Day 7: We are getting somewhere

The map, while a useful tool, proved to be both useful and useless. They discovered that there was a Tower near their location which hosted botanists and guards fiercely protective of this forest, which suited them and alleviated their spirits quite a bit but there were a couple of problems that Alexander and Hyun hadn't considered when grabbing the map.

The first problem was pointed out by an excited Ezra, who they were startled to see any other emotion in his face other than anger or annoyance, that had grabbed the map as soon as the other two had walked in through the door and announced their findings.

"Wait, does anyone actually know how to read a map?" he asked, hands gripping the thin paper as he looked at the other, trying to hide his excitement and relief but failing spectacularly. However, when no one answered and all started looking around, trying to see if anyone actually did, they were all disappointed to note that no one actually did.

That wasn't all that weird, considering that all of them were city adults, no one having ventured and lost so far away from civilization. The mood, along with some bodies, started falling like someone had cut the strings that were holding them together, ends frayed and cut, having pulled tight all those days. Despair and anger, sadness and anxiety, emotions that were running high this week were making their appearance again, rearing their ugly heads again after this small and brief bout of excitement and relief. Ezra's hands started falling as he looked at all of them lower their heads or raising them towards the ceiling in anger or shame. The brief sparkle of excitement fading so quickly and completely like someone had snuffed it out.

Before they started falling into despair again, Cleandro leaned over Ezra's shoulder and examined the map himself. While he still wasn't very well versed in map reading, he knew some basic things. What made it harder though was that this was a forest map and not a city one, with no addresses or shops or even roads to help the reader navigate this forest. It showed the borders of the countries the Amazon covered and had small blue dots here and there that corresponded to different places. The reading of these places was made easier for him, being in Spanish and all, and with a shout of glee, he realized that there was something along the lines of a grocery shop at the edge of the forest, near the border of Columbia.

"Okay, okay! Let's not lose hope! Look," he said as he pointed to the blue dot in the map, one of the few there, "it says here that there is something like a local grocery shop. Now, I don't really know how far we are from this but I am sure that it is closer than Paris,'' with that he turned to look at Corneille who was looking up at him with uncertainty in his eyes, ''maybe Corneille can build us a portal there! He is an amazing dimensionalist after all!''

Most of the other's have turned to look at Corneille who blushes and stammers out a response, avoid eye contact and fumbling with his hands. Ezra though has turned to look at Cleandro with a raised eyebrow, face completely impassive and blank, not betraying any emotions beside the small downward turn of his lips, something that Cleandro was able to see because of the sudden close proximity of the two. With a cough, he steps away from behind Ezra and just turns to the others conversation that has turned cheerful and optimistic again. Ignoring the gaze of the other, he joined their conversation.

''Okay, it's great and all that we found the grocery shop but we still don't know where we are in this mess of a forest!" Alejandro said and pointed at the mess that was the map. It was true that the map wasn't as useful as they made it out to be since all that it showed were the countries the forest was surrounded by and the small blue dots that corresponded to different places, yet they were nowhere close in determining their own location.

''I can kind of help with that.'' Cleandro said with a sheepish smile and everyone turned to look at him again. "Sometimes I like to go hiking in the mountains to, you know, relax and sometimes I get lost," he shrugged, "so I go to a high place and try to like triangulate the location." he says and takes the map from Ezra, "I'll have to go to a high location, maybe a hill, and see if I can find anything that seems familiar." he rolled up the map and looked at the others with a confident smile, a confidence that he didn't really feel but he would at least try.

After that, everyone left their little corner of the world. Izara and Hyun went to search for something edible, how they were still alive and weren't poison yet was the work of a miracle, while Alejandro and Corneille left to go take a walk as they did. So, that left Cleandro and Ezra alone in the small room that they had. Swiftly, not wanting to be left behind, Cleandro took Ezra by the wrist and together they set off in search of a tall hill that Cleandro could use as a good search point.