*
“You know... Is it just me, or is the mountain ascending already?”
Samira looked up, and looked closer at the mountain ground further in the distance.
Bella was right.
The mountain was slightly steeply descending, but not too steep to walk on. This would be in their advantage, being able to ascend the mountain much quicker.
Suddenly, Samira got an idea. It was childish, but it was an original idea, which could set their minds off the worries a little.
Help them relax a tad more.
“So... Guys... Have you ever watched penguins?” the eighteen-year-old asked her companions with a grin from ear to ear on her face.
“The way they walk? What their favourite way of transporting themselves is? Do you get where I’m going here?”
“Yes, I do,” Bella said, although you could hear that she wasn’t too sure whether she knew what Samira meant or not. “Why?”
“Well...” Samira mumbled. She paused for a bit, thinking about how ridiculous it would sound if she could actually manage to get the words over her lips.
It would most likely sound like she’d lost her mind. But she wanted herself and her friends to have fun, and it’d be the quickest and most fun way to get the hell out of the cold weather.
Plus, she’d always loved playing in the snow during Christmas break from school. Especially on Christmas morning, those mornings when it’d snowed so hard that you could dive into the snow without even touching the ground.
One of those moments like the one they were having now.
It shortly made Samira wonder if they’d even celebrate Christmas at home. Or if they would celebrate Christmas at all.
But then she couldn’t retain herself any longer. It had to be said, it had to be done.
“...Let’s be penguins!” she shouted, spreading her arms and legs while jumping in the air.
Samira landed on her stomach, turned around and slid forward. The coat wasn’t too great to sled on, but it’d do.
“Oh great goods, she’s lost her mind,” Antonio said, and shook his head. He covered his mouth with his hand, only to conceal a wide grin of amusement.
“Psh, I’m glad she has!” Thomas said; he was grinning as well. Samira had always been that nut-job kind of girl, and he totally loved that about her ”There wouldn’t be no fun in doing this if you’d consider yourself acting strange, now would there?”
And before Antonio could say or do anything, Thomas lay flat on his stomach, going after Samira. He yelled and laughed.
Like children playing in the snow during Christmas break on a white winter day.
Bella and Antonio looked at each other, exchanged a shrug, and followed their lead. After all, it wouldn’t harm them if they had at least a little fun out of the whole experience.
Even if they weren’t supposed to.
The Secret Village
James wandered over the Path of Revelation. It hadn’t stopped glowing in the bright blue shade of cyan ever since he’d set foot on it, so there was always enough light to lead him and keep him going in the right direction.
He didn’t know where he was or going, nor where the path would actually lead him to; all he was doing was what Sabrina had told him to do. And that was following the path.
She’d promised to meet him at the end of it, and he had put trust in that she’d do so. All he had to do was to follow the path and wait for whatever was about to come.
James felt guilty about leaving his friends behind just like that; he knew he’d left them in worry and distress.
But Sabrina had convinced him that this path contained crucial information that would add to their journey, which meant he had to walk it until the end to find out.
Thomas and Samira were probably going to yell at him for ten hours straight after they’d reunite.
...If they would reunite.
Then came the moment for James to realise what Sabrina had been trying to do. She’d separated James from his friends, making him an easy prey to fetch. Don’t get separated.
He’d ignored Akilah’s most important warning, and put himself and his friends in danger by doing so. James quickly turned around, and started to run back over the path like a madman. It was only a matter of seconds until he noticed a cracking sound beneath his feet. The path he’d been walking on was made of glass.
In a split second, everything seemed to happen at the same time. The glass shattered, the path stopped glowing, and James fell down into a deep hole.
Luckily, his reflexes were quick enough to grab the glass edge of the path just in time.
While the glass cut his palms, James looked down at the deep, black hole he’d almost fallen in.
“Focus, ‘Dale,” he whispered to himself, squeezing his eyes shut. “Focus. You can do it.”
Then, he spoke up. Still not very loud, but loud enough for anyone nearby to hear.
“If this hole leads to anywhere important, I demand a safe route to appear and take me there,” he demanded. Strangely enough, the Path seemed to be responding to James’s demand.
In barely a few seconds, the redhead was surprised by the feeling of vast ground beneath his feet.
James let go of the glass edges and rubbed the sore spots of which some were bleeding. The Path glowed less bright than it did before; using Magic was taking up all the energy James had left.
It didn’t matter; he had to keep going. He could sleep later, when he got back to his friends. But in order to be able to do that, he had to get there first. And that meant he absolutely had to keep going.
More reasons to go on built up inside James’s brain as he kept walking. The secret awaiting, the underlying truth, Samira, his friends, Anna... Home.
He’d do anything to be able to go home. All together, in one piece.
What he didn’t notice, were the three topazes on his brooch, which were turning paler with every step he took.