Up High

I sighed when I finished the fish and moved upstairs, leaving the log that I was carving lying on the table.

"Why do I feel so down?" I mumbled to myself, "I'm not usually like this."

'Rose, are you there?'

No response.

I really thought he would say something, especially during a time like this.

'I can take a message,' I heard a sweet feminine voice say as I froze in place.

The voice reminded me of a certain elf by how cheery they were when they talked.

'And who are you?'

'Is that all," she sarcastically replied.

'That was to you,' I enforced, 'and what the hell did you do to Rose?'

'Oh, don't start talking like you think you're going to scare me,' She complained.

'You sure have a mouth on you, for whatever thing you are.'

'Oh, I'll give you 3 seconds to stop talking before you regret it.'

She sounded more serious than before, and I was still frozen before the stairs.

'Go ahead,' I smirked, 'I'd like you to see you do anything while you're confined.'

I immediately felt a stinging sensation in my head that made me fall to my knees before a trail of blood began running down my nose.

It felt like gravity had gotten ten times stronger when I tried to get up, only for it to suddenly stop the next second, followed by absolute silence.

"Huh?" I mumbled, feeling relieved after standing up straight and wiping my nose. "Why did it stop?"

——————————————————————

"That was good," the figure got up from its sat position after receiving a blow from Rose.

"Ha, Ha, Ha." Rose rushed over to her before she could stabilize her footing.

The figure tried using the rods again, but they didn't appear; and was kicked in her upper area, sending her back to the ground.

She began laughing as she laid. "So, I guess you have taken back some control." She slowly got up. "But you're still out of your depth."

Rose knew what kind of attack she would send his way, but for some reason, as if it was by pure chance, he'd unknowingly messed up.

The second she was on her feet, it struck. Rose could feel every inch of his body being torn up from the inside as the same black rods as before emerged from him.

He tried stopping before reaching her, but only stumbled down and rolled over at her feet.

She couldn't help but grin at the sight before her, "I'm impressed, you know when to take advantage of the situation, but then look at you now, like some kind of sea urchin."

——————————————————————

When I walked up to the kitchen, I thought that maybe it did end up fading away after trying to resist it, only for the idea to be shattered when I heard her voice for another time.

'Sorry for the delay,' I heard that same cheery voice that froze me. 'Should we continue-'

'No, I got it.' I interrupted her as I began to move again.

'Aww, what a cute little puppy, obeying master's order before I even say it.'

I ignored her comment as only one thing was on my mind, so Rose really did lose.

——————————————————————

Athena's group headed directly in front from where the cave opening was to begin looking for any rabbits.

They didn't find anything, other than dead ones and faint tracks of them in the dirt as they walked for a short while.

"It stops here," Frigg said before the thick bushes that blocked their path.

"Maybe they went up on the trees," Athena said, "They did that back on earth."

"That may be the case," Hestia continued, "but wouldn't they just keep running?"

"The bushes don't look like they take up much space forward," Emily interrupted. "So, should we just try walking over them?"

Athena pondered for a moment to consider if they were straying too far from the group but ended up walking over the bushes.

The trip was short but tedious due to the thors that kept poking at them as they walked.

"They left marks on my pants," Athena sighed as she looked down, seeing the dye from her pants be faded where thors had rubbed up against.

"Wait, really!!" Hestia looked down at her jeans to see that the same had happened to her.

Athena ignored her shouting to a more disturbing sound of snickering near them.

She turned to see a bunch of rabbits near a cliff. Noticing that some were jumping off at the sight of her.

"Ladies," she said, alerting them all to her, "take a look at this."

As soon as they were in view, the rabbits shifted even more, to the point where it no longer looked like they were jumping off but rather being pushed off by the other rabbits trying to move away from Athena's group.

"Jesus," Emily began approaching as more and more pushed. "It's like they're eager to escape or wait before they go. Are they taunting us?"

"Maybe it's a cliff," Athena mentioned as she got closer as well.

"No way, rabbits wouldn't live high up on a cliff or mountain."

"Look around at the vegetation here," Athena pointed out the abundance of greenery in the area.

"Even still." Emily paused for a moment as she saw the horror in the faces of the rabbit that stayed on the edge.

"Oh c'mon, let's just get this over with." Hestia interrupted as she swiftly walked past Emily encouraging more of the rabbits to jump off until they all lept before Hestia reached them.

They remained silent as Hestia peeked over the edge and gasped at the sight.

She couldn't see the bottom, not because it was too far down but rather because of the clouded layer below them by a dozen feet.

"No way," Hestia smiled, "are we at the top of the world or something."

The rest met at the edge, seeing the openness ahead of them only filled by marshmallow clouds.

"Or could we be on an island?" Athena mentioned as she saw the edge of the island curve inwards in both directions. "Some... sort of... floating island."

"What do you think is down there?" Hestia said, stepping back to more stable ground.

"No idea," Emily replied, "but it must be something not that good, considering they hesitated to jump."

Athena took a moment to think about what else they could do.

"We'll split up into two teams walking the edge," Athena commanded. "Let's meet up back at the cave after we're done."

——————————————————————

She was asleep when I reached her room.

She'd finished her food that I made her, but I couldn't help but feel sad.

"Rose was right," I mumbled as I walked over to the window with my slingshot. "Maybe I did get attached."

'Maybe you fell in love~' I heard the cheery voice again, this time closer.

I picked up a small rock on the table and aimed at one of the yellow fruits that hung from the trees.

'Aim a bit more to the left,' she continued.

'Huh, why?'

'The trajectory is a bit off.'

I readjusted my aim just how she said and shot.

It was a direct hit with it knocking the fruit down.

'But how did you know? You've never seen me shoot this before.'

I didn't get an immediate response, but the only thing she followed up with was, 'think of it in terms of probability.'

——————————————————————

It looked like the other team had the same idea, as Athena and Frigg came across 3 others that stopped before a path that leads downwards at the edge.

"Did the rabbits jump from your side as well?" Athena asked as she looked at the steep path down.

"I see that happened with you too," one of them answered as they looked in the same direction. "It's weird. They had this to go down on, but they jumped off instead."

The youngest Slayer in the group of 3 tried putting a foot down the steep path only to almost completely slip off balance.

After closer inspection, the ground of the path lacked any sort of grip, making it extremely easy to slip on.

"Well, that might be the reason," the Slayer said, "they would've tumbled all the way down if they went this way."

"Fine then, let's head back and see what the others have found." The oldest Slayer said before turning around. "One thing doesn't make sense. How are we still conscious if we're this high up?"

——————————————————————

Back in Hawaii, Tiresias sat alone on a beach table, sipping on lavender tea.

"Trust me," he heard an older man say, "with the increased traffic here, they won't be bothered to check every single thing. People get lazy when there's a big load."

"But that doesn't make sense," he heard another man answer, "wouldn't the white portal cause people to stop traveling?"

"You'd think that, but no, every other normal human being doesn't think as the Slayers do. It's like they live on a completely different platform than we do."

Tiresias 'staired' off for a moment, then pulled out his smartphone and said, "call Joseph."