Hello readers, welcome back to this weird little corner of the Internet. Let's just keep things move, shall we?
Chapter 43: What Goes Up…
I opened my eyes to find myself on top of a large, puffy cloud.
"What the-" I started to say.
"Hello~!" the happy voice of Aira called out to me.
I turned. She was just above me, fluttering around happily.
"Hello Aira." I greeted, before looking around. "Where's Vivianna?"
"Vivi? Don't you remember?" Aira asked, flipping upside down without a care. "We agreed that we'd each speak with you alone for a night."
"Oh… right." I murmured, embarrassedly glancing away. The nightmare I had last night made me forget their little arrangement.
"Vivi wanted me to have my turn now. Surprise!" Aira playfully called, fluttering over to me so it appeared as though she was lying stomach down.
"What's with the 'Vivi' now? Is that a nickname that you made up?" I asked, noticing just how much she was saying Vivi.
"Yep! I think it's cute, and Vivi hasn't said anything against it yet." Aira explained happily.
It might've just been me, but I think I heard a somewhat defeated sigh in the back of my head. If Aira heard it too, she didn't say anything about it.
"Anyway, what do you wanna do?" Aira asked.
I didn't know what to say to that, so my offer probably came out pretty lame. "Maybe just… sit here for a while?"
Aira smiled happily at me regardless, sitting down next to me. Her wings folded against her body and disappeared, something I only just now realized she could do.
Now that I had a proper look, the world around us seemed to be nothing but air and clouds. I kept glancing down below me, but I didn't have any sense of where the ground was from there.
"Oh, there isn't any ground down there, you know." Aira offhandedly remarked, probably seeing me look around at the world below. "I made a world where I can fly all day without worry of crashing into anything."
I nodded at her. "Makes sense, I suppose…" I agreed.
The air was quiet for a while, save for the sounds of gentle breezes around us.
Aira then seemed to grow a little nervous. "Um… Cameron? About… about… that man…"
I started having the images of HIS eyes come back to me. "...you don't need to tell me. I already guessed that that was the person who told you to kill me?"
Aira gitterly fumbled with her next sentence. "I-I would've never done it i-if I knew how nice you were beforehand, I swear! I-I promise!"
Our fight must've still been a very sore spot for her. Whether that was because she didn't know who I was when she did it, or that I actually beat her, I didn't know. I assumed the former.
Slowly, Aira calmed down a little again. "B-but… Cameron, when I met him, he…"
She paused, taking a deep breath. "When I met him, he was so powerful I could feel his presence even before I saw him. And when he spoke? It was though a hundred more of him were agreeing with his words, or something. Even if I knew it was a trap, I just got lost in his words."
Aira started speaking a little faster, as though she had held these words in for a long time and wanted to get them off her chest once and for all. "So when he told me that someone out there was interfering with Notch himself, I couldn't say no to him. And when he told me to get rid of you, I felt honored, like I was getting a task from the likes of a king. Somewhere in the back of my head, I questioned his words, but I didn't listen to them. I didn't think I should."
Aira slowly started losing breath. "I… you don't know what it was like, to be in HIS presence… like, when he actually WANTED something out of you. His power… he felt older and far more powerful than I could ever hope to be, more than Vivi too. He… he felt even older than Notch himself, and that's saying something close to blasphemy. I just… I just couldn't handle his presence."
The air around us started swirling around faster and faster, putting us in the center of a growing tornado. "And then, when he started to speak to you, I… I so badly wanted to scream for you to run away, to swing at him, to do something, but… I couldn't speak. He… he scares me, Cameron. He really does. I was worried that if I told you to act, and he hurt you, then… it would be my fault, and… you would… would…"
Aira's eyes started to look a lot shinier than normal. "I… I'm so sorry… I… I never wanted you to be in trouble, and it's all my fault, and… I'm a bad person… I don't deserve to have such a good friend as you, Cameron… I don't someone like you…"
A small tear slowly leaked out of Aira's eye and down her cheek. The tornado around us blew with so much force that it would've destroyed even a reinforced stone brick castle, with us right in the center of it all.
