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Why had the raven completely ignored her? Rosalind didn't understand, she had drawn a legitimate map, and Scheelite drew a pile of ugly trees and chicken-scratched the word "goal" in it. Apparently, it was just perfect. Scheelite was just perfect. Nevermind Rosalind! Common logic was lost on the raven if it was willing to listen to her moronic comrade over her.

"I am not so shallow as to have a goal so simple," she spat, "it's much, much more profound than that." This raven was really irking her. First it totally disregarded her and basically called her stupid, then it tried to tell her dream. "I... Look, I do not have to explain myself to some stupid, stupid bird or anyone else." Rosalind wouldn't be lonely-- not like her mother. The prospect of a husband really droned off in her head, but this wasn't the time to be dreaming up fanciful ideas. Imagine that-- if this place was made of dreams. Rosalind didn't live in a fairy tale world.

She wrote off Scheelite's dream as being the general goal of the Negaverse, and thus was not as afraid as she initially was. A murderer? Really? "But that's what it does to everyday people," she thought, "I bet he was a lovely boy before being corrupted." What an awful thought-- the Negaverse overwriting people's dreams. But she had faced one too many Negaversers who were out for blood or starseeds, and figured that that was how things went down with them.

"I am thoroughly impressed, Scheelite," she chimed, "that you are capable of such deep thought!" Every word he said made sense. She agreed, since she most definitely did not make a habit of waking up in forests, and there had to of been a reason they were there. "I am in agreement with Scheelite," Rosalind said in the direction of the raven, "so you had better not shrug me off this time. The two of us want to get home."

Rosalind, without a second thought, ran her fingers through the dirt and etched the word "HOME" in. This seemed like a free ticket to get out of this idiotic place, and she was going to take advantage of it.

"How's that?" she asked flatly. "I think it's where we are going."

As if on cue, the blonde broke out of his stare at their map and piped up once more.
"Ros, I already told you!"
Great, his tone had a hint of whine in it.
"The center won't have a way home because our homes aren't in the center of a forest. We can't go home until we figure out why we're here, cause there has to be some reason we're here, right? So the center of the forest has to be kinda important to why we're here, or Mister Raven wouldn't be trying to help us get there."

Schee sighed, turning his focus back on the dirt again.
"There has to be something we aren't seeing...or maybe it's just something simple?"
Write where they're going? Well fine. Schee crossed out 'home' and instead wrote 'center'. The center -was -where they wanted to go, and if that was written above the little line of trees then it meant the center of the forest. Or so Scheelite hoped.

"Good riddance," she thought, "that dirty bird didn't do me any good, anyways." She scooped the newly-formed map up and turned to Scheelite, and said, "I hope you know that you're never, ever touching our only way to the center." Rosalind pursed her lips as she imagined all the awful things that could happen should he get ahold of it. She pictured him accidentally dropping it in the hole (she'd push him back in if he did), or maybe letting it go and it blowing away in the wind. This is why he couldn't be trusted with it.

She stared at the map, and wondered by what form of magic the map had come from. It was exactly what they had drawn, the brook and trees and all. Even Scheelite's chicken scratch "center" was on the map. Rosalind placed her stare on Scheelite, and started, "alright, well, if we stand around we won't get anywhere. Let's go." After perusing the map, she started in the direction of where they needed to be. Rosalind rolled the map up and put it beneath her collar, in an area Scheelite would never dare to grab. (No matter how unladylike it may have been, she needed to keep it safe.) Rosalind would be damned before she got lost in the forest with him forever.

"You may have been the one who figured it out in the end," Rosalind stated matter-of-factly, "but keep in mind that a majority of the map is of my design." It was, in fact. She figured that the answer was so stupid and idiotic that Scheelite may not have answered anything at all.

Rosalind stopped, crossed her arms, and looked up into the leafy canopy above them. Light filtered through in some parts and it seemed kind of inviting. She sighed and turned to face Scheelite, and started, "I guess, but after this, we're only stopping when I need to." Truth be told, she wanted to stop too, but wouldn't admit it in front of the lieutenant.

She turned her back to Schee, pulled the map out (even if he was not attracted to her, she didn't want him to see) and unrolled it. There weren't too many landmarks for them to go to, the brook that ran through the entire map, but they happened to be a ways off from it. "Too bad," Rosalind spat, "there's no--" as she tried to finish her snob remark, a tiny pond popped up on the map. She could have sworn it wasn't there previously. It must have been that awful raven's work.

"There's no way we won't stop," she said, "because there's a pond on the other side of those trees." Rosalind watched as Scheelite hopped off in the direction she pointed. Ugh.

"Whatever, whatever, whatever," was all Rosalind thought when Scheelite spoke. She scoffed at him when he mentioned her losing the map-- as if! A nasty glare was cast on him when he brought it up.

Rosalind watched as he hopped over several shrubs and skillfully weaved between the trees to get to the pond. Did he not remember how easy it was for them to fall into the hole? What if there was another trap on the other side? Whatever, wasn't her problem. She waited to hear if it was safe-- a squeal signified that it was.

So, Rosalind traipsed up to a shrub, hopped over it daintily, and turned to her side to get through the trees. Her poofy skirt caught on a branch and shredded a piece of fabric off. "Ughhhhh," she cried, "Scheelite, this is very inconvenient!!" Rosalind hopped over another shrub and made her way to the pond. It seemed worth it, though, because there was nothing here to bother her. Except Scheelite, maybe.

Strutting over to the water's edge, Rosalind tried to think up a way to get some water. She was not about to cup it in her hands, they had been in the dirt!! And she had touched Scheelite, even more disgusting!! So, she decided to just put her lips to the water and suck water in like she had a straw. Ridiculous? Yes. Functional? Even moreso.

Rosalind knelt, put her hands on the ground, and leaned forward. Her eyes were closed, for whatever reason, but right before she put her lips to the water, her eyes opened (so as to see how close she was).

Shrieking, Rosalind picked herself up and threw herself back and away from the cursed water.

"Th-there's an ugly woman in the water," she cried, "she was staring right back at me!!! And she looked like she was going to kiss me!!!" Rosalind was hyperventilating and had her hands cupped over her heart.

"Scheelite, darling," she begged, "please, go look and see what's there!!" Rosalind stood behind Scheelite and waited for him to go do so. Whatever was in there, it was ugly, and if it was really there, she wanted it to pull him in before her.

"I'm getting worked up because I saw something in the water," she cried, "so go do something about it! You're a man!!" Rosalind watched as Scheelite rolled his eyes(how dare he!) and made his way over to the pond. She half-expected some nasty witch-hands to pull him into the depths of the water.

But she couldn't watch! Rosalind covered her eyes and waited for Scheelite to either A) die, or B) come back and tell her everything was okay (even though she knew she saw something). Her fears were re-affirmed when she heard a blood-curdling scream in a higher pitch than her own.

"Wh-what?! What is it, Scheelite?!" Rosalind took three steps further away from the pond and wanted to cry. "Get it!! Get whatever it is!!!!"