33 — LEAP OF FAITH

An absolutely impossible image: a body flying through the air. So unused to looking at the sky and much more adept at looking at mirrors and cell phone screens, the awake citizens that night didn't even notice anything weird.

Seiya, Shun and Hyoga followed the flock of crows that flew carrying Saori's unconscious body. They crossed avenues, streets, gardens and took the direction of mountains they already knew from past battles.

But the crows climbed to even higher and more unknown escarpments.

Skilled, trained warriors like they were, the three of them leaped from stone to stone, deftly climbing the huge heights of the mountain. And, as they carried nothing, they very quickly arrived at the band that struggled to take flight.

From a higher stone, Shun threw his chains and hit some large crows that disbanded, making Saori's body topple dangerously.

"Be careful, Shun!' Seiya warned, moving forward.

Hyoga also launched a blast of ice that crossed the sky, driving away other birds from the flock.

"I'll get her with my chains, Seiya!" said Shun said, releasing his chain again, which caught in Saori's fists preventing the crows from flying on.

Part of the group that didn't carry the girl's weight turned to them, but they were soon pushed aside by Hyoga's freezing cosmos.

Slowly, Shun managed to pull Saori's body, because, in the air, the crows were still struggling to thrust forward; until they no longer resisted Shun's strength and two of them abandoned Saori, to Hyoga's despair, who tried to alert his friend.

For Saori would fall over the precipice.

Seiya jumped off the rock towards her.

"No, Seiya!" shouted Shun, seeing his unprotected friend launch himself into the darkness trying to reach the falling body still attached to his friend's chain.

She was still far away and Shun knew he would have to trust Seiya, as the fall would be fatal if he kept the chain attached to the girl; the sudden stop could break her arm, or the momentum of the pendulum could slam her deadly against the stone wall. He retrieved the chain and prayed for the best. He saw the body fall against the sky and Seiya's figure jumping towards her.

"Glide, Pegasus." prayed his friend.

And Seiya fell towards Saori's body. Her white dress closer and closer; he stretched his arms forward and finally caught her from falling into the abyss; he had the dexterity to hug her and turn on his own axis so that the impact against the wall in front of them was all in his body. And from there they fell back down the cliff, the height was much lower, but Seiya's arm snapped when he stretched it out in front of him to stop the fall that could be fatal to both of them.

They stopped immediately; Saori fell a few centimeters on the stone, while Seiya rolled to the side, crying out in pain. His arm broken. He looked to his right and saw Saori's white dress with her arm sticking out of the abyss that steeped further down. He pulled her to lean against the wall and felt a huge pain in his arm.

At least she was safe. She was alive. He took a deep breath, seeking air.

He heard his friends coming down the cliff to help them from the wall, and he felt his chest swell with hope and at the same time a lose heart, for he knew he would have to spend more time in the hospital. He hated the hospital.

"You'll have to help me…"

But they weren't his friends.

It was Shaina.

On the other side, another Silver Saint.

It was Shaina again.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in disbelief.
"Is this Athena?" she asked, directly, frankly, and hatefully.
"Yes," Seiya replied.
"Don't be ridiculous." came the squeaky voice of the very thin boy beside her. "My crows knocked this girl down like she was made of sugar. She could never be Athena."
"Is this the Goddess Athena that you have by your side?" Shaina mocked again to Seiya.

He got up, feeling a lot of pain with his broken arm and bleeding.

"This is the Goddess Athena." he reinforced. "Don't tell me you came here to kidnap her just to make sure who she is."
"Ah, nevermind that." replied the boy. "We already know back in the Sanctu..."
"Shut up, Jamian!" Shaina chided.

He was silent.

"I can't understand what makes a helpless, pathetic little girl like this impersonating our Goddess Athena. And that's exactly why this scammer needs to pay with all of you. This has gone too far, Seiya."
"You have to believe me, Shaina. She is the Goddess Athena!" he tried.
"Stop being stupid!"

