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As the comfortable rumbling of the engine shut off, Elliot opened his eyes slowly. Wincing at the afternoon rays of light in the rear view mirror, he stretched and yawned, "Did we arrive..?" Chance leans over from the driver's seat, kissing his temple gently. "Good morning, or well, evening, my love. To answer your question, yes, we're at the clearing."
As Elliot unlocks the door and steps out, he breathes in the fresh air of the forest all around, admiring the view. Behind them was the subtle path, left by their ranger friend who organized this trip for them. And in front of them sat an old campsite, patches of grass here and there from months of isolation. The subtle noise of the forest told Elliot they weren't, by any means, alone out here. The distant call of birds and the nearby ringing of insects brought a warmth to Elliot's heart that he couldn't explain. The memory of a distant woman's laughter echoed in his mind, back when he was still young, the rustling of leaves accompanying the song of her voice.
He's gently brought out of his thoughts when all mind-numbing vibration seeps into the air. As he turns, he sees his other boyfriend stepping out of the back of the car. At a closer look, he sees inky darkness melting and spreading across his figure, the lightly tanned skin slowly consumed. The substance slowly swirls around his only visible eye until his entire being is covered. The moment that skin disappears from view, all sounds stop, hurting Elliot's ear for just a moment. Then, the world is alive again. He hears the chirping of squirrels and howling of distant coyotes. Elliot smiles and steps close to the entity, kissing his forehead softly. He hears a subtle purring from Trap, clearly happy at the display of affection.
Over the course of an hour, the trio managed to set up their tent and a makeshift nest for Trap inside the tent. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, Trap's high demands waited for no one. The chilly air of the evening coated the ground evenly, irritating the creature, who only craved warmth. Elliot chuckled at the child-like behavior, reminded of Mia in many ways. As soon as they were done setting it up, Trap snuck in, not planning to show himself until dinner was ready.
Elliot closes the tent flap, letting Trap be to collect warmth on his own, instead turning to look for Chance. He finds his partner rummaging in the back of the car, looking for food. Elliot huffs in amusement before pointing at the cooler at Chance's feet, effectively embarrassing the paranormal investigator. He watches as they pull out uncooked taco meat, 2 bell peppers, 1 tomato, and 3 bags of chips. Chance hands the ingredients to Elliot, who walks to their foldable table and sets them down. When he turns, he yelps because Chance is right in their face. "Hey." He smiles, satisfied with himself, "Sorry, sorry. Can you be a dear and go collect kindling? Some monkey fur and dead palmetto leaves will be fine." At the blank look he received, Chance sighs and explains, "Monkey fur is a fiber that you'll find on some trees; it looks and feels like fur. Really flammable. Palmetto leaves look like palm leaves, but they fan out more instead of growing long. I just need leaves that are on the ground and dead, the green ones smoke too much." At the clarification, Elliot salutes mockingly and goes to find the resources.
The crunch of the leaves under his winter boots is satisfying to his ears as he looks around, picking up kindling. He comes across a 5-foot-tall stump and rips off a branch sticking out. Where the branch snapped off the stump was a layer of reddish-brown fiber, soft and plush to the touch. Elliot gently tears at the layer, watching it act like cotton candy as it rips off the rest of itself. After collecting a handful of fur, he looks around for more leaves. After walking around a bit more, he finds a large bush with green leaves jutting out all around. The description that Chance gave fit the shape of the leaves he was seeing, and there were plenty of dead leaves at the bottom. He kneeled and tried to snap them off before snatching his hand back, having been pricked by the stem. While not sharp enough to break skin by accident, it was still unpleasant to handle, especially with chilled hands. Elliot reached into his pocket and put on his gloves, one of the many gifts that Chance had given him for Christmas. After securing them with velcro straps, Elliot tried again and successfully snapped off a large dead branch. With this win, he continued to snap off only the brown leaves, stashing the monkey fur into his pockets so he could hold more leaves, as they aren't exactly small, acting more as branches than leaves.
With this successful search for kindling, Elliot lugged the branches over his trained shoulder, snatching another handful of fiber before trudging over to their campsite. When he steps into the clearing, he sees Chance crouched in front of a stack of logs they brought, clearly stacked in a specific way. When they hear the rustling of the leaves that Elliot is carrying, they quickly turn around and smile. "Those are the ones! Did you find any fur?" They ask as they take the branches from him and set them down nearby. Elliot takes out the two handfuls that he snagged, and Chance's eyes widen. "Whoa! That's more than enough. Thanks, baby." He gently takes them from Elliot's hands, kissing him on the lips as thanks. They stand there for a few moments, just letting the warmth envelope them. After a few seconds, they pull apart, giggling like teenagers. They hold hands and walk back to Chance's makeshift fire pit, passing by the tent where Trap was hiding. The vibrations in the air from Trap were content and happy, showing that he was fine right where he was.
