A/N: I'm back to alternate-week updates! Wheeee it gives me more time for longer chapters, but if you can't wait for two weeks I'll find some way to put up 2k words somewhere else per 4 days? Hm I haven't really thought about it yet but see what I'm up to on Instagram (hisangelchip) and hopefully I'm not being distRacTed by BL in japan or thrift shopping my wallet away or eating adorable street food because Japan.
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Refusing to experience another round of strange, unexplained heart palpitations, I made for the longer, less dangerous route that did not require god-like balance and footing on rocks that were jagged and wet—pretending that I'd noticed something else further downstream. Leroy had clicked his tongue as soon as I turned away from him, but a brief moment of my concern was enough to register the hint of a smile on his lips; clearly amused. He watched me make my way downstream, taking a long and careful time to avoid anything suspicious.
"You know we held hands for more than half-an-hour yesterday, right?" He called over the rushing waters and I felt my ears burn at once, turning to him with a glare. This, he challenged with a look of his own.
"I never said anything about holding hands, Leroy. I'm merely ensuring that neither of us slip and fall or, well, hit the side of our heads on a rock. The way up to the bank isn't as steep here as it is up th—"
I slipped; on what I initially registered as a part of the bed without firm footing but turned out to be quite the drop, barely noticeable from the surface and the force of the water, rushing down and past the dip, nearly knocking me off my feet.
And as every reasonably-minded person who's ever read up the basics of first aid or general safety precautions, I willed every bit of muscle in my body to fall forward, prioritising the back of my head. My hands, stretched out front, landed on a fortunately smooth surface and was enough to support my weight.
"Oh god."
Some distance behind, I could hear him calling my name but it was in that moment that I realized the rushing waters had turned into a blur of white. Textures and outlines disappeared; details vanished.
"Please no," was all I managed to say, piecing together the fact that I was soaked from head to toe and that did not necessarily bode well for my glasses, which could have flown off my face during the fall. That, or upon impact and—
"Vanilla," he was beside me before I knew it and still, I could barely make out the features of his face. "Oh fuck."
He must have observed at once that my glasses were missing because, well, even though his expression remained an empty blur from my point of view, the tone of voice accompanying his curse wasn't all that hard to decipher. Naturally, I shared his sentiments.
"Get Si Yin here. I'll start looking first—"
"Yeah, leave you alone in this current when you're as good as blind, groping around in the water," Leroy snorted, his face coming in and out of focus as he leaned further down to check if I'd sustained any injuries. "We'll look together. She's smart enough to know when we're taking too long."
I sighed; the sound of water rushing past our feet filling my head and god was I frustrated at myself. So much for having an encyclopaedia in my head when I couldn't even notice the change in water level and the stronger current right after it and here I was, being punished for a moment of oversight.
"What number?" The captain held up an obvious two in which could be determined by several factors that added up to that conclusion. I rolled my eyes.
"The colour of human skin stands out against a forest of green, Leroy. And the way in which your wrist is turned, plus the general outline of your hand is proportionate to a two so there's no way I can't see what number that is," I laid out very quickly, sure that my glasses would have been swept further and further away with every wasted second. "I can't make out your face, or general details and textures. The water looks like snow and your face is flat, so if we could perhaps get started on looking for—"
"Better now?" He teased, leaning close enough for me to make out the smirk in his eyes so I put my hand on his face and pushed it back to it's original position.
"Still a flat face," I lied, ignoring the odd thundering in my chest. "Please be useful and help me look for my glasses."
Leroy called for Si Yin over his shoulder, and whilst I was initially doubtful of her actually hearing him over the noise of the her mind and her general surroundings, she promptly appeared in the distance in the form of a red blob. It sort of jumped around for several seconds, increasing in size before I squinted and realized I was looking at fishes wrapped in the jacket of her tracksuit like a package.
"Hey, look what I did!" She came lugging it in her arms, standing by the bank. "Cool right? This way, we won't have to worry about them slipping and falling every—who's that?" Beside me, Leroy snorted a laugh.
Sighing and dismissing his childish behaviour, I pointed out to Si Yin that it wasn't her first time seeing me without my glasses. To this, she responded by pausing long and thinking hard. Unfortunately, no memory of my glass-less-self seemed to surface. "So we have to put them back on you, right?"
"Yes, but who knows how far they might've been swept by now, thanks to a certain someone," I quipped without looking at the subject of my statement. "Please help me look for them. Silver frames. Rectangular, but with the sides looking like angle brackets."
