FoR (On Hold)

Chapter 1.7

We walked closer to the phenomenon, the group of enormous, ancient trees, and spotted a small cave in the thick roots below. The girls went ahead into the cave, so we trailed after them, assuming it was alright to go in. Apparently not.

The second we entered, a deep rumbling growl emanated from the darkness. What was that? I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, much less whatever was making that sound.

The sound of rock clashing together startled us, and we spotted Phoenix striking a torch, lighting it. As soon as our eyes adjusted to the light, we could clearly see what danger we faced.

On a few feet away, a full grown, snarling leopard was crouched in front of us, claws drawn, poised and ready to strike. None of us made a sound; the girls noticed our dilemma and came up behind it quietly.

Suddenly, it leapt at us, causing us to scatter backwards in all directions. Phoenix started off at a run, straight for it, and jumped, planted her hands on the ground, and vaulted straight onto it's back. The leopard coughed, being pushed to the ground, and she held it there until it stopped struggling.

"Bad! We do not eat guests!" She scolded it, shaking a finger in it's face. The leopard whined, ducked it's head, and shrunk away. Mist sighed, and turned to us. "Sorry about that. Dusk didn't recognize your scent."

Phoenix shook her head, and came over. "That was my fault. I didn't think about what would happen when you came in. My apologies." Leo shrugged nonchalantly, although it was clear it had scared him quite roughly. "I-it's fine! Don't worry."

Echo, who had been carrying the unconscious Alex the entire escapade, walked over with him tucked under her arm like a stack of books. "Dusk is our companion. He comes with us on patrols. Lucky for you we didn't bring him along this time."

I was surprised. That was about as much as she ever said in front of us, beside when she was telling us the story about Dawn. Wait a minute... Dawn, and Dusk? "Hey, this leopard wouldn't have any connection to Dawn, would he?"

The girls looked at me at once, and I felt like I had said something wrong. Dusk whined again at the mention of Dawn's name, and slunk into his corner. "Dusk was her best friend and hunting companion. When she passed, he was traumatized and it took a long time to get him back on his feet." Jewel explained this to us, although she was clearly uncomfortable talking about it.

"I... I see... Sorry for asking." She shook her head and smiled sadly. "It's quite alright. Let's head on." We exited the cave back into the pale evening light. Funny. We met Dusk at dusk. Huh.

"What are you thinking about?" Daichi came up behind me, which was ironic since he was so much taller than the rest of us. "Hm? Oh, nothing. Let's go." We shrugged and went to join the group.

The guys were standing beside the tree trunk, looking up into the tree. "Don't tell me they expect us to climb this thing?" Theo nervously pushed up his glasses. "No. We have a much better way," Mist materialized out of nowhere next to us, gesturing to the other side of the tree.

On the other side, there was a sort of elevator. Made from planks of wood and special vines, it looked a little bit rickety. "Um... So how does this work," I inquired. Jewel proudly patted the side of the elevator. "I invented this. It's completely safe, trust me. Watch!"

She stepped inside. "It only takes four people at a time," she explained. Gesturing to me, Phoenix, and Leo, she stepped into the corner to make room. We bent into the elevator, and were surprised to did makeshift seats. We sat, and watched the girls work. Jewel reached out and grabbed a seemingly random vine, and pulled gently on it.

The elevator began to go up, to my and Leo's surprise. "You see, the vines are connected to a series of pulleys, which are connected to a funnel of water. The water dips into a bucket, which becomes heavy and pulls us up, due to the pulleys lightening the load."