Grosseiro Not Gross

Well that ended quickly. As I fell I felt it would surely be my glorious end, but here I am, covered in leaves, almost getting ripped apart by some sharp rocks and evergreen trees. "Nocilcft" seems to be somewhere in the northern hemisphere, I suppose.

I can't lay here forever, time to get surviving. I'm not too much of a survival expert, but I've watched some shows about it, so I should be fine. I'm so funny, aren't I? This is a pretty lush forest, so a river must be nearby. Rivers have fish, water, and other animals that depend on it.

I look to the ground and see that to the left of me is the moistest soil. I walk toward that direction when I see someone. It is a small boy and I don't think a search team would send a child to help find lost people. I ignore them and continue on my way.

Before I could continue though, I got a tap on my shoulder. It is the boy. How did he get here so fast? Magic? Maybe it's just me aging... No, it's magic.

"You look lost?" The child says. Maybe they are part of a search team.

"No," I simply reply, walking away.

"That's where the Carnivorous Skleggs live." The child shouts at me as I walk off.

"Look kid, if I get eaten then I get eaten." I turn to the child. "Go pester someone else."

"First of all, I'm 16 and a half, not a kid!" The child aggressively states to me. "And second of all, I have nothing else useful to do, Grosseiro!"

Grosseiro? I didn't know they knew portuguese. How did they know I'm from Brazil? All I said was to leave me alone, it isn't Grosseiro.

He points to my chest to show a name tag with "Grosseiro" on it. I feel stupid, but not rude! Whoever took me here must have been spying on me. Now I feel scared. They might know about Terry and Natasha.

"I won't listen to you if you call me Grosseiro." I state, continuing to walk into the area with the man eating leg things.

"Why?" The child walks with me. "What does 'Grosseiro' mean?"

"It's a slur in Portuguesse." I lie. "It is very offensive and rude."

"How about you stop calling me a child and I will stop calling you Grosseiro?" The NOT child bargains with me.

"Sure." I stop from walking into what would certainly be my death.

"Then what should I call you?" He asks.

"Paulo Francisco or just Paul." I answer.

"Then you can call me..." The nonchild pauses. "Ja... Club!"

"How about just Club?" I replied.

"Sure." Club answers.

And with this, we begin walking throughout the woods.

"How much do you know about this forest?" I ask Club.

"I have been here before." He vaguely answers. "There should be a city nearby where we can plan what to do from there."

"Great!" I clap my hands. "Which direction is it?"

Club looks around at his surroundings. I don't know how he knows what, but I guess I have to trust him. Club looks one way and then in the opposite direction.

"This way." He states with confidence.

We begin to walk toward the direction of the exit I am told exist.

"So, how did you get here?" Club askes.

"I was exploring when I found this forest." I lied. "Then I got lost." I don't want to say that I don't know how I got here.

"What!?" Club shouts "Is there a portal to Nocilcft?"

"Shhh," I whisper covering his mouth. "You said that they are creatures that could eat us here."

"There aren't," Club removes my hand from his face. "I lied about it, though Some might be in this forest."

"How much do you really know about this forest?" I ask Club.

"I was taken to Nocilcft a good while before you were here. I've been to this forest for sometime and I haven't been eaten by anything, so it must be safe." Cub answers.

I nod slowly and then pick up a sharp stick, just in case. We continue on our trip. While I wasn't told how long it would take, I still feel like we aren't getting any closer to the exit. As it gets darker and darker, we should stop soon.

"Club, are you sure you know what you are doing?" I question him.

"Paul," Club reponds "I'm sure I know what I'm doing. Though the exit seems a bit farther than I thought it would be. We should rest for a bit."

I nod. "I'll set up everything we need," I state. "you can..."

"Look for resources!" Club gleefully states. "I'll be back!"

He shouts this at me as he puts on his hood and runs into the opposite direction we walked from. Yep, he is surely gonna die. I barely have anything to set up. For food, I see some blueberries that we can just wash down. For water, I can hear running water in the distance. For shelter... we need to work on that. All of a sudden, I hear something. Not really hearing it, but still.

"How's it going, Grosseiro?" It says. It is a bit more informal than it was before.

"Good," I say to myself. I'm in the woods, it's not like someone's gonna judge me for it.

"I can judge you, and I just want to show that I'm a friend." It respo- wait a second. How did it... can it read my mind?

"Did you bring me here?" I ask.

The voice talks to me back, saying "You can call it mind reading, sure. Did I bring you here... no?" Lies, I know it is a lyng about not bringing me here. Why did it bring me here? "Friends" don't kidnap each other.

"That's the spirit, Grosseiro!" The voice ignores my question. "I'm not gonna ignore your question, we will get to that later, for now, speaking to me like this will make the others not know you are talking with me. About the 'bringing you here' thing, we can talk about that later."

Okay, what do you want then?

"I want you to take care of the 5 other 'people' that were in the dropper, if you don't, they will surely end the world." The Voice says.

And why should I trust you!

"Because I can do this!" Ethay oicevay ayssay. Iyay inkthay iyay etgay atwhay ethay oicevay isyay ayingsay ownay.

