"Mommy!"
"Mom!"
The cries of the twins had alarmed her. Her fingers twitched, eyebrows creasing, face scrunched up as soon as she regained consciousness.
Ryuuko could feel her arms aching and her head throbbing. She let out a groan, blinking her eyes slowly to adjust to her unfamiliar surroundings.
She rolled over to her side, her ribs constricting her movement, making her gasp out for breath and that was when she realized that she had broken her bones in the process of protecting her twins.
She sat up, her mind muddled, but her worry for the twins took over her senses, just realizing that they are not anywhere she could see nor hear.
The forest rift looked like a maze of tall, towering trees and tangled vines, branches with only narrow trails between the thick barks and the overgrowth roots of the looming trees.
The air is thick with the scent of moist earth and decaying leaves.
The shade of leaves above blocks out most of the sunlight, casting the forest in small cracks of sunlight and creating deep pools of shadow under the trees.
The sound of chittering insects, rustling of both leaves and cracking twigs filled the air with the occasional cry of a monster or deep growl of something terrifying breaking the silence.
Despite the seemingly peaceful atmosphere, a sense of unease hangs over the forest and all she could do is swallow her fear.
She surveyed the area, biting her bottom lip when she did not feel her children's presence around her.
"Rozia! Ruziel!" She immediately screamed out their names.
Her voice echoed all over the direction, bouncing off the tree barks and back to her spot, as if to mock her and make fun of her situation.
Heart pounding and breath caught in her throat. She stood up from her spot, grunting when she felt her left ankle throb.
"Rozia! Ruziel!" She called out for the twins again, ignoring the pain all over her body as she limped her way through the tall grasses of the forest.
The twigs broke under her weight, creating a loud sound that resonates in the air.
She placed her right hand on her left arm, squeezing there to calm herself down. She can't afford to panic and lose sight of her goal, not until she finds her twins at least.
As she stumbled through the seemingly never-ending forest, Ryuuko's heart raced with fear.
The thick overgrown roots of the trees and low visibility made it difficult to navigate the changing and uneven terrain, and the sound of rustling leaves and snapping twigs only heightened her anxiety.
"Rozi! Ruzi! Where are you?!" She kept shouting her children's names, but her voice was lost in the vast expanse of trees.
Every shadow and twig cracks seemed to tease her, making her question if she was going in the right direction, exhaustion and despair began to cloud her mind.
Each step forward caused a stabbing pain in her side and a jolting pain in her ankle, but she pushed through the pain, driven by her determination to find her darling twins.
After a while of walking, she swears to herself that the forest seems to close in on her, the trees looming over her head and peering down on her.
"Rozia! Sweetheart, where are you?! Ruziel! Can you hear me?!" She staggered forward, desperately calling out for her twins. Her voice cracked and she would feel embarrassed about it if she were not in a dire situation right now.
"Mommy!" She heard Rozia's cry in the distance, her maternal instincts kicked in immediately. She forced her ears to locate the direction of the sound, adrenaline pulsing through her veins.
"Rozia?!" She called out, her voice echoing and bouncing off the trees.
"Mommy!" She heard Ruziel's cry this time.
Ignoring her pain, she limped towards the direction of where the cries came from, every step a struggle. The exhaustion faded from her body to the background for a moment, getting replaced by the determination to reach the twins.
As she got closer to the source of the cries, her heart got filled with both fear and hope, hoping it was truly her twins and that they are okay.
She squinted through the terrain, and there, hiding on a fallen log, was her children. Their hair is disheveled and their clothes dirty, but they were unharmed.
"Mom!" Rozia's eyes are wide with shock and relief, her tears rolling down her chubby cheeks.
"Mommy!" Ruziel exclaimed, bursting into tears when she started walking— limping, towards them.
She stumbled over to the twins, every movement sending jolts of pain through her body, but nothing could dampen her relief and joy. She embraced them in an instant, holding them tightly and kissing their heads.
