"Guys- guys I found something over here!" Beef called out to the others ahead and behind him. Etho, looking over a few steps ahead, was the first to make it.

"That's-"

"Moss hoodie fabric." Beef finished for him.

Etho, eyes wide, started to bend down to reach for it, ignoring the twigs and rocks pressing into his knees through the fabric of his pants. He was barely unable to grab it, when Beef offered a hand.

Etho grabbed it, and with Beef holding his hand to keep him slipping, he reached further until he swiped the fabric from the blackberry vine.

"Ah-"

Beef pulled him up.

"You ok Etho?"

"Yeah." Etho looked at the finger that stung. "Just a nic." He wiped off the dab of blood with his thumb and stood up with the tear of fabric in his other hand.

"What did you find?" Grian ran over first, accidentally shining his light in their eyes.

"Ack!"

"Dude!"

"Sorry sorry." Grian titled it down quickly.

Cleo and Doc ran up next one one side, and Iskall, Mumbo, and Team ZIT caught up from the other side.

"What is it?"

"We found Bdubs hoodie- or a tear from it." Beef said, and Etho held it out so more people could see.

"Could we- I dunno, track it?" Zed offered.

"Someone get Ren." Doc said. The trail was sorta thin at this section, so it would be hard for him to get to the front where Ren had gone.

"And False, if they're still down there, the night vision goggles could really help." Cleo added.

Impulse and Tango were at the end of the line nearest to them, and carefully hurried towards the two.

"This might be a good sign." Tango muttered, slipping unter a fallen branch as he dodged trees and clumps of rocks that could trip him up. He and Impulse went as quickly as they could, because really, they had no idea if time was an issue or not. If it came down to seconds between safety or harm, they would feel terrible if they were the reason something bad happened.

"Yeah. I mean, not the fact his hoodie is ripped of course," Impulse laughed nervously. "But any sign of them is good right?" His voice squeaked.

"Dude your voice is going up an octave!"

"I know man! I'm just freaking out a little!"

"They'll be fine." Tango reassured, also nervously. "All the time with the big eyes crew taught me Kerais is stronger than he seems and Bdubs is smarter than he looks."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment for Bdubs but-" Impulse laughed a little.

"Well with Bdubs, only backhanded compliments are allowed."

"True." Impulse said as they slowed down.

"Hey, what's up guys?" False noticed them first. "Find something?"

"A tear of bdubs hoodie- we think. Probably. I mean, it's moss looking fabric, so." Tango rambled.

"Oh great!" Ren popped up from the side.

"We were wondering if you could track it at all, Ren?" Impulse said. "I mean, not to assume you can- or to imply your a dog or anything, like we don't mean anything by it, but-"

"Nah it's all fine my man." Ren cut off his nervous half-apology. "And I can try, but..."

"But what?" Tango asked. They were all looking at him.

"I mean, all you dudes have pretty distinct smells and such. But Bdubs, well his moss-age theme makes this much harder in the woods. Everything smells like moss and dirt out here!" Ren explained.

"Oh- is that a problem?" Impulse looked worried.

"It might be, let's meet up with the rest and see." Ren said.

They all nodded, and Tango led the pack back to the others, who were too far away. They could see the flashlights ahead, and picked up the pace for the last few steps.

"Hey guys-"

"Ren, smell this." Cleo shoved it in his face immediately. If it were other circumstances he'd call her rude, but the urgency was permitted in this situation.

Ren grabbed it, and started to sweat with all the eyes on him. "Dudes you're making me nervous.." He chuckled nervously.

"Give 'im some room luvs! We can keep looking over here in case-" She trailed off, not wanting to jinx it not working, and tapped a few hermits to follow her away from the group to make it less crowded.

The moss hoodie, unsurprisingly, smelled like moss. And maybe some dirt and sweat, but not strong enough to track. And it sorta smelled like Keralis too, but that was also unhelpful, because Keralis normally had a woody smell, so who could've guessed that was unhelpful in the woods?

The group looked at him expectantly, he sighed, and reluctantly said, "Nothing dudes."

"Are you sure? I mean, it wasn't that long ago, uh, how long do smells last?" Tango asked.

"It's not that there's no smell, but the smells are moss, wood, dirt, and sweat! You think I can separate any of that in the forest?"

"No blood?" Etho asked, a mixture of relief and worry.

"I'm not a shark." Ren stated.

The group farther away figured they were done and rejoined, and Impulse quickly explained to them it was no use.

"Well we know they were around here." False said, trying to be hopeful. "We just have to look around the area."

"That's if they're even together." Zed whispered.

Everyone stilled.

