Ep.26: A Land of Ash, Part 6

“What can we do? We’re just kids.” Maka says, dismay nearly choking his words.

“Yeah. Maka’s right, we can’t just go off on our own.” Ramsey explains as he begins to walk down the hill. “It’s dangerous out there for someone inexperienced.”

I briskly walk past Maka and Ramsey. “Who said anything about doing this by ourselves?” I look behind me and smile. “We’ll just have to wait and see what the people think about this!” I raise my fist in the air with a smile. “Let’s unite this kingdom to save our home!” I began to run down the hill. “So what are you guys just standing there for, let’s hurry back home!”

Ramsey looks at Maka. “Let’s go.”

“Right. I’ll be right there.” Maka says as he bends over and gingerly picks up an ashen leaf, placing it in a small box and putting that into his backpack.

“Hurry up, Maka! Or we’ll leave you behind!” I shout as we make our way out of the ashen jungle.

As we approach the cliffside we fell from, Maka begins to speak. “Ummm… guys, I just realized, how are we going to get back up the cliff?” Maka says, inspecting the cliff from which we had all fallen earlier.

“You got to be shitting me…” Ramsey looks exhausted.

“We can just climb it!” I say with a smile.

Ramsey, completely ignoring me, asks Maka, “Hey, Maka, do you have any rope in your bag?”

“I’m sorry, Ramsey, I left it at home,” Maka says contritely as he quickly looks through his bag.

“Hey. Are you ignoring me?” I stare Ramsey down with an angry glare.

“Damn. It may take longer, but we might have to go around.” Ramsey scratches his head out of frustration.

“That sucks,” Maka says, conceding to Ramsey’s conclusion.

“Hey! Pay attention to me!” I shout.

“Come on, Maka, let’s get moving.” Ramsey begins to walk away.

“I hate to say this, but I think you’re right.” Maka follows.

“You guys are doing this on purpose, aren’t you?!” I cross my arms, a little upset. “Fine! I guess I’ll just take this stairway that leads to the top! All by myself!” I say as I point over to a man-made path that was most likely left by an expedition group.

Ramsey walks up to me, angry. “How long have you known about this?!”

I begin to answer him, “I-”

“Nope! You know what, I don’t want to know the answer! Because I’m afraid I might kill you if I do!”

“O-ok.” I say, trying to smile.

Maka falls to his knees with relief. “Thank god! I don’t know if I could have made it if we went around.”

“Alright guys! Let’s go home!” I say as we begin climbing.

After making it to the top, we enter again into the part of the Deep Jungle that hasn’t yet been plagued by the Ashen. I look over my shoulder one last time towards the ashen jungle and notice a single tree standing tall. “I promise I’ll find a way to stop this.” I whisper to myself as a single leaf slowly falls from the tree, crumbling into nothing but ash.