Elysium

Level 9.3

Nine point Three

AETHAN

My head moved closer to Yana’s, just like a fairytale. Inch by inch, the gap between us diminished.

Maren cleared her throat. “Sorry to disturb you guys, but we need to hurry.”

Yana’s eyes sent a message to me. Ignore her, will you?

I’d love that! I closed my eyes.

“Guys! Really? Kissing in the middle of a quest, are you serious?” Maren scolded at us.

“Okay, okay. Fine! Yeah! Coming!” I opened my eyes and saw Yana smiling at me. I grinned.

Let’s kill her later.

Oh sure! Count me in.

Maren pulled Yana and walked towards Drial and Seiko who were a distance ahead. Leave it to Maren to destroy your sweet moments, but I knew that was not the right time for us, I mean for Yana and I, to fall for each other. I shook my head then followed the two without removing the grin on my face.

-o0o-

We were so tired when we arrived at the Robelia tree. It took us quite a while to reach the place. Well, we had a whole day to spend.

The Robelia tree was surprisingly huge. I prefer to call it the Christmas tree because of its triangular shape and structure but Seiko insisted to respect the living thing’s name, as if I’m a nature lover, well duh! Going back to the tree’s description, it towered almost a hundred feet tall above us. The leaves were a natural shade of deep green and the smell of it was that of a pine tree. I bet even with all of us holding hand in hand, we would barely be able to surround the trunk of the tree.

But what caught my attention was the big herd of goats around the perimeter surrounding the tree. Again, those goats were not your ordinary domestic goats. I’m talking about genetically modified goats - that being taken from them being as big as pigs. They have fangs and they have sharp horns. Maren pointed out to me that horns are supposed to be pointed in the end. Yeah, sure! But have you ever seen horns that were as pointed as the point of a knife?

“Are those creatures safe?” I asked as we made our way towards the tree.

“Yeah, we don’t want to see you begging for mercy from those creatures,” Maren replied with an unmistakable teasing tone.

“Oh shut up!”

“So, what do we do now?” Maren walked towards the tree and caressed the trunk.

“I remember what Diyari instructed us. He said that the sap could be retrieved below the first branch,” Seiko recalled.

That was easy to imagine at first, when we didn’t know that the lowest branch of the Robelia tree was twenty feet from the ground. No way to reach a place that high without much gadgets and things to be used.

“We should use the rope to reach the branch. And the spile is surely for extracting the sap from the inside of the tree,” Yana suggested.

“How about that suit?” Seiko pointed at the golden bee suit in the hands of Drial.

We all searched everywhere for a hint on how we were to use the suit.

“Maybe the suit must be put by the one who is going to get the sap. We don’t know what might be up there.” Maren glanced up and let out a horrible gasp. She directed her staff towards something above.

We all looked at what Maren was pointing at. A huge lump formed on my throat. What we saw was not a good thing for us.

“That’s a beehive! A shimmering golden beehive!” Seiko gasped.