A/N: Here's chapter nine of our story. The trio, or rather quartet, is now on their way to Riverside City. And there're a couple new things to find, it seems. Happy 2018, everyone!
Rhea's POV
I had to say, the landscape was gorgeous out here. We walked through a forest of pine trees, each and every single one coated in snow. The ground beneath us was covered by inches of snow; only a few boulders and patches of grass dotting the area gave any indication of what was underneath. At least the well-worn dusty path was still clear.
The sky was bright and sunny, without clouds to disturb the light, giving a clear view of the mountain range the path was leading to. The air was crisp and thin. The Sun, no longer blocked by trees—as they had been cleared from the path for the most part—or clouds, was doing wonders to warm me up. I was never a winter person, even with a proper winter coat, but I found myself enjoying it as we trekked. The only things that didn't really do it for me was the cold in my bare feet, the length of the trek, and...
"Are we there yet?"
"Buwaro, we've gone over this." Jamal deadpanned. "The trip to Riverside'll take two days. It hasn't even been two hours."
...the fact that Buwaro wouldn't just shut up.
"Buwaro, just shut up and be patient." I snapped. "This is as fast as we can go. Unless you have a wagon we can use, or could fly."
Buwaro suddenly stopped walking. And then he turned to Kieri.
"Snowy, you can fly! You've got wings-" he seemed to stutter; apparently, he just remembered that he couldn't fly with his own pair. "Big, pretty ones!"
Kieri blushed a little at the compliment. "O-oh, thank you, Buwaro." She said. "But, well I suppose I could make the trip within the day, but I'd be leaving the three of you behind, so..."
"Oh..."
"Yeah..." Jamal shrugged.
"I-I promise, I wouldn't abandon you guys like that!" Kieri reassured us.
"Well, yeah, since you're the one with all our food and all..." I said. Not to mention the fact that Jamal was the one who had the map, and I had all the cash. We were all dependent on each other.
"Come on," I started. "The sun isn't exactly waiting for us...?" Why the hell did a bubble just float past me?
I looked in the direction it came from to see Jamal, holding his hands up to his face. "What are you doing?" I asked him.
"Practicing." He said. He formed a hole in between his thumbs and index fingers and blew through it, and another bubble came into existence, floating away in the slow wind.
"Oh, alright then." I shrugged. "Guess that's paying off for now."
I looked at the mountain range in the distance. Boy, was that going to be fun to walk through.
"In any case..." I looked back at the three of them. "Let's hurry it up already."
My POV
The air was thinning; I could feel it easily, how it seemed to almost dry up around me. It was weird, but familiar in a way. And so was the complaining.
"I feel dizzy." Buwaro.
"It's gettin' a little hard to breathe, here." Rhea.
Kieri wasn't saying anything, but she was breathing a little louder than usual.
I, on the other hand, didn't mind nearly as much. These mountains were tall, but I doubted they were that far above sea level, maybe three thousands metres and not much more. That is to say, I've gone higher before, without being affected by the thin air.
"Everything okay over there?" I asked
"I guess?" Rhea shrugged. "I've never been this high up before, I wasn't really prepared."
"Why do I feel so dizzy?" Buwaro asked.
"In layman's terms, there's less air the higher you go." I told him. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it in... maybe an hour or two."
I glanced down at the shadows on the ground; they were small. I turned to face a nearby mountaintop, putting my back to the group, and crossed my arms, slowly pulling my sleeve back to sneak a glance at my watch. 1:47 pm. I hid it under my sleeve again.
"Speaking of which, we should probably find a place to have lunch soon." I stated.
"Like what?" Kieri piped up.
"I don't know, a rock, a tree?" I shrugged. "At least something comfortably far from the edge."
"How long until we get down from here?" Buwaro groaned.
I looked down at the map. "All you need to know is that we're not halfway yet. The fact that the path has to wind around the mountains will slow us down."
"What?! Why?!"