"C… Cameron… I…" Aira blubbered, slowly about to break down entirely if I didn't do or say something.
"Aira… please don't cry." I gently instructed, hugging her a little closer to me. "There's nothing you have to apologize for. You should know that."
"B-but *hic*… but I *hic* tried to… to kill you before…" Aira hiccuped, her face now streaked with a few tears. "A-and… he wants *hic* you dead now, and… it's my fault since *hic* I listened to him…"
"Please, don't blame yourself, Aira…" I pleaded, holding the jittery girl a little tighter. "You did nothing bad that you haven't fixed already. For all we know, that Herobrine guy doesn't even know you're in my head. How would he? So he can't put blame on you."
Aira didn't say anything, but the winds considerably lessened in force around us. I took that as a sign to keep going.
"I don't blame you for trying to get me, either. Not only were you more or less pressured into doing it, but I also attacked first. I'm not innocent here, Aira." I reminded. "I made mistakes too."
The winds continued to lessen. "B… but… I still…"
"Shhh…" I shushed gently, rubbing Aira's back. "Calm down… It's okay."
Aira gently shook in my arms. The winds continued to blow at a somewhat fast speed still.
Aira sniffled one more time, then made the mistake of glancing up into my eyes.
"Shhh… you're okay." I cooed.
That was all she could take.
The wind instantly stopped around us, and Aira tightly held herself against me, crying her eyes out.
"C-Cameron! I-I'm so sorry!" she blubbered.
Clouds started building around us, getting denser and denser, until they slowly started to rain. I felt myself getting drenched, but I didn't care. I did my best to shield Aira from the rain as she continued to cry.
Aira continued to cry into my chest for a solid minute before she managed to pull away. Her eyes were red and a little puffy. "I-I.. I'm so… sorry…" she whispered, sniffling.
"It's okay… it's okay." I repeated, gently rubbing Aira's back.
She gently shook in my arms, but without tears. The rain clouds slowly petered out.
Eventually, she pulled away and managed a very, very tiny smile. "Heh… I… guess I had that in me for a while… I thought I was over it, but…"
I squeezed her a little. "It's okay. You didn't know how things were then. Now you do, and we can better plan for it."
Aira slowly smiled a little bit. "I… I guess… but I still feel low…"
In response, I hugged her even closer to me, our eyes still unwaveringly focused at each other.
I slowly pulled her head forward and we kissed.
Aira quickly clamped her arms around me and held herself tightly against me, so much so that I could feel her rapid heartbeat.
The wind around us, once so dark and stormy, quickly grew to a gentle breeze. Aira gently put more force into her kiss.
We stayed like that for a good twenty seconds. We could've gone longer, but we wanted to look into each other's eyes.
"Aira…" I gently murmured, pushing a bang out of her eyes for her.
"Cameron, you… you're so wonderful to me… please, never leave me…" she whispered, resting her head on my chest.
I didn't respond. I just gently hugged her.
We stayed like that for almost the entire night. Just us together, holding each other while floating on a plane of clouds.
…
…
…
Eventually, however, I felt like my body was starting to wake up.
"Aira… I have to go soon." I muttered.
Aira looked up at me, shocked. "B-but… no, you can't go yet! I-I didn't get to kiss you as much as I wanted…"
I pulled her up and gave her one more kiss. I quickly pulled away after a few seconds, saying, "Then have that as a preview. I'll be back later. You know I will."
Aira gently sighed, before hugging me again. "I know… bye, Cameron… I love you…"
Slowly, my vision faded away, as my body slowly woke back up…
I slowly woke from slumber to find Susie and Snowy had already woken up.
With a small start, I realized that this was probably the first time in a long while that I've woken up after at least Susie has. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
I felt lazy that day, so I decided to put on some soft pants I wore for just sleeping and lounging around, and a fresh white shirt. I also skipped the shower today, since I didn't feel gross at all.
