Forest drama
as they walked through the temperate forest, dry scents of eucalyptus invading their nostrils, the gentle breeze of the wind brushing against their skins, the sound of leaves swaying and the chomping of the ground beneath them, Lotus kept awkwardly glancing at the girl a few steps ahead of him, she was quite clearly in a mood, since the incident with Lotus and his pressure she felt uneasy. "I can feel you staring at me…are you looking at my ass," she said teasingly, Lotus screwed his face in confusion whilst looking around he said mockingly "what ass?".
before he could blink he felt a ball of wind zooms straight past his cheek, bashing straight into a tree leaving a giant indent in it, "oops, I missed, lucky me" she said mockingly. Instead of being angry about the near-death experience, Lotus was puzzled "what if you had actually hit me?", Ariel rolled her eyes in response "chill out, I wouldn't have hit you trust me".
he stopped in his tracks "How can I trust you?", she then dramatically turned fully to face him, stamping her foot down "you mean how can I!, you brutally rip apart a millennia-old divine beast as if it was a regular dog, lose the one way of freeing me from my bonds when you promised to give me the treasure, you then almost drew breath from my lungs with killing intent and yet you want me to trust you, better yet you say how can you trust me when I've done everything for you since we met, yeah kidding right?".
He froze like a deer in headlights. Shaking her head in disappointment she continued walking frustratedly, Lotus trailing behind staring at the rocky trails, he grew more and more despondent. He only now remembered, his sisters, two younger sisters that he promised to always be there for, despite moving away to university, how was he supposed to care for them now if he isn't even on the planet, a few tears silently fell to the floor scraping his cheeks.
"why's he been so silent, was I too harsh maybe?" she whispered to herself, Lotus' expressions were not usually as abstruse as they were now, the lilting of the wind took precedence over the scene as they down the seemingly endless path of the forest, the sun still shining but the colossal trees blocked most of light, thus dimly lighting the leaves and auburn trails, the warmth in the atmosphere beginning to feel more like coolness, Ariel kept turning her head from side to side, analytically looming her eyes on the clumps of bushes from each side of her and an idea popped up.
"Look, we may as well find somewhere to rest we still have-" she was going to continue before stopping abruptly when she peeked at Lotus, seeing his poignant expression her heart sank, "you're right we've been walking for ages, should we make a little hut somehow and find some food?". "Uh yeah, sure ok, alright" she wanted to say more, but couldn't articulate the words. She wasn't sure at all what emotions she was feeling or why she even felt bad for this person she's not known for more than a day but she couldn't help it. they kept giving each-other awkward glances, not knowing what to say to one another. Turning left away from the trials,
"interesting!" Lotus and Ariel said simultaneously, they peeked at each other before turning their attention back at the plethora of complex forest fruits hanging off mystical tree branches. "We should divide the workload right?", Lotus began casually walking towards the biggest tree "I can try set up a tent, you go get the food for us", and "getting rid of me haha". "Can you just go", "yeah okay, damn" Ariel was beginning to feel fed up with things being like this between them.
Lotus began picking up long prosaic tree branches and stacking them in a way to form a makeshift tent "good thing I watched all those survival videos", Ariel came along sometime later from deeper in the forest, with a bundle of polychromatic fruits with all different shapes and sizes. Lotus was already resting under the structure with his arm over his eyes, it was evident how exhausted he's been, it was finally taking a toll on him, moreover, he was becoming quite homesick now.
"mommy's home!" Ariel said jokingly, "oh welcome…", Lotus' nonchalant attitude was irritating Ariel, "Hey! why are you mad at me? I'm sorry if I was harsh earlier but, I don't believe I was wrong", Lotus sighed at her words and turned over, he desperately needed sleep "who said I'm mad at you, it's not all about you, I have my own problems", Ariel came closer to lotus, sitting on her knees behind him she reached her hand over to his shoulder while he laid down, "I'm sorry… it's hard for me as well you know… to be honest with you I'm scared" trying to ameliorate their relationship with empathy. "It's fine, can I just sleep I'm dying of exhaustion", "yes of course…I'm sorry" her voice soft enough to melt any mans heart, however Lotus was not any man and immediately fell asleep, Joining beside him, Ariel began dozing off into her subconscious.