Unseen and unknown, the two boys scurried off down the wall. Adapted to the long stretches of the flat surface from the two years they met, the drop-off wasn’t anything too difficult. 

The guardians posted above within the confinements of an overlooking tower took no notice of the two boys scaling down the exterior wall. Their attention remained focused on the surrounding lands, the edges of the cliffsides that scrapped away at the valley within. No attention, in the slightest, was paid to the two young Paladinians running off to play in the woods. They were kids who would suspect them to attempt such a thing?

Dodging their sight behind clusters of rocks and in the tall dry vass, they made it to the edge of the cliffside. All that now stood in their way was the two-hundred-foot drop-off. Essentially a straight nosedive into the singed vass below.

“Uhm. What now?” Kiyo asked as he bit his tongue.

“It shouldn’t be too hard. Just like the wall.” Daisuke replied with a friendly jab at Kiyo’s shoulder.

Daisuke and Kiyo slowly scaled down the cliffside to the valley below. Carefully they checked each divot and crevasse in the wall before they shoved their foot or hand in. Their caution was drawn out by the sliver of terror that a scorch-roach nest could be nestled inside. The dank moist crawl spaces were their natural breeding grounds.

The pronged and sturdy holes in the rock made the climb far easier than expected as they reached the bottom before even a half-turn. Each jumped down with a little poof of dust as the vass snapped under their weight against the crusty earth.

Feet planted onto the gravelly rock soil, they took a second to take in the moment and catch their breath. They were almost there, a short run from the woods foretold of to hold grandeur wonders.

“That wasn’t that bad, I think,” Daisuke said proudly.

“Yeah.” Kiyo paused as he peered around, the atmosphere in the crater a little foggier than it seemed from above. “Does it seem quiet to you?”

Daisuke took a second to look around and spotted the usual rope and pulley elevator that consistently lowered workers into the valley. But no one was using it, instead, it sat at the top of the cliffside, motionless. No soul in sight on the road to the woods either. It was an empty canyon. A graveyard in the sense.

This only enthused Daisuke as the excitement creased his delicate pale face. Shrugging off the concern, he strutted past Kiyo. His softened leather coar cloak brushed against Kiyo’s bare arm, the stitching sending a little pinch of pain across his supple skin.

“Even better then. Look, we have the whole pathway to ourselves.” Daisuke exclaimed as he gestured toward the paved walkway to the woods.

“I guess so,” Kiyo replied with another glance at their surroundings.

“C’mon let’s go! Race you there!”

“H-hey, wait up!”

Daisuke dashed further down the hill to the forest dead ahead at the center of the crater. His ragged cream-white cloak flapped in the wind against his body with each bountiful stride taken. Kiyo, eager not to be left behind, took off after him.

Racing one another, they darted through the vastelly, wavy yellow-tinted vine-like grasslands that sprouted up at the base of the valley. The steep gritty hillside escalation cut off to a flat plane of vass as the duo darted to the forest.

Coars watched as the boys ran past them, chewing on the long crinkled blades. Their large sturdy brown blotched black fur bodies were unfazed by the duo. Snouts, quick to dive back into the meal below to sustain their massive bodies, gobbled up the necessary energy equivalent to a rhinoceros.

The boys blackened feet skated through the fields, the vines unable to grab hold of them. Each step to light and swift as they left behind slight indents in the vass. The small discolored bends were like snow prints beneath their tarnished skin. Yet the boys paid no attention to Earth's fickle attempt to latch onto them, minds carried on by pure bliss. Running wild and free.

Daisuke glanced back in shock to see Kiyo already caught up to him, his pace biting at his heels. Cheeks rosy from exhaustion, Daisuke hiked into third gear as he took off in a dead sprint. Body drifting in the wind effortlessly. But it wasn’t enough.

Out of the corner of his eye, Daisuke felt his stomach drop. His pace and stamina simmered down. Forced to watch Kiyo casually cut past him, his face calm and collected. In that brief glimpse, Kiyo appeared unfazed by the race, only bits of sweat glazed on his forehead. He ran like it was nothing, effortless.

Reaching the treeline, Kiyo stopped to wait for a few seconds in the distance as Daisuke caught up. The difference between them was minor but enough for Daisuke to notice. To envy.

Daisuke panted for air as he leaned back into a tree. The gritty bark was a proper enough resting place as he leaned against it. His muscles yearned for a moment’s rest, worn out from the run. Yet his mind was still stuck on Kiyo’s sheer speed. The tiny amount of effort he appeared to put in to beat him.

“How—” Daisuke gasped for air and bent forward, elbows resting on his knees. “—are you so fast?”