"Well, don't you look good this morning?" the voice of Vivianna spoke up in my head.
"Good morning to you too." I greeted quietly. "You too, Aira."
"*soft giggle*" was all I heard from Aira.
"She's been giggling like this ever since you woke up." Vivianna told me. "She has a very peaceful expression on too… you two must've really enjoyed each other."
"You make it sound dirty. All we did was talk." I defended.
"*soft giggle*"
"Be that as it may, I'm still curious as to what exactly you two talked about…" Vivianna mused.
"Wouldn't you like to know." I teased smugly.
"*soft giggle* Cameron loves me…" Aira giggled.
That made me smile a little bit wider as I headed for the door.
Walking out of the room, I was met with Susie behind the counter, with Andr and Snowy sitting at the counter. "Morning…" I sleepily murmured.
Susie smirked at me when she saw my outfit. "Someone looks like they put a lot of work into their outfit today."
Snowy giggled at me. Andr suppressed a rather large giggle.
"I felt lazy today, alright?" I defended, though they knew I was only kidding as well.
"Nice cowlick, by the way." Andr managed, holding back some harder laughter.
I felt the top of my head. True to her word, a rather large cowlick rested on my hair. "Is it bad?" I asked.
"It kinda looks a little cute, honestly…" Susie giggled, setting down some food.
"I like it." Snowy complimented.
"Kinda gives you a really relaxed look." Andr offered.
I slowly started to take a seat, but then Susie spoke up, "Oh, Cameron, can you actually go up and see what the other two are doing? They'll miss breakfast if they don't come down soon."
I nodded, heading upstairs.
As I approached Silk and Diana's room, I started growing apprehensive. Memories of what happened last time flooded my head.
'Okay, this time, I'm not taking any chances.' I thought.
I knocked lightly on the door. No response.
I knocked a little harder. No response.
I knocked as hard as I could without make it sound aggressive. Still nothing.
"Guys? Are you up yet?" I called through the door.
Still nothing.
'Are… are they not in here?' I asked, quickly doing a sweep of the other rooms upstairs. They all turned up blank.
Confused, I knocked one more time on the door, saying, "Guys, c'mon, I know you can hear me."
Nothing still.
I slowly and hesitantly turned the door knob, just BARELY opening the door. "Guys? Are you in here?"
No response.
Taking a chance, I opened the door just wide enough to see inside.
I could only see Diana's bed, and it was empty.
I opened the door a tad wider. Silk's bed also had no occupant.
I opened the door all the way and stepped in. "Wait… where are-"
And then the door slammed shut behind me.
I whipped around and tried to open it. Somehow it was shut closed and wouldn't open. The knob turned, but that was it.
"Uhh… guys…?" I murmured, growing nervous. I kept looking around the room, trying to find any indication of what was going on.
'Guys? Is there something I'm not picking up on here?' I thought.
"It is possible Silk could've climbed out the window… it is open, after all. But as for Diana… no idea." Vivianna responded, sounding just as confused.
And then, out of nowhere:
"Boo." a voice whispered right in my ear.
I tripped over myself and fell hard on the floor near Diana's bed, my left hand landing especially hard. I turned wildly to see who did that.
Silk. She was on the ceiling, hanging on that weird force or whatever that allows her to climb walls and stuff. She had a smug look. "Gotcha back." she proudly told me.
My surprise quickly turned to anger. "What the hell was that for?!"
Silk shrugged, still proudly grinning. "Revenge for that little scare you gave me the other night?"
I tried to pick myself up, but then a sharp pain that felt like something was cutting me shot up from my hand. "OW!" I yelled, looking at my hand.
Right in the middle of my palm, a large cut shone. I looked at where my hand hit, and it turned out I had landed on a piece of flint that was lying around, and it was SHARP.
