1Twist reached out to touch the note, eyes wide. What was she supposed to do? If she went, she could find out whether YKW had any decency left, and she could find out where White Mage was. But she might also be, very stupidly, walking into a trap. Twist could see it: a red-eyed YKW walking slowly and deliberately towards her, giving her a choice of either plummeting a kilometer down to the rocks, or to be taken hostage. Neither prospect was very pretty.
Twist wasn't one to think, "Well, of course I go. It's an obvious trap, and that's why they won't be expecting me," which was what some fictional amateur detectives thought. The whole purpose of a trap was to expect someone to walk into it. They either did or didn't get trapped.
Twist scowled at the ground, and tore the note from the bark.
Immediately, she heard the click of a machine coming to life, and dropped to the ground with sheer reflexes. The fft fft fft sound that came from above her head - actually, probably the precise spot where her head had been a second ago - reminded her of the whoosh of a badminton shuttlecock (Politically incorrect definition: birdie) through the air.
When Twist dared a glance up, mainly to get her face out of the dirt, she saw that the tree where the note had been pinned was now studded with arrows. She gasped. Ugh! I was expected to take the note. It triggered the arrows. Twist then slowly rose to her hands and knees and looked around, a stone statue except for her rotating head, neck and shoulders. This whole segment of forest must be littered with other traps.
Twist gritted her teeth. This was not going to be much fun, that was for sure. She couldn't go over the forest - hang gliders can't start off from the ground, and the way to the emergent layer of jungle was probably booby-trapped anyways. She couldn't go under it - the nearest underground passage was on the other side of the waterfalls, most likely - and it was too late to go around the jungle. No choice but to go through it.
Twist looked around again, but could see nothing that would suggest anything was out of the ordinary.
As ordinary as any rainforest ever could be.
Twist rolled her eyes. Fine. You want me to go through? I will go through. Let me show you how it's really done.
Twist stepped forward some paces, ducking under space between two trees with little holes in them. Then she shinnied up a tree, trying to get past a very convincing segment of forest floor that would probably send her tumbling into a pit of tarantulas or something, only to realize that the tree was laden with vines that seemed to creep towards her all on their own. They slid forward like snakes and Twist backed away, to grab onto a regular, very long vine behind her for support. Unfortunately, she backed away into empty air and had to hold onto the vine with all her might to not fall into the piranha-infested pool below.
Twist swung just over top the surface of the murky water, clinging to the vine that swung her over with playground swing-momentum. Twist let go on the other side of the pool and barely had time to roll forward to not be caught under a fine mesh net that dropped overhead. A fire sprung up under her feet and she barely had time to dive messily over before she was roasted by the unnatural flame.
Cartwheeling, rolling, jumping, crawling, swinging from side to side, Twist finally pulled a worthy forward-flip that carried her through the final hallway of trees - full of missiles and nets and trip wires - and stood before a little hill.
Twist climbed up in a jiffy and peered over the side.
The waterfalls.
* * * * * *
There it was - the rocky outcropping in the middle of the thrashing, waterfall-fed ginormous pool below. There was a little scooped-out cave in the tower, she saw, near the top. That would be were YKW would want to meet her. The high stalagmite resembled a tower, being very thin and, as promised, very . . . very high.
,
To go or not to go?
Twist sighed. She would do anything to get White Mage back and get back at YKW. Besides, there were probably even more traps surrounding this area, and it was too late to try to go around the hostile rendezvous point.
To go, it was.
Twist swung her back pack around to face her and pulled out the folded hang glider. Here we go again. Twist put her hands on the front rung and one foot on the back rung and used the other to push herself off. The weightless feeling filled her again and Twist's stomach flipped. As she flew, the roar of the falling water filled her ears and she felt spray on her face. Waterfalls were a thing of beauty and power. She swooped down gracefully, rounding once, and rode the air currents into the little cave, stepping off the glider and folding it up again into her backpack.
Twist looked around. She could see the back of the cave. YKW was nowhere to be seen. Late! Well, all there was to do now was to wait. Besides, it was about midnight - it had been the longest two days of Twist's life. She had begun the first alongside White Mage, and now, they might never see each other again. Twist huddled at the back of the cave and set up a few alarms and trip wires around her.