"Oh my god, oh my god, I thought I lost you guys." She couldn't stop the tears from falling down, her voice cracking as she hugged them close to her chest, "I'm so happy to see you two."
Ryuuko kept her arms around them as she slowly slid down to sit down, leaning against the fallen tree trunk with her babies in her lap.
"When I opened my eyes, you weren't there, mom." Rozia whimpered, burying her face on Ryuuko's chest despite her shirt being soiled with dirt, "Where were you, mom? Did you leave us? Did we do something wrong?"
"No, no, no." Ryuuko immediately denied her daughter's claims, her own voice shaky and raspy, "I wouldn't leave you two alone in this place. It's too dangerous."
"Is that why you're hurt?" Ruziel's voice was shaky and he was staring at her ankle which has a large, purple bruise now, "Did you look for us as soon as you opened your eyes?"
"Yeah.. Yeah, I did." Ryuuko said as she let out a sigh, leaning her head to her children's head and frowned, "I looked for the two of you the moment I woke up. Mommy was so scared when I didn't see you two beside me."
She cradled them close to her chest, running her hands through their hair and holding them tightly, afraid to let them go again.
"I'm sorry for thinking that you left us, mom.." Rozia sniffled, "I didn't know what to do. I was so scared, and Ruzi wouldn't stop crying so I thought that you left us.."
They clung to her as if she was their lifeline, their small body trembling with exhaustion and shock.
"Again, I would rather leave everything else behind than leave the two of you. I would never abandon the two of you." The mother could only try to reassure the twins, softly whispering that she wouldn't leave them in a horrid place like this.
"Promise?" Ruziel lifted his head and looked at her.
"I promise, darling." She smiled softly, rubbing the dirt off his cheek and wiping it off in her pants before she wrapped her arm around him again, "I will never leave the two of you."
"Okay.. I believe you." Ruziel murmured, leaning his head to her chest and hugging her tighter.
She let out a relieved sigh, the adrenaline rush diminishing as the aftermath of finding her babies started to dawn on her. Her bones and muscles ache in protest, but she is scared to tell her children to get off.
So, all she did is suck it up and keep her arms around them.
Given her injuries and the children's likely state of exhaustion, getting out of the rift would be a difficult and agonizing task.
Not like that they could, but she could at least try to take them to safety and wait for the S-rank Espers to enter the rift.
"Come on, we need to hide somewhere." She nudged her children, urging them to finally get off her lap.
"But.."
"But?" Ryuuko smiled, encouraging Rozia to finish what she wanted to say.
"But we are going to die here.." Rozia looked down, clutching her shirt as she frowned, "I know about things like this.. I see them on the internet."
Ryuuko inhaled sharply and forced a smile, "We won't die here."
"You're lying, mommy." Ruziel was quick to point out the obvious, "It's okay, you don't need to lie to us."
Ryuuko's lips formed a straight line, her eyes downcast as she racked her brain to say something positive to her twins. She can't just say to them that they will die without hope, right? Espers exist for things like this.
"No, sweethearts." Ryuuko denied firmly, "We will get out of here, and once we do, I'll cook chicken adobo to celebrate for us, okay? How does that sound?"
"Are we really going to be okay?" Ruziel does not believe her words and gives her the stink eye.
"Shut up, Ruzi." Rozia smacked her twin brother's back and glared at him, "Mom said we will be okay."
"That's right." Ryuuko agreed with Rozia, "Everything will be okay because I'm here."
Despite saying that everything will be okay, she knew that they would have to take it slow while making their way through the seemingly never-ending forest as best they could.
She would have to rely on whatever makeshift walking aid she could find within the forest, like a long sturdy fallen branch to hobble on.
"Yeah, everything will be okay." She repeated what she said, reassuring herself more than her kids, "Everything will be alright."
Ryuuko knows that she can't chicken out no matter what, even if she is currently injured, crawling, clawing, just to get her children to safety so ensuring herself that she would be the first step, she hardened her resolve.