No matter how deep they went into the forest, its sights seemed boundless as they were monotonous. All there was were giant trees, fallen leaves, and a beautiful scenery. Quite oddly, April was getting sick of it, and she had not heard an angry peep out of Saka since she discovered he had magically tied himself to her. He was walking at the back of the group, head looking away from where he was headed, thoughts but a mystery.
"Hm… thoughts…"
No matter how creepy that sounded, April Commerce, was now one with him. It may have not been the traditional ones, but the fact that it was called a 'soul ties'...
…She had been trying for a while now not to think about it but, to see how that was going. She simply couldn't get past the fact that she had come back to life only for her soul to be merged with that of the boy who caused her death to begin with! Her punishment was far too great…
"Lifehatesme," she lamented inside her head. "Butit'sallSafatore'sfaultIcan'tstopthinking…"
She walked for a while with a bitter look on her face. What an unlucky person she was. Upon realizing this, she diverted her thoughts to her previous conversation with Safatore an hour before. Safatore, the tall, majestic, and proud aristocrat of an elf, had come to her with smiles and good looks, boggled her mind with weird words, and then left her staring at his back. Well, ha! From what he told her, Saka was no black sheep. He was the devil incarnate. Complicated.
"Ifcomplicatedevendescribeshim.Butwhymysoul?!"
Well. He was most certainly different. April had a hard time processing how exactly he tied his soul to hers, like, the specific specifics. And for some reason, she felt like there was something odd that had happened during her death period that she didn't know about or couldn't remember.
But the lingering feeling was there.
She glanced at him.
Saka.
The guy was just too handsome! It was as if when the creator made him, he gave him half of all the beauty in the world and refused to share. April wondered whether he was born that ghostly pale, or something happened to him… just like how something definitely must have happened to his left arm. His gray eyes were not cold. They were like storm clouds. With the trembling shards as lightning bolts. Believe it or not, the girl was starting to feel less and less terrible about being soul-tied to him.
Who wouldn't?
"Heisababe!" She thought before she cleared her throat. "I-Imean, abane!"
All in all, the journey to their destination; the end of the forest, took about three days. Yes, it was mind-numbing because of the same view and yes, it was precarious since everything in it was deadly. April had to learn that the hard way.
There was a moment they came upon a mighty horse with a hide as black as coal and sheen. It had a long dragging tail and a mane with blue, yellow, and pink hairs and a long, intimidating but beautiful silver horn on its forehead. April nearly vomited rainbows when she realized she was looking at a real-life unicorn!
"Get away from that beast."
Saka had grimly warned her to stay away from the beautiful horse. She had ignorantly dismissed his warning by saying she was good with horses.
"This is no beast. It's a special horse. I got this…"
She did not got this.
"You're a special horse." Saka had growled and walked off while she was just staring at it, not anticipating her to actually go to it.
The creature looked calm as she slowly approached it. The other elves were walking ahead, oblivious to the girl's actions. When she came close enough to stroke its snout, the unicorn's pink eyes changed color to red and the animal went berserk. It started shooting rainbow lasers at the girl and it never missed. She ended up receiving nine laser wounds on her body and they hurt like crap!
Of course, thanks to the mysterious Healiomorphosis all elves possessed to be able to heal in a few seconds, she recovered from the physical burns. What left a burn forever on her heart was the cruel fact that unicorns were not the whimsical beauties as portrayed in fairytales. They were crazy mindless beasts! April should have turned and run but no! Again, curiosity had to take the better of her.
Now she was scarred for life! Yes, the physical burns had indeed healed, but she spent the rest of the journey shivering in Saka's arms, too scared to open her eyes. In the late evening, they set up camp by a cliff situated right at the edge of Linwood.
When the dawn of the fourth day came and crimson lights painted the morning skies in the eastern direction, the elven group woke up from their campsite.
That cliff they had decided to turn into their bed turned out to be the opposite side of another cliff. Together, those two walls facing each other formed a vast chasm. A ravine leading down into a valley. April felt a sudden dread grasp at her heart when she leaned over the edge to look. Vertigo attacked her and she stumbled back.
