Chapter 2 - Night

Chapter 2-night

The younger of the two children opened the door to their room and surveyed her surroundings, as one would do when in a foreign land that was deemed unsafe. The lumberjack seemed to have safety on the brain lately. After a short time she took her companion’s hand in hers-another unnecessary safety precaution-and walked her in. She then proceeded to inspect the bed. Spikes? No…Explosives? No…What about Poison lava?! No. The ceiling was next on her list of suspects, and she went on to ‘interrogate’ it most thoroughly. She found nothing that appeared to be “kill-the-chosen” in nature, and deemed the room safe.

She released her companion, and retired to the nearby window where she would remain for quite some time.

Her roommate watched her curiously; why did she not prepare for bed? She did not move from her position, and remained staring at the window. She turned to her troubled friend. “Is there something on your mind?” The angel did indeed have something on her mind, and it was causing her much confusion. Not one to be direct, she decided to instead say something that might cause her friend to bring up the topic instead.

“It was scary. The dragons, I mean. I thought they were going to kill all of you."
“…”

“They were only babies, and they were so fierce… they snarled and thrashed around so much…but you won.” “But after you did, I felt bad for thinking even for a minute that you couldn’t beat a bunch of scary monsters…”The girl’s expression yo-yoed from gloom to bright and then gloom again while saying this.

“Then I felt even worse for putting you all in that situation in the first place. I''m sorry”

“You did not put us there. I did. Either way, the situation was unavoidable, the dragons were introduced to us by Rodyle. Varying inputs from either one of us would have changed nothing.”

“But then the mana from my body held you to the ground, and we were going to fall into the ocean…” “Mana is the essence of life…but mine nearly killed you…It bound everyone, and they couldn’t even run away, but somehow, you were able to move… and then you broke the barrier…How?”

“You should sleep now, if you are to have enough energy to function tomorrow.”

“What about you?” The angel’s voice sounded concerned. “Aren’t you coming to…?” The maiden stopped in the middle of her sentence, embarrassed by the secondary meaning of the words she was about to speak. After getting over her initial embarrassment, she asked her friend if something was bothering her.

Apparently, the axman didn’t hear the question and refused to turn around for at least two minutes. The angel’s acute hearing could hear the child mutter words she did not understand. The girl was not stupid; she simply did not understand why her friend would say them. She did not hear everything that was said, which contributed largely to her confusion. What she did hear was “Why…What is this?…Why now?…How?…Normal…” as unclear as the fragmented message became the sky outside of the precocious child’s window, and at last, she left her post. She was halfway to the bed when she became uncertain of her actions and decided to consult the floor for a possible alternative. The time for searching for traps had long past, and the girl''s face wore a guilty frown.

“It’s ok… I don’t mind…hehehehe…” Her face told the child a different story. She approached the left side of the bed reluctantly and observed at her comrade who rested on the other. She looked so…frightened… Why? “Have I done something…wrong?” her face looked hurt at her friend’s fear. “No! You’re fine…hehehe” The warrior’s face looked very despondent, now. “Do I scare you? Am I really...a monster?” “No!!” “You’re not a monster at all. You’re my friend. I just got a little nervous…”

“I understand.”

She took the pillow that lay there in front of her and put it in the corner of the room, where she slept.

The angel had troubled thoughts. This girl had no emotions, and stuck to the tasks assigned to her persistently. Just how much emotion could she really understand? She had begun to regain them having been released from her cruel experiment, but the process would not be immediate. What if all of these things she had done for her, all the sacrifices she made, all the work, was just another assignment? But that couldn’t be. When she was rooted to dying ground and stood before death herself, she was not freed by a machine.

She could still remember her eyes. They were whole for the first time when she spoke to her and assured her that she was not to blame, that what was wrong was not her, but the world that demanded her death for their own salvation. She still remembered her cry… she was in so much pain…machines do not feel pain. And when she collapsed into her arms, she felt how warm and soft she was… machines are cold and hard.

But…when one is emotionless for so long… they do not return quickly.

“Why did you go so far?”

“I needed to save you”

“But why? You hardly knew me.”

“It was my responsibility.”

“No it wasn’t. You couldn’t think for yourself.”

“…”

Her game of twenty questions wasn’t working, so she decided to ask straight out.

“…Can you care about anyone?”

No more words were said between them that night, and the only sounds to be heard were those of the light sobs of a young girl. Whose world had just come tumbling down on her.

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