"Are you.. okay?"
Am asked.
"No..H-hic!"
Tiju's voice came out as a whisper.
"What is your name?"
He asked the name of the person he saved.
"T-Tiju Ern"
Am nodded.
"Tiju"
He called out his name softly.
And he asked one simple question.
"Do you want to live?"
Tiju only nodded in response.
"Right...it is only natural for the living to want to live"
He extended his hand above.
"I will save you, just once"
That was all he could afford to do.
"So get up and walk beside me"
Tiju looked below and saw the Oksi's hand reaching out to him.
"At the very least, stand up, raise yourself up to respect the burning will to live"
Tiju wiped his tears, his palm pushed his body forward.
His body, raised like the dead faced Am.
"I..."
He stood up on his feet, he still quaked in fear.
Yet that same fear magnified his determination to live.
Because no one would want to suffer like that, to be torn apart like a toy and used to pass the time.
"Will live"
He couldn't die here, he had so many things to look forward to, a crush to confess to, a family that always sits by his side and friends that worry are constantly there when he needs them.
"Puha! Finally out!"
Famu, constrained prior was hopping back and forth with bated breaths.
Am looked at him and then at Tiju.
"Then, let's slowly get to the Tierre Path"
He moved past them and headed south-west, close to the edge of the 'stomach'
***
Ha..
Ragged breaths nibbled close to an ear.
'I'm fucked, and royally at that'
Iye dangled from a branch and was tangled in vines whilst also being in an uncomfortable position after skydiving head-first against her mortal will, feeling blood constantly rush into her head.
It throbbed, increasing in intensity the more she stayed upside down.
'I don't think I can even move properly without limping'
In her embrace, Cale was held like how a small girl would hold a teddy bear.
'Damn, he was still injured despite me basically taking everything?'
A very small amount of blood trickled from his mouth.
It hadn't even been a day and Cale was already in the red.
'I'm lucky if he doesn't disappear in the next 6 hours'
Iye stayed in this position for that much of a long time. Not out of her own will but because she could do nothing except for drawing in a breath with labor efforts.
She kept breathing heavily in Cale's earlobe due to how tangled they were and how tired Iye was.
'I should be able to move slightly...'
Iye swayed her body to the right and left, they moved slightly but it wasn't enough to break free.
'It's way too tight!'
She wiggled around and pushed Cale for more space but she was too weak to do anything.
'AHHH! This is so annoying!'
Frustrated with how everything went completely to the drainer, she wanted to murder Cale right this instant.
'Can't he come back a second time for me? Shouldn't a beating be universally accepted? even in the afterlife?!'
She flailed around, causing the spiraling branch of the Ohrn tree to shake, only slightly however.
"Yeah, this can't be happening, it's a dream, right?"
Her thoughts drifted to denial.
"Damn it! how can everything go to shit in just one day! It doesn't make any sense, does it?!"
Then moved to anger.
"Maybe if I bargain with Zenox...AHH! NO! WHAT THE HELL COULD I EVEN USE FOR BARGAINING?!?!"
Then left anger as if it were another side dish on the big table.
"Yep, I'm fucked, my entire history of living had been utterly meaningless, I am such a shame to the Idiyele name. Maybe I should also end my life to at least not suffer and bring some honor to the world down under? I would also get to beat up Cale in the afterlife for having a weak resolve...It works out pretty well!"
She then shifted to depression and...cope?
"You know, staying here, not capable of moving when my life might end in the next few hours is strangely a harmonic experience..just like how Carlos said, I'm going to die anyway so it's probably fiiiinee~"
Then after cycling through all the dishes like they were ex's, she finally settled on acceptance.
"Haaa~"
She exhaled, still tired from all the added injuries and poisoning she had to endure just to stay conscious.
Her head throbbed more with pain, her face, though invisible to the naked eye was now flushed bright red. A high fever, and an extremely deadly one to have in a place like this.
Any weakening in the Sabe was essentially a death sentence more likely to be ruled in favor.
Every single inch and muscle in her body could not respond to her call to move to save Cale and...to save herself.
'I heard that in the afterlife or whatever is a strange place, even to most Gods. Only the God of Death Krizantemë knows what truly is and isn't in there, he currently doesn't have any followers devout enough to be priests from what I know, and if they were some..'
Her eyes fell down and cast a glare at the fog.
'They'd be dead'
Any priest of Krizantemë met such a fate always, with not a single exception.
Only extremists and fanatics that strived to become a priest remained. Though even those kinds of people started dwindling down due to the delusion that they held that foretold them as a chosen priest from Krizantemë themselves.
'I wonder, is he suffering?'
Every individual resurrected had described the experience as 'indescribable'.
'Is he blissfully resting in paradise while I'm dying?'
She could not know, and she would not know...for many years that will eventually come to pass.
"..."
'J-Just a little won't hurt, right?'
The lids above her eyes that had remained so alert and cautious before began to soften, the strength to keep them open had long left.
Iye couldn't stay awake any longer.
And thus—
Huu~
She drifted into a short yet deadly nap, her breaths kept on tingling Cale's earlobe, and her saliva trickled from her mouth and...doused his ear like how one would with a pillow so soft it turns you into a mannerless mammal.
The saliva kept journeying through Cale's head, until finally dripping through the endless fog that sat below.