6 Nest

"Blue," Kiran breathed. Noorh's hair was a midnight blue under the morning light. It seemed pure black in the dark, but it had a bluish sheen whenever light brushed its soft strands at an angle.

It was the first time that a male stranger around her age carried Kiran like a bride. She wasn't sure how to react when he effortlessly lifted her up from the ground, let alone when he started leaping into the air. The awkwardness and embarrassment she felt at being held made her rigid and stiff, but the queasiness that filled her senses with their every rise and fall against the cliff eventually left her too nauseous to care about it. At one point, she found herself desperately wrapping her arms around his neck for dear life - a gesture that he didn't seem to mind. As if the whole ordeal wasn't enough of a torment, her body started reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything for dinner in the previous day or breakfast that morning.

Seeing Noorh proceed with their journey without a thought about meals or any bag that might hold food made her wonder if people in his world didn't eat at all. Would telling him about her hunger pangs cause him more inconvenience? How would they even secure food along the cliffside? Rocks weren't edible, right?

The thought made her stomach grumble slightly. She winced and decided to keep her hunger to herself since the sooner they could get down the mountain, the sooner they might find food. And because she couldn't for the life of her look down to see the path that Noorh was taking, she opted to look up at the sky and the steps that they had left behind. It was then that her eyes curiously examined Noorh's mussed mop of hair as it bounced in the cool breeze grazing their skin.

"What's blue?" Noorh suddenly asked, breaking Kiran's train of thought.

A hint of red filled her cheeks as she turned away in shame.

"Y-your hair," Kiran shyly admitted, casting her eyes at the steps slowly disappearing along the curve of the cliffside behind them. She instantly regretted muttering loudly to herself. It was a habit she developed from talking to herself whenever she was alone. There were instances when she was too far into her thoughts that they would slip out of her lips without her realizing it, which wasn't good when it happened while there were people around her like at that very moment with Noorh. She remembered receiving stares of confusion and disgust, and immediately picking up impressions about how "weird" and unpleasantly different she was from everyone else.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons why she turned out to be more of a wallflower compared to Alessa. She stayed away from people knowing that they wouldn't find her worth their time. She made friends here and there, but not the admirably close-kind and tightly-knit that she would read about in books or see on TV. Even when she spent a lot of her time with Remy, she kept some of her guard up and prepared herself for the time when they would eventually become more like acquaintances than friends.

"You find it weird," Noorh muttered, dragging Kiran's attention back to the present and making her realize that staring at his hair might have offended him.

"No! It's not like that at all," she quickly replied as she looked straight at Noorh's - surprisingly - apathetic expression. He looked like he was used to being looked at differently, but she was sure that her actions hurt him in some way. "I like your hair!" she explained. "I've always wanted to dye my hair blue, but not the bright blue or the mermaid blue. Just the blackish blue, you know? Like your hair! It looked really dark last night that I thought you had pitch black hair. But now that I'm looking at it in the daylight, it's actually blue! It's really cool. I wish I can dye my hair to look like yours."

Noorh stared curiously at her as if he was trying to figure out if she was being serious. "You want to dye your hair to look like mine?" he asked, puzzled.

Kiran smiled and nodded. "I think it's really beautiful," she continued. "And it looks really soft and silky! Usually, when hair gets dyed, it dries up, right? But yours look so smooth and healthy even when it's messy. Is that your natural hair color?"

"It is," Noorh confirmed, glancing slightly forward to eye the next step where he will hand his feet on.

Kiran sighed longingly as she watched his hair dance in the breeze. "I wish my hair is that pretty," she mumbled. "Maybe I'll try to dye my hair in that color-"

"You can't," Noorh immediately said, cutting her off.

Kiran stared surprised at him. Did he find Kiran's fascination with his hair color offensive?

"At least you can't do it in this world," Noorh clarified, casting his sights forward and away from Kiran's curious doe eyes. "It's illegal."

Kiran blinked. "Dyeing hair is illegal here?" she asked, baffled that something so simple in her world could be banned in another world.

"Dyeing one's hair isn't illegal," Noorh explained, sighing as he focused on the next step he was going to jump to. "You can dye your hair here if you want, just not with the same color as my hair."

Kiran's jaw slackened "So…dyeing my hair blue would be illegal here?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"It is," Noorh confirmed. "Particularly the shade of blue that my hair has."

"But why?" Kiran asked. "Is it against your religion?" Afterall, there were hair-related practices that were banned by religions in her world too.

Noorh pursed his lips in thought. "S-something like that," he finally answered.

Kiran narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean?"

Noorh wasn’t sure how he should respond to the question. Thankfully a loud familiar grumble interrupted their conversation. He paused on a step and stared at Kiran who was already scarlet and wincing away from him.

"You're hungry," he deadpanned.

"N-no, I'm not!" Kiran weakly defended, her eyes looking back up at the blue sky overhead. "Oh hey, the sky is so pretty!"

A louder series of growls that vibrated against Noorh's chest contradicted Kiran's claim. Noorh bit back a snicker and Kiran flinched.

"Sorry," Noorh admitted. "I forgot you need meals. I have jerky in a pouch along the right side of my waist. You can take one."

Kiran shyly mumbled a "thank you" before gingerly moving her arms away from his neck and slipping it around his waist. The gesture left her with no choice but to press her chest squarely against Noorh's, which made even the back of her neck turn scarlet. She loudly cleared her throat as she awkwardly padded along the leather belt that held several items along his waist. "S-so…you don't eat?" she shyly asked, hoping it would distract him from noticing her racing heartbeat.

"I do," he calmly explained, smirking as he noted the frantic beats thrumming against his chest. "I just had a piece of jerky last night before the ritual. It's usually taken once a day by travelers who don't have enough food stash on hand."