As Chance sits back down on the ground, they pat the ground next to them, signaling Elliot to join them. They point out their build with the logs, "This is called a Log Cabin, where it's kind of like Jenga. Just kind of though. You have two parallel logs, and then stack two more parallel logs that are perpendicular to the original two on top. And you keep doing that till you have a sufficient build that'll protect the fire from outside effects, while still letting air in through the gaps of the logs." He shares the information proudly, clearly happy with the knowledge he taught himself. Elliot nodded, happy that his partner was prepared when it came to survival skills. Goodness knows he needs it.
Chance turned to his left and picked up some sticks that he must have gotten while Elliot was out. Using 4 of them, he stacked them against each other so that they are all supporting the other inside the log cabin. "This one's called a teepee structure, and kind of the most popular fire structure. I like using it as a fire starter because logs are pretty hard to catch fire at first," he tears off a piece of fiber from what Elliot picked up, "and using this, we'll have a fire in no time!" He stuffed the monkey fur under the teepee and covered it with some leaves. They then brought out flint and steel from their pocket and started scraping away.
Despite saying that they would have a fire in no time, it still took 5 minutes for a spark to catch the kindling and stay. Minecraft made it seem so easy. As the fire grew and fed on the sticks, Chance laid a palm frond on top of the logs, effectively covering the fire. And in the blink of an eye, the branch caught a flame, and the fire grew 2 times bigger. Elliot stepped back as the smoke followed him, blinding him momentarily. Chance just kept feeding the fire, making them latch onto the logs. Despite the cool air around, Elliot saw the drops of sweat on his partner’s forehead. "Can I help? Maybe get food ready or something?" Chance turned to him, eyes sparkling. "Great idea! If you can cut the bell peppers and tomato, or get the taco meat ready for cooking, that'd be great." Elliot nodded, rolled up his sleeves, applied hand sanitizer, and got to work.
With a knife in hand, Elliot worked on the peppers first. He ripped stems out of both and cut them both in half vertically. As they fell apart, Elliot scooped out the cluster of seeds with his hands and set them aside. "How big do you want the peppers?" He looked over as his partner stood up, wiping sweat. "Uhmm, bite-sized pieces are fine, same with the tomatoes." Looking past Chance, Elliot sees that two of the logs have caught fire and are climbing their way up the structure. Proud of himself, Chance walks to the table Elliot is standing at and grabs the package of taco meat, before looking up at Elliot. "How should I prepare the meat, chef?" They giggle, happy with themselves for coming up with the nickname. Elliot just smiles and rolls his eyes, "Just take it out of the package and mash it up a bit. I assume you don't want to just eat a block of meat. Put on hand sanitizer first, though, you're covered in dirt." Chance nodded and poured some of the substance onto his hands, spreading it out evenly before grabbing the package and tearing it open.
As the two prepared their food at the table, they heard the sound of a zipper from their tent, as Trap emerged wrapped in a thick blanket. His eyes catch the firelight, and he tries to walk to it before, "Trap. You're either staying in that tent with the blanket or getting out without it. I'm not letting you get that blanket dirty." Elliot said without looking up, already knowing Trap's plan. After a moment of grumbling and a huff, Trap lets the blanket pool around his ankles in the tent and steps out while materializing winter clothes onto himself. He drags a thick log to the fire, lays it on its side, and slumps down, warming up again. And whether it's because he's an eldritch entity or something else, the smoke doesn't follow his position, simply letting him exist. Chance smiles at sight, reminded of a cat by a fireplace.
With all of the vegetables cut and diced, and the meat prepared in a pan, they bring all of the ingredients to the fire and set up a rack above the flame to cook the food. The two scooch in on either side of Trap, effectively trapping him on the log (not that he's complaining.) Elliot passed down the bags of Fritos they brought and told the two to crunch the insides as they wished. Confused by trusting their boyfriend, the three of them absentmindedly mashed the insides of the chip bags. After crushing most of the chips into smaller pieces, they opened their bags and poured the cooked taco meat into them, followed by the cut vegetables. Each one then added their own toppings as they liked, like shredded cheese or sour cream. "And there you go! Enjoy your Walking Tacos! Just throw away the bag when you're done, we don't have to do dishes!" Elliot said, entirely too happy with the lack of chores.
