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Gregory Fletcher's POV~

Austin, Alayna, Wilfred, Velma, and I took off toward the commotion, skirting past trees, dodging bushes, and jumping over logs. The amount of energy we put into our acceleration and the high humidity of the rainforest brought sweat to our faces simultaneously. We began panting quickly.

Eventually, the five of us reached a trail, extensive in width and length, that appeared to have been walked daily for quite some time, though maybe that only seemed to be the case because the ground was more rock than dirt, so plants could not invade as they did everywhere else.

Standing at least six meters ahead of the other islanders and me, in the middle of the path, was an aggravated Shania and a defensive Lianne. The former led the latter, whose hands were restrained with a vine as if she were a servant, onward. The side of Lianne's head was bleeding.

My best friend yanked her leash, and Shania spun around. She was about to chastise Lianne but caught sight of the group I was in and perked up before whistling into the jungle. Mere seconds later, Isaac and Geoffrey ran onto the scene on either side of the track, immediately spotting us.

The Snake with a man bun grinned. Like his two present comrades, he did not look as if he were aging, judging by the lack of hair growth over the last thirty days. "It was only a matter of time."

"What the hell are you doing, Isaac?" Austin growled.

"Doing what you did to us."

"What are you talking about?! We haven't even seen you since you burned that wood!"

Isaac refused to discuss further. He motioned to Geoffrey, and the two men began to surround Austin, Alayna, Wilfred, Velma, and me by advancing toward our right and our left, leaving Shania in the front with the captive Lianne. To my surprise, none of the Snakes were armed.

The African-American student was on the flank closest to his college friend. He stared directly into her eyes and shook his head. "You shouldn't be here, Velma, so don't put up a fight, okay?"

"We have weapons, Geoff. Don't do anything that'll cause them to be used, please," the blonde begged. "Can you just-just come back to our base with us? It-it's been a month, and I miss you."

"Dude, you have a base? You haven't been trying to go home?"

"What a fucking shocker," Isaac commented.

Austin stretched his arms to ensure we, his team members, stood with our backs together. In his tight fist was the steel plane axe. Beside him, I grabbed my bow and nocked its projectile, and Alayna extracted her wooden knife from her red attire. Wilfred, though uneasy, readied his spear.

"Just tell us what's going on, Isaac," Austin insisted.

"What's the point, man?" the captain of the Snakes quizzed. "It won't stop me from tying you up with your friends and keeping you right where I want you. You couldn't do shit then, could you?"

Alayna scowled. "You want to keep us tied up and within your sight for a reason you refuse to disclose with us? Hm," she scoffed, "four weeks in, and you've already lost it. Come on then."

"You always were a fighter, Alayna."

With a curt nod from Isaac, Geoffrey rushed forward, and his leader scampered, too. As soon as they set foot on the trail, Lianne jerked away from Shania, failing to escape, and the two women began physically battling. Alayna hurried to assist Lianne after Isaac picked Wilfred as his target.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey accosted his wide-eyed friend with glasses. "Just stand down, Velma, and let us take you back to what we've been working on to go home. You'll only get hurt if you don't."

"Geoffrey, this is ridiculous! Call them off before someone gets hurt!" Velma pleaded.

Sighing, the male college student barrelled ahead and slammed his shoulder into Velma with enough force to knock her to the ground. The very second she was out of the way, he punched Austin in the gut, and the men started to scuffle. Velma stood and tried to break them apart.

"Stop this, Isaac!" Wilfred demanded. "This isn't what we wanted!"

Isaac was too infuriated to communicate with words. Since Wilfred, being the Bird he was, did not want to engage in harming another person, his stone-tipped spear was smoothly taken from his grasp, and Isaac began wrestling with him in an attempt to fasten his hands behind his back.

Instead of firing my arrow, I wielded it like a knife and barged into Geoffrey. Austin staggered but caught his balance as the college student and I landed with grunts, with me falling on top of him. Geoffrey squirmed to escape, but I continued pining him down until Velma snatched me off him.

"Stop it, Greg!" the blonde hissed.

Using his new position to his advantage, the puffing Geoffrey back-handed my cheek with an ear-shattering smack and, as a result, received a massive blow to his temple by Austin's elbow.