"No, no they have to be." Etho started. "They're joined by the hip. They wouldn't have- they couldn't have-."

Doc rested his hand on Etho's shoulder reassuringly, but Etho, in a slight panic, dipped away from the touch. Doc drew his hand back quickly.

"If they're not together- we'll never find-... we lost Bdubs and Keralis...." Etho started to panic, realizing it all over again. "What if we can't-"

"Woah woah dude." Ren stepped in front, keeping a comfortable distance between them.

"Hey hey. In and out ok? We'll find 'em, together. I smelled a bit of Keralis on the fabric. Faint, but there ok? I'm sure they wouldn't separate. They're not the type to get mad at each other and separate, even if something happened ok? In and out." Ren calmed him down, slowly but surely.

Doc was staring, partially in awe of Ren's complete ability to step in and help Etho so quickly, and partially taking notes for himself.

Etho nodded, and stared at his feet, continuing to breathe slowly. No one mentioned it, something he was thankful for.

"What if we climbed a tree!" Grian offered more optimistically. "We could see the area a little better, and maybe see any lights far away."

"It's worth a shot. We're going in circles on this trail." Mumbo said.

"Well, who can climb a tree?" Cleo asked the crowd.

Three people raised their hands, False, Grian, and Iskall.

"The fabric was also down there a little, do you think they fell or something?" Beef realized, announcing it.

"There's a lot 'f us." Stress said. "We can make sure these geezers don't fall or get lost in the trees, and you lot can inch down there a ways."

"Good idea, just don't split up too far." Iskall said, nodding to the people getting ready to slowly go down the edge of the trail. "If you can't see our lights, you're too far."

People nodded, and some waved their flashlights around to test how far they shined brightly. Some were better than others, but all of them worked at least.

Grian and Iskall turned towards a sturdy tree, with False catching up a few steps behind, as they figured out the best way to do it. Stress was standing firmly on the trail, watching over everyone and counting heads silently. She figured out which people were in each group, and tried to keep track of how many of them she could clearly see.

Mumbo, feeling a little useless, walked towards the group going towards the edge of the trail. Stress made eye contact with him, a silent conversation asking if he was sure about this. He paused and looked off the side. It was steep, even if they were finding a less steep slope, and it was all covered in brambles, sticks to duck under, and plants to trip over. Definitely more cross country than he was used to.

Without a word, he nodded to Stress, and continued.

"Ok, how are we doing this?" Grian asked, looking up the tree they picked. It seemed the most sturdy, and had more branches to grab onto and sit on. It wasn't the tallest, and there wasn't any guarantee that no branches would snap, but it would hopefully serve the purpose they needed.

"I think two of us can fit up there, and we can help each other on to different branches. We need one person to spot us." False said.

"You mean to be the Human pillow to fall onto if someone falls?" Iskall raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah pretty much." She shrugged.

"Well don't look at me." Grian raised his hands up. "I couldn't catch either of you."

There was a pause as False and Iskall looked at each other

Iskall sighed and slouched. "Fine, I'll do it. But please don't fall."

"Hey, not like we'll try to fall on purpose." Grian remarked.

"Be careful luvs!" Stress called over from the side.

Iskall shot a quick thumbs up and False and Grian nodded.

False walked up first, getting a foot onto the lowest bump on the tree to haul herself up to one of the lower branches. Her long sleeves and gloves were coming in handy.

"Here." Iskall mumbled, putting their hands in a cup shape to give Grian a lift up onto the other low branch that was slightly higher.

It was like that for a while, back and forth as they each got onto the next easiest branch to reach. Stress came over to watch with a worried expression, trying to keep an eye on the other group as well. Iskall, sizing up the height the two were at, really, really hoped they wouldn't slip.

False reached for the next branch, one of the last that could support her weight, and had to stand on her tippy toes to even touch the bark.

"I can't get to that one." She said, panting a little from the other branches.

Grian looked above him. "I can reach this one, and then if I can stand on it I can see above the canopy."

"Take my goggles." False reached over and he just managed to swipe them barely.

"Be careful." She warned.

He nodded, sliping the goggles around his neck temporarily.

With a deep breath and a forceful gaze above him instead of below, he wrapped his hand around a smaller branch to help him lift to the big one. He refused to look down.

Grian got one arm wrapped over the branch, and started to kick at the tree to find a footing to lift himself up. To get one leg up though, the other would have to dangle in midair dangerously, and even if he wasn't looking down, the instability of it all was very uncomfortable.

He found a very small nub to get one foot onto, and as he bent his leg to lift himself up, the other foot couldn't reach the lower branch anymore. He just had to hold on, stay calm, and breathe.