Silk immediately lost her smirk when she saw blood. "Oh dear Notch! I-I didn't mean… t-that was an accident, I swear!"
"Oww…" I moaned, my hand aching and slowly dripping blood. My vision slowly grew drowsy from seeing my blood. "Get Susie…"
Silk quickly fell from the ceiling, landed on her bed, and then jumped over to me with a pasty white face. "N-no, I-I got this… I've dealt with this before…"
From behind her she pulled out a large amount of spider silk and a small bottle with liquid. "Hold still for a sec…"
She carefully dabbed some of the liquid on my hand, which IMMEDIATELY started to feel like it was on fire. "OW OW OWWW!" I screamed, trying to pull my hand away.
Silk held it in place. "Just hold still for another second…" she groaned, dabbing a few more drops.
The moment she capped the bottle, she tossed it onto her bed and began wrapping my hand tightly with her silk.
Oddly enough, the stuff actually felt cool to the touch, which was a nice relief against the burning sensation. Slowly but surely, she wrapped up the cut until it was a tightly woven gauze bandage.
"There… that should be okay now…" Silk murmured, letting go of my hand. "Does it feel better now?"
I gently moved my fingers around and such. "I mean… it hurts a little to close my palm, but not a whole lot…"
Silk sighed in relief, her shoulders relaxing. "Thank Notch above… I wasn't sure if it would work as well on you…"
She took a deep breath before looking back to see me staring at her, still a little angry. She quickly grew small. "Umm… I… I'm gonna stick my hand up and say that I made a tragic error in judgement. But I swear I didn't want you to get hurt."
I sighed, looking at the 'bandage.' "How'd you even learn to do this…?" I asked.
"Oh… well, Diana actually taught me. She had some basic medical training while we were at the old place, and… well, she kinda just taught me some of it." Silk murmured, her cheeks going a little red. "And, well, that other stuff, that's kinda of a personal thing I knew how to make… kinda like an anti-venom sorta stuff that helps cuts and minor injuries."
I was slightly impressed. "Well… erm, thank you."
Silk looked down. "You wouldn't have to thank me if I had made sure that you wouldn't hurt yourself… now I feel bad."
Try as I might, I couldn't get really mad at Silk. "Ahh… don't be. Let's just head down and eat already…"
Silk slowly nodded, and we stood up.
Just as I was about to head for the door, however…
Silk quickly hugged me.
I was taken back by the sudden move. "Wha-? Silk…?"
"I'm sorry…" she whispered.
"I told you, it's not that big a deal." I insisted.
"But it is." Silk countered, looking up at me. "I've been nothing but a pretty big jerk to you ever since we met. And yet you've never stopped trying to find something better in me. Even when we were fighting, you found it in your heart to forgive me."
Silk sighed. "I've never met someone so… stubbornly nice… especially not a human."
Silk looked up at me again and smiled. I was genuinely surprised. Silk looked… really, really cute when she smiled.
'Awww…' I cooed in my mind.
Then Silk blinked. She shook her head and quickly parted from me, turning away. I could see her cheeks just barely, and they looked red. "Erm… let's… go downstairs…"
I nodded, and started to follow her out the door.
Suddenly, I found Diana. She was apparently the one who held the door shut from the start. How she hid from me was the real question, as I looked in every room. "Did everything go okay? I don't remember the part of your plan where he yells..." she quickly asked Silk.
Silk glanced downward. I showed Diana the bandage and gave a quick explanation of what just happened, minus the conversation Silk and I had.
Diana looked at the bandage. "Geez… how big was the cut?" she asked.
It was a fair question. Silk had put so much silk around my hand, it almost looked like a wrapped sausage. At least she managed to give my fingers enough room to still move and grab things.
I quickly offered, "She put on enough, that's for sure. Anyway, let's go downstairs. Breakfast is ready."
The three of us headed downstairs.
Susie was standing by the counter, looking at the stairs. "What took you so long?" she asked.
