Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ LXIV. ALEXEI ❆ ❆

Alexei thinks he does not like to be alone.

He's been alone far, far too many times in the past few hours...

Scratch that. He remembers that he's been alone for many, many years. There were always people, of course — his father, his guards, his mother once upon a long time ago...

But no matter what, he was always alone.

And then, three strange travelers entered his life. And for a few days, he stopped being alone.

But then harm came to them and he had to seek them out, all by himself...

Then after that, just as they'd been reunited, they'd been separated again.

He turns around, back towards the ice tunnel he'd come out of, to see if his friends were still back there.

"Kumari?" He calls, heading back the way he came. "Jae! Chiro...?"

But then the entrance disappears, right before his eyes. In its place is solid ice, like there'd never been any entrance at all.

"Oh no," he whispers, covering his mouth and taking several steps back.

There's a crumble and a crack. He looks down at his feet to see that he's standing on a ledge, and if he'd taken any more steps backward he would've...

He gulps.

He steps away from the edge, turning around to view what's before him.

A chasm. The ice stops and falls away into what looks like a bottomless pit, ice descending into endless darkness. He can see on the other side that there's a ledge, and there... There, there is another door.

And then, he realizes the most important thing.

There's a bridge!

A narrow bridge, composed entirely of ice, stretches across the pit, curling and twisting in an ornate but highly inconvenient fashion, all the way to the other side of the chasm.

"Okay," he mutters to himself, slowly walking towards the beginning of the bridge and setting his first footstep gingerly on its smooth surface. "Just be careful, Prince Alexei... And you won't fall. Years of practicing proper poise have led to this...!"

That's what he keeps in mind as he takes another step across the bridge.

Grace and poise, he tells himself. Step by step... Grace and poise.

Walking carefully, evenly, even confidently — soon, Alexei's halfway across the bridge.

"I'm doing it" He whisper-cheers. "I"ll be out of here and with my friends in no time..."

But, speaking of friends.

"Alexei!"

Alexei's eyes widen at the sound of his own name, and he whirls away from where he was headed, and nearly falls over the edge, into the depths below...

"O-oh," he stammers, covering his mouth. "Don't forget, grace and poise..."

After making sure he's still enough not to fall over, he coasts his eyes over to the where he started — seeing Kumari standing there, eyes wide... And brown again, he notices.

He smiles, "Kumari!"

"I can't get across," she says simply, gesturing in front of her. "No way."

"No way?" Alexei chuckles, and it sounds more nervous that he would've liked. "No... No worries. Come and catch up to me, it's stable."

She shakes her head.