No matter how hard she tried, Twist could not hold off sleep.
* * * * * *
Twist snapped awake. By the light, it was about just before dawn. Twist hadn't brought a hairbrush along - nah, too busy taking traps and hang gliders and extra food to worry about that - but now she wished she had. It hurt in its tight 'do, but what else could she do when running for her life? Twist ate an apple for breakfast and had just thrown the core into the falls and went back to the back of the cave when she heard it.
Thud.
Twist immediately spun around and scowled. Against the thin light of dusk, there stood YKW.
"Good, you made it this far." He smiled when he said that, like he was innocent.
"Yes, and I guess it's my bad karma that I ran into some traps, isn't it? "
"You poor thing. Kidnapping people does bring on bad karma. I should know, shouldn't I?"
"Don't you think that taking beautiful girls hostage is far too . . . in character?" Twist smirked. "You always considered yourself the debonair musketeer. Until you turned."
"Oh, no, I am quite humble. Whereas you consider me the debonair hero, don't you?"
Twist put on what she hoped was a dark expression. "I never did. You wouldn't deserve it. Besides, I'm no damsel in distress."
YKW shrugged. "Oh, well. I suppose you'd resent being swept away into the sunset by a charming prince and a white horse, but I think that being taken into a top-secret facility would be a nice substitute. I could let you in on the secret, you know, the agency. If only you would let go of your friend."
Twist resisted the urge to bare her teeth. "Never. I wouldn't want to be part of your dirty, backstabbing group of so-called agents. Why are you here?"
"Oh, no, I am quite humble. Whereas you consider me the debonair hero, don't you?"
Twist put on what she hoped was a dark expression. "I never did. You wouldn't deserve it. Besides, I'm no damsel in distress."
YKW shrugged. "Oh, well. I suppose you'd resent being swept away into the sunset by a charming prince and a white horse, but I think that being taken into a top-secret facility would be a nice substitute. I could let you in on the secret, you know, the agency. If only you would let go of your friend."
Twist resisted the urge to bare her teeth. "Never. I wouldn't want to be part of your dirty, backstabbing group of so-called agents. Why are you here?"
"Because I wanted to warn you not to follow anyone. You can get into serious trouble if you try to reach us on your own, and SINS doesn't need you anyways. Just your pretty friend."
Twist's stomach turned. Bad stuff. Really, really bad stuff. You need to get out of here now! But the other part of her head chided the nervous side: Let's hear what he has to say. He could be useful. "You know who she is! I know you remember us both. Don't pretend not to! You saw us having a great time, back then, while you were stuck with soccer. Your friends could not be counted upon. One year, T announced to the whole class that LB liked -" Twist remembered not to name her "- a friend of mine."
Twist raised her chin. "And I know that you remember me."
"Sure, I do. You believed me when I told you I was a spy. You believed me when I told you I had a whole room for marbles. Once you got your friend to ask me if I was angry at you. Why did you even care? And then you contac-"
"You are gullible if you really believe that I would believe those crazy stories. You were as much like a spy as a beetle was a butterfly. My only mistake was to humor you by making you believe that I believed you. Tell me where -" Twist reminded herself that it was no use, so she changed the question "- why you came."
A sinister smile crept across YKW's face like the thin, creeping track of snail slime. "Why . . . isn't it obvious?" He stepped forward deliberately and where his foot landed, there came a click. He laughed maniacally, the kind of thing that a psychopath laughs when he has you cornered in the basement.
A strike of lightning would be nice.
A strike of lightning would be nice.
Suddenly, the whole roof seemed to begin to crumble. Spikes popped out from the back of the cave and Twist thanked her lucky stars that her backpack was on her back and not back there. Unfortunately, the spikes began to advance towards her. From the sides of the cave as well.
Twist started breathing heavily. "No!" she shouted. YKW disappeared, the last Twist saw of him was a shoe dangling from the roof, which was pulled up.
Twist was determined not to give in. It's a trap. It's a trap. It's a trap. And I came anyways. She raced for the cave entrance and nearly toppled over the edge and into the foamy water. It was far too smooth. She had to go up, the same way YKW went.