"Because," I said, putting the map away and starting to walk again. "We can't exactly walk straight through the range. There's lots of cliffs and unstable terrain." I gestured to the path ahead. "This is as safe as it gets up here."
"You seem to know a lot about this..." Rhea started.
"Well, I imagine I used to read a lot." I shrugged again, hiding my initial panic at her "realisation". In truth, I lived around hills and mountains, so I was familiar with it. "I didn't lose all my knowledge..." I stopped and looked around. "I assume it's watching all this with my own eyes that is reminding me of little bits and pieces of what I knew." I looked down at my hands. "That might be why I'm picking magic back up so easily..." I muttered.
That was a pretty big lie, for obvious reasons, or at least to me.
Kieri had taught me the basics of magic. It was a matter of focusing it in a certain form, along with projecting a certain amount, which had a noticeable effect on stamina. Once I learned how to project it in the first place, however, it wasn't particularly challenging to get the hang of it, at least not at first, given that I only knew how to make bubbles at the moment.
It felt surprisingly natural, like flexing my fingers or turning my head. It also felt nice to project it, and I found it easy to focus once I could recognise the feeling properly. When I first summoned up that small amount of water in my hand, back at Farun, it really was as simple as willing water to spurt out of it. This isn't to say I wouldn't have trouble with any more complex spells, including anything ice-related...
I genuinely wanted to learn magic, both because it was useful and because it was fascinating. I had to count myself lucky that I did have access to it, both because it meant I could defend myself with it and because it keeps me under the radar.
Though I did have to wonder, why could I use magic? Would that answer even matter in the end?
Kieri's POV
It was late afternoon when we finally descended to the foothills again, crossing the mountain range. There were trees and piles of rubble everywhere around us as we walked down the path, still winding around the elevated terrain.
I was taking the time to continue teaching Jamal some simple water spells—well, it's not really teaching, more like reminding him how to do it—as we continued down the path.
"Okay, so I focus it like...this!"
Jamal pointed a finger at a nearby rock and shot a small jet of water out at it. However, it failed to reach the rock before splashing on the ground. He sighed and looked at his hand.
"Sorry," I apologised. "That spell usually only works at a range of 5 metres."
"It's fine." He replied. "At least I'm getting the hang of it." He seemed to be smirking as he said that. He pointed his finger at another, much closer rock, and shot another jet of water at it, this time hitting it and causing it to splash by us.
He turned to smile at me, and then continued down the path.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad to have everyone's company. Glad that all three of them had volunteered to help me find Kazai. I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all on my own.
It also...felt nice to teach Jamal water magic. He was doing a great job so far at picking it up again, I could teach him another spell by tomorrow, too...He was pretty distant in general, but as I taught him more and more, the warmer he got. The more he seemed to grin, the more he thanked me for my help.
I wonder if he knows how to sing...
Wait, what?
He has a pretty low voice...
Not the time. Focus on the road, or you might get left behind again.
I sighed to myself, speeding up my pace a little to catch up to the group. I know they'd never leave me behind, but I couldn't help feeling...
We finally reached a fork in the road. One continued straight, through the foothills, while the other dipped down to our right, leading directly towards the forest below.
"Okay, the left path's the one that leads to Riverside." Jamal said, looking down at the map briefly.
"Then there's no time to waste." Rhea replied. "Let's go, people!" She started marching down the path, with Jamal in tow. I started to follow them as well, but I noticed that Buwaro wasn't coming with us. I turned around to see what he was doing; he had stopped by a pile of boulders and was holding his pet rock Thadius out.
"Buwaro?"
"Huh, what?" He looked up at me. "What is it, Snowy?"
"Aren't you going to come with us?"
"Oh, sorry." He rubbed the back of his head as he stepped back on the road.
"I-it's fine," I replied. "But, we should hurry, it's starting to get late."
