Somewhere In The Forest...

Yai and Tetsudo walked along the railways just like yesterday. It was still hot and the mirage around the stones and electric poles made everything silently vibrate. To their eyes it was a bit nauseating, but they kept looking far into the end of the railway, where there was a tunnel going through one of the mountains. To their left was the unsettling and empty forest and to the right were the dry bushes and even drier city. Yai was balance-walking on one of the rails. She'd fall, but then be right back on the rail, while Tetsu watched her and walked with a musing look.

After some walking, Yai stopped and turned to Tetsu.

"Let's go into the forest."

"Huh? Why?"

"What are you, a chicken?" sneered Yai at him.

"I'm not! What if you tore the clothes my mom just gave you?"

"I won't. I won't get them dirty either," Yai looked a bit too serious.

"But why would we go? There's no real reason, you know, let's just stay on the rails..." Tetsudo still looked a little concerned.

"Come already," Yai had already gone into the forest.

"Hey, wait up!" Tetsu hurried after her. They both went into the forest.

Tetsudo didn't know how big the forest was. He never entered it. It was considered to be in the outskirts of town and when he was younger he wasn't allowed to go in the outskirts. There was almost no sunlight penetrating through the trees' leaves, which were almost knitted together like the entangled threads of a winter hat.

Every tree reached the height of a normal house and was spread out with a green, sometimes white crown. However green the leafs are, you could see how dry some of them were up there - without rain since late June, they were worried surely. Yai walked in front of Tetsu, while he followed her closely behind.

"Where are we going? Do you know where we came from? Are we lost?" Tetsu was getting increasingly worried. Yai just walked without saying a thing. He stopped and yelled:

"Say something! It was your idea to come here and now we're lost!"

Yai also stopped. In front of them was a giant and old tree, bigger than all the others. She sat down on its protected roots, that were peaking out. Tetsudo had never seen such a big tree and stood there in awe.

"Aren't you gonna sit?" Yai asked.

"Oh, sure..." Tetsu sat next to her, almost shoulder to shoulder.

It was quiet all around. There were no birds to sing lovely songs and no wind to make the dry leaves rustle. Only little insects sometimes buzzed across Tetsu's face, sometimes without even him noticing. The lonely rays that came through the leaves stayed with Yai and Tetsu to keep them company, but after a while it'd seem the sun got bored and decided to hide behind a cloud somewhere in the sky.

"Why did you let me stay?" Yai asked suddenly.

"Huh? Why?" Tetsudo was startled. "Well, um... You know, I'm not that kind of person that would let a homeless girl with torn clothes just... remain homeless..."

"Even so, letting a stranger into your home for a week is pretty risky, no?" Yai looked at him curiously.

"Well, when you put like that, it does sound bad... But in these situations I just think to myself "What if I was in their position? How would I feel if someone said "no" to me?". I guess it makes me naive, but it'd rather be naive then heartless. One of my friends even called me naive one time, when I wanted to rescue a homeless cat. It made me so upset, I stopped going out with him, despite how much he invites me. It made me reserved, I stopped talking to my friends. "The cat could something something, you will regret bringing her home...", so what? Will she regret meeting me and letting her have a home? I just can't stand that way of thinking. Stranger or no, stray cat or no, everyone should have a home."

A deafening silence fell onto the forest. Yai was looking at Tetsu with astonished eyes. When he caught a glimpse of her face, she turned away.

"Why did you decide to stay at a stranger's house?" Tetsudo asked her. She didn't move for a couple seconds. She stayed with her face away from him. But finally she stood up, walked a few meters ahead and stopped.

"I guess..." she turned around with a smile on her face. "I was just pushing my luck."

Just as she said that, the cloud covering the fat orange sun stepped down and it shone right where Yai stood. The long skirt she wore sparkled. Her eyes, before dim and deep, were now shining and along with her open smile, Yai's face looked ever cleaner and brighter. Tetsudo's eyes had widen even more than when he saw her at the station for the first time. The dry leaves up above rustled quietly and the wind started to blow. Yai's black hair slowly was lifted from its resting place and gently started waving around.

"Tomorrow, let's go into the city! I want to see your town!" she said with excitement.

"Ah, sure..." Testudo said, his eyes still filled with amazement.

"You don't have school, right?"

"Right."

The orange sun wasn't above them anymore. It was at eye level. You could see it, chopped up between the trees and its rays, disoriented by the wind, were getting weaker, shorter and fewer. The sky was divided - one part next to the sun was a mix between a tired orange and a cunning red. The other - a pinkish-blue with the crescent moon in its center. After all its running around the sky, the sun found a home and setting down, at least until the next day came for more wondering across the blue canvas above. They still looked at each other.

"Yai?" Tetsudo said, still looking Yai in her eyes.

"What?"

"Where were you while I was at school?"
Yai thought about that for a moment.

"I came to the rails. Then I was here, wondering around the forest's divinity."

"Why?"

"Why? I got a bit curious, I think... This railway was the only place you showed me, so it was the only place I knew and to not get lost, I went here," Yai was still smiling. To Tetsudo it seemed like her smile couldn't fade.

She turned around with her face still facing Tetsu.

"Shall we get going?"

"Oh!... Uh, yeah..." Tetsudo stumbled over his words. He got up from the tree-bench and they started walking back towards the rails.