Chapter 10. Archery After Two Thousand Years (Part 1)

"Hello, Hello? Mr. Fireball, are you even listening?" Advik waved in front of the frozen Fireball who looked as though it was deep in thought.

"Oh, yes-yes, I am listening," the Fireball abruptly answered.

"Where should we go from here?"

"Oh, we should head towards the voice," the Fireball replied. 

Advik frowned slightly, "Which voice can not hear anything anymore. I just purified this area and no voice and no sound is coming after that," he smiled and emphasized, "You know, I did a fabulous job. No voice will come now, hehe."

The Fireball flew some inches ahead as though it were trying to determine the directions of the voice, it paused, "Probably the voice of the guy you are searching for. We should go straight towards the path of this voice, I am sure this voice is not some kind of trick of demons."

Advik stepped close to the Fireball, the Firefly followed him, "Are you sure that we would not get ourselves in any more trouble," his voice was worried.

"I am sure, it is the boy. I can hear voices and sounds from miles away," the Fireball confidently reassured him,  "I trust my ability." 

"Are you confident that it's not some demons or vicious creatures?"

"I am."

The soul took a deep sigh. Stretching his hands as high as possible and putting them down he tried to clear his mind. I cannot stay here forever. Going after Mr. Fireball looks better than roaming alone in this unfamiliar place.

His instincts were telling him that the friend in front of him had no ill intention or at least he could not sense any, hence, following someone who knew the woods more familiarly was not a bad idea. He again eyed the Fireball, "Then lead our way once again." 

He just took one of his legs on the path when the Firefly came right in front of him and started to jump in the air like it was scolding him for leaving and forgetting it behind.

He smiled pleasantly, "I have not forgotten about you," his left hand gently patted it. It stopped jumping when the big-gentle hand touched it so carefully. The Firefly quietly flew and sat upon his shoulder. Advik was surprised, he giggled, letting the Firefly do as it wanted. "You are also a stubborn and adorable, tiny friend."

"Tara!" the Fireball said while flying ahead from them. 

"What?!" Advik was baffled as he looked at the Fireball.

"Tara," the Fireball said calmly, "her name is Tara and she's a girl. Call her by that name. She hates when people don't call her by her name."

Advik glanced at the Firefly who was sitting comfortably on his left shoulder, "Oh, so your name is Tara and you are a girl. I thought you were a guy, haha!" His eyes were also smiling, "You know you have a very good name. Just like stars, you are illuminating my path. Thank you, Tara." He gave a bright-gentle smile looking at her once again. Then he looked at the back of the Fireball who was floating ahead of him. He had something in his mind, thus he called, "Mr. Fireball!!"

"...Vismay," the Fireball said nonchalantly.

"What!?" Advik was confused with big eyes, "What did you just say?" 

"My name is Vismay. I thought that you were going to ask my name as well because I just told you hers, therefore, I told you mine."

"Ohhh," sighed Advik, "Vismay! Quite a unique name for a Fireball, haha."

"Not as 'unique' as yours, I think," the Fireball chuckled slowly.

"Yes, yes, nice joke." Advik rolled his eyes. He sighed. After some minutes of running, he glanced right and left as he huffed for some air while following the Black Fireball Vismay. He was going to ask something again but he was disturbed when he heard someone shouting.

"Help! Help! Help! Someone, help me." Someone was calling for help, there was some nervousness in the tone yet the voice looked as if someone who had an arrogance of youth was giving orders.

Advik was worried, forgetting what he wanted to ask, instead, he questioned scanning the horrifying forest, "Mr. Fireball? Is this the voice you were talking about?"

"Yes, we need to hurry, he might be in danger," said Vismay then they all geared up their speed on the way to the voice. 

When they arrived at the spot, Advik tried to examine the whole place with alertness.

They left behind the thick dark forest so it became easier to see even far away. It was still pitch-black, the vermillion moon was covered by black clouds, the cold winds were blowing faster in the open area, and there was no grass to be seen anywhere, only big and small rocks. Even after looking everywhere, he could not find the boy but his strident voice was still echoing even louder than before. 

Advik put his hand near his lips and shouted back, "Can you hear me? Where are you?" 

The voice replied, a little bossy and annoyed, "Help, I am here, I am stuck here, in such a dirty place!" 

Advik and Vismay heard it. Nodding at Vismay he slowly stepped ahead. He was alert that this could be a trick of demons to lure them but still, he chose to follow the voice as he stepped ahead. He, Vismay, and Tara slowly moved forward and to their surprise, they ended up standing at the near edge of the mountain they were on. He looked down in the abyss and shouted once again, "Are you down here?"

After a few minutes, a voice came from the dark abyss, "Help me," the person was asking for help yet it was not looking like it wanted it rather the voice's tone was more like it was giving commands, "I am stuck down here. Come here faster." 