Safatore looked pensively around before he pointed to the far right.
"There. That's our way across."
April looked and was engulfed in an irrational amount of fear.
"That rope bridge is how we cross this wide chasm of certain death?"
She gulped.
Semacoar chuckled and answered in a carefree tone:
"Yep. We better hurry, too. Xander is on the other side."
They advanced the object, April whimpering behind. When they reached it, Safatore walked naturally across it, almost as if he was traversing across a rock-solid bridge or as of he trusted in a certain ability to fly, followed closely by Akka, Eon, and Semacoar. When April's turn came, she froze. Saka, who had suffered greatly due to her ignorance and arrogance when he warned her about the unicorn, prodded her from behind.
"Hey. Move it!"
The girl's heels dug into the ground, and she grabbed onto the support beams of the bridge, breathing laboriously.
He nudged her again.
"I said move!"
"I can't!" she squealed.
This little noise attracted the ones in front.
"What's going on back there?" Safatore asked.
April tensed as Saka tried to push her onto the bridge.
"She's being melodramatic."
"I can't cross this thing! I'm afraid of heights…"
"You won't fall off. I'm right behind you."
But no matter how comforting the last words were supposed to be, they still came out of an angry mouth, hot and commanding.
"Please stop pushing her," Safatore begged Saka with an exasperated sigh. "April, you can conquer your fear and cross almost as easy as I did."
It was easy for him to say that. He was not the girl who had spent almost eighteen years trapped in an orphanage, getting more and more afraid of things. The truth is, even though April used to effortlessly climb all the trees inside the San Adelle compound, she had an inner fear of slipping and falling. That is why she only climbed when Hiroko was nearby when she was sure he would be able to catch her. But this guy, Saka…
Did he say he would be right behind her? Well, she didn't trust him any more than she trusted this bridge not to snap at any moment and send them all plummeting into the abyss down below.
"I'm not going. Let's… let's find another way across… a less precarious and less wobbly way that isn't suspended over a bottomless valley."
But then out of an unexpected turn of events, Saka slowly exhaled and said:
"I'm not going to let you fall."
He paused as April turned back to face him with reddening cheeks. There was a long moment of silence before she whispered:
"Is that a promise?"
"If you die, I die."
Was that it? Blind trust? Was that what it was like to submit to someone's promise without knowing what would happen? She didn't want to be a burden and cost them another day.
In a minute, she found herself slowly traversing across the meter-wide rope bridge. It swayed awkwardly with every step she took. Ahead of her and Saka, the rest of the elves had long reached the other side of the chasm and we're watching patiently as the two approached at turtle speed.
April took her fifteenth step and heard the old wood creak underneath her foot. Yes, she was counting.
"Don't look down." Saka firmly said right behind her.
"Is it… is it breaking?"
Saka delayed for a bit and then answered:
"...No."
They went on like that for a few more minutes, April taking in deep breaths and trying her best not to look down while Saka made it a little harder than it was supposed to be with his warnings and instructions and such.
"Once you slip I can't save you."
"O-o-okay..? Can you hold me?"
"No."
Right below them was a sheer kilometer drop into a thin line of a river running through the middle of the valley. From this height, April could still hear the muffled sound of rapidly rushing water… somehow. And with every step she took, the thought of a plank snapping kept creeping into her mind.
Eventually, her worst fears came true.
They were in the middle of the rope bridge.
Saka was just finishing telling her:
"Do not to have any heavy thoughts…"
When she took an uncertain step. A sudden crack appeared. The board broke and she slipped through.
"Argh!"
April shrieked before her whole body suddenly stopped falling. She opened her eyes and found her delicate arm clasped inside the gray hand of Saka's left arm. He had caught her right before she passed the limits of his reach. But to do so he had to lie in an awkward position on his front side. His foot was entangled in a rope behind, his right hand grabbed tightly on a rope and his cheek was smooshed against his fist. His eyes were full of complicated emotions ranging from rage to worry.
