44. I left The Sleeping Beauty on a tree

Night had fallen for some hours, and I was still empty-handed.

An owl howled. I kept going forward.

How did the jury expect us to find anything in that pitch-black jungle? I would have brought a flashlight if I had known. Oh, but I wouldn’t have been allowed to keep it, since it was an electronic device. So bothersome.

Still, so funny.

I had never been in a jungle at night. That was thrilling. I bet Linah would have liked it as well.

As I kept going forward, avoiding roots, giant flowers, and thorny branches, I remembered what Azritz had told me once: ‘Trees in Farskyer grow absorbing particles from the yellow Nyomin Crystal: it’s said that, before the Big Blend, oaks weren’t that sticky, ashes weren’t spiky, coniferous didn’t use webs to catch their prey, maples weren’t furry as they are now, and flesh trees didn’t exist.’ Sometimes I wondered if Azritz was more of a botanist than a power-holder researcher. Wait, maybe trees also could experience quirks?

I was thinking about stopping my useless searching and wait until morning when I saw a blue, feeble glimmer between the leaves. I went closer. The thing that was emanating light was a crystal similar to the Nyomin Crystal, but much smaller: I think it was barely as tall as me —maybe a tip of one of the Nyomin Crystal’s roots? In the shadow of a tree, two silhouettes were facing each other.

“Fox, you bastard!” one of them said. “We agreed that, if we found an extra ribbon of the same color, we would give it to the other. Don’t start backpedaling! You have two red ribbons, give me one!”

“But now that you have a yellow one, I’d feel stupid if I didn’t snatch it from you, you know. Sorry, Harlow.”

I widened my eyes as I saw the guy called Fox brusquely brandishing a stick. He hit his companion, who let out a scream of pain and astonishment as he fell to his knees. Fox raised one of his boots and pushed Harlow’s head down on the ground with it. Harlow screamed.

“S-S-Stop,” he whined, “I thought we were friends!”

“You know you aren’t good enough, Harlow. You heard the Bloody Cook: if you can’t fend for yourself, just go home.” He pressed his boot as he went on: “When you said you wanted to become a Hero, I didn’t laugh at you out of pity. Give me your yellow ribbon, Harlow, and at least you will be able to say to our classmates: I was there with Fox, an elite trainee for the WHO. Or were you thinking you could surpass me? You’re a weakling. Stop crying already!”

I swallowed as a sobbing Harlow opened his clenched fist and let Fox have the yellow ribbon. Fox released the poor guy, saying:

“Don’t blame me for this. It’s a test. We were told to act like that. I’ll give you my extra ribbon, as promised.”

He took out his two red ribbons, gave Harlow one, and as he was tying the other two, the ribbons suddenly slipped from his hands and flew towards me. I grabbed them, deactivate my telekinesis, and stood up from behind the bush I had been hiding in.

“What the hell just happened?!” Fox shouted. “My ribbons!”

I was in the shadows, and they probably couldn’t see me clearly. I still yelled recklessly at them:

“Yo! The ribbons don’t like it when their owner is an evil scoundrel, so I’ll take over from now on. Good evening!”

I made a run for it.

* * *

As the morning was making its way into the forest, I found a tall blond girl lying on the ground, screaming uncontrollably. She was the one who had asked Gilda about the wild animals. I rushed toward her.

“What’s the matter?!”

“H-Help! Aaaargh! Help!”

I crouched by her side, trying to guess what was wrong with her, when suddenly the girl’s hand gagged me and I heard a fizzling sound. I drew away as the girl stood up just fine and ran away. A white gas had flown from her hand. I raised an eyebrow. That vixen. Was the gas supposed to knock me out? I had no idea. It had no smell at all. But considering she had run away, she was most certainly planning to return.

My telekinesis power sure was useful, but I had a way better power in my hands: I was dead. A sleeping gas didn’t affect me in the least.

After some inner deliberation, I staggered on my knees, then collapsed on my back.

I didn’t wait long. Soon, I heard footsteps approaching, then a giggle.

“Well, well, a blond like me, and he’s quite handsome at that, such a waste. Let’s see if you have something on you.”

I had left my eyes slightly opened on purpose and saw her kneel beside me. Was she gonna search my body? That didn’t look like something a Hero would do… Ashooka had guessed right. The nature of this test was wrong. First, it had forced two friends to fight over some ribbons, then that pretty blond to deceive people in such an underhanded manner. It was as though the Heroes wanted to make us do evil things.

“Oh! What a good catch! A red one, at last!”

Crap! Since I couldn’t sense her hands, I had forgotten she was searching my pockets. Pulling my two ribbons, she took out a small ring made out of stems. I almost gasped when I saw it. There were five yellow ribbons and two blue ones. How many people did she have to trick to get so many ribbons?

She tied the red one on the ring, took the yellow one, then put it back into my pocket. Was she feeling guilty or something? Anyway, she inadvertently touched my hand and paused. I directed my deathforce there. Ray had taught me how to do it. I had spent those last three weeks training both my telekinesis and my core, even skipping school for that. I could sense temperature if I concentrated enough. At this instant, I could feel the warmth on the girl’s hand.

“Cold,” she whispered. “Isn’t he… too cold?”

I remembered I had taken off my gloves during the night, trying to feel my way with my hands, with little success. I had forgotten to slip them on again.