"You mean it blends in with the reflection of the water surface," my classmate pointed out and I couldn't help but admit that she was, indeed, correct. To further this unprecedented tragedy, the near-setting sun meant that our time here was almost up.
Leroy seemed to notice as well. "Fifteen minutes at most. We have to get back before there's no light."
Unable to hold back a sneeze, I turned away for a second to excuse myself before coming up with the best general plan I could think of. "Five minutes is enough. Anything more than that would be a waste of time—if it's not caught between some rocks, the currents would have swept it too far. Plus, we're all soaking wet and the temperature around here can drop really fast as soon as the sun sets. We shouldn't be taking any risks."
Both stared at me in return, as though not quite knowing what to say. I sighed. "It's... not a big deal. Not to mention, it was my fault as well, so. I'm really sorry for the additional work."
Si Yin left the fish wrapped in her jacket on the bank and crossed the distance to prod my chest like a mother would to a child. "Can't always have you looking after me either, you know. We're nowhere near even."
This, I was admittedly grateful for but all I could notice right after was the fact that Si Yin, having removed her jacket, had been walking around in her white gym shirt without a care in the world.
"Si Yin I can see your bra," I stated forwardly, pointing at the rocks where I'd left the jacket of my tracksuit and telling her to wear it at once.
I vaguely saw her jaw drop. "What does it matter? My boobs are concave," was all she said before turning to head back up to the bank and in the direction I'd pointed her in. "But I guess your man's gonna end up giving you his jacket anyway, so I guess I could wear yours."
Speechless, I watched her diminish into a blob and Leroy, beside, and already combing the waters for my glasses, muttered a 'she's got a point.'
=========================
For the sake of my author's sadistic amusement and the purpose of plot, the day's conclusion was nowhere near miraculous. This is unfortunately where her distaste for miracles shine through and clearly the reason why she had to write Flight School in order to balance out the number of miracles that happen in my godfather's life.
We returned to camp as wet as the fish in Si Yin's jacket and as cold as Luka Sullivan's heart without the existence of Iolani Tori. And as my classmate had dictated, Leroy had me put on his jacket as soon as we left the stream before ordering Si Yin to lead the way while he stayed behind and pulled me left and right whenever there was something in the way. I honestly wished he'd just said it out loud since the act of being led around (by him, specifically) was odd enough for the muscle in my chest which probably needed to be checked some time soon just in case I was suffering from high blood pressure.
"Fair warning: I'm pretty useless without my eyes, so," I announced the moment everyone else noticed I was practically blind. "I... well, I'm very sorry."
"It's okay, all we have to do is put the stuff really close to your face," said Rosi and Nabila rolled her eyes, chucking a basket her way and missing. "Come check out the stuff we got."
I shuffled over, stepping over things that I vaguely pronounced dangerous or looked generally un-okay to be stepped on. "And the fire?"
"I'll help them get it going," said our captain, turning to the two other male students in the team who were staring at the long... brown, something. Trunk of a tree, I assumed. "Si Yin, can you gut and scale the fish? Know how?"
She nodded, already unwrapping her package of fish and placing them on a slab of stone Bank had arranged and washed whilst we were away, having used it as a cutting board for some fruit he was testing. Si Yin didn't seem to be responding to Leroy's direct question but since she was already doing what he'd wanted her to do, he didn't seem to mind.
Feeling at ease that everything was going generally well, I sifted through the vegetables and mushrooms that Nabila and Rosi had foraged and was surprised by how decent the loot was. Oyster mushrooms; chanterelles; allium ursinum, also known as wild garlic; two coconuts and a Brazil nut that looked exactly like the one that Chen had used in his friendly against Violet Birchwood.
"We spent thirty minutes trying to get that," said Nabila as soon as she noticed my surprise. "The coconuts took even longer, shaking the tree after we realized that climbing it was just impossible."
"Quick question: what do we do for drinks?" Rosi came up with all of a sudden, staring at the limited number of fruits and the complete lack of greens. "Do we search for a banana tree and whip up some smoothie or something?"
"For now, the coconut should serve as a good back up just in case our foraging goes badly tomorrow," I held the fruit as close to my face as possible. "Let's leave one for that purpose and use the other and the brazil nut to make milk and oil."
