#thread.una

Baskar had hidden the small secret within his backpack, the one he carried everywhere. He knew he wasn't the very last person who hadn't claimed a bungalow, but he might be among the few who wouldn't even claim one. He was instead sleeping next to the radiators. Even if the idea of using white noise to make sure he got some extra sleep had filled him with dread at first, he'd eventually given in because he was so tired.

The level darkness under their eyes reminded them of their time in school, sleepless nights to make both tuition, housing - Baskar had always tried to get something far away from the other students -, and school deadlines, but also the fear of their father showing up. This wasn't that different from before, but they were a bit older, they could feel how that made it worse.

A new arrival on the island, Charlie had soon found plenty of people willing to give him a lay of the imaginary land he'd created. It was all general enough, made sense from an organisational perspective, even if there were certainly a good amount of mysteries his mind had conjured up that had already made him question whether this was truly his brain's doing.

He'd never been the dreamer who came up with fantastical stories. Maybe when he'd been a boy, led on by his mother's surreal stories that had been handed down for generations. It could be he was suddenly remembering all that.

"Excuse me, you're Una, correct?" he asked the blonde lady he found at the Hub. He'd been told several names by a young person with construction headphones - super powers must be because he'd watched a good amount of Marvel movies with his children. People this person said were good people, trust-worthy, willing to help new people. "Someone called Baskar told me that if I a confidence boost, you would be the one I should seek out."

Hearing so much all the time was intense, it left Baskar with headaches that they had difficulty suppressing. But there were moments of clarity, when they were not thinking too much or focussing too much and when they could actually zone in on one sound. 

Which was exactly what they’d done now. And what they’d heard, had made them shoot up from their little spot on the beach and run into the thick rainforest, grabbing a long stick from the ground and carrying it against their body as they ran. 

The sound of a wolf, something growling, intense, sounding big and dangerous, followed by the crunching of bones, and a feminine voice. He was starting to worry that he was too late, that he wasn’t running fast enough, that by the time he was there, there would be nothing left. 

The sounds rushed at him with such intensity now that they told him he was close. 

He was almost there. 

He was…

Not looking at the carnage he’d thought he’d find. 

Stick in hand, ready to fight off whatever evil there was, but unable to locate said danger. 

Instead there was a woman under a blanket. “Uhm… OH…” 

Under a blanket. 

Adarsh certainly wasn’t the right person to be looking for Beema. But it made sense to him: he had the ability to heal people, he had met the hornets head on already, and he didn’t think any of them would seriously hurt him because he was important in some way. In a big way, he just hadn’t figured out what way yet. 

But it proved difficult to find a single person - and a huge robot with hundreds of tv screens - in the forest. Perhaps he should’ve taken the kid with the enhanced hearing, or anyone else with good tracking skills. 

Opportunity presented itself however, because as he ran through the forest, he came upon someone who might as well have the right skills for this: the lady who could turn into a wolf. And a monster, but he wasn’t worried about that right now, if she was out here, she was probably not worried about it either. More worried about finding Beema. 

Whereas he simply wanted to play the hero.