All the better; all the worse . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"I'll be sure to catch you," Eld assured her as she started to climb. "The question is whether it'll be with my arms or my head." A little humor to hide the fact that he was genuinely nervous about her climbing. But he was going to watch her carefully in case she fell, and also to try and remember where she climbed for his own ascent.

Very quickly, he discovered there was a complication he hadn't considered--and one Akizetsumei obviously hadn't considered as well: she was wearing a skirt, and despite not being terribly short he could quite frequently see up it as she climbed.

For a few moments his mind froze and his face turned red. Even once his brain started up again he was faced with a dilemma, as the polite thing to do was to turn away, but the safe thing to do was to keep an eye on her. And he didn't want to say anything and risk distracting her so that she fell...

As always in those involved in medicine, safety outweighed other concerns, even if that made him uncomfortable, and further uncomfortable simply by knowing it made him uncomfortable, because he felt that he shouldn't be at all uncomfortable in the situation seeing as how she was several years his junior...

No, stop that...just focus on her route... But tried as he might, his attention kept getting drawn from the brown of the cliff face to pink...

[Nayt]

"Thankyou," Akizets meeped sheepishly. She was kind of embarrassed to admit that she didn't know if she was going to make this, but she fully planned on trying. It was inevitably a surprise to her when she realized exactly how natural the ascent felt to her, regardless of the two months she'd spent away from this spot.

Indeed, Akizetsumei was completely unaware of her wardrobe malfunction, just as she had been ignorant to it earlier when she bent down to bow in apology after waking Eld up in the morning. Blissfully unaware, she continued her ascent until she reached the top. It was actually rather effortless for her, at least until the top when she needed the upper body strength to hoist herself over the cliff-side. Just beforehand, though, she really needed a break. She needed a moment to breath and recollect her strength. For this, she moved one foot far from the other, to spread her feet (and thus her legs) for better leverage, and leaned forward with her head and chest. She took a few second to inhale deep breaths, one after the other, before finally reaching up with her right hand, clawing at the grass above and beyond her, and pushing up with all the strength in her legs.

Akizets pushed and pulled herself up until she was laying flat on her chest with her legs dangling over the edge. All it took was a bit of crawling with her elbows and she was safe.

The girl couldn't help but giggle once it was done. She sat down cross legged and reveled in her victory with a wide smile across her lips. It was only then, though, that she realized Eld had to come up this way, too. She bent over to look down the cliff-side.

"Heeeey!" she called down to him as if the wall were much higher than she was giving it credit for, "C'mon up! I'll help you!"

[Zach Kaiser]

"Ah, um, I'm fine on my own!" Eld replied a little louder than he probably needed to even taking the distance into account. Safety be damned, he'd had to look away just before she finished climbing or else he would have had physical as well as mental difficulties climbing the wall himself.

It's just a natural biological reaction it's just a natural biological-I am a pervert and I'm going to hell.

It was a small mercy that she was sitting cross legged at the top. He was slightly worried that if he looked up at the wrong time he'd see something that would cause him to lose his concentration and fall.

He took a few minutes to size up the cliff, looking at the various juts and indents since he'd failed miserably at memorizing Akizetsumei's route. At least that was the part he was good at, the part he could train at to beat Sarah. He wasn't stronger or faster than her and was maybe more agile on a good day, but his mind was sharper. If he could train himself to see paths and possible actions when she had to feel around, he'd have an advantage. And he sort of needed at least one/

There. That looks like the easiest spot. He moved off the path, several feet to the right, before jumping up and climbing in a flurry of motion. He definitely wasn't as fluid as Akizetsumei, but once he started he continued relentlessly until he was at the top. Unlike her, he didn't have much trouble pulling himself up, though he was still rather out of breath once he got to the top.

"S-See? No problem." The one blessing was that the climb was tense and strenuous enough that he mostly forgot about his embarrassment and shame.