"Stop! Oh my god, stop!"

Now that the African-American survivor was weakened on the rocky and dirty path and being comforted by his younger school friend, I staggered to my feet and clutched my burning face. Austin replaced my palm with his hand as if he could stop the stinging pain with a single touch.

"I'm fine," I assured.

Immediately thereafter, a scream from one of the three combating women was so painstakingly loud and full of agony that the rest of us froze, only moving to glance at them. Lianna and Shania stood before each other, whereas the flight attendant was on her way up from the dusty ground.

The wail had come from Shania after Lianne had used Alayna's handmade knife to stab the Snake directly in the middle of her stomach. When she extracted the deadly weapon, she accidentally tore more of Shania's skin when a jagged piece of wood near the hilt snagged it.

Blood exploded from the not-too-deep wound that would yet undoubtedly cause Shania's death within the following few minutes. Lianne dropped the stained blade and backed away, almost bumping into the older sister. Near Austin and me, Velma rose with her dismayed college friend.

"Oh shit," Geoffrey cursed.

Soon, Isaac snapped out of his aghast state and disappeared into the sweltering rainforest. Geoffrey instantaneously trailed him, both Snakes abandoning Shania with no hesitation. Regardless, she began racing after them while holding a hand over her ruptured stomach.

"They're getting away!" the Australian with muttonchops clamored.

Austin quickly held out a hand. "I'll run after them with Greg. You start heading back to the cave with the girls. I need you and Velma to make sure Lianne's head and Alayna's arm get treated."

"But—"

"Just go!"

Reluctantly, Wilfred gestured for the women to jog with him in the direction most of us had come from. As they were, I made eye contact with Lianne and could tell she was stunned by what she had done to Shania. With Velma's gentle assistance, however, she followed Wilfred and Alayna.

In the meantime, Austin and I partnered and began sprinting through the jungle. Maybe sixty seconds later, we stumbled upon another path similar to the one we had fought the three Snakes on, and sitting against a boulder close by was a gasping Shania. She was bleeding out.

With me at his side, Austin approached the dying woman. "What the hell was that back there?" he questioned in a tone that told me he detested the fatal consequence of the recent conflict.

"Don't play stupid," Shania seethed.

"Just answer the damn question!"

"One of you stole from us, from our camp! The-the guys tried to make it seem like we don't have one, but we do, Austin, and one of you stole from it. We figured it was only fair to steal from you."

"We didn't steal anything. We haven't even been looking for you! We've kept to ourselves! Then some of your shit went missing, and you wanted to blame whoever was easiest to blame, right?"

The aching Shania soughed yet grinned. "They'll be back, Austin. They won't just stop because they lost me and are more outnumbered than we were. Do you want them stopped, though?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because the day they're stopped is when most of you will already be dead."

Austin glowered at Shania until his facial features eased up when her blood-soaked hand slipped from her wounded stomach to the grassy ground, and her slow breathing gradually ended. With his head sagging, he turned around with a sigh, and I rested a comforting palm on his lower arm.

"Should we bury her?" I wondered aloud.

"I don't know," Austin grumbled. "It'd be right to, but we need to catch up with the others and... make sure they... find their way back," he said, his volume lowering and his brows furrowing.

Confused, I listened to our verdant surroundings, which Austin was doing just as carefully. With enough concentration, I heard what I presumed he did while he was talking, the faraway sound of churning water through the other tropical noises of the rainforest, primarily birds and insects.

Austin cast me an inquisitive glance, and I nodded before we sped up the path comprised chiefly of stone. I was exhausted from the intense fight and the exercise my legs had endured, but my excitement was piqued and, ultimately, not diminished after we took two wide turns in the trail.

Shimmering majestically before my rescuer and me was a tremendous pair of twin waterfalls replenishing a massive pond, a shallow river branching off. Various verdure started atop the cascades, continued around the big basin, and lined the lake. Dragonflies fluttered everywhere.

"Dragonfly Falls," I marveled.

