Chapter 56: Going Back For Him
Kestrel didn’t know for how long she’d been dropping, but the sense of having no weight was powerful. She remembered Ren’s advice, pushing her hands and feet against the pipe’s inner walls, doing her best to create friction and slow down her fall.
After some time, the soles of her shoes started to get hot. Kestrel was scared they might burst into flames. Luckily, she was wearing high-quality gloves. Even though the friction made her palms hurt, the gloves didn’t tear until she was out of the pipe.
Kestrel landed on a patch of tall grass, causing a cloud of bugs to scatter into the night.
From afar, she could hear frogs croaking, and close by, nighttime bugs were buzzing. Some bags of garbage, big and small, were lying nearby.
Kestrel felt the grass under her, it was soft, fresh leaves, no longer the bright emerald green from before.
She had done it, she had gotten away from the creepy, chilly palace.
Kestrel stopped for a bit, then leaned back towards the chute to listen. There were only unclear rumbling sounds, no distinct noises. Only a dark hole was visible, and she couldn’t see what was happening at the top.
Kestrel knew she couldn’t do anything else—she couldn’t climb up this steep pipe anyway.
Ren’s choice was sensible, right, logical - it made more sense for one person to get away than for both to die in the chute.
Kestrel wasn’t an emotional person, either. All her actions were driven by clear thinking. Since she couldn’t do anything, there was nothing to worry about.
Her tendrils, however, seemed a bit scared.
"Little Fish is still up there."
"Are we really not going to help him?"
"He will be punished, right?"
"He will surely be severely punished."
"He is too soft and tender to take any punishments."
Kestrel paid no mind to her tendrils talking. She stood up, looked at the sky above her, and began to walk into the distance.
The sky was still a night sky filled with stars. The sky here seemed to never lighten, whether it was "day" or "night", time here seemed stuck, never shifting.
"That person might not be able to escape," Kestrel guessed as she walked over a narrow creek. "He might be stuck there forever."
Water seeped into her shoes, cold and slimy, making her uncomfortable. Kestrel touched her backpack and found a red paper that she had put inside earlier.
When she opened the red paper, there was no candy left, only a little bit of peanut-flavored dust. Kestrel licked up the last bit of the candy frost.
It tasted good. She wondered where Ren had found it, and sadly, she might not be able to ask him that anymore.
Kestrel thought of Raymond, and the things she had seen in his broken psychic landscape. Ren might have to face those things too, he might be held down by those dark hands that chased her, going through a long and cruel torture. In the end, he might not be able to bear the pain. The mysterious underwater world in his psychic landscape might dry out, and the beautiful whale might die...
Kestrel didn’t know why she was thinking so much, because usually, when thinking about things wouldn’t do her much help, she wouldn’t think about it at all.
She wandered through streets overrun with monsters, feeling like she was no different from these soulless creatures at this moment.
"Have you seen my cat?" At the same spot, a giant boy, as tall as a three-story build, asked her.
Kestrel looked up, having to tilt her head quite a bit to see the boy’s face. "What does your cat look like?" she asked.
"A black cat, with a white belly." The boy motioned high in the air, "It’s very soft to the touch..."
Kestrel pointed towards the palace, saying, "I saw a similar cat in there."
Beneath the starry sky, the snow-white palace faintly glowed, clearly visible from here.
The boy started walking in that direction.
"Hey," Kestrel called to him.
The giant face turned towards her, showing a puzzled look.
"Do you know it’s dangerous there? You may never get back," Kestrel said.
"I know, they’ll probably eat me," The boy said slowly. "But I have to find my cat."
He continued walking.
The boy’s giant footsteps squashed the wild grass and several purple wildflowers on the ground. The child was gigantic, and the delicate flowers could only accept their demise.
Kestrel blankly stared at the crushed petals.
Then, she saw a broken flower, quaveringly rising up again in the soft night breeze.
Kestrel was surprised for a moment, then suddenly started running. She quickly met Muros, who had come down from the hiding spot to find her.
She opened her backpack and handed the key inside to Muros.
"Go, take Birdie and the others out." After packing everything in, Kestrel turned and ran back.
Muros called after her urgently, "What about you?"
"The portal to the Polluted Zone will stay open for 24 hours after it’s opened." Kestrel waved her hand as she ran. "Before it closes, I’ll find a way to get out."
After saying it, she realized she sounded exactly like Ren when he was telling her about this. Even the tone was the same—as if they were talking about something easy to do.
The tendrils were happily following Kestrel back. Kestrel was somewhat puzzled by them, wondering why they were dispirited when escaping from the place of death, yet they were this happy when running towards a life-threatening situation.
There was a saying that a psychic incarnation represents one’s deepest, most honest thoughts, Kestrel didn’t think she was that reckless.
Halfway there, a soft rumble came from the sky above, the stars slightly shaking. Kestrel looked back. In the sky above where Birdie and the others were hiding, a portal was slowly opening.
That was the exit, the portal out of the Polluted Zone had been opened.
Kestrel thought, "Okay, there’s nothing else to worry about now, except for that one person."
"Worry." Kestrel mulled that word over in her mind.
