By the Smell of Salt Air

[Nav]

Eric had gone through a major transformation in only twenty-four hours. It was hard to believe, even for him, who he was only the day prior… ignorant, arrogant, even a little self-centered. That wasn't to say he wasn't still those things, but he could see a change in himself almost immediately. Nearly losing his life, having his faith challenged, losing everything he had ever known… well, it had a way of changing a man. He was still Eric, without a doubt, but he found himself a little more open to new ideas and concepts. He wondered where he would be in a year's time… five year's time… he wondered if he would even still be alive. The thought sent a chill straight to his core and he quickly dismissed the thought as quickly as it had arrived.

Her plan, though, left a few things to be desired. Naturally, it concerned him to be in such a large crowd with people thinking he might be a demon. They could attack him. Or worse, they could attack Rani for bringing a demon into their midst. Of course, he didn't know how the people of the island were as a group, but with how much suspicion Rani had first treated him, he could only imagine it may not be as easy as she was letting on. "Well, that is interesting… I'm… hmm…" suddenly, his thoughts twisted elsewhere. Rani was kicking off the festival? He looked to her with a raised brow, watching her mull over her plan, "Is your father some kind of leader? Like… a king?"

Well, that would certainly be an interesting twist on things.

He had just thought Rani average folk, but she seemed to have some importance in the community if she was kicking off the entire festival. It left his gut burning with curiosity when she kept bringing up this mysterious father force, though Eric had yet to meet him… or even see a hint of his existence, for that matter.

The air was cooling though, he could agree with that. A breeze had picked up and the leaves were gossiping in it; the birds growing louder in their squawking than earlier. "I'm open," he mentioned, "Is there anything you'd like to do? Or show me?" There was so much to see that he was, admittedly, a little overwhelmed by it all. A part of him wanted to do it all, and he figured he would, it just wasn't manageable all in one day.

 

[Ethys]

"What is a king?"

Rani pondered after she had asked. King. She knew that word for some reason. He had mentioned kingdoms earlier, which she sort of knew about, but it had been a long time. It was a type of leader, wasn't it? She wasn't sure precisely what it meant, though. It could be the leader of a land or of a house. She had no idea. But Eric would know, of course, and he would tell her.

In the meantime, she had decided what she wanted to show him. She stood and finished off her wine, setting the bottle and glass aside for later. That done, she gestured for him to follow with a smile. This would be something nice and relaxing for him, she thought. It was still warm enough that going for a swim would feel great, and there was a stream close enough to the city wall that demons avoided it, especially during the day. Maybe he'd be at ease there.

She took him back along the same route as before, heading toward the cellar. Before they got to the door, however, she made a slight detour and picked up a basket to pack with food. Her stomach may have been full of wine, but she had the munchies. She hummed to herself as she picked random fruit from the table, unaware that a servant had shown up to start refreshing the food.

The girl was about the same age as Li, with silver hair that was chopped in short layers around her face. It gave her the illusion of having larger eyes than she truly did, which was almost comical at the moment, since they were round as saucers as she stared at Eric. She took a tiny step back, dropping the plates from her hands. They crashed onto the floor, shattering and sending glass shards in every direction. Rani whirled around at the sound, but the servant had already taken off running.

"What in the world happened?!"

 

[Nav]

"A king is someone who is like…" Aw crap, how does one go about explaining what a king was, in his entirety? For a European, it was just second nature and intuitively understandable. "Leads and makes laws, I suppose. He is the overseer of a place, and like…" God, it was much more difficult than he had first anticipated. His brow knitted with concern, a frown marring his expression as he tried better to explain, but everything he tried to explain felt like it was falling short of what it actually was. He felt the same about wheat earlier, and now kings. In frustration with himself, he quickly swallowed down the last few sips of his wine and let the warmth trickle down his throat to his belly.