“I didn’t think I was,” Kiyo said honestly, face tinted scarlet, flustered from the heat.

Kiyo looked up aimlessly into the sky and rubbed at his chin with his right hand. Deep in thought as he tried to make sense of Daisuke’s complement. Something he wasn’t used to; kindness. His bangs blew across his eyes as they hung down, a little twist in his lips from trying to figure it all out.

“I still can’t beat my father.”

How fast is he? Daisuke gawked in his mind, jaw unhinged at the very thought.

“Nevermind.” Regaining his composure, Daisuke stood upright and stepped over to Kiyo. “We’re here.”

Heaving in the heated air, they relished their arrival in the woods as they caught their breath. Daisuke, a little worse for wear, was beet red as sweat trickled down from his golden-tipped white hair. With perilous swipe after swipe, he was still unable to brush it all off. 

“You ready?” Daisuke asked with a grin flashed over his shoulder. Kiyo nodded, lost for thought on what to say as he sucked in a hefty swig of air, his last breath outside the woods.

Turning away from the fields, the two stared deep into the lifeless gray woods. Dead ahead, a plentiful amount of sawn-down stumps laid out around them from the village’s harvest. The deeper they treaded in the more the trees crowded together and became compact. The boys' space to move around reduced to the edges of the paths already paved. Tight and claustrophobic.

They could both see the end of the main-battered path from the entrance. Broken in by the workers who commonly came down in groups to chop down the trees and keep a lookout for the beasts within, it only went in so far. Beyond that, the beasts reigned in control—the teratomas.

 

“Woah,” Daisuke uttered as he spun around in awe.

Kiyo was indifferent about the sight of it. A little alarm went off in the back of his head as he crept into the treacherous forest. Daisuke was too distracted to care about the thought of being afraid, but that was all Kiyo honed in on. His heart beat into his ribs as he focused on the lonesome echo of scattered gravel in the distance. Kiyo's mind was too rattled to pick up on the subtle natural beauties that were laid out in front of him. Nature’s essence was a beauty of the highest.

Countless long skinny dried ashen trees reached into the sky, their name designated by the Nippon chieftain of generations ago; deadwood. Despite its name and appearance, the lumber was far sturdier than any other within miles of the village. While the trees appeared menacing, their tender whistle from their mustard-colored canopy leaves soothed the soul of all passersby. Put all minds into an uneasy state of relaxation from the sweet sound.

“Listen to that, Kiyo,” Daisuke gasped as he closed his eyes and honed in on the delectable song that traveled within the air. “It’s so calming.”

“Y-Yeah. I-I think so.” Kiyo responded, eyes darting around to check for any sign of movement or hostility.

Daisuke glanced at Kiyo and saw a broadened dreadful glare in his eyes. Face crinkled in terror from the unknown horrors that lay beyond their sight. His fingers quivered as they stood there on the edge of another world. Nothing more than a new adventure in Daisuke’s mind.

“Let’s go see what’s up there!” Daisuke exclaimed as he sprinted off the path into the narrow gaps of the trees.

With a light shove, Daisuke spun around off Kiyo and dashed back further into the woods. Head tilted side to side, Daisuke waved for Kiyo to follow him further in.

To take the grand step forward into the woods.

To get lost in the moment.

To enjoy himself.

“Hey, Daisuke,” Kiyo called out as Daisuke continued to run further ahead, body almost out of sight between the trees.

Antsy to join him, Kiyo winced at the forlorn presence that echoed from all around, mind caught up in the world he feared to explore. Daisuke remained absent-minded about the outlandish noise. He was too impatient to think it out, caution simply thrown into the wind as curiosity embraced him.

 “Wait. Do you hear that?” Kiyo whispered between cupped hands.

Silence was all that responded. Out of range, Daisuke ventured beyond Kiyo’s scope of sight, gone within the thick of the trees. But as the winds died down, the end of the sweet spring song dawned upon the woods. An eerie silence rolled in that carried on for miles on end. This bitter reality of the forest left to fill the air.

Then the silence was broken, obstructed by fear itself.

Footsteps. Running in every direction.

Kiyo spun around as he tried to spot the source, the creature stalking them. Faint crunches of leaves echoed in every which way yet nothing was seen. Kiyo glanced up at the trees for a hint of where it could be, a mere hint of the threat they were dealing with. But there was nothing in sight, not even Daisuke. They had become separated.

“Daisuke?” Kiyo muttered shakily, disturbed by the uncanny stillness.

It was far too quiet. A slight shudder rippled across Kiyo’s body, his nerves visibly triggered as he backed into a tree. But it wasn’t because of fear, the shaky emotions drawn out by worry for his friend. Lost and alone in the woods.

“Daisuke!”