Jamian, on his left side, went to Saori's unconscious body, but Seiya got up and, as he could, spun a flying kick, making him move away. As he had his arm immobile and broken, Seiya lost his balance and stopped at the wall again. He knelt down and pulled Saori's unconscious body with his left arm.

"Stay away from her!" he said. "You won't touch Saori."

Shaina trembled with anger.

"And what are you going to do, Seiya?" she asked in her irascible voice. "Behind you there's a huge boulder, in front of you a drop down to the abyss. You are surrounded. There is no escape. Surrender yourself at once." she ordered.
"Never!"
"Wee, Pegasus. Talking like this, it seems to me that she is very important to you, isn't she?" mocked the Silver Saint in his hateful voice.

Seiya looked at the smirk on his face and didn't flinch.

"You're right. She is very important to me. And you won't do anything to her!" he snarled.
"Important…" Shaina scolded through gritted teeth.

They stared at each other, waiting for what Seiya would do, but Shaina took a step forward, threatening to close in on them.

"The stars…"

Saori slowly woke up in Seiya's arms; he looked at her and saw her eyes open, her expression delirious.

"The stars are so beautiful."

And indeed, the stars that shone in the sky of those mountains were really very beautiful. Scattered and vibrant.

She tried to support herself with her leg, but faltered with a pain in her heel and had to hang on Seiya's neck.

"Miss..."
"Just Saori, Seiya." she corrected.
"Saori…" he began. "This is the worst time ever for you to wake up. You should've stayed asleep."

She smiled and as she smiled she felt a pain in her chest.

"I feel like I'm always an inconvenience." she said.
"Don't say that, that's not what I meant." he got it a little wrong. "I am a Saint."
"You're right." she agreed, smiling.

Clearly delusional, Seiya thought. Whatever it was in those very heavy black feathers seemed to act on her differently than they did.

"Are we just going to stand here, Shaina?" asked the hateful Silver Saint.
"Shut up!" she said, trembling with hatred as she watched the lovebirds talk.

Seiya pressed Saori closer to him, holding her by the waist.

"Saori, we will have to risk our lives." he said, and the girl's eyes looked tired but comforted by hers.
"I trust you, Seiya."

Her voice didn't sound wobbly or delirious as she seemed to be; it was the voice of the Goddess Athena who said she trusted him. He was protecting Athena. But the eyes that looked at him were those of a girl. It was Saori who trusted him.

The boy felt his cosmos inside him burn up.

He walked slowly from the platform where he was under the watchful eyes of Shaina and Jamian, who for whatever reason seemed unable to do anything, either because of the presence of a Goddess preventing them or just the most human disbelief that these two young kids would actually throw themselves of the cliff.

For under those beautiful stars that's exactly what they did.

The two of them got swallowed by the darkness of the abyss.

Jamian dropped to his knees, staring at the dark immensity below them.

"This is not possible, that fool! They will die from this height!"

"Seiya…" Shaina spoke very low just to herself.

And she looked up at the stars above when she saw a shooting star scribble in the sky. She felt overran by a huge sensation that she didn't know exactly what it was, but that gave her only one certainty: Seiya would survive.

Drops of rain caught in the leaves of a small tree fell on Saori's eyes and woke her up again. The night was still high, but where she was the moonlight barely reached her, so she woke to a pitch dark where she couldn't see a foot in front of her. She sat up and remembered a terrible nightmare in which she fell from an infinite precipice.

Her damp dress had twigs and leaves attached, one of the straps torn at her shoulder, and blood dripped from it in the rainwater.

After all, it hadn't been a nightmare.

And so she remembered everything.

She called for Seiya in the darkness, seeking his voice.

It didn't come.

Her tired eyes got better used to the pitch dark and, among the shadows, she noticed some tree trunks she was leaning on, trying to keep upright, despite the pain she felt in her heel. She jumped on one foot to look for Seiya's body, but fell back onto a bed of leaves.

A voice then called for Seiya. It wasn't her voice.