With his left hand grabbing onto April's wrist, he couldn't move.
"You unlucky little brat…"
Semacoar tried to go back to the rope bridge to help but Eon stopped him:
"With your added weight the whole thing might just snap."
The blonde nervously exhaled and stepped back.
"Saka!" Safatore called. "Are you okay?"
April, tears bubbling in her eyes, shrieked:
"We're not okay!"
But the whitehead just groaned and mumbled:
"You've already died once before. Stop fussing."
April whimpered in his grasp.
"No. No, pull me up. Pull me up! I'm starting to feel nauseous!"
The weird muscles in his gray arm contracted and bulged. They produced a grinding metal sound as they did. Watching this, a thought hit April.
"Metal…"
He had a metal arm! That meant her suspicions were spot on! Not that they were important at that moment.
She caught a glimpse of the ropes of the supports tightening. One of them snapped.
April squealed:
"The rope is breaking. Saka!"
The boy's face reddened, and he said through a strained growl:
"One natural disaster at a time…"
"Saka, the rope's gonna give!" they heard Semacoar shout.
"Thanks…"
Saka bit on his lower lip and pulled April up, who could also feel the force of his teeth on her lip through the blasted bond. Somehow, defying all laws of physics, Saka pulled April up and onto the rope bridge with a single arm. He stood her up as he did too and gave her a dazzling triumphant scowl.
…but knowing how delicate rope bridges are, and guessing that that particular rope bridge had seen better days, all the supporting ropes snapped, sending the two falling into the ravine.
"No!"
"April!"
"Saka!" The other elves cried.
…Clutching tightly around his torso, April screamed in hysteria as they fell below.
Saka caught a rope in his hand and suddenly came to a jerking stop. They immediately swung toward the wall of the chasm and smacked! Saka used it to stop himself. April slid down his limbs, clawing at them and causing a strange expression on Saka's face. He looked down at the girl after she stopped slipping. She was clutching right next to his…
She let out a terrified cry.
"Ah! We're gonna die…!"
Saka rolled his eyes and grunted, working on pulling himself up along with the girl.
Eon, Akka, Semacoar, and Safatore's faces were gazing down at them from the edge of the cliff, shocked expressions painted over their canvases.
The whitehead reached the edge within a few seconds. He grabbed April by the shoulder, peeled her from his thigh, and thrust her like a mannequin over to the top. He eventually pulled himself up and found purchase on solid ground. With her eyes closed, April felt a hand grab her arm and stand her up. She opened her eyes and found everyone surrounding her, staring.
They had complicated looks on their faces. But suddenly, Saka began to laugh.
It was the most moving and melodious enchantment April had ever heard. It was hearty and playful, loud and full of joy and life. It was a shocking thing to come out of him! Very scary. But he continued laughing. Eventually, everyone joined him and laughed.
April was so… lost…
He suddenly stopped and said with a stern face:
"If I ever die because of this twerp, all of you are coming with me. You hear me?"
The others who had been abruptly cut off from their laughing suddenly choked on their laughter, turning pale.
"Good. Let's move."
He brushed past Akka and walked off.
April stared at his figure in awe as they followed behind.
Why of all people did she have to get soul-tied to him? He was the scariest creature April had ever laid eyes upon. Forget the surface beauty and look at the rage and killing intent hidden under his gray eyes!
"Whoisthisguy… andwhyishe… actingsocool?!"
April squinted, feeling bamboozled and confused.
A range of sharp mountain peaks was ahead of the group, hiding the imminent sunrise behind them.
April glanced behind to the spot where the once rickety bridge stood. Only its beams were left. She felt a cold shiver run up her spine forcing her to scarper to the front of the group.
"Don'tlookback… Justlooktowardthefuture… whereyou'restuckwith…"
Saka suddenly grunted.
"Damnit! Can you stop thinking so much?!"
The rest of the group paused and looked at April who was frozen, her face turning purple with horror. He heard her. He heard that!