Conscious, Conscientious

The sunlight moved dancingly on Deon’s face, the lightly waving branches high above warping the shade’s shape. He watched the woods in silence as he leaned against the tree trunk.

While peace and relaxation were hardly ever his first choice of a pastime, moments like this were exceptions.

Savannah’s cinnamon hair was soft against his neck. His eyes fell to her as she dreamed soundly against him in her faded yellow dress.

He couldn’t seem to remember how long ago she’d nodded off, or what they were even doing before. He couldn’t even recall how long they’d been out here in the forbidden Tailpiece woods. Every other time they lost track, it meant coming back to the schoolhouse late or hearing an earful from his father. But for some reason, today, Deon didn’t care. This felt right, and that was all that mattered.

He’d missed this. Right now, this was exactly where he wanted to be.

But…while it felt right, it also felt…off.

The character of Savannah’s steady breathing was different. And with his arm around her, the shape of the curve in her back was unfamiliar.

How?

Deon’s hazy mind began regrouping, and more questions surfaced: why would Savannah even be with him right now? Why and how was he back in Tailpiece again?

~

The shifting shade moved the sunlight over Deon’s closed eyes for a moment, welcoming him awake. He was far too cozy to begin the day, so he resisted and remained still.

But he felt breath against his neck.

Wait…I’m still dreaming? he wondered.

Deon lazily opened his eyes, to find Skrili’s face directly before him. She lay against him, deeply asleep.

For a second he thought the sudden state of his heart was loud enough to wake her.

Gaining a sense of himself, he realized his arm was still wrapped around her, even more so, from last night: at some point, they’d both fallen asleep after he held her and let her cry.

All around, he found the pillowy branches they’d camped up in had reshaped. They curved upward on both sides like a giant hammock, practically encircling Deon and Skrili and pushing them closer together.

But for a moment, just like in his dream, everything felt right.

Until he thought about it.

Wait…WHAT AM I DOING?! Deon panicked. Crap—if she wakes up, I’m dead! She’ll throw me right out of the tree! How did I let this happen?!

Just when Deon was about to try wiggling away gently, Skrili’s arm and leg lifted, and she wrapped around him further in her sleep.

Deon’s face heated up.

I’m trapped, he thought. I’m dead. She’ll be ticked.

Past Skrili’s head, Deon noticed her TeamTrack’s screen turn itself on to display a list of notifications. He read the heading at the top:

Unread messages from:

Kotono (3)

Skip (17)

Missed calls:

Skip (5)

Hold on…HOW LATE IS IT?! Deon thought frantically. Come to think of it, the daylight was much brighter than when they usually left the tree to begin their training.

His own TeamTrack vibrated in his pocket. Deon steadily reached for it, attempting minimal motion. He’d received just as many messages from Skip, including the most recent:

“Trying again…You guys up? Everything ok?”

We really have to get over there, Deon thought. He looked at Skrili again. But…maybe I should still sneak away before she—

“YOOOOO! YOOHOOOOOO!!!!”

Deon gulped. The bark beneath and around him hardened gradually, as if the tree itself was stirring awake.

“This is the tree you guys stay in, right?! You up there?!” called up Skip’s voice.

Deon froze as he watched Skrili’s eyelids lift. Her deep purple eyes fell on his groggily. Then, abruptly, they bolted all the way open.

Skrili pounced off of him faster than he’d ever seen her move in a fight.

“I’m sorr—” they both started.

Her head bonked against the firm bark and she grabbed it wincingly.

On impulse, Deon sat up and reached for her head. “Oh! You alright? Uh…get a Power Rebound, at least?” he stammered.

What am I doing…? he thought underneath his own speech.

He halted his advance when Skrili reopened her eyes. It seemed she was about to retry an apology, but then, it happened again:

Their eyes met, and Deon was flooded with a mystical sense he could hardly fathom. It was inescapable this time—powerful, and captivating. He found his mind filled with who she was: her strength and resolve, her quiet presence, her stubbornness, and her tragic past all blended together. But this essence went beyond that: he felt connected to it in a way beyond human senses.

It was a similar sense as what he felt in all their other Fiction Country encounters thus far, between the cliff and the black branches. But this was the inverse—a positive version.

“Do you…also feel that…?” Skrili muttered, her face reddening behind her disheveled hair.