The Fireball flew a bit down to check; the abyss lit up dimly the second it floated downward. Advik again glanced down in the abyss and because of Vismay, he saw a silhouette of someone standing and waving their hands. The teenage boy was standing on a small cliff which was attached to the mountainside Advik was standing on, it was just nineteen or twenty meters down.

Vismay was not enough to light the whole place, hence it was still black. It said, "Advik, can you see him? I cannot go any further down than this."

"I can but I cannot tell the details, your light is not enough, the abyss is too deep and dark. But he's not that down, we can help him."

The boy was still shouting and calling for help with an irritated and furious voice. 

"Hey, kid, do you need our help?" Advik softly inquired, looking down at the boy. He could somewhat distinguish the facial expressions of the youth and his expensive attire. 

"No! I don't!" the brat savagely replied, his tone like a cutting knife, "I am just playing here and I'll fly away when I am done!" 

Advik raised his brow seeing the attitude of the kid, he gleamed, "Oh, okay, then we should go back. Mr. Fireball... I mean Vismay Tara, he doesn't need our help, let's go back. I thought he needed our help but he doesn't," he innocently turned and stepped ahead, he heard the brat arrogantly yelling again. 

"Hey, can't you help me?" The brat was angry and irritated yet his voice was filled with slight panic, "Can't you see I'm stuck here? Are-are you stupid or what? Do I have to tell you or beg you to let you know that I want your help?"

Advik turned his back, having a smirk on his face, he said, "You should add 'please' when asking for help, don't you know?" He had no idea why his gut feeling said to help this ignorant boy who had the tongue of a mistress. He felt that it was a bad idea yet he reached out to rescue him unconsciously, "Well… sigh…whatever," he bent himself while stretching out his hand, "Take my hand, I'll try to pull you up."

The kid looked at the hand then at the man who was giving him the hand, crossing his hands, he spoke in a disgusted voice, "I am not going to touch a dirty hand like yours, and more importantly do you think your hand can reach me who is more than ten meters down here, stupid. This is why I hate adults."

Advik looked at the hand and moved it up and down, "Mmmm… I don't think my hand is that dirty. Don't be like a maiden, okay. I am trying to help here." He pulled back his hand and stood up.

The kid thought that Advik was going to leave him there; his eager and scared eyes stared at him as if a lost puppy would look at someone. Advik saw the vivid fear on the brat's face, he knew the kid was prideful and wasn't going to ask for help in a pleading manner even if he wanted to. Advik chuckled softly. Smiling at the kid he said, "Don't worry, I would not leave you here like this. Just wait, I'll find a way to lift you up."

The boy was quite pissed with his stupid smile but no matter what he had to believe the only ray of hope he had, "Whatever...just do something fast."

"Yes-Yes," Advik said, he stepped back and looked around. However, his face changed from confident to bothered as soon as he turned, "Oh no! No! No! No! No! No!" He started to walk in circles with an anxious look on his face, "I said I will help him! But how? How am I gonna do it when I can't even reach him," 

The Fireball and the Firefly surprised-ly came ahead of him and stopped him, the Fireball asked in a thick and low tone, "Son! Wait…what happened? You were so certain just now? Where did your confident self go?" 

"No! I can't, I don't know what to do! I am such an idiot, giving false hope to a kid." Advik hit himself two or three times with his left hand. He was about to go look in the depth once again when Vismay came beside his ear. The soul gazed at it and questioned, "What? Do you have something more to say?"

Vismay said while silently floating beside him, his tone calm, "Can you see those high mountain ranges ahead of this endless abyss?" 

There were indeed some massive rocky mountains ahead of them. They were some hundred meters away from them and it looked as if the wind was swiftly clashing there. Many tornadoes could be seen even from afar. The wind's pressure was so strong that even Advik was feeling the power of it whenever the cold but swift, forceful but light wind was touching his whole body. His ripped clothes were flapping and dancing by the repeated slaps of the current.

"You don't know," Vismay explained, "around this time the air on those mountains gets heavy and it blows at a rapid speed. The wind and tornadoes become so strong that it can throw anything back with much more force." 

The Firefly Tara tightly grabbed Advik's shoulder because the gust was getting stronger. It would have flown away if it didn't clench something to support itself so Tara grabbed him.

Advik was thoughtfully staring at those mountains. After some minutes of staring, he looked at Vismay. He knitted his eyebrows, "What did you mean?"

The Fireball chuckled, "Aren't you a bit naive?"

Advik was totally clueless about what Vismay was saying, "What do you mean? Just tell me directly?"

"Do you know archery? Are you good at it?"

"Huh?..."

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Dictionary (Meaning of the Characters' name):

Tara: Star

Vismay: Astonishment, Daze, Amazement

Advik: Unique