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"We should reach within another matter of two to three hours at least. Unless you—" Alhaitham said as he turned around to see you holding branches and roots of the tree to gain balance as you walked through a muddy path.

Your hands were trembling and your legs were refusing to walk down, onto the the muddy surface completely. Alhaitham had no other way but to re-route the entire thing due to your incessant ranting on how long it may take to reach, but he had not expected this to be a problem too...

The man before you sighed as he placed his hand on his forehead. "...Maybe another six more hours to reach..." He muttered.

A sudden jolt of electric impulse went through your body when you heard him mutter about taking another six hours. "SIX HOURS!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" you shouted.

"Six hours, if you are going to be fearful of the mud. Two or three hours if you just walk." 

"ARCHONS! I-I shouldn't have.. agreed to this new route! Have you never heard of people randomly slipping down into a deep mud pool in such paths!?" You shout at Alhaitham.

The path Alhaitham had to drawn up was through a thick Mangrove forest. Though it was muddy, it wasn't that shallow like you were describing it to be. Only during intense monsoon would these paths get risky but it was a mild weather now.

The roots and branches acted as a support for the goers through this route. 

"Even if I heard such nonsense do you think I'd believe something like that? Use some common sense, look around." 

You look around to see nothing odd. "I didn't know you were dual qualified to be in the Amurta and Haravatat Darshan."

A long awkward silence remained between you and Alhaitham. He seemed to be irked with your stupid answer. You on the other hand kept giving him a deathly stare.

It was a staring contest now. An Intense one where his teal green eyes kept piercing your [E/c] eyes.

Alhaitham finally gave in. " I sometimes wonder how the Akademiya ends up finding geniuses." He remarked as he sighed and closed his eyes. 

"Hey! That's rude of a scholar to say!" you shouted back. He shrugged off and kept walking ahead. It was getting a little tiring to hold these roots and walk around but it was for a safety reason.

After walking for a while, you finally had gotten out of the muddy area. You were able to see to see a little elevated land ahead of you...with some people there? You couldn't see clearly but it was in quite a distance.

"Are there.." You began asking only to be instantly replied by Alhaitham, almost as if he had been reading your thoughts.

"..There are people who habitat these areas. It is a tourist spot. I suppose we could find a lodge there to stay for the night rather than staying out in the wilderness." 

You gave a little nod and continued walking along the roots. You were disgusted by how your brand new footwear was in ruin after Alhaitham chose this path, as for him, he seemed to not mind. 

As you were walking, you felt something crawl around your leg. You felt odd and a shiver went behind you back. 

3RD POV: 

"Y/n? What's the matter now." Alhaitham turned around to ask but he was met with a trembling Y/n. 

"A..Alhaitham...do you see...something around my legs?.." Y/n asked in a low voice with constant stutter. It was unlike the way Y/n usually spoke. 

Alhaitham looked around in the mud but he couldn't see anything. "Y/n, there is nothing around here or near to your legs."

The woman was horrified. She was able to see some sort of a black snake around her legs, trying to crawl up. It was pitch dark in color and had red venomous eyes.

"EEK!" She screamed loudly and let go of the branch she held as support. Alhaitham  quickly leapt forward to hold Y/n's hand to prevent her from slipping into the mud. But unexpectedly she had tackled the man down, making him fall into the mud along with her on top of him. Alhaitham's hands held one of Y/n's hands, while her other hand was on his chest. 

At that moment both of them could feel each other's heart beat and impulse. Alhaitham was able to feel Y/n's quick impulse and Y/n felt how fast Alhaitham's heart kept beating. His eyes were widened and face was heated up due to how close they were. Y/n's eyes were listless, almost as if she had lost consciousness in this real world.

They stared at each other for a moment. If Y/n was in right state of mind she would've already narrated an entire scene similar to what she was going through from a novel.

"Are you alright.." Alhaitham asked slowly. Y/n looked terrible. She seemed to have seen something traumatizing and it worried him. How within few minutes a person who was cheerful and happy look traumatized and scared.

"I..I..." Y/n kept repeating her words. That black thing she had seen kept popping in her head. It kept scaring her.

"Y/n snap out. There's nothing arou-" He said sternly but suddenly something caught his eyes. A person with black robe was seen hiding behind the thick roots of the tree. They were seen smirking but their eyes were not visible. Within a fraction of a second, the unknown person disappeared leaving Alhaitham believe that they were responsible for the current situation.

"A snake...with...r-r-red.....no!" Y/n kept muttering it over and over. 

Both of them remained in that position. Y/n was still trembling and Alhaitham couldn't do anything besides seeing her tremble. He only kept pondering what sort of trick did that mysterious person do. 

