The hike was… regretful. As in Kate immediately regretted her decision. Why would anyone take off their shoes while climbing rocks? The flesh of her toe smothered an angled rock. The rock played rock-paper-scissors and Kate had attacked with 'warm breeze'.
Kate strangled her yowl. Pain throbbed inside her foot but she kept walking only for her foot to land on a rock whose shape bent her toes in new and interest ways. She caught the scream and beat back the yowl, but the grunt of a 70 year old man escaped through her nose.
Eric, many steps ahead, turned as if they'd heard a gunshot. He stopped and waited, watching as her joyous hobbling became firm walking. Kate wasn't even sure what deserved her ire more, him or her pride.
Only it wasn't a pride issue it was a first impression issue. And bad first impressions could spread like a wild fire. It had happened before and she'd rather bleed out than have it happen again but…
She swallowed down all sounds and they walked together.
"You know," Kate began.
The work to keep smooth and calm, tremendous.
"You never answered me either of you."
"Oh, I know." He said, subtly gaining speed.
Was he torturing her? Testing her? Well, she wasn't about to fail, not with something so simple. Her little probe had failed.
That hurt.
"You guys together?" Kate asked, blunt as a hammer.
That brought the walk to a halt.
"And by that I mean sex."
Somehow that actually worked to ease their minds and they happily kept walking again.
"Not for lack of trying." Sakura said.
"It doesn't work that way." He said.
"It does, I promise it does." Sakura said to him.
To Kate's surprise, Sakura started punching him. They were 'girl punches', her arms awkwardly placed, elbows bouncing around, her fist basically a mace. It was something to see, but also a massive lie.
Kate had long ago convinced herself that Sakura was smoother than she pretending to be but what she was looking at was unique. Who was the current show for?
They're always watching.
Sakura fought until he shook her, making her scream.
"So you try to Zenith together then?" Kated asked.
They remembered Kate's existence and both shrugged.
"Ya du what ya cain really."
"We more willing to help each other out to get there. In some ways more than others." Sakura said, refusing to let something go.
It would have been adorable were Kate not so overloaded. Then they reached the top. And Kate's jaw hit the ground.
There, apparently, had been a God who'd dropped His axe on the building because there was a gap in the structure. It was shaped like a thin pizza slice, reaching at least thirty floors in a waterfall. But really that wasn't a waterfall, because the water wasn't falling, it was being thrown! It gushed out the ring 'river' blasting in the air and sinking as a fog. In the water were small groups of kids bursting out to vanish into the mists.
It outshined the cages.
It outshined the beach and the mountain. It was supernatural in its beauty and calling it prohibitively expensive would never have done it justice. Kate literally wanted to weep. It was the definition of awesome! As the word had been designed.
She blinked and turned. Eric and Sakura were staring at her! Both smiling in their own way. One innocently basking in her awe, the other chuckling and her ignorance.
The bastards!
And to make it worse she'd yet to get the sales pitch, the breakdown. So much for making mother proud.
But! It wasn't fair! Well… yes… she'd said 'Try to impress me. Take me anywhere' and had her word rocked so hard her body wanted to go on business on its own. She had to hold herself back from bowing to them for such a display.
Kate blinked, were those the Vikings? Flying right at them? Why yes, they were coming right at them flailing all the way.