Kawaii-Cherri: Night shift kicked my ass this weekend but back to it as per usual. I know I've promised spice and I will deliver on that tasty treat but it is going to be a while. I'm sorrrrryyyyy.

Chapter Seventeen – Winds of change

'Bomp. Bomp. Bomp,' Elspeth said happily as she hammered the red-light stake into the ground. They were well within her lands boundaries and so were technically covered by the red-light generators that Elspeth had placed on the far outskirts of the property but it didn't hurt to be cautious. With each "bomp" she managed to drive it a little deeper into the dirt. 'Bazzie! Was that the last one?' She called over as she stood up and stretched.

He looked over from where he had been dealing with tent pegs, 'yeah, that was the last,' he said with a smile. 'Looks like we're all set up,' Sebastian added as he looked at their little campsite. It was a fair-sized tent and he had the foresight to bring a blowup bed; they would be in their own sleeping bags so he wasn't worried too much about hurting her. Elspeth bounced over to him happily and squealed with joy at their set-up. 'Haven't you ever gone camping before?' He asked, amused.

'Nope!' She said shaking her head. 'I mean, I've been in caravans and things. Silly holiday home getaways, you know, where it's a tiny rented house with a couple of bare bedrooms and they're all on a compound-'

'Like a holiday resort?' Sebastian said with a laugh as she hung off his arm in excitement.

'Yeah!' Elspeth nodded, perkily.

He moved her over to one of the chairs and began to look at the food they had brought, offering her a snack bar. Sebastian felt his heart quicken as he thought about what he was about to ask her. 'So… um, did you want to… to talk about the whole dating thing?'

Elspeth grinned and happily took the oat and fudge bar from him. 'What about it?'

Sebastian cleared his throat and sat back in his own chair, 'well, it was more that, uh, it seemed to be a little bit of a spur of the moment thing? I just don't want you to-'

'Bazzie,' Elspeth laughs and interrupts him. 'When have you ever known me to do anything impulsive?'

He raises his brow and pulls out a bar for himself, 'Elsie. Everything you do is impulsive. You learned how to co-ordinate a calendar this year,' he chuckles. 'You told me yourself, that the only reason you made half your competitions was because of either your sister or coach,' he pointed out.

She made a mocking hand motion, mimicking his speaking and rolled her eyes, amusement on her features. 'My point being, do you think that I would suggest something like this if it wasn't something I wanted or thought was a good idea?'

Sebastian mentally sighed. 'I just don't want you to think later down the line that this was a mistake because you've gotten hurt or something,' he said quietly, fiddling with the wrapper. I'm such a fucking idiot. Yoba. I sound so bloody lame right now, he thought, bitterly.

Elspeth tore open her snack. 'Bazz,' she said halfway through biting it in half. 'I'm good if you are. If this is something you want, then it's happening. Is this something you want?'

With a shy nod he looked at her through his hair. 'Yeah,' he mumbled.

'Cool,' she said as she winked at him and continued to eat. 'Munch,' she commanded, playfully. 'You're gonna need energy for the rest of today. Oooh! Did you have any plans about what we should do? 'Cause if not, there's some ruins nearby that I want to explore but I'm far too much of a coward to go on my own,' she admitted as her mind went on a tangent, distracted by what they could do together.

Sebastian laughs and shakes his head, 'yeah, sure. Sounds great, Elsie. I don't mind exploring them with you. It's light enough, the most we'll encounter is a slime or something,' he said as he thought about the dangers. Elspeth wiggled and squeezed his arm before nipping into the tent and grabbing her hoodie from her bag. 'Won't you get too hot?' He asked; it was late summer.

In response to his question, she tied the hoodie around her waist. 'Better safe than sorry,' she said simply. Sebastian was dressed in a long sleeve top and black combats, almost identical to Elspeth but she was wearing jeans. She had looked at the weather report and it was supposed to cool down in the evening, nothing too drastic. Once they were ready, Elspeth led them to where she had discovered the trail entrance to where she could see some broken arch ruins; she hoped that there were more, further, and deeper into the forest.