"Erm… unforeseen circumstances." I answered. Honest enough.
Susie seemed to accept that, though she happened to glance down and notice my newly wrapped hand. "Wait… what happened to your hand?"
I glanced down at it. "Further unforeseen circumstances…?" I offered.
Susie gave me a somewhat hard stare, but eventually accepted that answer and offered breakfast.
The conversation today seemed to be revolved out Diana's recent discovery. "So… bit of bad news, guys. I may or may not have visited the mine that you guys showed me, and… I think it's running really low."
That quickly got my attention. "What makes you say that?"
"Well… I was exploring it last night because I didn't feel tired…" Diana slowly started. "And I've been in more than enough caves to somewhat sense when the ending of a cave is close by."
That didn't exactly help the mood. "Ohh… where are we going to get resources now…" Susie whispered, fidgeting with her hair.
"I've given most of the stuff, mostly the iron, gold, and the coal I found in my last trip in your storage room, so you have them there. But… I think it might be time to start looking for another cave or something. Unless you guys like strip mining."
"Ugh. NOT strip mining." I instantly shot down. "That method is far too unpredictable. Plus, it might just waste picks we could use for other purposes."
"I'm with Master on that one… he showed me what strip mining was like one time." Snowy spoke up. "I felt like the walls were just taunting us or something."
"Well, you guys do realize that we might not have a choice in this…" Andr countered, nervously speaking up. "At least until we find a decently sized cave somewhere close by."
The room was quiet for a while.
"Okay… okay. I have an idea." I murmured. "It is a terrible, short-sighted idea, but I have got one."
"What is it?" Susie asked.
"For now, we'll keep the cave. Every day starting, how about tomorrow, myself and someone else could start scouting the area for any signs of a cave or other system. If the cave dries up and we still haven't found an alternative, we'll have to resort to strip mining. I personally don't want that, but I will if it is necessary." I offered.
"That's a pretty shoddy plan, bud…" Silk murmured.
"I'm just throwing out ideas. I said it was a terrible, short-sighted idea, didn't I?" I reminded.
"It's better than whatever I could come up with…" Susie murmured.
"How far away could a cave be from here, anyway?" Snowy asked, shrugging.
The others seemed to mull it over for a moment. Then Susie spoke up, "All in favor?"
Unanimous agreement.
I took a deep breath, assessing my damaged iron pick. "Well… guess that's meeting adjourned."
"Seems so…" Andr agreed.
The rest of breakfast was uncomfortably quiet. It was quickly cleaned up and then everyone went their separate ways.
I couldn't help but wonder how well this plan was going to work. I mean, what if a cave COULDN'T be found? We had no other idea on ways to find one other than just hoping we hit another if we start strip mining.
I shook my head. I'm just being paranoid. Surely there's another cave within walking distance of this house…
Right?
'Hey, Vivianna, Aira…? You think you have any ideas?' I thought.
"Hmmm… well, if you fly around, it could be easy to find… but then there's the thought that a short distance flying doesn't exactly mean a short distance walking…" Aira mused.
"Let's not forget the other problem…" Vivianna slowly murmured. "The fact that two people still don't know you have us up here."
That one hit like a slap to the face. That's right, isn't it? I hadn't even thought of telling Diana or Silk about Vivianna or Aira. Honestly… I wasn't sure if I should. I very nearly scared Andr into leaving when I showed her my wind powers. What would those two think if I suddenly told them that I've had water AND wind powers since before we met?
"Tell them if you wish, Cameron." Vivianna told me. "Just don't be afraid of what you can't predict."
"*sigh*... okay. I… I should tell them. Better now than some point later on…"
I rushed up to the pair's shared room.
"Guys? Are you in here?" I asked, knocking on the door.
"Yes?" Diana's voice spoke through the wooden door. "Is something wrong?"
"Can I come in? It's a little urgent…" I explained.
