"Are you serious?" Isa looked to Kaden, shocked. "You could do literally anything in the village, yet you're choosing to waste your life helping me out with that stupid tree?"

"Why not? It's not like I have anything else to do with my life. Figure you could use a little company as well." Kaden shrugged, Isa immediately giving him a tight hug.

"This is great! Maybe with another person, we can make it so that we'll be done cutting down that tree a generation earlier."

"Why not make it us who cut the tree down? Then we can leave the village and find your friend, right?"

"Now that'd be nice."

---

"Are you regretting becoming a cutter now?" Isa asked. He had started to make it a tradition with Kaden, asking the question every day after they finished their work.

"Not yet." Kaden looked around as the two started to head back to Effervescent Village. "Hey, you wanna try something before heading back?"

"Kaden? What are you doing?" Isa turned around to watch as Kaden walked back to the tree, grabbing their axe and walking around the tree.

"Have you ever climbed a tree before?" Kaden asked, gripping the axe and swinging it into the tree. He made a small mark in the tree, reaching up about four feet on the side of the tree. "Give me a hand over here, would you?"

"What? Kaden, I don't think we're allowed to do this."

"But you never said that we couldn't. Besides, if you've never climbed a tree before, you haven't lived. Even I know that and I only remember living the past month or so. You gonna give me a hand or what?" Kaden was already reaching up, placing a foot on the handle of the axe.

"Are you sure?" Kaden gave Isa a firm nod. "Okay then." Isa went over to Kaden, waiting to see what he would do next.

"I'm gonna guess you're strong enough for this. Hold out your hands together like this on about the same level where the axe is." Kaden now stood entirely on the handle of the axe, propping up one foot against the tree. He held his hands out, locking his fingers and his palms facing the sky.

"Like this?" Isa lifted his hands in the same fashion to where Kaden's other foot was.

"Perfect. Now don't fall over, or this isn't gonna work. Ready?" Kaden took a foot off of the side of the tree, placing it on Isa's hands.

"Kaden! You're gonna crush me!"

"Relax, I know what I'm doing!" Kaden lifted his other foot off the axe, setting it down on one of Isa's shoulders. "Now turn around so I'm facing the tree, but go slow."

"Kaden!" Isa groaned, interrupted by a laugh.

"If you really feel like you're gonna collapse, then tell me so I can get down. But that'd be a disappointment, so come on! It's not that much longer."

"Oh, all right." Isa turned around, waiting for Kaden's next command.

"Lift your hands up as high as you can." Isa lifted his hands to about his shoulders, Kaden lifting his foot from them. Kaden soon lifted his other foot from his shoulder, Isa immediately turning around when he stopped. Kaden had put the axe in the tree about three feet higher from where it had been earlier. He had a foot on the axe and his other leg propped around the branch just above him. He reached up, grabbing onto the branch and swinging his other leg, now sitting on the branch. "Ta-da! Now you try it!" Kaden leaned down and pulled the axe from out of the tree, letting it drop. Isa let out a small yell and jumped back as it fell to the ground.

"But how?"

"Hmm..." Kaden looked up, getting an idea. "Can you just throw the axe up as high as you can and stick it in the tree so I can grab it?"

"Okay?" Isa stepped back, grabbing the axe and looking up. He pulled his arm back and threw it, the blade sticking in the tree about a foot away from where Kaden was sitting.

"Perfect. Now hold on for just a minute." Kaden grabbed the axe, cutting at one of the thinner branches. He eventually got it, dropping the axe again. "Now, stick it in where I did first and climb on top of it, then grab onto the branch. You might have to do a bit of climbing on it, but it should hold."

"Should?" Isa asked, a little worried as he prepared to stick the axe in.

"Whatever, just try it! Nothing to lose. It's only like a seven foot drop if you do end up falling. You won't die. Just make sure you don't fall on your head or your neck, or something like that."

"I feel reassured." Isa sighed, finally sticking the axe in the tree. Slowly, he jumped up, putting a foot on the axe. He reached his arm up, grabbing onto the branch while lifting his other foot up. "Kaden!"

"Just relax! You're more likely to screw up it up if you're stressed."

"How in the world do you stay calm?!" Isa held both hands tightly on the branch, his legs reaching to touch the ground.

"Come on, relax! You're not gonna hurt yourself. Start trying to climb up, I'll pull you up the rest of the way."

Isa continued to clench to the branch, looking up at Kaden who was reaching his hand down. "You better not be lying." Isa said as he slowly let go on one hand, reaching up to grab onto the branch in a higher spot. He slowly moved up the branch, eventually reaching to where Kaden was holding his hand out. Kaden grabbed on, letting go of the branch and quickly grabbing Isa's other hand. The branch fell from underneath Isa as Kaden pulled him up the rest of the way.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I am never doing that again." Isa concluded, holding tight onto the branch they were sitting on.

"Well then, if you're never gonna do this again, then we'll just have to go all the way to the top!" Kaden stood up on the branch, grabbing onto a branch above his head and stepping up onto another one.

"What? No thank you... " Isa moaned, looking up to prevent himself from looking down.

"You afraid of heights or something?"

"I didn't think so, but apparently I am."

"Just don't look down, okay? If you keep looking up, it's not that bad. The view from the top of trees is incredible. I actually found the village by climbing a bunch of different trees looking for people."

"If you say so." Isa slowly stood up, immediately grabbing the same branch Kaden was now sitting on.

"Just keep going up! I'll meet you there, somehow."

"You're a really reassuring guy, huh?" Isa shook his head as he pulled himself to sit on the branch.

"Don't worry. Now that we're actually up here, paths to the top will point themselves out. Shouldn't be too hard, just weave around until we get there. See you at the top!" Kaden waved a hand down from where he was before diving up into the tree.

"What am I gonna do with you?" Isa mumbled before making his way to the top, following the paths Kaden had pushed aside. The two of them eventually were able to reach where the leaves of the tree thinned out, leaving a stunning view of Axiom. "Whoa..."

"See, what'd I tell you? Pretty great, right? Now, in turn for me showing you this, you've got to tell me what everything we see is."

"I'll try my best." Isa started looking around. "Well, there's Effervescent Village to start. You can tell because it's close by and there's the chapel. Look to the left, and you can see a forest that starts out green but slowly dissolves into leafless trees and lots of darkness. Those are the Dark Lands. Across you can see the fields of crops, and a couple more villages scattered here and there. And way in the distance to the right, you can start to see a big pillar. That's the Central Tower in Luminia, capital of Axiom. You know, Axiom doesn't seem as big as I thought it was. And to think that there's even more to the world than just Axiom and the Dark Lands. We're just specks."

"Yeah, but that's just when you look at everything. If you narrow your sight down to just one thing, let's say the village, everything seems bigger and you're not just one speck, you're like a hundred specks or something.. And even if we are just specks, then you're a pretty great speck." Kaden elbowed Isa, who laughed.

"Well, you're a pretty great speck then, too." Isa turned, looking out at Axiom again. "I wish I could have shown this to Ayana. I think she'd have liked it."

"Then we'll both show it to her when you find her again. Stop talking about her as if she's dead! I know that you still think she's alive, so act like it. Otherwise you're never going to find her again."

"I guess you're right. Anyways, we should probably head out. Sandshrew and Houndoom are probably waiting for us, not to mention it's bound to be past dinner time."

"Ehh, this was worth it though, right?"

Isa started to nod as he looked down to place his feet, immediately looking back up. "Just so long as I don't have to go up so high next time."

"No promises."

"Kaden! Just help me get down from here!"