"Now before I go." The voice states. "You must know that you won't be leaving this place with the other name tagged ones alive. If you don't, they will surely kill you. As for Ja Club, they won't leave with you, but you won't have to kill them. You are my second favorite of this batch and goodbye!"

I guess I will have to get some blood on my hands... droga. I'm not planning on staying with Club after I leave the forest. What is the "batch" The voice speaks of? I didn't even get their name!

That doesn't matter now, because the voice is gone and before I get to do anything, Club has returned with two other people. The first one that comes into my sight (other than Club) is a relatively young looking man who seems to have an arrow impaled through his stomach. Looking at it disgusts me. They also look familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.

The other person I can confidently say I don't know. She also looks relatively young and is helping the injured person walk around. They could know a way to get out of the forest.

Club looks at me, puts down his hood, and walks toward me.

"Do you think you can help him?" Club asks me in a less energetic voice than usual.

"Bold of you to assume I have any medical experience." I lead on Club for the punchline that I do have some knowledge in it. I must remind myself that I was an improper combat medic for a cartel and not a doctor. "Luckily for you, I do have very little."

"Take a look at him." Club insists, pulling my arm over to the injured person.

At a closer look, I can see that they have a name tag. It is the Hermit. I don't think I should do anything to help him. There must be a reason that they got shot with... an arrow. Either way, I don't think I can do anything about it. I'm not sure how he is still alive.

In order to remove an arrow, it must be pushed out from the back of the arrow. The problem with this is that... well... It seems to hit some vital organs. This is a problem because we are in a FOREST! I don't have anything clean to hold the blood. Also that arrow is most likely really dirty. Last, even if we get the arrow out, (Which without sedatives on some rando, they might struggle and scream) They still have punctured organs and need to go to a hospital, which let me remind myself, WE. ARE. DEEP. IN. A. FOREST!

"I don't think I can do anything to help." I turn to Club. "The best we can do is just find a faster way to get his death over with."

"Wait!" The young woman objects. "He survived for really long, mayb-"

"And how long is that?" I question her.

"Um..." She stutters. She takes a couple seconds to think. "10 minutes it feels like, but it's night. When he was shot, it was midday."

"The deeper you get into the forest," Club interrupts. "The more the time changes. If you stand still, it will stay the same time of day forev-"

"Club," I turn to him. "We can talk about it later. If you really think the poor man can make it we could look for a hospital after we get out of these woods."

The woman turns to the Hermit. She holds up her pointer, thumb, and middle finger toward him.

"Herm," She kneels down to the Hermit. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

The Hermit looks up with a sort of dazed face. "3," He answers. "But I don't think now is the time for counting, Rose."

He stands up slowly and weakly. Then, he simply walks over to a fallen tree and sits on it.

"See, he is perfectly functional!" Rose says to me.

"Paul, I have something to say, in private." Club looks toward me.

"Sure, we will be right back." I reply.

We walk pass a couple trees to a point where the others could see us. What could this nimwit have to save that has to stop us from solving the problem at hand?

"What do you have to say that's more important than helping the whole arrow problem?" I ask.

"I know Rose," Club becomes less and less enthusiastic. "Rose Collar. She'll make you feel like friends but when a slight inconvenience happens, they will leave you for dead!"

"What do you mean?" I say, interested.

"When I came to Nocilcft, some others came with me." He explains. "We all agreed to stick together, but that was a lie. One of them started attacking us. One thing leads to another and I'm stabbed through the leg on a mountain, about to fall with the attacker holding on to the knife in my leg. Rose, my friend who said they cared for me, not only let me fall, but pushed me!"

"If you fell off a mountain," I question skeptically. "How are you still alive?"

"I woke up in this forest, being told another group of people are to fall to madness like we did." He answers. "I'm just saying, she probably shot the man with a bow."

"Okay, but before we confront them." I reply. "What's with you leading me deeper into the forest?"

"I was thinking, if we stayed in less desirable places," The smart alec begins. "We wouldn't find any threats."

"Okay, stupid." I respond. "Let's just talk to Hermit and Rose."

We walk back to the group to see Rose sleeping and Hermit just standing there. It is, to be honest, a little off putting.

"Hey, Hermit." I try talking to the dying man.

"Please, just call me Herm." He triedly responds. "To respect the wounded."

I look at Club and whisper to him "Acho que o homem ficou louco." As for talking to Herm, I guess I will just play along.

"Tomorrow, I can see if we can find a way to help." I politely tell him.

"Great, I'll sleep then." He tells me, laying to the rough ground. "Goodnight, Grosseiro."

As Herm slowly either falls asleep or dies, I didn't check. I get really tempted to inflict anytype of pain on him, but that is irrational. I'm not a monster...

"You know the time doesn't cha-" Club whispers to me.

"We will get to it when we get to it." I tell him. "I'm going to sleep."

With this, there is a lot to think about what happened today. I hate thinking, I rather wait for tomorrow. I guess one thing I have reaffirmed to myself is that they are, at most, coworkers. If any die, I didn't know them. Letting them die though isn't an option.

I really gotta stop. I'm on a bunch of rocks and sticks and I hope some creature eats me in the middle of our sleep. Goodnight.

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