Anyway, the sleeping-gas girl was panicking as she laid her head on my chest, thinking perhaps I was dead—which was true. Geez… Between Ray, Arkill, and the Lord, they had taught me how to fake a heartbeat, but I still couldn’t do it without absorbing a large amount of lifeforce. Well, I could eat the girl’s lifeforce but… I decided to solve the problem in a faster way.

I didn’t want to fight her. I grabbed her ring of ribbons with my power, taking advantage of her panic. I made it fly upwards: the sleeping-gas girl’s attention suddenly switched.

“Th-the ribbons! What’s going on?”

She stood up. Since she thought I was unconscious, she didn’t imagine I was the one controlling the ring. She tried to catch it, but it was too high now. I made it go up to a tree and lay it on a high branch.

Not knowing what was going on, the girl scanned the place, then began to climb up the tree. When she was about to reach the ring, I made it fall then drew it towards me. I stood up and snatched the ring full of ribbons with a grin.

“Thank you so much, Sleeping Beauty.”

Perched on the branch, the girl opened her eyes in amazement.

“No way! You were supposed to be unconscious!”

“Take care!”

I was going to leave when, suddenly, I heard a rustle in the bushes and a voice saying:

“Are you going to leave without even knowing if she can climb down the tree?”

A silver-haired girl calmly stepped forward. I widened my eyes.

“Nina!”

I was glad to see she was all right. She stopped before me.

“Trees are dangerous. If she falls from that height, she will die.”

Was she scolding me? I rubbed my neck.

“Ah… But I did it so I could avoid fighting her, you know. Plus, she’s quite agile.”

Well, I said that, but the Sleeping Beauty was still up the tree and was having trouble getting down. I grimaced.

“Sorry.” Good grief, it was the second time I apologized to Nina today. But what exactly was I apologizing for? I sighed. “That girl tricked me, so I guess I wanted to trick her back. Should we help her?”

“Mm,” Nina nodded.

But how? I looked up. The blond girl was hugging a thick branch.

“Curse you!” she yelled. “Just when I got the three ribbons! You won’t get away with that! Besides, how did you even manage to fool my sleeping gas?”

“I didn’t breathe, that’s why.” Because I didn’t need to.

“But you were supposed to be caught by surprise!”

I glanced at Nina, then said:

“Hey! Why don’t you try to get down? You climbed up so fast—”

“I’m trying to!”

“No, you’re clearly not.”

“Djiaaaaah!” she moaned. “It’s because I’m afraid of heights, you idiot!”

As she confessed that, she began swearing a blue streak. I stretched my lips into a painful smile—even I was embarrassed.

“Aah… She looked so refined at first.”

“Armen.”

I turned to Nina. The silver girl was holding out a hand.

“Give me a ribbon.”

I blinked.

“Okay.”

I gave her a yellow one. She approved with a nod and looked up at the rude blond sleeping-gas monkey on the branch.

“Now it’s all right!” she said. “You can get down.”

I didn’t quite get why, and it seemed that the girl up there didn’t either. Nina explained:

“Fate is contagious. If I’m lucky, then you should be lucky too. You won’t die.”

“How could I buy that?!” the blond girl shouted from the high branch.

Nina sighed.

“It can’t be helped.” She turned to me again. “Armen. Give me two ribbons.”

I looked her in the eye. Could a power that brought luck really exist? Anyway, I gave her the whole ring with the ribbons.

“There. If I give you that, that would mean that, even if she tripped and fell, she wouldn’t die, right?”

Nina was slow to take the ring. When she did, she looked up at the blond girl with even more determination.

“You can get down safely! But you’ll have to make a promise!”

“A promise? What promise?”

“That you won’t attack us with your power when you get to the ground.”

I heard the monkey-girl snort, but she agreed, and after many struggles, encouragements, screams, curses, and worries, she finally came down, her arms covered with grazes.

“I’m beat…” she grumbled, falling to her knees. “Anyway, you, the silver girl, shouldn’t you run away now that you tricked that guy?”

Tricked? Nina had tricked me? I turned to Nina. She looked as puzzled as me.

“I don’t trick people,” she replied. “If I do bad things, I’m unlucky.”

Eeh, that was how it worked? So weird. Anyway, it had never occurred to me that Nina could have been trying to snatch my ribbons. Fortunately, it wasn’t the case.

“Armen,” Nina added. “I was a bit rude to you on the bus. I’ll give you a ribbon so you can forgive me. Here.”

She gave me the red ribbon. I cleared my throat.

“Nina… Does that mean that you’re going to keep the whole ring?”

“Ah, no, I’ll only take the ribbons I need. I already have one.”

She took out a blue ribbon from her pocket. For some reason, I felt like something was off. Then it dawned on me.

“Nina. Why did you give me the only red ribbon we have then?”

The silver-haired girl frowned.

“Oh. That’s because… I wanted you to forgive me.”

What?! She was letting me have the three ribbons just like that? Was she an angel? So she was only going to take a yellow ribbon and let me win before her… I shook my head.

“I can’t do that. Let me help you get a red one, then we’ll head to the base together.”

She was surprised.

“Why would you help me?”

“Yeah, why would you help her?” the tall blond girl echoed, standing up. “It’s just doesn’t make sense. We’re competing. It’s not like I have anything against you guys, but I’ll be breaking my promise.”

She lunged at us with her palms wide open. She immediately released a curl of white gas. I cursed under my breath and yelled:

“Run, Nina!”