Between Heaven and Hell
Chapter 4: Of Enemies and Allies
After seeing whatever that dark figure was last night, I couldn't get much sleep. I called out to Rinoa a few times, but she hadn't answered. She might have fallen asleep in the tree like I did earlier today. All the while, I still wonder about whatever it was I saw…
- - - - -
As the sun rises, I begin to smell the early morning dew from all these trees around. For a slight moment, I allow myself to relax before another day of fighting for survival begins. Of course, she and I are still in the tree, but I heard Rinoa shutter a few times just a moment ago. Maybe she's about to awaken?
I stood on the walnut-colored tree branch and grabbed hold of a tinier branch just above me. Though the sun is appearing now, I still can't see so far before myself. But I am sure that I saw movement down there last night.
I decided to climb a bit higher just to get a better view; maybe I'll be able to see over the entire forest…just maybe.
I climbed up the tree, the higher I climb, the slimier it becomes. The dampness from the weird weather is probably the cause of all the messy buildup on the tree, and also because no one has ever climbed so high before, each branch grows weaker with its height. I know now without a doubt that this tree isn't used to holding so much weight, especially at its peak.
When I reached the top, I moved a leafy branch from my view in order to see the vastness of the forest.
"…Wow." I whispered into the morning air. To my surprise…I realize just how huge this place really is. There are so many places we haven't gone to yet, and I'm sure Rinoa and the others haven't had the chance to go out sight seeing. Finally, the sunlight unfolds and shines onto the greenish leaves of many trees embedding the rough soil. From here, I see that the mountains have barricaded us inside this hellhole, but there seem to be at least four points of entry.
The shorelines…I really wonder about those. Fujin's story about those men has somewhat…interested me.
"Squall!" I hear Rinoa call me from below.
"I'm up here!"
"Oh, okay! I'm coming up!" She called out and I heard the rustling sounds of leaves smashing together. She joined me at the top and looked at the view from her side of the tree. "Wow…everything looks totally different from up here."
"Yeah. It's breathtaking.
"…And life taking…" She sighed, "…Thanks for showing me this place. I haven't gone to sleep in a long time."
"You're welcome." I guess when you're running from vicious reptiles for everyday, who has time to sleep? "Hey, Rinoa…?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you come up with some way of escape?"
"…Not really. My only objective is not to die here."
"I see." We stayed silent for a few moments before I heard her gasp aloud. "What is it?" I asked while looking over at her, which was pretty hard to do, seeing that the bark of the large tree took up a considerable amount of space between the two of us.
"The shorelines!"
"What about them?"
"…Each time they ship more of us here, they go to a different shoreline. I realized that when I remembered where I found you. Seifer and I arrived on the other wing of this continent. We had run a very long way for survival. Hmm…why are they switching up docking points?"
Maybe the pilot gets bored…?
"I don't know." I answered while taking a heavy breath.
"…These pieces are still scattered…but…I need to find out more about this forest. There's got to be something here that can get us off in time. I'll need to remember this place for later times… This tree serves as a nice view."
"I agree."
"Well." She said as I heard her climb down to the bottom. I followed her and ensured I had taken the right steps on the branches to avoid crashing into the ground.
I jumped down the rest and landed flat on my feet, the stinging from landing so hard had tingled my legs. "Oww." I said while brushing the dirt from my pants.
"There you are!" I heard Seifer shout at Rinoa, she looked back at him quizzically. "Everyone's out looking for you, Rinoa! Why is this continuing to happen?" He said while pacing toward us.
Rinoa put her hands on her hips, "You don't have to worry about me Seifer. I can take care of myself. Anyway, Squall was here with me and he showed me the view from this tree. I'm confident that we can find something to-"
"Arrgh!" Seifer groaned and charged at me. Before I knew it, he punched me hard in the face and I fell back onto the ground. "Who do you think you are filling her head up with those stupid ideas?"