"Okay, Snowy!" He smiled widely as he said that, and then carried on down the road. He was really friendly and upbeat. I'd been surprised to meet anyone like him at any point, but the fact that he was a demon was...surprising in and of itself.
I'll admit, there may be a few things that Heaven may have missed...but it was easy to look past his race and see him as just a really warm and genuine person. I honestly felt silly for being afraid of him at first.
I watched him stroll down the road without a care in the world. I could feel myself smiling a little as I followed him.
Buwaro's POV
We've been walking for a pretty long while now. I couldn't see any more spots of sunlight on the ground; the shadows were covering everything. I looked up through the trees to try and spot the sun. I instead saw something different.
"The sky's changing colour again!" I announced.
I loved seeing it do this, and according to Rhea, Snowy and Jamal, this happened every day.
I saw Rhea look up as well. "You're right, it's getting late." She said, scratching her chest again. "How far are we from the rest stop, Jamal?"
Jamal glanced down at the map he had in his hand. "We should be close, less than a kilometre at most."
"Alright." Rhea sighed. "Anything to get away from the cold..."
I agree. I could feel the cold even through two coats and a pair of boots. Can't believe how I went without them a few days back.
But Jamal was right all along. The "rest stop" had been around the next corner, hidden behind a thick patch of snow-covered trees. It was...how would Rhea say...horribly underwhelming. It was a one-story building that looked to be in far worse condition than any of the buildings I'd seen in Farun, or Rhea's village.
Actually, it reminded me of that one tree we passed a few hours ago that was on its side and falling apart. Jamal said it was "rotting".
"Well then," Jamal shrugged. "This is our home for the night."
"Are you kidding me?!" Rhea groaned. "Place looks like it's been abandoned for years!"
"It's better than just sleeping outside..." Snowy muttered.
"I told you sleeping bags would come in handy." Jamal replied flatly to Rhea. "Come on."
The four of us walked in to look around the place. Some of the boards in the walls were missing, or broken, or covered in some kind of green thing I would later learn is called moss. There was a large room filled with tables. Through a door, there was another room filled with beds, most of which were missing a lot of stuff; they were practically skeletons, and falling apart, and Rhea deemed them unusable. There were a couple smaller rooms that seemed empty, but looked like they used to have something in them.
It was pretty dark inside; after some time, I had to make my eyes glow again. I followed Jamal to one of the empty rooms. He looked up at the ceiling, so I did the same. Turns out there was a huge hole where sunlight...wait, no it's not as bright.
"Rhea, what do you think?" Jamal said quietly.
"Well...we could build a fire here." She suggested. "The floor is just dirt, and the hole in the roof can let the smoke out. Besides," She pointed at a small black pile on the ground, directly underneath the light. "Someone else tried it."
Jamal looked pretty surprised, and remained quiet.
"Come on, let's go get some wood." She put our things down and walked out of the room, and I followed her. Snowy and Jamal stayed in the room.
Rhea and I went around the building, looking for loose boards that we could use for firewood. She explained to me what we needed to make a fire; as in, we needed a decent pile of wood for me to light.
At first, I tried removing the boards from the wall itself, but Rhea stopped me.
"Don't. The building is barely standing as it is. I don't want to risk it collapsing with us inside it."
"Oh..." I winced.
"Whatever. We can still use the chairs." She said, walking over to one and picking it up, before slamming it down hard on the ground, causing it to break.
After some time, we had amassed two small piles of wood from the smashed chairs. As we worked, Rhea seemed to notice something close by the door.
"What is it, Rhea?" I asked her.
"Nothing, just..." She slid her foot forwards, and there was a quiet clattering sound. "We're not the first people to try making firewood like this, here." She pointed over to another side of the room, which was also missing some chairs.
Eventually, we lugged back the large amount of wood we got from the chairs to the room Snowy and Jamal were in. All the sleeping bags were on the ground, next to each other; I think Jamal put them there. And Snowy—wait, where's Snowy?
"Alright, I got our sleeping bags and food set up." Jamal said.
