The canopy of the trees, once a silent and peaceful haven only disturbed by the chirps and calls of birds, now had new sounds infiltrating it. One gentle and melodic, far outmatching the singing of the birds, and one far louder that made said birds stop singing and fly away, one that shattered the harmony that had once been, one that was a herald of the chaos to soon approach. The crashing of brush, the sounds of someone smashing through walls of leaves, the creaks of branches were now quickly filling the canopy, and two select people were responsible for it.
Kirisvala az Ranwynn and Carter Graystone, two rag-tag heroes playing a little game of cat and mouse, the latter hunting the former through the canopies of the dense forest in a casual sparring session gone slightly awry. What they didn’t realize yet, was that getting back to the beach and their comrades would prove to be even trickier than actually beating each other. But, in the heat of battle, this little fact seemed to have escaped their thoughts.
Carter leapt from branch to branch, scampering down trunks, crawling across planks, swinging on stray vines, doing anything in his power to navigate the forest. He was trying to move extremely fast, ignoring the slight, mounting pains in his wrist in order to make up for time he had spent falling onto the beach out of a tall tree. He had been tracking Kiris for the last little while from the light song following her, just crashing blindly in her general direction until he heard the song, and immediately began following it. It had grown twice as loud since then, only adding to the noise of the forest around them. With almost superhuman agility and leaping, he flew through the canopy, the trees close enough to make the perfect high-octane jungle gym. Only it was god-knows how many feet to the ground if either fell. No pressure.
Making a large, several foot leap, he wrapped his arms around the thin trunk of a nearby tree, wasting no time in shimmying up. It was like Tarzan vs…..Hadrian Monkey? Alien Monkey? The one chimp from Planet of the Apes? Eh. He quickly swung across three branches, using his hands for the first two, before hooking his legs over the third and hanging upside down like a big overgrown chimp. Squinting up, he could see Kiris a few trees away, singing with her eyes closed. Now was his chance, she was in the line of sight. The song was now as loud as ever, almost ringing in his ears. A lion ready to pounce on a perfect gazelle for dinner...god, why was he so creepy?
Tensing up his legs in preparation for the leaping strike that he hoped would end the fight, if it could even be called such, Carter observed Kiris intently, and noticed how she suddenly opened her eyes and inspected her surroundings, her eyes eventually settling on him. Far from scurrying off to safety or getting in a better position to fight back, she merely gave him a playful smile and continued singing, infuriating him. Well, even if she wasn’t going to keep running, he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up the chase. Propelling himself with gusts of wind in addition to his own strength, he made the leap, aiming straight towards her with another of his trademark flying kicks.
Before he could reach her, however, his foot suddenly began feeling much heavier than before. The reason for it becoming weighed down soon became apparent: there were numerous crystalline growths appearing around his leg and slowly expanding, becoming heavier and, more importantly, slowing him down. In the end, his kick did not reach its intended target; instead, he slowed to a halt and was sure to fall to the ground. That is, until a long claw reached out and grabbed him by one of his flailing arms, taking care not to hurt him.
“Givin’ up yet?” The Hadrian asked, a grin on her face.
“Y-y……”
“Y-yes” he gasped out, panting heavily. On his face was an expression etched of pure fear and pain, gritting his teeth with a loud sound. With a face and cry of obvious joy, Kiris yanked up Carter onto the wide plank, putting both into a crouching position, face to face.
But, something had changed.
Carter’s expression of panic had now morphed into a wicked, wide smile. “On second thought…” he said slowly with an air of glee, before slamming a left hook right into the side of Kiris’ face, squarely on her jaw. “I’ve changed my mind. Forgive me, will you?” He then leapt forward and slammed his knee directly into her stomach, gust of air sending her flying into a nearby tree with a sonic shout of surprise and fear, seemingly disrupting the little natural harmony still spared, birds and leaves fluttering in every which direction.
“That’s not fair! I don’t forgive you!” The Hadrian cried out in anger as she held onto the tree by sinking one of her claws into the wood. With the other one, she effortlessly snapped one of the tree’s largest boughs and, with all of her strength, lobbed it at Carter like it was one of Zeus’ thunderbolts. She repeated this procedure a couple times before changing her approach, climbing up the tree’s trunk and onto the top, where she easily blended in with the leaves. However, she poked out of the foliage for a moment to look at Carter.
“I’ll make you give up again, and then I won’t let you!” She shouted, shaking her clawed fist at him, before disappearing again. The delicate sound of a Hadrian’s voice intoning a spellsong once again filled the chaotic forest, though Kiris knew better than to try the same trick again.
