled and she sat down beside him, of course she knew that she could count on Matt to help her against that Ollie guy, they had to discuss a plan to separate him from Annie, because he was just too much, too, too much.

"We will leave right after breakfast, we cannot waste any more time" said Curtis as he sat down on his own log as Annie ate her breakfast.

"I will pack the tents then" said Matt as he looked at Curtis.

"Thank you" said Curtis as he looked at Matt and he nodded, now that everyone was more or less on the same level, they would need him now more than ever, especially his strength.

"Hey, so what exactly is the plan Curtis? How long do you estimate it will take us to reach the top of Caligo?" asked Ollie as he was curious, because from what he could see here, it was most likely going to be them moving little by little, setting up camp every night, packing in the morning, and then the cycle starts again.

Not to be the wise guy here, but that did not really sound like a good way to do things to Ollie, he was sure that they would run out of food soon, and after that what would happen? They had no magic, no form of protection, and sorry to say, but Caligo was still going to be even more dangerous as they progressed, so he wondered just what exactly Curtis was planning.

"We keep on going" said Curtis as he replied plainly, he was thinking of more ideas, but for now, the only reasonable thing to do was to keep on going.

"That's it?" asked Ollie in confusion, just keep going?? To him that sounded like foolishness.

"Yes that's it" said Curtis.

"Oh well, alright then… we'll just keep on going I guess" said Ollie as he did not want to make anyone, especially Annie worry, well they were here already and Curtis had a plan??... he hoped so.