They chatted about idle things as they trekked along the dirt path. The topic of merpeople came back up as Elspeth revealed that she had asked Hayley about her belief. Sebastian saw this as a good way to find out what Elspeth felt about the subject. 'Been a few weeks since you met that mermaid on the beach, how are you feeling about things?' He asked as they navigated a fallen branch.

Elspeth jumped up from branch to branch, onto the top of the log and wobbled, losing her balance, and falling backwards. She let out an adorable, 'eeep!' But Sebastian was already behind her. He caught her around the waist easily and pushed her back up onto the tree. 'Thank youuuu,' she sang as she grabbed one of the broken branches and held herself on the top as she leaned down and offered Sebastian a hand up. She was surprised at how nimble he was and it seemed that his strength was more than what would be typically expected. 'Anyway,' she said as they sat on the log for a moment, looking across the bushes. 'Uh, well, yeah. I suppose I'm doing alright. I mean, it doesn't really change much about my life. It just means that there's more than what I originally thought and that I could come across merpeople at any ti-…' Elspeth stopped halfway through her word.

Sebastian looked at her confused but she seemed to be lost in thought. With a shrug of his shoulder, he jumped down from the tree trunk and held out his arms to help her down. 'Elsie?' He said as she wasn't even looking in his direction.

She jumped and returned mentally to earth. 'Oh! Sorry!' She said as she leaned down and took hold of his shoulders, letting him help her down. 'I just realised!' Elspeth babbled; her eyes lit with excitement. 'It was like, months ago. I was swimming in the ocean and there was this really large, really scary looking fish! But it looked all wrong and when I spotted it, it like, folded itself in half as it looked at me and I just realised!' She said as she bounced on the toes of her feet. 'It could have totally been some mermaid!'

All he could hear was ringing in his ears and he gave her a low effort smile. 'Oh, yeah?' He replied as he let her go and she skipped off down the trail.

'Oh, Yoba! Bazzie! What if I scared the fish poop out of some poor mermaid?' She laughed lightly as she looked back at him. He looked pale and so she paused, balancing on a rock. 'Are you alright?' She asked.

Mentally, he shook some sense into himself. 'Oh. Yeah. I'm fine,' he said as he forced a larger smile. 'Just… picturing the moment of you scaring the shit out of some mermaid,' Sebastian lied, knowing exactly what that felt like. Fuck, he thought to himself as he followed her. She is dangerously close to putting two and two together. My only saving grace is that she doesn't know that it's a possibility for a normal human to become a merperson. Otherwise, I think she would have it.

'No wonder the mermaid ran off into deeper waters,' she laughed lightly. They were in the deep forest now and were coming across small monsters. Sebastian chuckled as he watched Elspeth literally punt a small slime out the way. 'Silly buggers,' she said as she scraped the goop off her shoe on a nearby rock. 'As I was saying, could you imagine me? Floating in the water, goggles on, looking like a bug, while staring at you?' She said, making herself laugh.

Don't need to imagine it, Sebastian thought with a grim wince. 'Terrifying,' he teased as she stuck out her tongue at him.

'Come on, slow poke,' Elspeth said as she walked over to him and grabbed his gloved hand. 'This is mine now,' she said with a cheeky smile. Sebastian chuckled, letting her wind her fingers through his as they hiked through the broken ruins. Occasionally, one of them had to break free to discourage a slime to go in the other direction but their hands would find one another quickly again, once the problem had been dealt with. Elspeth smiled at him as he returned, skidding slime off his sole, 'the squelch is quite satisfying,' she said honestly. 'Especially when they hit a tree. I think you earned at least ten points on that one.'

Sebastian laughed lightly as the wind rustled through the trees, a little stronger than it had been all afternoon. 'Then you're only twenty points behind,' he teased, making Elspeth roll her eyes. 'Look,' he said as they entered a clearing, 'there's some sort of pond,' he said as he looked around.

