"Aahh, Rhea, you really need to cook more for me," I suggested as she packed everything, ready to leave. She glared at me, "I'm not your housewife, Terry," she said and threw an empty bottle at me. It was so close to my face before I was able to dodge it.
"Hey! My name isn't Terry!" I yelled, slightly offended. "Well, it's not like I care," she said throwing another bottle, to which I also managed to dodge.
She carried her bag after packing and stood up. "Hey, you managed to dodge the bottles but couldn't catch them. That's good but not good enough, go get the bottles back, no littering," she ordered. I rolled my eyes and turned to take the bottles.
Rhea walked off without me. I took the bottles and ran off with her. I can finally go back and take a rest. 'Hey, I thought you wanted to check the path,' my guardian angel reminded me. Right! The path!
"Hey Rhea, I saw a path which isn't connected to anything at all, I wanted to ask if we could check it out," I said. She turned to me, "where? It might be the Lost Path! No one has ever seen it though!" She exclaimed.
"Where is it? Where is it? Where is it!" She asked excitedly, jumping up and down. "Geez, calm down, Rhea!" I said, grabbing her shoulders to calm her down. She gripped on my wrist and pulled me along, "show me, show me!"
It's so not like Rhea, she is usually so matured. What is it about the path that she gets so excited and so enthusiastic? I smiled and lead her to the side of the current path. I tried to spot the path but it's nowhere to be seen. We walked down further and I saw an end of the path. Not so sure beginning or ending but it's something.
I pointed at the path, "there it is," I said. I swear her eyes were shining when she saw it. "Why are you so excited over that?" I asked.
"You don't know? That's where the spirits lead you to get you lost, if you go near, you can see the oldest spirit here and he is said to lend you help and form an alliance with spirits who found him," she explained.
I see... so that's why she wants to seek the path. It's basically gaining an extra protector. We walked towards the path and with each step we took, the path seems to be going further and further. "Rhea, can we go back and come back later or tomorrow?" I whined.
"No, you need a pattern to go to the path or it will just be going further, we need to figure this out," Rhea said. "And you came in without a plan? Rhea, what were you thinking? You will be getting us lost here!" I half yelled at her. Anger slowly rising within me.
"Calm down, we can just try to go in a direction and examine the path," she said calmly. I balled my fists in anger. I took a really deep breath slowly breathe out slowly and looked at her straight in the eye, "Rhea, we will be stuck here... for days," I gritted out.
"I can teleport food here," She shrugged. "You can't use magic here, remember?" I reminded. "Eh, it's fine, it doesn't affect the forest, right?" She said slowly.
Where is the smart and strict Rhea I know? I groaned in frustration. 'I know the way,' my guardian angel claimed. I try shutting her off as I turned to Rhea. "So what do you plan to do now?" I said as I cool off slowly.
"Hmm, which way do you think we should go?" She asked. I raised an eyebrow and look dead right into her eyes, "How am I supposed to know? What do you expect I would say? 67 degrees to the right for 93 steps or something?" I asked, randomly saying the numbers that come up in my head first.
"Alright let's do that then!" She exclaimed and estimated the angle and started to count her steps. I rolled my eyes, "Rhea! That was random!" I half yelled.
"I know, but it wouldn't hurt trying right? Sometimes random guesses works," she shrugged and continues counting every step she took, "eight, nine, ten...."
"Rhea, stop! What if it gets us even more lost than we are right now?" I pulled onto her arm. She yanked it out of my grip and continued to count. I swear to heavens and guardian of this forest, is she out of her mind? She was all 'yo we gotta train' this morning and she's acting nothing less than a small child counting her way to find a treasure which is literally just chocolate wrapped in coin patterned foil stored in a plastic container disguised as a treasure chest.
I tried reaching out to my guardian angel but she doesn't say anything at all. I looked around to see any signs of living organisms other than trees that I can seek help from. I looked around trying to spot anything, anything at all through the trees. A fox seemed to be running our way and I froze, staring wide-eyed at the fox that is appearing bigger as it sprints nearer towards us.
I stepped back, "Rhea! There's a fox coming here!" I yelled and tried to catch up with Rhea who is still walking. She doesn't seem to hear me. I glanced worriedly at the fox which jumped towards me. I pulled my arms up to cover my face and shut my eyes.
Seconds later and no impact whatsoever. I slowly pulled my arms down and looked around. There wasn't any fox to be seen and Rhea isn't in sight.
"Rhea? Rhea! Hello? Rhea, can you hear me? Where are you!?" I screamed at what seemed to be nothing at all. There isn't anything but trees around me. Where could she have gone? Where did the fox go?
The body shape of my guardian angel started to slowly form, "Arran, you've entered a time loop trap and there's only a way out. The numbers you blurted that sounds random to you is actually the right way. I sent it to you for you to think about when you said it."
I looked at her utterly confused. She shook her head, implying that I shouldn't worry about it. I ran my hand through my hair, lightly tugging them in distress. "How do I get to Rhea?" I asked after heaving a heavy sigh.
"Close your eyes and listen to my voice guiding you. Do not open them no matter what you hear, got it?" She warned. I nodded and closed my eyes, focusing on her voice and only hers.
"Take three steps forward," she instructed. A lot of footsteps start to come near. Every single footstep was heard, they don't sound human-like at all. I took a deep breath and took three steps forward as instructed.
A loud roar blasted on my left-hand side. Terrified, I gripped the hem of my shirt and kept my eyes shut. "Six steps backward," was her next instruction. A deep growl was heard from behind in a distance. I gulped and started counting my steps backward. On the last step, I could feel my back touching a hard surface a the growl grew louder in my ear. I flinched and bent down in horror as my hands flew up to cover my ears.
"Arran, get up, that's just a tree, ignore what you're hearing!" I could hear my guardian angel call out. I took a deep breath and slowly got up and put my hands down. I could feel my leg trembling and my hands shaking in fear. As I tried to block out and suppress every single noise out of my head, I could hear my heartbeat thumping hard.
"Take 2 steps diagonally to the right, Arran," a silky voice whispered. It doesn't sound like my guardian angel. "Go on, go take the steps, Arran," she said. I hesitantly moved my feet a little bit, "No! Arran stop! Do not move any centimeters! If you heard an instruction, that was not me!" I heard my guardian angel yell from the distance and I stopped myself from moving.