|Part 1|
Same afternoon.
"There it is. The La Tour D'Argent." Sucking a vast whiff of air, they opened the main opening and passed through.
"Disappointed but not surprised. Of course, nobody is here." Depositing his body burden onto the sofa nearby, Raylan grumbled.
"You know what? Let's change the plan. Let me ease out for a bit." Jiho plummeted down his heavy bag and jumped onto Raylan.
"Should I check upstairs?"
"I'll come with you!" Nodding, Aiden and Blake went up, checking the restaurant, veranda, kitchen, but nothing. Huffing, Aiden stopped running for a moment and bent down, keeping his hands on both his knees.
"Are you good?" Passing him a water bottle, Blake sat down perpendicular to the wall, signalling Aiden to do so too.
"The water was tasty." Rupturing into a hearty laugh, Blake took back the bottle.
"When we work a lot. Everything seems delicious to us, Aiden."
"I agree." They passed each other a smile as the eye contact continued.
"Like right now, you seem so delicious to me." It didn't take much time for Blake to morph his innocent smile into an utterly shameless one. Aiden's eyes twitched as he threw back his head laughing.
"You look so handsome even after going through all of this, Aiden... I could never." Blake got up and ruffled Aiden's hair, tossing a sincere, genuine grin.
"You know Blake since we didn't know each other at first, my main motive was to charm the pants off everyone."
Blake laughed jovially, "Well, you could say that it worked! Cute."
"Why do you always have to find everything about me cute?"
"I'm just tryna ask for a kiss!"
"Ugh!" Aiden whined playfully as he laughed afterwards, seeing Blake rubbing the back of his nape ruefully.
•••
"Do we really have to walk this much? What if we find nothing there too?" Kash whined as he gazed at Mark for any justification.
"We die on our own then, what else?"
"Come on, Ray! At least be a little positive!" Raylan rolled his eyes and left, strolling out of the diner.
"Take out your knives, we will come into the jungle now. Let us just depart. The timelier we get there, the better."
•••
The air in the forest smelled just right. It sniffed like damp moss, rain, wet tree trunks, flowers, and needle-covered path. The group walked — crushing the dry, crispy, fallen leaves, leaving a satisfactory, decent sound behind. Branches were creaking as their feet shuffled through detritus. The wind whistling around, the rustling of leaves, scrabbling of lizards on tree bark — it appeared so peaceful and alleviating. The tree bark was rough and the branches slapping. The ground was uneven, with knobby roots underfoot. The trees lashed and crashed against each other like drum sticks in the hands of a giant.
Mark lifted his face, letting the light and shadow dance across his skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal. He inhaled its minty smell and continued, thrilling in the sound of his feet sliding through the leaves.
YOU ARE READING
•Bella Mondé•
AventureAiden Cunningham never could've believed that he will win the Annual Tournament and have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the infamous island, Bella Mondé. But rather than enjoying the vacations with his friends, the group suffers and tries to...
