I pick my dress up from the bottom and start to pull it upwards. "Whoa wait a moment there." Adryan stops my hands, takes off my cuffs, then turns around. "Okay go ahead" I resume taking off my dress. I take a running dive into the water in just my undergarments. I hit the cold, refreshing water. I shout up that I'm in and I look up to see Adryan shirtless as he jumps in. The water splashes around where he lands and hits me with water. He swims back up and smiles are me.
"Are you enjoying the water?"
"Yes actually! It is very calming."
"I thought you would." He smirks and splashes me with water. I splash back, causing an outbreak of a splashing war. I dive down and plan to boost myself back up once I touch the bottom. I quickly realize that the ravine is much deeper than I originally thought. I start losing air and my eyesight due to lack of oxygen. I try my best to swim upwards but my efforts are useless. Is this.. where I die?
A pair of hands grab my waist and I am pulled back to the surface of the water. I gasp for air and open my eyes. I'm being held up by, the one and only, Adryan. "It's never a dull moment with you. Saved you twice now. Once from Zander and now from drowning." I don't let go and cling closer to him. He swims on his back, with me on his stomach, and brings us to the shore. He sighs and hugs me on his chest as I catch my breath.
"Adryan, I see she took a liking to you." A voice from the top of the ravine shouts out.
Adryan jerks up and relaxes. "You scared me Sebastian! Thought you were someone cooler like Atlas." Adryan sits me up a little and whispers to me if I'm okay. I just nod and mouth 'thank you'. I look up at this Sebastian dude to see what he looks like. His skin is tan; his silky brown hair is quite long and is being held back with a low ponytail that goes to his mid-back.
"Ouch, I think you should be a little nicer to someone who has a higher rank than you."
"I still don't understand how you have a higher rank, I am a better fighter you know."
As I stand up, using my arms trying to cover myself, Sebastian's eyes widen as he notices I don't have my cuffs on. "Dude.. why is she uncuffed? Please don't tell me you guys were fooling around and wasting time."
"It's not like she showed any signs. I know what I'm doing Sebastian."
"If you get yourself killed, it's not my fault."
I look back at Adryan and notice he is all tense again, yet he calms down once he notices I'm fine. "Your bandages came off, I'll talk to Atlas to see if you might need new ones."
"No no! I don't want any more please. That hurt last time and I would rather not."
"Indigo, I would rather you have a bandage and not need it." Adryan pats my head and leads me back to where the clothes are. "That bastard took your clothes. Here take mine." He tosses me his turtleneck and his sweatpants from earlier. "They won't be a perfect fit but you can change once we get back.
"But what about.."
Adryan cuts me off. "I'm fine, not like it's anything new to them. Us boys are like family.. sometimes at least."
"Sometimes?"
"It doesn't matter, put on the clothes and let's go."
His clothes were a little dirty and baggy on my slender, female body. They hide my natural curves and the shirt covers where the shorts would be so I don't even bother putting them on. "Here, I won't need these and you should cover up a little." I hand him the shorts and smile.
»»————— ❈ ————-««
Adryan stomps up to Sebastian, grabs him by the collar of his shirt, and hovers him above the ground. "Where are our clothes?"
"Dude I don't know, put me the hell down!" Sebastian kicks Adryan a few times but the last one seems to be harder than the others because it made Adryan drop him. He hits the floor really hard and loses his breath. "I didn't take them for hell's sake." Sebastian gets up and gets into Adryan's face. "And that's why you'll never move up in ranks, you're too short-tempered." Adryan's eyes widen for a second but go back down as he scoffs and turns back at me. He grabs my arm gently and leads me to this one tent. He opens the tent and tells me to pick out anything I want and to return the shirt to him afterwards. I look around me and the tent looks like mine but it has a red tote and a black instrument case. The tote has two gray clips holding it shut. I unlock the tote and it is divided into four parts. Each has a carved title on the side. 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺, 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦. Did he make a section just for me? Or is it for someone else? I take a pastel green dress out of the 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 part of the tote and notice how long my nails have gotten. I never grew my actual nails out this far before. Sliding off the dirty turtleneck and putting it aside, I slide on the knee-high, form fitting, dress. Grabbing the shirt, I step outside of the tent and look around for Adryan. He isn't outside of the tent waiting for me. I start walking around the camp, stopping at some tents every so often. I am stopped by a tall brown skinned guy, who has a shaved head, and pretty blue eyes.
"Sir, have you seen Adryan? I'm trying to return his shirt and he was supposed to wait outside the tent."
"I did see Adryan, Zander, and Sebastian head to the ravine." His voice is deep and soothing.
"Thank you..?"
"Name is Kenji, which means strong and vigorous." He flexes as I start walking towards the ravine.
As I get closer, I can see three silhouettes. One on each side holding a third above their heads. I drop the shirt and run as fast as my legs can carry me. My toes dig into the ground and fling up pebbles as I sprint towards them. As I get closer, more and more detaisl can be seen. Adryan is the one being carried, Zander is on the left and Sebastian on the right. They might have heard me because they look behind them and Zander lets go of Adryan, causing him to fall. I stop running and pace myself to a jog and gaze at Sebastian. I get up close to him, stand up straight, and glare at him as I shove him into the water filled ravine. I look over to where Zander was and see that he has already taken off running. With a sigh of relief, I look down at Adryan, unconscious. I run the back of my hand across his face before picking him up, and swinging him onto my back. As I walk back, I try my best to keep him from sliding off my back and I pick up the shirt so I don't have to come back. My arms and legs give out near the camp and can't go any further. I fall onto my knees and put him down as gently as I can. "Atlas.. Kenji.. anyone..?" Tears fill my eyes as I see someone hover over me and Adryan.
"Need some help there kiddo?" It's the same voice as earlier.
"Kenji?"
"The one and only." Kenji grabs me and sets me down on one arm while he lays Adryan, face down, over his other shoulder. "So what happened?"
"Sebastian and Zander were going to throw Ad into the ravine while he was unconscious. I'm not sure how or why he became unconscious, but he was nonetheless. I did what I had to, by that I mean I pushed Sebastian into the water and Zander ran off." Kenji just laughs and puts me down on a stone by a campfire and lays Adryan down with his head on my lap.
"I hope you understand but I need to put your cuffs back on." Kenji takes my hands and cuffs them back together. I smile at him then look back down at Adryan who is resting, unknowing of what went on. His eyes open, he looks around, and his face gets all flushed. I play with his hair a little and smile at him, allowing him to sit up. I explain what happened and can tell he is upset. Not mad but sorry. He takes my face in his hands and puts his head on mine.
"I'm sorry if you got hurt trying to save me, Indigo. That's not what I wanted."
"It's alright, they got hurt more than I did. I'm just glad you're okay." I can feel a tear run down his cheek and fall onto mine. Our moment is cut off by people yelling and someone tackling me.