Arcturus Mercury, Twelve Years Old (Arcturus Arc Part 5)

With minimal lighting, Arcturus could hardly bask into the forest. All he could see was shadowed trees branching out and covering the sky, not allowing the moonlight to shine through. The sounds of nocturnal animals moving about and the rustling sounds of plants as the children stepped on fallen branches were familiar to him. It felt like he was walking through a world of eternal darkness.

Through the moment of silence, Nova spoke up. "It's amazing how you had managed to traverse in this pitch darkness at a young age with a child much younger than you as your only companion and with only a lantern."

"Well, I had no other alternative. We had no other relatives and no objective. We really needed answers for our future. We had no idea how long this forest was, so we had prepared a lot of food and water just in case we got stuck there for days. We only had each other and our determination to see our mother again."

"Your life has been about traversing through the unknown, hasn't it? You had traversed through a pitch-black forest and an eternal snowstorm."

Arcturus stopped and stared at Nova, taking in his words. He had never realized it until now. His life really had been traversing into unknown territories. Was it because he enjoyed the feeling of being in an unknown place? He wasn't sure about the true reason, but he knew it was a subconscious habit and felt as if more would come to him in the future.

"I guess so."

They resumed walking. As he continued following his younger self, more thoughts about this memory came to him. He remembered he had been traversing with Ariel for about three hours. As a child, he had been surprised with how large the forest had been; in a map of Plasma, the forest took about seventy-five percent of the land's space while the remainder was living space for humans. The young Arcturus had worries about whether or not they would make it out of the forest alive; they had been fortunate enough to not be spotted by aggressive animals for the past two days.

Ariel started sighing. "Arc, when will a soul show up? We've been here for so long, and nothing is showing up."

"I can't see spirits, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…" Ariel was rather discouraged.

Her question started to plague the young Arcturus's mind with worried thoughts.

When will a soul show up? We've been here for two days and nothing has changed. Is coming here really the right choice? What if the stories we had heard about this forest are lies? What do I do if I can't meet Mom? The older Arcturus sighed at his past thoughts; overthinking and being a worrywart seemed to have been unbreakable habits.

Loud rustling noises were heard from a close distance, startling all four of them. The young Arcturus flashed his lantern at the distance; the source of the noise belonged to a doe staring at them momentarily before dashing off.

Ariel started whining. "Can't we just get out of here? I don't want to be here anymore!"

"Not until we meet Mom again."

Ariel started pouting as she removed her hand from his and crossed her arms. "Then I won't go any farther. I'm going to stay here."

"Suit yourself, then. I'll leave you behind. Have fun being eaten by something even scarier than a deer." He turned around and started walking.

Nova's eyes widened. "What a mean kid you were."

The older Arcturus remarked, "I wasn't being mean. It's normal to be tough around family. I wanted her to be strong, even if I had resorted to using scare tactics."

Like what he had said, his words instilled fear into Ariel as she rushed towards him and clung onto him tightly. "Don't leave me behind, Arc! I'm sorry!"

The younger Arcturus just patted her head and then he reached his hand out; she grabbed it and the two continued traversing. Minutes became hours; he wondered how long it would take for dawn to rise and how the forest would look like in the day.

The young Arcturus stopped; Ariel was worried.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm just tired."

"Let's rest for the rest of the day." Ariel said as she yawned; Arcturus yawned back. They approached the nearest tree and decided to make it their resting place for the day. The older Arcturus and Nova leaned against the tree across from them.

Arcturus put down the large backpack and opened it. He took out some blankets and covered both of them; the lantern was in between them. He turned to Ariel. "It's not as comfortable as a tent, but I hope you can sleep." Ariel yawned again as she rested her head against his shoulder. The sight of her sleeping face helped Arcturus relax. He leaned back and closed his eyes.