[R] YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (Columba/Hypnos)

[Appeal]

From the constellation to the asteroid, the environments between the two places were quite different. The location that Hypnos and Columba found themselves was a bright field covered in poppies by the sea. Surrounding the field opposite of the sea was a mountainside that Hypnos had never seen before so immediately after realizing she had not fallen into the ocean she found herself looking at it. However, her eyes didn't stay there too long before they lingered onto the familiar poppy fields below her feet and the sand dunes in the distance of the beach.

"Welcome to my home," she said in a sweet, melodic tone as she turned to Columba.

 

[SpaceSalt]

"Flowers!" Columba said in a hoarse tone of voice that came out like a honk. "And a beach! Do you think anything lives in that?"

Apparently 'no one being left' didn't apply to the space whales she was thinking of.

"It's so cool! Much cooler than mine. Have you found and buildings? Have you been in any? What's over there?!" But she didn't point in any one direction, her arms were flailing all over the place.  

[Appeal]

"I believe they're poppies," she said with a small smile. In her earlier years she'd taken a book of flowers to her asteroid to figure out what they were and the poppy had been the closest flower to the ones found here. They came in all sorts of assortments of colours, and Hypnos leaned into the field to pick a bright blue one out of the ground to give to Columba.

"Take one with you," she said, turning to look at the ocean. "I am not sure if anything lives in there, probably, right? It's really big and deep. There's no salt in it like the oceans back home though."

With the thought of buildings in the direction over yonder, Hypnos found herself walking toward the mountain side.

"Want to climb over and see?"

 

[SpaceSalt]

"Well..." Columba frowned as she thought this over. "Maybe... the salt might make it easier for stuff to live there. You could put goldfish in there!"

She took the poppy, though, and tucked it into the band on her hat for safe keeping wit ha giddy 'hee' noise.

She nodded rapidly and ran ahead. "Let's go see!"  

[Appeal]

What Columba said made Hypnos think for a minute. She never thought about trying to put a goldfish in there. Would it be able to survive? Was there anything in there for goldfish to eat? What if she brought a goldfish here and poured a ton of goldfish food into the water? Would it survive off that? Could it? The wonders of the world at hand and Hypnos really wanted to know if she could move a goldfish here now.

"I should try that," she said with affirmation as she watched Columba put the flower on her hat for safe keeping. Afterward, when agreed, she rushed toward the mountainside, looking for a path she'd taken before. She'd never climbed over but she did have a nice view from up there of the ocean.

"I seen a path around here last time," she said as she looked back and forth.

"Somewhere..."

"Do you see anything?"

 

[SpaceSalt]

Columba's mind was also drifting to thoughts of goldfish and how they were gloriously ten cents each and how she could easily buy 100 on her weekly allowance.

Horrible, ill advised thoughts.

"Huh?" She needed to be snapped out of it, and once she was, she looked around and shrugged. "Iunno, you're the one that's been here before."  

[Appeal]

It was true that Hypnos had been the one that had been here before but the mountainside all looked similar from this location that Hypnos was having difficulties trying to find the path. She wouldn't give up though, especially not when she'd taken her friend here. If Columba's own asteroid had been lacking then she had to make up for it by showing her around here! If only she could find then... ah ha!

It had taken a bit but finally Hypnos had found it. She waved Columba over and begun to walk. It was nothing in comparison to the mountains of Psyche, and thankfully that made the trip much easier for the two chibi senshi, but it was still quite a bit of work. Despite walking up the side of the mountain for five minutes, the two chibi senshi were still only half way up. It was an uphill battle, literally, and Hypnos had to stop to take her breath.

"This mountain is higher than the other!" She said as she looked up the path.

 

[SpaceSalt]

She had a sinking feeling when they started walking that was only confirmed the farther they went. "Ugh this is too much work," Columba complained as she flopped down on her butt when they were just supposed to be taking a quick break.

"It would be easier if our GPS worked up here or something." Or like, a teleportation device.  

[Appeal]

Hypnos looked at Columba sympathetically.

"It can't be much further, we should keep going! Maybe there is something amazing over the mountain top." It was nice to think so, right?

Hypnos helped her friend up to her feet and then she continued walking up the side of the mountain. It wasn't a short journey but it did end eventually. The incline finally stopped and the two chibi senshi found themselves on a flat plateau that overlooked two sides. Behind them was the oceanside field where they had just come from while the front was a place that was new to both of the chibi senshi.

It was a barren valley with very little second succession growth. Grass covered the sides of the valley closer to the mountainside but the further into the valley was covered in sand and some strange variety of desert poppy that grew wild in huge patches. In the middle of all of it, there was a tower. It was incredibly tall, taller than the mountain the two chibi senshi stood on and taller than the sky above them. No matter how Hypnos looked up and followed it from the ground to the sky, she couldn't see the top past the clouds.

"Wh—" was all she got out before the sight before her was something completely different.

She was no longer standing on the mountaintop and instead her eyes looked at it from a distance. There was such a deep longing there and even though there weren't words she understood in her heart that she was looking at her way to freedom. It was so close yet so far at the same time. She knew that if she wanted a chance she had to take it.

Everything started off good, or at least that's how she felt. She didn't see it all. Highlights flashed across her vision until finally things pieced together into a steady stream of the past. She'd been so careful but she had still alerted the guards of her presence. She'd been caught! She couldn't, no she wouldn't go back to her prison! All her fear, rage, sorrow and sense of utter betrayal covered her emotions in a thick fog until she stood over a dead body.

She was free! However, shortly after that triumph she felt a sharp pain from behind and blacked out where she returned back to the present. The present Hypnos felt all the emotions and her body trembled with both rage from the past and the sorrow of the present of witnessing such a thing. Her stomach churned unpleasantly and even though she never went through that she felt such pain from the last feeling she felt, the sense of freedom being obtained only to slip away once again...

Tears welled up in her eyes and her body shook before she fell down to her knees with heaving breaths. It hurt. It hurt so much. She didn't understand. Why did this happen? She wished she had a bigger picture but at the same time the very thought terrified her. Context came with a heavy price and Hypnos wasn't sure if she could pay it. All she could do right now was try and get the images out of her head and the complete and utter betrayal out of her heart.