"Where did Snowy go?" I asked him.
"She's praying." He replied, gesturing to the far side of the room.
I turned to look. She was kneeling on the ground, facing the wall, in front of...a stone...I don't know what it's called, but it was made of stone and it looked a great deal like Snowy, only with different hair and clothing. It also had a lot of cracks and was missing a hand.
"What's that? Why is she-?"
"Be quiet and let her finish." Rhea said, dumping the wood she was carrying on the ground. I did the same, and the two of us, plus Jamal, arranged it into a neat pile. Once we were done, I took off my hat, gloves and overcoat, giving them to Jamal, and set the wooden pile alight with my flame breath, letting my eyes rest a little from having to glow. Jamal set the hat and overcoat beside him, and took off his own gloves and his scarf, leaving it there as well.
A few minutes later, Snowy got up and walked back to where we were, smiling.
"I'm finished. Thank you all for waiting for me." She said.
"Yay! Let's have dinner!" I cheered. I pulled out a...loaf of bread, out of her bag and handed it to her, as she sat down between me and Jamal. Now we were all in a circle around the fire.
"So, why were you praying, and what's that?" I asked, pointing at the stone angel.
"That's a statue of Gaia." Jamal answered first. He ended up gesturing to Snowy awkwardly to continue the answer.
"I-I prayed to Mother Gaia for my brother's safety, and all of ours...and I told her how thankful I was for having met all three of you." She said.
Mother?
"Heh, that's odd..." Rhea said, taking a bite out of some...cheese, I think it was called. "You're praying to Gaia for a damned soul and a demon and..."
"J-just a random guy at the wrong place at the right time, I guess..." Jamal muttered.
"Why would that be weird?" I asked her. She knew the answer for sure. "Does Gaia not like us?"
"Well..." She looked down as she spoke. "Gaia is the creator of Heaven and angels like myself...but we're the sworn enemies of Syndel, who created Hell and demons...such as you. O-of course, I do not hate you, but...this rivalry has existed for centuries; it's why the Great War lasted so long..."
"That's quite a grudge to hold." Rhea noted. "The war ended a longass time ago..."
"Actually, the war supposedly ended just before my brother and I were born."
Rhea dropped the cheese she was eating, clearly looking shocked. "Wait, what?! How old even are you?!" She stood up suddenly. It actually looked pretty funny, though I was just as confused as she was, and I bet Jamal was as well. "Do angels age differently? Are you three hundred years old give or take?!"
"What?! N-no, I'm only fifteen!"
"Sure, whatever you say..."
"You're just mad that you still have to act as the eldest one of us." Jamal shrugged.
"Please, no I'm no- wait, how old are you?" Rhea looked at him in milder confusion.
"Kieri, when's your birthday?" He asked Snowy.
"Um..." She said, blushing a little. "Well...angels don't use the same calendar as Medius does, and I'm not very good at converting between them...but if I'm not too far off, my birthday is around...late April, or early May?"
"That actually makes you a month or two older than me."
It was Snowy's turn to look shocked. "Wait, what?!"
"Yeah," He replied. "My birthday is in June, I believe, sometime before the Summer Sun celebration."
That was weird. He was so much bigger than Snowy, and his voice was a lot lower than most I've heard, and he was younger than her?
She stood up, and so did he. Wow...he was almost a head taller than her. He's big, but nowhere near as big as Sakido...or Iratu...or that Azurai guy Rhea and I met that one time. But yeah, still way taller than Snowy, and Rhea and I.
"Huh...I thought you were t-twenty..." She sat down again. Jamal just sat down again, quietly.
"Yeah, what the hell were they feeding you, kid?" Rhea asked.
"How should I know?" He replied. "I guess I just got lucky."
"That's cool!" I gave him a thumbs-up. He smiled a little at that, but then he seemed to drop it and look down at the fire.
"So...who do think came before us?" He asked.
