Chapter XXXVII: In Order to Avoid Plot Holes ~Kaye

"Actually I think I lied." Kaye said, switching off the radio and setting it in the crook in her arm, once again wishing she had a backpack.
"Lied?" Oedipus asked.
"We can't really get lost more. As far as I know you're either lost or you're not, so you can't get more lost than just being lost. Though I suppose if we got unlost we could get lost again, which would be more." Kaye replied.
"Is unlost a word?" Jamal asked.
"Probably not." Kaye said. "Well let's see if we can find our way back to the cave." She flew up into the air, scanning the surrounding area. All she could see in any direction was a whole lot of grass, well that and a burnt hole where a forest had been. "A planet made up of parts of everything in the multiverse, so why is everything always either huge fields or forests?" Kaye floated back down. "We go that way." She pointed in a random direction.
"Do you see the cave?" Nubi asked.
Kaye shook her head.
"Then why are we going that way?"
"Because of aforementioned decision about not being able to get more lost, it stands to reason that it really doesn't matter which way we go."
No one seemed to have a better idea than picking a random direction and going that way, so they agreed to Kaye's random direction and started walking. Over an hour later they were still walking, and the scenery had not changed in the least from the endless grass fields.
Nubi stopped walking. "I'm getting hungry."
"I as well." Oedipus said. "But where can we get something to eat?"
"I guess I should make sure to pack some food in my backpack." Kaye muttered half to herself.
"What backpack?" Jamal asked.
"The one I'm bringing next time. Of course that is going under the assumption that I don't die this time, and then that there is a next time." Kaye said with a nod.
"Oh."
"Well there's a change of scenery. Looks like we're coming to a forest." Kaye said.
"Was that there before?" Nubi asked as she looked at the dark trees not more than five hundred feet in front of them.
"No." Oedipus answered.
"Well I'm all for a change of pace." Jamal said, starting forward.
"No blowing this one up." Kaye said.
"Picky, picky." He juggled a few unlit cherry bombs.
The shade of the forest was a welcome change from the sun on the field. The group of four made their way forward, still with no clue where they were going. Kaye was in the lead for the simple reason that she was walking the fastest, so when she paused, the other members of her group paused as well.
"What? Do you see something?" Nubi asked, looking out at the forest around them.
"No. I feel something." Kaye watched the trees to her right intently. She could feel a presence, but was weak and hard to pinpoint exactly.
A figure melted out of the shadows. She looked human like, with black hair and black eyes, and wearing a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans. A sword hung from her belt, still sheathed, and another could be seen in a sheath on her back.
"Who are you? And what are you doing on this planet?" She asked.
Another figure moved out of the shadows, this one had brown hair and a pair of wings on his back. He carried the same set of swords.
"I could ask you the same thing." Kaye replied evenly, looking from one to the other.
"My name is Adrian and this is Ren, and this planet our my home. We've both lived here our whole lives. You, on the other hand, must have been brought separately here since the last section from First Earth disappeared several months ago." The young woman turned to Nubi, Oedipus, and Jamal. "There are quite a few sections with anthros however. Which planet do you come from?"
"Utopia." Nubi replied, sounding a bit surprised at the question.
"I think there's a section of that planet on the other side of Zolott, but then I could be wrong." She looked at each of them in turn. "Now if you'll answer my earlier questions."
"I'm Kaye, and this is Oedipus, Nubi, and Jamal." She pointed out each of her comrades. "And you're right, we're here because Zolott dragged us here. We're currently part of a larger group who is trying to find a way off this planet."
"A group? Do the names Havering or Multex happen to mean anything to you?" Adrian asked.
"Not to me." Nubi said.
"Should we know them?" Kaye asked.
"I was just wondering if you were part of a group, but you wouldn't be if you don't know those names. Plus we were pretty sure that everyone involved with that little gathering were either killed or sent home."
"It's only been a few days since we got here." Nubi said. "Long enough for us to get pretty hungry, but not long enough to get involved in anything."
Kaye nodded. "We're new, but Kyanosa was here for a while before we got here. He was able to explain what was going on. Could he be part of that group you were talking about?"
"Did you say Kyanosa?"
"Spiky hair, wears metal pants in which he carries a weird yellow book. Why? Do you know him?"
"Who's Kyanosa?" Jamal asked.
"So he didn't get home with the others." The black haired woman smirked. "Follow me. We have some things to discuss."
Kaye followed after the retreating woman, and the rest of the group soon followed. Kaye watched Adrian's back, just now noticing a black tail that protruded from the back of her pants. Kaye could sense both her and Ren easily now, meaning they had been hiding, or at least attempting to hide their presence earlier.
*No, I am not a human, and as I thought, you're not either.* Adrian told her in thought speech.
*You seem to know a lot about this planet.*
*It's my job.*
*So you know it's going to blow up soon correct?*
There was a mental nod. *We've known for a while. We still don't know whether Zolott will blow all of it's collected pieces back to their original planets before that happens or not however. *
*How likely is it that that happens? *
*Not very, unfortunately.*
They came out in a small clearing where a small camp had been set up. Adrian held out her hand and flames leapt up on the previously unlit firewood. She motioned them to all sit down, as Ren began to skin a furry creature of some kind. (Yes it was dead already.)
