Immortal Darkness: Shadow Across the Land (38 page)

From then on did Pesstian push himself
further and further toward the homes. It was while doing so when he
focused on the largest nest in the group—which seemed to stand in
the center of the colony, glowing brighter than the rest.
That’s
gotta be it!

Although surrounded by a cluster of human
nests, Pesstian found himself alone, without a single human in
sight. For a few heartbeats had Pesstian believed he was all
alone—only to be proven wrong when the sound of human voices filled
his ears.

Hopping in the voices’ direction, he quickly
found himself coming face-to-face with the central nest.
Are
they in there?
As he took a peak through one of the nest’s
windows, Pesstian caught sight of a crowd of humans—each of which
seemed to be having a conversation.

There they are!
thought Pesstian,
feeling relieved and nervous all at the same time.
But where are
they keeping the coats?
Barely any time had come to pass when
one of the humans turned their head toward Pesstian.

Fearing for his life, the young owl ducked
out of the way, hoping he was not spotted. It was after moving from
their eyeshot when Pesstian took a look to his right.

Before his eyes rested a container similar to
the one he’d seen so long ago.
It’s one of those—containers
.
Fortunately for the little owl, an odorless scent came into
play—which quickly brought forth relief.

There’s none of those ocean creatures in
there?
Desiring to test his hypothesis, Pesstian gave a great
flap of his wings and lifted himself up to the container’s rim. To
his surprise and much-needed relief, not a single living—or
formally living—thing dwelled within the cylindrical capsule.

Rather than dead animals, the human-crafted
coats took up the container’s space.
There they are!
he
exclaimed, a grin on his face. Hoping he was not hallucinating,
Pesstian placed his feet on the pile of coats, grabbed a hold of
one of them, and began to flap his way out of there.

Upon swooping out of the capsule, Pesstian’s
heart gave a great leap—only to sink as a heavy cloud rolled its
way beneath the sky. An enormous sea of snow started falling toward
Pesstian as a result. With it came bone-chilling gusts of wind.

Luckily I just got this coat,
Pesstian
thought while shivering. Surprisingly for the little owl, the
temperate clothing did not feel as heavy as he had first
anticipated. But that was probably thanks to the surrounding
wind.

--

Leyai waited for her friend, tiredness
forming in her eyelids.

This is ridiculous!
As he had feared,
flying up the cliff was a hundred times more difficult than merely
falling from it. Such a factor to his journey held strong and
true—especially when a fur coat dangled from his legs.

I have to keep going,
a tiny voice
urged within his head. Deciding to listen to this voice, Pesstian
fought against many diverse wisps of blowing snow—almost praying
for the required strength to topple over the cliff and find
Leyai.

How does
she
do this?
Pesstian
asked himself.
Did she use some kind of technique to climb up
this thing?
Not a single answer seemed to come to him. He
merely stood by—in the snow and ice—as the newly-formed series of
snowy wisps blew the coat right out of his talons.

“Oh no,” he mumbled through a pang of
irritation. Before his eyes did he catch sight of his coat—watching
as it tumbled down a hill. Pesstian attempted to chase it before he
could have possibly lost sight of it. However, the first step he
took would cause him to trip and fall face-first into a blanket of
snow.
Oh come on!

Once picking himself up on his feet, Pesstian
flapped his wings—only to realize the coat was completely out of
sight. Feeling almost as if it would respond to his voice, he cried
out, “Where is it?” The answer to such a question would come to
Pesstian when he noticed the silhouette of his tumbling coat. As a
result, he started flapping his wings in a desperate attempt to
capture the toasty treasure.

Millions of snowflakes rushed past Pesstian’s
eyes as he glided over to the tumbling coat. Taking clear sight of
the dark-brown that covered the entire coat, he stretched his
talons out in front of him in an attempt to capture it.
Come on,
now
, Pesstian silently urged himself.

Closing his eyes, he hoped—with every gram of
faith I his body—he would find his talons capturing the coat. A
moment of silence came into play just before amazement showed
itself in Pesstian’s mind.
I got it!

