Turned out, being the assistant in the project had provided her with the benefit of uncountable number of outings. Being a hosteller, they have limited of those holidays.
They were sitting in the same car that Crescent remembered from that night. She was almost killed by it.
Her focus shifted to the tall, green trees they passed on both side of the roads before getting deeper into the forest.
Their car swept across the empty roads. Since it had rained earlier, small pools of water were gathered almost all around. "Would we be able to walk later on?" Her eyes shifted to the wedges sandals she was wearing.
"Ahh, the typical princess types." He commented looking at them. How could she have even thought that he wouldn't take the opportunity to throw his snarky comment?
"Well, I didn't know in the morning that I would be making a surprise trip to the forest now, did I?"
Just then, they came to stop causing Crescent to look to the front. There was a check-post here. "Is it required here?"
Till now, she had only seen it either in urban parts where traffic was at its best or before important governmental organisations.
"If you are using the road then yes." He unfasten his seatbelt and pushed the door open. "Stay here." Crescent observed him taking his wallet out and picking out a card from it.
What was that card?
He showed it to a person sitting in the cabin and within a minute, the barricade was pulled up allowing them access. He came back.
"What was that?"
"We are officially entering the legally restricted area of forest, baby."
Crescent scoffed at the endearment he used. "Why is it restricted?" She asked after a while.
The world today was built on the same land of the past. With time, the muddy houses got transformed into the brick houses, the rural areas turned urban, the castles were converted either into the university or the museum.
From what she had seen in the past few months here, the government was in the constant search of the new land for further development.
"You really don't know anything about here? Where are you even from?"
"What am I not aware of?" She asked dubiously.
He stared at her, figuring out if she was really that unaware. "We are here." He did not break the eye contact even then.
They were in the deeper part of the forest surrounded by the trees of unbelievable height.
Crescent looked away from him. She got out and closed the door while looking around. "Was this place habitated at some point?"
It looked nothing like that. Trees and bushes, those were the only things filled up in here.
"Obviously it won't stay magically maintained if no one continued living here."
He and his sarcastic remarks.
He walked through between the trees, making her follow him naturally. The wet mud rendered it difficult for her to walk normally without getting stuck after every two steps.
She made it a mental note to not get out of her room without wearing snickers next time.
"Why are you so slow?" They were waking upwards on a steep. She was still quite at the bottom whereas he looked at her from top, leaning by the tree before another curve.
"Probably if somebody had given heads up about the kind of place we were going to, I might be waking at a equal pace as you."
"Come on. We were coming to the forest. What exactly did you even expect?" He was complaining but everything about his body language told how much was he enjoying watching her being tormented with it.
She rolled her eyes in irritation and even wondered if it would be easier to walk bare feet.
"Not a good idea. There are several poisonous insects here. I don't want to take a dead body back." The nonchalant voice casually commented.
Crescent twisted her neck in his direction. Suspicious, she asked, "How did you know what I was thinking?"
"Magic."
When she continued staring at him, he finally said, "Fine. Your face gave it away."
With slow steps, she eventually got to him and suddenly her ears raised. A sound came.
Her eyes widened and she looked in the right direction where they were going to walk now. Her breath quickened and her heart almost went into frenzy of turmoil.
And all of this was observed by the man who was bringing her there. He was silently calculating it with his eyes and for this once, did not say anything.
"Shall we go, my lady? Or you want to stand here all day, all night?"
Crescent nodded, trying to hide the twitching of her fingers. They walked forward and this time instead of moving in front, he was walking at back.
A while back they were walking up the slope, and right now it was them walking down the steep on other side.
Crescent was too focused on preventing her bodies natural reaction to that sound when her foot slipped. Within a second, a hand was there holding her steady.
"I so knew it would happen." He smirked. "Gladly I was at the back, otherwise you would have aimed at me."
For once, if he could go without uttering!
"That's unfortunate then that you were at the back." She said with a poker face.
She shook his hand off of her. "And how long would we need to walk?"
"Just a while longer."
But there was one thing.
With every step forward, her heart rate increased. It was getting hard for her to keep her irregular breathing stable. "By any possible means, is there water where we are going?"
She ended up posing the question.
"Lot of."
The last step down and they were back in the midst of the thick forest. This part, however was more dangerous. With naked eyes, she could spot several of the poisonous spiders at once.
In the branches, there were snakes. She halted as one of them began crawling towards them. Scared she took a step back and bumped into a sturdy chest.
Their height difference let him put his chin on top of her head, "Are you really scared of that? That's just a snake."
Crescent, half-minded to hide behind him, scoffed. "They won't bite their kin. Can't say the same for me."
Because she was sticking to his chest, she felt that.
A short pause and than that vibration erupting through his chest.
He chuckled.
As much she disliked his laugh, the vibration did something in her heart.
It skipped its beat.
Crescent forgot about the snake and instantly stepped away from him. He held her arm in no time and pulled her back. "They won't bite their kin. Can't say the same for you though."
She matched his gaze and realised that she was just about to step on that. It was just a moment and suddenly the snake changed his direction. It crawled back to from where he came.
Behind her, she missed the look he gave to the snake. Specifically, the way his eyes deepened.