Twilight Chronicles Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Kisai walked briskly, leading the students towards their destination
without a word. As the trees grew denser, heads began turning from
side to side, looking around in nervous anticipation. Emi kept close
to Suzu as they followed the rest of the crowd. She could see that
Suzu was at least as nervous as her, if not more so, but Suzu’s
outward confidence was contagious. The group continued walking until
they had reached a large clearing. Behind them, the sunlight had been
able to cut through the canopy of trees, but after the clearing, the
trees were dense enough to darken the ground.

“Here we are. Your destination is straight ahead of you. You have your
maps, so there should be no problems. If you get injured, break the
crystal, and someone will come and find you. Of course, that shouldn’t
be an issue.” Kisai looked around at the young people standing around
him. Pausing for a second, he added, “Oh… and, good luck.”

With that he walked forward through the crowd. All of the students
turned to watch him as he moved past them. Stopping suddenly, five
steps away from the last student, he turned his head back to face
them. “Well, what are you kids waiting for? Get going!” And with that,
he continued forward. Several students jumped at his words, and ran
off into the forest, prompting others to follow them. Shinji shrugged,
and walked calmly forward.

“C’mon, you slow-pokes! Let’s get outta here!” Suzu called at her
friends as she began charging ahead. Haruhi looked at Isaak and sighed
as they began catching up, with Emi following closely behind.

Shortly after losing sight of the other students, Emi’s eyes were
darting around at every little sound. The woods seemed to grow darker
by the minute, and Emi began questioning whether or not Suzu’s
shortcut was a good idea after all. And apparently, so did the two
boys.

“Ah, Freyleyn, I thinking your plan isn’t exactly working out, vi
znayete? I can’t find us anymore.”

Emi looked at him, worriedly, “What do you mean, you can’t find us?
I’m right here...” Her eyes fell onto what he was holding in his hand,
and she blushed, embarrassed. “Oh. Right. The map.” She gave a little
nervous laugh that startled a flock of birds on one of the trees, and
they flew in all directions, calling out loudly. Emi jumped, and moved
closer to Isaak, who laughed quietly to himself, trying not to
show it.

Suzu called back, “Naw, I know exactly where we are. Gimme that map.”
Snatching it out of his hand, she looked around at it. “We’re right…
no, not there, we turned back here… well, let’s see… umm…” Suzu looked
up at the other three people, rubbing the back of her head with her
hand and chuckling nervously. “Well, here’s to not having a clue.”

Haruhi sighed, loudly and dramatically. “My word, how hard is it to
have us go in a straight line? I mean, honestly!”

Suzu glared back at him. “Well, I’d like to see you get us out of here.”

Haruhi laughed mockingly, “Fine, let me show you how it’s done.” Suzu
sulked slightly but whipped out her hand with the map in it, which
Haruhi took and began to examine.

“Well, there’s a river around here some where. If we find it, it’ll
take us right there.”

Looking up at him brightly, Emi felt some of her worry vanish. “Really?”

“Ah, the dovol'no boy helps us out! Now, the river!”  Isaak followed
Haruhi, with Emi staying close to him. Suzu alternated between
charging forward and slipping back to the group.

After a few minutes, Emi was getting ready to give up. The river
Haruhi had mentioned was nowhere in sight, and it was likely that they
were not going to find it at all. And, apparently, some of her
companions had similar feelings. Isaak was muttering to himself, Emi
couldn’t quite hear what, and Suzu’s attention span for anything had
all but disappeared. Emi kept close to Haruhi, despite her lack of
confidence in the situation, mostly because he seemed to be the only
one who was helping them move forward. Her nerves didn’t help as she
jumped at the slightest sounds. Suddenly, Haruhi stopped.

Trying not to run into him, Emi nearly fell over. Balancing herself,
she looked at the boy, confused. “What’s wrong?”

Haruhi smiled smugly. “Nothing. Just take a look.”

Emi looked ahead. The darkness that engulfed the forest was hard for
her to see through, but in the distance, she could see a stream, the
small points of light that passed through the trees reflecting off the
water.

Isaak relaxed and let a smile creep over his face. “So, you are more
than just a pretty face.”


Suzu chuckled slightly, more from relief than anything else. “Well,
we’re here. Now what?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We follow the river up to temple.” Haruhi sighed
from annoyance as he spoke. He turned to begin following the river up
stream.

Emi was about to turn also when she looked the other direction and saw
a light, flickering slightly in the distance. “Hey. Do you think
that’s another student?”

Suzu looked for a second before shrugging. “Eh. Whoever it is looks
like they’re doing fine. Let’s just get there as soon as possible.” As
she turned around to leave, Isaak spoke up.

“You, know, the little Freyleyn has a point, vi znayete? We should go
help the poor soul some, if he needs it.” Turning to face downstream,
Isaak looked at the light again. “Come on, Emi, let’s see what’s up.”

Rolling his eyes, Haruhi threw his hands up, dejectedly, and followed
them “Oh well. I guess it can’t hurt. Come on, Suzu; let’s go see
what’s up.” Suzu looked up from what she was doing – which was staring
at her reflection in the river. “Okay. Why not?”

The group approached the light carefully. “Hello? Who’s there?” Emi
called cautiously, looking left and right to try to spot the person.
She continued forward uneasily, leading the group for the first time.
There was just something about the situation that didn’t feel quite
right to her. As the light drew closer, Emi noticed that it wasn’t
attached to anything – it simply floated in midair. Bobbing up and
down as it floated, the fire drew closer to Emi, close enough for her
to touch. Her arm reached up slowly, but almost subconsciously, as she
reached for the fire.

The fire exploded in a burst of light before her hand got close,
blinding everyone present. Emi’s mind raced from a lack of
understanding – what was going on? What happened? Were the others
okay? She felt herself fall to one knee, as she blinked to focus her
eyesight. She looked around, shocked at what she saw – the other three
had disappeared. Heart racing, palms sweating, she turned her head
back and forth, hoping each time to see the others.

“Hello.” Emi’s head snapped towards the voice in front of her. She
looked at the boy standing in front of her, but didn’t recognize him.
The boy's auburn hair hung loosely on his head, and his eyes gazed almost mournfully at her. “Hello?” She asked timidly.

“And goodnight.” Emi felt a hard blow to the back of her head, and
fell to the ground, unconscious.