2.

His back hurt, his shoulder got stiffer by the second, and he felt a muscle spasm creeping to his calf. Yet his hands' grip on the rug didn't budge, they had to. His life was on the line. 

Unlike any story he came across these flying rugs were not possible to sit on. If one were to sit in the middle the dent of their weight in the center would make the rug tilt sideways, and the person would slide out of the rug and to the bare sky. 

The solution they could master was both of them laying straight on their stomachs on both edges of the rug. Like they become the two rods that give it structure. That way it wouldn't tilt and throw them to the ground. 

But keeping that seemingly simple straight position was harder than it looked. Keeping the structure meant staying firm when the wind hit them. Flying wasn't as easy as it looked. 

"Should we land somewhere? For a break." He shouted as the blowing wind muffled sound with its travel.

"Is there a good place to land?" 

To know that one had to look downward, which meant breaking the stabilizing position. 

"Let's turn our heads at the same time! That'll keep the balance!" Wind shouted. 

"Believing in you engineer!"

 3

 2

 1 

"It's a land!" They saw crunchy orange leaves covering everything below them. After that It was a matter of making a clumsy landing to reach the rest point.

Somehow burying their heads into the rug and bringing its tips upward had the effect of hitting the brakes so they floated closely to the ground, avoiding a crash landing. 

"Man, I could use a nap." Wind stretched his stiff arms and legs, ready to sit a foot into the crunchy fall leaves. 

But the moment he did so he disappeared. 

Or more like he sunk into the leaves. 

A splashing sound cued Mathew to realize that there was no land. Or the leaves were the land, more accurately. A bunch of leaves floating in the sea.

But the realization that knocked the air out of his lungs was remembering one simple fact. 

"That dumbass can't swim!!" He yelled at the void, jumping into the leaves covered water. 

Unlike smooth water, everything was pointy. He couldn't swim or walk properly, part of him hoped this would prevent his friend from drowning because he felt the swaying of water beneath him, it was there. Only the thickness of the leaves worked as a temporary separator, but the more one walked the more they sunk closer to the body of water. 

'Where is he?!' He was here!' He looked at every direction, trying to feel a hole or wetness in the leaves that indicated his friend's direction but panic was getting the best of him. 

In the spur of the moment he clutched into the rug and yanked it between the leaves, maybe Wind could grab it. Or at least that's what he thought because the moment the rug made contact with the leaves it vibrated violently. 

Leaves mussed with the vibration, he was able to see the blue water beneath, and the tip of his friend's trousers too. 

He wasn't sure if he was swimming or slapping leaves out of his way. As long as it made him move forward. 

Surrounded by water and no longer crunchy leaves Wind remembered the middle school times and the high school times and also collage times. 

"Damn, Mathew tried to teach me swimming so many times. Yet all I remember is floating." 

He repeated the steps. Relax, look at the sky, let the water lift you up. It's okay if some water got into your mouth. Don't lose your composure. 

'All this sounds really wishy washy. But it actually works. Well I should, I'm the engineer after all.' He repeated the last sentence in his friend's tone, almost laughing a small one that doesn't move him in the water. But he had to gasp when he got yanked upward from his leg. 

He chocked when the water submerged his head, bubbles in the water increased before he was fully pulled out. 

Mathew clutched into the rug while lifting wind on it. He depended on the former swimmer's shoulders of his, knowing damn well he won't lift a mug without pain for the next three business weeks. 

"At least learn to swim if you wanna do crazy shit!" Mathew yelled. 

"I was surviving well before you tried to murder me you crazy!" 

They grabbed each other's collars, fully arguing about who did what before hearing small giggles beneath them. 

"Mewhehehe! Fun, they're fighting." A leaf giggled. 

"Not really, they're just scolding each other." An unimpressed lead said. 

"But it's fun, hope they continue." 

The two men squinted at the leaves, finding some tiny mouths opening and closing. 

"They stopped, booooo." 

They just looked at each other, dumbfounded. "What? Y'all came here not expecting to meet us?" 

"Sir I don't even know who you all are." Wind deadpanned. 

"And you travel like it's your job or something." Mathew jabbed, earning him a fed up look. 

