Aerie's Fallen Immortal

Chapter 32

"Then I would take that as a promise, Cade." Aerie said. She couldn't help but smile. It wasn't anything special. They weren't saving the world. They weren't having an adventure to conquer the ancient magical villain. They would be normal people, after all. "when all of these are over, we have a life in university, studying and enjoying ourselves."

"We could be home." Aerie said. She was actually glad. It was like a dream. The good ones. And she would be living in them. "Like birds. Going back to their aeries at night."

"Thats great," Cade said. "Because thats what I planned too."

"And then you would definitely have to introduce me to your friend." Aerie said, "I know that they are definitely alive, by the looks of it. And look at you."

"That'll only be one of the small parts." Cade said, "there are more. Many more that I could keep you busy years on end."

"Don't exaggerate." Aerie said, "you can't."

"Where did you confidence came from?" Cade asked, and now his smile turned mischievous. "You know a lot can happen in five hundred years."

"Then I guess not, then." Aerie said, "whats better then reading a historical book with the characters explaining to you what happened themselves?" The both of them laughed. Only slightly. They were still in a crowded station, after all, and any unwanted attention would be unnecessary. They had two new tickets bought from the ticketing machine, and got themselves some burgers and coke when they saw a fast food shop.

It was pretty far from university, Aerie couldn't help but notice. Her legs were already pretty sore given the amount she had walked. But mentally, she was not. When she was having her lips covered entirely with mayo, she was smiling. When they picked another lock at the station to get to the rails- cheating for a station or two, Aerie felt that she could do that all day. 

"What's about the grass growing a meter long?" Aerie joked, "we can't even see through the all of the grass and stuff. Its like a maze." The trip to the grass last had bene unexpectedly peaceful. There were nobody stopping them, and no chases that Cade had mentioned. On the first night, they managed to find a very tiny capsule hotel that offered tiny bed-sized beds for the each one of them.

The air conditioning wasn't working for Cade's capsule, but Aerie was grateful that it was working for hers, and there were a good eight hours of sleep before they moved on. But the other days weren't so lucky for them. They were two days early then expected when they arrived, but now even when one whole week passed, they had completely no idea where the entrance might be.

They tried to make marks where there were shorter grass, and even cutting some down to mark where they had been. Even with all of their efforts, they still got lost twice inside the grass. For Aerie, half of the time she could see nothing, the grass were even taller than her. But for Cade, who was taller, he was luckier. Most of the time, he was the ones who took the lead.

Aerie regretted for bringing such a thin sleeping bag. It had no effect on blocking sounds, she was sure. But the fact that it also did not had any effect in blocking mosquito bites annoyed her. Even if Aerie slept with it completely covering every single inch of her skin, she would wake up with mosquito bites all over.

Whats worse, she would wake up seeing Cade unscratched. For 'unscratched', Aerie meant that he was clean and smooth from head to toe, even when sleeping on a tree. Not even a bug bite. Jealous? Definitely.

"Obviously. Its meant to keep people out." Cade said as he tied a handful of grass into a knot to indicate that they had been here before.  "We covered around half of the radius the map mentioned, it shouldn't be far."