CHAPTER 4 - Good riddance

ONE THING I NOTICED BEFORE we set foot out of the clearing was that, aside from the scarily black and ridiculously tall trunks, the Stygian Fir was as dry as any normal tree. Most of the time, such high trees with spread out branches brought in barely any sunlight. But for trees the height of a Titan, they were dry. Dry enough to use their twigs for fire and fallen branches for torches.

The ground in the clearing was damp, soothing to my skin that laid on it. But once we started walking, getting deeper and deeper into the maze, there was hardly any dampness to it.

"Are you serious!?" Foras cries loudly behind me. He yanks my hand away from the climber but it's already on fire. Pushing me away, he tries to blow on it, but sadly, Foras hasn't been in a science class. With him blowing, the fire grows brighter and it swiftly catches and climbs up like a giant oiled wick.

"Yes, I'm serious." This time, I'm the one who answers the rhetorical question. Without slacking off, I walk to the next tree and do the same. And then the next, and the next and next, until, a dozen of the trees' climbers are on fire.

Then the fire spreads, growing bigger and hotter. "Hyung! You fool!" I don't complain at Foras for calling me hyung like we were familiar. I let him as he hit my shoulder with his thin hands. "We'll get roasted along with it! I don't want to become dinner."

The System is still silent in my head, but I feel her. It's like she is refraining from screaming at me just like Foras. But she doesn't stop being adamant and I don't stop being reckless.

Maybe it's the adrenaline or the utter hopelessness. Maybe I'm plain stupid and it had finally got to my brain. But staying in the clearing in that constant darkness with no hunger, no sense of time and no family and Shin Woo, and Hanna Kim is enough to drive me crazy.

"That's why," I grab Foras' hand, "we shouldn't get caught."

With that, I take off.

For a few minutes, Foras absolutely forgets he can fly. He lets me yank him as I run blindly. I don't think of a direction. I just try to avoid the fire. Like any other forest fire, hordes and hordes of animals and birds escape with me, and I follow them. I recognise none. The birds have wings. The animals have legs. But that's as far as the similarities with real world fauna go.

My muscles tighten in a practised manner and all my years as a marathon plus 400m dash athlete pave way. I huff but it's more from the exhilaration than from exhaustion.

"We can't outrun a forest fire!" Foras notes the obvious.

"Yes, we can't!" I shout back. "But we got to improvise."

I keep running, once again losing track of time. My legs finally start buckling and I feel my trained muscles pushing from physical exhaustion to mental exhaustion. The System coils in my brain like a restless serpent. We run and she coils more. At last, she picks her words and throws them at me. A whisper totally out of character. "Are you an idiot?"

"No."

"Then why?"

If this was normal times, I would smile right now. But this isn't. "I don't need to get out of a maze if there was no maze to begin with."

"So you destroy it?" Gone are any traces of the decadent submission and in place, The System spits fire. "You can't outrun fire!" Her words come out shrilled and I wince.

"I don't intend to," I say.

I glance back and the fire is just a few yards away from my flimsy clothes. Tightening my hold on Foras' hand, I persevere. "The extra life–" I start again "–do I get one if I die?"

Even now, the System doesn't reply. I give out a wry smile. Maybe this is truly the end. Maybe–

It is at this brilliant moment that my feet tangle with one of the tree's roots. I stumble, wobbling unsteadily as my hands reflexively reach out to try and hold something. But it was I, who set the forest on fire like a genius. With the fire catching up and nowhere to hold onto, I fall forwards, slipping down the steep forest path.

I feel Foras try to hold me, his tiny hands tugging at my clothes but they're twigs themselves and it doesn't stop my downward descent. I fall head first. The pain doesn't discriminate and I yelp with each tumble, hitting the rough rocks and the trees that are a second away from catching fire. First my knees, then my arms as a whole and my torso. And finally, my head.

"Hyung!" Foras screams somewhere behind me.

This time, I don't struggle as unconsciousness floods me. Instead, I welcome it.

+++

"Shhh, he is finally coming to," somebody whispers over me and I frown. I know this voice.

"Rudra. Rudra, can you hear me?" I definitely know this voice.

I feel someone touch my cheek, a stroke which is barely there. Another whisper and a hand to my forehead. "Rudra . . ?" It's Shin Woo.

It's a Herculean task to pry my eyes open. And when I do, instant brightness burns my eyes mercilessly. My eyelids flutter, trying to accommodate the light. I see Shin Woo's anxious face first. Behind him, meathead hyung and some of the basketball guys peer down, with matching anxious expressions. Like a dot on the corner, I see Hanna Kim too.

I freeze.

My eyes water from the bright sunlight as I run it over their faces. This isn't Gaal's Grove. Foras isn't hovering over me. It is Shinwoo and my friends. In a daze, I look around.

I'm back . . . I'm finally back.