I'm going to see my best friends perform in a play and I'm soooo freaking excited because all of us are the definition of awkward and I'm dying to see what they'll be like on stage!!

P.S. Gonna bless this chapter with Queen Halsey's voice.
*****
"Arghhhhhhhhhh, help!" 

I heard an ear piercing shriek from Clayre's tent and I immediately sprinted out of my sleeping bag and rushed over to unzip her tent.  The boys were at my side instantly and I zipped the tent flap open.  Clayre was inside clutching her sleeping bag all the way to her chest and her eyes were wide with fright. 

"Clayre, what's wrong?" Jaycon asked and climbed into the tent and went to sit by her side.  He kissed her forehead and lay a soothing arm on her shoulders.

"T-t-that thing up there!"  Clayre cried and pointed a shaky index finger to the top left corner of her tent.  Our eyes followed the direction of her finger and it led to a large, blue and red spotted butterfly. 

Crap!  I forgot to warn the boys of Clayre's phobia of butterflies.  Strange phobia it was.  Everybody usually loves butterflies and tries to catch them in their little jam jars and gape in awe at their beautiful colours but not Clayre.  Oh no.  She hated them.  Every time we saw one she would go sprinting in the opposite direction like she saw Godzilla.  But when we got to dissect a butterfly in Biology class, she was more than happy to do so and stabbed the living daylights of the poor winged creature.  Yeah, she is was definitely not strange at all.

"It's only a butterfly and its pretty as well,"  Jaycon said while Clayre shook her head.

"No it's not!  It's hideous! It's a curse! It's a monster!" She yelled so loud we all had to cover our ears.

"Clayre! Calm down, I'll take away the butterfly if that'll make you feel any better," I sighed and went to gently cup the butterfly in my hands gently and brought it out of the tent.
I opened my hands and watched it fly and disappear into the labyrinth of trees. A small creature exposed to the dangers of such a large but hostile sanctuary. Like us right now.

After the whole butterfly drama and Clayre was functioning properly again we quickly packed away our tent and had a quick wash before we continued on our trek.  We ate some bananas we collected along the way.  Though we started walking quite early in the morning, it wasn't long before it got humid again. 

It was about 3 hours into our walk (according to my solar watch) that my feet were beginning to give in again.

"Ugh!  I can't take it anymore, my feet are going to fall off!"  I yelled as I went to lean against another large tree and the bark felt like sandpaper against my skin.

"Come on, Iz," Clayre said, "We're bound to run into them somewhere."

"You think a group of Amazons are going to jump out from behind a tree and yell "BOO!" at us?" I questioned and smacked a mosquito that used my arm as a landing area.

"No but there must be some way that we can somehow get their attention," She said.

"Then that's it. Instead of going to them, let them come to us," Jaycon suggested.

"And how, may I ask, are you going to do that? By trying to put up anti-feminist banners around the rainforest?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"That could be one way," He mused while I scoffed at his pathetic ass.

"We'll go to the Amazon River," Lucien spoke up, "And then we'll stay in the water and see if they will come out or not."

"But Nova warned us not to go near the river!" I reminded.

"And that's exactly why we're going to go there," Lucien said and changed our northwards hike to go west towards the river instead. 

He started walking his way through the thick vegetation and stomped mercilessly on any branch that was in his way.  Yup.  The Wildlife Organisations would definitely be onto us after this.  Jaycon and Clayre began to follow him.
Seriously?  My best friend just abandoned me to follow Mr. Bossy Boots? 
I sighed.  Well I'm not going to move my butt since I won't be pushed around that easily. 

I looked around the forest and slumped back against the massive tree that had moss and lichen growing all over it.  Those Three Musketeers could try their stupid idea but no way was I going to follow them.  No way. 

I looked up to the sky that was barricaded by giant branches and closed my eyes, letting my body soak up all the vitamin D goodness.  When I opened my them a second later, a nasty looking green snake appeared beside me dangling from one of the branches just inches from my face.

Oh hell no! 

I sprang up and galloped in the direction where the other three had walked about a minute ago.
* * * * *
It didn't take long for me to catch up to them and by then I had become more focused and alert than before. 

"Isadora is that you?  Oh it is!  Hi bitch," Jaycon smirked while I was hunched with my hands on my knees and trying to catch my breath.

"Fuck off, cunt," I growled. 

"Oh, stop it you two," Clayre sighed, exasperated.

"Well, how far are we from the river?" I asked while a Red Admiral flew past us and Clayre squeaked.

"Actually we're here already," Lucien said and gestured to the parting of the thick vines where I spotted a glistening streak of water.

"Oh thank fuck!"  I cried and straightened myself upright again, "let's go then!" 

I paraded my way through the tangly vines to where the river was.  We finally found it and I was glad we decided to go in it because I really needed a cold bath right now. 

When we reached the bank of the river I was stunned at the size.  It looked so much bigger in real life than in the pictures.  The murky water snaked its way thousands of kilometers upwards.  Before I decided to jump joyfully into the water I paused.

