A/N: Yes, I'm still alive, yes, this story is still ongoing, but at a significantly reduced pace. A lot of things have happened during the time period between this update and the last, and let's just say things are looking pretty bad. I wasn't in the mood to write for quite a while. Updates might be slow thanks to school as well, though I'll do my best to keep on writing. I do want to finish this, and it'll be a pity not to, since I have plenty of plans for this story's future chapters.
After what felt like hours of high speed flight, Elequinn sensed a drop in Sel's velocity. Finally shifting her position, the girl winced in pain as she felt her every muscle in her body aching. She had nearly lost all feeling in her arms, no doubt due to the blood in her body being unable to circulate effectively. She did however, take some guilty pleasure in seeing that Galix seemed to be suffering even more than her.
Man, am I glad I didn't take the front seat.
Looking downwards, Elequinn noted that the verdant landscape appeared absolutely mesmerizing, doubly so thanks to the sun that was beginning to emerge in the horizon. Tall trees with lush green leaves spread out and covered the entirety of the upper section of the forest underneath her, blocking off all view of the forest floor as they competed with each other for sunlight.
A few of the trees had grown high enough that they stuck out of the canopy, grazing the feet of the Seltas as it flew past them. Occasionally, a few flocks of birds would bolt out of the way in panic as the Neopteron passed by them, eliciting an alarmed squawk or two from the noisier animals.
Farther ahead, Elequinn spotted a waterfall, gallons of water churning down its rocky face. The roaring sound the water made as it crashed into the foamy pool underneath it could be heard even from a distance.
Beyond the cascading water, the girl saw multiple gray mountains with peaks wrapped in the stormy embrace of thunderclouds. Although the large formations of rocks and earth were quite far from her current location, there was something about the lightning strikes at their tips that made her uneasy.
Shaking off the ominous feeling, Elequinn turned her attention back to the jungle below her. For a moment, the huntress thought that the trees had somehow shrunk in size. They were no longer close enough that she could almost touch them just by stretching out her feet, and instead seemed to have drastically reduced in height.
A quick peek at the terrain behind allowed the girl to put two and two together. It wasn't the trees that were dropping in elevation – rather, it was the land itself that was sloping downwards. The entire area appeared to have ground that that was slanted downwards, giving it a similar appearance to that of a bowl.
Turning her head forward, Elequinn saw a patch of brown dirt that stood out drastically in contrast from the greenery around it. It seemed to be right in the middle of where the ground's steep incline stopped, and as she squinted her eyes, the girl spotted tiny specks moving around. There were slightly bigger brown smudges as well, which she quickly recognized as houses.
Hope?
What particularly caught the huntress' eye was the colossal plant that had taken root directly in the middle of the village, towering over all other trees nearby. Its trunk was massive enough that Elequinn suspected the Seltas she was riding would probably have to take a while just to circle around it, and even the bright green leaves that sprouted out of its branches appeared to be significantly larger than the Neopteron.
The huge crown of leaves atop the plant seemed to shelter the village underneath it entirely, and as the girl marveled at the abnormality of nature, she noticed wooden planks present around the canopy of the tree. The planks had been painstakingly nailed into the bark to form a long sturdy platform around its side, and Sel let out a shrill cry as he flew towards the location.
Within moments of the Seltas landing on the planks, Galix rolled himself off the Nepteron's horn, wobbling unsteadily around the wide platform before finally placing his back against one of the great tree's many branches.
"Right," the man's face had a slight hue of green on it as he spoke, his trembling limbs clearly showing how much strain had been placed on them throughout the trip, "never doing that again. Ever."
Finding her friend's behavior completely ironic, Elequinn couldn't resist laughing at his reaction as she dismounted the insect. Deciding to take a quick look around, the girl walked to the edge of the platform, casting her gaze downwards at the area underneath.
The view was utterly breathtaking, and there was a refreshing smell in the air. Due to how high up she was, the other trees in the forest appeared as though they were bowing in respect before her, their size miniscule when compared to the height of the plant she was currently standing on top of. When the wind blew and their leaves swayed in unison with it, Elequinn felt as though she was looking into a shimmering green ocean.
Even the people in the village appeared to be little more than tiny black ants, slowly moving around as they went about with their daily lives. Now that she was able to have a bird's-eye view of the settlement, Hope did not appear to be very large at all. Out of the entire forest, they only occupied a small portion in the middle, directly beneath the giant tree's roots.
Maybe the leaves provide good shelter for them?
"Good view, isn't it?"
Passing a glance at her friend who appeared to have recovered somewhat from his trauma, Elequinn found herself nodding in agreement. The awe-inspiring view of the entire forest, coupled with the occasional cries of creatures and the gentle breeze caressing her face made for quite the scene. After all the events that leading up till this point, the girl was happy to have some time to clear her head.
Being naturally curious however, Elequinn soon found her attention shifting from the scenery to the platform she was currently standing on, and the tree that they were attached to. The plant's enormous size already made it quite the oddity to the huntress, but what was even more surprising to her was the fact that someone had actually dared to scale it and create a platform near its canopy.
The planks themselves seemed durable and capable of holding up their weight, but Elequinn suspected that there were more tree branches below them holding the boards up. One thing didn't make sense to her however.
"Hey, Galix…um," Elequinn cast a worrying look at the tanned man, "how do we get down…?"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Galix pointed at a part of the tree covered in vines, "there's a door right over there."
