The scenery change as they continued their walk towards the caves transitioned from sand, rocks, and lake; to moss, musty, and swampy. Unidentified "bugs" crawled and buzzed at every turn, while bacteria littered the surroundings in mucky pools of dirt and mud water. Nothing about the sight was pleasant, especially to Jasper; a paranoid germaphobe since birth. The only peculiar object in the entire picture were little pieces of cloth that seemed to hang in purposely placed areas on the branches of trees. Puke was just about ready to hurl out of her mouth, yet her stomach was as blank and empty as a packet of gum upon arrival to a classroom. The dingy rock path, clearly laid out for wanderers, called to her. Being the type of person that she was, the urge was easily turned down as she faced her group mates with a look of fear. Moving aside as Ace had no sweat entering the insect infested area, Jasper's eyes were ready to bulge out of their sockets as even Harper paid no mind to the surroundings as he marched on in. Gulping down her eerie thoughts, it was time to, for the millionth time, reject the impulses of her body and go against its natural will.
It took seeing the other two at a distant before she could finally place a toe on the first green stone. Placing her hand carefully on a "cleaner" looking part of a tree trunk for much needed support, she began to get the hang of maneuvering herself from one rock to the next in a matter of minutes. Being so deadly focused on getting from her current solid standing and plotting her oncoming move, she hadn't realized that she had moved at a pretty quick pace, enough to obliterate the distance between her and the others. Almost bumping Harper off his footing, it took the physical contact to snap her out of her trance-like focus to take hold of his shirt and yank him back into a stable position. "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry", she apologized endless repetitions, nodding her head up and down in emphasis of how bad she felt for almost sending him sliding down to his doom. As the trio travelled on in mutual silence, Harper spoke up, always one to cut the quiet with a prodding question.
"Hmm, if it isn't too much to ask. What wish brought you here?"
The way he presented the inquiry was both cautious and free-minded. Spoken in a way that would not pressure the receiving into answering if they did not wish to do so. A flash spiked in her memory. Rosen's face. Oh, but the features were so very blurred. There was no way, not a single way in the universe that she was starting to forget? Rosen's eyes, nose, and mouth were hazed and vague as Jasper struggled to define uncertain facial structures, frustration building up in her as the image remained watered down in a cloak of forgetfulness. "She was my mother," a pause for painful resistance in her throat, "she's dead." The remembrance flushed back into full resolution as she muttered the word 'dead', Rosen's face coming back into vivid life. A soundless sigh of relief expelled itself from the angered cages of panic. She couldn't forget. No matter how long she spent in Nowhere. Never.
Reaching her lanky leg out to the following mossy stone, the unsuspecting Jasper had no idea that this one was the slipperiest out of all. With a high pitched cry of shock and horror, her bottom landed and slid down to an awaiting cesspool of grime and glowing red flies. Up to her bellybutton in an unnamed substance, items and organisms alike swivelled and nudge around her immersed half as she gagged and fought passing out in the godforsaken mush.