"It's hot! I'm getting blisters! My skin, it's boiling! Aren't we close yet?"  Jasper kept asking. And each time Spade replied with "No, but you'll be close to my fist in a minute." The threat wasn't working as good as Amaya would have hoped.

It was quite obvious that the two were becoming increasingly cross with one another.

But what else are friends for, good, pleasant company? Ha! I don't think so.

"I'm about sick of your negative attitude, " Jasper started.

"And I'm about sick of your sniveling! You're acting like a six year old." Spade replied while cracking her knuckles. The popping noise made Amaya flinch a small bit.

Amaya, always being the calm one in the group, had to, once again, make peace. "Yacko and Wacko, knock it off!" She hollered over her shoulder.

The sweat on her forehead, the hair hanging all in her face, it was enough to drive any person insane. So the constant bickering of her comrades wasn't helping her nerves. One of her faithful companions was about to catch a left hook.

They walked up to a open clearing with rocks set in a wide circle. Amaya assumed it was supposed to be some sort of sitting area. Whether it was or wasn't,  it was about to be.

"Let's take a breather," she proposed.  Whether or not Jasper and Spade rested was up to them, but Amaya quickly glued her butt to a seat.

Spade seized the seat next to Amaya, and Jasper took a seat across from them both. "So when we get all this dough, where are we going first?" He inquired as he rubbed his hands together in an anxious manner. 

Spade answered rather quickly. "The bookstore." You wouldn't think that Spade was an avid reader but she was, she was just a narcissist in her spare time.

Amaya, however, took longer for her response. "Umm...I don't know...a restaurant?" She said, more of a question than a response.

"We've only got about an hour left until we get to the villiage." Amaya looked up at the sky before shaking her head wearily. "But only about fifteen minutes of sunlight. And it gets cold fast. We may need to build a shelter."

She looked at Spade, then her vision switched to Jasper. "Anyone bring a coat, or a jacket, maybe a poncho? A grandma sweater will work."

"Nope." Jasper answered for both of them. "So we had better get a move on." He said popping up and walking back to the trail. As if he knew what he was doing. Spade silently followed after.

Amaya groaned as she got up. She looked at the watch on her arm. It read 12:02. Realizing how stupid what she just did was, she looked away and, then back at her watch. 7:45. One of the most basic things about lucid dreaming, she had temporarily forgotten. Clocks are unreliable. And you'd better not try to read a book either. 

She jogged back up to her friends. "How about we jog? We'll get there faster."

They started jogging. Jasper leading the group and Amaya bringing up the rear. True to get prediction, the Sun soon started to set...meaning the temperature started to drop.

For the first few minutes, it was bearable, but when you could hear teeth chattering, it was time for something to be done about it.

"Ok. My h-head is about to crack and f-fall off. We n-need to do som-something about this."

"Gotta blast!" Jasper said before running off. "Race ya!" He called back over his shoulder. Amaya and Spade ran after him.

Somehow they forgot all about the weather conditions as they ran. For once on their full day trek, they were having a decent time.

"I'm going to beat you!" Amaya hollered running to the front. Their feet crunched leaves and twigs in their path, the luminecent glow on everything seemed to make it look so much better.

Have you ever heard that saying that's goes, "Time flies when you're having fun?" Well, whoever came up with that was pretty relatable. It seemed only minutes passed when they were at the edge of town.

Jasper won the race, and  He wanted everyone on earth to know it. "Ha ha! I beat you!" he danced small circles around the others.

"Ha ha-" his laughing was cut off by a quick slap from Spade. "Shut up."

Amaya couldn't help but giggle like a school girl...which she was. "Guys we're here. Are we going to go get our money, or sit here and boast like toddlers?"

She hesitantly stepped over the invisible division. The "swing space" between the village and the forrest. As the toe of her shoes but the cobblestone road, her heart started racing.

Nervously, she snatched the other foot over and turned to face her friends...the ones looking at her like she was a raving lunatic. Such loyalty.

"You do realize it's just the village right? There's no yellow brick roads or oompalumpas here." Jasper said smirking as he walked over to Amaya. He smiled and took her backpack from her.

"I'll carry these, by the way."
He said it as if He couldn't trust Amaya with the gemstones. So she was good enough to carry them around twenty miles, But not good enough to carry them fifty yards to the bank?

Jerk.

Her face must have displayed the thoughts running through her head, for a second later spade whispered in her ear. "Want me to lay 'em out?" She asked, her face dead serious. Amaya had always been a little bit closer to Spade ever since the day they met. (Maybe she'd  tell that story one day when Jasper isn't breathing down her neck.)

"Maybe later," Amaya said snickering.

They walked to the center of the town, and that's when they noticed it. Everything seemed so...futuristic. The cobblestone they were walking on quickly transitioned to metal. (Most likely titanium according to Spade. She likes that kind of stuff.)

There used to be a statue in the middle of the village. It was in the shape of a perfectly cut quartz crystal. Well someone had apparently hacked the top half off,  because all that was seen was a hologram floating above it the bottom half of the statue.

"Well if that was a decor choice it wasn't a wise one." Amaya remarked before looking a little closer at the hologram.

There was a message running across it on a loop.

"Wrap up your shopping and head in for the night. There's only 15 minutes left of interaction time. You know what happens during the tardy sweep.
                    - your loving ruler"

"Did you just read the same thing I read?" Amaya asked, her jaw slack. Her eyes grew until they looked like tea saucers.

"Yes, it means we better hurry up and go to the bank." Jasper said, unphased by the message that sent chills through Amaya.

She shook her head. So did Spade. "What are we going to do with him?" She asked.

"Who knows?"

"Spade did you read the same thing I read?" Amaya needed confirmation she was not crazy.

Then the earth itself started to tremble. She knew what that meant. "Bye gu-," the last thing she was was their confused faces.

~~~

"Hnn...what?" She groaned as she opened her eyes slowly.

Once again her mother was looming over Her, but her eyes were bloodshot, and her mascara was streaked. She was donning the same clothes as the night before.

"What's wrong?" Amaya asked. She smacked her lips, grimacing at the bitterness of her morning breath. Sitting up slowly, she gave her mother her full attention. She noticed that she was holding a letter.

"Its your father, he's not coming back." Her mother said as she choked back sobs. Her shoulders heaved forward and her body shook.