A great crashing roar reverberated beneath her feet before she could even take in the splendor of the surrounds. Her pupils dilated in fear, and she whispered, attempting to find out where the sounds was coming from.
"What is that?"
The sounds beca more intense, with the loudest quake causing even the earth to tremble.
In the face of such a calamitous incident, Aletha reacted by sprinting as fast as she could, not even pausing to breathe. As Aletha strolled along the edges of the spouting geysers, the golden beams of the sun blinded her eyes.
Sure, the water was shallow, but even that presented a problem to her.
Nonetheless, as long as she kept up her pace, she would eventually catch up to the deer-antlered bull.
. . .
Only ten seconds later...
"I can’t keep running after it like this!" Aletha moaned with a glob of warm sweat trickling down her brow. "It’s too hot."
The stress of the chase overwheld her confidence, forcing her to decelerate dramatically.
Aletha hurriedly leaped over to dry land just ters away and stopped to catch her breath. She bent and hung her head, clutching her knees and exhaling heavily.
Every breath she took hurt her as though she hadn’t had any water in weeks.
And to make matters worse, the sun was shining straight on her head.
Aletha dropped onto the ground and blacked out as she dragged herself across the flower adows, seeing the deer-antlered bull almost beyond her reach.
With each thump in her heart gradually slowing down, Aletha’s vision slowly got consud by a wall of darkness until everything was engulfed.
* * * * * * *
A sudden burst of light awoke Aletha.
She was sleeping on the ground, surrounded by the thick, brilliant greenery of the flower field, with gorgeous colorful birds swooping over the heavens.
The sunlight was both comforting and hurting, but in this desperate position, only one consequence satisfied her.
"My heartbeat... is slowing down."
Aletha’s eyelids parted again a few minutes later.
She looked up and discovered she was sleeping on top of a mound of flowers beneath a gorgeous crystalline erald sky. She sighed in relief as she felt the grass tickle her face and a cool breeze calm the pores in her skin.
As she savored this mont of peace, she was abruptly disrupted by a loud voice from afar.
"SQUAK!"
She turned around and noticed a massive white bird with two massive wingspans perched on a nearby tree branch. It cocked its head and looked at Aletha with interest before continuing to chirp.
"Oh, hey there !"
After Aletha shouted at it, the humungous bird lifted off from its perch and flew around, looking for soone or sothing.
After circling various trees and bushes, it ultimately landed on the sa tree from whence it took flight, opening and approaching Aletha.
Aletha was startled when the bird let forth a loud shriek. She about to attack the bird, but rembering what had happened the last ti she attacked an animal, Aletha cowered her way out of trouble and instead, apologized to the bird.
"Um, I’m sorry for disturbing your nest."
She took a deep breath and cleared up her voice.
"... I apologize for intruding on your territory." she said after a second thought, knowing well that this flower patch wasn’t its nest.
The bird sent out another loud screech, startling Aletha, and even the surroundings.
As a silence followed, Aletha used this mont to think to herself.
(If the bird isn’t speaking, then who... is...?)
Aletha looked around, trying to figure out where the voice ca from after realizing it wasn’t from the bird. Then, from the corner of her view, she saw a mysterious girl with long gray hair and crimson eyes perched on the branch like a bird, holding two blades. Her hot golden crimson gaze locked on Aletha before lowering the blades and after, swooped down to her.
As she approached the massive bird and patted its wings, her questioning frown turned into a relieved smile. Aletha halted, still stunned, as she watched the sowhat attractive girl play with and whisper to the enormous bird like if it were a pet. She said quietly.
"There there... Everything is fine. That stranger will not harm ; everything is good. It’s all right. Just sit on that tree while I apologize to the girl, okay?"
Aletha stood there quietly watching as the girl spoke to the bird and guided it back to the tree, leaving Aletha alone.
When she turned around to face Aletha, the girl smiled and greeted gently.
"Hello and good afternoon! Look, I’m sorry for that bird startling you previously in that waterfall location above Clearstar . I forgot to feed it, and so it got upset and started attacking you. Could you please pardon ? I sincerely apologize."
The girl pushed so loose strands of silver hair behind her ear while her gaze remained riveted on Aletha. The way she held her head in such a relaxed manner, reminded Aletha of a cat, but she soon noticed that the girl wasn’t moving any other part of her body.
"Wait, why am I still standing?"
She began walking towards Aletha and bowed to her, exposing her situation
"You may call , Dina. If you didn’t catch on to what I said earlier, I’m the owner of that giant bird over there, and I’m a professional huntress around these lands! Can you tell your na, stranger? "
"Uh... Aletha." She replied nervously.
