"In Australia, huh…"
Inase tilted his head, watching the possum scurry into the canopy before rubbing the dirt off his pants.
The air buzzed with unseen tension. The trees breathed.
"We'll have to be careful of the wild animals, then."
"Not only that," Hosen added. "According to the documentaries I've read, everything here wants to kill you."
A shallow superstition, yes, but that's what was written in the books and encyclopedias from fifty years ago. He had read quite a few of them to understand the basics of the old world.
Be it an animal, weather, or a plant, whether on land or in the water—everything seemed either painful, deadly, or venomous.
Snakes, spiders, cassowaries, hidden tides, poison barbs, heatstroke, carnivorous weeds, weather—sighing, Hosen tapped his finger against his chin, mentally listing hazards.
Even if they weren't facing eldritch beings or psyche-eating horrors this time, the natural threats were still dangerous to their mortal, human bodies.
"..."
Well… at least they knew where they were. That was one positive in the sea of the unknown. Better than knowing nothing.
"Earth to genius."
Inase rolled his eyes and turned on his heel to step into the brush.
"Where are you going?" Hosen finally came back to Earth. "We should analyze the surroundings first-"
"Nothing's gonna get solved if we don't get out of this jungle first."
Inase cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"Rainforest."
Hosen corrected him like a proper scientist would do.
"Whatever. Doesn't change the fact that we're lost."
Rather than standing in one place forever and thinking of solutions, he'd make a fast decision and take action at once.
Inase moved onward.
The emerald canopy blotted out the sky. Something screamed in the distance.
Then—rustle.
As he stepped forward, a long, scaly slither had crawled on a branch of a tree above him.
A shadow flicked in a blink.
Something fast—a snake dove from the trees, aiming straight for Inase's face (since he let the tasty snack of a possum escape from its bite a few moments ago).
The tiger snake, a highly venomous specimen, had its jaws wide open, like a jumpscare.
"Watch out!"
Upon noticing it, Hosen called out.
But the warning came late, or maybe it wasn't needed at all.
SNAP!
The blonde moved with inhuman speed, catching the serpent mid-air by its slim neck, and driving a knife between its fangs with a wet crack.
The body hit the ground, twitching ever so often.
His reactions were superb. It seemed that even without his warning, Inase could take care of the issue just fine.
"Just so you know," He muttered, wiping the blade on his sleeve before the other could open his mouth. "It was for self-defence."
A trained-in reaction. Or great survival instincts. Maybe both?
He didn't need to think before his body acted on its own. That's just who he was.
"I'd do the same to anything that attacks me. Be it a monster or a human."
"I said nothing." Hosen blinked, following behind his companion.
The air grew hotter. Heavier. It was dense, humid even.
Sound continued with the hum of wild creatures in hiding—insects buzzing, birds chirping, sudden hissing of reptiles—or the cracking of twigs in the distance.
And it smelled of wet earth and moss. Moss that clung to every tree, green and overgrown, along the thick, tangled vines that curled from every branch and reached tree tops, where sunlight barely filtered through.
Somewhere in the depths, a cassowary called. With a guttural, prehistoric screech that echoed like a warning through the trees. As dangerous as it sounded.
They pressed forward.
Trees twisted into familiar shapes. Roots like ribs. Trees like faces. Then the unfamiliar ones. Morphed into something new, yet something they recognized.
Everything looked the same.
"...didn't we pass this already?"
The white-hair narrowed his eyes.
"No clue. All trees look the same, no matter how deep you look into them." His partner didn't seem to suspect anything. "Except this forest is bigger than I imagined."
Still, Hosen could swear they had passed by them before.
…because they did.
He noticed similarities as he looked at the ground.
The snake lay at his feet. Still dead. Same knife gash. Same cut. Same spot.
They were looping.
But they didn't change directions.
They walked straight ahead, so there wasn't an option for them to turn around to where they started.
He was sure of it.
To prove his suspicions, Hosen carved an X into a tree trunk he passed by, Inase's blade catching sap.
"What are you doing?"
The blonde raised a brow at the weird behavior.
"Marking our path so we won't get lost," Hosen explained, "And proving that we aren't insane."
"Again? This is stupid."
Carving every tree would take up too much time.
Being one to do first, then think, Inase couldn't take his methods seriously.
And seeing him as cautious as ever, he scoffed before he disappeared into the wild bushes ahead.
"Hurry up or else I'll leave you."
Inase was gone. Into the wild.
While the scientist stayed by the tree trunk.
"..."
Ten minutes later—another rustle.
This time, Hosen heard footsteps coming from behind.
Inase came out of the trees in the back, meeting him in the same spot.
"What the hell?" Inase blinked, confused. "I was ahead of you."
"Welcome back."
Hosen said flatly, tapping the tree already marked with a finished X.
"Now you believe me?"
There was a faint smirk of satisfaction in the corner of his lips, as if wanting to say: I told you so.
Knowing he was right irked the blonde even more.
"Fine. You can work on those markings all you want!"
As he crossed his arms, he leaned over the tree and waited for the other to finish another X... bored.
Hosen's hand movement was too slow. He struggled, a lot. Even when scratching out a simple line,
It took too long.
Inase yawned.
"You're quite slow with these, aren't you."
He commented, counting minutes in his head.
"Shh. Don't rush me." Hosen muttered back.
Having one good hand to write with wasn't as easy as it looked. Even if his wounded hand was in bandages, it still bled from time to time. It hurt.
