24 Chapter Six || Realize Living (1/2)
The trio strolled briskly on the road to Byar'non. Essairyn twirled a teardrop-shaped, viridescent stone pendant between her fingers. Earlier, she had punctured a tiny hole at the tip of the gem with magic and looped the fine string once through it.
She didn't want to lose too much of the Ayvirdizite, so even if a single strand wasn't durable enough to last long as a necklace, she had already planned to make the jewel into a long earring once she got ahold of some light colored metal.
Essairyn snacked on a dark pink apple with pale, chartreuse yellow flesh. She had bought the apples and some peaches that were shaped like small mangoes from the marketplace. She sampled them from one of the stands and was instantly sold on their crisp, exotic flavors.
”Why'd you only buy fruit? Why not bread or meat or something else?” asked Darren as he chomped down on a mango-peach.
”…Meat…” Essairyn's eyes lit up at the thought of a juicy steak fillet. ”Well, fruit gives water and nutrients, and there wasn't exactly a water bottle stand around. Eh, we'll make it through somehow.”
”Make it through? You have no plan?”
”This is an adventure! There's no set plan; it's constantly changing.” Essairyn's eyes sparkled.
”But we need water to survive,” objected Darren.
”Probably.”
”Probably?!”
”Well there's no sun.”
”Wai-, what—?!” Darren's eyes shot up to the sky, and he spun around frantically searching for the sun. ”There's no sun!”
”Yup.”
”Ahh, I thought I had already come to the realization that this was a different world. But I'm still so surprised.” He furrowed his brows in a 'huh' look.
Essairyn gave a soft laugh, and Akari just raised an eyebrow tuft.
”Yes, and watch this.” Essairyn suddenly broke away at a breakneck speed while Akari hung on for dear life.
”Hey, where're you going?!” Darren shouted, and he sprinted after the girl who was quickly vanishing from his view. To his astonishment, he accelerated at an anomalous pace. The refreshing air whisked silkily about his face, and he felt freer and more invigorated than ever before. Every bound took him closer to her, and he yelled, ”Essairyn! This is amazing!”
The girl turned her body in a sideways run to look back at Darren. ”Right?!” she called back. She spun on her heel and ran to meet him. A few strides before she reached him, Essairyn leapt into the air above him in a somersault.
”Whoa there!” Darren laughed as he reflexively ducked; even though, she was several feet above his standing height.
Essairyn giggled with giddiness when she landed. ”It's incredible, isn't it? I couldn't ever do this on Earth.”