"How should we know?" Rhea said. "I guess the only thing we can say about it is that it's pretty recent."
"How can you be sure, Rhea?" I asked her.
"Wind could've come through at any time, there're patches of snow in here." She pointed at a small wet puddle nearby, surrounded by said patches of snow. "If it was too long ago, we wouldn't've seen it."
"Hmm..." Jamal seemed pretty deep in thought at that for whatever reason.
"Do you think it could've been Snowy's brother?" I asked him.
Snowy's face seemed to light up slightly. "I-it could be..." She said, looking down at the fire.
"Maybe, but maybe not." Rhea shrugged, picking up her cheese and trying to brush the dirt off of it.
My POV
The view of the night sky was breathtaking. Far away from city lights, the sky was full of stars. I only ever saw a night this starry once, when I had gone on a trip specifically to see it. But even that paled, both figuratively and literally, in comparison to Medius' moons.
It was, for all intents and purposes, an alien sky; two moons right beside each other, one green, and the other red. They were both the same size as Earth's moon, and they seemed to be waning. Their surfaces also appeared similar to Earth's moon, though the marks were obviously different, even between them.
It was...hard to describe, to see these two celestial bodies when there should only be one, watching from just outside the rest stop, near the road. On one hand it was amazing and something I'd've probably dreamed of. But on the other...it's a reminder that I'm not on Earth, that I'm God knows where, relative to it...
It was stressful. I've only been here for three days, and I'm already feeling...sick...
"Jamal? You okay there?"
I started slightly at the voice, turning around. It was just Rhea, standing at the doorway.
"Uh, yeah, why?"
"Just seemed sort of out of place to see you outside right now." Rhea replied to me. "I thought you couldn't stand the cold?"
"I'm fine, Rhea. It's not like I'm sleeping here." I looked up again. "I just wanted to see the moons."
She looked up as well, at the moons. "Wow, yeah..." She noted. "It's been so long since I've actually seen them. Hell didn't have a sky...it was like one giant cave."
"Hm..." I continued watching the moons, the chill of the night air slowly starting to get to me. I'd neglected to put my scarf back on when I walked out here. Damn you, hindsight.
"It's getting late." Rhea muttered. "Let's call it a night and go to sleep already."
"Yeah..."
I heard her turn around and head back inside. I stood there for a few more seconds before following her into the building. I rubbed my hands to try and get rid of the cold. Can't believe I forgot my gloves as well.
I walked back into the room with Rhea. Buwaro and Kieri were both in their sleeping bags; Buwaro was on the one to my far right, and Kieri was right next to him. The fire was already out; dirt had been kicked over where it had once been, and there was a small puddle, too.
The food had been nice. It had been Rhea's idea to roast marshmallows over the fire; it made for a pretty nice new experience, honestly. We also roasted sausages, though that was a little tricker, and of course, Kieri had stuck to just the marshmallows the whole time.
At least it was a good time for conversation...I'm still wondering...who did that other fire belong to? Rhea said it was fairly recent too...no mention of it existed in the comic, so either it was just an overlooked detail, or something had changed.
The only people that had come to mind were Kazai and Sanjulo, and it was doubtful that they'd've tried that; they could've simply flown all the way to Riverside, the trip wouldn't have taken them more than a day. If it really was them, then what could've happened to delay their journey?
Regardless of what happened, I could mull over it when I was already in my sleeping bag. I took off my glasses, my jacket and my shoes, carefully hiding my watch under my shirt sleeve, before slipping into the sleeping bag between Rhea and Kieri. Nice and warm now.
"Goodnight everyone..."
"Night!"
"Goodnight..."
"G'night, guys!"
Rhea's POV
I woke to the sun in my eyes through a nearby window. I sat up, shielding my eyes from it. Damn it, I wish I could be allowed to sleep in...
I glanced to the side. Buwaro and Kieri were both still asleep, but Jamal was missing. He must be already up; I could see footprints heading out the room.
