"No, no, no, that's not the right direction! Give me the map, I'll take a look at it myself!" Kaiden held out his hand for the map, Quark so eagerly grasped, but the boy pulled it out of reach. "Look, man, chill out, alright?! I have a history of reading maps, okay?" Madeline folded her arms, her brow furrowed. "Oh really? And just how long have you been reading these things?" Madeline reached for the map, only for Quark to hold it out of her grasp as well. "About five minutes." Quark mused. 

"Give me the map!" Kaiden snatched the map from Quark's hands, nearly tearing the paper. "What in the?! Quark, this isn't a map! It's a pamphlet for Forever Beanne's art exhibition!" Kaiden shouted, his face boiling red. Madeline clasped her hands together in prayer to whatever divine being would listen. "Please tell me we haven't been wandering in the forest for half an hour following the north STATUE instead of the north STAR..." Kaiden slammed his fist down on Quark's head like a judge bringing down his gavel. "What were you thinking! Now we're lost without any way back to the road!"

The trio of teens had traveled through the forests south of the main road for a half-hour where Quark claimed he knew of a shortcut. The hope of cutting their travel time in two had seemingly shattered. "If we don't make it to the Diner by sundown, this was all for nothing!" Madeline grabbed Quark by the shoulders and spun the small boy toward her. "Do you have any idea how important this is!?! We finally have a chance at a better life, a better home! We don't have time to follow pamphlets!" Quark threw his hands in the air and backed away from the raging two.

"Don't look at me! That's all the old guy at the bus stop had! I had to get SOMETHING with an address on it!" Quark retorted. "You know what, just forget it! We're already in danger of being late, we just need to get out of these woods, and we'll go from there." Madeline nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Let's do that." Madeline's eyes shot daggers at Quark as Kaiden brushed against his shoulder. "Well, I didn't know!" Quark shouted as he raced after the two.

Without Quark to drag the group in circles, Kaiden led the trio through the forest until he heard the sounds of cars in the distance and a road just on a hill striping the skyline. None of the orphans would admit as much, but they were secretly glad to get out of the forest while golden light still shone through the trees as the sun began to dip below the horizon. "That looks pretty steep, Kaiden..." Madeline mewled. "We can't climb that." Quark concurred as the trio approached the almost ninety-degree slope. 

"Oh yeah, well guess what? We couldn't hide in the baggage compartment of that greyhound bus or hotwire that old convertible to cruise us down the I-85 either. But guess what? We did it anyway. I've wasted away too long in that damned orphanage to let something as weak as mother nature stop me." Kaiden's eyes flashed across the slope and the trees growing beside it until the boy finally turned toward Quark, his hand extended. "Rook, give me your jacket." Quark grimaced at the name. "Can you guys stop calling me that already?! I've been with you guys for a month now! I think I've learned the way of the stray by now! "

Rook, short for rookie, is the name Kaiden and Madeline started to call Quark after they learned that he'd only been an orphan for a week and didn't understand just how cruel the world was to people like them yet. "We'll stop calling you Rook when you finally wise up.” Madeline snickered. “Now give em’ the jacket. I think he's got a plan." Begrudgingly Quark removed his letterman jacket and placed it in Kaiden's hands, his face atypically serious. "Just don't rip it, alright?" 

The mockery dropped from Kaiden's voice. "I'll be careful." Grabbing a nearby rock, Kaiden tied the Jackets sleeve around the slab before tossing it onto the metal railing above so that the sleeve tied itself to the metal barrier. "Okay, now we just need someone to climb up." "I'll do it." Quark interrupted. Kaiden and Madeline gazed at the boy, who quickly went about explaining himself. "I mean being the lightest and um-" "It's fine." They both assured him. Rubbing his hands together, Quark grabbed hold of the sleeve, his feet propping him on the side of a nearby tree. Using the mountainside and the tree as support and Quark's jacket to pull them up, the trio climbed the slope and onto the road. In the distance, about a mile down the highway, lights could be seen coming from a small house. It seemed that someone made their home close to the worn-down roadside. 