A sense of accomplishment filled his head as
more weight was added to his talons. He placed a smile on his face
as he allowed a series of wing-strokes to pull his body up to
Leyai. Barely any time had come to pass when Pesstian placed the
coat in his beak.

Okay; here I go!

The little owl’s heart raced with adrenaline
and hope. His face stung against the biting winds he found himself
fighting against. His legs limped behind the rest of his body as a
result of weariness. His beak ached from being burdened of having
to hold the coat.

These sensations and many more caused
Pesstian to, once again, ask himself,
What’s Leyai’s
technique?

Once asking himself this question, a flash of
snow stung his eyes. Completely blinded, he fought the urge to yelp
in pain while shifting over to his right while in the sky. The
result of shifting caused him to land on some type of platform. He
was blinking rapidly in order to remove the icy crystals from his
eyes when Pesstian allowed the coat to fall onto the platform’s
ground.

After struggling to stand his ground, he
opened his eyes and realized he was standing on a smaller cliff
within the original cliff’s slope.
What is this?

Utter confusion slipped into his head—only to
be replaced with what he quickly came to believe what was a
brilliant idea.
So
that’s
how she did it!
With these
few words, Pesstian began to pull together the pieces of his
plan.

Many similar platforms to the one Pesstian
stood on were scattered across the enormous cliff, he realized
while looking up.
I know; I’ll hop from platform to platform.
Maybe
that’ll
work.
Before any more snow could have
clung to his coat, Pesstian bent down and picked it up off the
ground.

The weight of the coat proved inferior
compared to the strength he now held in his freezing body. Such a
fact came as an unexplained surprise to Pesstian. At the same time,
he quickly noticed how much easier it was for him to simply hop
from one platform to the next.

I can’t believe it’s this easy!
Pesstian boasted.
No wonder Leyai had it so easy.

A breeze of joy slipped through Pesstian’s
feathers until he ran into a problem with one of the new platforms.
The sixth platform he’d come in contact with came as a surprise to
him, as it broke under his weight almost immediately after Pesstian
touched it. Fortunately for him, he proved stealthy enough to
listlessly hop from his sixth platform to his second.

I must be better at this than I thought.

Almost nothing in the world could have
stopped Pesstian at this point. Much unlike the problems the
blowing snow had given him earlier, it instead gave a comfortable
sensation to his face at this point. Such a sea of white allowed
hope to spill into his mind with ease.

With every leap the little owl took, warmth
seeped into his blood. As a result of this fact, every leap he took
brought him further into a pleasantly hyper state. This hyper state
caused him to give no care as to whether or not he tripped. As a
result, his platform leaping grew easier within time.

Slight disappointment entered Pesstian’s mind
when he came to realize one fact: his leaping had come to an end.
Once this fact seeped into his mind, he began to realize how much
his beak strained from the effort he put into carrying it up the
cliff.

In clear sight of his friend, he exclaimed
through a clattering beak, “That was—amazing! I want to do that
again!”

Just when he’d felt this amazing rush of
excitement spring in his feet, a blanket of disappointment covered
Pesstian’s mind when he realized Leyai was already asleep. Such a
sight caused frustration and sadness to envelop his mind.

An eye-twitch forming in his right eye, he
placed the coat on his shoulders before any more snow could have
fallen on it.
So much for hoping something good would come out
of this
, he silently muttered, completely forgetting about the
pleasure he endured while climbing up the cliff.

Why did she have to fall asleep so
suddenly?
Pesstian resented.
Why can’t I just tell
her?

Fighting back tears, he walked up to the pole
and fell asleep under his friend. For the remainder of the day did
he rest his head on the pole in which Leyai rested.

--

Disappointed that Leyai had fallen asleep
before he could have mentioned anything to her, Pesstian allowed
his mind to create fantasies about the good time they could have
had if Leyai hadn’t fallen asleep.

