Chapter 14

They stared at the area of green, where the sound had come from, trying their hardest to see what was making the noise.

Eddie moved closer to the taller boy, he wasn't so much worried about what was making the sound in comparison to being worried about not having the right medical supplies. The contents of his fanny pack ran through his mind, and he speedily began to analyse every situation, every solution for what could potentially happen, of there was in fact something dangerous in the trees around them. 

The smaller boy was just a few centimetres away from Richie. He stayed very still, staring intently at their surroundings, mumbling, "Richie I swear to fucking god-"

He was cut off by another rustle of leaves, but this time, they could make out the slight shaking of a bush, a few feet in front of them. They watched on as it the leaves began to move more and more, edging away from it slowly, so as not to let whatever was behind it, that they were there too. It would have worked too, if Richie hadn't had the urge to sneeze at that exact moment. He tried to hold it in, he really did, but the dusty air of the forest didn't help much, and before either of them knew it, he boy let out a loud 'ACHOO!'

After that, everything seemed to happen all at once. Something darted very fast out of the bush, and the boys shrieked at the loud noise, and yelled even louder, jumping to cling onto each other as a small thing cannonballed towards them.

The thing was so fast, that it rammed straight into Richie's legs, knocking the poor boy over backwards, and making Eddie scream in surprise once again.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!" Richie screamed; eyes squeezed closed, too scared to see what was happening.

"I DONT KNOW!" Eddie yelled back, his eyes also closed.

"AGHHHH GET IT OFF ME!"

"I CAN'T!"

"GET IT OFF ME!"

"I CAN'T"

"GET IT O- oh..."

The air suddenly fell silent, both boys had opened their eyes and they had stopped screaming, too shocked to scream anymore. Richie layed still, on his back, staring in awe at the little something that had hurtled out of the bush, that was now sitting comfortably on his chest.

"Look Ed's," he said, with half a smile of his face, "It's a.... It's a tiny sheep," He grinned up at Eddie, who had gotten over his initial surprise fairly quickly and watched as he rolled his eyes and said, "It's a lamb idiot."

"Potato, potahtoe," Richie replied, moving his hand ever so slightly to fix his glasses that were askew on his face, still looking happily at the little sheep that sat on his chest as if nothing had happened. As if it didn't have the power to knock a human being six times its size down to the floor completely. 

Richie shifted a little, and as carefully as he could, lifted the lamb up from its middle, and set it down beside him. It let out a tiny 'baa' as its legs touched the ground, and it immediately collapsed next to Richie, appearing as if it didn't want to move. 

"Be careful Rich," Eddie said warily, as the other boy reached out to pet the lamb, which was now nibbling a leaf.

"It's so soft," Richie whispered in a childlike manner, beaming up at Eddie, with his fingers looped around a lock of fur, "Come feel it Ed's," he said beckoning the small boy over.

"I don't know.... If it's wild it could have some disease, you know my aunt pet a cat once, and she caught something.

"I'm sure she did Eds,"

"It erupted a hive. On her face. It was the size of.... the size of...the size of mount kahija" he said finally, over exaggerating, and indicating to his face just to show how much damage the cat had done.

"I'm sure it was Eddie spaghetti," Richie said absentmindedly, still focused on stroking the lamb, "But you do know, this is a sheep," he look up and Eddie and shook his head, "Not a cat."

"It's a lamb."

"Okay it's a lamb... Now you tell me, how many wild lambs are you going to see in the forest, while you're lost on the way to get ice cream, with a kid you met four days ago on the way to school? If you don't stroke this lamb, I'm sure your grandkids won't have any interesting stories to listen to.... Well except for the ones about that kid who fucked your mom every so often" Eddie rolled his eyes.

"Just saying...," Richie said in a singsong voice, playing with the lamb's fur, and the small animal nuzzling into Richie's touch, making the boy grin

"Whadya say Edo Spaghetti?"

"Oh shut up," Eddie muttered, coming forward to join Richie in stroking the lamb. He kneeled down onto the ground, "And Eddo Spaghetto? Really? Eddie spaghetti wasn't enough for you?" "Well what's the singular of Eddie spaghetti? You guessed it, Eddo Spaghetto!" Richie grinned not waiting for an answer. "You know you love it Ed's,"

"Fuck you Richie."

"I know you wan-"

"Stop right there," Eddie cut Richie off, shoving the boy to the side, "I know what comes after that."

Richie simply laughed, straightening back up and moving to join Eddie in stroking the animal. The smaller boy hesitated in touching the animal at first, but after Richie shoved his hand into the thick fur, which Eddie had glared at him for, it turned out he really liked it.

"Come on, that's not fair at all," Richie groaned, watching the lamb clamber into Eddie's arms,

 "Of course he likes you more, it's not like I was the one to stroke him first,"

"There's an obvious reasons as to why he likes me more,"

"And what's that?,"

"He wasn't the one to knock me down when he ran out of that bush," Eddie said smugly, and then turning to the lamb said, "Isn't the right?,"

"Baaaa," the lamb bleated in agreement causing both boys to laugh.