"Be careful!" False warned again.

He lifted one arm up slightly to get a better hold on the tree and winced at the dry bark clawing through his sweater. He grabbed onto it, and now had two arms securely on the branch. All he had to do was lift one leg up, and-

His foot slipped and his heart dropped. He squeezed his eyes shut and let up a sharp yell.

"Ah!"

"Grian!" False exclaimed. She gulped for his safety, and grit her teeth as she couldn't find a way to get over there easily.

"Are you ok?!" Iskall yelled upwards.

Grian kicked his foot back onto the tree and found the same ledge. It wasn't stable, but it was better than having both legs kicking around uselessly.

"I'm-" Grian slowly opened his eyes, trying to breathe. He was so high up. Oh wow. "I'm ok!" He finished.

"Grian." False said clearly and loudly. "There's a fork in the tree right above you. If you can safely inch your foot up there, you can get up. Otherwise, drop back down to the branch behind and below you."

He gulped and nodded. Inching his foot up, he found the divot in the tree and rested his foot there. He bent his dangling leg to balance his weight and pointed his toe to touch the tree. He swung his leg over and was able to wrap both of them onto the branch, slowly letting his arms loosen so he could sit up.

"Oh thank you False." He exhaled.

"Good job G." She chuckled a little, still sorta worried.

"We're ok, Iskall!" Grian yelled downwards.

"Good!" Iskall yelled back up.

Grian put the goggles onto his eyes and grabbed onto a small close branch to slowly stand up. There were leaves and small twigs brushing his face but the goggles protected his eyes and he was able to stand up without much trouble, other than the ones poking at his neck.

"What do you see?" False asked.

Grian looked around, appreciating how the night vision goggles really let him see details and movement with everything below.

"What should I look for?" He asked False below.

"Any movement far off? Or lights shining around that aren't from the others."

Grian scanned the area, only seeing trees. There were the flashlights of the group near them, but it was really close and clearly not Bdubs or Keralis. He tried to spot something that would help, even if it was just what direction the trail went.

"I can't even see the camp from here." He admitted as he looked behind himself.

He spent a few minutes looking around, with and without the goggles, and after his foot slightly slipped for the 3rd time in a row, he decided to call it quits. The sleep deprivation was not helping him, even if the cold air was keeping him awake.

"It was worth a shot." False said defeatedly.

Grian crouched back down slowly until he could sit on the branch normally facing away from False. He put the goggles around his neck again, because he didn't want them to fall off as he climbed down.

"I guess." 

Iskall held out their hand to help each of them down the last branch so they wouldn't fall over.

"Nothing." Grian muttered. He yawned and folded his arms over his chest. "Nothing but trees for miles."

"Aw I chipped a nail." False mumbled, picking at the nail polish that had been scrapped off from the bark. She was sorta avoiding the topic of tree climbing being a bust.

"I'll redo it back at camp," Stress said and yawned, "If we're even awake by then." She chuckled lightly.

"I think I deserve my nails painted too." Grian added. "Almost fell up there."

"Me too! I was willing to be a human pancake to save either of you." Iskall added.

"I'll do all you's nails after this. Maybe the others foun' something helpful." Stress said. "Come'on." She gestured towards the path, the other following slowly behind.

Team ZIT decided to walk down and back on the path again to camp, just to make sure they didn't miss either of them on the way, which left Doc, Beef, Ren, Etho, and Mumbo near where the ripped fabric was found. They decided to try to walk down the side of the trail for more clues, but it was steeper than it looked, and they didn't want to slip and get hurt.

"Does anyone have rope?" Mumbo asked nervously.

"No, why would we bring rope?" Doc asked.

"Well uhm- we could- if we had it that is- we could loop it around a tree so we could hold it to climb back up more easily. It is a little steep still."

"Oh good idea Mumbo!" Ren nodded,

"Oh- it is? But we don't have rope."

"No, but we could make a sort of human chain-thing a ma jig." Ren explained. "One of us is up here holding a tree and the others are holding hands to get as low as we can. It looks like the hill cuts off a little sharply near the bottom so we can't go too far anyway."

Mumbo gulped, "It- cuts off?" He squeaked, looking down the hill. "Wait, how far can you see man?"

"Better than you it seems." Ren joked and winked, getting a bigger laugh from Mumbo.

"That..." Etho started. "That seems like it would work. But we would need to go in order of strength. The strongest person would have to be supporting most of the weight at the top."

"Where would...." Mumbo started, and everyone looked at him, not helping with his sudden stage fright. "Where would that land the weakest person....?"

