Chapter 7
Oliver hates camping.
Shut up Miss "Let's find a job".
You are dead.

[Oliver]

Felix wasn't much of a talker when sleepy. He kept yawning and muttering he was hungry, which pretty much described me when I woke up. The girls had just come back, which means it took them quite long to get so little food, but it all became a whole lot clearer when they explained what had happened.

It was also a bit clear that they were holding back on some of the details, but I was too sleepy to ask any questions.

«I am never letting you two go get food. Not only did you get in trouble, but I am also hungry again.» I complained.

«Shut up, Ollie.» Echo replied yawning.

«Whatever, I am not in the mood to argue with you; probably because if you hadn't eaten all the berries I wouldn't be starving to death right now.» I complained again.

«Drama queen.» she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

«Go to hell, Echo.» I replied.

«Ladies first.» she retorted and smiled cheekily in the end.

«That's it, you are dead.» I got up, but Celine (who was sitting next to me) pulled me back down.

«Nope.» she said popping the "p".

«Oh, come on... Now you two are allies? What did I do to deserve this?» I faked.

«No comment.» my sister muttered and Felix (who was scarily quiet) broke into laughter. We all looked at each other and started laughing too.

A while before dark we were still talking and laughing.

«Okay.» Celine said standing up. «I'll go get some wood to light a fire.»

«Can I come to help?» Echo asked nervously. That was a bit weird.

«No, you stay here. I'll be back in a while.» Celine replied and started walking away. My sister kicked me and I glared at her.

«You are going nowhere alone. I am coming too.» I told Celine.

«You think I can't take care of myself?» she asked.

«I just want to help out and, unlike my sister, I won't take no for an answer.»

«Okay then.» she said and started walking away again, only this time I followed too.

After we returned (fortunately nothing weird or bad happened) we sat down a little exhausted. It was dark now and we could see nothing.

Celine had seen something move a bush and we ran away trying to hide, but it turned out it was just a bunny.

I guess things like that don't only happen in movies...

«Echo, will you light the fire?» Celine suggested. My sister glared at her.

«Fine.» she replied gritting her teeth and tried to light the fire. «Do we have any matches?» she smiled sweetly, a smile that it's purpose is to scare the hell out of everyone. It must have worked, because it wiped Celine's smirk out of her face.

«Wait, I must have some in the tent.» Felix replied and left to get some matches.

After Echo lit the fire, we all sat around quietly. We hadn't done anything tiring, but we were exhausted. We all desperately needed two showers each and we were tired of eating fruit and berries all the time.

I know that I sound like a brat, complaining about everything, but let me see you live in the forest for a week and then judge me. I am not used to this.

I don't even like camping.

In short, living in the woods with no adult to do all the work was extremely hard.

The next morning it was raining. We had to get our stuff as fast as we could and run to a place to hide.

And... You guessed it. We ended up in another cold cave and Echo started complaining again.

The rain didn't last long. Soon the sun was out again, but my sister had had enough.

«We can't keep living like this! We should go to a village or something, get jobs! At least until we find a way to get the necklace back. It has been more than a week and only bumped into one guard that seems to have a personal vendetta with us.»

«Echo, are you even listening to yourself? They are looking for us, I am sure of it!» I replied.

«Then why hasn't that guy come back with company? It has been a day; he had the time. He knew where we were. The Queen doesn't care anymore. She probably got what she wanted and has more important business to attend to. Probably because, I don't know... she is the Queen!» she did have a point.

«She is right. We can't stay here. We can't take it anymore.» Celine added.

«Let's put it on a vote. Who wants to go at a village?» Felix asked. The girls and him raised their hands reluctantly and looked at each other. Then they stared at me.

«Fine, but only because I hate camping.» I gave in. «Where are we heading?»

«I could lead the wa--» Felix started.

«Yeah, no. We went through your navigation skills last time. Not happening.» Celine interrupted. Felix faked being hurt. «Follow me.» she ignored him.

We walked until we found a small village, which was a long time after nightfall. It was going to be hard to find a place to sleep, let alone get a job to pay for it.

«Where are we going to spend the night?» my sister asked.

