As we easily passed through the trees, we came upon a field of grass that was nothing like what else we had seen on this island. It was beautiful but in an elegant and quiet way. Each blade was nearly untouched and was perfectly even. What kept the field hidden was the lining of trees that surrounded it with the exception of a small opening. After passing through the trees, Paul, Heather, Duke, and I took a look around the field and noticed four sheep grazing in the distance. In the middle of the field was a tree with beautiful flowers on it that would keep falling off, and every time a flower fell off of the tree a new one would suddenly come in its place. We all knew that it was safe to rest. We simply all sat down from being tired at the same time. Even Duke fell to his stomach. Paul who was right beside Duke looked down to him, smiled, and began to scratch his back. He reached into his leg pocket in search for a mango to take out for Duke. He tried to surprise him with it. “Here, have a mango”, Paul said as he set it in front on him. Hearing his voice, I looked up at Paul out of curiosity to see who he was talking to. Paul fed Duke the second mango from his pocket. He did not waste any time by playing with his food. Heather did not mind Paul giving Duke the two mangos however noticing it did cause her concern. She did turn to me with a worried look. “Listen, Howard, do not get me wrong. I can still go hours without eating, but we do have to think long term. We do not know how long it will be before find more food. It is almost one-hundred degrees outside, and we have no shelter. This grass is nice, but eventually we will have to start moving again”, she explain. I took a deep breath and pushed myself up with my hands. “You’re right Heather. We can go hours without eating, but you have to remember our mission is not to find food. Our mission is to find and bring back our teammates. You are also right in saying that it’s almost one-hundred degrees outside which is why this nice grass might be the best place to rest, as for shelter, please do not worry about that I have a plan”, I answered. Heather was standing about the same time as me. She stood with both arms crossed and her head tilted. Her eyes rolled with a sort of childish gesture on her face, as though she did not appreciate the sarcasm in my response but did not take it too seriously. After hearing Heather ask what my plan was, Paul too quickly stood up to listen. I had looked at Heather. I did not expect Heather to ask what it was. However, I had it memorized it from when we first left the beach. “Alright, the plan is not hard. We have come a long way from the shore. We are not far from where the marking point where I had stopped and turned back. We have made it out of the rainforest and crossed the bridge with few problems. We will try to get some sleep here for a few hours. When we wake up, we will continue walking when it is cooler. There is a large flat open wilderness ahead right outside of this field surrounded by cliffs on all three sides. The cliffs are filled to the top with caves. Once we reach the wilderness, we will go to the biggest cave on the left. Now I must inform you that this large wilderness is bone dry. I don’t know if you remember Israel, but it is worse than that”, I explained seriously. It was important that they know that when I said ‘wilderness’ I was not referring to reflecting lakes and snowcapped mountains. Of course they understood, but I felt obligated to tell them anyway. The time was already approximately two-thirty. We had been wondering around the island for eight and a half hours. It was not out of negligence or carelessness or anything of that nature that made our journey through the rainforest much longer than it should have been. It was simply the island trying to mislead us and cause confusion. Nevertheless, after that we had settled for a few hours I went walking by myself around the perimeter for a while. It was true what Heather said. None of us had any idea when would be the next time we would eat. ‘What will happen once we reach the cave? Will I run out Ideas? How will I react as a leader if I see something supernatural’, I thought to myself. I then stopped walking. I was out of speaking distance from Paul, Heather, and Duke. I looked up to sky.
Hear my cry O’ Lord. Attend unto my prayer.
Please, I humbly ask you to send food, so that my team and I will not be faint.
Please Lord, when my soul is weary send me a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Lord this is not a usual prayer.
Thank you, Amen.
