Chapter 1: Fall
Mama was talking to Papa on the phone again, doing that giggly thing and saying a bunch of words that Keiyu did not understand. The five year old never understood why her mom changed how she talked with Papa, but at least it took her attention away from making sure Keiyu did her morning routine properly. Mama hated any interruptions in her conversations with Papa and always withheld desserts when Keiyu wanted to talk to him and Mama had to obey because Papa had heard her voice. It made her sad that she couldn't talk to Papa this morning, but right now she only had a few minutes left before the other kids deemed her late and a coward and she didn't want to be by herself again.
Tiptoeing to the front door, she quietly took out her best shoes and slipped them on before reaching for the backpack that Mama had placed by the door, startling when her mom's voice called out to her from the kitchen.
"Make sure to take your medicine for lunch, you did take your morning ones right?" indeed there was a small bag of pills on the table and Keiyu placed them next to her lunch box in her backpack. If there was one thing she could count on with Mama to stop talking to Papa, it was making sure Keiyu got her daily dose of pills.
"Yes Mama," she slipped out the door, hopping down the front steps and broke into a run once she hit the stone path leading to the schoolhouse, pausing momentarily near a tree where she dug out a bag filled with all of the pills that Mama had given her the past week, putting this morning's share in as well.
Hopefully this will be enough to make the other kids like her.
A group of kids were hanging around the playground outside the school house, the youngest only seven years old Mao, with the oldest, Hibiki, being around ten.
"Hey Hibiki, the crybaby's here," the ten year old looked to where Mao was pointing and saw the five year old granddaughter of the village chief coming towards them wearing a dress, withholding the snort at her shiny black shoes.
"How does she expect to climb the mountain in those?" nine year old, Honoka sneered, several of the other kids snickered before Hibiki shushed them.
"Quiet, we haven't even started the game yet," he plastered on a smile as the green haired girl stopped in front of them.
"I got what you asked for," she was gasping, hands on her knees and it took all his will not smirk or sneer at her like the others were, not that she could tell what they were doing anyways.
"From all seven days, including this morning and lunch?" she produced the bag and he nodded to Mao who stepped forward and counted it.
"All fourteen are here," he tossed it back to Mumichi who struggled to catch it, "Let's go bury it then," she looked surprised.
"Bury?" he nodded, giving her a severe look.
"You want to prove that you're not a baby right?" she flinched but nodded, "Everyone knows that this medicine is only given till one turns four and a half. So the fact that your parents are still giving you it means they believe your not mature enough to go on without the pills," her lips wobbled and she stared at the ground so he quickly added, "But by doing this task you'll have proven to have no need of these pills anymore and that you have a right to hang out with us older kids," she stared up at him with wide eyes and beamed.
"Hai!" she didn't notice the looks the other kids were sporting, or that each of them had one hand behind their back as they made a vow to play with her upon the successful completion of her task.
As the group started up the path, Keiyu glanced back at the schoolhouse which should be closed, only to spot Shimizu-sensei watching them from the shadows of the building. Feeling a shiver run down her back for no reason, the greenette returned the pills to her backpack and hurried to catch up with the others, stumbling over a rock here and there as she tried to find her balance with the flats Mama gave her.
Not many paths were available into Tsurukosa Forest which was not made for hiking all that much. Any attempts to turn it into a hiking trail was halted when the dam was built some years before so the only path up the mountain led to the one place that was fenced in on the whole island.
However the youth of the island started a tradition where the newest child at the sole school of Crane Village made a trip beyond the bridge to the fence blocking access to the dam and its facilities to bury something in the soil by the fence before making the trip back to the bridge by themselves.
Keiyu only knew some of the reason from what the other kids told her, though she dared not ask her mom or grandparents and end up with no friends on this island.
The sun became unbearable as they reached the rickety bridge and Keiyu felt miserable, recalling that the distance between the bridge and the fence was even longer than between the bridge and the school.
They walked ahead of her on the bridge but stopped once they got off, all of them gathering to the side as she stepped back onto the forest floor.
"We'll stay here, you have till lunch time to make it there and back," with no further instructions Keiyu gripped her backpack and walked through the bush they said contained a path to the fence.
It became easier to walk as the path itself flattened out, but with no one around she had the fear of not being able to find anything by herself, of being lost.
The sound of an animal appeared behind her and she broke into a run, fear overriding her senses. This of course led to her reaching the fence much sooner and she spotted the hole that they told her about.
Slipping through the fence, she found a shovel and made a big enough hole to fit all of the medicine before covering it with dirt. Then she just stared at it for a minute, she'd been taking this medicine since she was little, and if Mama or her grandparents found out she stopped taking it for a week? She shuddered and returned to the path, eager to make the descent down, her backpack a little bit lighter from the pills she had taken out. Her head spun for a moment and she leaned against the tree waiting for it to disappear, wondering if not taking the pills was a bad idea after all.
This happened several more times down the mountain and she reached the bridge, only to see the kids on the other side.
"Hurry up Mumichi! You still have to cross the bridge!" Mao was calling out to her and she felt her stomach twist at the look on his face, something wasn't right. Then he held up something green in his hands and she cried out,
"Mr. Tail!" the chameleon blinked at her slowly, not at all worried about being held by his tail, the old lizard rather slow. But he'd been her friend since she came to the island and found him by her house, her first friend.
"Mr. Tail, what a stupid name," he waved his hand and she burst into a run as he was spinning Mr. Tail in circles.
"Stop it, stop!" she came to the middle of the bridge when he suddenly let go of the chameleon, making it fly over and Keiyu didn't hesitate to jump over the bridge railing to catch him, even as she grabbed onto the rope to stop from falling into the river below.
There was a curse as some of the kids witnessed her fall, Mao himself looking shocked.
"Go get her!' one of the kids urged him and he brushed them off.
"Why should I? Hey Mumichi! Get back onto the bridge yourself," Keiyu blinked back tears, placing Mr. Tails in her shirt and reaching up to grab the rope with her now free hand.
Then a loud siren appeared that caused the color to drain from their faces,
"The dam, get her Mao," the kids were urging the boy but didn't make any move to go out to the bridge. Keiyu didn't understand what the siren meant as she'd only been on the island a month and this was her first time in the forest.
But the sound of water did not escape her and she could only watch with terror at the large surge of water coming towards her (and the kids could only watch with horror as the five year old was torn off the bridge with a scream.)
Water entered her mouth before she broke the surface, trying desperately not to drown.
'Someone' her head fell back under the water and she struggled to come back up again.
'Someone help me!' she didn't want to die, her body smacked against a rock and the water expelled itself from her body before she fell into the water again.
She didn't want to die!
The sound of even more rushing water appeared and she could only watch with a darkening vision as the waterfall in front of her crept closer and closer until she was falling.
"I don't want to die again!'