Finished A Night in the Woods

After getting a better grasp on how to use his laptop, Carmin had begun taking research on how to get rid of his curse into his own hands. He'd spent the last week searching for any sort of lead he could find on the internet, and after lots of nothing, he'd finally found something promising. A rare blue and white flower that bloomed once every five years in the woods on Manta Carlos. Supposedly, ingesting one of the flowers would completely undo all curses affecting the individual.

There was just one problem. The day that the flower was said to bloom on, that was today. When Carmin saw the line containing that bit of information, he reread it then checked the date on the bottom corner of his screen. As soon as he'd confirmed that this was the day, he bit his lip and thought it over for just a moment. It was pretty dangerous for him to go out in the woods at night, there was no telling what was in there and he had no way of knowing how much energy he had left. He usually didn't move around much at night, it was hard to say what would happen. But if there was a chance he could undo this mess and go back home, it was probably worth taking.

Reluctantly, he changed into a long sleeved blue shirt and some black shorts, then packed up his bag and headed out the door. He remembered the way to the woods, but once he was inside the forest, it was probably going to get iffy.

It certainly wasn't going to be an easy task, he'd been in the woods during the day once before and even that was pretty terrifying, but he wasn't going to let that stop him, he was-

Smack. With absolutely no warning, Carmin watched his body flop onto the ground. He didn't even make it to the lake yet.

He tried lifting himself back up, but his arms and legs only seemed to briefly jerk up when he tried to lift them. It was over, there was no way he'd make it to the flower now. He laid face down on the ground, feeling utterly defeated.

@Romi

Lying there on the ground just plain sucked. Carmin couldn't move his body enough to get himself flipped over, so his face stayed right up against the ground. He tried calling for help, but his voice was muffled from the dirt and wasn't really getting too far. He decided he was going to give up, quit squirming and just wait around until morning, but that's right when he heard footsteps approaching.

When he heard them say his name, he was pretty surprised. He didn't really know a lot of people who knew him by name, but it was probably a good thing. Unfortunately, without being able to see his face, Carmin couldn't tell it was Angelo.

He tried to ask who was there, but what came out was too muffled to make out. Despite the fact that nothing he said could be understood, he kept talking, mostly trying to explain that he was low on energy and needed to be flipped over to speak. Accompanying this display was the random twitching of his useless limbs as he tried to get them to start working again.

Hearing his name called again caused Carmin to stop trying to speak or move, listening closely as Angelo told him he would flip him over. Having no problem with that, he remained still until he was carefully turned face up.

He blinked a few times to get dirt out of his eyes and then tried and failed to wipe more of it from his face, instead his arm just twitched again. Now that he could see the person who’d shown up, he recognized it to be the student counsel president, Angelo.

“Angelo?” Carmin stared as if he was in a daze for a few seconds and then started talking. He spoke quickly, in a sort of frantic way. “I was trying to go find this flower, it’s really important. But then I ran out of energy and fell and can’t move anymore but the flower only blooms today and I don’t even know if there’s still time or if it’s too late or what.” He was clearly pretty upset and rushing through his own words.

From an awkward angle, Carmin's eyes would look up to see what Angelo was getting for him. It looked like his hand disappeared and then reappeared with a flashlight, it was certainly odd, but Carmin knew enough not to question this type of stuff anymore. When the flashlight flicked on, Carmin didn't feel any different. With a proper sun light it usually took a half hour before he could move, there was no telling how long it'd take with a flashlight. Still, the gesture was nice he supposed. "Oh, uhm, thanks." The flashlight would at least help prevent him from losing his ability to speak, blink and twitch.

When questioned about the flower, Carmin's eyes would shift to the side for a moment and then move back to Angelo. "Well..." He didn't really want people knowing about his predicament, so he carefully answered in a way that was at least partially true. "I'm kind of sick right now, that's, uh, that's why I run out of energy so quick. The only way to cure the sickness is this blue and white flower that only blooms today in the forest." Carmin's eyes kept shifting to the side as he spoke, he wasn't exactly good at lying.

He considered getting help from Angelo. He really didn't want to ask this guy who he didn't really know all that well to help him, but this was kind of important. His face would turn a lighter green as his mouth opened as if he was about to say something. He'd close it shortly after, then try again. "Uhm, I can't get the flower on my own anymore though..." He didn't directly ask Angelo to pick him up and wander through the forest, but it wasn't too hard to see that it was what Carmin wanted.

Carmin tried to nod when Angelo offered to carry him into the woods but it didn't work well. He had to give a verbal answer. "y-yes please..." He avoided eye contact as best he could. Having to get help was difficult enough, but this was a whole other level. The lying didn't help either. Carmin felt embarrassed and ashamed but didn't think he had much of a choice in the matter. If he could just get a hold of that flower and undo the stupid curse, then it wouldn't matter. He could go home and forget any of this had ever happened.

"Sounds good." Carmin responded in a serious tone, he had already accepted that there was no guarantee that they'd find the flower. In fact, he didn't really expect them to find it at this point. He just needed to at least try. Hearing that Angelo had unlimited endurance or something close to it was also reassuring. If something happened to him while they were out in the woods, they'd be in trouble.