Private Finished Digging Up Old Wounds

Jae walked up, a drawstring pack filled with water and a compass on his back. The last time he went into the woods he got lost and needed help getting out. He's learned his lesson since then and won't let them get lost. "Of course I made it." Jae laughed, "Yeah. Let's go." A hike through the woods, looking for animals, it was nice. He needed this.

They headed out, moving down an animal trail. Jae had to keep an eye on the path to avoid tripping over roots or rocks. So far no animals, but that should change once they get deeper. "I used to catch iguanas and anoles with my bare hands. Snakes too, but not often." He wasn't the best at remembering the poisonous ones so he stayed away from them.

Jae chuckled, imaging James slowly backing away from a rattle snake. To be fair, Jae would have done the same. He wasn't scared of snakes, but he knew to respect the space of the deadly ones. "I'm not going to try and catch anything I don't recognize." A smart policy though, was it smart on the island? Anything can look harmless.

His train of thought was disturbed as James spotted their first critter. Jae followed James' line of sight and spied the little lizard. To Jae it looked like a skink, maybe a five-lined? Slowly, Jae edged closer for a better look. "Definitely some kind of skink, you can tell because it doesn't have much of a neck." It had lines, but only two and the lines were quite vivid in color.

"Maybe we should have brought a wildlife guide book." Jae said with a quiet snort of laughter. It brought back an old memory of his. "Whenever my aunt and uncle took me camping, my aunt always inisted we bring little guides on local wildlife and plants." She would never leave the house without them.

Jae huffed, amused and appreciative of the compliment. He wouldn't say he knew a lot, as most of his knowledge came from experience. From multiple camping trips, and hikes. Of just being outside. He did pause, sharply looking towards James when he brought up Aunt Taliah. "N-no, not her." Jae assured him. "My Aunt Sol and Uncle Hwan. They're the ones who raised me."

The lizard had bolted, lost under rocks and roots. Jae gave up any hope of finding it again and moved beside James. "I. . . I'm not really related to them, but they took me in when I was a toddler." Jae smiled, his expression soft at the memory of his dear aunt and uncle. They loved him unconditionally, and cared for Jae as though he were their natural born child. "When my magic appeared that's when I learned about Aunt Taliah and it was decided that I would be better off living with her here on the island."

Jae's frown said a lot. "They. . . they're happy I'm not living with her anymore."

"Go off the path?" Jae was hesitant to leave the path for multiple reasons. The big one was that it wasn't too long ago that Jae got himself lost in these very woods. If Jeremiah had not found him when he did, Jae could have wondered the woods for hour, and potentially went deeper and into the more dangerous parts.

"I'm not sure," Jae said, but couldn't bring himself to outright object. He compromised, "so long as we don't go too deep in." And followed after James. It wasn't like Jae was alone this time, and James wouldn't go off the path if he wasn't confident about getting back. It would be fine and they'll see more animals this way.

Jae kept close to James, and while watching the foliage for movement for odd shapes.

Jae kept a look out for more critters, but it wasn't so easy the deeper they went. Jae kept stopping to untangle his clothes from thorny bushes. Then he was slowed by putting his feet down wrong and either made a lot of noise or wedged his foot between rocks and roots. In short, Jae had no luck spotting animals and doubted he would with all the noise he made.

When they came up beside a stream bed Jae sat down on the top of a washed-out encampment. "Let's rest a bit?" Jae said it like a question but he already had his shoes and socks of to soak his feet in the water. He drank deeply from his water bottle. "What about your family? What are they like?" It had occured to him that he knew very little about James' family.