The golden blond caught his breath as best he could, then scurried forward, halting at the brink of the lily pond to strip from his ratty pants and his bejeweled wristwatch before diving into the crystal-clear liquid. He resurfaced after swimming almost to the exquisite body of water's center.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I shouted. "Do you know many parasites might be in there?!"

Austin ran a wet hand through his messy hair and down his stubbled face prior to shooting me a playful beam. "Do you know many awful diseases you might catch if you don't take a bath?!"

"What if there are, like, crocodiles or snakes in there?!"

"Nothing I can't handle!"

"Oh my god, Austin!"

"Greg, don't tell me you're going to find Dragonfly Falls after everything we just went through and not swim in it! Besides, look at the water! It's clear as day! Nothing will sneak up on us!"

With a defeated exhale, I made one hundred percent sure the only aquatic life I could notice on the pond's bed were harmless plants, then peeled off everything except my underwear and leaped into the water, which certainly felt like an exclusive sensation for Placatory Isle's elite.

As soon as I reached Austin and set my feet on the basin's soft bottom, he hooked a robust arm around my waist and tugged me into an embrace, permitting me to take pleasure in the intimate and erotic touch of his bulging chest pressing into my body, more so when I returned the hug.

Eventually, instead of using words to describe the moment we would remember for the rest of our lives, Austin expressed his opinion by keeping me against his hot skin, bringing a hand to my cheek, and pushing his lips into mine. Our eyes shut, and my palms slid around to his stomach.

The kiss was nothing less than divine, especially in a secluded location as gorgeous and roaring as Dragonfly Falls. Throughout it, Austin moaned and pulled me impossibly closer into his heat. My fingers desperately wanted to caress his pectoral muscles but remained on his taut stomach.

When my savior unwillingly broke the osculation, he did so with a satisfied simper and stared adoringly into my sparkingly orbs. "We should probably stop," he murmured. "If we don't, I promise you, Greg, neither of us will be able to walk back to the cave until this time tomorrow."

"I don't see a problem with that," I grinned in a whisper.

"I think the others would disagree. We'll have plenty more time for this stuff, though. In fact, Wilfred mentioned treehouses not long ago, and I remembered when I implied building a couple to you and the girls when we found the cave. It makes sense for the boyfriends to share one."

"Sounds like those boyfriends have a lot to look forward to."

"Oh yeah, they'll make sure they do."

Austin and I kissed one more time, then let each other go to swim to the pond's shore to dress. However, before we put on one article of clothing, he squinted toward the base of the waterfalls, perhaps behind them. I tried to see what caught his attention, but nothing unusual stood out.

"You see that?" the Holmes member quizzed.

"No," I answered.

Austin jerked his head, signaling me to follow him to the raucous cascades. Once there, he began to tiptoe on a ledge of slippery stone in the back of both rapids, the first of which concealed nothing, but the second and farther waterfall obscured an unnatural passage in the rock wall.

The blond attempted to squeeze through the crack leading into darkness but was too big. He looked at me on his left and shook his head. "I can't fit! Do you think you can get through?!"

"Um, I'll try!" I yelled.

Austin flattened against the rough stone as best he could, and I held on to his hips to stabilize myself while bringing a foot around him. Then, as I crossed him, my crotch rubbed his, and he inhaled sharply and stared ahead with a steady gaze, biting his cheek to hold back a smirk.

"That was not on purpose, I swear!" I asserted.

"I know!" the humored Austin hollered. "It was just... unexpected but very appreciated!"

Blushing, I shifted and braced myself for whatever awaited me at the other end of the gap. When I reached my destination and let my eyes adjust to the lack of light, I learned I was in a tiny room containing a bumpy stone pedestal, upon which was a glorious green Gem the size of a baseball.

"Uh, Austin?!" I called.

"What is it?!" my boyfriend yelled in a worried tone, his voice muffled.

"There's one of the Gems that Velma talked about in here!"

"Are you serious?!"

"It certainly looks like a Gem that the queen would have to me! What do I do?! It's important, or at least we think it is, don't we?! So I don't want to leave it if we're unsure if we'll come back!"

"Well, I don't want the queen getting to you for messing with what's probably hers! We'll come back anyway! There's no way we won't! This is Dragonfly Falls, Greg! This'll be our new home!"

