We set out as early as before sunrise the next morning. I couldn't get much sleep anyway 'cause we were up discussing what to do next, also because I had a late shut eye. When I woke up, Alex was already awake and I couldn't help but wonder if she actually even got any sleep. I know I slept before she did. She must be an early riser.
Alex had informed us that according to what she could gather from the map, we were just a red dot glued to the starting point on the map. In short, we were nowhere near Kathryn so we had to move quick. The faster we find her the better it is for us This is actually the reason why we moved early. We walked in silence as Alex focused on the map. Taking a good look at her now in the daylight, she looked stressed. Strands of her hair struck out in a mess, she had dark circles around her eyes, she also looked leaner than she did before we got separated. I couldn't help but glare at Tyson who was walking on the other side. He caught my eyes and gave me a what? Look. I sighed.
I noticed she'd been blinking her eyes for a while now.
"You okay?"
She stopped walking while she fiddled carefully with her left eye "y-yeah um, I just..."
"Did something get in it?"
She slowly brought down her hand as something blue and glossy stuck to her finger.
Contacts?!
She went for the other eye and brought out the other of the pair.
"Oh my gosh, did you get that in your eyes while fighting a monster?" Tyson grimaced at the sight
"Ew no. These are just contacts" she said immediately and squeezed her eyes shut
"Contacts? Do you have a problem with your eyes?" Tyson asked beating me to the question. I was also curious, I had never seen or heard of Alex needing eyes treatment.
"No I don't" she replied calmly
"Have you had those on since we got here?"
"Yeah?"
"Didn't they feel uncomfortable?"
"They did"
"So why?
"I had my reasons"
Tyson opened his mouth to ask something else but I cupped his mouth and pushed him aside. Learn to hold back on your questions bro.
She stared at the contacts like she was making a decision, then after a minute she tossed if away and pressed on her eyes.
"Much better" she muttered and moved on again.
"I can never understand girls" Tyson whispered to me
"No one asked you to Tyson" I walked away as he came up behind me. As I moved closer to her, a red mark on her back caught my eyes. It looked like something stung her. I opened my mouth to talk but I was cut off.
"Woah!" Alex exclaimed as she still stared at the map. She didn't stop in her track this time.
"What?"
"The map. It changed" she looked really shocked and I thought my heart was gonna sink.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"What?" She stared intensely at the map and flinched as she suddenly looked at me like my question had just reached her "oh-what?... No it's not a bad thing. It's actually... Pretty awesome. I can suddenly see like a mile into the map. Before I was just staring at a piece of paper with lines on it but now it's like I'm in the map?"
She looked rather confused at her own words. I might've been too but I was too carried away by her eyes. They're really pretty!.
It's like my favourite blue but so much better. They seemed to have more light after she too off the contacts... Like a crystal ball. I love it.
"Although we seem to have trouble some minutes from now. There's a hoard of monsters waiting. One of them just turned invisible... That's a lot of work"
Tyson and I looked at each other in surprise. Not sure we were thinking the same thing but we were both surprised.
"I actually can't believe you just said that with such a calm look"
"You can actually see all that in the map?"
I peered at the map but all I could see was blank. "That's amazing"
I looked forward squinting as hard as possible to see if I could sight any monsters.
None in sight
We would be coming across those things that made every minute of my last month miserable. I wasn't feeling as nervous as I was when I was alone.
"You guys ready?" She asked looking forward without a trace of her being anxious. While I wished there was a way to get away from them without having to use fire.
"Wait" Tyson stopped suddenly and we both looked at him. "You two up for a flight?"
We went silent.
"Apparently... I can fly. So with my super strength added I can get us all across safe and sound" he said smugly
Silence blew past us as I blinked in confusion. Like where'd that come from?
"Okay first quit staring at me like that. Second, it's just another power I seemed to have discovered during our month apart. It's pretty cool"
I scoffed in disbelief "First you can move things without touching them, now you fly?"
He shrugged but I could totally tell he was grinning inside. Lucky him, he gets powers that has great use. All I can do with mine is burn places down and give myself a heart attack.
"Alright then. You go with Alex and then you can come back for me"
"I don't mind waiting" Alex said
"You know we can just go together right?" Tyson said and Alex and I went silent again.
"..."
"There's no way you can get us both across at the same time. We also have our bags"
I nodded in agreement with Alex. No matter how much I wanted to escape fighting, I just wasn't falling for it.
Tyson sighed and walked over to the tree closest to him. He placed both hands as he laid a firm grip and the next thing I saw, with one pull, Tyson uprooted a whole tree from the roots. He literally caused an earthquake as I almost lost my footing. The huge roots stuck out from the ground leaving the path in disarray.
I stared in awe. How dare he do something so cool, I thought. Surprisingly enough, he also looked really surprised.
He looked at us and gave a wry smile "My power got stronger. I had meant to give it a budge"
"No one just means to give a tree a budge" Alex said looking impressed.
"I had meant to give it a budge" I mimicked jealously "enough bragging... and put down the tree!" I added as my mind couldn't stop thinking of how awesome he looked holding a tree. I'm never gonna admit it.
He gently let down the tree like it was a branch as it still landed with a loud thud. "Now are you convinced?"