The girls seemed to be rolling their heads around but the expressions on their face remained vague and beyond the comprehension of my poor eyesight. "I was actually thinking of using the flesh to make some grated dessert but your idea's better."
"Oh. Oh no," I didn't wish to interfere with Rosi's plans for dessert. "That's not it. Let's hear it if you have something in mind."
She shook her head. "Nah. It's not that good... Violet's obviously going to be the one coming up with the dessert menu on their team and it's not enough to go up against whatever she's got up her sleeve. How do you make milk from nuts again?"
"Pop them in the food processor or something," Nabila was looking around, using the tip of her shoe to part the undergrowth and flip random rocks lying around. "I'm gonna look for something that can double up as a pestle."
Rosi appeared to scramble for the next task, volunteering to sort the wild garlic and onions for today and tomorrow's use. I stopped her.
"Perhaps we should take a look at the mushrooms first. I mean, the garlic and onions aren't going to kill us," I bent over to examine the pile of mushrooms while the crackling of a flame started somewhere behind. Looks like they managed to get the fire going. "Freshness is key as well. Some mushrooms contain proteins and toxins that are only stable at high temperatures so fresh young brackets are less likely to result in an allergic reaction should someone be sensitive to it."
At this rate, I was holding each individual mushroom bracket up to the diminishing light and inches away from my face to get a clear view of its cap and gills. Which honestly wasn't the safest thing to do since the spores could fall anytime and either cause me to break into a sneezing fit or have itchy eyes.
Once I'd given the pile of mushrooms the green, I left it to Rosi to decide on how we should be cooking it because I sensed something off about the scent of the smoke coming from the fire... if there was a fire in the first place.
Si Yin, seated on a stump in front of the stone slab with scales flying everywhere and the extinguished fire in front of her, was humming away and on what appeared to be the last fish of today's catch. From where I was standing however, it nearly looked like a table splashed with the blood of some sacrificial thing.
I waved to catch her attention. "Si Yin." She continued to hum and shimmery bits of scale continued to fly. "Si Yin, the fire's gone out. Is that supposed to happen?"
Her lack of response pointed towards the phenomenon she'd referred to back then after our first practical class with Chef Lindy: her zoning in on whatever she was doing and being unable to focus on anything else. I was about to search for the lighter and pile more dried leaves onto the burnt-out flame when Leroy came by, supposedly to check on it as well. Bank and Raul had devised some efficient way of cutting up the wood.
"Why's the fire out?"
I didn't know what to say. "Well, um. There wasn't enough fuel."
"I left that to her just now," our captain turned to Si Yin, who was nearly done with the last fish. "She nodded."
This, I couldn't explain on my own. Admittedly, however, confronting someone whilst they were concentrating hard with a knife in their hands wasn't exactly a proper thing to do. So I had Leroy hand me the lighter before putting his attention elsewhere and leave her to me instead.
"Cleaning isn't the most pleasant job but you seem to be enjoying it," I said the moment she was done, waving from across the stone slab. Only then did she look at me.
"I quite like it! My grandma was the one who taught me. I got loads of practice since I was young and with a knife bigger than this. A chopper, actually. Wait, so—what are you doing here?"
I pointed at the supposed campfire. "Just wondering if you needed any help."
"Nah, I'm done." Si Yin held up the platter of cleaned fish (laid out on her jacket, nevertheless) and flashed a grin. "So I was thinking of how we should cook this. We could smoke one or two of them, or just grill them over a makeshift grill but we haven't got any branches and it's getting kinda late so—"
"Well, regardless of how we might be cooking the fish, we probably need um, a flame," I pointed again, at the fire. "Leroy said he left that to you."
She seemed to pause right then and stare blankly in return before getting back to me with a huge moment of revelation. "Oh! Oh, that, um. Yeah now that you... yeah that totally sounds familiar. Did I forget about it? I mean yeah of course I did, the fire's out huh. Do I, um, rub two sticks together or...? I'm so sorry," she finished lamely, hanging her head. "I'm totally not cut out for teamwork."
I handed her the lighter. "It's not that big of a problem, getting the fire up again. You don't have to apologize." She sighed, holding it away from herself.
"You sure you wanna give this to me? Probably should take it back before I lose it."
"Keep it," I pushed the lighter back towards her. "For him to leave the fire—which is, of course, the most important element in outdoor cooking—to you must mean that he thinks highly of your abilities. And now that you're done cleaning the fish, you can concentrate on the next task: regulating the flame. Oh, and perhaps thinking of ways to cook the fish, which I see you have been thinking about as well, so."