"Seifer!" She yelled at him. Now my face was stinging, and I held the side of my cheek to soothe it a little. I'm pretty sure it's turning red now, and maybe even swelling. It feels like I was hit with a brick!
"Let's go, Rinoa!"
"No way am I going with you!" She said as she knelt down beside me, "I can't believe you just hit him! For what!"
"He can take care of himself, now let's go."
"I said I'm not going with you. Leave us alone!"
Seifer gave an aggravated sigh and stomped off into the neck of the woods. I watched him go away, and I glared…I don't know why I couldn't fight back.
"Squall, I'm sorry…"
"You don't have to apologize because of his actions."
She sighed and touched my cheek, "Does it still hurt?"
Does she really need to ask? "Yeah." I answered, "I'll be alright." Rinoa smiled and stood up while looking around.
"I don't know what his problem is…" She folded her arms and sneered at the trail of footsteps he left into the moist ground as he had walked away from us. "…But anyway, we have to get something to eat."
"Food?"
"Yeah…we're lucky there are a few wild berry bushes scattered throughout these forests. Without them, we'd have nothing…we would just die of starvation; that is, if we don't get killed by the T-Rex first." She chuckled, and I just had to smile because of her humor. Smiling turned out to be the worst thing ever; it hurts just to have my mouth form any type of expression.
I placed my hand on my cheek while standing, trying not to draw any more attention to wound.
"So, where are those bushes?" Funny I had asked that question so confidently… I hadn't even begun to think of all things; we were in for a long journey.
When she said wild berry bushes, I'm thinking maybe a little place like the haven I came across yesterday. Little did I know that things would become a bit trickier.
We had walked to a familiar area Rinoa dubbed as the Dead Zone before. I could swear I saw the same dirty bones on the ground also, but I dared not to look into the face of death once again. I followed behind some feet away just staring and taking in our surroundings.
It was already murky, and dampening with our every steps. I looked up and saw that grey clouds had gathered in the skies above, it would rain soon. Rinoa looked around as we cut through and across tree after tree just to find a place to gather some food for ourselves. I can't believe she's survived on berries alone. Wild berries were known as Devil's food back at home. Anyone could tell a kid not to pick a berry from some domestic tree near by because the berry might have been poisonous.
Now…here we are…about to devour berries that could be field with germs and parasites. I feel my stomach ready to explode at the thought of it all.
Rinoa stepped into a muddy mess of dirt yet ignored the bottom of her boot, as it had already begun its own collection of mud from different sectors of the forest.
Up ahead, I saw that the trees had oddly grown on either side of us and seemed to form a pathway. Beside our path, I could see the same shoreline I arrived on from the vessel. Only so far, too many trees blocked the view of the sea…how I desperately wanted to see the outside light once again.
"A little further." She said as she began to trudge uphill. This ground tends to go up and down a lot. It's not what I expected from a forest, but I'm thankful I was able to injure a T-Rexuar using its crazy hills…
"Rinoa, tell me…what exactly did you do to get here?"
She laughed as she walked, "Do you really want to know?"
"Yeah, I'm curious."
"Arson…"
"…An Arsonist?" How could she…? …Oh yeah, now I remember… There was a huge fire a while ago, which caused great damage to the home of a businessman named Deling. The fire was pretty bad, but no one was hurt. Back then the police hadn't a clue as to who or why someone could have pulled a stunt like that, and Rinoa wasn't connected to the case. This mystery fire was filed as a separate report. It was years later when they actually found out that Rinoa had caused of the explosion.
"That's right. Someone double crossed my dad…" She looked over her shoulder at me and smirked, "…and I had to handle him."
"So you burned the guy's house down?"
"Yeah, to ensure that all the documents were torched." Rinoa faced forward and whispered, "Besides, I made sure no one was home. I had a crew to stakeout the house before any moves were made."
I repeated to myself the words that stuck with me, "…You burned the guy's house down…"
"Catch up, we're almost there!" She called out, and I decided to walk a little faster to be sure she wouldn't leave me behind.