"Uh, how is us being in the water actually going to catch their attention?  I mean, tourists always boat on it every year anyway," I said wondering why Nova told us to stay away from the river when hundreds of people take cruises up and down on it every year.

"I'm assuming that since we are the creations of Vazol, Amazons could sense our differences from humans in some way which would catch their attention.  And us being in the scared river will draw attention to us even more," Lucien guessed which was the only logic answer that sounded not overly bizarre. 

"Awesome!  One more thing; isn't there crocodiles and anacondas in the river?"  I asked nervously which had only occurred to me a few moments ago when I saw a glimpse of a creature with a smooth brown back that swiftly glided its way through the water.  I sure hoped that was a fish. 

"We don't have to to make a raft, we'll just have to go into the water and see what will happen," Lucien said and proceeded to take off his shoes. 

"We'll get eaten that's what will happen!" I hissed at him.

"Oh come on, Iz.  You're a freaking witch.  Lucien's a vampire, Jay's a werewolf and you're seriously worried about crocodiles and anacondas?"  Clayre laughed while I frowned at her.  It was easy for her to say because she loved all creatures evil like tarantulas, snakes, alligators and scorpions. 

"She's got a point you know," Jaycon agreed and started to take off his shoes too. 

"You're trying to say that I'm a pussy because I'm scared of snakes and crocodiles while you're basically scared shitless of a butterfly?"  I raised my eyebrows at her while her face turned red and she huffed. 

"Fine!  I take it back!" She grumbled and we both started to slowly take our shoes off.

I honestly did not want to go in a dirty river crawling with frightening monsters waiting for us in there but, hey, this is what we do best.

The four of us lined up along the river's bank and I nervously dug my toes into the soggy soil.

"Should we count to three and all jump in together?" I asked sheepishly. I so was not going into the water first and get eaten.

"Seems childish... but I like it," Jaycon agreed and I took in a shaky breath. Oh joy, we were all jumping to our death.

"Okay who's counting down? Lucien. You can do the honours," Jaycon announced and we braced ourselves for the jump.

Maybe I won't jump in when all the others do.

"And everyone is to jump in. No chickening out," Jaycon said and looked at all of us.

Ah shit.

"Okay Lucien, start the countdown bro."

I sucked in a deep breath and chanted in my head "I will not get eaten, I will not be a crocodile's snack, I will not scream underwater."

"Okay. Three... Two... One," Lucien called and we all jumped into the water simultaneously and I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the smack of water.

As soon as I was under the water I screamed. Not because something was attacking me, I just got a twig stuck in my hair.

I panicked and swam up until I broke the surface and took a huge gulp of air.

"Oh never mind, she's not dead," I heard Jaycon announce and saw that the others had broken the surface already. I sent a scowl his way and kicked my feet back and forth to stay afloat. Despite the water being dirty as Hell, it was quite cooling.

"How long do you think we have to stay in the water?" I called out.

"Hopefully not too long, just until they can sense us," Lucien said. That better be in the next minute.

We stayed paddling quietly in the water for a whole five minutes until we saw a huge crocodile lurking a few metres from us and decided it was time to skedaddle out the water.

When we were all safely on the bank and towelling ourselves dry, I thought of how our plan worked out superbly.

Yeah, so much for that genius idea.

When we had dried ourselves and packed up after our quick break, we decided to head back into the forest and search for the Amazon's camp ourselves which seemed impossible since they would be well hidden. Jaycon could try use his tracking skills to do so but that could only achieve so much.

"Okay, we all set?" Clayre asked and threw her rucksack on her back.

"Yeah, you guys go on ahead. I need to tie my other shoe lace, I'll only be a few seconds. I'll catch up," I told them and Clayre nodded. The three of them disappeared into the forest just as I had finished tying my other shoelace and I got up and dusted off my pants. I looked around and sighed. I really hope we can find them otherwise we were going to be screwed. I threw my rucksack on my back and went to follow the others. When I stepped through the vines I couldn't catch sight of them anywhere. Shit! How could they have walked that far? They literally just left me 30 seconds ago. I hiked further along in hope of catching sight of them.

"Jaycon, Lucien, Clayre? Helloooo? If you guys think this is funny it's not!" I said angrily.

"Guys! I'm going to kill all of you when I find you. Especially you Lucien, since your stupid idea didn't work!" I yelled.

I heard someone clearly their voice behind me.
"Um, Iz. I think Lucien's idea did work after all."
It was Jaycon.

I swiftly spun around and nearly cowered at the sight. All three of them were there, but... they were surrounded by five Pocahontas type woman heavily armed with knives and large bows. They all had long black hair and sported a very dangerous glare. They had an aura of supremacy and power around them that could made your skin crawl. To make it better, three of them were holding nasty looking daggers to the throats of my friends and the other two had bows aimed at me. There was no mistaking it. Amazons.
Who else greeted you with death?

"Um, hi? My name's Isadora and you guys are totally killing it."

Okay that wasn't the smartest thing to say but my head wasn't exactly there at the moment.

One of the women with the bow spoke.
"Take all of them to Queen Negin. She can decide how they will die."

Well, crap. Ain't this exciting.