Lost in the Woods

Sleeping in a tent was the exact opposite of glamorous. Juniper usually would not mind, he had slept in far more unusual places, but the humid air reeked, and brought back unwanted memories of his days at the circus. He slipped on a shirt and stepped outside, only to be greeted by a familiar sight. Even though he had grown several feet since, the pine trees he used to climb still loomed over him; he felt like an ant in comparison. No matter where he went on this trip, there was always going to be something eerily reminiscent of his childhood lurking in the woods. Perhaps, he could avoid it if he ventured out far enough. So he tied his hair up, slung a backpack over his shoulders, and ventured forth.

Exhilaration turned into exhaust as Juniper passed by the damn rock he saw thirty minutes ago. Juniper imagined this was what hamsters felt like on their spinning wheels. In what was first an attempt to get a breath of fresh air, Juniper had wound up stranded deep into the forest. Of course he was not lost, he was to prideful to acknowledge such a thing.

An exhale of relief slipped out as he spotted another traveler. It was Eli, he remembered him as the man who acted like a bashful school girl in regards to certain... things. In a city like Manta Carlos, it was quite unusually. Typically, Juniper would avoid him, as he did almost everyone on the island, but the selfie that would be used for his 'missing persons' notice on the news was not something he wanted on air. He perched himself on that rock and waved over Eli.


" Fancy seeing you here." He remarked, casually. At last, Juniper's acting skills were going to come in handy, as he pretended his whereabouts were completely intentional, despite how worn he looked.

Juniper scoffed. Pretentious? At least that was not nearly as bad as some of the other titles he had live up to during his stay on this island. His relief that he had found someone else out in the woods was disguised as a smirk. Any kind of mistake he made could be held against him in the future, so the general rule of thumb was just to be perfect.

" Hello, Eli." His voice dripped with disdain, like even two words was too much effort for someone like Eli. " Oh, you know...." He lingered, his tone lightened. The answer unclear, even to himself. " Getting a breath of fresh air I suppose. Those tents are so..." His finger traced the bottom his lip as he tried to articulate the correct answer. " Oh, forget it."

" So what are you doing out here?" He echoed, with one hand placed on his hip, reeking of judgement. There was a small part of him that was genuinely curious what kind of person it took to willingly go out into the woods in the middle of the night. " Trouble sleeping? No, wait, you left something out here, didn't you?"

Reading was one of Juniper's favorite activities. He wanted to read Eli like the cheap pulp fiction he was, it should have been an easy task. Somehow, he stood puzzled, Eli's expressions were nonexistent. Even if he had just the smallest bit of personality in him, the dark masked it, like a good quality concealer. He stared blankly at Eli, mirroring his stance; this man was more or less archaic English.

" What a shame. You really should prepare better in the future. I'd offer for you to stay in mine, but unfortunately, we're already at full capacity. " He remarked. His offer was like offering food to company, nothing was supposed to come out of it, more often than not, he never had the cookies that he promised.

" You would not enjoy my company anyways, she's a bit..." He waved his hands in the air, to communicate God knows what. " Different."

" Have you not bothered to ask anyone else? There's plenty of generous folk staying here."

Juniper also shifted his weight more to his right leg, nodding along to what seemed to be a genuine answer. Nevertheless, he treaded with caution. Something about Eli just rubbed Juniper the wrong way, it was not how he carried himself, rather the lack thereof that made him ... a suspicious figure.

" And what is so great about this place?" He already knew himself. His default smirk had died down, yet the way he focused on Eli implied he still had unanswered questions.

" You mentioned it earlier today, that you have lived for a couple hundred years, yes? Is this another one of your 'perks'?" As he questioned, stepping off the rock without much trouble, a trail of red hair followed. They were now at eye level.

" Not only do you get to tip toe your way around death, but these things that make us human, you can just weasel your way out of that too?" He remarked with a crinkled nose. " Can you even call yourself that anymore, a human?"

Over the years, Juniper had acquired protocol reactions for almost every situation imaginable. It was absolutely necessary for his profession. He knew the perfect grin for a passive aggressive complement, he could apologize profusely when he really did not mean it, but he was not prepared for this. Typically, these off-handed comments about the magic folk resulted in some form of retaliation, more often than not- physical. Thank god, the light coverage concealer he packed was just fine for this trip; those unsightly bruises were worse than the punches themselves.

He should have been satisfied. The look on Eli's face was priceless, and he should have wanted to remember it. Yet, that was not the case. " You know... knowing what you are, that is a burden as well." His eyes escaped their lock on Eli, he sounded annoyed too. " Of course, not that I would know."

As all things did, it all came back to Juniper. A grin returned as he tried to imagined it, although it was not nearly as fixed in place. Two hundred and twenty-three years. The ghosts of his own past haunted him throughout his mere twenty six, perhaps if he had two hundred more he would have forgotten about them by now, or even better, have avoided them altogether. " If I had two hundred more years... Oh, I could have been so successful by now... well, if I avoided getting lynched. The people from your time are awfully--" Juniper scrunched up his nose in apparent disgust.