Angels on the Hill

The next day Ori and I set off just before sunrise. Although, in the shadow of a large mountain, sunrise is not as early as it is elsewhere. Little remained of the previous night’s snow, except on the bridge where it lay undisturbed and piled in a blanket an inch high. When we reached the foot of the bridge Ori stopped.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“Let’s see…” said Ori. She took two steps forward and stopped. Then she spun around and let out a squeal of delight. “It’s perfect!”

I stepped out onto the bridge, feeling the snow compact under me. “I don’t get it. It’s just snow,” I said.

“But they got it just right. The way it squeaks when you crush it and clings to your boot.”

“I’ll give Pasqual your compliments,” I said with a chuckle.

Ori looked grave.

“You really have it in for him don’t you?” I asked, with a pleased smile.

“I still can’t believe what a rotten little meddler he is, and after always acting like my friend.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I think he thought he was doing you a favor getting you away from me.”

“That doesn’t make it any better at all,” she said, an almost pouty expression on her lips. She put her arm in mine and we walked across the bridge.

Is this how friends walk together? I wondered, but I had no complaints. It took me a few seconds to realize she was shivering.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Brr, it’s so cold,” she said, pressing closer against me.

I professed disappointment at not having anything warming to give her, although truthfully I was enjoying the arrangement. As we walked we spoke admiringly of the natural beauty of our surroundings. Eventually the valley gave way to an alpine forest of hemlocks and snow-bent pines. At last we began to descend and were obliged to separate. Rounding a stand of shrubs in the forest, I came upon a snarling wolf, but as soon as Ori turned the corner it turned skittish and fled.

“That wolf was afraid of you,” I said.

“I’m too high of a level for it to attack. Almost all the monsters act that way when you get strong enough–at least the animal-like ones do. The skeletons and things like that are different.”

“And goblins!” I said, leaping at her.

Ori shrieked with laughter and swung her staff at me, but I dodged it and grabbed her. She tripped on a tree root and we both fell to the ground, where we rolled over each other grappling in the fallen needles until gradually we gave up fighting for laughing. When our laughter had subsided, I realized how inappropriate our position was and got up quickly. As I helped Ori up, I noticed her cheeks were deeply flushed, but it could have been from the wrestling.

We made good time down the mountain, stopping only briefly for lunch. Once we were on the switchback trails of the mountain slope we didn’t have much opportunity for talking, but I had plenty in my thoughts to keep me occupied. I had felt my resolve with respect to Ori weakening ever since our reunion, and had been doing my best not to think about it, but now it hit me with a pang of guilt. There was no more point in trying to keep myself from the fact that I was in love with her. I was in love with a woman who, not only could I never leave here with, but one who was engaged to someone else. At the same time, I decided to give up any further efforts to part with her. My conscience scolded me, but Ori was the one thing I had left, and I would do everything I could to get her safely home to her life outside of Eutopia, and I rationalized that even her fiancé could not complain about such a motivation. And if I could keep from confessing my love to her, I thought I would not be so very deserving of condemnation. Thus I reasoned with myself on the long descent down the mountain, until we were about an hour from the campground, when I heard the familiar ping of a notification.

Greetings to all you hardened adventurers,

I am pleased to announce a new significant promotion for you to seek on your journeys. These promotions will enhance your class, providing unique upgrades and skills not obtainable through the ordinary skill tree. There will be limited opportunities to claim these desirable perks, so do your best to secure one for yourself. To kick off this announcement, we have added five special events to your map where these promotions can be claimed. Good luck! –Dr. Eugene 

“Looks like there’s one not far from here,” said Ori.

“Should we go now?” I asked.

“No, I’d hate to keep you from your friend,” said Ori.

I didn’t argue as I didn’t want to damage the image she had of me as a good friend, but I couldn’t help thinking about the promotion. It had the potential to help me more than anyone. What if it allowed me to set and detonate my casks remotely or throw grenades, or survive a blast? I almost resolved to argue that the promotion should come first. However, there was no way to push the idea without seeming incredibly selfish or confessing my true motivation–to do everything I could to help Ori win the competition and gain the Panacea. Instead I picked up the pace, and hurried down the mountain as quickly as I could without losing sight of Ori, and if she thought I was rushing on account of my great concern for Harold all the better.

I would guess it was about four o’clock when we stumbled into the campground. It had the look of abandonment now, almost like the aftermath of a music festival, only without the beer bottles. Unfamiliar as the place now seemed, it wasn’t difficult to find Paelyn’s tent in the meadow.

“Hello, anybody there?” I called. I heard shuffling in the tent. Paelyn emerged, closing the curtain carefully behind her. Only then did she hurry over and greet me with a hug.

“How is he? Is he awake?” I asked.

“He’s awake, but he’s resting now.”

“Who is it?” asked Harold, raising his voice. Paelyn ducked back inside, and I could hear them arguing. She returned.

“He’d like to see you now,” she said, sounding a little defeated. I entered the tent.