Carter quickly dropped to a few lower branches to avoid getting shish-kebabbed by the tree branches, a wild grin still plastered to his face. “Aw, c’mon Kiris, forgiving is what friends do!” he belted out in a mock sing-song voice. “And there’s one problem with your plan: I’m not giving up.” Leaping up through the treetops in hot pursuit of that Hadrian, Carter quickly flew up all the way to the very top layer of the forest, sun starting to poke through the leaves growing in sparseness. The same song had started again, one that pretty much put a neon target on Kiris’ back. Cackling, he started a massive wind blowing through the trees, starting as a light breeze rustling the leaves, but soon becoming a full on gale, branches trembling and swaying, vines beginning to dance back and forth. “YOU GIVE UP!” he screamed with obvious delight as he tightened his fingers on the rough bark, refusing to let go.
There was only one problem, and it was that the song that Kiris was singing was not the same as before. Seated on a particularly sturdy branch, with her back against the trunk, she continued singing through the gale, trying to ignore the roaring winds to the best of her ability as she focused on the spellsong. It would not be long before she had to stop singing and hold onto the tree with all of her strength to avoid being flung away, but she only needed a few moments more to complete the spell.
Suddenly, the singing stopped, and Kiris disappeared before Carter’s very eyes. A sudden additional weight on the branch where he was standing alerted him to a presence, but it was too late, and immediately afterwards he felt a pair of claws firmly yet carefully grasping his shoulders, and a long tail wrapping around one of his ankles. “You’re goin’ to have to try a lot harder than that, because I’m not givin’ up either!” She told him, her usual cheer laced with dose of friendly rivalry. Then, the Hadrian took off, practically flying from branch to branch, leaping from treetop to treetop, traversing the forest and dragging the blond boy through as much foliage and as many branches as possible. Elena said not to do anything dangerous, so that limited her possibilities quite a bit, but she figured this was suitable: the worst that could happen was Carter getting dizzy and earning a few scratches.
“Enjoyin’ the view?” She asked him playfully, turning to look at him for just a moment before turning her sights ahead, careful not to crash into a tree.
“NOOOOO! FOR GOD SAKES I’M NOOOOT!” he practically screamed as he felt branch after branch after leaf after vine after stray bird smack him in the face repeatedly. He was flipped upside down, unable to see, unable to breathe. He could barely tell where he was, what direction he was facing, and he felt a strong taste of bile in his mouth, ready to foam out. This was worse than that time he had drunk three cans of soda after eating! Worse than riding Space Mountain with a wilted quesadilla in his stomach! This was the wooooorst! He had to get out. A tree trunk was coming up, and he squarely locked his arms around the it, his grip almost torn off immediately. A loose tree branch whipped him across the face, leaving a sizable gash below his eye, barely missing. After some squirming, he managed to land a solid kick into her back, and used it to start wiggling free. Both were pulling in opposite directions, and eventually, something would have to give.
“Hey! The ride isn’t over yet, don’t be a party popper!” Kiris shouted at him as she continued the small tug of war, the pull on her lower back quickly becoming fairly uncomfortable. She needed to triumph over Carter, so she began trying to pull herself further ahead by grabbing onto nearby boughs, but a small miscalculation ended up making her fall just short of reaching the next one, and the ensuing loss of balance caused her to drop and smack her face against a tree trunk, now hanging from Carter’s ankle. Looking up, she saw his face and realized that he’d had the same idea as her.
“No way.” She said as she dug one of her claws into the trunk with all of her might, unwilling to take the same ride she had given him. Her tail quickly uncurled, releasing Carter’s ankle, though it was likely that it left a mark.
The Hadrian was about to say something else, but the sound of rushing water reached her ears, drawing her attention. Turning her eyes ahead and peering past the cover of branches and leaves, she saw a raging river that practically split the forest in half. Having heard nothing similar back when they were at the clearing, Kirisvala only now realized how far they had come.
“Um, say, maybe we should try goin’ back now?” She told Carter.
Following Kiris’ gaze, he noticed the roaring river below, mist rising off the rocks being furiously beaten. His eyes widened upon realization, and his grip suddenly slackened, with him promptly falling backwards into a nearby tree bough. “Uhhh...oh yeah….umm…yeah, maybe we should. Draw?” he weakly offered. “Yeeeahh, I’ll catch up with you, still kinda seeing double vision. God, there’s like two rivers. Um, yeah, don’t mind, I’m just hanging around.” he muttered out with a feeble attempt at a laugh, wiping the blood from under his eye.
“No way I’m leavin’ you here like this, what if a big roar-roar comes along and tries to eat you?” The alien girl told him, scaling up the tree to rescue Carter and slinging him over her shoulder before climbing back down with the aid of her claws. Quickly reaching the ground, she changed to a princess carry in hopes of making the trip more comfortable to Carter, though she didn’t know if it would embarrass him as well.
“Besides, I can find the way back easy, we Hadrians can track people! For instance, Mars is right over there.” She said as she started walking in the direction of the clearing with Carter in tow. “I bet our fight really impressed E-” The girl paused, starting to realize just why going off to play in the forest might not have been such a great idea. “...lena.” She finished. She and Carter looked at each other.
“Crap.”
