The wind rushed passed Asbels face and he couldn't help a smile. Nausicaa had load a pack on his back, instructed him to hold on to the steering bars of the glider and within minutes they were flying through the air.
"Nausicaa! Where are we going?" He tried to shout over the rush of the wind.
"You'll see."
He could almost hear the smile in her voice and for a moment a rush of emotions that did not seem to belong came over him; excitement and a bit of trepidation made a small knot in his stomach. In a moment it was gone and he was back to wondering where they were headed and soon had a clearer picture as they left the confines of the valley, past the windmills and into the desert. Now it was time for him to panic a little, she was taking him into the jungle, he knew it. He had not been into the jungle since he crash landed his gunship in it years ago and it still filled him with dread. The images of the red eyed bugs swarming him, intent on killing the ones who were causing the chaos and destruction; his stomach dropped as he wondered how long the insects remembered hate.
As they crested a sand dune he heard Nausicaa shout to him to put on his mask and he did though a part of him wanted to cry out for her to turn around, in truth the jungle frighten him. They quickly approached the jungle and for a moment he thought she was heading straight for the strange trees, until at the last moment she pulled up on the glider and they sailed parallel to the jungle trees, above them and continued to soar. Now he was deeply confused. They sailed on the wind for what seemed like forever, his arms were beginning to tire and a slight throbbing was beginning at the healing scar on his head. Suddenly he felt a sharp kick to the back of his leg.
Hold tight. He looked up the best he could and saw Nausicaa glancing down at him; perhaps he had heard her say it, though it seemed to oddly reverberate in his head. Her eyes crinkled slightly, Asbel knew she was smiling beneath the mask and with out warning the glider began a sudden descent into the jungle; his stomach dropped. As they spun deeper below the canopy and the shadows became deeper Asbel was quick to notice the amount of insects that flew around them, their eyes blue and serene. Deeper into the jungle they spun, new growth became more obvious, what was she doing? The ground was coming up quickly, too quickly.
"Nausicaa!" Asbel cried out and then realized what they were headed for.
A sand pit.
In the moment before the landed, glider and all he cried out once more, "Oh no! Not again."
However, it was not like the last time. There was no mad dash to save his mask-less savior, no panicked thoughts on how to survive in quick sand and no slow fall into the caverns below. This time the glider landed carefully, riders and all, on top of the pit and they waited for the sand to consume them and when the sand released them once again, Nausicaa was able to find a wind to carry them to the bottom of the cavern.
She made a skillful landing on top of a giant petrified tree and dismounted, Asbel did not move. Nausicaa crouched down to him, as he lay prone on the glider, still gripping the handle bars. She lifted off his leather helmet and he unclenched his eyes.
"What's the matter?" She asked, the tone in her voice left no mistake that she was very confused by his reaction to their journey.
Asbel released the handle bars and with one swift movement had propped himself on his elbows, one hand pointing a finger menacingly, but he looked into her well meaning eyes and dropped his hand. "Absolutely nothing," he replied, dropping his head to the glider with a dull thud.
Nausicaa set to work on creating their small campsite next to the running pure water stream and Asbel recovered from their flight. When she was finished she found him standing only a few feet away from the glider, hands on his hips staring around him, turning in small circles. She approached him and was only a foot away when turned to her and spoke.
"This is it, the same spot. Isn't it?"
"Yes, many years ago when we were just strangers we stood in this same spot trying to uncover the mysteries of the jungle."
He whistled. "And what mysteries it holds. But, other than fond memories worth revisiting, why are we here?" He did not want to insult her; they had truly shared some of their happiest moments in the underground cavern, but why now? Nausicaa's face lit up and she grabbed his hand.
"This way." It was all she said, and in truth Asbel wouldn't have listened to much more. It was almost overwhelming the way he felt the heat of her body sliding from his hand to hers, it was beautiful, as if he could see it. She led him by the hand far from their campsite, as they walked and without a conscious reason he found his hand slipped carefully into her. Neither was leading the other, they were simply walking hand in hand; she did not seem to notice the change.
Suddenly she turned to him; anxiousness fueled her eyes that he was not used to seeing.
"Close your eyes."
"But…"
"Just do it, it's a surprise."
He gave her a plaintive look, "Nausicaa, how could it be a surprise. I've only been in the valley a few weeks, what could you have planned in the middle of the jungle in that amount of time?"
She blushed a hearty, visible blush as she reached with one hand and covered his eyes. "I always knew you would come home."
He felt her lead him a few more paces and around a curve, then the pressure put on his shoulders in formed him to stop.
"Can I open my eyes?"
He felt her touch pull away, "Yes."