"That does seem to be a choice we have now. You just take us over and away from those things. We'll continue the rest on foot" Alex said as she read the map.
Flying with me hung on his legs and Alex on his arms, we flew high at immense speed. It felt awesome as the top view of the forest looked beautiful and added to the feel. If only there weren't monsters who could eat humans raw in it. Speaking of the devil, a look down and I saw the enemies of that level.
"Damn. Thank God you can fly Tyson" I muttered in total awe as I couldn't take my eyes off the huge lion sized monsters parading the area. Did Alex really ask I f we were ready to fight those?! Tyler flew past them as I sighed in relief. We went a little further and I wondered if Tyson had no plans to stop. Alex did say he only had to take us away from the monsters. Well, I knew he'd definitely stop when he's tired out. Besides, I was enjoying the moment. You don't get a human flight everyday.
We went on for quite a while, I'm sure it's been hours. I could say half a day as it was getting pretty late, also, my arms were starting to hurt. Fortunately, Tyson decided to stop as he flew lower to the ground and I finally got on ground. I stretched out my arms as Tyson stood next to me.
"Ah. That was quite the trip" he said with a smile as I realized he still hadn't let Alex down. "She fell asleep"
"Oh" I said with a nod and took off my bag. Finding a comfortable place with more leaves, I spread out my blanket. Then carefully, I carried the bag Alex had on her front. Tyson set her down as she didn't budge a bit. She must have been really tired. Tyson sat with a thud on my blanket and groaned out.
"I'm tired, and sleepy"
"No one asked you to fly us all the way to Kathryn's house" I said as my mind seemed to focus more on why Alex's bag still felt so heavy. It was like mine when we first entered the forest. Though mine feels lighter now since most of the things in it are gone. I set it down next to mine and also sat in my blanket that could take five.
The sky getting darker. I knew we might as well stop here for the day. Tyson stretched out and began to coil for a sleep.
"What are you doing Tyson?" I asked as he sprung up and answered confusedly
"Uhh... Sleeping?"
"Move over to your blanket, it's crowded here"
He went silent as he looked around at the empty space and back at me. "Ugh! Fine"
He rolled away and set up his own blanket. He laid down and shut his eyes immediately. I was bored. I couldn't use my phone, not 'cause it was dead but because I got tired of it. No internet connection. I couldn't go online. My games work with internet also, it's a sad situation. I reached for my bag and took out my basketball. I've always had it with me since we started the journey.
I stared at the ball in my hand as a smile escaped my lips. I got the ball as a gift from Joe. My throat hooked up as I remembered our competition was coming up. I didn't want to let them down by not showing up, but looking at the situation I couldn't tell anymore. I sighed helplessly as I rested my head back on the tree.
"Hey Tyler" Tyson called
"Hmm?" I saw him curl up from the Corner of my eyes.
"What do you think of Alex?"
My brows furrowed as his question came suddenly "what do you mean by that?"
"You go to school together. I was just wondering... How is she– at school I mean. Anything weird about her?" His voice seemed to lower down.
I looked over at Alex who was still asleep. What do I think about her?
"She's cool"
He groaned as my answer seemed to give him no satisfaction. I squinted at him suspiciously but still went on "well, she likes her personal space, doesn't make much friends, never been involved in any violence, good grades, nice, cool, great smile, pretty, attractive, she goes for the healthiest food in the cafeteria, lovely, pretty..."
"...you said pretty twice"
"What?"
"You said pretty twice" he repeated
"Well she is pre..." I stopped as I saw the stupid grin he had on his face. He's about to say something stupid
"Look here Tyler" he pulled in closer and looked out into space "I get you want to be like your big bro a lot but- you shouldn't be such a heart breaker. It's gonna come back to hunt you. Also, your little cheer sweetheart won't be happy to see you looking like that while talking about another maiden" he said and moved back, leaving the most expensive look of confusion on my face.
"..."
"What are you talking about?"
He gave me the you-know-what-i'm-talking-about kinda look.
"Don't worry bro. I've got you. Bro-code" he said with a smirk and gave his left chest a bang. He'd totally lost me.
"What cheer sweetheart?"
He paused like I asked an obvious question "Your school cheer squad leader. Duh"
"Kathryn? What's Kathryn got to do with this? I thought you asked about Alex?"
"What do you mean what's she got to do with this?" He almost yelled out and then whispered softly "isn't she your girlfriend?"
...
.....
....
"WHAT!" Now I yelled out as he flinched. I looked back at Alex hoping I hadn't woken her up. I looked back at Tyson "why would you think that?!"
"Well, she was with you every time I came over to your school"
"Well obviously 'cause she schools there and we're bound to meet coincidentally"
He looked at me like I was the most clueless human being he'd ever met and shook his head
"Forget it"
I still couldn't get his words around my head. Why would anyone think Kathryn and I were in a relationship?
"If you're not dating then stop making things difficult for the eyes around you" I heard Tyson mutter
"Why did you ask about Alex anyway? What about her?"
He looked at me and seemed to give it a thought before saying "Funnily, she looks sooooo damn familiar. I really feel like I've seen her somewhere before"
"Oh really?" I said and looked away. I hope he doesn't remember she's his sworn enemy.
Although, that aside, I couldn't help the fact that I felt he wasn't telling me something.