Elspeth let his hand go as she ran forward, 'oooh! Bazz, look! There's an old statue and everything! I knew that there was something cool around,' she said as she looked around. 'Hayley would love to do a shoot here,' she murmured as she lifted her head and looked at the canopy. Sebastian smiled to himself as he caught sight of Elspeth, the weak sunlight casting a kaleidoscope of greens across her. She spun slowly, closing her eyes as the light crossed her face. 'Isn't it beautiful here?' Elspeth asked, her voice soft. Wind almost whistled through the trees, the strength causing the canopy to bend and weave as the leaves shifted and rustled.

He breathed in deeply, now or never, he thought. 'Hey… Elsie… I want to tell you something,' he said as he stepped towards her.

She stopped spinning and turned to face him, 'what's up?' She asked.

A peal of thunder interrupted him before he even got anymore words out. There was a harsh breeze which sent them both back with a step. Elspeth covered her face with her arm and Sebastian walked towards her, becoming a wind breaker. 'What the hell?' Sebastian almost had to shout over the wind. 'Where did this come from?'

The wind was becoming stronger and Elspeth fought to get her hoodie on, using Sebastian as a wall. 'I don't know!' She replied to him. 'It was supposed to get cooler but this looks like a bloody storm,' Elspeth said as she pulled her arms into the sleeves. There was another rip of thunder and then a flash of lightening. 'Fuck!' Elspeth swore as she jumped.

'A storm?' Sebastian said in concern. The weather was unpredictable and storms weren't uncommon. 'Elsie, this is really not good,' he murmurs as he looked around.

She pulled down the hoodie and winced at the cold that hit her face, 'you're telling me,' she replied, shivering. Elspeth pulled out her phone and did a quick search. 'Yeah. The weather is going to totally turn. Some freak hurricane out from the coast about ten miles or something,' she said as she read what little information there was. With a glare, she looked at the sky, 'way to ruin our date,' she muttered making Sebastian smirk and actually go a little pink.

Sebastian pulled up her hood and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 'Come on, we've gotta get out of here. It's getting darker by the minute and this is a dangerous place to be as is,' he said as he looked around, again, fearing what the weather would bring. Elspeth nodded and followed where he led, back down the trail that they came down. His worst fears came true as they half stumbled down the track, a large gelatinous blob rolled through the trees and he heard the tell-tale buzzsaw sound of dangerous insects waking up.

Elspeth grabbed at his top, 'we can't go back this way,' she shouted over the wind. 'We're going to have to run for it, through the trees! They'll struggle to follow!'

'That way! Uphill!' He called to her. 'The tree line breaks before the cliff. We'll have some relative safety in the open!' He gave Elspeth a light push and she nodded, shooting off through the bushes with him on her tail. They could hear the monsters beginning to stir from deeper in the forest and Elspeth yelped as something swooped down and pulled at her hood. She screamed and waved her arm over her head, trying to knock the bat like creature away. The ground was becoming slippy as rain began to fall and it was hard to hear one another over the wind. Sebastian made his way over to where Elspeth was fighting her hood free from its claws, he pulled off his glove and grabbed the creature by its wing. It stilled almost instantly and he threw it back into the deeper brush, hoping that Elspeth was too scared to make any connection as to what happened.

His relief was almost palpable, for as soon as she was freed, Elspeth was off again. 'Come on, Bazz!' She yelled at him, 'I can see the edge of the forest,' she panted. The uphill was a struggle but the adrenaline was pushing them through.

She burst from the bushes and clinging thorns, running over the grass towards the edge, as close as she dared. Elspeth looked back and exhaled heavily, worry written across her face until Sebastian appeared, a little further down from where she fought through. He ran over to her and checked her over for injuries. 'The storm is getting worse!' He shouted, trying to steady her from where the wind was buffeting them both around. It was getting darker by the second and the thunder and lightening was occurring more often. 'We need to get to the edge,' he said as he spotted monsters beginning to converge at the treeline.