The lamb snuggled up against the Eddie's face lovingly, and gave his cheek a small lick, making him squeal and set off the laughing again. Eddie gently stroked the lambs head, and the small creature gave another quiet baa, that the small boy giggled at, and as Richie watched all of this play out, he couldn't help but think, right at the back of his mind, a subconscious thought, so he didn't even realize, that Eddie had one of the cutest laughs he had heard in a while. ... A few minutes went by and the boys continued to play with the lamb, petting it and watching it nibble small pieces of grass. It was then that they heard something else, no, not more leaves rustling, it was a distant voice, or so Eddie thought, as he perked up suddenly to listen. Richie, on the other hand, was still stroking the lamb, talking to it in a high-pitched voice, as most people would do if they were talking to a small creature.

"Shut up will you," Eddie said, eyebrows furrowed as he concentrated on figuring out who that voice could be. It started off quite faint, but was quickly getting clearer and clearer, meaning that whoever it was, was getting closer and closer. 

"Richie," he whispered, grabbing the other boy's attention, who immediately looked up, "There's someone else here, what if it's henry bowers and his gang?"

There was feat in Eddie's eyes, their few minutes of fun were being cut short, and there was an unknown person yelling about I'm the forest. Richie glanced up and squinted into the trees, as if he'd even be able to see anything, but nevertheless tried to make something out in the infinite shades of green. But alas he couldn't see a thing, the thick branches of the trees blocked up everything within a few metres view. 

The voice was getting louder, closer and closer, yelling something incoherent that the boys couldn't make out. They scrambled up onto their feet quickly, Eddie scooping up the tiny lamb with them, which bleated quietly as the little group moved slowly away from the noises.

"You know... That doesn't sound like henry bowers to me..." Richie whispered, "If anything that sounds like-," Richie was cut off by someone stumbling through the trees, and for the second time the boys let out a yelp as the twigs snapped loudly and the leaves crunched under heavy footsteps. "Is it bowers!?" Eddie asked with a quiver in his voice, face hidden in the little lamb's fur.

... "Hey, guys, you can look up now. I'm not Bowers," a kind voice spoke from in front of the two. Richie and Eddie looked up, to find that indeed the person was not bowers. In fact, it was someone that they had never seen before. It was a boy that stood in front of them, with very short hair and dark skin. He had a strong, muscular build and was wearing a worn-out pair of jeans matched with a light-coloured shirt with a few smears of dirt on it. He was looking at the two with a kind smile, the sort of smile that tells you right away that they're a good one. "Looks like you found my lamb," he gestured to it, "Come here Lou,"

The lamb suddenly perked up, jumping out of Eddie's arms, startling him a little, and then trotting over to where the stranger stood, patiently waiting at their feet to be picked up. The boy laughed a little and picked up the lamb, then looked at where Richie and Eddie were standing, "Thanks guys, I've been looking for her everywhere. My name's Mike by the way, what are yours?"

"Richie,"

"..." 

"Go on," Richie nudged the shorter one, "Stop worrying about stranger danger for once" Eddie rolled his eyes, wondering how exactly Richie knew what he was thinking, but didn't ponder much on it.

"Eddie."

"So uh what are you doing in this part of the forest?" Mike asked

"What do you mean?" Richie asked

"Don't you know?" 

"Get to the point Michael"

"...This path doesn't lead anywhere, somewhere down it the path just disappeared. like the paving is gone. That's why I was so worried about Lou here," he held the lamb up. "Oh...," Richie said quietly, a guilty look on his face as he glanced over at Eddie, who looked startled by this new piece of information, and looked like he was about to go on an explosive rant any second now. 

Mike watched all this in amusement, 

"I'm guessing you guys came down here to get to the other side of town quicker," he said looking at Richie, "Don't worry, you wouldn't have died, loads of people have come along this route. They've lived. Sure they've gotten lost for a few days-"

"Can you just... stop talking," Richie said firmly keeping an eye on Eddie's ever furrowing eyebrows, "I don't want him to.....blow up."

"I am not going to blow up," Eddie said in an annoyed voice.

"Ok keep telling yourself that," Richie scoffed, then turned to Mike, "So Mikey boy....you mind showing us a way outa here?"

"Sure," Mike smiled, "You know guys, if you want, you two can stay for lunch, I mean it doesn't look like a lot would have fit in that tiny basket," he eyed the basket eddie was carrying. His offer was a little out of the blue, but he could tell that things hadn't been going to plan for the two boys, and one of them clearly wasn't in the best mood.

Making them feel better could help him too, maybe, just maybe, he'd make a few friends, they did look his age and seeing as he had been home schooled and lived on a farm all his life, he hadn't really ever gotten the chance to talk to people that could understand him. He loved his grandpa, he really did, but there were some things that a 52-year-old man wouldn't understand. Mike had always wanted to go to the local high school, but his grandpa had told him that the family were "outsiders", and that the town was "cursed". He didn't really believe all that, but what more could he do other than obey. He looked hesitantly at the two boys, hoping that they'd accept his invitation. Richie and Eddie looked just as hesitantly at each other, and then, before Eddie could say a word, Richie agreed to stay for lunch, and the three of them made their way through the trees.

A/N

lots of updates heh