"So I should leave it?!"

"For now, yeah! It's been in there for centuries! It'll be there when we come back!"

I nodded as if the nearly-naked Austin could see me, then exited the secret chamber. After I let him know I was okay, he led the way to our discarded garments and our weapons, and we finally threw on our ripped clothes before departing Dragonfly Falls, praying we would return soon.

Time Jump~

The moon had risen when Austin and I arrived at our cave, where only Lianne and Alayna were sitting around a low fire. The flight attendant's purple scarf still wrapped her arm, whereas my best friend had nothing to patch the wound she had sustained to her head before her reprieve.

"Li!" I shouted.

Lianne erected briskly and grinned with an emotive sigh as we met in a hug. Alayna stood, too, but did not embrace anyone since I was preoccupied with Lianne, and Austin was topless, which caused her to seldom touch him out of respect for his and my romantic interest in each other.

"It's about time you two showed up," the kennel worker chuckled. "Where the hell were you?"

"There's, uh... actually quite a bit to share, so it's probably best we answer that when we visit the Birds tomorrow," I replied giddily. "Speaking of, where are Velma and Wilfred? Are they all right?"

"You guys were gone for so long that they left to go back to their oasis a while ago. But yeah, they're okay. They made it back here safely and made sure me and Alayna were okay, too."

"Good."

My boyfriend stepped forward, greeting my best friend by nodding with a tiny smile. "Glad to have you back. How'd they get their hands on you, though? What did they do after they did?"

Lianna huffed and sagged her shoulders. "I went out to use the bathroom. When I was done, I thought I'd take literally five seconds to examine some flowers I'd seen when I was out there with Greg. Well, during those five seconds, Isaac came up behind me and... dragged me away."

"And after?"

"They tied my hands and never left my side. There was one time when I struggled, and that bitch hit a rock over my head. God, I can't believe I killed her. I fucking killed someone, Greg. I-I know I told you that one day that I would if it meant defending our group, but now that it's happened..."

As I consoled Lianne, the Australian looked disturbingly at Austin. "She is dead, right?"

The golden blond bobbed his head. "Made it pretty far for someone with a hole in her stomach, but we caught up to her fast and got some information. We'll get into it at the oasis tomorrow."

Alayna nodded, letting her hands fall from her waist. "Then it sounds like tomorrow will be another big day, hopefully with less blood than today. Let's get some sleep or at least try to."

The fire was extinguished, and the other Monkeys and I entered our shallow shelter. Lianne told us she would be fine and promised to let me know if she needed someone to talk to before she claimed her bed. Alayna momentarily tampered with her tainted scarf, then relaxed on her cot.

For the third night in a row, Austin joined me on my mattress of leaves, but this time, he was more comfortable holding me extra close. He laid on his back and let me utilize his hard yet comfy bicep as a pillow. I was quick to start massaging his strapping shoulder nearest to me.

The stubbled Austin looked at me. "You all right?" he whispered.

"I was thinking how I might have to be there for Lianne," I responded just as softly. "It got me thinking how grateful I am for you guys. I mean, I may be the crisis counselor expected to help others, but it's good to know I can count on you three and the Birds to be there for me, too."

"Whenever you need us."

I smiled and pecked Austin before inching closer to him, my right palm beneath him and holding his shoulder, whereas my left hand was more so in his armpit, my fingers linked. Now cozy, I shut my eyes and let the predicted cacophony of the evening carry me into a relatively restful respite.

Time Jump~

At some point before noon the following sunny morning, the other Monkeys and I arrived at the oasis, where the four Birds were conversing. Velma and I made awkward eye contact, making me want to hide behind Austin, but neither of us said anything and probably would not for a while.

Susie was swift to approach Lianne and Alayna. "Oh, I'm so glad you all stopped by! Are you two all right? Wilfred told us you were injured yesterday. Do you still need me to look at anything?"

"If it's not a big deal," the flight attendant replied.

"Not at all! Come here."

As Susie led the female Monkeys to her makeshift workbench to alleviate their wounds with what little she had of a therapeutic plant, the other Birds gratefully met with Austin and me.