'Are you insane?' Elspeth shook her head but still took a step back from the trees. 'The edge of the cliff is just as dangerous as the bloody forest at this point!'

Sebastian grabbed her arm, 'at this point, the forest is certain death! The cliff is probable death,' he pointed out.

'Shit!' Elspeth swore, tears in her eyes. She nodded and followed Sebastian carefully up the hill to the edge of the cliff. He steadied her every step of the way and held her hand tightly. She felt that every nerve in her body was lit up as if she had been electrocuted, her fight and flight instinct triggered. They reached the top, a few feet from the edge. She looked at Sebastian and then back to the seemingly endless horde of monsters that seemed to pour out from the trees. 'Why are there so many?!' She shouted over the wind.

He didn't want to alarm her but he knew it was because of what he was. His body practically thrummed with nutrients and magical energy. 'They want to take advantage of the weather?' He suggested. 'Compared to what they hunt in the forests, we're probably quite a catch,' he said as he brought Elspeth closer to him, being careful of the fact that he had removed a glove. At a last resort he could at least slow some of the larger ones, maybe even clear a path for her. Possibly.

'That's fucking fantastic!' Elspeth said in pure delirium as she clutched to his top in fear. 'Perfect!' She added, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Sebastian looked over the edge of the cliff and did some mental calculation. It was about a hundred and fifty-foot drop. Survivable. With the proper technique. Which he doubted either of them had. An idea hit him. It wasn't perfect but it could mean that Elspeth lived. Actually, there's a greater chance that she would die. Not from water impact or drowning but… from me, he thought in a panic. He had to take the chance. He grabbed Elspeth by the shoulders and made her look at him. 'Elsie! I'm going to do whatever I can to get you out of here! Do you understand?'

'What?! What are you on about?!' She shouted back, clinging to his sleeves as he held her.

'I need you to trust me!'

She blinked rapidly and wiped the water from her face. The rain was coming down hard and making it even harder to see with the wind blowing a gale. 'Wha-? I do! I do trust you!' She replied. The sound of the monsters was getting louder as they became more confident and began to spill onto the open grass.

'What I'm about to do is fucking stupid and insane and… I… I can't believe I'm really even considering it!' Sebastian said more to himself than her.

Elspeth wanted to punch him in the chest to regain his attention but refrained. 'What the fuck are you on about?!'

Shaking his head, he spoke. 'Doesn't matter!' He pulled out a spare set of gloves from his pocket, 'put these on!' He commanded. Elspeth gave him a confused look but did as he asked. He pulled up her hood and tied it under her chin so that it wouldn't slide down. She was completely covered from head to toe. Hopefully, that would be enough. 'The plan is; I'm going to jump. You're going to wait as long as you can and then follow,' he said, simply, as if he was discussing what they were going to have for dinner.

Elspeth stared at him in shock and wonder. 'We are not jumping off of this cliff!' She screamed at him. Sebastian gave her a pained smile as he backed up and pulled off his top. She didn't have any time to appreciate the view as fear began to overpower her. 'You can't be serious, Bazz!'

He threw his other glove to the side and looked over his shoulder to check that he wasn't going to get attacked by something as he made space for a run up. 'You said you trusted me!' He called to her.

'I do! But this is insanity!'

'Can you see another way out of this alive?!' He asked, feeling desperation and panic rising as the creatures came closer.

'Well, no! But jumping off a cliff is an extreme reaction!'

Bats and insects flew overhead, getting lower and lower with every second. Sebastian felt jittery and held an arm over his head, just in case. 'You're a strong swimmer, Elsie, I know you can do this!' Sebastian said, reassuringly.

'This is insane!' She shouted back at him, her eyes full of fear as she clutched the hoodie's cuffs from inside the sleeve.

He chuckled and shrugged. 'So was the idea of us dating,' he admitted making her go a little pink, her mouth open in surprise at his comment. 'Trust me, Elsie!' He said before he ran full pelt to the edge of the cliff and seemingly without fear, he leapt.

Stay safe. Be well.