Over the course of their last hour of sunlight, they slowly ate their bags of chips, wiped crumbs off of each other's faces, and sat in front of the fire. Chance and Elliot sang a few songs, with Trap slowly but surely gaining more energy. As their final song came to an end, Chance rushed to their car and dug around in the glovebox to find something. As he came rushing back, the other two could hear jingling in his hidden hand. "So Trap. We had a family friend reserve this campsite for us so you could have some freedom with your form. However, that doesn't mean that you don't scare the shit out of us sometimes. So, I prepared," he pulls out his hand from his pocket, "this!" In his open palm sat a small bell, the object ringing as Chance shook it slightly. Trap stared in thinly veiled tiredness. "I'm not going to hold that in my hand the entire trip, Chance." Then Elliot spoke up from his right, "I don't think you have to hold it. I can tie it in your hair or something so it stays out of your way." Classic Elliot and his ideas, what would they do without him?
Chance handed the bell to Elliot while Trap turned his back to Elliot and untied his hair. The void black strands fell smoothly, untangling from the bun that he barely ever took out. Feeling Elliot's warm hands comb through his hair brought immediate relief to Trap, and he relaxed into the touch. Chance watched and hummed some song that Trap didn't have the energy to remember. He was content simply sitting with his lovers by the fire, feeling the warmth both on his skin and in his soul. Nothing could ruin this moment.
A rustle. A growl. And then a snort.
So much for enjoying the moment.
The three of them turn to the noise, trying to see what made the ruckus. All they see is the black of the night in between the trees. Elliot turns to Trap, who could probably see in the dark, to see if he had any better luck. "It's an animal of some sort, I can't tell if it's a wolf or bear." The silence was loud. "Those are both bad!" Chance quietly hissed. Trap stood up calmly, the bell that was now in his hair jingling softly. "I'll take care of it. Be ready to get in the car if it turns bad." Elliot tugged on his sleeves, "Be careful, baby. I'd better not see you hurt." Trap nodded and walked into the darkness, the soft crunch of leaves under him being the only indication of life as he disappeared. They hear another animalistic snort before some squeals echo into the night, an obvious stampede of animals running away from the camp. Then silence.
Chime.
Elliot and Chance watched as Trap stepped back into view, not a single scratch on him. "It was just some hogs, digging for roots. If you go over there later, be careful of the holes." They both stared, dumbfounded, before Chance started giggling. It soon became uncontrollable, and they fell backwards onto the ground, still cackling. "They saw you and bolted! They were so scared!!" Still gasping for air, Elliot was then infected with the giggles, as he also fell backward. Trap stared, confused about what was so funny, but too tired to ask. He hobbled over, pulled them both up into his arms, and sat down on the log, letting the laughter die down slowly. When they caught their breath, Trap kissed each of them gently. He then looked up at the sky and smiled.
With the lack of light pollution out here, the stars in the sky glowed brightly, glittering like stones in water. Chance and Elliot followed his gaze and gasped at the view. "Whoa! I don't think I've ever seen this many stars in my life..." Their eyes dart everywhere as their minds try to comprehend and take in the details. Trap smiles and points out a specific area. "You see those three stars lined up in a row there? That's Orion's belt. And the triangle above it? The point on the left is Betelgeuse. If you look closely enough, you'll see Orion's entire body and the weapon he holds. The details get messed up between people, some saying it's a shield, others saying it's a bow." His partners listen intently, following his finger as it slides to the left. "And that bright one is Sirius. He's part of Canis Major, acting as the hound's chest. He is one of Orion's hunting hounds. Historically, Sirius was a sign for Egyptians that the Nile was going to flood, and improve their agriculture. Led to some religious beliefs for them, as it usually goes." He trailed off, suddenly embarrassed at his ramble. "Sorry, probably boring, huh?" The kiss he receives from both of his partners has him hiding his face in embarrassment. "Your talks are always interesting, tell us more pleaseeee?" Chance begs, nuzzling his neck. Elliot joins in, leaning his head on Trap's chest. Trap sighs, knowing he's doomed. He can't deny his lovers like that. So, he spends the rest of the last hour of firelight explaining the facts and beliefs of the constellations in their sky.