Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ XLV. CHIRO ❆ ❆

Chiro doesn't sleep a single wink that night, of course.

How is he supposed to? Between the whinnying of the horse and the endless squeaking of the wheels and the bumps in the road and— oh kami he's going to be sick.

He's genuinely surprised that Kumari's managed to drift off, snoring lightly, soft puffs that he can feel on his shoulder, as her head's lolled onto his side, her hands gripping his arm tight. Jae's asleep, too, his head on Kumari's lap.

He sighs, stroking Kumari's hair absentmindedly, as the taxi slows, but then yelps at another bump in the road, now holding onto her for dear life, clutching her close.

Kumari doesn't seem to mind, shifting in her sleep, cuddling Goldy — the little goose had never left her arms post leaving the hotel — and sighing happily. She mumbles something about a prince then quiets down again.

But Chiro's dying. On the inside, but definitely slowly passing away.

"Having a hard time sleeping?" Calls the driver, laughing lightly, not speaking too loud so as not to wake the others up. Chiro's surprised at his courtesy, small as it may be.

"Y-yeah," he stutters, clenching his teeth as he wills his eyes away from the road. They'd left the capital a while ago, now on the side of a mountain, a thin winding road, rocky, and with nothing but the distant city lights below them — plus a hundred foot drop Chiro tries desperately not to think about.

"If I make a mistake, you'll die," the driver says, casually, as if Chiro's not having a silent panic attack whatsoever. "We'll all go crashing over the mountain, and if we're lucky we'll land somewhere in the city, and people will find our bodies and we'll make the headlines about the four disfigured teenagers falling from the sky. More likely to land on the rocks way down below, though."

Chiro lets out nothing but a hoarse wheeze.

"But I won't make a mistake. It's true, I don't usually go all the way to the other side of the mountain... All the same, I've driven past these parts before. So don't worry. You'll live."

"I s-sure hope so," he squeaks, closing his eyes, burying his face in Kumari's hair. He wants to make the excuse that he's protecting her, like he always does, but now he kind of wishes she was awake to protect him, emotionally. It's too hard for him not think about becoming a corpse with the taxi going so fast...

"We'll be there soon," the driver says. "Like, really soon. I expect the ghosts will bother us... Probably good that you're awake. You can trap spirits, right?"

"I c-can," Chiro replies, kind of confused. "Hope I won't have to..."

"Ohh you'll have to. But it's okay if you can't," the driver clicks his tongue. "Because I've learned how."

"You're a magician?"

"Nah. Just cursed."

"Cursed?!"

"Oh sure. Why do you think ghosts have such big beef with me? I'm cursed, that's all there is to it."

Chiro gets more and more confused by the second, but decides to leave the topic be. He has more, er, imminent things to worry about than potential spirits.

Right now, he just wants to get across the mountain with himself and his friends all in one piece.

"We'll be there any minute now."

"You've been saying that for hours..."

"No, seriously. We're almost all the way around. Don't you feel the cold?"