Welp. Time to wake up and have breakfast. I got out of my sleeping bag, took a deep breath and...
"Rise and shine, you two!"
Kieri started in her sleeping bag, poofing into a bunny once again. Buwaro yelped and accidentally stabbed his hand through his own sleeping bag.
That could've gone better.
"Heh, sorry about that." I rubbed the back of my head, reaching back to tie my ponytail again. "Anyway, let's eat breakfast already. We still have a ways to go to reach Riverside City."
Buwaro struggled to remove himself from his sleeping bag, but once he did—with a couple additional holes made—he picked up Kieri and immediately gave her a hug and a nuzzle. I'll admit, that was pretty cute.
"Wait, where did Jamal go?" Kieri asked, noticing his absence.
"Hell if I know." I shrugged. "I think he's an early riser. Must've already eaten breakfast, let me check..." I walked over to the bag and the small pile of clothing. His glasses, jacket and shoes were missing, along with his scarf and gloves, and the bag was open.
I looked inside to see what he had eaten. I was expecting to be missing a few fruits, vegetable, or have an empty bottle of water. Instead, the only change was part of said bottle of water was gone, and half a loaf was missing.
I thought humans needed to eat more than that; this wouldn't even be considered filling for a Jakkai...
"Yeah, he ate..." I grabbed the bag and carried it over to them. "So we should, too."
It was a pretty quiet breakfast all things considered. Buwaro eventually had to let Kieri go so she could eat properly, too. We all got dressed, Kieri gave her prayers to Gaia, and we set off...to find Jamal pacing around the cafeteria, muttering to himself about something.
"There you are!" I called out to him.
"Oh, hi." He waved at us awkwardly. "So, we're going out now?"
"Have you been waiting for us the entire time?" Kieri, now back to being an angel, asked him.
"I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep." He replied. "So I had breakfast and waited."
"Well, you must've had some pretty shitty breakfast..." I said, handing him the remaining piece of bread. "You'll need to be fed for the next stretch of the trip."
He just took the bread and nodded. "Alright, then let's go."
My POV
I had been expecting the bandits.
As it were, they were a short walk away from the decommissioned rest stop. While I didn't quite remember their faces from the comic, I could still recognise them from a mile away. They were armed, and dangerous.
Unlike originally, I was the one to warn the group.
"Guys...there's people up ahead." I said, gesturing to the small figures in the distance. "Buwaro, put your bandana back on." He nodded and pulled it back over his face.
"Travellers?" Kieri asked.
"I don't know...they don't look too friendly..." Rhea muttered.
"Well, regardless..." I watched as they started walking towards us. "They saw us..." I pulled my scarf over my mouth and nose, and my jacket's hood over my head. Buwaro put himself behind Kieri.
The two bandits approached. They actually looked pretty intimidating, given that they both had visible scars. While they were still shorter than I was, they were far more well-built; they looked like they could probably punch hard enough to break someone's jaw.
Wait, shouldn't one of them have an axe...?
"Alright, all of you have something we want, so hand 'em all over!" The dark skinned one, with the mohawk, growled.
Oh fuck, I don't think they were this aggressive, either!
"Oh shit, bandits!" Rhea shouted.
"You have nowhere to hide out here!" The beared one shouted, pulling out a shortsword he had on his back, before charging at us. I don't remember this part at all!
I saw Kieri, out of the corner of my eye, act quickly. She immediately drew her own sword and stepped forwards to block the man's sword strike, before forcing him back with a swing of her own. She quickly pulled her green jacket off to allow her wings to spread freely from her back.
I was baffled by the bandits' sudden bout of aggression, but I was outright shocked when the beared guy dropped his sword and then both of them dropped to the ground and started begging.
In hindsight, this second thing shouldn't have shocked me that much; at least at first...then again, what came next definitely justified the shock.
"Shit! Another angel!"
"Please don't kill us!"
...yeah, also that.
