A tremendous roar echoed beneath her before she could take in her surroundings. Her pupils widened in fear, and she whispered, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.
"What is that?"
The noise grew louder, culminating in a tremor that shook the earth.
In the face of such a calamitous incident, Aletha reacted by sprinting as fast as she could, hardly taking a breath. As she moved quickly along the edges of the spouting geysers, the golden beams of the sun blinded her.
The scorching air, thick with the unmistakable tang of sulfur, wrapped around her tightly, while the roaring of the geysers underfoot rumbled in her bones like distant thunder. The misty heat clung to her skin, adding to the oppressive warmth from the sun overhead.
Although the water was shallow, it still presented a problem for her. The ground was slick and uneven, forcing her to dance between dangerously hot spots and slippery surfaces.
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 overwhelmed her confidence, forcing her to decelerate dramatically.
Aletha hurriedly leaped over to dry land just meters 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 meadows, seeing the deer-antlered bull almost beyond her reach.
With each heartbeat gradually slowing, Aletha's vision faded until darkness engulfed everything.
* * * * * * *
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 overhead.
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, emerald 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 moment of peace, she was abruptly disrupted by a loud voice from afar.
"SQUAK!"
Nearby, a massive white bird sat on a branch, cocking its head at Aletha before chirping again.
"Oh, hey there !"
After Aletha called, the bird left its perch, circled, then returned to the same tree, approaching Aletha.
After circling through different trees and bushes, the bird eventually landed back on the same tree it had left, opening its wings and approaching Aletha.
Startled by its shriek, Aletha nearly attacked, but recalling her last encounter, she backed away and apologized.
"Um, I'm sorry for disturbing your nest."
She took a deep breath and cleared 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 the surroundings alike.
As a silence followed, Aletha used this moment to think to herself.
(If the bird isn't speaking, then who... is...?)
Realizing the voice hadn't come from the bird, Aletha looked around and then spotted a mysterious girl with long gray hair and crimson eyes perched on a branch, holding two blades. The girl's intense golden-red gaze fixed on Aletha. She lowered the blades and then swooped down toward her.
As the girl approached, she patted the massive bird's wings and her frown turned into a smile. Aletha was surprised to see the girl play with and whisper to the enormous bird as if it were a pet. The girl then spoke softly.
"There there… Everything is fine. That stranger will not harm me; 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 her gently.
"Hello and good afternoon! Look, I'm sorry for the bird startling you previously in the waterfall location above Clearstar. I forgot to feed it, and so it got upset and started attacking you. Could you please pardon me? I sincerely apologize."
The girl pushed loose strands of silver hair behind her ear while her gaze remained on Aletha. The way she held her head, relaxed and still, reminded Aletha of a cat.
"Wait, why am I still standing?"
She walked toward Aletha and bowed, explaining her situation.
"You may call me 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 me your name, stranger? "
"Uh... Aletha." She replied nervously.
Dina nodded and smiled back at Aletha, replying. "That's a lovely name. 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 mean 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 came 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 can learn more about hunting. I've been traveling around the nation of Linuxinia for the past year. But I never found any meaningful opportunity to train in the art of hunting. So that's why I came 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 time, she kept her mouth quiet and forced herself to listen to Dina.
"Does what I'm saying make sense? I know I'm not great at speaking, but I can only try, right? It's hard to explain this to anyone else, so I wanted to talk to someone who doesn't know anything about me or this world!"
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 claimed to be a professional hunter while also claiming to be here for the purpose of 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 thoughts to herself, Dina continued speaking in a flurry of words.
"Oh, well. Anyway, I traveled through the desert from the north, and I came across this great big tree, so I decided to camp out here! It offers a beautiful view from a high vantage point. 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 return to town.
In nothing short of a second, Aletha pointed to the bull and yelled.
"Well, I guess thank you for apologizing to me. 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, relieved the conversation had ended. She hoped she wouldn't encounter Dina 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 come 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 most of Aletha's chase, she had always been running. She knew it was part of the challenge Rinnea had organized, but now, experiencing it firsthand, Aletha couldn't help but take it anymore. Without hesitation, Aletha bounced forward and answered with a loud, penetrating yell.
"YES! Of course!"
As she spoke, Aletha looked at the path she had set for herself and then toward the unknown ahead. The excitement in her began to fade 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 moment, 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 that 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 exclaimed 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 exclaimed 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 me 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 off 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 words comprehensible.
"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 a 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 moment 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.
Immediately 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!" Screamed Dina as she carefully landed on the hills across the giant geyser. Aletha nodded and released her grip from the branch, skydiving right into the giant geyser.
She crashed against the water 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 cast over and expanded above Aletha's face and the geyser, until it shrank 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 moment 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 geyser and embraced for what would happen next.
"Hope you're not lying to me, Dina. You're LUCKY that I lost my powers."
Immediately 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 as she watched the violent eruption unfold. As soon as she felt the ground beneath her tremble, she was catapulted into the sky with the water, soaring several kilometers 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 some 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 moments later, both girls were flying in parallel and collided in midair. They tumbled around the skies, screaming and laughing hysterically.
Then, they came to an abrupt halt when their bodies slammed into one another once again.
This time, however, there was no laughter or fun between them. Both of the young women had a deathly serious expression on their faces, staring at each other intensely.
Their gazes met for a second, and then the two girls broke apart. Aletha immediately opened her mouth to speak, saying:
"You...you saved me."
"That's not true," Dina responded bluntly.
Aletha stared blankly at her and replied:
"What do you mean? That geyser is dangerous."
"Oh shut it, I experience geysers all over my home nation in Obrus! You think that THIS is bad? Then wait until you discover that jungle over there! Anyways, nice to meet ya! See ya later!"
Without any remote explanation, Aletha witnessed Dina take off as if she were some 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 of what would come next. Her mind raced with thoughts and questions. What was Dina's true intention? Was she truly trying to help, or was there some underlying motive she wasn't aware of? The encounter was unexpected and strange, yet she couldn't dismiss the curiosity it sparked within her. As the winds swirled around her, she realized she had momentarily forgotten about the deer-antlered bull.
She began to think about her goal. Did she really need to catch that creature to prove her worth, or was this journey teaching her something far deeper and more significant? The vast sky around her felt both isolating and liberating, giving her a moment to reflect deeply.
Aletha pondered her next steps. Would she continue the chase or seek answers about her unexpected ally in Dina? Whatever path she chose, she knew she had to be ready, both physically and mentally, for the challenges ahead.
With a new resolve, Aletha steeled herself, knowing that this was just the beginning of a much larger journey.