𐌄𐌋𐌙𐌉𐌍Ᏽ Ꮤ𐌉𐌕𐋅 𐌕𐋅𐌄 𐌍𐌌𐌀𐌕𐌉𐌊𐌀𐌙𐌀 (Aᕓ𐌀𐌕𐌀𐌓𐋄𐌍𐌂𐌔)

\\ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟘//

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jake looks hopelessly at Norm, not believing he had just lost the respect of his best friend. There he sat... in his own perfect hell.

"He's right... They won't understand what you've done." Norm stated quietly.

"They don't even have a word for "lie"... They had to learn it from us." Jake frowns.

Grace sees he is on the verge of tears. Lost and alone, between worlds.

"I know... I taught it to them." Grace sighed again.

"Grace. I've gotta go. They're waiting." Jake said in a pleading voice.

"Link is ready." Norm states.

Grace stops him as Jake tries to close the lid.

"Jake. You can't carry this burden much longer." She advises.

"It's okay. Mo'at says an alien mind probably can't survive the Dream Hunt anyway." Jake says sadly, smiling a half-baked grin.

Grace closes the lid. It feels like closing a coffin once again, and this time... it just might be. She watches his psionic patterns aligning with his avatar, somewhere out in the night.

"Prep my link. I'm going in." Grace looks at Nor.

Nate, already in link walks down the Homtree spiral to the main floor, his eyes hollow, with a sad expression on his face. He lifts his amber eyes up to look over the rest of the villagers as they prep for the ceremony, his feet heavy, and as if there was no ground beneath them.

"Natey!" Ke'Kaya's voice called and Nate's mood instantly changed.

He looked up, just as the young woman skipped up to him. He smiled down at her, closing his hand around hers as she took it. Her eyes shifted between his as her mouth stayed pulled in a toothy smile. Nate's eyes lidded, and he raised his other hand to brush her cheek.

~𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦...~ He nodded.

Ke'Kaya inhaled quickly, closing her mouth and darting her tongue over her lips as she blinked. She gave Nate a sad smile before nodding.

~𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒,~ Ke'Kaya placed her hand over Nate's that sat on her cheek before pulling both and leading Nate away.

Nate sits crossed-legged in front of Ke'Kaya as she paints his body with white glue-like paint, her eyes following the lines she made over his chest and arms in preparation for uniltaron, the Dream Hunt. Nate's eyes never left hers. How could he lie to someone so precious, so sweet... Nate's heart wrenches in his chest as Ke'Kaya paints a spiral over it, her hair falling over her shoulder as she continues. The male avatar swallows hard as Ke'Kaya moves to kneel on her haunches in front of him, dipping her fingers in the paint and moving them to begin painting his face, dragging her fingers over his cheeks, his forehead, his lips. Nate's lips part ever so slightly as Ke'Kaya pulls them, Her large golden eyes dart up to his, and for a second, they both sit there, breathing quietly as they stare into each other's eyes. Nate's eyes lower to Ke'Kaya's lips before returning to hers, his breath increasing. Ke'Kaya smiles, placing the paint pot back down and going to stand, but Nate softly takes her arm.

"Ke'Ke..." He whispers.

Ke'Kaya pauses and slowly kneels back down as all her attention is on Nate.

"If I~" Nate begins, a stone forming in his throat.

~𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝐼... 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑡... 𝐼 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐼 ~