Planet Suibom BOOK 1

Cairry and Alex

Izayay woke up to the heat of the sun blaring down on his face. He rubbed his eyes, not getting up just yet. He looked to his side, seeing the others were awake and up. He went to scratch his head when he touched Emma's stomach. She was laying on the dirt road with him, looking up at the sky. "Emma! Oh! I'm sorry! You've been lying on the d-dirt road and-" Izayay started.

"Nah, it's alright! I didn't want to wake you, so I just stayed still. It's all good." Emma said as Izayay got up. "Like I said last night, you need to chill, despite the situation, you should still try to relax." She reminded him. He nodded, blush dusting his cheeks.

Izayay silently got up, sitting next to his sister, who handed him a small muffin. "Looks like your dream came true, big bro." She said, casually biting into her apple.

Izayay's blush deepened. "S-shut up." He said quietly. Rose-ann just giggled.

"So, when should we be heading out?" Dani asked, looking around at the forest.

"Is Alex awake?" Izayay asked, not hearing her question. "I don't see him!" He looked around.

"Izayay, he's over there." George said, pointing to the nearest tree. Alex was sitting in the shade that the tree provided. His face was blank as he stared at his pear, not eating it. Izayay's ears drooped.

"Did any of you try talking to him?" Izayay asked.

"There she goes!" Dani said.

"What?"

"Cairry. She's gonna talk to him. Maybe he'll respond this time!"

Izayay looked back at Alex. Cairry approached him, talking as she went, probably figuring out what she was going to say. She sat down beside the cheetah. "Hey, Alex!" She said to him, trying to sound cheery. He gave her a glance, that was it. Her smile faltered. She scooted closer to him. "Is there anything you want to talk about? I'm all ears!" She said to him. He, once again, glanced at her. That was all she received from him. She looked away from him, at the ground. She brought her knees to her chest, wondering what to say next. There was a moment of silence between them before she tried again. "Alex...is the reason why you won't talk, because of what happened to Bella?" She asked.

Alex stared at the ground before giving a nod. "Yes..." He said quietly.

'Great! Now we're getting somewhere!' She thought. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked him again.

He averted his eyes from her. "I...I don't know." He said quietly.

"You know, I'm always here for you." Cairry said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You can talk to me about anything." He didn't respond to her, like she was hoping. "Is it...maybe...because... you think it's your fault that she was..." She didn't really know if she should finish her sentence. For all she knew, it could make him explode with tears.

"It was my fault she was taken..." He said, still looking at the ground. Cairry, once again, scooted closer to him.

"No. It's not your fault, Alex. If you want to blame anyone, you could blame any of us! We were all there. We-"

"But, I'm her brother! The only family she has left! It was my mistake for telling her anything about The Light! I should've hidden the photo better! Maybe I should've done a lot of things, but I didn't do any of it!" He burst.

Cairry stared at him, stunned. She knew there had been a possibility that she would have accidentally set him off, but not this bad! He had almost yelled at her! He looked over at her, his purple eyes shining. He wiped his eye, knowing he was about to cry in front of her.

"I'm sorry..." He said, quiet again.

"You don't have to be! I'm sure if I had just lost my sibling, I wouldn't really want to talk to anyone either!" She said. God, she was terrible at talking to others!

"It's not...it's not that I don't want to talk to you, Cairry. I really like talking to you, it's just, I'm not in the mood at the moment. I love ya, Cairry, I'm not mad at you." He said.

Cairry blushed fiercely. "You l-love me?" She asked.

"Yeah, you're, like, my best friend!" He said, finally smiling.

Cairry's heart shattered. 'Best friend?' That wasn't really the title she had been hoping for, but, he was smiling, and that was good enough. "Well, I'm glad I cheered you up in some way." She said, doing her best to smiled back at him.

"Yo! Love birds! We gotta go!" They heard Dani call. Cairry blushed. Alex stood up and offered her a hand, which she accepted. They walked back through the group and Cairry convinced him to eat his pear. "Gettin' it good with your crush, huh?" Dani whispered to her, wiggling her eyebrows. Cairry blushed and playfully shoved her away. Dani laughed.

After everyone was finished eating, they decided to pack up their little 'camp.' "So, which way should we go?" George asked, looking up and down the road.

"Um, that way!" Izayay said, pointing up the road. "Or, maybe we shouldn't stay on the path...I don't know!" They continued up the road anyway.

"Hey, try t-to think positive! M-maybe the forest isn't that dangerous! Maybe, t-the other side is j-just so amazing, n-no one wanted to leave!" Joey said, trying to calm himself and the others.

"I guess we can hope for that." Alex said, his voice quieter than usual. Maybe it was so great, that the others who traveled down the road didn't want to go back. Maybe, the forest was just so dangerous, that no one ever returned. There were a lot a possible answers to the question people had asked for years. What happened to the people who didn't come back from the Great Forest of Suibom? The few people who did return, never explained what was on the other side, only that it was something truly different to the rest of Suibom. They could have meant it in a good way, or a bad way. But, the group of friends were going through this forest blind, not knowing what was lurking inside, watching them, waiting for them.