The winds whistled and swished the tent. The girls kept themselves quiet, their feet were throbbing and stepping on imaginary razors. It felt like to them that Usheniko would kick the woman out for intruding without appointment. If so, they were ready to act upon measures of protecting their friend, and such a thing might happen—only in their heads.

It occurred otherwise. Inside the tent came laughter and cheers, which got the duo petrified for a moment. They then walked to the drapes and took a peek inside.

Usheniko was sobbing. She hugged Azukunika, her tears streamed along the latter’s robes. She held her so tightly that Azukunika could turn into mush. An unexpected sight.

“Azukunika, my precious daughter! You are here, oh my goodness! I miss you so much... how have you been in your time at prison? Good, okay, bad? I thought you were dead for good! You still haven’t told me to why you were arrested, for I only heard about your sentence! I should have been there for you when you were hurting yourself. I have returned and settled in this village for a year so far, so I have to know what’s up. Don’t worry my dear, our family is calling for you to come back, although they are far away! That’s why I am saving up money so that I can visit them with you! Why, have you changed your hair color? Silver into black, that’s pretty cool! God, you always tie your hair in a braid, and now you let it loose! But nonetheless, how come you are here now? Did the Holy Army decide to let you go?”

Azukunika bowed halfway as an answer to all her questions. Her ‘mother’ continued to embrace her until she ran out of breath. Usheniko then took her to the bookshelf and let Azukunika browse through the contents, each of them Azukunika gave nothing but groans. Upon the spectacle, the duo could barely believe this, they thought they were dreaming. They backed away from the tent and chuckled with shaky voices.

“Um Neha, did that witch just call the woman ‘my precious daughter?’” Sachen’s arms and legs stiffened. “Let me guess. It must be that Usheniko is a mother?!”

Neha yelped, a series of pulses crammed her brain. “W-what? You can’t presume that so quickly!”

“I remember Usheniko saying that she is in her thirties, and that she was once married to a man that had died. This is odd, I have never heard that she has a kid. That’s kind of cute that she has one! And her kid is that tall? She must be twenty years old or something.”

“We shouldn’t interfere though. If they are meeting each other once again, then all is good right?”

“Right...”

“So let us move on from that. They are family, and we cannot jump into their affairs.”

“Geez, I just want to know about them, especially the part about Azukunika being in prison. Hmm, I’m starting to believe that Usheniko is harboring more things in the darkness, and that’s why she is conspiring with the demons in the underworld-”

Neha clamped Sachen’s lips. “Don’t worry Sachen. Maybe we’ll find out later.”

“R-roger that.”

Neha freed her lips, and Sachen took a breather. As Usheniko and Azukunika conversed, the girls’ curiosity grew. They wondered what had happened between the two, but for now, they diverted their focus away from it since it began to boggle their minds.

The girls wandered to the eastern district. The school was closed, and the flag continued to fly upon the flagpole. Across the school, clinks and clanks from the blacksmith’s workshop flinched the girls, the sounds crept up to their necks. Stopping herself, Sachen crossed her arms and looked around for a while. She then gasped.

“Neha, I got something that both of us can do! We can go to the forest of the east, and hang out at the river!”

“T-the river? Isn’t that where we are not supposed to go? Because I heard that it’s dangerous, there might be bears and leeches.”

“Since I am a strong girl, I’ll protect you from those beasts.” Sachen patted Neha’s shoulders. “You don’t have to worry a bit, because we’re going to just have fun.”

“I’m not sure…”

“Come on Neha, we’re only going to be there for a couple of hours. I got your back, so just have fun okay?”

Her head shaking, Neha flushed. She flopped her lips and tried to say yes or no to her friend. It seemed difficult to choose. They had not ventured in the forest for a while, so the potential of them getting into danger was great. Neha wanted the both of them to go home, so as to appease their parents and prevent them from questioning their whereabouts, the latter being a child’s worst nightmare. But by the seconds, Sachen thrilled, she became too excited to ignore.

The smile from Sachen wrapped Neha into a bind. Soon she locked in her answer.

“Okay Sachen, I will go with you.”

Sachen’s sides tickled all the sudden. “Really?! Thanks, you’re the best Neha, hehe!” She then squeezed Neha. “Let’s go right now!”

“But we’re only going out for a couple of hours. I don’t want to get in trouble with our parents.”

“Understood!”

Sachen dragged Neha to the end of the eastern district. Before them was a gate; it was in fact, part of a single wall that encircled the perimeter of the village. Rumor had it that the wall had stood for centuries, none of the villagers knew who built it. Upon the discovery that the material was mainly concrete, the forefathers of the village flabbergasted, they couldn’t believe that a material like concrete existed. They were unable to replicate it within their production; but then they came to believe that the heavens had already built the protection they needed for their settlement.

At the place, a pair of guards from the Holy Army was patrolling the area. Staying there day and night, with their chins high and their eyes hawking at everything, they let nothing in their way. Although the personnel rotated every now and then, they remained on guard, and the girls deemed passing through them impossible. But today was their lucky day.

Panting and dying to remove their armors, the guards slumped at the wall. They chatted for a while, before they succumbed to nods and snores. Without the will to work for the rest of the hours, they let their guard down. Sachen pumped her fist and smirked, Neha sucked on her own lips.

“We should ask permission from them, you know… hey, wait!”