"Oooo! I wouldn't take that if I were you." The leaf giggled with excitement.

"Ugh. It's the stupid bug sprays work. People don't know who we are anymore." The cynical leaf complained. 

"Heey don't say that! Let them fight." It whispered. 

"The bug sprays?" Wind asked like a curious cat while Mathew rubbed his temple and reminded himself it was his choice to come along. 

"Yeah, the stinky bug sprays, everything is their fault. We can't even watch people fight and betray each other while drowning anymore. You wouldn't understand anyway." The other leaf went on the rant. 

"I mean they were about to fight if not for you talking." The giggly leaf scolded.

"No, he just saved him. This sucks. You two are boring. Get out of my sight."

"What are these things?" 

"Beats me." The two men whispered to each other, slowly balancing on the rug to fly again. 

"I just wanted a break. Now I'm in even more pain." Mathew lay on his back, rubbing his arm. Only to feel something warm on the skin of his neck. 

"Look! Something glowing in the rug." He pointed at a pattern of orange leaves.

"This wasn't here before..." 

"Wow. These people don't know anything." They heard the voice of the cynical leaf. 

"Shhhh. Don't let them know. It'll be fun even if we're not to witness it." The other leaf jumped on it. 

"So the rug is an atlas that memories places with anomalies." The two men said at the same time. 

"HOW?!" Tens of leaves asked. 

"You see! I'm an engineering major with a minor in math! It's natural for me to know!" Wind pointed at himself, bragging. 

"And I'm a business major with a minor of something useful!" Mathew chuckled. 

Wind stared at him, eyes wide open, his index finger ready to poke him into the puddle of leaves again. 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Long live the inverse function!" 

"That's what I thought," He retrieved his hand. "Seriously though! I put up with your plain yogurts and orange juices and you can't even accept my math degree?!" 

"Hey! I eat them in silence without whining to everybody for two years straight!" 

They were about to get back into it while sliding on the rug. Only for the laughter of an audience to pull them back to the present moment. 

"Ha Ha, you two are fun." A new leaf said. 

"There should be a coin like thing in the rug. Control the rug using it instead of manually." Another one supplied. 

They looked at each other. "If you focused on your engineering degree you would've figured that out!!!" 

"Imma seriously throw you away!!!" 

The next few hours had a calm mood and easier flying. Able to sit and lay as they wished while rotating the embedded coin like a tiny driving wheel. 

A land with high towers started appearing on the horizon. 

But the more they looked the more they saw some squarish dome at the top of every tower. 

"Is this...The head of a bug spray?" 

"How high those things are?" 

"A skyscraper of a bug spray one can say..." He chuckled with some fear in his air pipes. 

They set foot normally on the ground, much to their surprise. 

The number of high entities was hard to count, Mathew didn't know if it was the sheer number of them or the way they were stowed made them seem like they were repeating endlessly. 

He was scared. 

They were silent, still, but something omitted a nerving feeling. 

"What's weighing on your mind, child?" A distant yet near voice asked, almost ringing inside his head. 

'That's a good question.' 

"I don't know." He fell on the gray soil. Using his arm as a pillow he fell asleep.

"Child what are you doing?" 

"Sleeping, it's been a long day. All this can wait." 

Wind laugh and did the same. 

"Really?" 

"Yeah. I'm too old for all this, I need a break before I continue." 

"Look, the stars are pretty big from here." Wind uttered, almost to himself.

"What's the deal with these humans?" A voice came from a shorter bug spray.

"Oh kid, you weren't there when humans hunted everything they deemed strange for sport." 

The two men felt something staring at them, even if it had no eyes. 

"Yeah, we tend to do that." Wind agreed, not offended. 

Mathew stared at the far skies. 

"Do you have anything to do with the train, the one that disappeared?" He asked, not accusing, not even with enough curiosity. 

"It was a minor inconvenience. One of your kind find out about us and started talking around. We did a necessary correction." 

"Correction?" Mathew asked. 

"We erased the love of the unknown from your kind, except for a few anomalies that pops up every now and then. Just like you, sir." 

"Oh yeaaah. That make since." Mathew looked at Wind. 