Someone far away was looking for him. Saori recognized it from afar when the scream repeated and echoed in the darkness. She looked for him. It was Shun, and Saori called for him several times in the darkness.

And, in the darkness, she saw a bright boy descend like an angel, a pink aura around him illuminating that little piece of grove they were on. Such was the darkness that the glow of Shun's cosmos for a few moments dazzled her darkened eyes.

"Saori, is that you?"

The body of the boy illuminated from his cosmos gave light to that pitch dark and Saori embraced him as one who finds an angel inside an infinite cave.

"Seiya, where is Seiya?" she asked desperately.

And together they searched in the darkness between low leaves and twisted branches, Saori leaning on Shun, with anxious eyes, until finally they found Seiya's inert body. Saori immediately fell to the ground and cried.

She pulled Seiya's unconscious body against her own asking him to be alive for all she could do. She felt abandoned again, felt helpless again, for what she was trying to do in that silence with closed eyes and heavy breathing was to manifest her divine cosmos and bring some relief to the unconscious boy.

"Please, please, please." she spoke softly as if asking the universe for her cosmos to manifest and wake up Seiya, heal him of all pain and make him smile again.

But her cosmos did not manifest itself there.

Shun noticed, however, that in the depths of that darkness a golden dot was slowly approaching. And as it approached, everything around it lit up, bathed in an absolutely wonderful golden light. He could see everything now: they were in a kind of open cave surrounded by many low trees.

Inside the wall of golden light, Shun saw an absolutely beautiful silhouette. Around the silhouette and them all, Shun noticed crimson petals floating gracefully all over the place. He looked at his right hand and saw that there was a rose calmly resting in his hand.

"The Gold Saint." Shun guessed, remembering the golden figure that Hyoga had seen. Then he passed out with that sweet scent that invaded his chest of comfort.

Saori finally became aware of the golden light and the disappointment that all that comfort was not hers, but someone else's. Seiya remained unconscious.

She turned to see the Gold Saint. He was absolutely wonderful.

"Athena." said his sweet voice. "I came for you."

And she smelled roses and faded in quiet dreams.

When morning finally bathed that hidden corner in the mountains, Shun was awakened from delicious dreams by someone bringing him back to the light. It was Hyoga leaning over him, trying to wake him up.

"Andromeda." he said.
"You can call me Shun, Hyoga." said the boy.
"What happened? Where is Athena?" he asked.

Shun sat up and squinted. He took off his helmet and set it aside as if he was still trying to wake up from some kind of spell.

"Tell me, Shun. Seiya is in very bad shape and I haven't found any sign of Athena. What happened when you came down during the night?" he asked.

Shun looked into the boy's clear eyes.

"The Gold Saint was here." Shun said.

Hyoga got up worried.

"Do you think the Gold Saint took Athena?"

Shun looked at him worriedly, but nodded.

"The Gold Saint was in the Ruins of Discord to seal Eris." Hyoga spoke.
"You said he respected Athena's wishes." Shun commented and Hyoga confirmed.
"Who is this man?" asked Hyoga.
"The Gold Cloth have always been next to Saori, beside Athena. Now we can only hope that wherever she is, she must be fine."

The boy finally got up and went to Seiya's rescue.

"Now we need to get Seiya out of here. If he threw himself from that height, I don't know what could have happened to him." He said, worried. "First Shiryu, now Seiya. What a hell." said the boy.
"He'll be fine." Hyoga said. "He's barely breathing, but he'll survive. This one is hard to break."

Shun lifted Seiya and Hyoga came to his aid, so they could carry his friend away.

But it was obvious that there were more people in that canyon interested in disrupting their plans. For, with the dawn, the threats also came down.

ABOUT THE CHAPTER: I tried to bring from Saintia Sho the moment that a Gold Saint appears in Shoko's camp to take Saori to the Grand Master, but I did it within this context of Seiya's mountain jump.

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER: LABYRINTHS OF THE MIND

Saori will be facing an important person while Shaina will revisit nightmares in her mind.