Chapter 2 | The Boy Lost in The Wilderness

"Dang it, where the Frick am I?" Steven said looking around him lost and confused.

"Uhm- Excuse me..." An unknown voice spoke behind Steven.

"AHHHH!" Steven jumped from Suprise.

"AHHHH!" The stranger jumped from the surprise of the screaming.

"Oh wait, you're just some kid," Steven said stopping to stare at the boy standing in front of him.

The boy wore a baggy green hoodie and light blue jeans. He had brown eyes and brown hair with bangs that stretched down to his eyebrows, he had the same hairstyle as Steven. He carried a noticeable big leather backpack on his back. He was the same age as Steven and was the boy from earlier traveling through the forests and fields.

"So-Sorry for scaring you. I was just... lost and I thought you could help me." The stranger said.

"Well sorry bud, I don't know where the heck I'm going." Steven shrugged

"Ah, man. Now, how am I going to get out of this place?" The stranger said with a tone of despair.

"Welp, we're lost so why don't we team up for the time being?" Steven suggested.

The stranger's eyes lit up in hope. "YES! LET'S DO THAT!"

"Talk about a mood change" Steven muttered to himself.

"Welp come along. We're going to set up a fort before the sun goes down." Steven said signaling the stranger to follow.

They both walk into a clear area to set up their fort. "This is a good spot. I'm going to go collect some wood. You can go ahead and uhm uh, well you can go ahead and collect flowers!" Steven said trying to find something for the stranger to do.

"GO-GOT! I WON'T DISAPPOINT YOU!" The stranger said sprinting into the fields.

"What a weirdo," Steven thought to himself "Mind as well get rid of him for the time being. for now, I'll cut down some wood from these trees."

Hours went by and slowly but surely Steven created a nice fort using logs as a frame to support the big stones that went inside. he placed some firewood inside the fort and lit it up creating a campfire.

"Where the hell did that stupid kid go?" Steven thought to himself. The sun was starting to go down, and it was starting to get cold too. He could only think to himself about his well-being of Chris. Of course, his big brother could take care of himself. He was an extremely powerful swordsman after all. And yet Steven couldn't feel but worry for him. Steven felt lonely and weak without him, he's always depended on his brother to do things for him and protect him. Without his big brother, he felt useless or empty.

Then Steven heard rustling coming from the entrance of the fort. The boy from earlier came back grunting and slowly walked inside the fort. In his hands, where a pile of flowers stacked on each other clumped in a giant ball. Steven stood up in shock that he listened to him instead of leaving and not returning.

"YOU-YOU WENT AND GOT THAT MANY FLOWERS?"

"Ye-Yes I did." The boy said placing the huge pile of flowers down on the grass.

"I... was joking. I didn't think you'd go get them." Steven said feeling a bit of shame in his tone. Steven felt bad for making him go through all the effort of doing something so useless. He felt terrible for making him pick up flowers for hours.

"Oh... well it's okay! we can sell them at a flower shop for some cash. I'm sure we can make a lot of money out of these!" The boy said.

"Hey, by the way, I never got your name," Steven said. "Well, actually you've never gotten my name so sorry for my rudeness. My name's Steven."

"Oh! well, my name's Jel!" The stranger introduced himself.

Steven wasn't trying to laugh, but he thought to himself "Who names their child Jel?" it was an uncommon name that didn't even belong to a human but sounded like it would belong to a certain ingredient.

"Uh well- nice to meet you Jel," Steven said trying to hold in his laughter.

"Likewise, Steven!" Jel said dismissing Steven holding in his laughter. Steven looks up at the sky gazing at the bright stars. "Wow Jel, do you see the beautiful sky"

"Woah, it's so pretty," Jel said gazing upon the stars. The sky filled Steven up with hope. It was like a feeling of peace after a long war. He felt ready to face the future ahead of him, and so did Jel. They both lay down facing up and gazing at the stars.

"Say Jel, you think there's something past those stars? "Steven said reaching his hand up at the sky.

"Well, I'm not sure. Maybe it's all empty with the complete void." Jel said unsure of his answer. "But what I do know is that it's possible to fill that large space up with something unique," Jel added, giving optimism to his unsure answer. Steven noticed the unique optimism in Jel. He always someway could add something positive to a negative statement or question. Steven liked people like that because they were unique, but they were also very hard to find. He felt somewhat lucky to have met a new friend like Jel.

On the other hand, Steven was the opposite of Jel. He was always stubborn and negative with his thinking. He always saw the worse in people or thought of ways to use them or manipulate them. He never made friends just to gain happiness or be social with them. There was always a motive behind his reasoning. But Steven could never notice how lonely he truly was. Without his brother, he felt nothing. Pushing people away or simply using them for his gains was the consequence of his loneliness. And yet he never accepted that truth because he has always been stubborn.

Jel and Steven were both different boys, and yet they seem to have a type of chemistry that works things out between them. "Hey Jel, why didn't you run away when I told you to do all of that stupid stuff with the flowers?" Steven said turning his head beside him towards Jel. But Jel was cold asleep. Steven couldn't feel but chuckle and then stared up at the night sky once again, before falling asleep.