Sachen zipped by Neha and stumbled to the doors of the wall. Panicking, Neha caught up to her friend, she then grabbed her shoulders. The two girls lurched at the doors, and Sachen watched her sides left and right; she confirmed that the guards were still sleeping. With sweat covering her eyelids, Sachen slipped off, along with Neha. They made it to the other side, their chests quivered and softened in relief. The forest before them, they made way for the area that they had visited on occasions.

The scent of pine trees sharpened the air and stung the girls’ lungs. Leaves and twigs buried their feet, those things pricked their skin so hard that they could shed dead skin faster than a snake. Along the way, squirrels and dragonflies flocked around them and begged for company with their squeaks and buzzes. Neha giggled, while Sachen swatted them away from their path. The animals scurried off. Much to their surprise, the trees reached so high to the clouds that they could pierce the heavens and cover the sky in green. Goodness, if they were to climb on the trees, then they might have the capability to touch the clouds.

They journeyed deeper. Around them, the trees packed close to each other, with their branches coiling and twisting together. They cast a huge umbrella of shade, so it cooled off the girls in the warm weather of August. As they walked, the place seemed to last forever as though that was all the world could offer; there must be a boundary somewhere far, although under any circumstances could they reach it anyway.

The girls halted. They glanced at the area ahead of them. Slicing the earth in half, the river washed along the surface a couple of stray logs and pebbles. The water splashed and crashed on the soil, droplets sprang towards the girls and iced their bodies. The two of them cheered.

Sachen submerged her feet on the water, and goosebumps hatched on her skin. “It’s so cold!”

“I know right?” Neha dipped her toes before sinking her legs in. “I mean, after a while, you start to get used to it… but goodness, it’s chilling my feet!”

“Then let’s make you even colder, hehe!” Sachen lowered her body, and with open hands, she splashed water towards Neha.

“D-don’t do that too suddenly Sachen! Hmm... I’ll do it to you too! Take this!”

Drawing a distance and flaring their faces with scowls, the two girls paddled water at each other. Neha slowly dipped her hands and launched a large scoop. For Sachen, she splashed the surface to no end, creating a torrent. As Neha was getting close to her, Sachen tracked back and accelerated her firepower, and by then, Sachen managed to soak Neha’s tunics. Neha lowered her shoulders, her teeth were rattling.

“What are you waiting for Neha? Drench me, before you’ll lose!”

Sachen’s hands grew numb, but she kept on going. Neha stood there, she waited until her friend ran out of strength, albeit getting more drenched than ever. Then at the right moment, Sachen let loose of her arms; veins brightened and pulsated on her skin. An idea from the top of her head, Neha made a counter. She ran to her friend and opened her arms, squeezing her as to not let her slip away. Neha laughed.

“I got you Sachen! My clothes are wet and heavy, so you’re also soaked like me! I guess it’s a lose-lose situation…”

Sachen puffed her cheeks and averted her eyes. “I cannot accept this as defeat! You were the one who got drenched first! Hmph, I shall have my revenge Neha!”

Knowing that it was fun and games, the duo smiled, for at the end of the day they just wanted to have a good time with each other, no harm done. They messed up their clothes anyhow, which could soon make them susceptible to the common cold and the scoldings of their parents. They stepped out of the river, wrung their tunics and pants, and twisted their hair.

The girls still had a lot of energy, so they made the most of their time in the forest. They gathered a bunch of pine cones and showered them over their heads. The cones being stuck on their hair, they grabbed twigs and put them on top of their lips, impersonating the guards at the gate; they grunted and flexed their arms, their laughter soon spoiled the charades. The girls took the time to hunt for flowers and flexible branches, it took them almost fifteen minutes. By the time they had their hands full of the materials, they started to make wreaths. Sachen, with her awareness of details, weaved the materials together and finished her creation in no time, she broke no sweat. As for Neha, her fingers twitched. Her gatherings fell apart, she attempted many times to fix her craft, but all her efforts left her with a sigh. She shrugged, but she acknowledged that she could try harder in the future.

The sun ascended near the horizon. The girls huffed, their bodies wore out from their fun. Neha wiped the petals off her pants and tapped Sachen on the shoulders.

“Come on Sachen, let us go home and rest.”

“Eh? It’s over that quick? Wow… whatever, at least I had fun with you Neha, that’s all it matters.”

The girls called it a day. With Sachen holding onto her wreath, they walked back to the depths of the forest. An exhaustion of their energy cost them so much that they were about to fall asleep on the spot.

Thus they were heading back to the entrance of the forest. They went rather slow, they panted and slouched their backs. Too tired to talk, too tired to run. They perspired, beads of sweat dripped through their eyelashes. Sachen was ahead while Neha was trailing behind. Something then fluttered in Neha’s chest, and it made her roll her eyes. Now some distortions from her tiredness occupied her eyes; the trees and dragonflies were duplicating, the leaves were turning into mush, and the ground seemed to be breathing. With a loosening of her head and arms, she shook the effects off. Neha moaned as Sachen was too far away for her to catch up in time.

Neha increased her pace. Before she could reach her friend, Neha exhaled too much air from her lungs. Flashes from nowhere blinded her for a few seconds. Her feet jerked forward, and she tripped on a branch; her left foot arched a little. She then fell. Hearing a thump, Sachen lurched back and rushed to her friend’s side.