So it took longer to carve with just one.
A moment passed. A few more minutes, and this tree was done.
Finally.
Inase couldn't wait any longer. He instantly got on his feet to walk ahead, glad he didn't have to wait for more.
But when they moved a few paces, Hosen stopped to mark another one.
Ugh… Seriously-!
If Hosen were to carve out every mark, it would take them the whole day to move maybe thirty meters. They couldn't have that.
Inase took the knife out of his hands and left two quick yet deep lines with a practiced hand.
"Amateur." He was way quicker at it anyway. "Just tell me where to leave a mark," was his compromise.
"Okay."
And so, they followed their handmade path. But even then, they came back to the same spot from which they had started.
So, they had to learn from their mistakes. On every wrong turn from the last route, they turned other direction.
Eventually, they perfected a system: trace the marks, reach the last one, then choose a new path.
Each time, they looped.
It kind of reminded them of their time-diving missions. A struggle against the inevitable, yet trying to find that one path that would take them to an exit.
A matter of trial and error until they arrived somewhere.
The deeper they walked, the stranger things became...
The forest turned more distorted, jarring.
How odd… They found a tree shaped like an eye, a plant that resembled a clock, and even insects crawling in circles.
The scenery became more dreamlike.
They stumbled upon a narrow yet deep gorge, a microclimate where prehistoric flora and fauna thrived.
The plants grew giant, their colors desaturated unnaturally. Leaves turned too dark, vines seemed like they were moving, and insects—bigger than the size of their palms—burst from thick underbrush and dissolved into mist when cut.
"Illusions."
Inase sighed exaggeratedly.
"Ugh, bugs... I don't like them…"
He didn't like these creepy crawlers.
Oh? How surprising, Hosen thought.
The ever-brave and confident Inase had a weakness like that,
"I didn't take you for someone who had an ick from insects."
He noted it for the future, his tone dry.
"Everyone has something. It just depends whether they show it."
Inase's brow furrowed when he cut another one coming their way.
"When will this torture end—?" He groaned.
As if on cue, red mist spilled between the trees, like a bleeding animal.
Between the leaves, they noticed a glimpse of whatever held them trapped. Blurred and far away.
It was... moving?
Seemed like this time they walked further than before.
"Let's go. Quick!"
They were excited. Something changed.
They chased the mist—they shouldn't have.
The moment they did, flustered and tired, they jumped one step too far and found themselves right where they started.
"..."
Hosen was speechless. Trying to catch his breath. Wheezing. Sweating. Stumbling.
"To hell with it! We're back here again!" And Inase couldn't take it anymore, brushing sweat from his brow. "For the thirteenth time! Or was it fourteenth?"
"Fifteenth," Hosen muttered between deep breaths.
His stamina was lacking, unlike Inase's.
"At this point, I doubt we'll walk out of here alive."
The blonde, too, showed signs of wear. His movements had less snap to them, even if his sarcastic tone still lingered.
They were coming back to the same spot.
Where did all their progress go?
"..."
Well, this time... Hosen noticed a certain detail that had stayed unseen until now.
"Something's different." He looked around, unfazed. "Time's moving."
The flora was now in full bloom. It wasn't before.
And the serpent's corpse had turned into dry, decomposing bones.
The marks they left on trees, too, faded with age.
"Each time we go back, time moves forward." He glanced at his bandaged hand—it was still the same, wounded. "But not for us."
With each step, they felt like they were more lost, and nothing matched reality.
Tracks vanished. Landmarks shifted. The forest shaped around them, the paths looped, as if…
"Something really doesn't want us to reach it."
Inase hissed, shoving past more vines.
"Hah..." He chuckled, "Alright." And stretched, ready once more.
"This time we were closer than before. Gotta keep trying."
A quick change in perspective. He had some hope left.
"You're very optimistic about it."
Hosen commented, admiring the blonde's unbreakable spirit.
"I'm just thinking of possible solutions. Since we're in this mess already, let's not waste time on moping around."
Small obstacles on their way didn't mean Inase would give up.
But it did mean he'd complain the whole way.
"Too hot. Too damp. Too many damn bugs…" His neck felt itchy.
But what other choice did they have?
None.
They had to complete their mission.
"This is the last time I allow a nerd to push me over."
And by a nerd, he meant the group of scientists who forced them to be here after using them like errand boys. At least his frustration was directed at someone else than his buddy.
"Ugh... When I come back, I'm going to teach him a lesson-!"
Fallen trees and tall roots obstructed their way.
Inase hopped over a log easily.
Hosen didn't.
He wasn't as athletic.
For the past half an hour, he had walked behind the blonde while helping himself by leaning on the following trees and breathing heavily, so it was bound to happen.
Exhaustion took over.
He slipped and fell straight into a mossy surface with a pained grunt and a quick thud.
"Damn..."
Blood dripped from his hand.
Critters stirred.
And the moss?
Soft as it was, the moss cushioned his fall, but his shoulder still throbbed.
A soft crawl near his cheek.
Four pairs of furry legs crawled into a burrow—its nest.
At first, it didn't seem like a problem. Hosen stood up, brushing himself off.
"You okay?"
Inase asked, wanting to continue forward without any hitches.
"Yeah, I'm fi—"
Then—Pain. Sharp. Burning.
Like acid in his veins.
Excruciating.
It radiated from his wound.
Not an illusion, even though it felt like it.
Hosen's breath caught—eyes wide.
Then everything went dark.
He collapsed.