Beef was the first to take his place off the trail, getting a good grip on the tree before leaning outwards a little to get a feel for it. It wasn't like he could shift around later when everyone was lined up, or he might slip up and drop everyone.

Doc took his hand, finding a good footing as he dug his heel into the dirt to lean out better and take some weight off of Beef.

"Ren, you're up," Etho pointed.

Ren paused, and nodded. He had sorta expected Etho to go next, but the ninja wasn't really known for strength, so it made sense it was him instead, but he still didn't expect it, and Doc was there, and they would have to hold hands, which was totally normal, but Doc had been avoiding him all night, and-

Ren took a deep breath in, and slowly walked down sideways towards Doc.

Doc hesitated reaching out his hand, and when he did, he wouldn't make eye contact with Ren.

"Uhm. Hey dude." Ren started with a small smile, trying to lighten the heavy awkwardness between them.

"Hey."

"All good?" Etho called down.

"Yep!" Ren answered quickly.

Etho started to walk down, leaving a nervous Mumbo alone at the top. Beef was there too, but he was focused on keeping everyone steady and holding onto the tree and wasn't available to reassure Mumbo everything was fine.

Doc watched as Etho made it down to Ren and took his hand before leaning outwards to wait for Mumbo. His eyes caught on Ren's sleeve, which looked really familiar. He looked at his own clasped hand and could see a little better that it was a hoodie sleeve, and it was rolled up enough so Ren could use his hands, but was clearly too big for him.

The only light that Mumbo wasn't holding himself to light the path for everyone, was another stuck in the ground upwards on the trail. They couldn't easily hold them and make a human chain at the same time, and didn't want to drop and lose them, so it was all that worked.

It was not very much light at all really.

"Come'on Mumbo, you can do it!" Ren encouraged.

"Well I'm not so sure about this anymore lads-" Mumbo chuckled nervously, fiddling with the flashlight in his hands.

"Well it's too late to go back now." Doc said, giving Mumbo a look like 'we don't have all night'.

With a shaky breath, Mumbo clutched the flashlight together and began to inch his way down.

He almost tripped a few times, but by the end of it he was slightly more confident in how he stepped. Go sideways, crouch down, take bigger, and not faster, steps, and find something to stop yourself like a rock or plant each step, and you'll be fine.

He made it down to Etho, who offered his hand, and Mumbo gladly accepted.

"See anything helpful?" Beef yelled from the top.

Mumbo started to move the flashlight around on the ground, looking for anything even remotely helpful. Bdubs and Keralis were out there somewhere, probably, and they had to find them. A cold breeze swept by, and Mumbo shivered a little.

He was getting nowhere. He had a flashlight....and a way back.... And...

Mumbo pulled away from Etho and stepped down a little more, scouring the ground with his flashlight.

"Mumbo?" Etho started.

"Dude what are you doing?" Ren asked

"I'm just-...." Mumbo trailed off, stepping over a log farther away. He looked over the edge and gulped a little. It wasn't taller than himself by what he could tell, but falling there would no be a soft landing, or an easy one to climb out of. He stepped closer to the hill a smidge.

"Mumbo, stop walking farther away!" Doc yelled over Ren's shoulder.

"Don't you get lost too, Mumbo!" Beef yelled.

Mumbo ignored the protests and kept scouring the ground, looking for something to clue them in.

"What's..." He mumbled, seeing something bright peeking out on a branch high up. He walked over to it.

Etho looked back at the rest of the group. "I can get back up to here." He told them. "Don't move or we'll all end up stuck down here."

He let go of Ren's hand carefully, crouching down to slide down the rest of the hill safely.

"Mumbo what are you doing?" Etho called out, following his path "I thought you were scared of going down the farthest."

Mumbo didn't face him as he jumped up as high as he could to grab the strip of what he hoped was Bdubs headband. He missed by a long shot and landed a little awkwardly as he tried to steady himself on the uneven ground.

"I am, and it's cold, and I'm really tired." Mumbo admitted. He bent down further and jumped again a little higher. When he missed again, he focused on landing correctly this time. "But think about how scared they could be. If I fall and screw up, you guys know I'm here and you can help. They-"

Mumbo jumped again, more sloppily, and missed by a mile. He staggered on his legs, almost falling forwards. "They don't have that. They are missing in the woods at night, and if I were in their position, I'd... well I don't know what I'd do, but I would be scared. And they could be-"

Etho walked forwards and crouched down in front of Mumbo, cupping his hands.

Mumbo silently nodded, stopping his rant. He took a deep breath in, placed a foot in Etho's hands, crouched down, and jumped much higher with Etho's help. He just barely was able to grab the branch and bend it down to their level, enough to get what they wanted.