The crackle and spit of flames was back before I could finish, filling our surroundings with a visible warmth. Giving the sky a quick check, I left Si Yin with a thumbs up before moving to each separate group to remind them about the setting sun.
"So we don't have any oil yet but my plan was to sauté them in the skillet just cooking them in their natural oils. Plus a bit of wild garlic and onions. What do you think?" Rosi suggested as soon as I came by, tossing the stems of the mushrooms she'd removed into the fire.
Too simple, was what I really thought but after factoring in the other ingredients and our current state of preparation, it was likely the best option. And just as I was about to agree with her suggestion, I spotted, amidst the flames, a longer-looking stem.
White; oddlythicker and definitely not the stem of a chanterelle.
Grabbing a cut of the firewood from the pile beside the fire, I hastily picked them out and had them lined up on the forest floor with my face inches away to inspect every single one of them—mostly charred by the time I'd got them out.
"Uh, Julian. The stems in these parts aren't exactly clean, especially since snails and worms go crazy over Russula mushrooms—"
"That wasn't a Russula," I said, finally spotting the one I'd seen amidst the flames. "Here. Russulas don't have a bulb at the bottom of their stem. It's called a volva... something death caps are known to have and that aside, there wasn't a Russula when I went through the mushrooms earlier." I inched the bulbous stem towards Rosi, allowing her a glimpse of it. "We need to find the cap that belongs to this stem."
She sifted through the stack at once, and in a moment produced two harmless-looking, greenish-grey caps that anyone could have mistaken for something in every other mushroom soup. "It's these ones, I think. I wasn't doing much while Nabila was looking for a pestle so I just walked around for a bit and saw a couple... but some of them really are Russulas 'cuz I don't remember seeing the bulb right there."
"That's fine," I reassured. "We could just have the oyster mushrooms, since they're easily identifiable. Plus, they didn't have stems in the first place, which means they look whole."
"Sorry," she mumbled. "Guess I'm only ever good enough for desserts."
"It's not like everyone's going to know what a death cap looks like," I pointed out. "Our safety is supposedly guaranteed by that facilitator over there." We glanced towards the idle lady staring into the distance, completely oblivious to the fact that in a parallel universe, a group of culinary students would be haunting the Amazon forest for the next century. "If anything, she was supposed to make sure none of us die."
*
Wild mushrooms, sautéed with half a wild onion and half a wild garlic; Bodó, a choice between flame-grilled, smoked, or completely burnt; and an unidentified fish cooked on stone. All paired with sips of refreshing spring water. But as fancy as I tried to make everything on the menu sound, it really wasn't all that big of a deal.
For mushrooms to taste like mushrooms, fish to taste like fish and water to taste like water, no additional amount of effort or culinary instinct was required. While there was nothing specifically wrong with each individual dish we experimented on for dinner that night, it wasn't as though one could pinpoint anything special about it either.
They were edible, to say the least. And though coming up with edible food in the middle of a rainforest and with little to no equipment and sufficient training to do so could, indeed, be considered quite the feat, there was simply no way something like this could go up against the grills and hunters and starting pantry given to Violet Birchwood's team.
Simply put, this was no winning card.
"It's not 'exciting' at all," said Raul, fingers bunched up against his temple. "We have to... what do they say... elevate the damn thing."
A collective sigh went around the campfire and unsurprisingly pointed towards a general consensus. That said, efforts to make the meal work proved more than formidable. Si Yin had come up with a contraption made out of Alder branches and that somehow enabled minimal smoke from escaping and Bank had the Bodós on a wood grill moments after she was done. Most importantly, both had chosen the right wood for smoking and grilling; distinctive from the strong, thick smoke in the air and the mild, delicate flavour incorporated into the flesh of the fish.
"Actually it's just a random tree," clarified Raul in the most forward manner he could manage.
Bank nodded. "Near camp and thin for axe. Easy job. But ya I think is maybe quite boring a little bit. Either marinade or more salt... actually I don't know what the tree name." He turned to his tree-cutting partner. "Tree name you know?"
"It's Alder," I answered as soon as Raul showed signs of doubt. Then, realized I'd crossed the line. "Sorry, um. Couldn't help... it's just, the smell. It's everywhere."
Nabila's jaw dropped and beside her, Raul nearly choked on his refreshing spring water. "Magic tongue and magic nose?"