The door opened and I quickly dashed in. Silk was sitting on her purple bed, playing with a rather large ball of, er, silk. Irony is weird.
"Is something wrong?" Diana asked, sitting back down on her bed and setting down a glass of water.
"No… not really. But… there's something I should've told you early on… something I was afraid to tell you." I murmured, barely making eye contact.
Silk set her ball of silk down. "This oughta be good." she huffed.
I braced myself. "I… well, you see… I have… erm…"
Diana and Silk gave me looks that both said, 'Yeaaaaaahhhh?'
"I… erm…" I stammered, unable to string my thoughts together.
'Help.' I pleaded in my mind.
Vivianna responded. In moments, I suddenly felt far more relaxed.
"I… well… I have magic." I finally let out.
Two eyebrows went north. "What?" Diana asked.
"What magic?" Silk asked.
I sighed. "I… I have water and wind magic."
It was quiet for but a moment.
Then Silk laughed. "Yeah right. Like I'd believe that."
"I'm telling the truth." I insisted.
"That's… well, that's a little hard to believe, Cameron…" Diana murmured.
'Aira? Shall we?' I asked in my head.
"Okay!" Aira happily agreed.
"If you don't believe me, how could I do something like this?" I asked, concentrating.
I hadn't used my elemental powers in quite a while, and not with full power, so I wasn't sure how well they'd work. It took me a moment to call upon Aira to harness her powers.
Even so, they didn't have time to ask me what I meant by that before I slowly floated up off the ground a block, hovering there.
Silk's smile instantly disappeared. "Wh-whoa, what?!"
Diana's face paled. She was stunned silent.
I hovered for a moment more. I started to say something, but as soon as I opened my mouth I lost concentration on the wind. I fell to the ground, thanking Notch above we sprang for carpeting the floors up here a few weeks ago.
Diana and Silk made no moves towards me. I rubbed my head while picking myself up, disorientated. "Eurgh… been a while since I've done that… I've lost practice."
Eventually I got back to my feet. That's when I re-noticed the half-glass of water Diana left on her table.
'Vivianna, you're up.' I called.
I concentrated on the small glass of water. The water slowly started to rise up. I forced myself to concentrate more.
Diana scooted as far away from the glass as possible, her face deathly pale.
I made the water come to me, molded it into the crude shape of a diamond, and then tossed it gently at Silk.
She swatted at it, just barely missing. I took it as a sign that they had seen enough.
Unfortunately, I wasn't as… viable in water magic either, having not used that in a while as well. Most of the water landed back in the glass, but I don't think Diana would appreciate the damp pillow spot.
I focused back at the two. "Believe me now?"
Diana and Silk nodded in perfect unison. They looked… scared. I guess I can't blame them.
I groaned gently, sliding down the door. "Notch damn it… I knew I shouldn't have told you…" I murmured.
Diana whispered, "W… why… wouldn't you…?"
"Because you guys are scared of me now, aren't you?" I asked.
Silk and Diana glanced at each other for a moment.
"A little." Diana admitted.
"Sorta." Silk agreed.
I groaned harder, gently rubbing my temples.
"This… does make a lot of sense, though…" Diana murmured. "I mean… now I guess I know how you escaped Blockington…"
I chuckled darkly. "Yeah…"
"How'd… how'd you even LEARN to do that?" Silk asked.
I hesitated for but a moment. "For lack of a better way to say it… I have two elemental spirits in my head right now."
They seemed to mull over that answer.
"Do we need to speak to them?" Aira asked.
'I… I don't think so. Not yet, anyway…' I answered, shaking my head.
They saw that. "Why… why did you shake your head? We didn't ask you a question…" Silk asked hesitantly.
"Err… sorry." I murmured. "They spoke to me again, asking if they needed to show that they were here or not… I think I've scared you both more than enough today, though."
Silk seemed thoughtful.
Diana spoke up. "I guess… that makes more sense than you just… you know, HAVING magic…"
"Hey, in my own defense, I never even KNEW humans could harness magic. I just kinda… guessed that was something only mobs could harness, pretty much." I responded.