"No." Etho whispered.

"Dead end trail then." Mumbo sighed. "I really hoped it was something useful."

They both stared at the neon pink colored plastic, seemingly discarded in woods as litter after it wasn't of use anymore.

Etho and Mumbo ducked back under a bush and over the log to see the others still making a short chain near the top. Mumbo's hair caught in a little bit and he pulled his head away from it with a wince. His jacket was already ruined, what was his hair too?

Ren immediately saw the downcast looks on their faces, and didn't ask anything. Etho took a small running start to get up a few steps on the steep hill before he could grab Ren's hand and steady himself.

It was quiet and cold, but the plan of how to get everyone back up, and the movement of Mumbo grabbing Etho's hand to climb back up first, filled the void a little bit. Mumbo had to grab on each person a little awkwardly to make the next step up, and he still slipped onto his knees once, but made it up after some time, still holding onto the litter mistaken as Bdubs headband.

Etho climbed up next, needing a little less help, and so on until everyone was back on flat land.

"Let's meet up with the others." Beef said, breaking the silence calmly and leading the others back. He shook his arms to get the feeling back in both of them and dusted the bark off of his sweater.

Zed, Impulse, and Tango speed-walked back to everyone grouping up, hoping they didn't miss anything important. Or maybe it would be better to have missed something, because that at least meant the others had found something. They had run all the way back to the entrance of the trail, looking off the sides of the trail for Keralis and Bdubs or even just clues that might help, but came up empty the whole way.

Panting, they reached the large group, who looked like they had just reconvened themselves.

"Nada." Zed said. "Went all the way to the start of the trail and everything." Impulse and Tango nodded sadly next to him.

"We found nothing either." Grian said, glancing to the side. "Just a lot of treetops and stars." He mumbled.

"We found a piece of litter." Mumbo held up with neon pink plastic. "Thought it was his bandana. But now that I'm thinking of it, it wouldn't make sense to be as high as it was if it were his." He chuckled sorrowfully.

"Now what?" Tango asked with a crack in his voice.

Suddenly, Cleo came running out of the bushes.

"AH!"

"Oh my goddess!"

"What the-!?"

Screams of fear and confusion were let out by almost everyone.

"What was that for Cleo?!" Grian yelled out.

"Sorry." She said flatly, trying to catch her breath as well. "It's not like I yelled boo or anything."

"What were you doing out there?" Beef asked.

"Looking for the two of course! I thought maybe they got lost on the other half of the trail, so I cut through the middle to look for them."

"You are utterly insane." Mumbo breathed out, catching his breath from the scare. "We just looked down the hill a bit, not trekking through the woods alone!"

"Uphill." She added, a little winded.

"Uphill is insane!" He exclaimed.

"Did you find anything?" Doc asked quickly.

"If I found something, don't you think I would've started with that?" She asked sarcastically. "I brought nothing back but dirt in my shoes and twigs in my hair."

She emphasized it by trying to smooth her hair and quickly finding a moss covered twig to pull off. She tossed it to the side, frowning at how the loose, frizzy strands fell in her face.

"Well none of us found anything either." Impulse told her.

Silence hung in the air painfully uncomfortable. They were exhausted, cold, and dirty, and nothing they had done led them anywhere.

"I think-" Doc started, and everyone went completely silent to listen. "I think it's time to tell Xisuma."

There were sighs, murmurs of agreement, and whispers about the consequences they would most definitely face. Xisuma would be mad, and that was a huge understatement on its own. It was bad enough they had gone out without permission, but to lose two fellow Hermits in the process?

Doc, Etho, and Beef felt the most guilty as it was. Xisuma's scolding would only add salt to the stab wound.

"Guys." Iskall said quietly. They were all too busy talking about anything else they could possibly do, or how they could tell Xisuma without him freaking out, to hear them until they stepped away from the group.

"Guys," They repeated, louder. "Which way was camp?"

They all looked at the minor fork they were standing at with a new sinking feeling. In the daytime, it would be very clear which path to take, one was wider, looked clearly more traveled on and they could probably recognize trees and small landmarks on the way back.

But these were very tired highschoolers, only equipped with flashlights sort of starting to flicker a little, and they very clearly did not have luck on their side this lovely night. 

------ 

(4647 words! That's kind of a lot!)

Good thing I didn't try to add this one to the next or it might've taken forever to get out. Hope you guys liked it, and if you did, maybe comment, vote, or share with someone?

And have a great day or night!

oh! Did I tell you I have a discord server? I'm not sure if I have yet, because I keep forgetting which books I write it on or not, I'll just link it again! (in the comment, cause wattpad has a vendetta against links or something.)