ꜱᴄᴀʀ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋᴇʏꜱ

Chapter 27: Rheton

Rheton had to hold in his groan of annoyance as they disappeared into who knows where. He turned his gaze to Cazzlyn's reflection to the river.

"You know," she twisted her body and looked him straight in the eyes. He struggled to look into her forest eyes. She slid her necklace back and forth.

"This whole thing, or whatever this is," she paused. "Doesn't make sense to me,"

Rheton raised his eyebrow. "What do you not understand? Wasn't the note straight forward enough?"

That earned him a shrug. "Just weird how this was perfectly timed out. All of us just happened to be at the 'ball' or whatever that was at the same time," she snapped her fingers.

"But we need to get on with it," he began. "Before it gets worse then it already is,"

She side eyed him. "It's barely even time to go. Shouldn't we wait for the other two to be done?"

Rheton shook his head. "No," he glanced up to the sun and squinted. "It's close enough to start, and the quicker we get this done, the faster we can be with them again,"

She nodded. "Alrighty then," Cazzlyn flipped her hair to the side.

He smiled back at her as a trail of leaves formed ahead of them. He took a step forward. The leaves began to move in the breeze as he did.

Rheton reached for Cazzlyn's hand from behind.

She took a sharp breath. "I don't have a good feeling about this,"

A stab of confusion washed over him. Reminder number one out of who knows how many: Cazzlyn barely knows me. He brushed it away. "My hand or... this?" he gestured his head to the leaves.

The corners of her lips turned up slightly. "This, not you," Her lips turned up into a slight smile.

Rheton chuckled. "Oh? My poor heart was broken," He felt a gentle tug on his hand. He took a step to the next leaf. The breeze picked up again as he tugged Cazzlyn with him.

He turned his head to look over his shoulder. "Is that you?" he teased.

She shook her head. "Nope, not me. Sorry to disappoint," she flicked her free hand and the pile of leaves next to them swirled.

They followed the last few leaves. They ended up facing a tall tree.

"So much for the pretty trail of leaves," Cazzlyn grumbled. "Now we have to climb this thing,"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Who said we had to climb it?" he smirked at her confused expression. "This," He let go of her hand and scooped up a pile of leaves and threw them in the air. They formed a vine over the tree.

Cazzlyn snorted. "Show off,"

Rheton rolled her eyes at her hatred. "You were the one complaining about climbing, were ya?" he shook out his hand dramatically.

Cazzlyn's scowl turned into an amused smirk. "Maybe you aren't so bad after all, you big nature boy," she elbowed his ribs.

"Ready, wind girl?" he smirked at her as well and reached for her hand. "Ladies first,"

"Shouldn't you go first to test it?" she offered. "To test the durability?"

He eyed her skeptically, to him she seemed adventurous enough. "No, I know it's safe. I climb my own leaf vines all the time!" He failed to hide his timid voice.

"You're nervous," she tilted her head to the side and grinned slightly.

He chuckled slightly. "No," Rheton eyed the vine warily as a few of the leaves began to fall off with the breeze. "We better hurry,"

Cazzlyn cracked her knuckles. "Fine, I'll go first," She walked to the tree and gripped the vine. She struggled.

"Can I help you?"

She nodded.

He placed his hands on her side and hoisted her up to the middle part of the vine. Cazzlyn looked down at him and smiled. She plopped down around the other side of the tree. Rheton had to hide the blush spreading across his cheeks.

"Make it over there safely?" he called.

"Yep!"

He smiled and climbed the tree quickly.

"But we have a little problem,"