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“Are you sure this is the right way, Thog?” Ashe asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Thog had stopped replying about twenty questions back and merely continued to trudge forward through the forest. Ashe would have gladly lead the way instead if the man hadn’t taken the map and compass and refused to give them up for any reason. “We’ve been walking for hours. It’ll be dark soon.”
“You can stop worrying, Ashe, we’re here already.” The man pointed ahead of them to a small log cabin set between two trees. “Are you happy now?”
Ashe looked skeptically at the ramshackle building. It looked sturdy enough, but something about it felt off to her. “I’ll be happy when we find the guys. Until then…”
The pair went inside and set up their sleeping bags. It was an hour of waiting before Ashe decided to double check the map (and could actually get it away from Thog long enough to look at it). If she’d been keeping the route they’d taken as well as she thought she had, they were nowhere near the agreed meeting spot.
“Thog!” Ashe shouted, voice echoing off the bare walls. “This isn’t the right place. You took us in completely the wrong direction!”
Thog, grumbling loudly, came up to Ashe and watched her trace their path out with her finger. According to the map, they were essentially in the middle of nowhere. The girl glared daggers at him as he tried to regain his composure.
“Okay, okay… We can work this out somehow. All we have to do is backtrack to where we took that wrong turn and we can find the cabin where we’re supposed to be.”
“It’s completely dark out, Thog! And it’s raining now too!” The white-haired young woman pointed out the window for emphasis, where a flash of lightning could be glimpsed through the trees. “We can’t go anywhere until morning.”
Thog settled into a deadpan expression. “So we spend the night, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“We’re in an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere, Thog! What’s the best that could happen?!”
And that’s when the roof started to leak.