Devil's Knot

<>7<>

We burned them last night and let their ashes in the wind. It was beautiful, watching my friends fly for the first time. They drifted slowly, not fast, as if they wanted to stay, but we couldn't do that. We couldn't keep them here, and none of us could stand to touch them, or dig their graves. It was too much for the four of us to handle. We barely scraped by, those next few days. Surviving on Doe's hunting, my herbs, and Rin's speed, we managed. Cier...broke inside. I've been giving her thyme, to help with shock, as well as making her write in a journal. It helped a lot, and taking the lead, taking care of people, is really what keeps me sane. Over the days I've taken charge, making sure Doe hunts every day, and making sure that Rin scouts twice a day, and keeping Cier under my belt all day. It's taken its toll on me, but I don't my carrying the weight of us on my back. At least not for these people. I turned sixteen today, making me the second oldest. Rin, it turns out, was fourteen this while time. Actually, he turned fopirteen on the day we were rescued, but that was some time ago.
I've been keeping track of how long it's been since we entered and so far the total is five months in the simulation. Which is a really long time if I do say so myself.

The meadow is covered in a light dusting of snow, and there's a suspicious piece if floating snow in the air. They sent me to investigate and I brought spray paint in case I need to mark something. Well, not real spray paint, but homemade by me and Doe. Slow down as I approach and then try and land on top of the snow. Me feet hit a solid floor. I shake the can and spray a line all the way down to the ground. Sprinting up off the ground in one of the less snowy places I wind my way through wind tunnels and zip back to camp.
"Guys!" I scream as loudly as I can.
"I think I found the door!"
"You what!?!" I hear Rin cry back. The three of them come bursting out with coats half on. Shivering I tell them again.
"I found the gate in the middle of the meadow. It near those really tricky wind tunnels I was telling you about!"
"We can't walk there though. It too cold." Says Cier disappointedly.
"I know, but I can fly you guys there one by one!"
"Wouldn't it be too cold in the snow though?"
"No! There's barely any snow in from of the door, so you can bring a bottle of fire!"
"Oh yeah!"
"Alright, Rin get the bottle, your the best fighter and the fastest. You should go first, just in case." He nods and runs inside.
"The rest of you need to get more properly dressed."
"What about you?" Says Doe.
"I'll be fine, I'm practically melting already. You'd really be surprised about how warm you get when flying." They laugh, nod, and head inside. I decide to follow them to get an energy potion, and I put in in my pouch, along with a couple matches just in case. I also grab some of our clothes from our drawers and start packing some things, as well as organizing everything into a bunch of piles. I also grab extra daggers and tie them to my belt. Time to go.

It takes me almost an hour to get Rin and Doe there, and Cier stayed back to help get everything ready and packed. The wind has gone up a couple of notches and the wind tunnels are no longer safe for me to travel. It takes me twice as long to get back as it usually would, and I decide to take my potion. It works immediately and I'm all charged up now. Cier is sitting by the door inside waiting for me. She helps tie all of the massive bags to my back, hanging down below my stomach. They weigh me down a lot, but it doesn't take me too long to get to the door. The cold starts to get to me a little bit, and since my blood is so hot and my skin is so cold, it feels like my veins are fire and my skin is ice. It's not pleasant, but it doesn't worry me.

After we've all arrived, we take our respective places and heave the door forward. We move it a couple inches and the smell of bread and mint float to me through the crack. Its the smell of the plaza.
"Hey!!" I shout out, my lips pressed to the crack. It gets quiet inside town. Whispers run through the people. I hear footsteps coming cautiously forward.
"Push guys," I get back in place, "on three! I count,
"One!" Breathe in.
"Two!" Breathe out.
"Three!" Hyyaa...!
We groan and slip, but keep pushing. Finally the crack is wide enough for Doe to get her face sort of close to being through.
"Help us!" She yells.
People yelp and jump, and I hear murmurs. Oh my gosh... How... ...Someone should help them...
It keeps going and Doe keeps yelling, getting frantic. I can hear the anxiety in her voice, and the fear that we'll never get out if here.
"Doe, listen. We'll get you out of here, all of us, out of here, no matter what. You got that?" My hands are in her shoulders and she's turned around. Her eyes are wet but she's not shaking.
"Okay." She says. I nod.
We get back into place an push with all of our might. It gets easier actually, because now that the door is partially open the ground from the plaza is under our feet. From here, its smooth. The door opens fully and people jaws are touching the ground. A woman gives her daughter a flower and then the girl runs over to us. Placing it at our feet she says
"Welcome back!" She smiles up at us and I take the flower and smile at her. She runs back to her mom and starts talking to her. Another boy about our age comes forward and tells us something.
"You're the first of hundreds to return from that place. How'd you do it?" His face is smug, but I can't help but smile.
"Well, it took us a real long time, about six months, three of us died, but when it snowed and we did our daily rounds of the place, and there was snow floating. So we packed up and bam, we get the door open." He nods. Then continues to ask questions.
"Why did you go in?"
"To save our leaders."
"Was it hard?"
"Yes."
"What was it like?"
"Small."
"Why'd they die?" I slap my hand over my mouth to keep from crying out. By now there's a but of a crowd. One kid who looks about seventeen with freckles and short brown buzz cut hair says,
"Hey, there's probably some stuff she doesn't want to go over. So how about we let em' be, okay?" I take my hand away and thank him quietly as I grab Doe and Cier, and pull them out if the crowd, Rin following close behind.

Take a breath, Kenta. It's cool, just a legitimate question, calm it down a bit.
After sitting down and listening to nature that I'm used to, I finally calmed down. Yeah I cried a bit, sure I was angry, but its cool, just a friendly reminder if how it really was inside what we now call The Octagon. But the hotel that were staying in smells like a forest and it smells like home and I like that. The beds are really soft and thier prices for dinner were only around twenty coins. It was almost perfect. The one thing missing, though, was the rest of our group.

Thank you guys so much for reading my story! So sorry for not uploading in time but I promise my next chapter will be uploaded on Sunday! Don't forget to give it a star if you like!