Deon’s head nodded seriously on its own, his eyes still locked on hers.

Yes…I do feel that…he thought soberly.

“Huh…” was all Skrili could say. Her alert eyes bounced off of him and back on couple times.

Then, her mouth curled into a tiny smile. She puffed out a single laugh.

“What?” Deon wondered.

But he didn’t need an answer. He simply broke into a quick laugh, too. The duo shifted awkwardly, trying to find somewhere else to lay their eyes.

This was all so confusing, and strange, but…it was alright. After everything Skrili shared last night, there was nothing left to hide—yet here they both were. They still sat close, and Deon found himself reassured when Skrili didn’t try to create any more space between them.

Maybe this distance was okay.

“Uh…sorry…” Skrili uttered. “I guess I fell asleep…”

“No, I’m sorry. This is your spot. And uh…I did too…and—”

“I TAKE IT YOU GUYS DIED?!” Skip called up. “Nah…they probably quit. It must have been the spicy smoothies—that’s what did it last time…Welp, this sucks.”

Deon and Skrili’s eyes widened. Hurriedly, they crawled over to the edge of the high branches and peered down. Skip had turned from the tree and was already heading away.

“WAIT! WE’RE UP, WE’RE UP!!” Deon shouted down.

Skip refaced the tree and looked back up at them, straightening out his inevitable suit jacket.

“Huh,” Skip uttered. Deon and Skrili waited in silence for his condemnation of their tardiness, but it never came. He crossed his arms as he observed them. “Looks like I’m pretty good at helping you guys get closer, huh? Maybe a little too good.”

He whirled back around energetically and recommenced his stride away.

After a moment, Deon let out a nervous laugh in spite of himself. Skrili’s face beat red beside him.

“No…that’s…” Skrili muttered weakly.

“That’s not…” tried Deon.

“I don’t wanna know! See you back in the yard!” called Skip.

Deon and Skrili glanced at each other as he walked away.

“Your face is like, bright red,” Deon pointed out.

“Shut up. Yours is worse.”

~

Deon couldn’t tell if Skip was more relieved that there was still ample time for training, or that his new smoothie concoction didn’t go to waste. He giddily shared it with them—this one a new coconut and berry mixture—before leading them back outside for their delayed start.

Apparently, Deon and Skrili had slept almost into the afternoon, so they realized they were up much later than they thought. Yet Skip still didn’t reprimand them as Deon assumed a Legend Trainer would—and should do.

In fact, he even seemed pleased.

To further Deon’s confusion, their training today kicked off without the usual jog to the cliff. Skip made no mention of it.

And after everything Skrili forced herself to relive last night, Deon thought it best not to remind him.

Instead, after some warm-up stretches and workouts, Skip had them dive straight into Deon’s favorite part: team-fighting techniques.

They didn’t start slow. Within moments, Skrili raised back up into the air, matching the height of the tallest trees, atop one of Deon’s imagined wooden platforms. They picked up where they’d left off at the end of yesterday’s training; Skrili jumped trustingly into the open air, while Deon worked to keep up, imagining more planks for her to safely land on.

As Skip wasted no time pointing out, it was considered a failure if Deon forgot to remove the platforms behind her from existence.

“Faster,” Skrili called down.

“Huh?”

“We can go faster,” she repeated, confidence radiating from her face.

Skip clapped. “Yes! What leads you to think that?”

“Deon’s getting better already. I can tell,” she said decidedly. She turned to face her teammate. “You’ve imagined more than this. I trust you—you won’t drop me.”

The aura between them heightened. But instead of being taken aback, Deon leaned into it. She was encouraging him, intentionally, and openly. It lit a fire underneath him.

After last night, their connection had grown truer.

Deon smiled. Neither had to say a thing about it.

They just knew.

“Alright, here it goes, then!” Deon warned. “I’m sure you’ll keep up.”

Skip pumped a fist heartily. “YES! That’s the right mindset! That’s team communication! Come on now; I wanna be impressed!”

Vitalized, Deon pushed himself to think faster, imagining and de-imagining platforms rapidly to keep up with Skrili’s heightened pace. Eventually, it looked as if she was walking on air. Deon even began imagining vertical platforms for her to jump off of and change directions with a flip. It made Deon want to go up there and try it himself.

But while Skip seemed moderately pleased, he clearly wasn’t yet impressed.