"I'm happy to see you two made it back safely," Wilfred commented, simpering before becoming solemn. "What all happened after I took the girls back to the cave? Did you find the Snakes?"

Austin nodded with his head hung and his masculine hands on his hips. "We found Shania by a rock not far from where we fought. She was bleeding out. There was nothing we could've done."

The male Australian frowned, as did Velma and Juanita, while the Monkeys being medically treated and the redhead tending them listened to the grave discussion. Shania may have been a Snake, but we never desired to commit murder, even in defense of ourselves and one another.

Unfortunately, the day had come and gone when a Monkey or a Bird did kill a human being. The Snakes would undoubtedly seek revenge for not only the slaying of Shania but also for the supposed theft of one or more things that belonged to them, which led Austin to his next topic.

"Before she died, Shania mentioned their camp being stolen from," the golden blond divulged.

Susie stopped primping the older sister's scrape, standing vertically. "Stolen from?!" she fretted. "But none of us know where they're stationed! How could we have possibly stolen from them?!"

"Listen, I don't know, okay? She said they were stolen from, so they stole Lianne and, from how she worded it, were going to steal all of us, keep us restrained. They're not... sane, not anymore."

"Already, huh?" Juanita said defiantly. "Can't say I'm surprised. God only knows what they've been up to in the past thirty days. The best thing to do now is to be extra alert. They'll be back."

"Yeah, they will, so I want to make us safer by, uh... by suggesting we move to Dragonfly Falls. I found it with Greg after Shania died. I can't even describe it. You need to see it for yourselves."

Velma was astounded. "You found Dragonfly Falls?! How do you know for sure?!" she tested.

"There's simply no way it isn't, but even if it's not, it's better than where we're living now. The trees there are smaller than those here, which means we can build treehouses near the pond."

I raised a hand. "And, by the way, we found a green Gem through a crack behind one of the waterfalls. We think it might be one of Queen Pacificea's Gems, so we left it up there for now."

"Oh my goodness!" Velma gasped, amazed. "If it is hers, the others could be close by! Juanita, we're really going to have to keep busy deciphering so we can learn more about these things!"

Wilfred passed a skeptical look to the Hispanic woman and the girl with glasses. "Not that I'm against moving, but two things on my mind are making me hesitate to make a final decision."

Austin knitted his brows. "Okay?"

"First, we fought with the Snakes near Dragonfly Falls yesterday, which means they're around there, too. You're asking us Birds to live closer to the people we are trying to stay away from."

Velma sulked. "You have a point, but does your point matter? Because after our fight, I don't know if the Snakes would hesitate to hurt us the way we've been thinking they wouldn't."

"True."

Austin gestured to the man with muttonchops. "What's the second thing on your mind?"

"The second is about the treehouses," Wilfred continued. "Now that they may be in our future, we need to acknowledge the fact that they're not going to be started and finished in two days, okay? It'll be more like two months, maybe a lot longer. We would have to work our asses off."

"Well, maybe it's because we don't live near a body of water like you Birds do, but I'm willing to work my ass off if it means we can be elevated and near clean water to drink and bathe in daily."

"Same," Alayna murmured, more to herself than anyone in particular or the people conversing.

With folded arms, the troubled Wilfred diverted his attention. "What do you think, Susie?"

The freckled Australian pivoted, exhaling profoundly. "Personally, I believe Velma is correct regarding our issue with the Snakes. If she is right, we would be safer living by the Monkeys."

Juanita concurred. "Whether or not we find ourselves in a fight with the Snakes like some of you did yesterday, our tribes should still be close to each other to keep us all safe, so yeah, I agree."

Wilfred brushed a hand through his puffy blond hair, then gave Austin a shrug. "All right, man," he sighed, "I'm convinced. What now, though? I guess we start packing and moving north?"

"Basically," my boyfriend affirmed. "Spend today grabbing what you need, and meet with us at our cave tonight. We'll all sleep there and start heading up together early tomorrow morning."

Nods were shared, and the Birds dispersed. When ready, the other Monkeys and I left the oasis to gather our belongings at our shelter in preparation for the next day, when the eight of us would voyage north and spend the next two months constructing four treehouses near Dragonfly Falls.

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