Embarrassed, I cleared my throat and lowered my head, glad that the glow of the campfire could mask the heat on my face. "I once had a branch-collecting phase. Mind you, I was eight. My uncle was furious when he found out I'd been hiding them under my bed and possibly inviting termites into our house so he burned it all and I realized that each branch had a very distinct scent to it so I became interested in burning branches instead of collecting them for... for two months..."
All at once, they all burst out laughing and I had the gall to steal a glance at my childhood friend only to see him hiding a smile behind his hand, shaking his head as everyone else continued their fits of mirth. I let them have their fun, reaching up to adjust the frames on the bridge of my nose and realizing that there was nothing there and hence further embarrassing myself. This, the captain seated beside me saw from start to end.
"It's nice to know that the mood has been lifted partly because of me but I don't really understand what's so funny," was all I managed. "When we're done laughing, could we perhaps discuss possible improvements for tomorrow? We have one more try before the official meal prep. Two, if we're efficient enough."
Leroy ticked several off his fingers. "Mushrooms need a kick. Fish needs paste or marinade. Textures need to vary. Carbs or it's not Brazilian cuisine. Plating sucks."
Everyone got to fidgeting as he laid out the flaws of our meal one by one, both as a whole and of each dish in an individual sense. A moment's silence was enough for us to admit that he had a point for everything and was, unfortunately, right about it all.
While I was sure that the sautéed mushrooms were missing something, I hadn't exactly thought of adding chillies to it and now that he'd raised this, foraging for chillies or any sort of pepper would add a good dimension to our dishes and depth in flavour. Either way, it wouldn't be Brazilian or Amazon cuisine without some spice.
"If it's variety," I picked up where Leroy had left off, "I think we're missing something with a burst of umami—something that has to be on the heat for some time and simmering for hours before it's actually served like the moqueca we had. Or any other kind of savoury soup."
Bank raised his hand at once, as though this was a class and I was the teacher in charge. "Tom Yum Goong!! Yessss!!"
I nodded. "Yes. Something like that. Tom Yum is a good example... spicy, citrusy and with a kick. We could do a fusion of cuisines to put our own twist on Amazon Cuisine provided we actually find the correct ingredients o-or! Or we could do the exact same thing that Chen did during his friendly with Birchwood: use local ingredients to create something with a culinary technique from another culture and—"
Somewhere along the way, I'd gotten ahead of myself only to turn and notice the exhausted look in everyone's eyes; half-closed, lowered. Si Yin yawned.
"You know whAAaz good now...?" She slurred, stretching her arms above her head. "A bath in that waterfall we saw..."
All at once, she had the attention of heavy-lidded eyes and exhausted minds. Comparable to a forest of animals turning towards the sound of a falling tree.
"Again?" "Waterfall?" "How big is it? And, like, why didn't you tell us?" "Is it far?"
Having initially decided to keep this amongst the fishing team on our way back to camp, my eyes naturally wandered towards the team captain in a silent attempt to gauge an appropriate response. As though I could actually make out the exact features of his face. Si Yin on the other hand, seemed to have forgotten our conversation earlier this afternoon and jumped right into a description of the waterfall before either of us could stop her.
This, unfortunately, seemed to direct the resolve of our tired, disappointed team members towards something new and refreshing: the ultimate temptation of a bath.
"Great. Now show us where it is—women first," said Rosi at once, emerging from the girl's tent with a towel over her shoulder and jacket in her arms. Nabila followed suit before both turned and waited for Si Yin to lead the way.
My classmate appeared genuinely surprised by the fact that her mentioning of the waterfall lifted team spirits and made miracles happen, gaze alternating between me and the two other girls. "O-oh. Oh, sure, yeah totally would do I mean I want a nice bath too but don't we have to... I don't know, isn't she gonna stop us or something? Like, it's kinda dark," Si Yin jerked a thumb over her shoulder, directing our attention to the facilitator by our tents.
The lady, who had been exchanging hushed conversations over the line with some other unknown figure, seemed to have ended her call just as we looked over and was making her way towards us with a dubious-looking duffel bag.
"Flashlights," was all she said, throwing the bag at our captain—who thankfully caught it. Unzipping it, he revealed a couple of cheap, plastic flashlights that were honestly good as long as they served their purpose.
The girls scrambled for one each and before we knew it, they had Si Yin linked between their arms and were hurrying off to the waterfall, braver than any soul who remained. We watched them go.
