Grizzled
#S2 Episode 23
“You know this place, Shir?”
The pitch-black sky overshadowed both of us. The breeze was seen stroking the grass that was faintly splashed by the light of the gray blaze, soaring high like a bonfire at six points, surrounding me and the Eagle in a radius of about a dozen meters.
“Grey world huh?”
“True,” replied Eagle this time his thin smile is quite visible, “you start to remember?”
“No, anyway! I was just guessing,” I replied immediately fused his smile, “turns true!”
A moment later we realized someone was falling free from the sky. Me and the Eagle walked away from each other, avoiding the possibility of being hit by that person. Lucky a few meters before hitting the ground, someone who turns out Kak Garuda is as if he can control gravity, or actually he with his strength is floating his own body in the air, just like I did when I first arrived in Alba, in the tower where Aquila lived. Garuda managed to land with both feet unscathed.
“Wah, wow! Thankfully I did not miss the train!” said.
“Kesatan car?” my question does not understand.
“Ehe, not the real meaning. I mean, thankfully I managed to get in before the portal closed.”
“Heh, why did you come here? Then what about your surveillance duties? How do you know something happened to me and Shira?” the Eagle attacked his brother with a question. Kak Garuda just showed off a casual grin, inversely proportional to his serious face a moment ago when faced with the evil figure earlier.
“You will not understand the instinct of a sister who always knows that her sister is in danger!” replied Kak Garuda proudly, “and obviously I am more worried about you two than any task. Big brother's main task is to protect his sister ‘kan?”
Those are really cliche words, but they still make me baper because I wanted to hear someone say that. However, once I heard, those words were not for me.
“Yes, I have no sister, no one to protect me,” I replied in a way. All I ever wanted was to have a sister, not a sister.
“Ah, take it easy, Shira ... Before becoming a sister-in-law, I will consider you my younger sister first, okay?” replied Kak Garuda immediately got a furious toyoran from Elang.
“A ... what's it, anyway?!”
“It's done making out, human children?”
The greeting interrupted the conversation of the three of us, uniting our attention to one large tall figure in the distance. The gray flames around us dimmed, making the person's face even more faint from my sight, but nothing changed from the black patches like asphalt stains on his skin. It was still as horrible as the last I saw.
“Welcome back! Thank you for bringing me here! You guys so no need to bother looking for a way into this world again ‘kan?” said the figure.
Goddamnit! Unknowingly we were sucked in here before Eagle's sword was found. It's completely out of plan! How'this?!
“Thank you! Where do you want to book the prison next door? In a moment we will soon make you retire like the devil before, you know!” answer Kak Garuda in the standby position.
“Oh, hi, Lupus! You still there? Who is this all for?”
“Tetoot! Wrong connector! Who are you talking to?” reply Brother Garuda. Labe chuckled violently before finally flicking his hand into the air then fusing with the atmosphere, gone.
Instantly a rumble was heard along with shocks from the ground that we poked. The cracks immediately splashed around us, forming a circle with the three of us inside. Then somehow it happened, the layer of soil outside the circle was moving away, creating a gap that if allowed to continue to widen making us trapped could not move much in the narrow circumference of the land where we stood. Before the gap got wider, the Eagle who had first noticed it immediately jumped across. I who was just about to take a swing accidentally saw something that appeared creeping from the crack earlier. Geez! What is this creature?!
I can't call them Komodo dragons just because they're laid out with their forked tongues outstretched, but worse. These creatures are human-headed with the shape of all four hands to lay also like a human hand, have five fingers with shorter arms and black claws sticking out. The rest, the thick, clay skin and the sturdy tail that wags here and there it truly characterizes a giant lizard.
“Come, Shira!” exclaimed Kak Garuda realized me, had taken the leap across with Eagle. These monstrous creatures had spouted gray fire when Kak Garuda jumped over them. Now it's my turn, what a pity these creatures have crept up to the edge of the ground where I stand. The more controlling panic did not make me think twice. In one leg, the edge of the ground was made to fall out with the creatures that crawl on the edge.
The good news, I am safe from the Komodo dragon stealth –kuberi such a designation let be easy– but the bad news, the gap that stretches across there is getting wider and continues to widen.
“You can make the jump like I did, Shira! If it still does not arrive, use your strength to float your body up to here!” yell Brother Garuda. My heart is still filled with doubts, but if I obey, the demons hunted up here again. So, fuck! I look forward to the repulsion and reach of my feet. As expected, not until. The land where Eagle and Kak Garuda are still half the reach again. The desire not to die falling into the crevice also still ruled me, awakening an ability that seemed to be only active by emotional screeching.
As I expected, my body was floating for a few seconds in the air. Pay attention to my words, just floating, not moving forward towards where Eagle and Kak Garuda are. The gap that had turned into a ravine was still gaping wide beneath me. Damnit damnit! I started to panic because I hadn't gotten through it yet. Brother Garuda probably tried to pull me with his strength when I almost lost control of my body. Come on, a little more .. and it still doesn't arrive. The eagle grabbed my hand at the exact moment when I was again affected by gravity, almost ending up at the bottom of the abyss with the demons earlier.
“Other times don't over think!” said Eagle immediately pulled me away from the edge of the abyss.
“You okay, Shira?” asked Kak Garuda worried about my pale face. I just nodded in response. The still trembling legs I was forced to work together to stay standing, to keep running from the edge of the damn ground that kept falling out as if wanting the three of us to be swallowed up by the earth. Heh, please! I just arrived a few minutes ago and it's been made hard like this?! How could? How could I and the Eagle ever survive a place like this?!