I was walking for about thirty minutes. I then decided that it was time for me to go back towards Paul, Heather, and Duke who I noticed from a distance were lying down next to each other. After coming closer to them I realized that not only were their eyes closed but that they were sleeping. I too thought that I would join them. So we all slept about five-thirty. When we woke up we noticed that there were twelve beautiful different fruit trees along the field, and the tree in the middle of the field which only bore flowers, now bore fruit. It was strange. They were not there before we had fallen asleep. It was not established which tree we should eat from but something did not seem right about the tree in the middle so we avoided it. After picking out what all we were going to eat, Heather decided to pray over the meal. While we were eating we heard a disturbance that sounded like voices coming by the opening of the field. The reason why there was only four sheep in such a big pasture was because every now and then a citizen of Greed would come along and snatch one up and offer it as a sacrifice to whoever they worshipped. Paul, Heather, and I all quietly looked at each other in bewilderment. Duke also quickly stood up at attention with his ears pointed straight in the air. Heather and I quickly hid behind the tree in the middle of the field while Paul tapped Duke on the neck twice so that he could follow him into some brushes. The four of us tried our best to stay unseen while peeking out to see what was going on. It was then that we noticed two Citizens walk through the opening of the field. They were talking to each other, but I could not make out what they were saying. They looked similar as to the one who had captured Persistence and Shaltu. Both of them had long hair with red paint on their faces and hands, and on the left side of their chest were marked in black, ‘Citizen of Greed’. Covering their lower bodies were leaves and lambskin tightly fastened by a vine. Tucked in their vines was a beautiful hand-made hunting knife made of onyx with a gold coin embedded in it. The two headed over towards the four sheep. One of the men had picked up a sheep. Just as they were about to leave the field, it was then that I had stepped on a twig. Less than a second after the twig had snapped, the two had paused. The one citizen had dropped the sheep. Both of them had quickly turned around and yanked out their knives. They crept slowly throughout the whole field, constantly being aware of their surroundings. They scoured the whole area looking to see where the snap from the twig came from. The two decided to split up so that they could cover more ground. By now, one of the citizens was on the other side of the field while the other was becoming closer and closer to Paul and Duke. It was a hard decision. Should I keep silent in hopes that the one citizen passes over Paul and Duke, or should I cause a diversion and bring the attention to me. I would have no problem giving myself up in these circumstances, if it was not for the fact that I would be putting my future wife at risk. I decided to keep quiet in hopes for the best. The citizen continued maneuvering the bushes with knife. Paul knew that it was only a matter of seconds before the man would find him. So when the citizen was within distance, Paul lunged out at him from out of the bushes with his fist in the air as he punched him. The knife fell out of his hand. After falling to the ground he quickly stood back up to face Paul, but quickly halted as Duke also came out from hiding, and was now growling at the citizen as if he was ready to attack. The other citizen, Heather, and I quickly came running towards what was going on. As I was the first to reach the scene, I picked up the knife that the citizen dropped. Heather unfortunately, was never fast when it came to running. She was quickly grabbed up by the other citizen. Paul, not noticing Heather and I, thinking she was right behind me heard a loud cry. “Howard, they have me”, she yelled. The citizen walked over to us while tightly holding Heather. “Back away, and call off your dog quickly”, he said seriously. I could see the fire in his eyes as he approached us. With a knife to Heather’s throat, I had no other option but to listen, and do as the citizen said. I dropped the knife. I whispered to Duke that I would see him later before yelling, “Duke run”. Seeing Duke ran off upset the citizen holding heather, but only for a few seconds. The other citizen quickly picked up his knife and walked over next to his friend. It was then that I knew that all of us except Duke had been captured. “Should we not tie them up” one of the citizens asked curiously. The other citizen smirked at us. “Why should we? As long as we have their woman, I do not think they are going to run”, he said in a sort of deriding way. It seemed as though the one who was holding Heather seemed to be giving all the instructions. “Well are we not still going to bring a sheep for the king”, wondered the citizen. The other citizen began to shake his head in frustration. “Do you not think that three humans are better than a sheep? Trust me the king will be much more pleased”, answered the other citizen. As the five of us left the field, the citizen taking instruction could not help but doubt his friend. He was a wicked person indeed. However, he never was for human sacrifices.