Calliodore

Chapter Eight

"Yes!"

"No."

"Yes!"

"No, please, stop!"

"No!"

"Yes— wait what?!"

"Yess!! It's a yes! Two weeks it is!!"

Arletha snorted, her brain is probably broken. She rubbed her temple, before sighing, again. "Fine."

"Deal!" She snickers as she walks over to where Jeje and Yukine are. Arletha sighed in defeat, She'd get her payback one day.

The three of them puts down any of their belongings next to Arletha who was sitting on a giant rock. Cenne then complains, "Hey, it still feels not fair. How can you sit there while I'm here working? I need more negotiation with you. "

Arletha grunts, "No, that's the best you can have. "

"Then I'm not going in there. C'mon please. "

Arletha massages her temple, muttering curse words incoherently, "Oh my God, Fine. You'll get my desserts later."

Cenne ran to the edge of the lake, then without a second thought jumped in, "CANNONBALL!" She yelled.

"COLD!!" Cenne ran off from the lake, before rolling in the ground, like a helpless life she is.

"No! I'm not going there and that's final! I could've died!!"

Jeje and Yukine followed in suit, just a calmer way to get into the lake. The three of them shivered from the coldness of the lake.

Arletha cackled, feeling the power of revenge. Cenne looked at her unbelievably. So that's why she dared to offer me a big amount of food.

Cenne stepped closer to Arletha, placing her cold hands to her cheeks, feeling the warmness brushed her cold hands

"Ah... warm."

Arletha slapped both of Cenne's hands, making her muttered a small "ack".

"Cenne, we need to be faster! It's almost evening!"

Cenne sighed at Yukine, "Ugh! Okay, okay, wait!" She turned her head to Arletha, "promise me to protect my babies with all of your breath."

Arletha furrowed her eyebrows as Cenne continue, "You can't leave them alone. Their name is Froggie 1 and Froggie 2. Don't forget to feed Froggie 1, she's quite harsh, don't mind her attitude. And Froggie 2...He's a bit nervous, so don't scare him."

Arletha nodded, probably not wanting to hear any of her words again.

Yukine, Jeje, and Cenne takes a deep breath and dives in. They swam down in a quick motion, mostly because they wanted to make this quick and the water was fucking freezing. Cenne completely forgot about the lake being freezing as she was mesmerized by the fish swimming everywhere and even around them. It was a pretty sight, no one could argue about it. The three of them wishes they we're like the fishes, immune to the coldness of the water. The lake was surprisingly pretty empty, yes there was a lot of fish, but there wasn't much rocks scattered around. The fishes didn't seem threatened by the three human beings who was swimming among them. Weird.

Jeje on the other hand struggled with using her sight under water, she looks like she's about to loose her eyes. Yukine seems like he's the only normal one in this trio of divers. The lake was deeper than they expected.

After tons of fishes seen, Cenne saw something. Cenne opened her mouth to scream, "HEY! THERE'S SOMETHING THERE!"  Unfortunately she forgot that she was deeply underwater and the water started infiltrating her lungs. Jeje who was still struggling to see had a quick glance towards Cenne who was struggling to breathe and was holding on for dear life. Jeje quickly made a little wind orb for struggling Cenne and forced it inside her mouth. Cenne closed her mouth again as she looks at Jeje in relief, visible tears brimming in her eyes. If that was a possible sighting underwater. Yukine's eyes wandered to see a piece of picture, glowing right below the waterfall. The piece of the picture looks so old and it looks like it was torned off. He grabbed it before thinking twice, and nudged Jeje's arm, telling her about what he just found.

Yukine had already gotten hold of the next clue. He signed to the two of his friends to get back up on land.

The three of them swam upwards, already missing the feeling of the soft air. As they made it up to the surface, the three of them sucked a deep breath and satisfying their poor lungs. "We got it, " Yukine said.

They walked over to land where it was not freezing with Cenne still coughing due to her opening her mouth underwater and Jeje was doing whatever she could to reduce the pain from her eyes. Cenne ran over to Aretha, "Fire, please. It's so cold, " She shivered.

With Arletha making a small fire orb on her hands for Cenne, Jeje and Yukine approached them, clue in hand. In Yukine's hands, there's a shard of picture with the color blue. The next clue is written behind it.

By the past century,
The two group shall be reunited.
The key under the statue,
As beauty as the mushroom.

The kissed of the sun
As radiant as the sky,
There lies Judas,
As a symphony of the corpses playing.

Cenne scratches her head in confusion, Arletha stopped making the fire orb to focus entirely on the riddle, Yukine rested his head on his hands, and Jeje closes her eyes — deep in thoughts.

"Okay we found the next clue, good, now what? " Letha asked, visible frustration running over her face and tone.

"You think I fucking know?" Jeje snapped.

Cenne cleared her throat before opening her mouth with closed eyes, "Mushroom is ugly, is the creator has this low standard? They can pick anything other than mushroom! Frog, example." Cenne snapped her eyes open, "my Froggies! Oh my God, are they...Are they alive?!"

Arletha nodded, "save and alive."

"We have all the time in the world, Let's figure this out with as much time as we need. We shouldn't rush it. " Yukine said.

The four of them agreed. Whatever this clue is hinting towards, it'll come to them over time. It's not like there was a time limit after all. The group decided to discuss about the clue while they ate. Arletha — like she promised, shared her food with Cenne who looked like her serotonin was absolutely busted. Hours of discussion and the four of them was still running around in circles, it was getting dark. They decided to call it a day and rest for now. Tomorrow is gonna be another day of figuring shit out. Setting up a place to sleep, the four of them layed down, the sound of the soothing waterfall gently tickled their ears while their eyes fluttered open and closed.

Just as they were about to head to dreamland, a noise ruined the peaceful atmosphere, snapping the four of them awake, followed with Cenne's hysterical scream. And oh boy, it was not the waterfall.

It was an explosion.

A big explosion.

To be continued.