Shrubs and other thick bushes began to appear on the outskirts of the forest. As we neared each of the bushes, I saw that the mountainside made itself visible behind the greenish vines that clung to its walls. These bushes consisted of a variety of olive colored berries that seemed be a bit waxy.
"Here we are. Be sure you peel off the think layer before you eat. And try not to eat too many, or you'll make yourself sick."
"Are these things really edible?"
"Is there anything else to eat around here?" She asked while smirking.
I sighed in defeat. I knew for a fact that she was right. "…Thanks." I said and approached the berry bushes. It was a good thing spikes weren't growing from these bushes; otherwise, I'd have quickly thrown down that evil waxberry and slain a T-Rex for my breakfast instead!
I carefully picked a single berry from the bush and pricked up its peel to skin the berry down to its core. When I looked over at Rinoa, I saw how easily she pushed in her fingernail into its waxy layer and abraded the peel instantly: an experienced professional, indeed. She placed the berry into her mouth and chewed ravenously. She must have been starving as well.
I shrugged my shoulders and did the same to my waxberry, but nothing prepared me for its horrible flavor. Most of the berries I like are either tangy or sweet, but this waxberry was as dull as Odine making a public appearance. "?" Odine….
When I thought about Odine, I almost choked on the berry that was in my mouth.
"Hey, didn't I tell you to take your time!" Rinoa said while looking at me blankly. I coughed and spit the chewed piece of fruit from my mouth. I held my throat and coughed up any remnants that might have been inside.
"It's not the greatest thing in the world, but its still food, Squall." She had begun tapping her foot.
"…It's not the berry!"
"…What do you mean? You actually like these things?" Rinoa scratched her head quizzically. I'm confused now, wasn't she just elevating its significance? I thought for sure that maybe she had taking a liking of the waxberries by now.
"No! Its just…Odine!"
"Odine…?" I heard her speak in a lowered voice, and she stared at the ground. "Grr…" She sounded as if she had begun mumbling something under her breath.
"Rinoa?"
"He's the one who's responsible for this… He placed us here!" Just as she shouted, the clouds that had turned grey moments ago, had now released their tears onto us. The rains came upon us instantly and heavily. The loudness of the rainfall caused us to have to shout in order to hear one another speaking.
Rinoa folded her arms and closed her eyes as the rain began to soak her hair. I looked up in the leaves of the trees from above and saw the peacefulness of the rainfall falling gracefully toward us. "…Why would you bring up his name at a time like this!" She yelled, and I looked down from the sky with a shrug of my shoulders. "That name should never be mentioned again, do you understand!"
"…Rinoa, there's nothing you can do about him now!"
"Says who? When I get out of here-" She made her hands into fists and shook them violently.
"That won't be necessary!" I walked over to her and placed my hand on her shoulder.
"…What are you trying to say! You think we won't be able to get out of here, don't you!"
"No! It's nothing like that!" I said and wiped the downpour of rain from my face. It had begun to rain even harder in the forest, but we stood as if it hadn't affected either of us. "Odine…he's…he's already dead!"
"What! You're joking!" I shook my head from side to side without making a single face that would make her think otherwise, and I looked into her eyes. "But, how…? When!"
I took a deep breath as I prepared an answer even I was not certain of. "…Because I…I…"
"Rinoa! Rinoa!" We both turned our heads to the voice, and saw Fujin limping toward us from afar.
"Fujin!" Rinoa shouted as she ran toward the limping woman. Fujin fell down into the mud exhaustedly without making another sound. "Fujin!"
Hello everyone.
Back on task again! Sorry it took so long, but I had other things to do. I hope I didn't lose anyone's interest with that long break. Anyway, now that my other story's finished, I'll have more time to work on this one. Isn't that sweet!
lol Ittomomen, thanks for the 13th review! lol
Okay!
StardustRay