“There you are. I was beginning to worry you weren’t coming.” Harold was sitting up, propped on a heap of cushions.

“Pasqual told me I’d better come. He made it sound serious.”

“Oh!” said Harold, with a chuckle. “I’m sorry if it was inconvenient to you. That sounds patronizing and I don’t mean it to, but I guess it is serious as things go: I’m going to leave soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“My body has had about as much Scuba as it can bear, which means I’m afraid my bid is finished. Ever since the blackout I’ve just been worse and worse. As you know I didn’t wake up that evening, not until late the next day–in fact. And unfortunately I really haven’t made much of a recovery. I sleep for most of the day and wake up feeling exhausted. I can’t move without terrible nausea. It’s taken me a couple days to accept it, but I think it’s time.”

I was silent.

“Don’t be like that, you’ll all be following me in a few months–all except the lucky winner.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to stick it out? Not to try and win but just to be here with your friends?”

“Nah. I’ll only drag you all down. Paelyn most of all. Honestly I feel terrible for the time she’s lost already. As long as I’m like this she’ll keep acting the nurse.”

“Does she know?” I asked.

“She knows, not that she’ll ever let me get through saying what I need to before interrupting me with her well-meaning optimism.” Harold smiled sadly. He looked pale and tired. I told him so.

“I feel tired too. Incredible for all the time I spend sleeping, but I’m not really asleep then, am I? We’re just used to calling anything that isn’t waking ‘sleep’. But when I’m not here, I think I’m mostly somewhere else, where my brain and fevered nightmares wrestle over my senseless body. There I go again, rambling…”

“When will you go?” I asked.

“Tonight. If I go to bed, who knows how long it will be before I wake up again, and you have that event to worry about. No, I think it must be tonight.”

“I’ll miss having you around,” I said.

“Eh, you’ll be fine. You have your lady friend. By the way, is she here?”

I nodded.

“Send her in after you leave, and I’ll put in the good word for you.” Harold winked.

“It’s not like that,” I said, blushing.

“And she buys that acting? Sheesh.” Harold shook his head, smiling. “Either she’s remarkably oblivious or she likes you as much as you like her. Mark my words.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said with a sigh.

“Do me a favor, would you?”

“Sure,” I said.

“Give a message to Lilian next time you see her. Tell her there’s another part to the quest. If she pays the old clockmaker a visit she’ll find out more.”

“Alright, I’ll tell her.”

“Send Paelyn in here?”

Harold came out of the tent about fifteen minutes later, leaning on Paelyn. Her face was splotchy and her eyes shimmered.

We made a fire and sat around it, quiet and sullen. Ori nudged me. I glanced up. She leaned over until I could feel her hips pressed against mine. “Say something to cheer them up,” she whispered.

I screwed on a lighthearted face and asked the others if they’d like to play a game.

“What game?” asked Harold, matching my phony light-heartedness.

“There was a game Kyle and Leo used to play. They called it barrel shot.” I described the game which involved launching a stone with the propulsion generated by equipping my barrels.

“I should be able to do that,” said Harold.

As we played the game, I could feel a more natural air returning. At first we forced conversation with cheap compliments, but before long we found ourselves laughing organically. When we finished playing it was time for dinner. I half expected Harold to gorge himself, but it was quite the opposite: he barely touched his food, though he seemed to eat it with pleasure. Afterward, we went up a little hill to watch the sunset. I carried Harold, and he seemed as light as a child.

There we sat in the grass and talked until long after the sun had gone down. We hardly spoke about Eutopia at all. We talked about our lives in the old days, where we’d come from, what we’d done and hoped to do. We talked about movies and shows we’d seen and those we’d wanted to see, spoiling the endings–for we’d never see them anyway. At last he said his goodbyes. He thanked Ori for being so courteous although they'd just met. 

Then it was my turn. I don’t know what I expected from our last conversation, but I was surprised when he turned to me with a smile. “I think you two are really cute together,” he said.

“I wish we could be together. If we left here, I’d be on my knees in an instant–telling her I love her, begging her not to marry Rod, but in here–it’s just…complicated.”

“What do you love most about her?” he asked.

“I think it’s the way she listens to me. When we’re talking, she looks at me so intently. Sometimes I find it so intimidating I lose my train of thought. It's like–she really thinks about what I say. Sometimes she’ll respond days later. It amazes me how she’ll recall what I said verbatim, with an idea I hadn’t considered, or an argument which completely refutes what I’d said.” I laughed.

“That’s beautiful,” said Harold. He leaned back and closed his eyes, the corners of his mouth twitching with a smile.

I figured he didn’t want to say goodbye. I got up, not loudly, but not silently either, and walked off down the hill. He didn’t say anything to stop me.

I didn’t hear what he said to Paelyn, but they talked for a while, and when she came down at last she looked utterly heartbroken. I looked back up the hill and could just make out two silhouettes against the night sky. I knew the other must be Pascal, but I liked to imagine it wasn’t a human at all, but an angel, come to take my friend to a better place.