"Nah."
The tip of my finger reached the edge of the other side of the bridge. The place where I was betting my life on. But my fingers were the only part of my body that did. I watched as they slowly slid across the grain. I tried my damndest to grab hold of something. ANYTHING!
My nails, hardened, dug into the wood only to break off in a bloody mess. The tip of my fingers rubbed against the coarse wood only to end up covered in splinters.
Nothing worked.
I was agitated but beyond calm. As if I accepted death if it were to come to me. After all, I did absolutely everything I could.
The way down looked daunting. There was no way I would survive it. Even if I hardened my body, it would shatter when I hit the ground. If I didn't harden my body, it would splash into mush.
If I somehow managed to get on the crater's slope I would get impaled by the sharp rocks. If I hardened my body and slid down, every part would get chipped away with every collision.
Even if I did survive, I would just starve to d-
Nah it was all pointless. Haha.
Every single thought- every single possibility ran through my mind in that little instance.
The only conclusion was death. Dying was inevitable. And not a single method was painless.
Haha.
The best I could do was fall on my head and die instantly, painlessly. Perhaps.
But that too could have been a rumour. Who knows, maybe falling down headfirst was the most painful way to go...
'I really shouldn't have tried to save that girl.' I breathed out the air I had been holding back.
If I didn't get involved in her mess, Vivi and I would be on our merry way to the town. But now here I was- about to die. I tried to shift my weight forward to land on my neck but then- !!
"You absolute idiot!" A hand rushed down from atop the bridge and dragged me up in one pull. Or rather it'd be better to call it a yank. I got flung midair in a perfect arc before I got smashed into the bridge's wood. ON THE OTHER SIDE!
Red hair and an angry face, I got pulled over to the other side. I made it-
"I TOLD YOU TO STAY WITH THAT GIRL!" -was the first thing I said.
"I TOLD YOU TO NOT DIE!" She held me in as we started sliding down the other side of the bridge.
Well, she had a point. There was no point in arguing right now.
I immediately composed myself as we started sliding down the other side of the bridge. I still didn't process my survival. For all I knew, I died on the spot and was living a would-be life.
What was even going on?
I couldn't tell heads from tails.
'No, really. What the fu- I mean it's all happening so quickly.'
"Where's the girl?" I tried to look around in the distance. Did she get rid of the girl to save me? This Vivi?
"She's not that far away... Look here." Vivi turned my head towards the bottom of the bridge. There was a girl leaning against Vivi's backpack.
Phew. I almost thought the worst of the woman behind me.
"What do we do now?" Vivi asked.
The way down the bridge was long. The inclination didn't seem as high as when I was climbing up the bridge. But we were still going rather fast.
But that wasn't the question.
'What do we do now?'
"Uhh, they'll probably lower the bridge back and follow us for some distance before it becomes too dangerous." I looked around. Sliding down from this far up meant that I had a vantage point. It also meant that the people after us were unable to spot us. "Before the bridge is usable again, we'll hide near that hill." I pointed at a small flat around 700 meters from this place.
We had roughly 5 minutes to get there before the bridge got lowered again.
It was doable.
"Okay." Vivi grabbed my hand, twirled me around, and broke my falling momentum. "Run ahead, I'll carry her!" She yelled from behind. Stumbling a few steps forward, we made our final break before safety.
The world outside was plain. But it wasn't so plain that the only geological structure was flat land. There were variations, trees, and a good amount of small hills and plateaus. But compared to the towns, cities, and other areas, the world outside was clearly plain.
Out of all those hills, I picked one surrounded by the most hills, and just far away to be both doable and unlikely for us to reach. So that the guards wouldn't look that far. So we ran and hid, just in time for the bridge to be lowered.
The grass was green, the sky was the morning's blue, and the guards were nowhere in sight.
We were safe.
Vivi and I were panting while leaning against a rock. Ideally, we would have found someplace inside the plateau, like a cave, for resting, but we couldn't find any. So we took the next best option… Hiding on the side invisible from the trail that cut across the world outside, and behind one of the many trees for good measure.
The plan was to avoid any adventurer that came this way.
In the best-case scenario, we would have moved to a better area, but this one trail was all we had. Without it, Vivi and I would both be lost. Since neither of us was even halfway near decent when it came to navigating.
Well, her way worse than me.
All things aside, encountering adventurers would be a rare event. The hours for travelling in and out of Rottheim were very limited and we were in one of those hours right now. As soon as we made it through that period we'd be all set.
So Vivi, me, and the attendant girl spent the rest of the morning couped up in a crevice. It was oddly comfortable. Leagues better than the training area.
This felt like a comfortable change of pace as time passed by. Almost like a little picnic.
For one there wasn't blood everywhere. And two, I could finally get air into my lungs. Enough to allow me to speak coherently.
"Is she fine?" I didn't look at the subject of the concern under the assumption that I would make her uncomfortable. You know after all the things that had happened to her. Being looked at by a man could be terrifying for someone in her shoes.
"Her? Well, the chloroform should be wearing off soon but it would be better if she slept for a decent while. You can turn around, she isn't wearing anything revealing."
I turned around and my eyes widened.
God damn it, Vivi.
That idiot put a pair of her own skimpy top and tights on the little girl and then my t-shirt on top of that. Of course, both were too big for her, but that made the clothes look loose. Well, that didn't matter to me, the girl was just a victim I saved.
But she looked unruly.
Though I had to admit, it made me slightly happy to see her peaceful laying on Vivi's lap.
"Why did you save her? That wasn't like you." Vivi patted the girl's head and looked at me with upturned eyes.
"It's pretty bold of you to assume that you know me." I stopped leaning against the tree and laid back on the grass instead. My body was torn from all the pressure it endured.
I sighed.
"I mean, you are probably the most self-centred person that I know." She said with her straight face but her words knocked an exchange in my head.
It was wild how my image changed so drastically over the last week. To think that I was now considered self-centred. I was so used to being called a jolly young boy who would help people in need. A boy who helped the elderly out of kindness and played with kids.
A boy who would toil without a single complaint for the sake of his family. People would just bask in my innocence. Yet here I was being made out to be some kind of scum.
'Well, if that was what it took to survive then so be it.'
"She looked too pitiful to just leave. So I picked her up like a stray in the rain." I answered.
"I would've called you a jerk but you did something good so I'll let this one slide." Who was she to judge my morals anyway?
###
We just sat there in silence again, nibbling on food from time to time, until the night sky loomed and then-
"Um… E-Excuse me." The girl finally woke up.