Fly Until You See The Light

Forest - Chapter 2

One leap and the two no longer feel the ground. Sentinekka and Ojtaro, after a cold and long night of April where the girl dreamt about helping three Children and Ojtaro to fix a cape, woke up and ventured into flight towards the Hidden Forest.

She surely didn't expect to wake up and realize that Mudil, Cosmo and Hacolo were inexistent. When she asked Ojtaro if he was happy to have helped those three, he looked straight at her with an intrigued face and just said:«I have the impression that you slept well, Sen'».

Was it really all a dream?

The birds fly all together, forming a very long flock of white creatures similar to clouds, while the Light of the hidden sun penetrates from the trees and shows itself to them. Sentinekka watches them, marveling at their grace and majesty. What would the world be without them?

Suddenly, she sees lights on a strange wooden platform that seems to merge with the long, hard trunk of a tall tree. Fire? Candles!

Excitedly, the little girl shows the candles to Ojtaro, who tries to take her hand. However, she does not notice it and flies at full speed on her own towards the tree.

«Sen', wait! You still can't fly without the clouds' help!» the boy tries to call her, but she doesn't seem to listen to his words. But when he shouts:«Wait For Me!» in the same strange way as the first voice in the Isle of Dawn did, the girl turns around and looks back at him.

«What...?» she asks, and she suddenly sees all black.

-----

Ojtaro flies quickly towards his friend, worried. «Sen'!» he shouts.

He tried to warn her, but she didn't listen to him and so this happened! Already a terrible day!

His feet touch the rough surface of the platform. Sentinekka is now near him, she reached the platform of the candles without falling. She didn't get hurt so much, she barely has a scratch. Oh, how lucky...

Ojtaro breathes a sigh of relief and chuckles. «Good thing you're fine» he says. He knows that she heard that tone of voice, but he doesn't care much. When she'll reach the Valley of Triumph, she won't see him for a while and will forget all of this.

When she opens her eyes, he strokes her head gently and smiles.

«Be careful. You can't really learn to fly in one day. And you risk getting hurt if you don't listen to me properly» he explains to her, getting serious again.

«What?» she asks, confused.

Ojtaro cuts it short:«There's no time».

He takes her with him and recommends her seriously:«Do not ever leave me. The Forest is very dangerous for newbies».

«But...».

«Just don't leave me, alright?».

«...Fine...».

-----

The Hidden Forest looks so solemn and mysterious... It's like Ojtaro! He told me that there are three gates before the real Forest, so he advised me to write here as the process of opening each gate is long and tedious.

Worse than my village's celebrations.

However, every gate hides something new, for me. Like the personality of Oj' , actually. Earlier he had a voice similar to someone that called me and Symphony in the Isle of Dawn. Sadly he doesn't want to say anything about it, and I don't remember much. He just told me that I dumped into a tree and passed out because I wanted to take some Light and didn't manage to stop in time... Strange, isn't it?

Finally, a metallic sound in front of me. The first gate has opened.

«And we're at one» Ojtaro says, satisfied. That's better!

I'm starting to think his mood is like the weather in my village. The weather there changes so quickly! Sometimes it gets confusing, but my people and I are used to it. First it rains, then it's sunny, then the clouds turn grey... Yet, we who live there now know how to predict the weather. I know how to do it too!

And I'm sure I'll get used to Ojtaro's mood, like I did with my village... Even though I know it will take a long time.