Scene 8

 

Late at night

 

The night was dark. Red moon was still up telling it's still a night time. Stars were yellow as always sparkling above the sky with the moon. All the colorful surroundings were dimmed by the darkness, which also expanded the shadows in each objects. Night was in pure silence, except the sound of the wind passing by every few moments. Every time wind passed by, grasses that were dominated by the shadows danced moving left and right. Of course, leaves on the trees danced as well, but as for the leaves, they were eventually swept by the wind making them to fall out of the fragile branches. Place where trees and grasses are at, in this scene, the event took place in the middle of the mountain instead of place with white concrete rooms. Plenty of trees standing still spotting their territories around the mountains and in between there was lines of long way ground filled with sand. In this road, two life forces were found, climbing up the mountain. These two life forces were Shikihime and Maxias. Shikihime was wearing blue hoodie sweater which two sleeves came down to her wrists and matching blue pants instead of Kaori's lab coat. Her hair was now clean and fresh implying that she had taken a shower. Both of their foot steps were heard, but another sound came along with them.

 

It was a sound of grey bag that Maxias was holding dragging against the ground. In that bag,there were full of squared shaped metals. The eighth scene will cover the Shikihime and Macias'd whereabouts. As bunch of mrtals bumped against one another making clanking sound, Shikihime who was walking way behind Maxias raised the voice.

 

"Hey! Can you hear me? Why are we even going up to the mountain at this night time? Couldn't we just come here tomorrow in the morning?"

 

"I brought you at night time for a reason.So quit yapping around with your big mouth, will ya? We have been having conversation back and forth about where this place is, What is Mage, and What is Hellbeasts, countless time."

 

Maxias made a face palm gesture imagining how long the conversation was. When Shikihime was about to start the conversation once again, Maxias stopped. When he stopped, she realized they were finally top of of the mountain.

 

She could feel the fresh air and cold wind welcomed her by grazing her hair lightly. When she looked under the mountain, she could see the waterfall coming down to the pool of river. Around the river were all trees and grasses There were also dozens of boulders hanging in the river trying to block the streams of water. Shikihime was awed by the beautiful sight she was seeing.

 

"Wow, What a view! Are we here to see this amazing river?"

 

Maxias shook his head.

 

"Then what the hell did we climb up here for? There is nothing we can do up here. Don't you think place is too small to what you call testing?"

 

"That's why we are going to that river to test you."

 

When Shikihime stared Maxias with puzzled look on her face, he explained as he let out a long sigh.

 

"Don't you get it, do you. Climbing up the mountain was test itself. Stamina test."

 

"So are we gonna walk back?"

 

Maxias gave out a laugh and slowly carried Shikihime with two hands. She tried to resist, but he was too strong to fight back.

 

"Wha, what the hell are you doing?! Let go off me!"

 

"Don't worry about it."

 

With that said, he just jumped off the mountain landing in the grass patch. Then he put her down gently downon the patch of grass. Shikihime did not faint, however, she was very irritated by Maxias's rude action.

 

"Hey, hey, hey! Is that how you treat a girl?"

 

Maxias just shook his head as he pulled out piece of paper out of his cloak. When the note was handed to her, she read down the list and gasped. She stared up at him as she put her messy hair behind her ear. She pointed finger at him with raising edgy voice.

 

"Are you seriously want me to do these kind of things? Let me see, holding four metals with each hand, hundred push ups with only with one thumb, going into waterfall for three hour?"

 

"Well, you said it, take off your cloth, you are going into the river."

 

When she heard what he said, she approached him with outrageous demeanor. Her face turned red like an apple She was indeed mad at him, but couldn't face him face to face. Maxias waited until she said something, except she didn't. So he did instead. This time, his tone of voice sounded as though he didn't care about what she would do now.

 

"Fine, fine, you can get in by with your cloth on, you gonna have to if you are really in fact human. Also you are gonna dip in the water for a good solid three hours so you are gonna need it."

 

"What?! Three hours? What for? dipping in the water has nothing to do with increasing stamina, strength, nor speed."

 

Maxias didn't care, he just pushed Shikihime by the river.

 

SPLASH!

 

Shikihime got soaked into the water trying to pedal way out of the water, but she couldn't. She was somehow pushed back into the water as she was repelled from something. Thereby, she was in the middle of the river again. With confused face, she just swirled her both hands around the water, seeing if there was something wrong with the water. However, it was just ordinary water, just plain blue cold water. As she touched the tip of the water, Maxias gave an instruction.

 

"Ahem, let's see, now that you are in the water soaking wet, try hitting water with the tip of your middle finger. Try to concentrate when you do it."

 

She didn't know why she had to follow his order, but she did anyway. All she wanted now was to get out of this river. She put his finger tip on the water, but she couldn't stabilize her finger to stop right on the water. Instead, her finger kept going inside the water. When she realized it was harder than she expected, she looked at Maxias what he was doing. What he was doing was unspeakable. He was laughing at her pointing his finger at her face.

 

"Hey, hey, hey! I am shivering because of this cold water! You know how cold it is in here?"

 

"You are not gonna come out of there unless you do what I say. Just you know, I am using my aura to push you away so don't think about coming out of the water."

 

At this point, Shikihime was loss of words. She just let out a long sigh and went back to what she was doing before. But as she was moving hands up and down to strike down repetitively right before they hit the water, she thought of something similar, but couldn't remember what it was. She was going to ask as she stopped moving looking toward Maxias, but her jaw went down when she saw Maxias taking his cloak off showing well built body with six pack abs. She covered her eyes with her hands right away . Her finger gaps were not as tight as though, it was a bit loosened up so she could see through inside the gap of the fingers. She asked with burning hot face still with covering her eyes. Her voice was shaking.

 

"Wha, wha, what are you doing?"

 

Maxias was finally in the water now.

 

"That's what I'd like to ask, you dimwit. I told you to do what I have told you. And don't mind me, I am here to help you."

 

"Wait, I thought you were testing me, not training me!"

 

Maxias shook his head with disappointment covering his half of his face with his hand.It was first time he was frowning as well.

 

"I thought you were know it all, seems like you are just a stupid small fry. I can see your face that you are not even trying. How can it be a test, pass or fail, when you are not willing to participate it?"

 

Then gradually Macias grabbed one of her hand and strike down gently on the water. The surface of the water's currency changed the pattern of moving for just once. Shikihime was awed by what she did. That moment, instead of denying the fact that who she really could be, she wanted to know who she was either human or another identity of her own.