(I'm pretty sure if I could see Aira in that moment, she would've stuck her tongue out at me, but that's besides the point.)
It was quiet for a long time. Finally, Silk seemed to hate the silence.
"Guys? Why are you thinking about this too hard?" she asked.
I looked at her. "Whaddya mean?" I asked, caught off-guard by the question.
"Look, Cameron? Honestly, hearing that you have elemental powers… at this point, it's really like the eleventh strangest thing about you." Silk explained. "I mean… to me, anyway."
Diana seemed to agree, somewhat. "I mean… if I didn't know you, that would be pretty weird and scary, but… I know you, Cameron, so… it's not so bad."
I slowly grew hopeful. "So… you guys aren't completely weirded out by my powers…?"
Silk grinned at me. "In all honesty, I think they're pretty cool, now that I've calmed down. You think you could show me that flying thing again?"
"OOH! I can do you one better!" Aira quickly called out to me.
'What?' I thought.
Aira quickly whispered her idea in my head.
Moments later...
Silk looked nervous. "Ummm… are you sure this is safe?" she asked.
We were standing outside, on top of the roof. In accordance to Aira's idea, the three of us came up here, and I instructed Silk to tie ourselves together.
I was rather nervous on the inside. I barely managed to keep control of the powers when I was just a block above the ground. This might be pushing it, but Aira swore that this time she'd help me more.
"Vaguely. You ready?" I asked, standing at the edge of the house.
"Vaguely?! What does that even-" Silk started to complain.
"Here we go!" I called out, and just like that, the two of us shot into the sky.
Silk looked fearful as we rose, and for plenty of good reason. She clung to me like a cat, internally screaming with eyes clamped closed. The house below us quickly grew smaller and smaller.
Even I was taken back by the speed of our assent. I think I was putting a little TOO much concentration into that.
Finally, after we rose what felt like almost a hundred blocks up, I stopped making us rise and had us hover in place, wiping my forehead. 'Might've gone a little too fast opening up…'
Silk still clung to me tightly, not daring to look. "Why did I let you talk me into this! Go back! Go back!"
"Silk, it's fine! Look, I've stopped going up." I insisted.
Silk slowly opened her eyes and looked.
The world was far, far below us. We could see for miles in all directions. So many valleys, mountains, hills, fields, forests, and more were all visible from up here… I was honestly surprised I hadn't done this before.
Silk looked awestruck. "Oh my Notch… its… so… pretty up here…"
"Let's fly around a little?" I asked her, gazing at her.
She looked at me and gently nodded, but added on, "C-can we go a little slower, this time?"
I chuckled. "Right, right, sorry 'bout that. I… I'm in better control now. I can get it this time.
And slowly, we started gliding downward at a much more controlled and slower pace.
Silk looked positively amazed. She kept looking all over the place while we flew, seeing the world from this brand-new perspective. She seemed more than fine being tied together while flying.
Honestly, having a person fly with me wasn't any more difficult than keeping myself aloft. I just kinda… willed the air to affect the person with me too, and it bent to my will. Well and truly, the only reason I had Silk tie herself to me with string was just as a safety precaution.
We glided over trees, over valleys, past massive mountains… I would've have been surprised if we spent a good ten, twenty minutes flying around.
The whole time, Silk looked simply ecstatic. "I… I always wondered what it would be like to fly… especially as a kid, I wanted to soar above everyone else…" she murmured during our mid-flight safety checks.
"Well, I'm glad I got to show you what it feels like." I commented, grinning at her.
Silk stared at me softly.
"We should probably get back home, Diana probably wants a turn." I intoned, quickly picking up the speed.
"Yeah, Diana HAS to try this out!" Silk responded, eagar for Diana to try.
We quickly made our way back to the roof of the house. Save for a slight stumble on the landing, we had no other incidences otherwise. Diana was still up here, sitting on the bench. "How was it?" she asked, looking at Silk.
