The trail back down was looser than the climb up — less urgency, more stumbling, the kind of walk where nobody's really watching their feet because everyone's too busy talking.
Ishaan was already three steps ahead, still buzzing, retelling the bandit fight to nobody in particular with increasingly exaggerated sound effects.
"—and THEN, right, I went like this—" he demonstrated a kick that nearly sent him sideways off the path.
"Bro, just for once, try to live. I have no intention to be scolded by our mom," Aaron said flatly.
"Legends never die, broski."
"You're not a legend, you're just a crazy monkey."
Estella laughed, and Ishaan pointed at her as she'd betrayed him.
Behind them, Aaron and Isabella walked at a slower pace. Not deliberately. Just naturally, the way two people fall into step when neither of them is in a hurry.
The sky had shifted while they weren't paying attention. The blue had gone somewhere, replaced by a low grey that pressed down over the treeline. Aaron glanced up once. Said nothing.
"You went quiet," Isabella noted.
"I'm always quiet."
"Quieter than usual."
He looked up at the sky again. "It's going to rain."
She followed his gaze. "...Yes. Probably."
Neither of them moved any faster.
As they started to walk, a raindrop fell on Ishaan's head
"I think it is about to rain"
It didn't ease in. One second, the air was heavy and still, the next the sky just opened.
The kind of rain that doesn't give you time to think — fat, cold drops that soak through in seconds. Ishaan yelped. Estella made a sound that wasn't quite a word. Aaron grabbed his bag off the ground and had exactly one second to think about the sketchbook before the path turned slick underfoot, and thinking became a luxury nobody could afford.
"Off the cliff path — now!" Isabella's voice cut through the noise, already moving.
Nobody argued. They scrambled down into the treeline, branches catching their arms, mud swallowing their shoes with every step. Ishaan slipped once and grabbed Estella's sleeve on the way down — she didn't shake him off, just pulled him upright and kept moving.
The forest gave them some cover, but not much. Rain found gaps in the canopy like it had a personal grudge.
"There—" Isabella pointed through the trees at a shape in the grey. Small. Wooden. A dim light in the window meant a lantern left burning inside.
They ran.
By the time the door shut behind them, all four were completely soaked. Ishaan stood in the middle of the floor, dripping like he'd been pulled from a river. Estella wrung out her braid with both hands. Aaron pushed wet hair off his forehead and looked down at his bag — sketchbook still dry inside, just barely.
He exhaled.
All of them started moving into the forest, as staying on the cliffside would be dangerous. While trying to find a place to rest, they ended up finding an empty ranger hut and decided to rest there.
"Man, is it just our luck or what, one day we are saving a family and the other day we are stuck because of rain, I tell you it's an ungrateful job to be heroes, eh.. Aaron," Ishaan said this sarcastically as he sat on the floor, completely soaked.
"You know if you have time whining, then you have the time to help me find towels and firewood, you know" Aaron, being frustrated as he desperately searches for towels.
"True, you know, use that energy for something once", Estella, placing the firewood in the chimney
"Hey, cut me some slack, man, well, whatever" Ishaan stood up, found a box of matches and lit a small fire.
"Well, that's that"
"You know you really are like exact opposites of each other", Isabella remarked as Ishaan sat down near the fireplace.
"Well, opposites attract, as they say", Ishaan gave off a big goofy grin.
As they chatted away, Estella asked Aaron in a hushed tone.
"You really are something, you know that, brother Aaron, like the way Ishaan is, you still somehow manage to put him to work, and still he never says anything"
"Well, it's all about ego, sister dear, a man's soul is his ego, just irritate it a little, and he will dance at the palm of your hand" Aaron said this as if he were reciting a magic spell.
"Is that so…. It seems I might have found the perfect tool to control him, hehehe" Estella playing along as an evil villain
"Let it be our little secret, shall it?" Aaron indicated a fist bump as he made coffee for all of them.
"Sure, bro", Estella plays along.
After a while, Estella and Ishaan moved to a different room, deciding to play around after Isabella supposedly shooed them as they were nosy. Aaron was cleaning up the mugs before he entered the room to find Isabella asleep near the fireplace after all the exhausting trip and all the running would make anyone drowsy.
Aaron saw her and gently grazed her hair across her face. She looked like a defenceless little animal lying down. Aaron simply sat down next to her and started to draw.
From the doorway, Estella had stopped. Ishaan nearly walked into her.
"It looks like a romance, hehehe", Ishaan giggled as he was watching keenly
"Let's go, you doofus, let them have their moment", Estella is dragging Ishaan back.
"But what about all the juic....." He was dragged before he could finish.
As they sat still, Ishaan suggested playing truth or dare.
"Truth or dare, Estella?" Ishaan's grin was practically evil in the firelight.
"Truth. I don't trust your dares."
"Coward," Ishaan shot back, but leaned forward anyway. "Okay then. What's one thing you've always hated when people do it to you?"
Estella tapped her chin, pretending to think. Then her grin dimmed just slightly. "…Sometimes I hate being compared to my sister. Everyone I meet thinks I am happy and well-chaotic and always tries to compare me to her, as you should be like your sister, look how well she studies, or look at Isebella and how quiet she is, and things like that. Even if I do something, I always get shadowed by her."
Then she curled up, and with a sigh of relief, she said," Yet I can't seem to hate her, like even if the world compares me to her, she still is the only one who sees me for who I am, and always tries ways to cheer me up"
Ishaan blinked, caught off guard. His joking mask slipped. "…Yeah. I get some of that."
She tilted her head. "You? The rowdy hero?"
He gave a lopsided grin, but his tone was softer. "Do you know how many times people tell me I'm just 'the loud one'? Or worse, that I'm only like this because Aaron's the 'serious, reliable one' and I am just the chaotic one? It feels like… no one sees me for me. Just the noise I make."
The silence between them wasn't awkward—it was heavy, real. Then Estella smirked. "Well, you're definitely noisy. But maybe that's what makes you… You."
"And maybe," Ishaan leaned closer, "you're a little more than chaos. You're like—chaos with purpose."
She burst out laughing, swatting his arm. "That's the worst compliment I've ever heard!"
The two dissolved into laughter again, but now the air between them was different. Softer. Honest.
On the other side of the room, Isabella started to wake up and say Aaron sitting beside her drawing something.
"Wait, is that me…" Isabella asked in her gummy voice.
Aaron was caught off guard as he now desperately tried to hide it.
"Come on, show me, I promise I won't judge," She said it in a very unguarded and gentle voice.
Aaron showed the drawing, which was still only halfway done but was done roughly to make it clear who it was.
Isabella focused her eyes a bit; the drawing felt a bit off, like it was her, but it was truly her.
"Aaron?" She looked at him with a gleam in her eyes.
"When I am done, I promise I'll show you, right now, trust me, I'll make a drawing showing you as you, not the mask you have had to wear for so long", Aaron said as he continued to draw.
Isabella, with a gentle smile, lay on his dormant lap, "Well then, it's a promise then"
"Promise"