"I know everyone's really tired, but Nabila left the crushed nuts wrapped in a leaf and forgot about making the oil and milk," I observed quietly, slightly guilty for raising this even when the rest of us were clearly exhausted beyond measure. "We could take turns—"
"I got it," Leroy stood, making his way over to the leaf package Nabila had left by the vegetable baskets. "We need it to cool overnight... might need to dig a hole or something, since there's no fridge."
"We could dig one near the stream where it's kinda cold," suggested Raul, reaching behind him for the axe. "But like, what do we use to store all that?"
Bank was taking his flashlight apart, unscrewing the back and removing the protective glass, bulb, and batteries, leaving the yellow plastic empty. "This thing is quite big and it has cap. Maybe you can wash and screw the cap back."
"Not bad," he got the captain admitting. "All that's left is a strainer..."
"A handkerchief would work," I offered, reaching for my bag and feeling for my thirteenth birthday gift from Aunt Rose. "Japanese gauze fabric. Supposedly good for summer but I mean, when we need it for other purposes..."
Raul was the first to take it, examining the vintage floral patterns on the gauze. "Wow. Expensive salt, expensive handkerchief... you're rich."
"Well, these are gifts from people who bought them with hard-earned money," I blinked. "Either way, grouping them together with the general term 'rich' might seem rather offensive. An understatement of what they've done to get to where they are."
Leroy's lodge mate appeared suddenly nervous; all thanks to my straight-as-an-arrow, all-too-frank, mildly-rude responses. "Oh. Yeah, uh... sorry."
And as soon as I wished to apologize for attacking him with words that I'd certainly not meant to say, the facilitator was back with more news.
"The board's decided to give all teams a choice of one food ingredient tomorrow morning. Today's progress was far below their expectations even for the other teams, so."
All four of us exchanged a look and our eyes, previously half-lidded and lacking of a soul, were all of a sudden filled with hope and my godfather's angelic essence.
"Perfect!" "Good good good good can we spicy?" "We should discuss this with the girls after our bath. How about a wrap-up session in an hour?" "Yeah. Sounds good."
I'd narrowed my eyes at Leroy then, squinting to see the expression on his face before regretting my attempt at doing so because all that did was meet his gaze and possibly provide him further amusement over my silly behaviour. That, and the fact that I'd spent thirty whole minutes straining brazil nut-water over my makeshift cheesecloth handkerchief into a yellow plastic flashlight three inches away from my face for the sake of accurate aim.
====================
"No pyjamas," was all I could think of as soon as the girls returned from the waterfall in their gym clothes, towels around their shoulders and flashlights zipping around. As ridiculous as it may sound, I was rarely able to sleep in anything except a proper set of sleepwear. The chilly air wasn't exactly the most helpful thing either.
Unfortunately, no one else seemed to share my sentiments. Raul had burst out laughing as soon as he heard my concerns and Bank, although poker-faced, fixed what I assumed was a judgemental stare my way. All of us had had enough of straining coconut and brazil nut into flashlights.
"I stopped wearing pyjamas at ten," Bank laid out flatly.
Raul had turned to the final-year student with a teasing smirk. "So what do you wear?" He received no entertainment in return while Rosi hurled complaints at his back about forgetting to boil the water and that they were freezing their heads off.
"Ugh," Leroy's lodge mate rolled his eyes, turning over his shoulder to hurl insults back at his classmate. "Do it yourself! We're heading to the waterfall."
"I can go help them," Bank offered, already placing his bag and towel aside. "You guys go first."
"Either everyone goes or it's two, two," our team captain laid out firmly. "This isn't school. We don't know what's going to happen or if someone's going to trip and lose a tongue or their eyes."
I had to stop him there, turning to give him a pointed glare. Bank shrugged.
"Okay, you two can go first." He pointed at what I assumed was Leroy and myself because Raul let out a frustrated groan, clearly excited about hitting the falls at night.
The moment I offered him my place however, the immediate response from both him and Leroy was a resounding: 'no,' which was honestly very confusing for my logical mind to process. Add to that the disarming fact that I needed someone to literally hold my hand throughout the entire journey of darkness and trees, I couldn't be any more muddle-minded than I already was.
Rejected by Raul and left behind by Bank's insistence on staying to heat a crock of water, I very naturally ended up in the guidance of my source of worries—from attending the equestrian showcase to shying away from holding hands, Leroy Cox was basically the root of my every misfortune. This, I voiced whilst holding on to the back of his shirt.