"So how do you know Kyanosa? Were you part of that group as well?" Kaye asked.
"Not really. It's my village's self appointed task to help protect this planet, and when it was put in danger I went out to find out what I could do to help. I ran into a number of the, I guess you could call them heroes, who were brought to this planet to stop a vulth'n who was going to use Zolott's power to take over the multiverse, but I never was really a part of the group. I was a bit overshadowed by their power." She paused for a second. "But Kyanosa was a completely different story. I'm not even sure why he was here other than for comic relief, and he did plenty to get on my nerves." Adrian shook her head. "Anyway, if you think you'll see him again, I have something he may want." She withdrew a marble from her pocket and handed it to Kaye.
"A marble? He did say something about looking for marbles when we first met him." Nubi said.
"They're what give him his powers apparently, since a human like him can't do a thing without some sort of outside help." Adrian shrugged. "Anyway, Optional gave it to me for him, but I don't plan on ever seeing him again."
Kaye rolled the marble around in her palm and then pocketed it. (At this time she and everyone else present promptly forgot about the marble existence until after returning home, Kaye once again found the marble, and she decided to add it to her list of things to take on her next interdimensional trip in case she was to run into Kyanosa again. Accept it and get over it, because otherwise I'll create a nice plot hole big enough to swallow SOZ whole.)
"So I take it this vulth'n that was threatening the planet was taken care of?" Kaye asked.
Adrian nodded. "The heroes were more than enough to take care of him, but unfortunately his death is what caused Zolott to become so unstable."
"But how did the rest of the group get home?" Oedipus asked.
"I'm not sure." Adrian said. "But it seems that Zolott at least has slowed its rate of pulling people and places onto itself."
"Except for us." Jamal muttered. Kaye wasn't sure she liked how he was eyeing the fire as he rolled a cherry bomb through his fingers.
"Dinner's ready. Would you all like some?" Ran spoke for the first time in a while.
"Yes please." Nubi accepted the cooked meat eagerly, as did Oedipus and Jamal.
"And you?" Ren asked Kaye.
"There's not that much there. You guys eat up. I'm fine." She said, shaking her head to decline the offered meal.
"But you haven't eaten anything in at least as long as us." Oedipus said.
"I'm an arcanian. Among other things I can go for several days just fine without food or sleep. If we're stuck here too much longer I might be in trouble, but for now you guys just eat up." Kaye said. "I'm fine, really."
The other members of her group were too hungry to argue anymore. (Actually Jamal had started eating immediately without a second thought to her, but then they had just met.)
*So what race are you, since you do come from Earth.* Adrian asked silently.
*Arcanian. We're similar to humans physically, but with more advanced psychic like powers.*
*I don't believe I've ever met or even seen an arcanian before.*
*There are very few of us, even on Earth. I guess I'm honored to be the first you've met then.*
Adrian smiled. "What are your plans for trying to get home?"
"We're collecting machine parts for some bluebird professor who might be able to build us something to get us off the planet." Nubi said. "Except we're a little lost."
"There's a trick for getting around on Zolott." Adrian said. "You can wander quite easily, and of course you'll end up somewhere no matter what, but if you have a place you need or want to go, you can just walk there."
"Walk there? Isn't that what we were doing?" Jamal asked.
"No necessarily." Ren replied. "If you were walking with the hope that you would stumble across wherever you were going, then you'd probably wander around and never get where you were hoping to go, but if you know you're going to find where you want to go, you'll walk right there."
"That doesn't make any sense." Jamal said. "We were trying to find some cave. Isn't that knowing where we wanted to go?"
"No, I think that part's my fault." Kaye said. "I was leading us in a random direction, remember? I never really thought we would be able to get back to the cave until we'd at least passed something else we recognized."
"Well since you know where you want to go, then you should have no trouble getting there." Adrian said.
Kaye smiled. "Good. Then it's simple."
"I'm a little doubtful." Oedipus said. "How can you get somewhere by just thinking that's where you'll end up."
"Isn't that how it usually works?" Kaye asked. "When you want to go somewhere, you go there. And if you want to go somewhere and you don't know how to get there, you have someone tell you where to go. It's not very often that you want to go somewhere and you wander around until you just happen to find it."
Oedipus blinked. "Um. Yeah I guess that is correct."
Adrian laughed. "You defiantly think of this in the right way Kaye. I'm sure you'll get where you're going."
The two groups parted ways not much later, and with Kaye in the lead they walked back to the cave. It took them no more than twenty minutes since Kaye can be a very strong thinker.

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Adrian and Ren headed back to their village, done with patrols of that area. Adrian found her thoughts drifting back to Kaye. She had sense something deep in the teen that worried her slightly. It was not a strong feeling, but it was there all the same.
I've never heard of arcanians, but as far as I could tell she felt like… Adrian shook her head. Kaye had been pleasant. There was nothing about her manner or presence that would even suggest such a thing.
"You okay?" Ren asked, worry apparent on his face.
"Fine. Let's get back. We might not have much time left, but we might as well do as much with it as we can."