"Still okay back there?" Kady asked.
"I'm alright," Kiara answered. She rode piggyback on Kady while he climbed, two of his arms supporting her while the other two reached for handholds. "It's so windy, this is terrifying!"
"You get used to it."
It seemed miles to the ground, where the clean-up and reconstruction efforts were still in full swing. "We left without really saying anything. Do you think they'll be mad?"
"They know we're still on the island." He waved at a guard standing watch in the tree's hollow. "Might get lectured later, but I doubt they'll be too mad."
They continued climbing until they reached the first juncture where the trunk split into a bough. Once the surface leveled out enough to stand, Kady let Kiara down from his back. She walked up the incline of the branch, gaze lost in the sea of leaves overhead.
"It's the same feeling as when you climb a tree as a kid," she said softly. "When it seems so big that the ground below is like a different world, and you couldn't possibly fall to anywhere except the world of branches you're in."
"Feeling philosophical?"
She bent and broke off a piece of bark with her hand. "No." She suddenly turned and flung it at him. "Just making you drop your guard!"
"Hey!" He flinched, the bark bouncing off his arm as Kiara dashed away. "So that's how you want it, huh?" He picked up his own bark and chased after her, pitching it. They ran along the branch, chasing each other in circles as they threw bits and pieces of tree that they could break off in their hands. As they reached the end of the branch where it broke off into stems, Kiara sat against a leaf and laughed. Kady leaned against a stem across from her, catching his breath.
"Thanks for taking me up here. You were right, I did need a break."
"Anytime, I aim to please."
"Hey, you're a cicada right?" She leaned forward, eyes expectant. "Can you sing for me?"
He shifted away. "No, I'm terrible at it."
"Aw c'mon, you can't be that bad."
"I am, trust me. No one wants to hear me sing." His eyes cast away, and he passed his hand along the edge of the leaf above him.
Kiara hummed to herself. "That's too bad. I've always loved the sound of cicadas singing, they sound so beautiful. Dusk or dawn, when the world is at its darkest, it's like their singing is a song of hope about the light to come once the darkness passes."
Kady's eyes widened as they flicked to her, then danced for anywhere to look besides her earnest face, the heat rising in his own. He cleared his throat. "C'mon, I'll show you how to leaf-surf."