The Secret of the Forest.

“Is that even real?” Hitsuki asked, looking at the glowing fruits.

“Yep, thats completely real. And those fruits are tasty too.” Sol laughed. “You wanna try them? I am afraid those things will stop glowing once they are plucked from their trees, though.”

“I don’t care. Those fruits look incredibly tasty.” Hitsuki’s mouth watered. “Glow or not glow, I wanna eat them.”

The berries looked like the stomach of honeydew ants—bright golden and transparent. The exception is its light glow, like fireflies.

Hitsuki freed himself from Sol’s grasp and proceeded closer towards that innocent-looking shrub.

“Be careful.” Sol tried to keep her laughter.

“About what?” Hitsuki asked, irritated. It was as if the pangs of hunger suddenly bit him.

“I won’t say it. It will ruin the fun.”

He placed a few steps forward. He was worried, for Sol’s reaction didn’t seem like a good sign.

“Would you please tell me what is so funny about this?” He asked, but still she didn’t tell.

He turned to look at her.

He took another step back.

The grass behind him felt soft, too soft for comfort. It felt off.

But as soon as he realized it, he was already in the air, soaring through the skies.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” He screamed. “WHAT THE HECKKK!!!!!????”

The air breezed through his face as he rose up in the sky every second.

The forest now looked like a tiny part of his view, as he could finally see the gothic palace in sight.

His mind tried to make sense, but he felt nauseous.

But amid all this, he saw a fluctuation.

A weird snap inside the forest.

For once, he thought he was seeing things. But in fact, he wasn’t.

The forest had changed its structure. Previously, it appeared to be an ordinary forest. But now, something had changed. He could barely figure out a faint structure of something amidst the forest, something he could not see before.

“A magic barrier?” He mumbled to himself. But his mind raced, for he was going far beyond the horizon and over the clouds.

He sought support, but found none.

He closed his eyes, but he wasn’t bracing for impact.

He felt a warmth, a tingle on his fingertips. He smiled. “So this is what you were hiding? This is where you get your anti-gravity soil from?”

Sol smiled with him. “I honestly have never seen someone fall for it. It is not my fault that I want to see it, is it?”

“How can I blame you?” He laughed. “From @#!$ & !%@$ @#$%, this is usually called skydiving.”

[T/L: where I came from]

“I see,” Sol said, but she was looking keenly at another thing.

Hitsuki tried to interrupt, but Sol stopped him. “Hitsuki, you might be a genius, you know that? I have never thought of this before.”

“What are you even talking about?” Hitsuki asked.

Sol pointed at the open field amid the forest. “Do you see that?”

They were now falling down, getting out of the anti-gravity area. Sol maneuvered both of them such that they hovered in the air.

“I see something, but I don’t know what that is,” Hitsuki replied. “More importantly, take me down. I have some important matters to talk about with you.”

“What is it that’s so urgent?” Sol asked. “Can’t you speak here?”

“Amid the air? Haha, no thank you.”

*****

“Tell me now. We are safe here.” Sol said.

They sat on the branch of a tree, while Sol scouted the open field in front of them. It was as if she were searching for something.

“I need your full attention, Sol.” Hitsuki steered Sol’s head toward him before he continued speaking. “I saw something, but I don’t know what it is. In fact, I am not sure if I saw it correctly or not.”

“What is it that you saw?” Sol asked, now serious.

“I am afraid it has some… ‘taboo’ elements.”

“Oh,” Sol thought for a moment. “Can you talk while censoring it then? What you say reacts with our seals after all.”

“I saw the forest… move when I was up in the air,” Hitsuki replied. “At first, it looked like a normal forest from above. But when you went high enough, a part of the forest changed, somewhere in the north-east side. I saw a kind of… tomb. A marble tomb. You might know what I am referring to, right?”

“What… the heck did you just say??” Sol gasped. “No way… no way you… You saw a tomb?? That one that no one has been able to find? How???”

“Shhhh!!” He pressed her lips. “I don’t think I found it. It just became visible. As if… something was hiding it all along. But I only saw a flicker of it when I reached the clouds.”

“A magical illusion barrier?” Sol thought out loud. “But that can’t be possible. A magical barrier of that radius—according to what you said, is basically impossible!! How can it be?”

“That’s why I want to ask you this,” Hitsuki said. “Do you want to check them again?”

“I would love to, honestly,” Sol said. “But I don’t think the tomb stays in place, literally as well. The magical barrier is like an extra protection.” Sol replied. “But still, if you had found it once, I think it’s possible to find it twice as well.”

“Okay… I think I got a plan.”

“But why do you need to go there?” Sol asked. “You think the assassins are amongst the…?”

“Otherwise, why would they give the book to the children?”

“Maybe to throw us off?”

“I don’t think so,” Hitsuki said. “Let me tell you this—when word has spread that someone is trying to assassinate the royal family, you think the Queen is going to stop investigating it entirely? I don’t think so. I don’t think the assassins arriving the sooner you burned the book is a coincidence either. They likely got the intel that there was a book here and were coming to get it. But the owner gave the book away to escape.”

“But that’s all just a speculation,” Sol said. “You don’t have enough proof, do you?”

“Not enough proof and not enough knowledge about this world,” Hitsuki said sarcastically.

“Anyways, we can talk about it later.”

Sol started scouting her surroundings again. Her face beamed with positive energy.

“Hitsuki, I think this is perfect!!” Sol exclaimed.

“Once again, I don’t get an ounce of what you are talking about.” Hitsuki sighed.

“Lend me your ear.” Sol proceeded to tell Hitsuki her plan.