Honestly, it seems like I forgot to breathe as it avoided the scours of the ground that kept falling out behind us. It seems like the chasm created is hundreds of meters wide, as evidenced by my breath that began to sting is not strong continuously running. My record when scoring a sprint a hundred meters back and forth is one minute more so by ending up inhaling an inhaler in the UKS, while my current situation is much more difficult than scoring a run that day. The always-trained eagle had not shown any sign of exhaustion, still continued to run while still linking his hands with mine, worried that I was left behind again.
Then without asking, in an instant, my body had moved on the Eagle's back. He immediately carried me knowing my lips were turning blue. Leaning weakly on his shoulders, my lungs were still greedily demanding a supply of oxygen from the air. The weight of my body does not seem to affect the Eagle's running speed, but somehow I still feel that it has been troublesome. My worries became a burden in this mission inevitably apparently .. and I don't like that!
***
I-i heard. I heard the gurgle of life that I thought was my own, sounding real filling the ear canal, forcing my consciousness to regroup. As soon as my eyes opened, I realized that my head was rolling over the chest the source of the gurgling sound had come from. I straightened my head while spurting a strange amount of soil into my mouth, also rubbing my dusty face and hands.
The scenery around was so chaotic with mounds of earth and bends of rocks here and there. Then something that made me panic and die was the Eagle. He still fainted with half of his body buried in the ground. Next I realized his hand was still coiled around my waist, but geez! What can I do to help her?!
“Lang?! Lang, wake up, please! Wake, Lang!” I said shaking her cheeks that were as dirty as mine. At least my worries eased a little after knowing that his chest was still going up and down meant he was still breathing. All I need to do next is dig up the soil and rocks that buried the Eagle's feet. I was quite surprised when his legs suddenly moved towards my face. The left knee more precisely, no doubt hit my nose along with the groan that escaped from the Eagle's throat.
“Ah! Sa ... sick!” he groaned as he occasionally blinked his eyes. I still stroke my nose when I realize something. Don't-don't ... The eagle woke up because I accidentally touched the injured part of his leg?
“Ma .. sorry! Which side hurts?”
“Shira? Where we are ... Ow hell! Ah!”
I don't know which confidence makes me dare to examine the Eagle's right leg, looking for the source of his pain. The pain center was on his shin that was hit by hard rock, leaving a blackened trail. Then out of nowhere, the bad luck of the cool breeze gushed from my hand as the black bruise touched me. The moaning shrieked again could not be held Eagle. I know it hurts, but hopefully not soon. The black bruise was fading, so I had no intention of moving my hand away from it before it completely faded despite not actually understanding what I was doing.
“You ... like Sakti,” said Eagle after a few seconds it went silent.
“Sakti? Silver Knight?” my guess.
“Yes, he is also an expert in curing with this kind of strength ... Since when are you also good at doing it?” ask Eagle.
“Newly, really! So, this is called a healing technique huh? Well, I know my abilities will grow!” my answer is that I cannot hide joy.
“Means I'm the first try? Beware yes, do not get malpractice!”
“No guarantee, anyway!” my answer is not so sure. The eagle just sneered in annoyance.
“By the way, where is Kak Garuda huh?” ask me because that person is not yet visible. I don't know if he survived the fall of the soil that swallowed us to the bottom here.
“Maybe he also fell, perhaps around here,” said the Eagle watching around.
“Se .. hope he's okay,” murmurs me down. The wind chirp from my hand automatically stopped after the bruise on the Eagle's leg was also gone. We both stood up and were flabbergasted for the sake of seeing this scene.
The misty gray sky began to be visited with a tinge of red. The wall of the ravine not far from where we stood. The cliff walls are steep upward with the lip of the abyss invisible from below here. Far away across the other, it looked like a tall slender tower that after we observed it was not a tower, but a circle of land where we first arrived here that did not decay, stand firm with us who are currently looking at him from below. Its peak seemed shrouded in a thin mist making it look like an upright umbrella in the middle of the land. Oh, wait, me and the Eagle fell to the bottom of the ravine which is the same bottom of the gap, meaning that the Komodo dragon demons are also around us ‘kan?
My worries were answered in the next second. One hand seemed to grab the air from behind the rocks as a scene of the rise of zombies from the grave. My screams could be held back after I found out that person was Kak Garuda, not the Komodo dragon I imagined.
“Wah, my sisters! Why do you guys look like a kingpin?” ask Kak Garuda who .. geez, still had a chance to joke!
“I'm not joking, so look in the mirror and see how you look!”
“If there was a mirror, I would let you wear it first so you know how ugly you are as we are!” answer the Eagle Ketus. I just chuckled softly at this little squabble. Garuda said he was fine, so I didn't have to worry.
“Well, how is our situation now?” ask Kak Garuda while scrambling his hair dikotori soil and dust, “I want to hear the explanation of the people who have defeated the Grey World. Since we got dragged back here, how do we get out there and beat him?”
“This is not like the Grey World we have defeated,” replied the Eagle squinted, still not tired of observing around, “ is not at all the same!”
I can't give much comment myself. The Grey World that had previously been unfrozen in my head, but what I remember based on the story of the Eagle, the Grey World that we had defeated was only limited to the other side of our school. A plot of land with the same position of buildings as the original buildings and spaces in the school. That's where we took refuge from the monsters. However, the present Grey World was completely different.
“Looks ... This is indeed not the same Grey World, Lang,” I replied.
“Yes ... I thought after winning from the Grey World back then, it was all over. Tetreal ... we only end a small part of the existing Grey World entity, Shir. The rest is still plenty, stretching broadly challenging our courage and determination once again,” said the Eagle.
The misty land before us seemed to justify the words of the Eagle, whispering something that caught my ear.
*"*Perhaps that used to be just luck. What about now?”
.Seriate.