When Rani rose, he did the same, dusting off the front of his tunic and trousers as he did so. Without a word as to where they were going, she led him along and he followed. She had paused in a detour to pick them up a small basket for lunch and dinner, much like the lunch sack he used to bring with him when he would work on his family's farm. Those years had long past, but he was glad for the food she had decided to bring with. Already he was growing hungry. It was when he had caught the glimpse of the other woman had Eric gone pale—as pale as his cinnamon coloured skin would allow him, anyways. They locked eyes and stared at one another for a long moment, both in complete silence with the air of surprise between them palpable.

"Uhhh." Was all Eric managed to unintelligibly spit out of his mouth.

The plates crashed to the ground… shards of glass and ceramic snowed out across the tile floor and Eric leapt back in surprise, stumbling, and just barely managing to keep his footing without tipping over. "A…" he watched the girl begin to run and Eric realized that was. Very, very, very bad. "Oh shit," he muttered to himself, looking to Rani and shaking his head.

"A girl—she came in with food and was setting the table and when she saw me she dropped the plates and ran! Curse my Spanish blood-" if only he had been born looking more like his mother: pale skinned, blue eyed, blonde… perhaps he wouldn't have quite as much of a headache as he was having now.

 

[Ethys]

The servant girl raced through the hallways and down the stairs, making her way to the kitchens with ease. Once there, she quickly told the cook that there was a demon in the dining hall. Of course, the cook didn't believe her, but the servant girl insisted. She was near tears and her legs were bleeding thanks to the flying glass. The cook sighed and gave her a cloth to clean up, then went to go investigate.

"A girl? Oh, no.." Rani groaned, coming over to gather the broken plates. "Well.. Alright. I'll clean this up, then go find her. We can sort this out," she said, confident. Once there was no danger of stepping on shards, she put the broken pieces in a wrapped napkin and put it in the basket to dispose of on the way out.

She was just about to ask Eric if he wanted to come with her to find the girl when the cook walked in. He was a tall, burly man. Normally he was quick with a kind smile or a joke, but now he was annoyed. He had assumed the servant girl was seeing things. However, as soon as he got to the dining hall, he saw the demon too.

"My Lady! Come away from there!" he said, spotting Rani. He frowned, a bloody knife in his hands since he had been preparing meat for dinner. Rani sighed. This was just one mess after another.

"Calm, Kian. This is Eric. He's a person just as you and I. His skin is dark, but he bleeds. Trust me. We're going to go now. Apologize to Brann for me," she said, taking Eric's hand and gently tugging him along behind her as they edged around the cook. "Keep this to yourself, please. Thank you."

"Come on. Let's get out of here," she whispered to Eric, guiding him back to the wine cellar.

 

[Nav]

Eric felt a tremor building in his hands. His brain was muttering curses that would make any sailor blush, it was certainly not comely, but he couldn't help it. If there was ever a moment for cursing, it was then. Busying himself by helping Rani sweep up the broken dishes into a pile to be disposed of, Eric sighed. Would this be life? Rani had assured him that the festival would be a turning point, but he was beginning to doubt that now. With the shards mostly cleaned up, he nodded to Rani. "Sure."

But he wasn't so confident.

And, naturally, then the situation got worse in every way he didn't think possible. The cook was more Ox than man and Eric, who was not small by any means himself, had to angle his head to look up to him. Never mind that he came bearing a bloody knife. He was not just tall, either, but there was bulk to him too; muscles beneath the apron he was donning… My lady!? Eric looked to Rani. Was he calling her a lady? Like a princess? He blinked, somewhere stuck between his confirmed notions to the importance of Rani's family and fear to his own well-being. Rani cut in just in time, on the brink of Eric was seriously considering trying to run from the cook.