“But can you handle an offensive team attack at the same time?” he challenged. “Let’s combine this with our catch drills.”

Wary of the complexity and level of focus, Deon opted to imagine his leather ball attack instead of the usual mini Twitchy’s for now. Then, the next level of difficulty began: Deon had to launch the attack at Skrili, who would jump towards it, catch it in midair, and then land on another platform while Deon caught it back.

This proved to be quite a step up from before.

After almost letting Skrili slip out of the air and barely catching her with another platform, he needed to slow his pace for a while. But an hour of the drill passed, and they rediscovered their rhythm. And within another hour, they’d practically mastered it.

Deon tossed Skrili’s water bottle up to her when Skip offered them a short break. She caught it casually, sitting on one of his platforms high above.

Skip caught Deon’s eye after he got his own drink and caught Skrili’s bottle. He nodded his head towards the sky instructively.

“You want me up there, too?” Deon asked, firing up even more.

“Skrili’s the more agile, and the faster of you two, while you’re the Imaginer. So it makes sense for your joint technique to mainly have her up there,” Skip explained. “But say you’re fighting an on-the-ground type of opponent—like a Hiroko Hamasaki. A team aerial formation could instantly give you an advantage.”

Deon didn’t need any further convincing—he’d been waiting to get in on more physical activity. Plus, he’d yet to attempt the midair steps for himself. He imagined a series of floating stairs, and within seconds stood high above the yard with Skrili.

“Remember—if you’re up there too, it puts Skrili in more risk,” Skip called up.

Deon sent a thumbs-up. “I won’t drop you,” he told Skrili.

“You better not.”

Again, as with any other technique Skip called for, they had to start slow. They spent the remainder of the session up in the air, taking synchronized steps to imagined platforms, then hopping, then running. Deon had never multitasked his imagining so much. But after their previous drills and lessons, it was coming to him quicker.

This training was truly stretching his imagining to new levels.

They still had a lot of ground (or air) to cover by the time Skip signaled the end of the session. But Deon could feel the dynamism between them. His mind spun with potential ideas to take it further, and he knew Skrili would be up to the challenge.

They really could become a force to be reckoned with.

Deon and Skrili descended back to the ground, and Deon imagined his platforms away. Still jubilated, Deon offered his teammate a high-five, which she quietly accepted.

“Nice work,” Skrili told him.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth from you two in just a short time,” Skip said. “For once, it’s making me start to believe you have a slight chance of passing the training!”

“Huh?! ‘SLIGHT?!?!’” Deon repeated.

“We still have a ways to go. Just keep it up, and at this rate, you two can impress me,” Skip assured. He broke into a series of quick stretches. “Well, that just leaves what we didn’t have time for this morning. Take a breather, stretch, and then meet me right here to start our cliff run.”

Deon immediately glanced at Skrili, who had looked away in silence.

Wait…he thought.

He’d hoped—and then, assumed, Skip decided to put it off until tomorrow. But while the shadows from the trees were long, it was still light enough to run to the cliff and back.

But…Skrili…he pondered. She cried for so long last night…it’s too soon.

“Hey uh, Skip.”

“Something wrong, Deon?”

Deon shrugged, staring at the ground in thought. “Well um…not to go against your teaching or anything, but…Skrili had a rough night. I think going there right now would be really—”

“It’s okay,” said Skrili.

Her expression accentuated the stern certainty in her voice.

“Are—are you sure?” Deon checked.

“Thank you, but…let’s still go.”

~

The jog towards the cliff seemed to fly by, much to Deon’s disappointment. Despite their daily visits, he always felt if he could put it off forever, he probably would.

Skip guided them along just as cheerfully as always, occasionally muttering recipe ideas to himself.

As they closed in on the cliff, Skrili slowed her pace ahead of Deon, and began jogging beside him.

“I appreciated that,” she said softly.

“What?”

“Earlier.”

Deon tried not to smile too proudly, but he was still new to winning her approval. “Oh, well, of course. You know, I just figured…with everything—”

“Don’t sabotage yourself. Leave it at that,” Skrili interrupted.

“Ah—sorry.”

The hill began, leading to the beginning of the cliff.

Perhaps it was the sheer amount of time they’d spent together, but despite Skrili’s unchanged, plain expression, he could swear he noticed her reluctance set in.

