TRUST

Joel grew pale and sweaty. He clutched the side where he had been stabbed and collapsed.

Masha jumped through the hole in the hedge to rush to his side. She lifted his shirt to check the wound. It was completely closed up, but a large reddish-purple bruise remained.

“Tch…it’s still bleeding on the inside.” Peony kneeled next to Joel, inspecting the bruise.

“Damn Elf! You want me dead, don’t you!?” he grunted.

“Th-that’s–”

Joel looked at Peony with a murderous look. “That’s why you didn’t finish, isn’t it!?”

“You didn’t give me a chance!” Peony snapped. They turned to Chinatsu and Miyabi as if trying to reassure them. “He tried to run off as soon as the wound closed!”

“Why would you do that!?” Masha said, holding his face in her hands. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“W-well…I heard you screaming so…”

Masha pulled him in for a tight hug and started to cry.

“Peony! Please help him!” she begged.

The Elf sighed and placed their hands on the wound. Peony began mumbling their prayer of healing while Joel quietly accepted it.

After Peony finished, Joel’s bruise was completely gone. The only remaining evidence of the injury was his torn and blood-stained shirt. The group remained close as they traversed the hedge maze, careful to stay within each other’s sight, afraid of encountering another Doppelganger. By the time they made it out, dusk was approaching.

“We’ll have to find somewhere to make camp,” Peony lamented, looking toward the setting sun.

“Oh, we have to?” Joel scoffed. “Why can’t we just keep going until we’re tired and then talk about making camp?”

“You can keep going if you want to, but we’ve already warned you about the kinds of dangers you’ll encounter at night in this place,” Peony retorted. They crossed their arms and stared at Joel.

“And how do I know you’re even telling the truth!?” he snapped.

“Because we’ve seen them!” Chinatsu butt in.

“Oh, you’ve seen them, huh!?” Joel was getting in Chinatsu’s face now. “And how do I know you’re not a liar, too?”

Chinatsu wasn’t going to let this asshole intimidate him, but before he could push back, Miyabi got between the two of them.

“Back off,” she growled. In Chinatsu’s body, she was only slightly taller than Joel, but she held her posture in a way that made her have so much more of a physical presence.

Chinatsu saw Joel’s right hand creep towards the back of his waist. He was definitely hiding something back there. The thought made his blood run cold.

Masha tugged Joel’s right arm.

“Please! We shouldn’t fight each other,” she begged.

Joel tugged his arm away and held up his hands before moving away. As Joel pulled out his pack of cigarettes, Chinatsu saw that the once-full pack only had a couple left. Chinatsu had noticed Joel was smoking less since the day before, and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was just getting cranky.

“There’s a dead-end passage over here,” Peony beckoned from a few meters away. They could start setting up camp now.

From the hedge maze, the path went straight to a dead-end with two diverging paths going left and right from there. The left-hand side was the dead-end corridor that Peony found, similar in size to the one they had slept in the night before encountering the Kobolds.

Opposite of the dead-end, the right path was fully visible–it went on for maybe half a kilometer before turning. They would be able to see if anything was coming from that direction.

“If I put up the barrier here, then it should provide us enough protection that we shouldn’t have to take shifts standing watch,” Peony explained.

“Will it?” Joel scoffed, exhaling smoke.

Not this again…

“What now?” Peony sighed. It was obvious that they were quickly losing patience with Joel. Before, while it wasn’t a secret that Peony disliked Joel, his annoying quips and comments were easily brushed off.

“Well…I was just thinkin’ about how we ran into those chupacabra-lookin’ things before even though you put up your little barrier,” he began. He took another drag off his cigarette and exhaled. “Who’s to say we won’t have a little repeat?”

“We won’t cook with any meat tonight, so that should avoid drawing them to us if there’s any nearby, right?” Masha chimed in.

“That’s beside the point,” Joel argued. He gesticulated as he talked, dropping ashes from his lit cigarette as he gestured to Peony. “How do we know this little shit isn’t going to pull the rug out from under us!?”

“I’m not!” Peony slammed down their staff. The ornaments on the top jingled while the pole hit the cobblestone with a resonating thunk.

“Peony wouldn’t do that!” Chinatsu protested.

Joel stared down Chinatsu and took a final, long drag off his cigarette. He tossed the butt on the cobblestone and ground it down with his shoe.

“If you wanna trust ‘em–fine. Be my guest. But we’re all taking turns lookin’ out for danger tonight,” he said, exhaling smoke. Joel nodded towards Peony, “And that includes the Elf.”

“How about we do it in pairs, then?” Peony suggested. “Since you don’t trust me, wouldn’t it be better if someone watched over me?”

“Fine by me,” Joel grumbled. “As long as it’s not me‘n’you.”

They built their fire and cooked their evening meal. The giant puffball mushroom was cut up and fried in tallow alongside the greens they’d brought with them from the courtyard. The mood was completely different from the night before.

While they’d usually eat pretty quietly, there would still be idle chitchat to pass the time. But tonight–nothing. Chinatsu didn’t like it. He was starting to get inside his own head again.

