"Are the rest of you going to try that too, or are we done here?" Kai retracted the vine, leaving the man to fall to the ground with a sharp thud.
The rest of the group slowly retreated back behind the tree as the woman stepped backward. For a few moments, she looked both Mei and Kai directly in the eyes, her gaze laden with unease, panic, and perhaps a sense of pleading that neither of them could quite confirm or place. She ripped her eyes away and hastily turned around to speed away in the direction they all came from.
The remaining men, noticing her retreat, gave each other a solemn nod, then followed closely behind, leaving Mei and Kai standing there, still trying to process what just happened.
Kai strolled over to the men on the ground. He knelt beside them, frustration welling in his chest, and placed his hand on theirs. "What a waste…"
Mei looked out after the group with a puzzled look on her face, memories of some of their failed escape attempts flashed through her mind, rising above the forest on a vine, speeding through the brush as a lion, moving on the treetops, scaling cliffs and trying to glide away- they had never reached the edge, let alone seen it with their own eyes. It always seemed like they were forcefully turned away like the earth itself shifted to keep them isolated.
"Hey Kai…" Her voice trailed off before slowly turning to him. "If those were people we've never seen before and that aren't from here, wouldn't that mean that they entered the forest from somewhere outside?"
Kai calmly took his hands off the two men, and his smirk widened. Moments later, the smirk on his face turned into a wry chuckle as he turned to Mei. "You know Mei, I was thinking the same thing as soon as I saw them. If people were finally 'allowed' in to the Great Forest of Gaia… do you think we would be 'allowed' to leave? Those were the kinds of questions I started asking myself: so what do you think I did?"
Mei raised an eyebrow, unphased by his eccentric behavior. She decided to stop to think for a second to humor him. However, the pause she took to humor him ignited a small flicker of hope and curiosity in her chest. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Can you say it like a normal person? We're in a hurry, don't forget."
"I shot a vine out straight through the ground with our questions that have been mounting for the last fifteen years wrapped inside of it in the direction those people came from…and just now, I reached an answer to one of them." He explained, barely able to contain the excitement behind his normally composed and smug-looking demeanor.
Mei took a deep breath and sighed to compose herself, Kai's excitement was beginning to take over her as the small hopes were beginning to grow bigger and bigger. But she was scared her assumption was wrong, that this fire would be squashed out like it always is when it comes to thoughts of leaving. "What did you find, Kai? " She asked hesitantly, almost raising her hands to guard herself if his words weren't what she wanted to hear.
Kai turned to her and widened his arms, "I found the starting line. Imagine the space between my two hands is this forest, no, this land. I've run vines through the ground in all directions over the years and have only felt one thing. Dirt. But right now, I feel air, I feel freedom. His gaze hardened as he locked his determined and purpose-filled eyes with Mei's. "I felt answers and even reckoning Mei, just beyond my reach."
Mei's face lit up with an uncontrollable smile, and she jumped into the air with pure joy. "No way, no way. Are you sure, Kai? We can finally get out of here?"
Kai shrugged. "Assuming the forest doesn't shift again, we should be able to follow this vine straight to the forest's edge. From there, who knows?"
"Okay, okay. Let's hurry back to talk to my dad." Mei turned around and started walking back toward where she came from.
"I'm not going. I'll stay here in case things change or anything else happens. I already know what your dad is going to tell me, so there's no need. I'm not one for goodbyes, either. I'll see him again at some point." He sat down on a small boulder near the edge of the water, keeping his gaze fixed on the way forward. He didn't need to hear any confirmations about what he already suspected. Something had brought him here. Something had kept him here. And now, finally, it was letting him go—or challenging him to leave.
Mei dug her foot into the earth and ground it back and forth in frustration. "Kai, what the hell are you saying, my dad probably knows something about the shaking and why we're allowed to leave."
Kai sighed. "Mei, you're wasting time. Even though I'm fairly certain the forest will not shift again."
"Huh? What makes you say that?" Mei started pacing back and forth anxiously. Trying to decide if she should just run back home without him or not.
"Do you know what today is? It's pretty much exactly fifteen years since your parents found me in this forest. No one in the history of this village, dating back to the merger, has been able to leave the forest, which means I must have been here already. I would have to be highly intoxicated even to begin to believe this is a coincidence. Something or someone has been keeping us here; I know it. I'm sure you've felt it, too. I want to know why." Kai started shaking his leg while tapping his fingertips together.
Mei took a step back in disbelief. "I actually think you might be right… this place has always felt alive, like it has a mind of its own… what if it actually does?"
Suddenly, a rustling in the brush behind them snapped them out of their thoughts. Their eyes widened in surprise as the two figures came into view.
"Mom? Dad?! What the hell are you doing here? No, wait, how the hell are you here?" Mei shouted in surprise.
Jun, ignoring his daughter's question, quickly tossed a silver object toward Kai, who caught it with a vine and pulled it close to examine it. "We found this with you. I would have given it to you sooner but we were told not to until you were leaving."
Kai looked down at the ornately designed ornament in his hands. The oval clasp had an intricate swirl pattern that reminded him of a laurel. Hanging down out of one side of the ornament were six ornaments made to look like leaves or maybe branches. "This is… some kind of Pteruges? Or epaulette?"
He continued to spin the object in his hands for what felt like minutes; in the back of his mind and in his chest, a familiar feeling rose up, as if he'd seen this before at some point. Suddenly, a sharp pain, one he had never felt before, shot out from the back of his head, enveloping him in a painful headache. It felt like it was a wall, blocking him from accessing any thoughts or memories related to it.
He quickly shook it off, choosing to hide it from the others, then reached up to his right shoulder and removed the wooden clasp he had fashioned over his cloth to keep it secured to the shoulder of his vest and switched it out with the new ornament, thinking that it was meant to be there and that he would revisit the mystery another time. "Who gave you this?" He asked Jun, his face still in a scowl from the pain.
Jun sighed and leaned back in his wheelchair. "Gaia."
Mei and Kai immediately looked at each other. Instantly, it clicked—the seemingly alive nature of the forest, their failed escape attempts, everything. It seemed ridiculous that such a force was governing them, but it was the only explanation they could come up with. The only question on their minds now was why.
"Dad, is it possible she's been keeping us here?" Mei quickly turned to him and blurted out.
"You mean keeping us prisoner, Mei?" Kai interjected- a soft resentment carrying itself with his question.
Mei nodded in agreement. She shared the same sentiment but tried to keep her rage in check under the surface. Now that he had spoken what they both felt deep down, she turned to her parents expectedly.
"We don't know," Jun admitted sadly. "I know I asked you both to return to the village, but as soon as I realized what was happening, I figured you wouldn't want to return. There's no turning back now; she's no longer hiding you from the world, maybe even protecting you from it. And now, the gods above will all know who you are."
Kai stood up and walked over to Mei. He grabbed her by the hand and pointed toward what he assumed was the way out. "Shall we?"
A burning anxiousness flared up in Mei's chest, but she didn't know if it was because she was excited or nervous. They'd always wanted to leave and see this broken world they had only read about in old texts, get answers, and most importantly…
"Let me ask you two this before you go. What will you do once you see what is out there and get your answers?" Ying finally spoke up from behind her husband's wheelchair.
Mei and Kai pointed up to the sky- as if they had rehearsed this thousands of times before and resolutely spoke out. "Whatever the hell we want."