"Glad to know you think I'm important," was all he said in return, laughing. There was no making out his expression under the lack of light and without the current state of my eyes. "Watch your step. Bits of rock."
This continued for some time; harmless banter and the occasional silence amidst the sound of crickets and rustling of leaves in the chill of the night, towels over our shoulders and Leroy's flashlight jumping from spot to spot, the back of his shirt oddly warm.
"You hear that?" He turned.
I paused, listening hard. "The waterfall? Yes. Vaguely. We've still got two to three-hundred feet, I believe. It should sound thunderous when we're near—if the drop's high enough, at the very least."
At this, I heard him snort.
"Know anything louder than thunder?" He returned to facing front. "Or a waterfall?"
Well, surely that would depend on the position of the listener and the source of sound and while calculating decibels wasn't a matter of difficulty, there was simply too much ambiguity in the question itself since it was nearly a test of common sense in figuring out the possibilities of something else being louder than mere thunder or a waterfall but also which waterfall and—what exactly was he referring to?
*
As well-traveled as my fourteen-year-old-self may be and as many books I'd read about cultural differences across the world, there was no resolving my issues with public baths or appearing naked in front of strangers, in general. Or appearing naked in front of anyone at all.
"What are you doing?" Already, I could hear the amusement in my companion's voice and no, I was no about to feed him a spoonful of entertainment.
"The absence of clothing is not something I'm used to experiencing," I stated matter-of-factly, holding the approximately fifteen by fifty-inch towel as close to my chest as I could manage to cover the, well, the things that needed to be covered. "Feeling the breeze on areas that should not be feeling the breeze can be understandably odd."
Leroy shrugged. "Could've just said you're shy instead of going in circles."
"I-I'm not shy," was all I could manage, disarmed by the use of such an embarrassing word. "Doors exist for a reason, Leroy. We wouldn't need them if privacy wasn't a thing that human beings cared about."
Team captain was unfortunately not very good at listening. He was already knee-deep in the waters when he turned around, the silhouette of his arm stretched out and some movement at the tip of... oh. Beckoning.
"Get here."
I could barely respond without sighing. "So much for privacy." Taking tentative steps across the rocks at the bank we'd left our clothes at, I dipped my toe into the water to test how ungodly cold this thing was oh god. "Leroy, it's freezing! How are you—clearly, you're everything but human."
He'd waded into the waters that were now past his waist, straight up diving beneath the surface to wet his face and hair before coming back up. Though the features of his face and upper body were mostly a blur, I could somehow tell that he wasn't fazed by the cold. I on the other hand, required a solution.
"You have your fun," I bent over the water with my towel, ready to wet the rest of it. "I'm happy just wiping myself down—"
"Get that wet and you'll have nothing to dry yourself with," he called across the distance and over the sound of rushing water, a hint of a smirk in his voice. "Unless it's a cold you want to be serving tomorrow."
Leroy was undoubtedly the only person who knew just how to get on my nerves and push the buttons that mattered most. Perhaps the most infuriating quality of his but how else would I be an improved version of myself without someone to provide a counter to my every logical claim?
So I gave in and forced my hands to leave that precious towel behind, knowing perfectly well that while this was the most undressed version we've ever had the misfortune of witnessing of one another, Leroy's perfect eyesight was in heavy contrast to my inability to tell the difference between a rock and his head in the darkness. Yet, it was precisely this reason that I could somehow muster enough courage to supress the embarrassment and distracted thoughts that would have otherwise filled my mind should my glasses be present.
Naturally, someone else's unclothed body was going to make me highly uncomfortable.
"There is little logic in a cold shower, let alone a cold swim," was what I got to saying the moment I'd managed to get my feet past the water lapping up the bank, doing my best to stop my teeth from chattering. "I am very uncomfortable."
My companion splashed some water in my direction and I nearly had a fit from the shivers every droplet sent throughout my entire body. "That's because you're standing the furthest away from your only source of heat, dumbass."
He was closer now; the sound of water lapping against the bank slightly off from its original constant beat. "Come here."
I braced every cell in my body for a momentary malfunction, tensing as soon as I forced myself to wade into deeper waters and close enough to make out a clearer picture of my companion. The most I could do was focus on the serene bliss of witnessing a waterfall at night to take my mind off the cold; but unfortunately, the amount of energy this consumed was enough to leave the rest of my senses numb.
