Fear, that is what struck him as he was about to jump off. Time slowed as he made that leap of faith. Hoping he would make it, but, to his surprise, more of his focus was on her. He would not forgive himself if she had gone. Deep down inside he had hoped they were never enemies from the beginning. He felt it was useless, as was many other things. He would find her annoying on several occasions but everyone has their moments. Ulrika plunged down quickly, but Raze shot down with his arms firmly at his sides. The wind rushed through his features and, for a moment, he felt bliss. He closed eyes, and all of the sudden, he saw her. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he beheld her. He snapped out of it.
As he grabbed onto her waist, he shifted upwards. Gritting his teeth as his free hand burnt as he slid. "That's gonna last a while." With the added weight, he shuttered at the thought of what might have happened to his leg if he bungeyed. His hands were sweaty under his ivory gloves. He was a bit shaky, but not enough to alert Ulrika. his heart began to race. He was scared but would not admit it. He needed to stay calm, especially for her. Now would not be the best time for her to panic.
She held onto his waist for dear life. Looking up she saw the creature with it's faceless expression and it's large triangular head. "Oh crap! It's still there!"
Raze was oddly calm about the situation. "It doesn't seem smart enough to cut the rope but we can't take any chances." He looks to his side to find a ledge with a large opening. Some minor vegetation about it's mouth. "There!" It was a fair distance away but was manageable. "I'm gonna toss you over there and then I'll jump on with you. Ready?" She gulped. "As ready as I'll ever be."
A sloping mountain face, littered with forestry, stood opposite of the cliff. Peperoni and Chloe were climbing, on their way to their rendezvous. Chloe, heaving a small bag of ingredients with her, groaned in exhaustion. "Ugh! Why do we have to get the ingredients today?"
"Because the Miss is training while Enna and Uryu are synthesizing back at the workshop. Besides, it's good to have some exercise every now and then. Just look at me." The "fairy" flexed with the heavy sacks hanging about the joints of his arm's.
"Oh shut up..." Without enough energy to present a frightening glare, she settles with a disinterested groan. Chloe settles down her bag and buries her head in her knees.
"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." He murmured.
"Who's fault do think that is..." She said.
"Well, I'm sorry but the it was the Miss's orders. She needed everyone up bright and early." He perked, letting down his bags.
"You could have at least let me eat..." She grumbled inwardly. 'I wanted to see Seno, too.' She thought.
"The cafeteria wasn't open yet." He countered.
"Ugh." She decides to get and grab something to eat when they get back.
She turns to the cliff and beyond it lay two familiar figures in the distance. "What's that?" She moves in closer and spots a head of blonde hair holding onto something white. She gasps. "Ulrika!"
"What's with the shouting?" He asks.
"Ulrika's in trouble!" Peperoni, still confused, watches as she runs uphill, leaving her bag. "C'mon!" He panics and pulls his bags, even smacking his face.
Back at the cliff, Raze swung back and forth gathering momentum. Ulrika plants her feet at his gut then pushes off. "Ooof!" He spat. She lands onto the ledge, stumbling forward.
"Oops! Sorry." Raze inhales deeply, gritting the pain for a second, then begins to swing again.
Meanwhile, the stone creature walks aimlessly upon the platform. Turning it's head as if trying to find an exit with makeshift eyes.
Chloe climbed the ladder with Peperoni close behind. Panting on her way up. "She better pay me back after this." As she reached the end of the ladder she yelped at the sight of the danger.
Nearly loosing his grip at her reaction, Peperoni hushed his quivering body. "What's wrong?"
"And I thought the dangling was the worst to be expected." She seemed to more of talking to herself.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" He seemed to be in a panic.
"There's this large... THING up there." She became to quake in fear.
"Then let's go back." He was trying to reason with her. She felt slightly annoyed but couldn't judge him for not seeing Ulrika and Raze on the cliff. He has a good excuse, she should exercise restraint. "It has Ulrika!" Maybe not...
"Don't have to be so sensitive." She gave him an unpleasant look. "Sorry." He apologized, proving his muscles have little relation on his personality.
Chloe turns away, slowly crawling up. The massive golem turns to her. In a fright, she attempts to force herself further down - if that was even possible - from her prone position. Though it doesn't flinch nor take notice. It stands, ever silent in it's quite struggle to escape the cliff. Chloe, noting this slowly, gets up with slight hesitation. "It's not attacking..."
"Oooh! An Elemental!" He squeals. "I thought they were extinct."
"A what?" She says as she nears the collapsed bridge. She kneels down to observe the shattered wood, and, surprisingly, earth. 'What happened here?' She thought.
"Elementals are creatures that embody the elements." It slowly walks to a cliff that it wandered to a few minutes ago. "That one seems blind though." He looks around the earth platform it stands upon. "I don't see the Miss there."
"She's hanging on the cliff with that guy." She points to the cliff side. "We have to get there, fast!"
"Okay, but how?" She opens her book and several black blades appear around her. "Here's how."
They run towards it as the blades creating a makeshift bridge for them. As they near it, it turns to them then slams it's stone fist onto the blade-bridge. They dodge to the sides as Chloe recalls the swords. She lands, stumbles, then falls on her rear. "Ow!"
Pepperoni slashes his mace through the earth, tossing large stones on the Elemental. It's upper body tilts back but seems relatively unharmed.
Chloe recovers then tosses her blades at it. They implode as they stab through but the small dents haven't slowed it down.
It's arm that used to house a disk, transforms into a blade as the armor on it's arm loosens, making it elongate. Aggravated by Chloe's previous attack, it swings it's weapon like a whip at her. Quick to react, she sends her book to bite onto the blade. "It can't hold on! Do something!"
