[https://imgur.com/Bz6cMdV.jpg]
“I’ve been to the islands and I’ve seen the Fons Vitae, but this will always be the most beautiful place in the world to me. It was here that I decided to never give up,” Hatasuko said as fireflies flew curiously around them.
“I don’t think that Lumipyla is as wonderful as it looks. This is the city that somehow made Lazaro end up the way he is. It’s not that I’m criticizing him, um, I’m a very nonjudgmental person, but there must be something else we aren’t seeing. There’s more to this canyon than starlight and fireflies,” whispered Vaida as their vehicle rolled on.
Hatasuko glanced over the left side of the sail-rana and saw a small tree on the desert floor. It looked too little and flimsy to help them with any combat practice, but it astounded him that a tree could withstand the hard wasteland soil. Vaida quickly turned the steering wheel to the left so that their vehicle veered away from a large hole, though the ground was still very bumpy in this place. Vaida’s two swords clanged as they bounced upon each other with each bump. When the sail-rana finally rolled a safe distance from the canyon ledge, the desert became flat and smooth. The wind started to steadily pick up, so the sail caught the wind and stole its speed. They were now traveling faster than ever before, but this also meant that Lazaro accelerated; he moved farther away with every second to pass. As they rolled by the luminous canyon of starlight and fireflies, Hatasuko saw that Lazaro and his sail-rana were now just a silhouette in the distance.
“Vaida, can you tell what that is? It’s huge,” Hatasuko asked, pointing up ahead.
The pulsing light of the stars and the flashes from the canyon walls illuminated a steady stream of water up ahead. The thin stream diverged around a large silhouette in the distance. The starlight reflected on the water and revealed the silhouette of a massive tree. Lazaro grabbed the sail and the foldable mast with both hands, quickly folded it in, and ultimately pulled down his mast so that his ship would roll to a stop. The sail-rana struck the stream of water before it slowed down, but the water resistance slowed him enough that he could step out into the ankle-deep water. The river then flowed quickly down a slope into the luminous valley, but the water was too shallow to carry away his vehicle. Lazaro pulled his sail-rana onto dry land and stood at the other end of the starlit stream. As soon as Vaida saw this, she folded down her own mast so that she would not have to drive into the water. As she secured the boat, Lazaro sifted through his belongings until he had everything he wanted. He left all his weapons behind.
“Hatasuko, I’m trusting you to look after my belongings. I’ll be gone for several hours, so just try to keep yourself entertained up here. I think I left a hanging log in the tree; see if you can send Vaida up there,” Lazaro yelled out from the other riverbank.
“Alright! We’ll stay right here,” Hatasuko replied as they rolled to a stop.
Lazaro let out a heavy sigh and then trudged toward Lumipyla. He stepped carefully on the downward slope beside the shallow stream of starlit water, though Hatasuko quickly turned his attention back to Vaida. Now that the boat became motionless, she stepped out of the vehicle and buckled her whip onto the back of her shirt. She pulled off her light jacket and tossed it inside the sail-rana. Hatasuko grabbed his sword and his whip from the floor, holstered them, and then climbed out onto solid ground.
[https://imgur.com/5cdwA3L.jpg]
Vaida stepped through the starlit stream as the wind shuffled her dark hair. She wore a faint smile on her face as she approached the massive tree which was entangled with vines. As soon as she came close, she charged through the flowing water at an impressive speed. She jumped up, grabbed onto two vines, and hoisted herself higher along the trunk. Hatasuko watched with a look of amazement as she quickly climbed toward the lowest branch just by using the strength in her arms. Her biceps and triceps flexed with every pull; it was clear that she had strengthened her body during the time she spent chasing the Interfecti.
When Vaida reached the large wooden branch, she quickly scrambled along it until she reached a black log. The black log was hooked onto a rope which enwrapped the thick tree branch. She threw the log down so that it spun around the branch, and when it swung back to her, she caught it and threw it again. This process repeated several times until the log swung low enough that they could strike it from the ground.
“Do you think we’ll be able to hit it from there?” Vaida asked, though the shallow river nearly drowned out her quiet voice.
Hatasuko stepped into the cool water and unsheathed his sword from the holster on his back. His whip was still looped around and pinned to the back of his shirt. When he walked up to the hanging log, he lunged forward, suddenly crouched, and unleashed a swift slash with his sword. It struck the black log, broke off a small scrap of bark, and sent the log swinging around at a high speed. When it swung back at him, he blocked it with his left forearm.
“Yep, it looks like this will work well! This is such a cool idea!” Hatasuko raved.
“You really think so? Thank you,” she said with a beautiful smile.
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Vaida closed her eyes as she smiled. Since the wind blew her hair completely behind her head, Hatasuko could see that her burn scars went all the way up to her hairline. Though the scars left with an asymmetric face, he found her captivating in a way that danced between mysterious and gorgeous. But as he gazed upon scars, he failed to notice when her eyes finally fell open. Her sea-green eye stared at nothingness, but her blue eye caught him staring, so she quickly turned her head and hid her scars.
“I’m sorry! I wasn’t staring, I was just deep in thought. I really need to work on that,” Hatasuko said.
