Past the Mountains, Among the Clouds

"That surname." I voiced out.

"What? Archion?"

"Yes. A certain someone I know also has it."

"Who?"

"I have mixed feelings about you."

"You're rather cold-hearted, you know. Reminds me of the Winter Goddess."

Does she know about Bierra? I thought to myself.

"How come?"

"I don't know. Maybe this cold-hearted attitude towards a friendly colleague."

I kept mum.

"Actually. No. You don't remind me of her." She said with a sigh.

"Huh?"

"She isn't stupid."

"I am what now?" 

"Stupid. Here, I'll make it clear to you."

She grabbed my hand and pulled on it. A sudden jerk. With a fancy twirl, she pulled me closer. Too close. A bit too close for comfort, and whispered in my ear.

"Stupid~"

She nibbled on my ear.

Scream. I wanted to scream. Keep in mind, it was not because I disliked the sensation. No. I'm actually quite fond of such intimacies. The point to be considered is she was not someone I planned to do this with!

My heart. Throbbing. Palpitations. Breathe. Deep breaths. Well, such words put her actions in quite a negative light.

My heart almost bounced out of chest. What was she doing? Autumn isn't supposed to make you flustered! This shouldn't be the trait of an Autumn Goddess.

I stood there rigid, like a stone statue. I had let my guard down. Well, soon enough, I faced the consequences of it. This strange stunt of her had rendered my defenses useless, and now she wasted no time in taking full advantage of it. She pushed me. She pushed me off the road.

Had I been living in my home city, the best the push would've done was knock me off balance. Maybe squirm on the footpath a bit. However, this was not my home. In fact, it was one place where pushing someone off the road meant certain death. Yes. On mountains, people cut the slope to make roads, through the use of heavy machinery, of course. The result of which is this strange topography, where you have the hard mountainous rock on one side and a cliff on the other.

So there I stood. No. Stood would be the wrong word. Held. There I existed, held by my arm by that Autumn Goddess. One mistake and I'd be dead meat. 

"What do we have here? Divine Reconstruction?" She said. She seemed to be amused.

"I'm hoping to think you'll tell me all the things in detail after this." She continued.

To be honest, it sounded more like a scoff now. It really didn't suit her fluffy marshmallow like voice. It sounded like an imitation. Her round eyes had developed a menacing gaze. Sharp. They felt sharp now.

I still kept mum. No. While I agree, I might be stupid enough to sit on the front row of a class after reaching late. Stupid enough to confuse maths, for Greek. I wasn't stupid enough to stay quiet in a life or death situation such as this one. I kept mum only because of a single cause.

Scared.

I was scared. The height, if I fell, was more than enough to squeeze me into a pancake.

"Still keeping that mouth shut, huh? You really are stupid."

She was losing her patience.

I could catch a new emotion in her voice. Frustration.

"Well, I'll give you credit where credit is due. You really are stubborn, like Bierra. That stupid ice witch." 

My hunch was right. She was referring to Bierra. The only thing left was to get to the other side safely. I know. I made it sound like it was trivial. In hindsight, it feels trivial. But for me at that moment, I had to act fast. So I said — 

"Uh, Miss Freya." I spoke up. My breathes were still heavy.

"Huh?" It seemed she had accepted the fact that I would not muster a single word. Hearing me call her name, let alone calling her a miss, must've taken her aback. Her grip on my arm weakened. WHICH IN MY CURRENT PREDICAMENT MEANT —

"NO, DON'T. I'M FALLING!!!!!!" I CRIED OUT. Cried is a bit of an understatement. Scream. Yes, I screamed. 

The very next moment, she restored her grip. I was saved. Partially, at least. I was still hanging by the cliff. I will commend her strength, though. Even if she was a god, she was still quite short. She even seemed a bit on the frailer side. Her physical build had been one reason I put her on the soft recluse side of the spectrum. Yet, holding all my wait didn't seem to be a problem for. Anyway, I needed to talk my way out of this!

"So as I was, I saying." I continued.

"I seemed to have blundered. Yes. I am stupid. Well, I am your jest, of course. So, I thought that would be the best to please you. I ask for you mercy, your Highness." I tried to talk to her like some medieval court joker. I was confident about my delivery and I was sure that moments later my feet would be back on solid ground.

Stupid.

She looked at me, dumbfounded. 