"Forgive me, fairies." He whispers to himself. Pepperoni slams his fist down creating a pillar of earth that engulfs the Elemental. He leaps into the air with some help from his mace then slams the towering rock downward. It swiftly went down. "That did it."
It was gone, but, apparently, the rope was beneath it and it took it with the earth elemental. It quickly tugged onto the vine as Raze was being pulled up. "What the...!?" Raze began to lose his grip but held tight as his hands sweat. He ran on the wall as he went up. He lept from place, quickly drawing his blade to cut the rope, then smacked his stomach on the ledge as his blade slid across the ledge. "Ooof! Not again..." He groaned. He climbed with Ulrika tugging at his arm.
"Not very lucky, are you?" She joked, small laughter escape her lips. He kept his mouth shut, attempting to hide the obvious scorn in him. He got up, took his knife from behind a few downed leaves, and made his way into the cave. Her meager laughter dimmed as he walked away, leaving a distasteful feeling at the bottom of her gut. 'This is bad.' She thought.
He had quickly gotten a fair distance inside.
She began to chase after him. "Hey, Jer-" She just realized how passive that insult became. "I mean-wah!" She had tripped on a root protruding from the wall. She fell on her knee, scratching it. She began to fell the mark and the dirt that littered it. She squeezed tight, trying to hold back the pain.
Raze walked up to her with a strange bottle in hand. "Calm down." He says softly with his plain expression.
His grandfather doesn't take him training outside without him learning a thing or two about treating wounds. He remembers having injured his arm during training. "Calm down." His granddad said. The old man, calm on the outside, panicking on the inside, steadied Raze onto a nearby tree.
He had her rest on the cave wall as she stretched her leg. He poured the contents of the bottle onto her leg. It stung a sharp pain through her her body. She attempted to grip her knee but Raze caught both her hands.
She wanted to trust him. She let go, leaving one hand in Raze's, squeezing tightly as her other hand became a clenched fist pressed against her heart. She squeezed as much as she could as the liquid began to sting with a heated intensity then settle down.
"Breathe." His voice, it began to soothe her as her pain began to numb. Memories began to flow again. "Breathe." His grandfather said. It had almost sounded like a command if it weren't for his calming tone.
Raze let free his hand then ripped a piece of his jacket and dabbed her disinfected knee with it. The minor amount of blood, gone.
He kept crying, the mark on his wrist was severe. The elderly man tore a piece of his pants and wrapped it around his arm. Raze's blood poured into his grandfather's torn pant leg.
He wrapped another piece of his jacket around her knee to hold it in. "Are you okay?" She blushed, the worry in his eyes were clearly visible. "Y-yeah." He breathed slowly, allowing his heart to settle.
"Can you walk?" She glanced at her injured knee. "I think so." She attempted to get up bit yelped as her knee began to sting. He reached down and picked her up. "Let your knee rest. It isn't severe but you need to settle your injury for a while."
She rested in his arms, doing nothing but wondering about all the reasons he could be doing this. "Is he trying to earn my trust to betray me in the end? Does he want to get back at me by leaving me here?' Aimless thoughts like these lingered to no end until one thought loomed in her head, still being processed: 'Does he like me?' She glanced at him, then looked away as he as he looked down at her with a worried glare.
He was looking around, seeing if he could see ahead in the dim lights. The few holes above would grant some insight in the near pitch black and damp cave but not enough to grant even satisfiable visibility. It annoyed him. Ulrika, however, hoped it was dark all through out, he was looming over her, close enough to touch, tempting her every time his features suddenly became visible.
A deep pit stood in their path. "What now?" She asks.
He begins to contemplate. Raze puts her down, noticing the leftover vine from before as he does so. He unravels the vine and rope still on his leg and knotting it again with each other. Ironically, Raze was taught to tie any knot by his grandfather but never knew how to tie shoe laces. The two neatly woven threads were strong enough to propel even the excelling weight of Pepperoni. He tugged them to test their strength. A thick sound emitted from it.
Raze walks over the Ulrika. His silence causes her to fluster. He kneels down. His bangs shading his eyes as he looks downward. She blushes deeply as he nears her face, as if he was ready to lock lips, taking advantage of her condition. "Umm...Raze?" He looks up, revealing his eyes. "Hold on to me." Relieved yet unable to rid herself of her blush, she wraps her arms around his neck tightly. Her chest, pressing against his own, causes him to grow his own shade of red.
He takes the rope and loops it around a sloping vine conveniently dangling above them towards the other end. He lifts his feet as he hangs onto the vine, taking them to the other side. They slide as she clings onto his neck in fear of falling.
Raze lands safely, quickly grabbing Ulrika as she loses her grip at the last minute. "You scare me." The line seemed inappropriate as it seemed he had just embraced her instead of keeping her in balance. Suddenly realizing how awkward their position was, he let go. "Sorry." They blushed. "Woah!" Her knee suddenly becomes weak then she topples over. Raze quickly grabs her arm and pulls her to him. His arm firmly wrapped around her back. They make eye contact. "Umm... maybe you should carry me. Just a bit longer?" She asks with a sign of pleading in her tone. "Uhh...yeah. I think that would be best." He takes her in his arms once more and continues through the caves.
To be concluded...
I'm so sorry about not completing (especially to Lostgirl127 and Kurou-chan who have reviewed) but I've had my practices for Live Belen and such to take my time. I'll have it done soon. Promise :) And for those of you who have stuck with me as I did this, thanks. :) And finally, R&R please! :D I'd like to tell the readers I know something about my UlriRaze fic :) So please review, you have no idea how good it feels to have them. :)