[Nayt]

Akizets giggled again when Eld made it to the top. She was more than willing to have reached down to help him get up top-side, but it was perfectly okay that he didn't want help. It was actually kind of endearing. It meant Eld was strong enough to do a lot of things on his own.

"W-well, um--this is it~!" Akizets announced as she opened her arms, as if inviting Eld to partake in all the serenity of the piece of land she'd forever staked out for herself and others of her sincere companionship to share.

At the top of the cliffside, Eld would find Akizetsumei's little slice of paradise. A blank and empty grass covered hill extended up slowly and dipped down and proceeded on to meet the woods again, though it was ultimately surrounded by cliffs on three sides. It overlooked all the canopy below it, providing the outlook of a sea of green laid out before them, seemingly endless until the small dots of Hillcrest on the horizon, and the familiar lake of Eld's leisure nearby to the south. Akizetsumei's special place happened to overlook just the same.

This was neither superior nor inferior to the special place of one Eldridge Tsukimono. They both offered a breathtaking view. They were simply two different perspectives.

Akizetsumei stood and didn't even bother to wipe the grass stained off her shirt and skirt. Rather, she approached the southern cliffside and stopped before reaching it. It'd been months since she'd been here, and she felt a wind pick up and brush her by, gently ruffling her clothes. The girl loosely clasped her hands behind her back and shut her eyes. The wind picked up. It gently brushed her on the face and her hair. It soothingly grazed against her skin, and she felt serenity again. It brought scents from below, the smell of trees and the smell of the water. She breathed calmly through her nose and took it all in. The feelings and the smells. Up here, she didn't need her eyes. Up here, she could map out the whole world just by the way the wind caressed her cheek and delivered all the natural scents of the earth below her.

It was the whole reason she visited this place, this moment of utter serenity, where no natural worries consumed her and all the threats of purpose and responsibility were but fleeting memories, carried off and dissipating into the wind.

[Zach Kaiser]

"W-Wow..." Whether it was genuinely better or repetition had just dulled his reaction to his own usual spot, he couldn't help but be awed by this view. It seemed far more majestic to him. He could even see the lake from here!

But as he turned to fully grasp the view, he caught sight of Akizetsumei, and he couldn't help but stare. Never before had he seen someone so...serene before. It was as though, for the time being, she was one with landscape, as much a part of it as the lake, the forest, or even the wind itself...

[Nayt]

It was so easy to lose herself in it all, up here where none of it mattered. Social etiquette, parents never at home, a needy little brother, a mean older brother, and all the responsibilities of life quickly bearing down on her. She could forget about it all up here. She could forget about herself. She could forget everything by the sensations, the touch, taste, smell, and sound of the world below her.

But there was more, now. More than what she was used to. There was something she couldn't forget. Someone she couldn't forget. Slowly, the girl opened her eyes. She let her senses dilute. She stopped tasting the lake upon her lips, she stopped hearing the rustle of the trees, and she stopped smelling the village in the distance. But the wind remained the same. The wind remained a constant. Akizets thought about it once. She could always back out. It was an option. It was always an option. But she hadn't backed out before. She'd brought him this far.

"H-hey . . . Eldridge?" Akizets looked over her shoulder, to where Eld stood a bit behind her. She was so nervous then, yet even that struggled to draw her from serenity.

She didn't say anything else. She wouldn't need to. The physical invitation would be enough, the way she held out her left hand, out into the open air by her side, and the way she curled her fingers open as if she was ready to hold onto someone or something. As if she was asking Eld to stand by her side and take her hand. As if she were inviting him to take in and experience the same moment as she was. She was hesitant at first, scared of being so abrupt and forward, but she took the chance and ever so gently let her hand out by her side, warm and inviting.

Akizetsumei wanted him to have this. That was why she'd brought him up here. She hadn't overthought it. She didn't at all think about a want to share more of herself with this boy. All she knew was that she wanted him to have this experience with her.