He wondered what was happening back in his world. What happened to his and Miyabi’s bodies after they’d been hit? Had they really died? Had their families held their funerals in the week they’ve been gone? And what about the others–were they all grieved and buried too?

He felt sick to his stomach just thinking about all of that.

Chinatsu glanced over at Miyabi. Was she feeling the same worry he was? If she was, she wasn’t showing it. She was straight-faced, nose buried in a book once again. Was she always this stoic? If she was, he hadn’t noticed it before.

After they’d finished eating, they decided on pairs for guard duty. Since they had an odd number, Miyabi volunteered to go on first watch alone. Masha and Joel would take on the second shift, followed by Chinatsu and Peony.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?” Chinatsu asked, patting Miyabi on the shoulders.

“I’ve been doing that already. It’ll be fine,” she said, brushing off his hands. She paused for a moment, then smiled. “You worry about me too much.”

“Isn’t that normal?” was what he wanted to say, but held his tongue. While it was true that he was worrying way more than he ever did prior to being sent to this place, he didn’t think it was unwarranted. Though he did feel a tinge of jealousy at how cool she’d been this whole time.

Actually, was it jealousy? Something stirred in his heart that he couldn’t quite figure out. It made it hard for Chinatsu to sleep. He drifted in and out of sleep–watching Miyabi reading quietly by the campfire, seeing her wake up Joel and Masha for their turn standing watch, hearing Miyabi’s slight snoring after she fell asleep.

Chinatsu opened his eyes and noticed Joel and Masha were gone. The campfire was still going, it was still the middle of the night, but they weren’t there. Did they run off to try passing through the labyrinth in the night? Did something take them? Panic set in.

He sat up, ready to wake up the others to alert them, when he heard some noises coming from just outside of view–past the barrier. Chinatsu’s heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest as he crawled closer to the entrance.

“Ow…”

That was Masha! Was she in trouble!? Chinatsu was about to rush forward when he heard another voice.

“Shh,” Joel whispered. “Don’t make too much noise or you’ll wake them up.”

Chinatsu stopped. He felt anger well up inside of him. If that bastard was hurting her–

“Ah! But–”

Her voice was muffled and cut off, followed by some soft giggles. Chinatsu realized what was happening.

His face felt like it was on fire. He quietly crawled back to where he had been sleeping, curled up in a fetal position, and clapped his hands over his ears. A mantra of ‘this is not happening’ echoed in his head until he finally fell asleep.

Chinatsu woke with a start as Masha gently placed her hand on his shoulder. It was still dark, but he could tell that the twilight of dawn was starting to emerge on the horizon by the gradient of the sky. It was his turn to take over watching the camp with Peony.

As he sat up, he noticed that Joel was already fast asleep. That bastard. Masha pointed at Peony and then sheepishly held her finger up to her lips. Chinatsu had no plans to mention it…or the other thing. He gave her a thumbs-up as a quiet affirmation.

Masha got comfortable next to Joel. Chinatsu couldn’t help but chuckle over how obvious she was.

He reached out his hand to wake Peony, but stopped himself. The two of them were supposed to be the next pair to watch for danger and maintain the fire while the others slept, but Peony just looked too peaceful to disturb.

Chinatsu drank in all of the delicate Elven features–their smooth porcelain skin, slim nose, and the long white eyelashes that rested softly on high cheekbones. Peony’s lashes fluttered as they opened their eyes, meeting Chinatsu’s gaze.

Chinatsu flinched backwards. He couldn’t hide that he was watching Peony while they slept. He just hoped they didn’t find it creepy. Peony sat up, rubbing sleep from their eyes.

“Is it our turn?” Peony yawned.

“Um…y-yes,” Chinatsu stammered. “B-but you can go back to sleep if you want. I’m fine by myself.”

“Nonsense,” they yawned again. Peony stood up and stretched. “I’m the one who suggested this after all.”

They poked at the fire with a branch from the kindling pile before throwing that branch plus two more into the fire. It flared up at the addition of fuel. Peony warmed their hands for a moment before sitting down next to Chinatsu once more.

“I don’t think you should feel the need to prove yourself to that guy,” he said, pointing at Joel.

“I agree. But doing so makes me more trustworthy, no?” Peony shrugged.

Chinatsu didn’t think that mattered. Peony had already proven to be a reliable ally and a tremendous help.

“Still, I didn’t think you’d want to pair up with me. I thought you’d pick Miyabi,” he mumbled. Chinatsu twiddled his fingers. He felt stupid for even saying that.

“Hm? What do you mean?” Peony tilted their head. A sly smile crept onto the Elf’s lips.

“W-well…you just seem to really favor Miyabi s-so I just thought that…”

“That…?” Peony leaned in closer.

“M-maybe you luh-like…” Chinatsu trailed off. He pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face. He could feel Peony looking at him, but couldn’t bring himself to meet their eye.

Peony put their arm around Chinatsu and pulled him close. His heart started to race.

“Little Chinatsu, you’re so cute,” Peony giggled, patting his head. “Are you jealous?”

“N-no…” he said, though the words were meant more to convince himself. Why did he even bring it up in the first place?

“If I liked Miyabi, would it bother you?” Peony asked softly.