Eric, meanwhile, remained quiet—not sure if his interruption would make things better or worse. The chef didn't even have an opportunity to respond before Rani hissed at him to come along. Without hesitation, Eric sprung after her. "Sorry," he muttered as he slipped by the cook, but not without first grabbing their little lunch basket. "Please tell the woman I'm sorry—I didn't mean to scare her." His apology was genuine, but he didn't want to wait around to see what the cook's response would be. Eric was not entirely useless in a fight, as he was a scrappy little thing, but he didn't have weapons… not like the bloody kitchen knife, anyways.

They darted down into the wine cellar and once there, Eric decompressed his lungs with a long, pained sigh. "That was too close, Rani!" a frown was directed towards her, "Also, I don't believe you answered my question from earlier… is your family important somehow? The cook—he called you 'my lady.'"

[Short post! :D]

 

[Ethys]

"Hm? Oh, all of the servants call me that. Li, too. They're supposed to," Rani said, her tone dismissive before she paused to actually think about what she was saying. Was that behavior perhaps not normal? It must be at least slightly strange, for him to question it. She considered his other question, half shrugging.

"I guess. My father is the Kyn of our faction, which is the largest on the island. That means he is in charge of ensuring the safety of the people, and their health. He oversees trade between the other factions and maintains order here in the city. The other faction Kyns meet with him about once a month, and he is the Kyn'ar. That means he is the head of them as well, but they work together to ensure all factions are cooperating. Lately, there has been one that seems on the verge of war, but we are working to stop it. Li is dating a boy from that faction, awful as it is."

She took him on the same route as before as she talked. Through the cellar, where she grabbed a fresh bottle of wine for the basket, then back through the tunnel. By the time she finished explaining who her father was, they were already at the other end of the tunnel. She closed the door, then led him out the gate. The stream that she had in mind was only five minutes away by foot through the trees.

"Does that answer your questions?"

[Tiny post x.x]

 

[Nav]

"Your father sounds like a King, then," Eric mentioned off-handedly, trying to get the erratic pulsing of his heart to stop, but the adrenaline was still burning through him wildly, making him fidgety. "But you don't call it a King. That's very interesting." He felt incredibly lucky that it had been the princess equivalent who had found him and not just some citizen. After all, if anyone was going to convince the populous that Eric wasn't a demon, it was a princess. Though that made him immediately worry more deeply about her father, then. She had mentioned he was a strict, unyielding man in past conversations, so what would he think of his daughter harboring a possible demon? His head hurt at the prospect of it all.

"You called him a Kyn? I suppose that sounds kind of like 'King,'" he sighed the last few words out. "Well, I don't know much about any of it, but maybe Li seeing a boy from that fraction is a good thing? Perhaps it could bring some peace?" Or not. Probably not. Still, back in Europe, people often married to settle disputes, arguments, and bring peace, so perhaps it wasn't as unlikely as he had once believed. They made their way through the tunnel and emptied out next to the city gate. Immediately, Eric was glad he had grabbed their lunch basket on the way past the cook. The sun was shining and was generous with its warmth, yet a playful breeze kept the bugs at bay, making it an incredibly pleasant day. Clouds had rolled it at some point during their time inside, giving periodic shade cover.

Following a step in sync with Rani, she led him out of the gate. Before he could see the stream, he could hear it. Water giggled over rocks as it wound through the thick, dense jungle, bisecting the land into two halves. Immediately, he felt excitement. It had been a long time since he had seen a stream of any sort. Most of his adult life had been spent on ships, surrounded by salty ocean water.

"I suppose, yes," he nodded, humming contentedly as thoughts of the cook and house cleaner were whisked away from his mind with the breeze. "I think I'll have a lot of questions over the next few days," he admitted, "There are so many things I wish to know about this place. It's all very strange to me."

 

[Ethys]

Rani considered what he had said about Li. Peace. It was something that they hadn't had to worry about in such a long time. There was little point to a war when everybody was stuck on one island and there was nowhere to run or hide. Worse, they were - or, they had believed that they were - the only humans left on the world. That made a war almost irresponsible, really. Killing off people who were the last of their kind? It was like handing victory to the demons and giving in. Nobody wanted to do that. There was peace because it seemed the only reasonable way.