"You don't really think we talk like that, now do you?" 

I was stupid. Yes. That's all there's to it.

"Oh, my god. You know what? I don't even want to do this anymore. Here, there you go."

She pulled me back and I was back on solid ground. I fell to my knees. The adrenaline's effect must've been wearing off. I looked up at Freya.

Disappointment. Failed your parents' type of disappointment. Before I could say something, she gave me a look of icy contempt. She crumbled. She crumbled into a pile of dry leaves. Never in my life had I thought that such a combination of words was possible. But here I was. Her last look.

Painful.

"This is one heck of a welcome party I'm receiving." I sighed as picked myself off the ground. Now that I think, a much better remark would've been about the leaves.

Leaves. Dead Leaves. Dry Leaves. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a pile of leaves. Yet, it wasn't the case. They didn't fit in. They felt like an imitation.

I made my way to the pile of leaves. Normal. Still wishing to investigate a bit more, I decide to pick one up. Before I could even touch them, a voice called out —

"Don't touch them!" she commanded. A familiar voice.

A gust of icy wind materialized around my wrist. Snowflakes appearing out of nowhere, merging with one another forming various structures. First, a finger, then a set of ten, merging to form a set of two hands, extending to the elbows, shoulder followed soon after. Fabric extend out of the ice sculpture and before I knew it, there in front of me stood Bierra, holding my wrist with her two ice-cold hands. Her fingers felt like icicles.

"Don't touch them, they are divine sites."

I shot her a puzzled look. She understood right away.

"They are like spawn points in games. It helps us to travel to other divine sites instantly."

That was not what I wanted to know. My puzzling expression continued.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"After that whole incident last night. It's ironic that we meet the very next day. You know after the whole you go your way, I'll go mine, ordeal." I replied. Rather wordy. I know. But this entire scene screamed irony.

She just gave me a look. Yes. A look. I can't really pinpoint what it was. But to summarise, she just it felt like, "I feel sorry for you." Minus any hints of sympathy.

"Alright, so what's the whole deal about not touching them?" I continued.

"Those are divine entities. I don't know how your body might react to divine entities." She replied.

"That's not helping a lot, you know." 

"Remember how you should have been unaffected by the ceremony yesternight, but you weren't. Like I had told you, even for a goddess. You are a folklore."

"I see." I nodded in agreement. A folklore to even a god. 

"Anyway, I didn't expect you to be this patient with my explanation today. It seems dying twice was enough to change your demeanour."

"And I didn't expect to see you."

"It's not like I wanted to see you too, you know? Why would I visit a stupid creature like you?" 

Her demeanor was cold as ever. Not even a human. She called me a creature.

"So why appear out of nowhere, then?"

She pointed at those pile of leaves.

"What?" I asked.

"I can detect the presence of other similar entities. So I came to investigate. Only to find that you were paralyzed from fear by an ear nibbling hipster. That damned Freya!" Her expression changed to one of slight anger. No. It was more of being annoyed rather that anger.

"So, you were watching."

"Of course I was. Wait, did you know I was?"

She called Freya a hipster.

"Would that change anything? By the way, you sound like you know her."

"Oh, well-" She went mum. Did I make a goddess at a loss for words? 

"You seem rather inquisitive." She completed. That was not what I expected. A crack in her haughty, icy, unsympathetic character.

"So, miss Bierra."

"Go ahead."

"It seems you know Freya." I tried once again.

"What makes you think so?"

She seemed to have regained her icy demeanour.

"Nothing. It's just that you knew the name, even without me mentioning it."

"Oh, yes. I am familiar with her."

"Right. So my next guess would be that you two are related."

"Nope."

"Then why do you share the same last name?"

"You know, I did let you be hanged and tossed around, even though it was not your fault. So, I'd answer all your questions but for now let's just-" She said as she pointed at my back.

"Why-" I was about to counter when I heard the footsteps. Bierra must've heard the footsteps, or felt them depending on the divine sense she had used. Anyhow, the now empty mountain road was soon to become crowded. In that case, I felt it was only fit that we change the location of our discussion. 

"Where should we continue, then?" I asked.

"Meet me at the same lecture hall where we last meet. I have the feeling that we would be having similar rendezvous from now on." She replied. A friendly tone. 

I gave her a small nod and just like that, with another icy gust, she dematerialized into the wind.

I won't lie. It looked pretty cool.