"C'mon. I'm hungry." Kaiden said before walking down the road, Madeline in tow. Quark hung his head as he followed the two knowing the immoral fate that awaited him. It wasn't until moments like this that Quark remembered why he was still a rook in the eyes of Kaiden and Madeline. "You sure we can't just head straight to the diner?" Quark asked defeated. "No, we CAn'T jusT HEaD strAIgHt to THe diNer." Kaiden heckled, seizing a snicker from Madeline.

"You laugh at anything this guy says, I swear! It doesn't even have to be funny!" Madeline made a wry face at Quark before jogging after Kaiden, already closing in on the house. The thought of food after such a long journey was salivating, to say the least. Madeline and Quark soon reached the house's front door while Kaiden went around the back looking for a point of entry. The plan was to have Madeline and Quark distract the homeowners while Kaiden went in and stole food and other supplies they might need. What the two didn't know was that Kaiden would often steal more than the trio actually needed, his time as an orphan had given him a sense of entitlement. The world had taken so much from him. Why couldn't he take a little back? 

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Madeline elbowed Quark, "Why'd you knock so loud?" She hissed. "I thought you said to get their attention!" He spit back. "I did. But when you knock that loud, they'll think-" before Madeline could finish her scolding, the door flew open, and the young orphans whirled to face the person who opened it with a beaming smile. A young woman barely in her twenties greeted the two with a smile so warm it heated the cold air outside. A quick glance past the woman revealed what appeared to be an extensively large living room, one that seemed almost bigger than the house itself.

"Good morn-oh, I see it's evening then." The young woman played with one of her black coils of hair. "What can I do for you this fine evening, hm?" Madeline straightened her dirt-caked scarf. "Well, we were just wondering if-" The woman clapped her hands with glee. "I know! You're here to see the showcase first, right?! You are a bit early, and I haven't set up all the way, but..."

Madeline raised her hand to interject but was stopped as the woman pulled her into the house Quark not far behind. "Just for you, I'll let you get a sneak peek at the exhibit firsthand!" The woman began to move into a different part of the house as Madeline moved to get a sentence out. "Just stay there a moment! I'll tell your friend he can come inside too!" Whatever the girl had to say was silenced at that revelation. She already knew Kaiden was snooping around? And exhibit? What was she getting on about?

"Check out these statues!" In what was otherwise an empty living room with a hardwood floor and a highly decorated chandelier were an assortment of five marble statues, each one captured in a different pose. Their eyes were soulless, and their expressions foreign and devoid of life. Even the hairs on their heads were sculptured masterfully. "And those paintings by your foot!" Quark continued, marvel dripping in his voice. Madeline stepped away from the corner she backed into and examined the paintings lining the wall, expensive golden frames bordering the pictures. "What...?" Madeline picked up one of the paintings and cringed at the agonized expression depicted inside. 

"How could someone want this in their house..." the girl rattled. Quark straightened his baseball cap and stroked the nonexistent hairs on his chin. Madeline rolled her eyes, knowing this habit of his all too well. Whenever Quark wants to sound smart (and ends up saying something incredibly stupid) he straightens his usually sideways cap and strokes his chin like some professor. "Clearly, this is a prime example of contemporary art, my uneducated friend." Madeline nearly dropped the painting on the floor. "Shut the hell up, Rook! You don't even know what contemporary means!" 

The woman came back into the room with the same beaming smile, her hand clamped firmly on Kaiden's shoulder. 

"So? Shall we begin?" Kaiden squirmed under her iron grip, his face a mix of confusion and apprehension. “Rejoice! You are now in Forever Beanne’s art exhibit! And free of charge too!” Kaiden and Madeline shot Quark a death glare who simply shrugged, it wasn’t HIS idea to come here! And he didn’t even have the pamphlet anymore! “Um no offense but…” Quark slowly raised a hand, “the pamphlet said the exhibit would be WAY bigger than this.” Forever released Kaiden who quickly stumbled over to his friends.