Feeling of remorse caused dreams about Leyai
and himself to form in Pesstian’s mind. Of all the dreams he was to
create that day, one dream he would later like to call the
Flower Effect
would prove to be the most memorable.

The
Flower Effect
began with the two
owls sitting in a grassy landscape. This grassland gave a negative
impression to the snowy wasteland they now slept with.

Pesstian’s visions allowed a sense of
vitality to come between him and Leyai. At the same time, not a
single worry slipped into this vitality.

The
Flower Effect
started with the two
young owls sitting atop a thick blanket of weeds. For a heartbeat
had nothing happened between the two; for a heartbeat did Pesstian
feel confusion envelop his mind. Once this heartbeat had come to
pass, he took at his surroundings—quickly coming to realize how he
sat back-to-back with his friend.

Pesstian allowed utter silence to penetrate
his ears. Such silence, however, became unknown when he took sight
of a blue cluster of petals and murmured to himself, “A
flower?”

At the sight of this flower, the young owl
began to think about the white gem Leyai had earlier lost while in
the ocean. As a result, he felt as if he could have used the flower
as a substitute for the missing gem.

Incognito turned the flower into a gem.
However, Pesstian couldn’t seem to get a grip of the flower’s stem.
As a result, he could not pull it out of the ground. Rather than
allowing him to pull it out of the ground, the flower seemed to
push Pesstian’s talon away the more he attempted to draw his claw
closer to its petals.

A short pause came into the situation just
after Pesstian pulled his talon away from the flower.
I can’t do
it,
he desperately told himself.

“Can’t do what?” a voice murmured into his
ear. The sound of this voice caused an enormous leap to shake
Pesstian’s heart.

“Leyai!” Pesstian gasped while switching his
gaze over to his friend. “Um—what’s up?”
And how did she hear
that?

Without a single word, Leyai bent over
Pesstian’s shoulder and took a look at the flower. “Aw—” Leyai
sighed while a smile on her face.

What was once a frostbitten land now held a
cluster of petals within a field of green. As a result, both
Pesstian and Leyai allowed the sight of this pollinated plant to
stain their eyes.

For a while did complete and utter silence
break between them. Such silence became unknown, however, when
Pesstian wondered, “How’d this get even get here?”

“I still can’t believe that we are in this
new land,” Leyai added with a change to their subject. It was
almost immediately after uttering these words when she picked the
flower from the ground.

What?
Pesstian asked himself.
How’d
she do that?

“You mean pick the flower off the ground?”
Leyai responded.

Utter confusion struck Pesstian’s mind at the
hearing of these words. Instead of silently wondering how she could
have heard him, however, Pesstian released a sigh and watched as
Leyai clipped the flower just above her ear.

At the sight of the flower clipping into
Leyai’s feathers, Pesstian found himself falling into a trance. As
a result, he found himself almost unwillingly pulling himself
toward Leyai. His beak having nearly poked a hole into a petal of
the blue feather clipped onto Leyai’s head, he let Leyai know, “I
love you, Leyai.”

“I love you too, Pesstian,” Leyai replied
with a slight whisper in her voice. “And now that I think about it,
I may have loved you since the moment I first saw you.” She rested
her head on Pesstian’s shoulder—and both she and Pesstian took a
slumber under the night sky.

--

A dark night sky accompanied Leyoht as he
slept in Aphost’s home. Near emptiness filled his mind; only a hazy
cloud filled his thoughts.

Creeping outside Aphost’s tree was a
carmahn—creeping outside was Bearneomal.
At last
, the
anxious carmahn silently exclaimed.
I have found him!
This
thought in mind, he kept low to the ground in an attempt to keep
Leyoht asleep for the time being.

While aware of how urgent his current mission
was, Bearneomal couldn’t help but allow a small series of jitters
to form beneath his legs. As a result, he nervously lied down
against the snow just before he could have made his way into the
tree.

A small growl escaping from his lips,
Bearneomal silently cursed while on his knees,
What’s going on
with me? I must have done this hundreds of times before!