Walking over to where her friend was pointing at, Elequinn inspected the particular vines carefully. Oddly enough, the green plants seemed to be emerging from the inside of the tree trunk. As she attempted to touch them however, a soft click sounded, and the vegetation before her appeared to dart towards her.
The sudden movement caught her completely by surprise, and the huntress staggered backwards a few steps before landing flat on her back. Picking herself up swiftly, Elequinn saw that Galix had been right about the door – the solid looking part of the tree trunk before her had been swung outwards, resulting in her having the misperception that the vines were moving of their own accord.
Standing by the opened door was a young girl with skin as pale as snow, her bright green eyes returning Elequinn's inquisitive stare with one of her own. The girl's brown hair barely extended past her shoulders, and was parted cleanly in two down the middle of her head, with one side being noticeably longer than the other.
It was her clothes that really piqued the curiosity of the huntress however – never before had Elequinn witnessed someone dressed as strangely as the girl before her. The lass was wearing what appeared to be the dried skin of multiple animals that had been sewn together, and the pieces were held tightly in place by binding ropes. Several feathers adorned them, adding a dash of color to the dullish brown of her attire.
Fluttering gently on the girl's back was a huge yellow leaf, appearing almost like a makeshift cape of sorts due to how its stem was tied around her nape. Judging from its impossibly large size, Elequinn promptly concluded that it must have been plucked from the very same tree that was holding up the platform she was standing on.
"Um, hello," the huntress spoke up first, her voice dispelling the awkward silence in the air, "I'm Elequinn. Nice to meet you."
The girl's thin lips parted as though she meant to return the greeting, but no sound emerged. After a moment, she tilted her head and stepped out onto the platform. Without so much as passing a look at Galix, the youngster pranced over to Sel, hugging one of the Neopteron's legs as an innocent smile appeared on her face.
"Argh, you break my heart, Aria," Galix spoke as a sarcastic grin appearing on his face, "at least acknowledge my presence."
"Ah, so you're the Aria that Galix has been talking about?" Making her way over towards them, Elequinn stared at the young girl that was playfully embracing the Seltas. "I was expecting someone a bit…older."
"Aria is mature enough," speaking for the first time in a soft tone, the young girl released Sel's leg and turned her gaze towards the two hunters, "Sel says you two tire him out. Galix should have told Aria that there is more than one rider."
Taken aback by how aloof Aria seemed to be as well as the fact that she was speaking in third person, Elequinn found herself at a loss for words. Her childhood friend, on the other hand, seemed quite comfortable chatting with the green eyed girl.
"Truth be told, I didn't really expect you to send Sel," Galix admitted with a hearty laugh, "but you did anyway, so it saved us a lot of travelling time."
"Aria only meant to pay back debt," the youth replied coldly, "there will be no more rides. Sel says you almost broke his horn from holding on too tight."
"Come on now, be reasonable. I was the one who suggested riding him in the first place."
"And he never got used to it. Sel only made an exception this time because Aria asked so nicely."
"Hold on," Elequinn frowned as she cut into the conversation. Something seemed off about the way Aria kept talking about the Neopteron, and she could hardly believe it took her this long to pinpoint exactly what it was. "Correct me if I'm wrong about this but…Aria, you can communicate with Sel?"
"Yes."
The girl replied matter-of-factly, shooting a strange look at the huntress that seemed to be asking if she can't.
"But that's not…"
"Possible?" Aria finished Elequinn's sentence, walking up to the latter and looking straight into her eyes. "Correct. Aria is…not normal."
A peculiar look appeared in the girl's emerald eyes as she spoke. For an instant, despite being almost a head taller than Aria, Elequinn felt intimidated by her. It wasn't the same kind of fear that spread throughout her body when facing a monster, but rather a bizarre feeling that sent alarm bells ringing in the huntress's head.
"But that is story for another day. Come," the girl turned away, heading towards the opened door that led into the inside of the great tree and gesturing for the two hunters to follow her, "Aria must welcome you properly."
The ominous feeling passed, and Elequinn found herself inhaling a mouthful of air, beads of sweat glistening as they made their way down her head. Somehow, the atmosphere had felt so tense that she had forgotten to breathe.
Weird. Was I…afraid of her?
Looking down at her trembling hands, the huntress took a deep breath and attempted to compose herself. The idea was absurd – Aria was nothing more than a girl that hardly appeared hardly older than fourteen, not some monster that devoured humans without mercy.
And yet Elequinn could not deny the fact that, even if just for a second, she had felt afraid. She frowned as she recalled the strange light that had flashed in Aria's eyes a minute ago. That particular expression had made her appear like something inhuman.
"You okay there, Elly?" Galix stepped up beside her, a concerned look on his face as he noticed the state of confusion his friend was in.
"Yeah," Elequinn nodded, "that was…weird though."
"You'll get used to it. Aria is really something else."
"Aria is beginning to get impatient. Please hurry." The green eyed girl's voice called out from in front of them, cutting the conversation between the two hunters short as they followed her lead.
Just before she closed the wooden door behind her, Elequinn caught sight of Sel on the wooden platform, his outer wings opened up and ready to take flight once more. Just before the Seltas took off, the huntress thought she saw the Neopteron waving goodbye to her with one of its scythe-like front limbs.
With a look of disbelief, Elequinn shook her head and swung the door shut. She had a feeling that the day was going to hold more surprises for her than she could even imagine.