Dina nodded, and smiled back to Aletha, replying. "That’s a lovely na. Are you from the city near the sea?"
"Uhm... I’m not from around these lands."
Dina’s countenance changed suddenly from a relaxed smile to a serious one.
"What do you an by "around these lands"? You aren’t from here?"
"No, no. I’m from another era in this world. You wouldn’t understand." Aletha answered. "I ca here to hunt a deer-antlered bull because that’s what I’m trained to do. Have you ever seen it?"
Dina shook her head slowly, as if astonished by Aletha’s reveal. (A girl from a different era from this world? That sounds weird.)
After Dina contemplated for a minute, she noticed Aletha impatiently stomping her foot on the ground. She flinched and backed away, replying with a stuttering tone.
"No. Apart from the bunnies, I haven’t seen anything like that around here."
Aletha blinked owlishly, raising an eyebrow at the girl. "Then, why are you here?"
Soon after, Aletha’s question was answered in a harsh, grating voice by the girl with the red eyes as she approached the bird.
"So, that I learn more about hunting. I’ve been traveling around the nation of Linuxinia for a year now. But I never found any aningful opportunity to train in the art of hunting. So that’s why I ca here, because I heard from other people nearby that there are a lot of animals here!"
Aletha had a decent amount of experience attempting to ’hunt’ creatures in that forest. She couldn’t take the thought of another person following in her footsteps. Yet, to not lose further ti, she kept her mouth quiet and forced herself to listen to Dina.
"Is what I am speaking make sense? I don’t know, I’m kind of bad at speaking. However, all I can do is try, right? Besides, it’d be hard to explain all this to anyone else anyways, so I decided to talk to soone who knows nothing about this world or myself!"
Aletha shrugged her shoulders and smiled, unable to understand whatever rubbish this odd female was saying. Dina’s words had made no sense.
She simply claid to be a professional hunter while also claiming to be here for hunting. This completely perplexed Aletha, to the point that her mind was spinning from trying to fathom what the insane female was saying. Aletha reflected as the wind blew across from them.
(And I thought I was the stupidest person in the world. I suppose... this girl is even dumber than I am.)
While Aletha kept her mouth shut, Dina continued babbling word-soup.
"Oh, well. Anyways, I traveled through the desert from the north, and I ca across this great big tree, so I decided to camp out here! It has a beautiful view from up high. And it’s warm too! Maybe it’s because of those geysers."
Aletha couldn’t help but wonder how a girl like Dina could speak like that. But even more perplexing for Aletha, was that this girl would rather stay in an empty forest than go back to town.
In nothing short but a second, Aletha pointed to the bull and yelled.
"Well, I guess thank you for apologizing to . I have to go now, or else I’m going to lose that bull."
"It’s no problem! Hope you chase that bull!" Dina said with an ecstatic voice.
"Thank you..." Aletha smiled weakly. (Finally that random conversation is over. I hope I never encounter such a strange person again.)
. . .
After the peculiar encounter, Aletha pushed herself back up, stepped away from Dina, and started following the bull. But before Aletha could take another step, Dina hollered out to her.
"HEY!" She yelled. "Could you co here for a second?!"
"What is it?" Aletha called out from afar, but her voice didn’t reach Dina’s ears because of her distance. When she realized this, Aletha hurriedly sprinted over to the girl and the bird, then asked her again.
Aletha called out from afar, but her voice didn’t reach Dina’s ears because of her distance. When she realized this, Aletha hurriedly sprinted over to the girl and the bird, then asked her again.
"Do you want to get closer to that bull?" Dina said as her head was turned over to the vast green horizon.
For the most part of Aletha’s chase, she had always been running. She knew it was part of the challenge Rinnea organized, but now experiencing it for herself, Aletha couldn’t help to take it anymore. Without hesitation, Aletha bounced forward and answered with a loud penetrating yell.
"YES! Of course!"
At the sa ti she said that, Aletha’s gaze traveled through the path she set for herself, than to the unknown in front of her. The confidence excitent that flustered up in her gradually began to die down as soon as she realized this. She mumbled drowsily.
"How... are we going to get there?"
As Dina turned her head back to Aletha, she stuck her tongue out and shrugged, mumbling.
"Well."
After she thought for a mont, Dina rubbed her palms together and threw her hands into the air, pointing to the giant white-feathered bird as she explained to Aletha.
"Well, you see... if you were to stand on a huge geyser, the sheer weight of my bird will be so heavy enough to where if it falls down on it, the weight of it will trigger the geyser to erupt." Aletha’s eyes broadened in shock at the sudden accuracy within Dina’s word comprehension.
(Huh? That’s new. She’s speaking normally.)
As Aletha was mumbling to herself in her mind, Dina continued explaining.