[Zach Kaiser]

Watching Akizetsumei was like watching art in motion. She was a pastel figure, bright and eye-catching and yet still at one with her surroundings, the very embodiment of tranquility. It was mesmerizing, so very different from Sarah, who seemed to always impact her surroundings, or Maya, who was forever trying to withdraw from them.

When she extender her hand to him, it was like a painting reaching out and inviting him in. Dreamily he moved forward; there was no thought behind the action, only the feeling of the air and the lake and the forest drawing him in. He wanted to become one with that feeling, to lose himself in it as she did.

He took her hand, and embraced the sky...

[Nayt]

Akizets squeezed his hand, smiled, and shut her eyes. On any other day under any other circumstance, she'd have been scared to death at this moment. Akizets would've wondered if she was squeezing too tight, if it the way she threaded her fingers with Eld's was all wrong, if she was being too forward, and if Eld even wanted to hold her hand--but those weren't thoughts for today, nor were they thoughts for the now. All the awkwardness and anxiety was gone and she was left up here by this boy's side, this wonderful boy. They were experiencing the same thing together, not as a future doctor and a deadbeat girl with no ambition, but as two human beings. As friends.

But experiences all felt different for everyone, and Akizetsumei knew that full and well. She didn't open her eyes to look at him, nor did she phrase the question in her mind. She knew in her heart what to ask, and before she parted her lips, she listened to the sound of silence for just a little while long.

"What's it like?" she asked, her voice so small and quiet but present, like a whisper on the wind meant only for Eldridge Tsukimono and no one else on Gaia's green earth.

She wanted to know what it felt like for him. What it smelled like. She wanted to know the taste on his lips and all the sounds of the world that whispered to him. She wanted to know what he was experiencing and if it was worthwhile. If it gave him an inkling of the happiness he was after, the serenity he told her a month ago that he'd yet to find in life.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld didn't answer immediately. He had already taken in the sights, as much as one could truly take them in anyway, so he closed his eyes and focused on his other senses.

He could hear the wind blowing through the forest, rustling leaves and shaking branches, smell the lake and the trees, feel the wind blow through him as though he was hardly even there. He could almost taste it...

It was something difficult to put into words. He couldn't say for sure if it was the feeling he was looking for, because it was entirely new. He could spend all day trying to pinpoint the feelings this place arose in him, examining with every sense.

His reply was short, it most accurately summed up how he felt. "It's...intoxicating," he said, a peaceful look on his face.

[Nayt]

Intoxicating. Akizetsumei was never one to really like alcohol; she'd seen people drink it and she'd seen people drunk and it just wasn't something she was too interested in . . . but that word, it seemed so fitting right now. Something intoxicating didn't need alcohol. Anything could be intoxicating. Any emotion, any feeling, any touch. Akizets squeezed Eld's hand again. She took in a deep breath from her nose, smelled the scent of the lake and the trees and how they mixed into one perfect harmony, and released a relieved sigh.

"I'm glad," she replied sincerely.

The girl looked up to Eld again, the smile upon her face so serene and happy. Her fingers remained locked and intertwined with his, her grip loose, now, but warm and soft and still as inviting as before she even touched his hand.

By the way she smiled up to him, the way her eyes seemed to scan every contour of his face, the way the wind brushed her hair back, and the way the sun looked on the side of her face-- Eld might have been able to see something, as if she were older than she really was. As if she were his age or beyond. He might have been able to see in her how she may look as a young woman.

"You look happy."

[Zach Kaiser]

"I..." Every time he thought he got a handle on the experience, something new happened. A new sensation, a new vision, like a picture that was different every time he took a look.

When he turned to respond to Akizetsumei, he was taken a bit aback. Perhaps it was the wind, or a trick of the light, or even just his imagination. But in that instant she didn't seem like the younger one of them. She seemed far beyond him, a cool, mature beauty.