“Don’t apologize. I, um, I noticed that it’s natural for people to stare at my scars. I hate it, but I don’t think people even realize they’re doing it. I just wish I wasn’t so hideous, or that my scars were only skin deep," Vaida mumbled with a timid voice that barely pierced the sound of the splashing stream.
“I really wish you weren’t so down on yourself. I know this probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but I think you look really pretty,” Hatasuko replied.
Vaida gazed away and answered, “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t believe you. I’ve seen my own reflection and accepted the reality. I don’t hate my scars just because I’m ugly; I hate my scars because they are my curse. They are a constant burning reminder of everything I’ve lost. But it doesn’t matter. I will use what little life is left in this stained body to take down the Interfecti.”
Hatasuko was caught off guard by this statement. He wanted to give her a sense of self-assurance that could crush her despair, but she had probably tried and failed to do this same thing a thousand times. Furthermore, Hatasuko knew that he had no talent for erasing the emptiness inside anyone; he could not even erase the emptiness inside himself.
Vaida suddenly pushed off the tree branch and landed in the silty stream of flowing water, but she landed with a heavy crash. She fell and smacked onto the ground on her side. The cool water flowed over her hair and skin, but she tried to climb out of the water as quickly as possible. There was already a bruise forming on her right arm, though it partially camouflaged with her scars.
[https://imgur.com/bS9I1gV.jpg]
“I didn’t realize that the ground was so far away. Sometimes it’s hard to judge distances with just one eye. I always make myself look like an idiot,” she mumbled as she stared down at the starlit stream.
“You’re no idiot. I remember what you said about the sail-rana tipping over, and you also made the hanging log. You’re really quiet, but I know you’re brilliant,” Hatasuko said as he slashed the hanging log again.
As soon as Hatasuko glanced back at Vaida, he saw through the starlight that her face adopted a slight reddish hue. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was open with a smile, but she hid her face behind her hands as soon as she saw him. When she pulled her hands away from her face, she had suppressed her smile, but a rosy shade remained on her cheeks.
“Damn, this girl is insanely cute,” Hatasuko muttered silently to himself.
“Thank you… thank you. I, um, I don’t mean to sound petty, but I’m actually the one who invented the sail-rana! I designed and made the first one, but Lazaro made a second one and took all the credit. He sold the idea to an inventor and used the money to finance our travels. That’s what he says, anyway,” Vaida explained as she unhooked the whip from the holster on the back of her shirt.
Hatasuko raved with radiant astonishment, “Really? Vaida, that’s so cool! It is an impressive vehicle, probably better than anything else in Agrideī, and you must have made it when you were really young. Do you know how awesome that is?!”
Vaida opened her mouth, and her face turned red once again. Hatasuko saw a flash of happiness in both her blue eye and her dead sea-green eye, but then she turned her face so that she stared at the Lumipyla canyon. Hatasuko smiled at first as he saw her reaction, but his joy started to fade when he realized the reason for her reaction – that she had probably not received an actual compliment in a very long time. As he watched his timid friend, she turned her head again and started running toward the hanging log.
Vaida had to run carefully because she could not see the surface of the ground beneath the flowing stream. She started to veer at the last moment, but then she swung her strong right arm and unleashed a high-speed whip-crack. The tip shot forward and struck the hanging long with a huge burst of black bark. The impact sent the log flying toward Hatasuko; he barely blocked it with a swift slash of his sword. The impact of his slash then knocked the hanging log back toward Vaida at a high speed, but then she jumped into the air and unleashed a flying kick. The log swung again very swiftly, so Hatasuko threw himself aside and then slashed it from behind with a quick sword strike. The log bounced up into air and then came flying back down at him, so he swiftly struck it again to knock it aside. He then spun around to make sure that he could block it before it swung back around, but he could not see it anywhere.
“Whoa, where did it go?” Hatasuko asked with wide eyes.
When Hatasuko looked up, he realized that he could hear the log flying toward him from behind. Vaida suddenly unleashed her whip with incredible speed and cracked it in the air; Hatasuko immediately grabbed it. She yanked backward with both arms and jerked him out of the way, right before the log would have struck him on the back of his head. However, the force of the pull brought Hatasuko to his knees, so he crashed and rolled through the shallow starlit stream. Vaida tossed her whip onto dry land and ran toward Hatasuko with a worried look. He laughed as he stumbled onto his feet. Shimmering drops of water fell from his golden hair.
“Are you okay? I shouldn’t have pulled so hard, I’m sorry,” she said with a shaky voice.
“No, Vaida, you’ve got great instincts! You’ve got a talent for saving people.”
“Maybe, but I’m only good at this because Lazaro taught me. He’s great at pulling people away from the edge of death. It makes me feel bad because sometimes I think I’m doing this for all the wrong reasons. I really want to get revenge on the Interfecti. I, um… you and I are a lot alike in that way. But I also think that’s why we’re condemned to always stand in his shadow – because he doesn’t waste time on frivolity like revenge.”
“It may be frivolous, and it may seem impossible, but I know that it’s my destiny to end the Interfecti. I have to do it. If they are still alive at the end of my life, then it means that my existence was pointless,” Hatasuko replied as stepped to the edge of the shimmering stream.
[https://imgur.com/ZRxJl6y.jpg]
Author's note: This chapter still has one more part; it will be posted soon!