"...and it may be able to launch you up to the sky and get you to the bull much faster than walking..."
"Really?!" Aletha exclaid gleefully, her eyes brightening with shock. "Will there be any guarantee that my descent will be safe?"
"Sure..." Dina replied with an unsure and wobbly tone. "I think it is..."
Before the crimson-eyed girl could finish her sentence, Aletha exclaid with an eager tone.
"No worries! Let’s do it! Before we lose it!"
* * * * * * * *
When they arrived at the big geyser Dina had indicated, Aletha asked her, her gaze fixed on the giant bird closest to the edge.
"So... Do you just want to stand here and let the bird do the rest?"
Dina swiftly nodded and snapped her fingers.
"Yeah, if you could hold on to this branch with your hands, we can get started."
Aletha grinned and began to climb up the single tree nearest to the geyser. The solid surface of the bark was so moist, that her hands almost slipped of because of how slippery it was. Nonetheless, after a minute of trying to climb toward the branch, she finally reached it, gripping onto the huge wooden limb tightly.
As she dangled on the branch like a monkey, Dina shouted at her, still keeping her comprehensible words.
"Okay, first and foremost, we must activate the geyser. The following step should be simple since you are currently holding onto the branch, right?"
"Yes. I’m prepared, "Aletha answered firmly.
Dina nodded and gave thumbs up. She felt her gray hair fluctuate with the winds as she approached the highest cliff in Gushy Geysers. Then, as Dina approached the giant bird, she gave a signal to Aletha.
"Alright, when I say fly, jump off the branch and into the geyser, okay?"
Aletha gulped and took a deep breath, replying.
"Okay!"
The mont she said those words, Dina made a sharp turn toward the cliff and flew straight down. It wasn’t long before she landed next to the large bird, which looked more than twice its size from afar.
Imdiately after, Aletha watched Dina slam her entire body into the back of the bird. The impact of the hit was so hard, that the sound of Dina’s armor clanging together echoed through the flat geyser field.
"SQUACK!"
"FLY!" Scread Dina as she carefully landed on the hills across the giant geyser. Aletha nodded and released her grip off from the branch, sky-diving right into the giant geyser.
She crashed against the water violently and sank until only her head showed above the surface. When she resurfaced again, she saw the geyser spewing out a massive amount of hot steam and boiling water.
"SQUACK!" Aletha heard the loud irritated noises of a bird above her, then hurriedly tilted her head upward. Her eyes broadened in shock.
The giant bird’s silhouette casted over and expanded above Aletha’s face and the geyser, until it shrunk in size. Aletha caught on to the shadow’s location and quickly strafed out of the way.
Lying her back against the rim of the geyser, the mont she saw the feet of the giant bird and its buttocks clash against the solid and wet surface of the geyser, she jumped into the the geyser and embraced for what would happen next.
"Hope you’re not lying to , Dina. You’re LUCKY that I lost my powers."
Imdiately after the feet collided, the giant bird fell backward, crashing against the side of the geyser with such force that the geyser cracked and collapsed beneath the pressure. With the geyser collapsing, the water inside burst out violently.
Aletha held her breath while watching the violent eruption take place. As soon as she felt the ground beneath her tremble, she was catapulted into the sky with the water, soaring several kiloters into the air.
Dina couldn’t help but scream and laugh at Aletha’s stupefied face as she went soaring into the air. To make the situation even more insulting, Dina waved her hand at her as if Aletha’s body was so sort of rocket taking off.
"See ya!" She yelled as Aletha flew off.
"I’ll see you later, Dina! You’re going down for sure!"
Before she knew what happened, Dina launched herself into the air and followed behind Aletha’s flight path. A few monts later, both girls were flying parallel to each other and collided in midair. They tumbled around the skies, screaming and laughing hysterically.
Then, they ca to an abrupt halt when their bodies slamd into one another once again.
This ti, however, there was no laughter or fun between them. Both of the young won had a deathly serious expression on their faces, staring at each other intensely.
Their gazes t for a second, and then the two girls broke apart. Aletha imdiately opened her mouth to speak, saying:
"You...you saved ."
"That’s not true," Dina responded bluntly.
Aletha stared blankly at her and replied:
"What do you an? That geyser is dangerous."
"Oh shut it, I experience geysers all over my ho nation in Obrus! You think that THIS is bad? Then wait until you discover that jungle over there! Anyways, nice to et ya! See ya later!"
Without any remote explanation, Aletha witnessed Dina take off as if she was so sort of falcon, flying away from Linuxinia and toward the other strange colorful nations beyond the misty and cloudy horizon.
Unfortunately, Aletha was left alone in the sky, unsure what will co next--
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