«Probably camping again by the looks of it.» Felix replied.

«I'm not so sure about that... We have a few money left. We could only get one room for the night and see what we are going to do later after we get ourselves a job.» Celine opposed.

«Just mark my words; I'm not doing anyone's dishes.» I added and we started roaming around to find a hostel or something.

Around half an hour later we found one we could afford, and rented a room with two beds for the night. The girls slept on the beds, I slept on a couch and Felix- I think Felix spent the night in the bathtub.

Just kidding.

With some extra blankets and pillows he laid a bed on the floor and slept there.

The next morning we asked the hostel owner if there were any work positions so we could pay and stay for a few more days.

My sister had to work as a waitress at the small restaurant on the ground floor. Celine chose housekeeping over serving drinks to already drunk people, leaving Echo with no choice.

Felix was something like a bartender.

And guess what I was left with? Doing the dishes.

At least I only did the ones until noon and didn't have to stay up until late night like Echo and Felix.

That made me feel better, until I saw how many and how dirty the dishes were. I am still surprised I didn't puke.

All in all, working was a disaster, and I would call it a natural one if the stains of the dishes actually looked natural.

I'm just going to let that sink in.

The second night at the hostel Echo and Felix returned red and exhausted, the same way Celine and I had returned at noon. Our working hours were the exact opposite, So I didn't get to see my sister a lot.

The good news were that the four of us working didn't only pay for our accommodation, so we got paid a little money too. Life was hard, but once we had saved enough we would be able to leave for a bigger village.

As you can see I had already started planning a life at Imyrth. I tried to ignore the fact that I didn't really want to go home anymore. I still miss my life back at Earth, but it seemed like something far off, as if it was many years ago or a dream. When I thought about that it felt scary. I had lived sixteen years of my life with my family and it seemed fake now that I was away from that for less than a month.

The fact that I was in another dimension and didn't think about it as something weird or unnatural was the strangest thing in the whole situation, and the one that worried me the most.

So going back to the actual point, working was damn hard and exhausting. And then, it was finally our day off. I don't know what the others did, but I spent the whole day sleeping and only woke up at late afternoon,which was going to be hard, considering the fact that I worked early the next day.

«Wait, you all have been up all day and didn't care to wake me up?» I asked offended.

«We tried, at first. You wouldn't budge.» Celine replied.

«And then we forgot about you completely and had fun on our day off, while you were sleeping.» my sister smiled.

«By fun you mean you two going shopping and not giving a damn about my being bored and Mr Sleepyhead.» Felix added coldly.

«What? We are girls. Whether we like or not, we actually needed more clothes. Stop whining, we got some for you too.» his cousin rolled her eyes and got some bags from the closet. «Here... and here.» she said to herself giving one to me and one to Felix.

«Thanks!» I said a bit surprised.

I looked at the clothes they had gotten us, and I have to say, they had chosen wisely.

«Well?» Echo asked standing on her toes with her hands behind her back.

«They're good.» I nodded. This was actually the first time my sister bought clothes for me that I actually liked.

«Really?!» she asked like a five year old that had just been told they are getting ice-cream later.

«Yes.»

«Good.» she said trying to keep a straight face. Felix and Celine were talking a bit further.

«What are you holding?» I asked her only noticing a box she was holding.

«What? Oh that old thing...» she was getting nervous.

«You bought a camera?» I asked her. «Don't you have one back home?»

«I don't know if you've noticed, but this is our home now. We have no way of going back to Earth without the necklace, so we might as well accept it and stop fooling ourselves.» she snapped. Always trust my sister to be an optimist...

«Are you sure that's why you bought a camera? Because you think we are not going home?»

«Well...» she started, but never got to finish. Celine and Felix came back, the former holding a board game and laughing.

The game was like an Imyrthian version of Monopoly, but a lot more complicated and with a lot more rules. Felix beat us all (but I think he was cheating).

We played a bit and when night fell everyone fell asleep immediately, but I couldn't.

My sister's words still echoed in my head (no pun intended), and I couldn't stop thinking that she was actually right.

Imyrth was  our home now and there was no going back. Earth was just a memory and our old life was a long forgotten daydream.