“Also this art is SUPER creepy and-” Madeline shin kicked Quark before he could go on but the criticism had already reached Forever’s ears. “Creepy!?! No, no NO! You're not seeing the beauty in the travesty! The diamond in the rough! The juicy grape in the bag of sours!” Forever collapsed in the arms of a statue who was knelt down with his arms open to the sky as though receiving some gift from God. “To take something horrible and ugly and find the pieces of gold within it…” Forever began stroking the statues jawline affectionately, “is the greatest thing a person can do. If I have to spend the rest of my life right here with my work…” Forever stared longingly into the statue's soulless eyes.

“I will do it.”

The trio wanted to leave, wanted to say something, wanted to do ANYTHING besides watch this woman fawn over her work like a dog at a fire hydrant. But Forever seemed so content with her six works that it seemed almost cruel to break them up, but Kaiden did anyway. “Well we actually need to be getting home, it’s late and it’s a school night.” Forever didn’t even seem to listen as she rolled onto the floor and sprung to her feet energetically. “So before we start, how about we eat something! The tour is a bit long and I just finished making some stew!” 

Kaiden and Madeline moved to shut her down but Quark accepted the offer faster than they could object. “Perfection!” She squealed. “Come along! It’s just back here, but I’m sure your friend already knew that…” Kaiden squirmed under the shame. “Look, we're sorry for lying, and for the break in.” Madeline spoke up as they walked in the golden lit kitchen steam rising into the air where a long dark brown table was set with four bowls at each of the seats. “If you were that eager to see my exhibit you could have just come knocking y'know.” Forever slipped on a pair of oven mitts as she took the large metal pot over the table and began pouring hot red stew into the four bowls. 

Quark scuttled into one of the chairs much bigger than he could hope to be. “It’s just that we’ve been out for a while now and we kinda got lost in the woods so when we saw a house we…” Quark paused long enough for Beanne to cut in, “you thought it was a good idea to break into the first house you saw? Ya Know you're a strange lot you three. What are you to each other anyway?”

“Friends.” Kaiden answered with too much haste.

“Siblings.” Madeline quickly contradicted him. 

“Traveling circus act.” That one didn’t even make sense.

“How are we a circus with only one clown?” Kaiden smacked the bill of Quark’s hat while Forever looked equally as unimpressed. “If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine,” she spoke through sips of the stew, “we all have our secrets, most of all me.” She smiled sadly as if remembering something painful. “What kind of secrets do you have?” Quark talked through a mouth full of pork. Madeline face palmed, “Do you just…actually try not to think before you speak? If they’re her secrets why would she tell you!” Quark shrugged off  her chiding. “I’m just curious! You guys are always tellin’ me to get smarter, but I can’t get any smarter if I never ask any questions!” 

“And you can’t get any smarter if your questions are always this stupid.” Kaiden retorted. Forever just shook her head and smiled chunks of brown meat between her teeth. “You two are so mean! Talent resides in those who appear to lack it.” The air felt heavy and cold despite the heat of the stew as Forever stared at Quark with predatory eyes, ravenous and sinister. “A seedling has infinitely more potential than a full grown tree. A word of wisdom…” Kaiden and Madeline were thoroughly unnerved but Quark was unconcerned as he continued slurping on the rest of his stew.

“Yooo it’s kinda crazy though that you had enough for all four of us! Lucky right?” Forever’s face lost its energetic glow as her cheeks sunk and her smile faded into a darker grimace. “Yeah…” Kaiden swirled his spoon around in the stew, his appetite that had brought him here fading into the night. With a final chug, two lines of red running down her chin, Forever finished the last of her stew . “Having said all this…” Beanne clapped her hands together and beamed widely.

“...Let us begin our tour!”