His breath caught and for a moment confusion crossed his face, and then he blinked and it passed. He wasn't one to believe in magic or superstition, but if there was ever a place that was enchanted this was the place.

"...Yeah." She looked too happy, too peaceful for him to worry about the fact that he knew he was acting strange. He just smiled back.

[Nayt]

But alas, she was little more than a thirteen year old girl. Potential was hers. All the potential in the world. She just simply couldn't see it.

Akizets looked forward again, back to the sky and back to the lake in the distance. She thought about the first time she'd come up here, back when her sister was still living at home. Lynavleder-- Akizets could see the woman's face so clearly in her mind. Eyes shut, eyes open, it didn't matter. Lynavleder was a permanent memory, one she could never forget.

"I love this spot," Akizets declared contently, "It's so far away, but it's worth it every time."

So many times, she'd hiked this path and climbed this cliff and stood here at the edge of it all and took in everything.

"Laina showed me this place, you know?" The way she said the woman's name, it was as if she was adding some sort of silent 'e' to the front. "I was just starting school, and she brought me out on a hike and showed me this place. I was so scared of monsters back then that she had to carry me half-way."

She'd forgotten where it was eventually. That first time Lyna took her out was the only time; they didn't go hiking much after that, and never this far. Lyna didn't stick around home much longer, after all. But Akizets found this place again one day, and she memorized the path in its entirety.

Akizets sighed contently, before looking up to Eld again and giggling calmly. "How about we eat some lunch, now that we're up here?"

[Zach Kaiser]

Feeling like he was coming out of a trance, Eld was able to focus once more. It no longer felt like a constant barrage of new sensory information (some of it possibly made up), and advanced cognition returned.

"Yeah, I'm-" He suddenly noticed that his hand was rather warm. He looked down at it; it was entwined with Akizetsumei's. Oh, right, I knew that. "I'm starving."

Letting go of her hand, he looked around for a good place to sit down and eat. What's with me? Maybe the air up here is thinner.

[Nayt]

It was almost as if she'd completely forgotten that she was holding hands with Eld, or that she had threaded her fingers between his, or set the tip of her thumb upon Eld's pinky finger and knuckle. It was almost like she forgot how smooth and warm his skin was.

Almost.

When Eld released her hand, she became acutely aware of the fact that she'd really held his hand. That she had traced her thumb over his pinky finger and that his flesh was soft and warm and his grip was strong and comforting. She almost let out a tiny "meep," but instead held it in with a hand over her lips. It felt like her cheeks were burning, and the more and more she thought about it, the more nervous she felt. But she didn't once question if the moment was spoiled. She didn't spoil it at all. She was happy and Eld was happy. The after-moment was just a little nerve wracking was all!

To get her mind off of it, Akizets took a step back from the cliffside and turned around to the small hill behind them. She walked up to its crest and plopped down without a word. Her face was still red but she didn't think or focus on it too much, and instead pulled her messenger bag on her lap.

"Leeeeet's see . . ." Akizets trailed off, "I gooooot . . ."

She listed the items off to Eld. To say they were absurd was an understatement. She put things on sandwiches that most people ate as three course meals--which wasn't to say any of them were bad. She had all fresh and good ingredients, thought, and any preference for pork, fruits, and vegetables was going to be well met, but the concept of a slice of pork roast, sweet peas, and mashed potatoes was a very odd mixture to put together between bread . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld followed just behind her, sitting down across from her on the crest of the hill. When he first saw the sandwiches she made, he was...well, surprised. There wasn't really anything wrong with anything she'd chosen, but...

"Umm...Akizetsumei? Is this stuff you usually put on sandwiches?" They definitely didn't look like any he'd ever seen before. They didn't look bad, per se--everything on them looked of decent quality. It was just...not things you usually put on sandwiches. The peas only worked because of the mashed potatoes, and he couldn't quite wrap his head around mashed potatoes between slices of bread. It was like she'd just taken all the courses from a dinner and stuck them in a sandwich.