21. Golden Strawberry

Prompt: Ambiguous

Change is a strange thing.

One could say when you are changing all the time, you are not changing at all.

So little is changing all the time, nothing changes really.

Then said changes are only noticeable when you look back and see how much road someone has traveled.

If that's how it goes for one's own eye, how it goes for other eyes? People who can only see the exterior, but not the interior?

That was a question Madeline frequently pondered herself with. Not exactly for the sake to answer it, but because of how she strived herself to keep nosy eyes away from her life. The number of persons she deemed safe enough to know anything beyond superficial things could be counted with the fingers of one hand; before her very first trip to the mountain, she was willing to chop a finger or two off.

Celeste Mountain is a place of change, and any road starts with a first step.

Except Madeline was already in her umpteenth step, and only seeking to go for more.

True to her word back at the forsaken city, Madeline had not said too much of a real word to anyone once she returned to her normal life. Not even to Theo, solely because he witnessed the events unfold on front of him.

Different reasons, same outcome nonetheless.

Not even to herself yet.

It shouldn't have surprised her Badeline picked up her bad habit of ignoring her problems—plus and plus equaled to plus after all.

This one trip so far has been everything Madeline ever wanted her first trip to be.

Exciting, freeing, awing.

And although it was all of those things, there was another thing in the back of her mind she just couldn't shake off her head.

This trip in particular…Madeline didn't know what to make out of all of this. The first trip had the first goal of reaching the summit. Clear, simple, visible. Reachable even.

In the bigger picture, Madeline considered not embarking herself on a second trip, she could still remember the shiver running down her spine that night on her bed staring at a wall, trying to fall asleep. Eyes wide open, yet so lifeless and empty.

What could she make out of this one?

Make it faster? Safer?

Reaching the summit once more would be enough?

Explore the areas she previously did not? What would happen after she had done just that?

She had only stopped to dwell and ruminate on those questions as she reached and sat down on the purple cliffs of the golden ridge. Legs hugged against her chest, face half-buried behind her knees. She closed her heavy eyes, letting the chill breeze hit her face and flutter her hair. She let out the slowest sigh she could, focusing on how the tiniest hint of warm escaped through her lips.

For a moment, her mind wandered into how the tip of her feet felt hanging over the edge on that cliff.

How if she just moved a little further…

No, Madeline, no. Willful reminders. No intrusive thoughts.

After a while, the air got even colder, Madeline remained mostly unfazed, footsteps traveled her ears before Badeline sat next to her.

"You've been quieter than usual."

Madeline only acknowledged humming.

"Come on, you know I'm not gonna let you brood all by yourself there." Badeline pulled out from the pocket in her purple jacket a strawberry poorly colored in yellow and lifted it in front of Madeline's face. Her eyes overtly asking where did she get it?

"You're not the only one who explores that old city." She smiled cheeky to herself. "I'll offer you a small game. Beat me in a race, and you'll get this."

Madeline blinked confused. "Why would you do this?"

Badeline's face grimed. She joined Madeline into staring at the horizon. For several minutes, she opened her mouth to say something, but every time she tried to, Madeline could feel the twist at her stomach.

They couldn't read their minds, but they could read each other's heart.

At that moment, Badeline's heart was filled with something somewhere along shame and dread.

"I'm grateful, Madeline," Badeline finally said after a while. "And that's a problem."

Badeline didn't need to look through the corner of her eye to see the pain and confusion in Madeline's face, and still she forced herself to stare directly at it, and before she could even question why…

"You making me grateful is a problem. You allowing me this time is a problem. We both know a second trip was never among your original plans before you came to the mountain a first time. Let alone a third, fourth, fifth trip.

"Is not that you haven't moved on." She chuckled out of spite. "Even though I'm part of you, I don't get it. You have moved on, and at the same time you have not. You've done it, and at the same time you've done…practically nothing."

Madeline remained silent. What was there to say? She was right.

So much for being the pragmatic part of her.

"Why are we here now, Madeline? Why are you here?"

A question that had bounced in her mind countless times, but now that she could hear it out with her own ears only made it worse.

The mere thought of turning around made her head feel as heavy as a beam of steel. Funny, as since, in a sense, she was just as hard as one.

In other senses though…

"But," She began again. "I can't just let you go and do whatever, as usual. If anything, let it be something we both agree on." Badeline put her hand on her jacket pocket and brought out the yellowed strawberry once again and lift it in between their faces. "So, deal?"

Madeline lifted her face from her hiding spot. Cold eyes lifted wannabe warming eyes.

Madeline's eyes snapped puzzled a few times from Badeline to the strawberry she held between her fingers. She tried to reach for it hesitantly, but before she could grab it, Badeline puffed out in a cloud of purple particles, reappearing back on her feet in the next cliff closest to Badeline.

She waved her finger signing a mocking "nuh-uh" to Madeline.

Madeline smiled tiredly, and stood up just as. She jumped over the gaps to reach Badeline, not even bothering to use her dash, and when she was within her reach she popped out once more, just mere inches away from her this time.

Madeline's brow filled with thorns and she took a quick step forward towards her, but Badeline disappeared, again just a few meters away from her.

The process repeated about nine times, each time faster than the last, until Badeline ran off through.

Before she knew it, Madeline herself had ran off after her.

There are two main reasons to why I decided to set this particular chapter/theme/subject/whateveryouwannacallit to Golden Ridge.

1 - As I mentioned earlier (I think?) Golden Ridge is one of the arguably few chapters where you are actually climbing the mountain.

2 - And obviously more important for egocentric reasons, 4-B is the first level of the game where I got my very first golden strawberry. Reason being I simply LOVE the soundtrack of 4-B and is the best of the whole game and whoever disagrees tell me where you wanna meet so we can beat the bloody $#!% out of each other! With pleasure :D

I've been saving this one move up my sleeve since I practically started and I'm glad I finally managed to pull it off.