"I-I see," Kiran muttered as her hand felt something soft and round along his waist. "I-I think I found it!" She felt a clasp that secured the pouch to the belt, unlatched it, and showed a brown leather pouch held closed by a black string to Noorh. "Is this it?" she asked, her empty stomach groaning in anticipation.

"Yes, that's it," Noorh confirmed.

Kiran eagerly opened the pouch and gasped as she found a handful of square thin dark wafers that didn't at all look like any meat jerky she had seen in her world.

"Just get one and place it under your tongue," Noorh instructed. "That should nourish you for the day."

Kiran looked uneasily at Noorh. "Shouldn't you take one too?" she asked. "You said you only had one yesterday."

Noorh stared curiously at Kiran. "Are you going to feed me one?"

Kiran blushed. "F-feed you?" she asked, clearly embarrassed. "I-I mean, sure but…y-you can put me down too so you can-"

"I can't," Noorh deadpanned.

Kiran stared surprised at him. Even her ears were a deep shade or red. Was he actually enjoying the experience of carrying her in his arms like a bride?!

"There isn't much space for you to stand on the step that I'm on right now," Noorh casually explained as if reading exactly what Kiran was thinking.

Kiran gingerly glanced down and immediately shrank against the crook of Noorh's neck in terror. He was perched on a step that only had room for his black leather booted feet. The edge that overlooked the clouds seemed like it had been sliced to be narrower than the steps behind them.

"Are you going to eat one?" Noorh asked.

"Y-yeah," Kiran said, casting her eyes into the pouch and gingerly fishing out a piece with her trembling fingers. "You first," she said, offering him a wafer.

Noorh stared curiously at her for a moment. Was she afraid that it was poisoned? He then opened his mouth, allowing her to drop the wafer underneath his tongue. He closed his mouth and watched her pick up another wafer for herself.

Kiran flinched and cringed as a wave of tastes flooded her mouth. The wafer melted into something extremely salty, sweet, tangy, and spicy all at the same time that she wondered for a moment how her mouth hadn't gone numb. "I guess I see how it makes you eat only once a day," she muttered as she quickly closed the pouch. "I don't think I want to taste anything edible after that."

Noorh bit back a snicker as Kiran put the pouch back against his waist.

"Isn't having pockets more convenient than having everything tied to your waist by a belt?" Kiran curiously asked after securing the clasp on the pouch.

"It's not that convenient when I'm hopping along these steps," Noorh explained.

"Oh…I guess that makes sense," Kiran said, wrapping her arms around his neck again. "What about a bag?"

"I have some at the bottom of this pillar," Noorh answered. "It has all my supplies so it's too heavy to carry on the trip to the top."

"I see," Kiran said, nodding in understanding. "Are you sure you're alright with carrying me the whole trip down?"

"We can take a rest once we're passed the nest of the guardians," Noorh explained. "It takes roughly three days to hike down the pillar, even with the way I'm doing it. That fall we had last night had cut it down to two."

"Okay, but tell me if you need to rest, alright?" Kiran insisted. "I don't mind walking down the steps on my own. I just need something to hold on to so don't force yourself to carry me if your arms are already in pain."

"I did tell you that I'm using a spell, right?" Noorh said. "Don't bother too much about it. By the way, how long can you hold your breath?"

Kiran stared confused at him. "Not too long..?" she answered. "I don't know how to swim so…"

"Then I suggest you start practicing a bit now, before we reach the nest," Noorh said. "The guardians' nests are notorious for their poisonous stench. We don't have spells that can repel its miasma, so the only way to avoid getting too sick from it is to hold your breath until we're past their territory. A minute should be enough, if you can."

Kiran anxiously nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'll try to hold my breath for that long."

Noorh continued their descent while Kiran focused on practicing how she could hold her breath, which she soon found wasn't easy.

***

It started with a whiff: a subtle stench of something rotten in the air.

Noorh immediately stopped in his tracks and warily eyed the steps in front of them. "Kiran," he began. "I need you to take a deep breath and start holding your breath."

Kiran anxiously nodded, realizing that the scent meant they were close to the winged-serpent guardian's nests. She took a deep breath, ignoring the subtle stench in the air, and held her breath. She then nodded to Noorh to tell him she was ready.

Noorh nodded back, took a deep breath and leaped into the air skipping three to four steps at a time to speed up their pace across the nests.

It was after a turn down the steps that Kiran saw the first winged-serpent nest in front of them. It looked like something a giant bird would make out of shredded black trees. It splayed across three stone steps. More nests covered the rest of the steps. But what horrified Kiran the most was the sight of bones and rotting chunks of meat inside the nest. It was scattered on the floor along with muddy giant feathers. It surrounded a group of eggs that were tall enough to reach Kiran's chest.

Noorh calmly leaped into the nest, ignoring the mangled animal carcass on the spot where he landed.

Kiran instinctively tightened her hold around Noorh's neck as her eyes caught sight of maggots wriggling on what seemed like a giant rat that died a likely painful and gruesome death.

Noorh leaped into the air again, eyeing another nest.

Kiran expected it to be pretty similar to the previous nest but when they landed on a patch near the eggs, she spotted a human corpse splayed on a corner near a pile of egg shells. Its skin had melted into its flesh: its face barely recognizable with its features fading into the skull. As if the sight of the ripped open torso and maggot-infested intestines wasn't good enough to horrify her, she found something dark and round jerk from behind it.

A pair of yellow eyes snapped open from the shape, and a snake head burst out of the torso. Its open mouth and slimy fangs were aimed at Kiran and Noorh.

Kiran gasped in panic, inhaling the nauseating stench of rotting flesh and imminent death.