Chapter 2: DREAM

Barefooted, she tries to make each step slow and wary as much as possible. The forest ground seems so eerie that she feels there could be something dangerous covered behind those thick dried leaves. The orange and yellow leaves keep on falling from that unending array of trees. It resembles like walking on the carpet, and even though it was comfortable to the sole, yet not in her dubious mind.

She heard a creaking sound above her head, from those gigantic and weird trees. Her vigilance was up; she stood guarded without losing a moment. She's expecting to see soaring birds or flying beasts, but all that catches her eyes are tall, aging trees waving in cadence with the gliding air. It gave her a perception of emptiness. The apprehension appears to become dread, twisting her feelings to comprehend the solitude of her surroundings. Two emotions that are trying to overlap each other.

Looking back at the path she walked through, only then she realized that she has been traveling for a long duration of time without putting anything in her mouth to fill her stomach.

"I hope this forest isn't vast enough and might take me a long time to see some drinkable liquid." She murmured.

Her throat is dry like a rock in the desert that's about to break into the sand. It almost hurt that makes her feels sick. Lips are cracking, and its chinks are getting visible.

At least, the thick leaves covered that burning sunlight, for, besides the shades that it offers, the fresh scent of wood and chilly breeze should whisper serenity, not anxiety, in contrast to what she truly feels.

Walking ahead are more bushes, and as she moves a little closer to that bushes, a beautiful sound of gushing water gives a hint of intimation to her attention. It's not loud enough for her to think that it might not be what she exactly heard. The sounds just passed by for a millisecond as the air-swept her way. But still, she's hopeful in her instinct that it can be as truthful as her sensitive eardrum, that there is truly water behind these bushes.

Her optimistic intuition takes over her fears, pushes her, strong enough to decide, and takes the chances. She went deep inside that tall and thick bushes.

She takes a deep breath before moving her hands carefully and slowly pushing the bushes to her sides, making way for herself and digging inward, together with her weary steps, calculating every motion to produce lesser sounds and movements to the verdant, tangled bushes as much as possible. A snake or any other crawling creature might be here anytime, ready to surprise her. Those things are playing over her head as she's struggling to fight the dread of every possibility.

"Hope not, well, I hate surprises that way."

Her vision is getting darker and darker, relying on that few dinky sunrays that forcefully penetrate the inner part of the bushes.

Until then, the mostly black view is changing itself to nearly grey. Which only means sparse bushes, and the digging is over. Few more steps, she can barely open her eyes by the blinding glare of light that suddenly became strange to her optics.

With such a brief and simple achievement, yet she can still feel the taste of success.

Head up, extending both arms by her side and up. She is shouting happily, expressing relief.

"At last! Air, light, water! Wait; what? Where's the water?"

All she can view is the white and pale blue sky; yon are silent and majestic mountain ranges in the distance, faded with some thin white clouds and a cliff.

She is trying to walk nearer at the edge of the ridge. The veins on her feet should be giving her tensions on the feeling of numbness and tickles in between by now. Supposed to feel like shaking, since the cliff is deep enough to make her dizzy and nauseous. She's always acrophobic, but this time, she wondered why it's not giving her that much of an effect.

Many feet down there, the sound of rushing water was coming from a sweeping and slow-moving river. The charm of the green and sparkling liquid bewildered her, that what's crosses her mind is to dive in. " If it's only deep enough, I could be jumping now down to the water, but it's not, and the cliff is too high that I can see myself scattered in the ground after." She thought with a deep sigh.

Seeing a thin trail going down, so she decided to take it. Its narrowness isn't actually safe, but so far, that's the safest way possible.

"A good brand of rubber shoes could really help me in moments like this, the sole could grip the ground, good enough to make a safer move, but too bad. Why on earth I am barefooted, and now it's hurting my sole skin."

She almost made it in the middle, where fine pebbles and stones slide down on the trail pushing off her feet and make her trip.

"AAAAH!" A terrified scream, sonorous in the distance, echoed around the mountains. She closes her eyes, accepting the faith that she'll be going to fall hard from that cliff and the probable death in no time.

Suddenly, something or someone grabs her from her waist and swing her down towards a cave just beside the crag. Awed, she opened her eyes only to see a blurry, fading vision of nature caused by the swiftness of velocity as they sway by the air. A powerful arm gripping around her torso. An arm lighter than her complexion with a light brown almost gold, thin skin hair in it.

Since she had her hair in a ponytail, she can feel his breath on her bare nape. With full effort, she tried to turn her head to this person carrying, saving her. A golden hair covers her face, blown by the wind, and it is not her's. She got dark hair or black and sometimes appeared to be brown under the sunlight, so she perceived. It only means it is his hair, his face just so close to her head as he's holding her from the back, though she can't descry his face since his long golden hair covering most of it. All she can only sense is that he's a man by the shape of his arms and his shoulder, which she partly sees, allowing her to notice that he's wearing topless.

Landing safe, with the firm and swift movement of his feet. He let go of her slow and wary until he felt she's sturdy standing and well-balanced. She turns her head the second time, trying to catch a sight of him, and he's already walking fast, few steps away from her, and all she can see is his bareback, brawny torso in fair skin, slightly covered by his wavy, long golden shoulder-length hair. And he is only wearing a pair of hipster jeans.

He fades into darkness as he pushes himself deep into the cave.

The atmosphere is very bizarre, changing from dread to warmth, where there's an exaggeration in her imagination of passion and affection, makes her stomach flutter with the thought. Words she only knew and feel upon reading and watching love stories. Envisioning to be in affection by a hero, by a knight in shining armor. Actually, by a sexy topless long-haired blonde who happened to saves her.