She wanted to think, Forget it, I'm not touching the ground he stepped on, but it was her only choice. Twist turned up and had her back to the falls for a stomach wrenching-moment, and she welcomed the thrill. She almost never got a good scare. She turned her arm to grab grippy gloves from her backpack side pocket and pulled them on - then she was flying up, catching little dips and holds in the rough stone, using the little push each one gave her to go to the next one. It was terrifying. If she slipped, she would finally get a good grip on how gravity worked, and then, sayonara, world!
At long last, she heaved herself up onto the smooth sort-of flat roof of rock. YKW stood across from her, the rush of the wind only slightly ruffled his hair. His stance seemed tall and powerful, and he looked down at her as if he didn't have a care in the world. For all Twist knew, he didn't care whether she lived or died. His eyes were unfathomable and hard. Twist wasn't sure when he had changed, but he had changed, and she knew she didn't entirely welcome it. Girls were from Venus and boys were from Mars, as it went, but each one had been trying to communicate with the other for a very long time.
Twist, on the other hand, looked nothing like the person standing across from her, the imaginary chess board between them a minefield. When she rose up, the light of the rising sun caught her back and her shadow stretched across the rock, yearning to put distance between herself and the edge of the rock tower. Her long hair had come out of its elastic and was now billowing around her, framing her face, fire in the early light. She stood with dignity and didn't care about poise or her image. She was far beyond caring what any specific person thought of her now.
Twist looked like a part of the sky, and for a moment, as the sun peeked out from the horizon, she could have been the goddess of the dawn.
It was time to put the nervousness and imaginary conversations behind her. It was time to tell the truth that she had never quite shown to herself before.
"Look," she began. YKW crossed his arms. "I'm sorry that I'd bothered you for two years. I didn't know better. I know that I was blunt and tactless and didn't reflect at all at what you might be thinking, and how you were trying your best to be polite and put up with everything. I don't like, however, that you told big lies about me to my former friends after I was out of the picture. I don't appreciate it and I think that you're -" Twist took a deep breath "- that you were thoughtless as to tell everyone how I tried to be friends with you despite all the clues that I should have accepted two years before, and even though I wasn't considerate of the position you could be in when I tried to break the ice, you don't have the right to talk about me behind my back!"
Twist promptly exploded. "Because it all comes back to haunt you!! Every thoughtless word you say about someone, don't be a fool as to think that they will never hear about it, because everything comes full circle! You should have known that! I have withheld the temptation to get a day off from school and come to your school for just one day so that I could see the look on your face when you see me in the halls and realize that I know everything you ever said, that I forget nothing, and that I dare to leave everything behind me and start over. Well, today, the temptation is over, because here we are, and every shade of gray that I have every felt about you is GONE. Maybe you won't ever leave my dreams, and maybe this will be an unfinished fight forever, but you do not - hurt - my - friends!"
YKW looked . . . incredulous. Shocked. Sorry. "I . . . uh . . . I don't . . . how do you know? No, forget that - you still hold this against me? I'm sorry, I am - I thought that you would never hear, I was just trying to seem cool on the bus . . . a lot of people thought that I had -" he looked uncomfortable "-affections, and I wanted to put that right. Seriously. They ate it up. I'm really sorry. I -"
"I . . . don't . . . care!!" Twist spat. "Leave White Mage alone. We had better adventure on the field than you could have possibly had playing sports. You, on the other hand, betrayed me even though we weren't friends; you put my image up to an embarrassment behind my back. You could never be a friend to anyone - not the way that true friends are."
Twist was seething. How dare he apologize now? It was far too late!
She heard a whizzing noise, becoming louder and louder . . . YKW's eyes widened at something behind Twist's back. He sputtered.
Suddenly, Twist was knocked over from behind, with an impact that knocked the wind out of her. A hand grabbed her around the waist and pulled her forward with momentum that jerked her feet from under her. Despite her confusion, Twist managed to quip, "Arrivederci!" to YKW as she was swept past him. He was still sputtering with shock and deja vu.
Twist was now flying over empty air, but the arm that held her was strong. She heard an exhilarated, free laugh above her, and the sound was so joyful that Twist wanted to sing. This person had to be attached to a zip line! She looked up, and saw . . .
"K!" she yelled over the roar of the waterfall. "I can't believe it's you!"
