Pomaika'i's Furious Trail

Chapter 6

Nobody had anything else to say after the mess at the campsite for the next hour's trek. As much as he himself wanted to, Hilo didn't want to hurt the group's already-fragile and worsening cohesion, even if he wanted to loudly berate Julie for throwing a fit. He did express this in a single expression to Kaitan, and could see the Jungle haole White Boy didn't have much to say about it, either. He just shrugged, rolled his eyes and kept on going.

He wanted to yell at Julie for her behavior earlier. This whole trip was becoming an incoherent mess thanks to everyone's egos. It was a hastily-and-shoddily planned mess of a trip that was getting worse by the minute. The only saving grace was their charges' excitement to see Kaitan and Huli in their famed get-ups, and even then, Hilo was a bit perturbed at their costume choices. It's been shown before, but just about everyone in the village thought they looked rather silly.

Hilo wasn't happy about the way he was feeling, either. Aside from the fact that she was rather cute, he knew Huli and Kaitan wouldn't be happy if he obliged the other haole Kimi's apparent attraction to him. He was 9 summers older than her. Just the thought made him shiver.

In any case, he rubbed his hands together while he followed the bickering jungle couple, hoping that something would come along to give the trip not only some cohesion, but a sense of urgency.

Where in the underworld was a beastman when you needed one?

"Oi!" he finally called out in a moment that must have seen random to everyone else. "This mission is turning bad. Maybe we should turn back?"

The party stopped dead in its tracks in the middle of a stride, turned around and stared at Hilo like he was mad. That didn't matter. He stood firm, even though he was almost laughing at how ridiculous Kaitan and Huli looked in their outfits. He suppressed a giggle and waited for them to finally get over their surprise and shock to speak.

"Huh?" Huli asked in her native language.

"You don't get to being the Chief's right-hand-man by being ignorant of how people are feeling," said Hilo. "I can tell when a farmer is frustrated with his crops, even when he puts on a satisfied front. I've seen warriors declaring they were ready to fight and die, but when you look at their shaking knees, you know they are frightened, and justifiably so. YOU look like you can barely stand this journey. I see it all over! Perhaps it would be best if we ended this journey and let those two continue on their own. They made it that far on their own, did they not?"

"With major dehydration," Huli reminded him.

He didn't have a good response, but that wasn't going to stop him. "I am sure the Village will let them stay," he said. "They do not have to like it, of course. Just like a good percentage of the village does not like Kaitan."

This made the Jungle Dude grab the back of his hair. He had bangs in the front and sideburns/chops extending past his lower jaw, making him look a little animesque for modern viewers. He let go of that makeshift ponytail and it dropped back down.

"I wish you hadn't reminded me," he said.

"Oh, of course," said Hilo. "Apologies."

"I don't WANT to live in the Teo village!" Lea replied. "I want to go home!" She marched up to him and got in his face. Even now he was thinking about how big a mess this was.

"It is an option, but one we must consider," said Hilo. "From what it looks like, we will not make it to the North Shore unless we can... Forget it. I am not pleased with this mission so far, and I admit that we could do better and perhaps turn around."