Why would someone do it? That too on Y/n? Does that person have a grudge against me? or perhaps her? or could it be...

Akademiya's doing..

"What was that...." Y/n snapped back to her senses. He stopped looking at that direction and faced Y/n. He noticed how her hair fell over her forehead, dangling and the slight sweat she had on her forehead. Her eyes were slowly gaining back the glimmer it had.

"Are you okay now?" He asked politely, still not bothered to push Y/n away and get out from the mud he had been laying on. His well maintained hair was now drenched in mud.

"W-Why are you beneath me." The woman asked Alhaitham with a tone laced of confusion and fear. 

"You slipped down Y/n. I tried to catch you and somehow slipped along with you which has led to this....awkward position if you ask. Don't....Misjudge the situation.....considering how much novels you're into...."  Alhaitham said as he set his gaze away from her eyes as his ears slowly turned red.

"KYAAA! I'm...I'M SORRY!" Y/n suddenly got startled and pulled her hand away from Alhaitham's grasp. Her face was flustered with embarrassment as she looked at the mess she had made of Alhaitham's hair. His soft silky hair now drenched in dirty mud. 

"I'm quite enjoying where this mission is going. But, I'd like to ask are you really okay? You seemed traumatized one moment ago and now you look like you are back to your normal self." He sarcastically remarked and got up from the mud. He looked at his muddy hands with disgust. 

"I..." Y/n again remembered what she had seen. It was more darker than anything she had ever seen and had blood red eyes. The snake kept hissing at her and that's when she lost her senses and fell on Alhaitham. 

"I could have sworn, I saw a snake...but....sighs, why do I keep making a fool out of myself...there's not even a trail of snake..."

Alhaitham looked at Y/n for a moment. "What if I believed in everything you said so far." 

"I get it Alhaitham, the one and only smart person from Haravatat, you'll probably report me to the Grand Sage after this and perhaps exile me to Aaru Village to fix this broken brain of- WAIT WHAT DID YOU SAY?" 

He slightly smiled but it was again replaced by his usual expression. " I said, I believed every single word you said." 

Y/n sat in front of him wide eyed and mouth agape. She pinched her self momentarily and also slapped her face cheeks, assuming she was still dreaming. "Am I even real anymore?"

"...and so scholar Y/n has begun investing her time into useless philosophy. Get to the point, I'll have to prepare myself mentally for your philosophy some other day I suppose." 

"Okay...I saw...something very dark. It seemed to look like a snake and it was curling up around my legs....it-...it had...red ey-"

"That's enough Y/n, you needn't push yourself. Since you've said your part, I'll let you know something too. When you lost your senses and fell over me, I saw someone hide behind that tree." Alhaitham began narrating his side of the story as he fixed his gaze towards the tree.

Y/n gulped nervously. She bit her inner lip in worry, wondering who held a grudge against her. "Do you know who...could it be?"

"Certainly not. They didn't even look like they were from around here. A dark cloak worn to hide their identity and capability to render such power to frighten you using your weakness...."

"Surely, they must have some other motives....but what makes no sense is that they used this power on me and not on you....What could I have done or what do I even have to call it a possession of a valued item?" Y/n kept pondering as she got from the mud along with Alhaitham's help.

"There are no logical clues, unless you are hiding something from me or the world, Y/n." 

"No. I have nothing to hide Alhaitham. Not from you or from the world. I'm just me, someone who wanted to become a scholar and now ultimately regrets it."

"Regret-?" He asked but he was soon cut off by his sentences by a random man who was seen approaching as he was seated on a Sumpter beast. 

"MY GOODNESS! LOOK WHOM HAVE I RUN INTO!" The blonde man shout on top of his lungs. Alhaitham sighed and face palmed. He had a disgusted look on his face.

Y/n had a confused stare. "Is he your friend?"

"Friend is rather the wrong word to be used....The way he even found me in middle of Sumeru just to bicker with me....." Alhaitham clearly sounded pissed. Y/n had a cold sweat, wondering if they would end up arguing in this clearly rural area, like horned-goats....

"..Who's that pretty lady beside you Alhaitham?" The blonde man asked to Alhaitham who stood beside me annoyed. He had red pretty eyes and seemed to have matched a description I've heard before.

"...Long time no see Kaveh." Alhaitham said as he said it in the most annoyed tone ever. 

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END

a/n : SO like I have exams going on but this is more important KAVEH 😍😍

Anyway, how are you guys today??? Hope you had a good time reading this <3 Thank you for the 15K Reads! We are close to 20K Reads soon....