She wanted to think, Forget it, I'm not touching the ground he stepped on, but it was her only choice. Twist turned up and had her back to the falls for a stomach wrenching-moment, and she welcomed the thrill. She almost never got a good scare. She turned her arm to grab grippy gloves from her backpack side pocket and pulled them on - then she was flying up, catching little dips and holds in the rough stone, using the little push each one gave her to go to the next one. It was terrifying. If she slipped, she would finally get a good grip on how gravity worked, and then, sayonara, world!
At long last, she heaved herself up onto the smooth sort-of flat roof of rock. YKW stood across from her, the rush of the wind only slightly ruffled his hair. His stance seemed tall and powerful, and he looked down at her as if he didn't have a care in the world. For all Twist knew, he didn't care whether she lived or died. His eyes were unfathomable and hard. Twist wasn't sure when he had changed, but he had changed, and she knew she didn't entirely welcome it. Girls were from Venus and boys were from Mars, as it went, but each one had been trying to communicate with the other for a very long time.
Twist, on the other hand, looked nothing like the person standing across from her, the imaginary chess board between them a minefield. When she rose up, the light of the rising sun caught her back and her shadow stretched across the rock, yearning to put distance between herself and the edge of the rock tower. Her long hair had come out of its elastic and was now billowing around her, framing her face, fire in the early light. She stood with dignity and didn't care about poise or her image. She was far beyond caring what any specific person thought of her now.
Twist looked like a part of the sky, and for a moment, as the sun peeked out from the horizon, she could have been the goddess of the dawn.
It was time to put the nervousness and imaginary conversations behind her. It was time to tell the truth that she had never quite shown to herself before.
"Look," she began. YKW crossed his arms. "I'm sorry that I'd bothered you for two years. I didn't know better. I know that I was blunt and tactless and didn't reflect at all at what you might be thinking, and how you were trying your best to be polite and put up with everything. I don't like, however, that you told big lies about me to my former friends after I was out of the picture. I don't appreciate it and I think that you're -" Twist took a deep breath "- that you were thoughtless as to tell everyone how I tried to be friends with you despite all the clues that I should have accepted two years before, and even though I wasn't considerate of the position you could be in when I tried to break the ice, you don't have the right to talk about me behind my back!"
Twist promptly exploded. "Because it all comes back to haunt you!! Every thoughtless word you say about someone, don't be a fool as to think that they will never hear about it, because everything comes full circle! You should have known that! I have withheld the temptation to get a day off from school and come to your school for just one day so that I could see the look on your face when you see me in the halls and realize that I know everything you ever said, that I forget nothing, and that I dare to leave everything behind me and start over. Well, today, the temptation is over, because here we are, and every shade of gray that I have every felt about you is GONE. Maybe you won't ever leave my dreams, and maybe this will be an unfinished fight forever, but you do not - hurt - my - friends!"
YKW looked . . . incredulous. Shocked. Sorry. "I . . . uh . . . I don't . . . how do you know? No, forget that - you still hold this against me? I'm sorry, I am - I thought that you would never hear, I was just trying to seem cool on the bus . . . a lot of people thought that I had -" he looked uncomfortable "-affections, and I wanted to put that right. Seriously. They ate it up. I'm really sorry. I -"
"I . . . don't . . . care!!" Twist spat. "Leave White Mage alone. We had better adventure on the field than you could have possibly had playing sports. You, on the other hand, betrayed me even though we weren't friends; you put my image up to an embarrassment behind my back. You could never be a friend to anyone - not the way that true friends are."
Twist was seething. How dare he apologize now? It was far too late!
She heard a whizzing noise, becoming louder and louder . . . YKW's eyes widened at something behind Twist's back. He sputtered.
Suddenly, Twist was knocked over from behind, with an impact that knocked the wind out of her. A hand grabbed her around the waist and pulled her forward with momentum that jerked her feet from under her. Despite her confusion, Twist managed to quip, "Arrivederci!" to YKW as she was swept past him. He was still sputtering with shock and deja vu.
Twist was now flying over empty air, but the arm that held her was strong. She heard an exhilarated, free laugh above her, and the sound was so joyful that Twist wanted to sing. This person had to be attached to a zip line! She looked up, and saw . . .
"K!" she yelled over the roar of the waterfall. "I can't believe it's you!"
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