Kieri lowered her sword, more than likely taken aback by the sudden and unexpected reaction to her angelhood. She actually took a nervous step back when they did this.
"Um...what's happe-?"
"Leave us alone!" The one with the mohawk shouted, dragging himself backwards. However, Rhea ran over to stand in his way. Seeing this, I followed her example, and so did Buwaro. Now, the bandits were surrounded. Even if only one of us was an actual threat, it was one threat that made these assholes not want to risk doing anything.
"Oh crap, we're done for this time..." The mohawk guy said.
"I don't know, m-maybe she's going to be more lenient than those two!" The bearded one replied.
Wait.
"'Those two'?!" I shouted at them. "Explain now!"
Kieri, Buwaro and Rhea all seemed to realise what was happening. Kieri, most noticeably, was slowly approaching the two bandits. Which, incidentally, helped to keep them compliant.
The bearded one stuttered before answering. "There were two other angels! They passed through here a couple days ago!" He stopped to take a shaky breath, and then continued. "We tried to rob them and their friend, but they almost tore us apart! We only made it out alive because their friend stopped them!"
Friend?!
Kieri's face looked halfway between happy and disturbed. "What did those two angels look like...?"
"One was blue like you, and the other was red..." The bearded bandit said, before his expression changed suddenly. "Wait a minute...the blue one mentioned a sister...are you-?"
Kieri remained silent, but I saw her nod slowly. I glanced back at the bandits; I couldn't tell if they were calming down or just getting more scared upon realising that she was related to someone who nearly killed them.
Granted, they could be exaggerating, but if it's keeping them from attacking us...
"Well..." Rhea stated. "At least we now know for sure he came this way!"
"Yeah, we've got this!" Buwaro cheered. "Let's go, Snowy, we have no time to waste!" He turned around and started sprinting down the path.
"Buwaro, wait up!" Rhea ran after him in annoyance.
I looked down at the bandits again. "Well, we would prefer if the two of you not follow us, if for some odd reason you want to." I gestured to Kieri. "Let's go, we're closer than before."
"A-alright..." She nodded, picking up her jacket from the ground and going after Buwaro and Rhea, not even bothering to sheath her sword.
I turned back to the bandits. "And know this," I pulled my scarf down to reveal an ominous grin behind it; I couldn't help myself, I wanted to scare them a little more. "This is the second time that the two of you were saved from doom by bystanders. Only this time, for a different reason..."
They glanced at each other like they weren't sure how to react. On one hand, I could be bullshitting them, but on the other, I towered over them and had a deep enough voice to sound intimidating.
...okay, that came out a little too egotistical, dial it back a bit...
"Let's just say angels aren't the only beings to make their way here..." I said darkly, and turned around to follow the group down the path.
It took me a couple minutes to sprint back up to them. They had already slowed to a walking pace when I reached them, however; maybe that's why it didn't take that long.
"So," I started. "We're on the right track, then?"
"Yeah!" Buwaro replied, noticeably out of breath.
"We might make it there by sunset if we're lucky." Rhea added.
Kieri nodded excitedly. It was actually really nice to see her act like this, knowing that she was on the right track to finding Kazai. "Let's not waste time, like Buwaro said." I can't believe we could find this solid a lead...I also can't believe Arin would tag along with them..."
I narrowed my eyes as I put two and two together. Arin...friend...the person she wanted to say goodbye to before we left? At least we know where he went...but...I need to know more.
"Actually...I have a question." I said, turning to Kieri. "Just who is Arin?"
A/N: Side note, I wasn't really expecting Arin to be revealed this early. But answers are to be had, and Jamal certainly wants answers to his questions about this previously unheard of person. We'll find out next chapter, shall we?
Ronmr: Thank you for reading this story. As for the insight, there're a lot of things you can pick out when you're looking from a certain perspective. Things like this are usually left out for a reason.
Guest: Merry (belated) Christmas and (also belated) Happy New Year to you too.
See you all next time.