"You're shivering."
He was a lot closer than I thought—not quite noticing how the waters had lapped against my back while he'd made his way over and met me in-between. I even managed a couple of words without the sound of chattering teeth.
"Yes, Leroy. A scientific reaction whenever a human being feels cold."
He reached over to flick my forehead and I hadn't enough in me to react, so I ended up with droplets of water trickling down my face that was already numb from the cold. My logical response was to splash some water his way. Just a form of retaliation.
"Five minutes. That's all I'm staying," I had to declare, watching the blurry version of him splash some water on his face before roughly running his fingers through wet hair. I nearly felt the roll of his eyes.
"You're offending the waterfall," he said, now approximately an arm's length away, the hint of a laugh in his voice. "Five minutes when some people don't get to see one their whole life."
"Well, that's provided if they haven't been considering how cold it could be and plus, I doubt people would actually want to see a waterfall at night when daytime would have every other advantage. Or if they happened to possess inhuman thermo-properties like yourself."
Leroy laughed. The sound was slightly masked by rushing waters, leaving me second guessing at my ears when, already, my eyes were practically useless.
"So what do you have?" He leaned in close enough for me to make out his collarbones, which were what I'd decided to look at rather than his face. "Inhuman tongue, nose—what else."
"Not a very nice way to put it, Leroy. You're making it sound like I'm a cross between a human and a dog."
My companion took this in with a pause.
"You don't like dogs?" He blinked, prodding further. Seemingly curious. While it was hard for me to tell if I'd unintentionally offended him or if he was genuinely asking a question to clarify something, I felt the odd need to be honest nevertheless.
"It's not that I don't like them. My godfather's had one for nearly eleven years, so. A Siberian husky—which I remember identifying as a wolf back then and looking back, I must have been blind because clearly these two are different in every way. Although admittedly, I have, indeed, had some traumatic experience in my early years with dogs and while playing with Berry did ease that to a certain extent, I was very afraid of her when we first met. I mean, she was practically twice my size back then. Either way, that is beside the point: I was referring to the fact that humans generally don't like being compared to dogs, do they? Logically speaking, I mean."
He seemed to think about this; taking our conversation more seriously than I'd ever seen anyone ever regard me in such a manner. "Because they're lesser? In terms of brain capacity," he said, consciously questioning my question. Challenging my views. "Even though they can be more loyal, more obedient, more sympathetic than humans?"
I nearly let my jaw drop, slightly fazed. "W-well. Has that been proven? Point taken, I suppose. Maybe... I mean. Maybe it's comparable to how humans seem to never want to be compared to any other species. Perhaps being human comes with some irrational pride of being our own species, which would thus imply that we view ourselves as above everything else on the pyramid and—oh so that's what Flight School was all about??? I-is that what the Hunters represent??? And perhaps being compared to dogs or any other animal isn't a bad thing and that's what the entire thing has been trying to say—that we have our pre-conceived notions of what is good and what is bad and we naturally conceive anything apart from the human species as a lower form and that's why Jiro never really hated the name 'pet' because to him, it only meant that Slayne put him above everything else because to Slayne, humans were worse than animals—ohmygod how could I miss such an obvious thematic motif."
I was having an epiphany in the middle of the Amazon rainforest on a cold night, without clothes on and wading about in front of a waterfall. And Leroy was laughing.
"Who's Slayne?"
I nearly had a heart attack. "No one. Nothing. He's okay. He's happy. All is good," was all I managed, not wanting to delve too deeply into what I considered dangerous waters. "More importantly, why are you all questions today? Or tonight, for the matter. Not that I dislike it, I mean. It's... well, it's new. And refreshing, I guess," I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Good arguments, when both logically and rationally supported on both sides, become pleasant learning opportunities."
He was a little too close for comfort, gaze lowered slightly to meet my own and I never did notice the difference in our heights that was really, in my own opinion, barely noticeable. H-honest.
"Thought I'd return the favour and interview you instead," was all he said in response, the edges of his lips hinting at a smirk. "Not so cold anymore, huh?"
Absurd.
This was more than the numbing cold; more than the momentary malfunction I'd braced myself for; more than the blindness; the sound of a waterfall in my ears; the roar; the thunder, and yet—
Above all, there was something louder. Louder than thunder; than the rushing of waters from a height so high and it was then that I finally understood what Leroy had been referring to, moments before.
There.
That.
That beat.