Indomitable

t w e n t y - t h r e e

Remi wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand.

She pulled apart a cluster of tightly-woven branches and squeezed between. As soon as she let go of them, they smacked her back with a wrathful vengeance, leaving behind a nasty sting.

A bug flew into her face, and Remi immediately smacked it in the air. It tumbled to the ground, stunned, while she shuddered and hurried on ahead, ducking her head down to avoid the other bugs swarming around her.

Some tried to latch onto her bare arms and suck her blood, while others simply desired to take a small chunk of flesh from her. Still others seemed content just buzzing inches away from her ears, which grated heavily on her nerves and made her skin crawl and her hands clench into fists.

While Remi had always had a liking for spiders and snakes, bugs were an entirely different story. She hated bugs with a burning passion, and wished she could destroy every single dreadful species of flying, ugly, black bug. Besides the lady bug, of course—and that was the only exception.

Butterflies were fine, too, but their friends the moths were not. Hairy, with big and beady eyes, they disgusted Remi.

Hence why she usually tried to avoid going outside during the hottest parts of the day, when the most bugs would be out. Or standing near a fire at night, when moths would be drawn in.

A thistle bridged against her leg, snagging her dress and scraping against her leg.

She let out an angry, frustrated sound, and her anger only grew when she heard Killure's crazed cackles echoing through the jungle from high above in the tree canopies, where he'd been gliding effortlessly from branch to branch and tree to tree, silent as night aside from when he couldn't hold in his laughter any longer and let it come bubbling out like the raging rapids of a mischievous, deceitful river—always at Remi's expense.

"Shut up!" she growled up at him, but of course he didn't listen.

The sound of his melodious, taunting laugh made her blood boil, but she smoothed over her features—unwilling to let him glimpse the affect he had on her. That would probably only make him even more smug than he already was.

Much to her relief, Remi found herself stepping into a clearing with only a few of the sparse, thin-trunked trees with wide canopies that offered shade, allowing dapples of sunlight to seep through to the forest floor, which was covered in small greenery and damp soil.

Killure's eerie laugh echoed once more before finally disappearing, and Remi found that she was no longer mad.

They were almost there.

Just a couple more miles now.

———

After struggling through the thick greenery and dangling vines for a few minutes longer, the sound of rushing water that Remi had been following for some time now grew deafening.

Another clearing emerged, the ground became damp and squishy, and filled with pointy rocks. It led to a pool of deep blue water, and a small waterfall that was pouring water into the pool of water, splashing the water and causing large ripples.

Remi jumped when she saw Killure lounging lazily on a large rock with his bare feet dangling in the water, shoes placed neatly at his side. He looked up at her with an amused expression. "Going to tell me why we came all the way up here yet, doll?"