Vanagloria hated what she just did.
It was completely unitentional, all it took was a few seconds of distraction for her to drop them.
It probably made her look like such a loser. Like him holding her hand made her forget what she was doing.
Well… it did, but not in the way he was probably thinking.
She had been with three guys before, it's not like she never experienced any sort of intimacy with a guy before.
Right now she was once again gripping Martyr's hand for life rather than because she wanted to.
"Do you think you could do the teleporting thing?!" Martyr shouted to her.
"M-Maybe?! I think I probably could!" Vanagloria shouted back.
They were practically sky diving at this point. The sheer distance between them and the ground was insane.
Vanagloria had dreams like this before, where she fell down a high place and felt like she was gonna die.
But it only seemed like right now her brain was only registering that shock now.
It felt like her heart stopped once she fully comprehended what was happening. Death was scaring her brain into overdrive.
"I'm gonna let go! I have my own way of saving myself if you can try and teleport down there. I don't know if I can save us both." Martyr said, which terrified her even more.
"Wait no please don't go!" Vanagloria said, squeezing his hand as hard as she could.
Right now it felt like Martyr was her one chance of surviving. It felt like she had never been this scared in her whole life. The moment wouldn't end either, the trees were just so far away.
She wanted to save him again, like she just did a minute ago. But it felt like she couldn't do anything right now but just watch.
"Vanagloria!" Martyr shouted.
"Just calm down!"
The comment almost made her mad at him, completely taking her out of the terrified moment by how dumb that comment was.
"How is that supposed to help! What are you, my school nurse?! What the fuck?!"
"I'm being serious! I think your air powers might be the only way out of this! The only way we can survive is if you calm down!" Martyr said, the pressure of the responsibility immediately stressing her out again.
"We have time! The ground is super far away! Take a deep breath or something and try to get back into the moment when you used those powers a minute ago!"
"I-I… i dont…"
"Don't argue, do it!"
Vanagloria stops staring down at the ground getting ever closer, the trees within mere seconds of hitting them.
She closes her eyes and takes her time to relax herself by taking one great big breath.
Her confidence starts to come back, determination rushing through her body as she focuses back into the moment.
The air felt surprisingly soft and pleasant compared to how it was at first. It was way more controlled, it almost felt like it was slowing her down from reaching a faster velocity.
She knew she could control it.
The air passes by her, flowing through her fingers and limbs.
She concentrates on that feeling.
She imagines pulling that air together, thickening it and creating a more solid and cushiony pillow to soar through.
The feeling of air all around her rushing to her legs and arms makes her open her eyes.
The air had started to stick and clump together around her, making her own mini white cloud.
It was like her limbs had become magnetic to air or something.
Martyr's hand started to weigh more and more as she slowed down and he kept falling.
Vanagloria's arms were already wildly tired from holding him up earlier, she didn't know if she could do it again.
Vanagloria feels the scratch of a leaf on her back and watches as her surroundings turn from dark blue and grey to completely dark green and brown.
Martyr is now practically dragging her down towards the floor of the jungle.
In one last effort before they splat on the ground, Vanagloria pushes through the pain and pulls on Martyrs hand as hard she can, pushing her legs down with all her effort onto the almost solid air boots she made.
'SHOOM'
Her ears are overwhelmed with the noise of murky water flowing all around her as her feet touch the bottom of the brown lake.
Instinctively her legs push down on the mud to send her head above the water.
Her hand still holding onto Martyr's gets pulled as she jumps up and she lands on shore, with her legs still in the water.
Letting go of his hand, she wipes the gross water off her face and looks around herself to see an open area in the jungle, just enough room for the tiny muddy lake below.
'BOOOOOM'
Lightning strikes her once again, probably killing everything that could've been living in the water.
It doesn't hurt, but it still shocks way too much energy into her. She feels unnaturally revitalized, her energy completely coming back like she drank a whole cup of coffee in one massive gulp.
"Get up, we can't be here!" Martyr says from behind her. She can barely hear him over the rain batting the trees above them and the lake below.
Vanagloria shoots up with lightning coursing all around her like a snake.
Martyr standing next to her is looking into the dark jungle behind them. Red hot flames come out of his hands and eyes as he gets into a fighting stance.
The trees looked like small umbrella skyscrapers. The giant leaves at the top worked as almost a ceiling to the rainforest, not letting any light in at all. The only light right now was her and Martyr, their elemental powers flaring up.
"Do you see something?" She asks.
Vanagloria doesn't see any sort of monster eyes or movement where he's facing though. It just looks like he's looking up at a tree, ready to fight the inanimate object like a honey badger.
"Yes, we have to get out of here now." Martyr says as he turns towards her, fire still in his eyes.
"Listen to me, I want you to follow me and do everything I say. Got it?"
"Y-yes."
"Okay let's…" Martyr turns around ready to sprint but gets cracked over the back of the head by the root of a tree, passing right over Vanagloria's head.
She looks up at the tree he was just looking at to see a face start to come out of its shaft.
An elk.
In a fit of rage Martyr whips his arm around towards the living tree and hurls a shard of fire at it which explodes on impact.
Fire hits the other trees surrounding them by the pond, their branches catching on fire.
"Follow me!" Martyr says, holding his head. He jumps onto the grass from the mud and Vanagloria follows him.
The elks screech and lash out all around her as she runs away. Branches snap and crack as they try to hit her and Martyr, crashing into the other trees.
She uses her finger lightning gun to shoot at the elks behind her, adding more fuel to the fire as she catches up to Martyr.
"We have to find a cave or something to hide in, we can't be out in the open when our element flares up like this. We can't catch the attention of a wild dragon." Martyr says as he holds the back of his head where he got struck.
Vanagloria frantically looks around for any sort of shelter around them as they fly by trees.
The dark forest lights up for them as they run by, revealing the spacious area lush with all sorts of greenery Vanagloria could barely comprehend.
Wild animals run away in fear while the two of them sprint through the jungle. Hopping over fallen logs and stones, weaving through bushes.
Then a massive tree catches her eye, just in front of them. It has a small hollowed out hole in the front of it, just enough room for a group of people to stuff themselves into.
"Martyr, the tree!" Vanagloria points to it as she runs a little in front to get his attention.
"Yes, let's stay there for now." Martyr changes directions along with her.
As they run up to it, Martyr stops Vanagloria before she slides in, putting an arm out in front of her. "Before we get in…"
Before he even finishes his sentence, he whips a small burst of fire into the hole, killing off any insect or parasite that would've been in there.
Martyr then quickly crouches down and enters the little opening, brushing off the burnt cobwebs and small flames out of the little room using his boots.
He then motions for her to climb in after a small inspection.
Vanagloria has to almost do a full squat to enter in, the entrance must've been only up to her stomach.
The inside was much bigger thankfully, just enough room for them.
The wood walls of it were smooth and warm from the small wave of fire. Martyr sits down and lays down his satchel onto his lap, still holding the back of his head.
Vanagloria sits down next to him cautiously. The room is so small she has to sit with her shoulder pressed up against his.
The whole space is surprisingly warm and cozy. At least compared to the cold damp and dangerous forest outside.
She can even feel his body heat through the sleeve of the fully black jacket he had put on. Most of his fire elemental had subsided so this must just be how he feels normally.
A sweet cozy scent came from Martyr. It kinda smells almost like the chlorine she got a whiff of when she was next to a hotel pool. It was reminding her of the few vacations she had gone on in her life, the free and comforted feeling of summer and the rich lifestyle hotels gave off.
Vanagloria could start to feel the tingly feeling melt through her body again.
"Ugh I gotta stop." She thinks to herself and pulls on her super damp pants in frustration. The smell was easily gonna bring out the feelings she was trying not to develop for him.
"Do you still have your satchel?" Martyr asks as he searches through his own.
"I… oh shit." Vanagloria quickly lets go of her pants.
The realization dawns on her as she realizes she had completely lost her satchel.
"Oh no." Her heart drops realizing she had her scribble notebook and tons of clothes in there. She even brought her yellow blanket. The one she had been wrapped in as a baby, laying outside the orphanage all alone.
The only object she had that came from her mysterious past.
"You've gotta be kidding me…"
"It's fine I'm sure it's somewhere in this jungle. I remember you still having it before Vega jumped off. The dragon launched us a little backwards so we're probably right in the spot where you dropped them." Martyr says as he tries to reassure her.
"But it's the rainforest. Everything will be ruined."
"It'll be fine. I'm sure of it." Vanagloria looks up to see Martyr smiling at her as he pulls out a small white t-shirt from his bag. He winces as he presses it up against the back of his head.
Vanaglorias heart almost stops as she watches the t-shirt come off his head, stained red from blood.
"Oh my go..." She sits up and bangs her head on the ceiling of the tree hole.
"Ow."
Martyr let out a small laugh at her despite the pain he was probably in right now.
"No, no, no we gotta do something about that." Vanagloria says to him, trying to get him to take it seriously.
"I'll be fine I pr… I promise. I've had worse in fights with the school rules." Martyr winces again as he presses the shirt down again.
"Plus I am doing something about it." He holds out his shirt and sees it for the first time. His face clearly turns worried as soon as he sees the giant blood splotch on it.
"Actually…" Martyr looks up at Vanagloria. "Could you look back there? I don't know how much I'm helping it right now."
"Yeah of course." Vanagloria carefully leans against the wall to see a small splinter sticking out of the back of his neck.
"Oh boy… uh turn around for just a second." Vanagloria tells him, trying not to touch him as much as possible.
He follows her instructions and she carefully plucks it out without any warning and without any flinching from him. She then chucks it out of the opening of the hole.
"Was that in my head?" He asked, eyeing the piece of tree root.
"Yeah I think that was it." She looks at the back of his muscly shoulders. It was just a small bruise with an even smaller home where the blood was coming out of. It wasn't nearly as bad as the blood made it look.
"Here can you wipe of the blood, I can't see or really even reach that far over there." Martyr holds out the shirt.
"Oh uh… yeah i can do that." She says, carefully grabbing the shirt.
"You don't care about this shirt?"
"No, I packed it exactly for this reason."
"Okay. Uh… I'm gonna start now, just be ready. I guess this will probably hurt." Vanagloria switches it around to a part that isn't stained.
She had never really done anything like this, but she had been to the school nurse plenty of times from her combat class. Vanagloria was just gonna try and copy what she remembered her doing.
As soon as she touched the shirt to his head he flinched which scared her, making her jump and hit her head on the ceiling again.
"Ow..." She groaned.
This was gonna be a long night.
…
Finally,
She had reached the top of the tree she was climbing.
Finally she got a view of the rainforest around her.
Rain hit her hood as she scanned the tops of the trees for any sign of them.
Quetzalcoatl was nowhere to be seen. But that was to be expected.
Thankfully her sense of direction was perfect. If not, she would've been completely lost in the sea of green treetops.
Looking over in the direction of the Draconic Rainforest, something catches her eye.
Obviously the floating island of the Draconic Rainforest was out in the distance, just where she expected it to be but something else caught her attention.
A big trail of smoke was rising from a spot in the forest.
"Ugh. It's like I threw a lit match into somebody's garden."
"Did Vulcan even train these guys for a trial yet?"
Vega started to run towards the trail of smoke.
"They better not start a forest fire."
"If they catch the attention of Xiuhcoatl, I don't think I'd be able to save them."