Silk still had stars in her eyes, quickly getting out of her makeshift silk harness. "Diana, it was INCREDIBLE! I-I've never felt that exhilarated in my LIFE!"
Diana seemed surprised that her friend was so into the flight. "Seems like you really enjoyed it, then…"
"You wanna try, Diana?" I asked. "It's safe, I promise."
Diana glanced at Silk, who nodded like crazy. She mulled it over for a few more moments, before finally saying, "I… I guess I'll give it a shot…"
Silk helped tie ourselves together. Diana seemed incredibly nervous.
"Just don't think too hard about it. I'll keep you afloat. And I won't go so fast." I whispered.
Diana nodded, too busy psyching herself up to speak at the moment.
Once we were tied together, I slowly willed the winds to start lifting us up.
Diana quickly grew very pale, her eyes closed. "Ohhh, I don't like this…"
"Just relax, it'll get better in a moment…" I whispered, continuing our assent.
Once were were up high enough, I willed us to start floating. "Okay, we're done going up. You can look now."
Diana slowly opened an eye.
And then looked down.
Her entire face instantly lost all of it's color, to the point where I could literally pinpoint the moment when she had her life flash before her eyes.
Then came the screaming.
"GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN!" she yelled, her eyes tightly screwed shut and her arms crushingly tight against me.
"W-woah woah woah!" I yelled in response, losing concentration thanks to her yelling right in my ear. We fell a few blocks downward.
Diana was shaking really badly. "Get me down, get me down, get me down!" she continued to scream.
"C-calm down! I-I'm working on it!" I yelled back, trying my hardest to tone out Diana enough to focus.
The descent was, for the most part, extremely bumpy and rigid. Every little movement we made made Diana scream more, which threw me off and made me lose my hold. Aira did her best to help me focus, and I'm sure Vivianna was doing her hardest to help me tune out noises, but it wasn't enough.
"Why aren't we at the ground yet, Cameron?!" Diana yelled, not looking.
"I would have if you weren't screaming this whole time!" I complained. "You aren't making this any easier on me!"
Diana continued to clamp her arms around me, slowly getting tighter and tighter.
It got to the point here it was getting hard to breath. "D-Diana… loosen up a little…" I choked out.
"I-I don't wanna fall!" she stammered, her arms continuing to tighten.
Suddenly, Diana's grip readjusted, with a lot of the pressure centering around my neck.
If it had been hard to breath THEN, now it was impossible.
"D-Di-Diana…!" I managed to get out, gasping for any chance of air.
Diana didn't respond, she was too busy trying to hold on for dear life.
My vision was getting blurry from a lack of breath, and could barely concentrate…
And then, I couldn't take it anymore.
And I blacked out fifty blocks above the ground.
The last thing I remember hearing before passing out was Diana asking, "Cameron…?"
Then came the falling.
…
…
…
How's that for an ending, eh?
So, normally this would be a point where I would say that I have no excuse for why I've taken so long on the chapter…
But when you're main computer breaks down and all you have left is your school laptop and phone to type up a story, the writing process takes a long time to get anywhere.
Yeah, my laptop is broken as of right now. Well, kinda.
The best way I can put it is that the laptop itself is fine, but there's something wrong with the screen, so I can't see anything on that at all.
Butter dun goofed. =C
I'm in the process if trying to get someone to look into it to see if they can fix it, but for the time being I only have the laptop my school provided, and that's gonna be taken away in a few months, so at that point I'll only have my phone left.
So… pray for the speedy recovery of my laptop with me, hey?
In any event, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. This new 'mine-has-been-drained' plot point gives me lots of ideas for future chapters… future characters…
Future romances… ;D
Until next time guys, in another chapter…
Stay awesome! =D
(Oh, and don't forget, you all can still play on my Minecraft server. That isn't down. I just, ah… can't jump on right now.)