“Are you sure you’re okay for this, though?” he checked soberly.

They stepped onto the thin, flat path beside the misty drop.

“Either way, I have no choice—I have to face it,” she said. “But…are you sure you are?”

Before he could answer, the fog began surrounding them both.

Well…here I go again…Deon thought. Skip quickly vanished into the haze ahead of them, and he knew Skrili would, too.

But…she didn’t.

As they ran beside each other, he could still see her clearly, and by the slight confusion on her face, he could tell she saw him, as well.

“Hey…this is new…” Deon commented, his voice reverberating over the cliff. Skrili nodded.

Even as the whispers arrived, they were still together. Their bodies jogged on their own.

“You said last time you got your first vision to go away, right? You solved it?” Skrili inquired.

“Yeah.”

“Then that means…” she started.

The hisses and whispers began coming from a more central position over the cliff. Then, the all too familiar shadowy apparition of Skrili faded into view on her knees, with her dead brother in her lap.

Deon recoiled—but he knew trying to look away was pointless. The vision would follow his mind wherever he turned, as it always did.

The ghostly Skrili stared at them with its empty black eyes and unsettling smile. They waited anxiously.

“You’ll both fail,” she said.

Deon’s eyebrows furrowed. That wasn’t the usual first line. Was the fact that Skrili was present—the real one—changing its message?”

“That’s not up to you,” Skrili told her flatly.

“It’s not. It’s up to you,” the ghostly Skrili agreed. “But I am your fears realized. I represent the experiences you haven’t had yet. The future waiting for you both—I see it.”

“Yeah? Well, how’s a cliff supposed to see the future, huh?! How am I supposed to believe that?” Deon barked. “Right, Skrili?!”

“Uh…sure?”

“You’ll both fail,” the vision simply repeated. “Deon will fail to be the protector he sees in you, Skrili, and you will fail to keep him from suffering the way you did.”

“You’re wrong!!” Deon shouted.

The apparition’s voice choked at the end, and a black tear fell down her face. She looked down to where it had fallen: onto Lammy’s cheek. He’d replaced Akri once again, before Deon and Skrili could even notice.

But this time, his eyes were open. His pale hand reached up to her, shaking.

Dying.

The gray Skrili’s mouth vanished as she cradled him, comforting him in what was most likely his final moments.

“STOP IT!!” the real Skrili demanded, her voice echoing to the other side of the cliff. “HE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO SEE THIS!! GO AWAY!”

Deon had never seen her so fiery—even after the many times he’d gotten on her nerves.

But the vision remained.

“You’ll see…” it promised slowly.

Deon almost jumped when he felt Skrili seize his hand. She held on tightly. A tear forced its way out against her will as she shot her apparition a defiant glare.

The vision was unyielding. Deon had no choice but to stare and watch his cousin dying. Normally, this part made him want to dissolve. Normally it filled his heart with unquenchable dread.

But this time, with Skrili beside him, it just made him mad.

He squeezed her hand back.

“You’re wrong,” he promised.

“Hm?”

Deon and Skrili exchanged glances. He could see the reflection of his glowing orange eyes within her purple irises.

Simultaneously, they refaced the vision.

“WE’LL PROVE YOU WRONG!!” they both swore.

But before the vision could react in a tangible way, it began melting, rejoining the fog and mist all around. With a hiss, it vanished.

“You’ll see…” was the last whisper they heard from it.

~

When the team caught up to Skip in the early evening light and met him back in his front yard, he stood calmly, waiting for them to crash beside their water bottles as usual.

But Deon and Skrili came to a stop just before him and stood, unfazed by the long run.

“Alright guys, get rehydrated, take a second to catch your breath, and…uh…guys?” Skip trailed off.

Deon and Skrili stared at him, tenacity in their gaze.

“Uh…you two good?” Skip wondered, taking a cautious step back.

“We’re not done training today,” Skrili told him flatly. “Let’s keep going.”

“Huh?! Isn’t that…like…my decision?” Skip pointed out.

“Please,” Deon urged. He clenched his fists. “We want to get stronger. We need to.”

Skip’s eyes bounced between the two of them both analytically and concernedly. “What’s gotten into you two…?” he wondered. Then, an eager smile spread. “Man, it’s true—I must be getting a little too good at my job…Alright, then! A late-nighter, it is!”