Asbel opened his eyes and immediately had his breath taken away. Stretching out before him was green, green like he had only seen in the valley and no where else. In small patches where the sunlight came through the sand pits were small plots with grow plants and as he staggered towards one he saw clearer; Nausicaa had planted gardens, dozen of small gardens. There were squashes spreading their leafy tendrils, beans and tomato plants climbing up small poles and the tops of what he assumed to be root vegetables bloomed everywhere. In the patches of non-direct sunlight sprawled grasses, mosses and juvenile bushes and Asbel could count a few miniature versions of the giant oak trees that once protected the Valley. To his shock, though he had seen the small greenhouse in the castle, mingled in the rampant vegetation were the jungle plants and fungi.
"What…. How….but…."Asbel stumbled over his words and Nausicaa just grinned more.
"It's been my project for the last few years. At first I was worried that the sand would not support plants from the jungle, but it turns out that the sand is more pure and nutrient rich than any of the deepest topsoil in the valley. Last year we began to irrigate and plant the crop and last fall we tasted the first of its crop. Here I have to show you the most amazing thing." She grabbed his hand and drug him away, Asbel was surprised that his feet would work in the daze he felt.
She walked him past rows of vegetables, past flowering plants that climbed up the petrified tree stumps to a small out cropping of jungle plants laid out in neat rows as if they were a farmer's crop.
"This is the best of it all, after more study we made the most amazing discovery. Not only are these plants non-toxic out of the jungle, somehow they are medicinal."
He blinked and stared at her, "Medicinal? How?"
"They help combat the sickness caused by living near the jungle. We haven't found cures yet but this one," she pointed to a white fungus with small leafy fronds on its top, "when dried and drank as a tea helps fight off the bone aches." She continued to point and remark on half a dozen of the strange jungle plants, their strange abilities ranging in varieties that matched their strange appearances.
Asbel lost track of the time as he walked the underground gardens, sometimes taking moments to sit or to examine. In this time Nausicaa let him be and he saw her also wander through the garden, sometimes bending to gather things from the rows of vegetables, soon she disappeared and wonderful aroma filled the air. Asbel followed his nose to where she had set up camp and was bent over the portable cook stove she had brought.
"Smells delicious," he said as he sat down across from her. Nausicaa smiled and handed him a plate of their small dinner. He ate quickly not realizing how hungry he was. Putting down his plate he laughed to himself, "Much better than chiko nuts. Nausicaa can I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"How did you even find this place again?"
She glanced away from him. "Well, I suppose you made me find it."
"Me? How?"
"Well, when you disappeared I tried to find you. I suppose I thought that if I did I could have convinced you to come back some how. So I got on my glider and spent days combing the desert and jungle; Mito was terribly angry with me. I retraced everywhere I could think of, but to no avail. One day I came across the Ohmu Lake that the gunship and transport had landed in after the battle with the Tolmiekians and eventually found the sand pit again. Of course, you were not there, no signs that you had ever been there. Well, that's not true there was one sign you had been there, just not as recently as I had hoped."
Asbel was confused, she was right he had not been back to the underground caverns since the day they were there together. She looked at him with a smile.
"I knew you didn't like the chiko nuts, but I didn't realize you had thrown so many away. So when I returned, imagine my surprise to find the ground littered with small chiko bushes, thriving on their own, as if they were meant to be there."
Asbel couldn't contain it and burst into laughter, Nausicaa sent him a reproachful glance, but he could stop himself and soon he heard the sweet peel of laughter coming from Nausicaa herself.
"So," he began, "where are the chiko bushes?"
Nausicaa rose to her feet quickly and turned away. Asbel realized there was more to her story than what she had told him.
"Nausicaa… what did I do?"
"What did you do? Asbel you left! At first I was outraged, that passed into denial, when I refused to even mention your name, then I became despondent. I used this cavern as an escape. I came here for days at a time, doing nothing, just hoping that some how you would come walking around one of the petrified trees or that when I did fly home to the Valley you would be there again. But days, weeks, months passed at began to see that my asinine little fantasies were only that, I convinced myself that you were never coming back, that you did not care for your people, the valley or me. So one day I came back here, angrier than I ever had been since you left and the rage took control of some strange part of me and when I came to my senses there were no more chiko bushes left. I had torn each one up with my bare hands. I left and it was months before I could make myself return her, but when I did it was with a new resolve and slowly the plants began to grow again. Though I could not bring myself to plant more chiko bushes I felt that if you were never to return that I could make use of the one gift you left me."
Nausicaa stood in silence for a while and did not hear Asbel approach her until she felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her close. He rested his head on her shoulder and she instinctively bent her head to rest on his and so they stayed and somewhere in the back of her head past her own feelings of grief she felt a twinge of remorse that was not her own, that seemed to be saying, over and over again. I'm sorry.
"Asbel?" He responded by hugging her a little tighter. "Was it worth it?"