"Should I be flattered?" 

"Why you're telling us all this anyway?" 

"It doesn't matter. You will lose all memories of this soon." 

"Really?" 

"Other wise your kind would be all over our territory." 

"So no way around that?" 

"No. Our erasion is absolute." 

"Well, it was a cool adventure." Wind said before closing his eyes. 

"I thought you would be more upset about that." Mathew questioned. 

"Nothing can be done my friend. Not by us, at least. We're two forty years old with back pain." 

"Yeah. Maybe a teenager adventurers will come one day and fight these bug sprays or something." Mathew looked at the sky, the stars felt somewhat familiar from this spot. Perhaps his mind is too tried to function. 

Or perhaps something else. 

He didn't bother to investigate his thoughts. All he wanted was a nap. 

And a nap he got, deep and restful at the beginning until he felt like his body was floating on water. 

'Maybe it's the leaves and sea shenanigans of earlier.' He reasoned, half awake.

But the floating morphed into feeling completely submerged in water. He snapped his eyes open to find he was in the same spot he fell asleep on. Yet something felt different. A look upward cued him to what's happening. They were being sprayed. A warm mist was falling on his face from height above.

"It's gonna be alright child." The distant voice spoke like it's gonna be the last time. 

His eyelids got heaver until they closed on themselves again. 

A last peek to the stars. 

This heaviness in his eyelids felt familiar too. 

Like the time in the train with his father. 

Like the time he and his friend caught the ancient Egyptian beetle. 

Like the time before that and after that. Adventure after adventure. Something in that split second when they retrieved their memories before it got all wiped again. 

It made his chest flutter. 

It'll go away. The memories, the adventures. He'll go back to his job and his wounds. 

But something felt worth it. It were memories worth acquiring. It were adventures worth having. 

Maybe they will do it over and over again. Like the previous times. 

'It is kind of funny,' Wind chuckled to himself. 'They don't seem to erase the love of adventure from us.' 

'Hey! Maybe that'll be us to have for the rest of our lives.' 

He pondered while his old memories splashed on his consciousness. The train incident seemed to pass slower then other memories. A strange man talking about the paranormal and showing evidence to the whole train, only for it all to be suck into the bug spray's realm. 

'So we two just were the first to be sent home after the wiping.' He concluded.

"Oh, Mathew you dumbass you didn't tell anyone we're going with you're dad. Well, that made the sprays job easier." He laughed audibly but the friend beside him was too deep into his own wiping. Not that Wind was able to access his friend anyway. 

"Man this one was a fun ride. I hope the rug can get back with me." 

"Another adventure on it would be rad." 

"I mean the Egyptian beetle came with us so there's that." 

"Egyptian beetle came with us?"

"Wait..." 

"Wait!" 

"We were sent to them again and again." 

"They don't remember us." 

He peeked upward at them. Every single one of these bug sprays were planted neatly with even distances from one another. 

"It's like humans planted these things..." 

"Is that even possible?" 

"Man!! I hope I get to that in the next adventure!! It's so frustrating to know I'll forget all this!!" 

"But perhaps that's okay. I still have my pal after all." 

Soon enough Wind was sucked by the gray sand beneath him. Down and down and down. Between the layers of sand, soil and stones. He sank deeper and deeper until he popped into the backyard of his house. 

Mathew was being sprayed for longer. Somehow even against the bug sprays will. He really wanted to wipe something else, some memories else. 

Some other wounds he wished he can live without. Some wounds that has no business being this fresh in him. 

Funny enough his memories was being wiped over and over again but the intensity of his pain never budged or subdued. 

He just looked at the mist while laughing at himself. 

The mist in his mouth made him stop. He took a last look upward. A thorough one. 

"Oh, they spray themselves while they spray us." His eyes followed the mist particles. 

"I wish I can tell wind that." 

"He would've loved to know that." 

He closed his eyes. The thought hit him. 

No matter what he gonna forget. No matter how much pain he gonna hold. He's going to open his eyes to find his friend by his side. 

Which was more than he could ask for. Maybe if he had to ask he would ask for what he already has. 

And that's not gonna go anywhere. Memories or not.