Onward to 7 Years

Chapter 8: A Leap of Faith

Ian screamed, bracing for impact. Luckily, the ground was soft from the rain, so when he hit the ground, it didn't hurt as bad.

He got up, his back aching. The rain was falling so hard, he could barely see in front of him. "Jessica!" he shouted. 

"I'm over here!" 

Ian followed the sound of her voice, and saw her on the ground in front of him. Immediately, he bent down. "Are you okay?"

The rain started to slow down. There was a low rumble of thunder in the distance, but it wasn't near them anymore. They were safe.

Jessica was lying on her stomach. With a grunt, she rolled herself over, wiping mud off her face. "Yeah," she said, wincing.

Ian helped her up. "Can you keep going?"

Suddenly, a look of fear struck Jessica's face. "Jess?" Ian asked. "You okay?"

Jessica took a quick breath. "Yeah! Yeah, I-I'm fine." The rain was almost completely stopped. "I was just, uh...looking at the tree!" she pointed, and behind Ian in the distance was the tree that they were about to run for.

Ian completely turned around, in shock. The top half of the tree was on the ground, steam rising off of it from when the lightning hit it. 

"Wow. The lightning must've hit it, and the force blew us backwards," Jessica confirmed.

"If we were completely under it, we could've died!" Ian said breathlessly. "Well," he said, anxious to leave the valley and to keep on walking. "Let's go."

They walked through the valley in darkness as the rain stopped. The moons were still covered up.

And Jessica was oddly silent.

So Ian stayed silent, too. He wasn't sure what to even talk about. But after about an hour of walking in silence walking toward the cloud-covered moons (which were now rising above them), a question formed in his mind, and he took a deep breath.

"Hey, Jess?" he asked. "Did you really leave your home to travel because of me and Barley? There has to be another reason."

Jessica hesitated. "Well, um...I just wanted to travel, y'know?" she giggled. "To see the world!"

"But how come you were near the pond, where you found me? That's not that  far away from New Mushroomton! I mean, if you've been traveling for 4 years, shouldn't you be on the other side of the world or something?" Ian got a lump in his throat. Barley should be on the other side of the world exploring, too. But then he got captured.  Ian thought. If the Centaur only wants him to find the Power Gem, why has he had Barley for so long? And why can't the Centaur just go find it himse-

Jessica interrupted his thoughts once again, answering Ian's question. "Well...yeah," she said as she laughed nervously. "But, uh...I was heading back home, and then I found you and decided to tag along!"

Ian looked at her. From the pale moonlight that was shining through the clouds, he could see that her eyes were huge with fear, and she avoided eye contact with Ian and stared straight ahead as she kept on walking.

"Jess, are you...um, okay? You seem so ner-"

Jessica suddenly stopped and turned around. "Wait, shhh!" she whisper-shouted.

"What?" Ian whispered back. "W-what is it?"

Jessica dug into her a bag and reached out a flashlight. "You've had a flashlight this whole time?" Ian exclaimed.

"Yeah, but it's not like we needed it!" 

"Well, it would've been nice!"

Jessica clicked the flashlight on. "We had the moonlight!" she hissed as she moved the flashlight around in the distance behind her. "Seriously-shh! I heard something!"