The start of a great adventure... or the game of unknown dangers begins

"I-i'm fine..." he replied shyly as always, surprised of the girl's reaction. When Jane started to talk, getting mad about the dangerous situation that Meg got in, he couldn't help but agree in his mind "We faced a jaguar, she could attack you..." he underlined, even if his voice was calm and quiet

Meg looked down. "I-I'm sorry," she said weakly. "I just thought- it was just so boring without you guys." She said surprised at how they reacted. "I won't be a bother, really," she sat down on a rock and looked away trying to hide how sad she was.

Jane sighed. She slowly walked to Meg and took her hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't meant to make you sad or shouting at you. I was just afraid of what could have happen to you.", Jane wiped away one of Meg's strains. "You're not bothering anyone. Just stay with us now.", she looked to Ping and put on of her own strains behind her ear. "Are you okay with Meg joining us, Ping? I mean... I could try to bring her back... But I don't want you to be alone either..."

Ping looked Jane talk to Meg: she was good in it and they were friends, so there was no reason he should have had to talk.
At Jane's question he nodded "We have only a few work to do now... we can finish here and come back together..."

Meg smiled. She was happy that they weren't mad at her and that they allowed her to stay. "I could help you if you would like," she said standing up. She looked back into the forest. "On my way here, I found some fruits and berries we could collect. How about we try gathering those?"

Jane tilted her head from side to side. "That's a good idea Meg, but... I think it would be better if we try to find something near the water first. It's easier when we have water and food at the same place. You should keep the places in mind and if we aren't able to find something better, we are going back and collect them. What do you two think?", she looked around asking.

Ping thought a bit before to reply "I think that now our priority is to find a place to stay, like a cave. We can search more food around here once we have got here the others. We can finish to explore around there and, coming back, bring those fruits..."

"Sounds good to me," Meg said analyzing the horizon. "Did you guys find anything about the vulcano?" She said looking at a tall brown mountain. Although she wasn't familiar with vulcanos in Greece, she had read a great deal about them in the library.

Jane nodded. "Sounds like a plan. First a place to sleep and then something to eat. I'm fine with that.", then she turned to Meg. "I have read a few things about volcano's but I'm sure this one might be different. The whole island is different."

Ping nodded again "We should move, it would be better come back before it gets dark..."

Meg squinted her eyes and thought about what Jane had said.

"..The whole island is different."

What did she mean by that? But Meg reluctantly agreed to finding shelter.

Jane smiled. "Then which direction shall we go? With or against the flow of the river? I think it would be better to go against it. If we find the spring, we might find a good place to sleep."

"Yes, good idea" he replied him, nodding again.
Then he started to walk, but after a few steps he stopped to wait for the ladies to come.

Meg nodded and followed the two up the river.

Jane walked besides Meg and Ping. Her view flowed around the river. She was searching for a place to sleep or something to eat. The plans here were slightly different from those she had studied and drawn, but there were some she knew. What scared her was the variety of poisonous plants. Jane looked at Meg and Ping and decided to keep her mouth shut about it for now. It wasn't good to cause panic.

Ping kept walking in silence, just checking time by time that the two girls were following him and that they were ok.
He also continued to look around, to see if there was something interesting or useful, also if the jaguar or another animal was hiding somewhere...
After a while he noticed a cave half hidden by the trees, it seemed big enough to can hold five people, but he had to be sure that there wasn't any suprise in there...
"Wait here."
He whispered to the two girls, approaching the cave with the lance in his hand, ready to attack.
Luckily the cave was empty, and apparently a good place to stay.
With a gesture of the hand he invited the two girls to come to him.
"It seems safe." He started. "But I wanna check around... You can wait for me here, i'll be back soon." This time he prefered go alone, after all he didn't think to stay away for long, and Meg and Jane would have been safe there.
With a little nod of the head that wanted to mean 'goodbye', he walked fastly away before Jane could decide to follow him.