Lately, however, things were changing. She didn't know if a potential marriage between factions would save anything. It wasn't unheard of. Things like that had happened before, and was written about in the old texts. It wasn't impossible, but.. she highly doubted that Li would even stay with this boy long enough to entertain the thought of marriage, let alone go through with it just to potentially stop a war. There was no guarantee that it would work even if she did.

"Never hesitate to ask questions. I don't mind answering any of them," she assured him as they reached the stream. It was one of the larger ones, which made it perfect for a swim. About twenty feet across, it started out ankle deep and was around her shoulders in the middle. The water was nice and cool, but not too chilly to enjoy.

She hummed to herself, immediately stripping there on the bank of the water. Of course, she wasn't naked, just nearly. She had a bright blue band wrapped around her torso, keeping her breasts from view like a strapless bikini top. Her bottoms were much the same, concealing everything vulgar but still revealing quite a bit more than Eric was probably used to. She turned and set her clothes aside to keep them dry, the movement revealing the tattoo on her back to him.

"Want to swim?" she asked, smiling at him.

Tattoo

 

[Nav]

"Oh.. oh kay!"

Eric made a surprised squeak as she began to undress, shielding his eyes and immediately turning around so his back was facing her. "You best inform me when you're about to undress," he mentioned, a vein of surprise woven through his tone, "I can't see you so indecent!" He had assumed that the people here were like the people back in Spain. Sure, he already knew women here were allowed to wear proper trousers, but he had imagined that seeing any amount of unreasonable skin was inappropriate—hell, had she lifted the hem of her trousers and shown her ankles, he would have blushed.

He could hear the splashing of water as she entered the water and he felt a pang of jealousy. He, too, would have liked to swim too, but it felt inappropriate to do so. The people of the island were much less modest than he was familiar with and after a few moments, he glanced back over his shoulder when she invited him. A blush rose through his cheeks and flushed pink against his tan skin, though it was hard to tell over the tan of his skin. It was her tattoo he noticed first—it was unlike everything he had ever seen before. He had seen birthmarks before, and scars, but hadn't seen many tattoos. Some of the pirates wore them, but they were never nearly as precise or crisp as the one that grew along her spine. Immediately, he forgot about her indecency and turned around to inspect it. Even from a distance, he could make out the beautiful shapes.

"Your tattoo-" he motioned to it curiously, "I've never seen anything like it."

He stepped a little closer until he was at the water's edge, kicking off his shoes and rolling his trousers up to his knee so he could step below the cool water. It bubbled over his feet and immediately cooled him down, but he didn't move to remove any more clothing. Instead, he just stood a little over ankle deep, looking up to the canopy above that was a jigsaw puzzle of green with a few missing, sky-blue pieces in-between. "You shouldn't be swimming like this in front me, should you? Wouldn't your father be upset you are so… indecent… when with a man? Especially when alone with a man?"

Eric knew he'd never do anything to her, but no one else knew that. Most people still would think he was a demon, after all. "Your culture is very strange." He still couldn't completely hide his discomfort with what was happening.

 

[Ethys]

"Indecent?"

Rani frowned a bit to herself, wandering into the stream until she was deep enough that she could dunk her head under. Ah, that felt nice. She surfaced and continued pondering. Was it wrong to go swimming? No, that seemed silly. She didn't understand why he was upset at all. How else would one swim? Fully clothed? That would be utterly ridiculous. She looked over at him, her confusion obvious as he questioned her again about her 'indecency' and brought up her father.

"I do not understand why you think my father has any bearing over whether I am with you or not. Fathers must be overly important in your culture, if they get say in such things and also arrange marriages for their daughters," she decided. "I am not indecent, I am swimming. You should swim too," she added.

Pah. To think that her father would care if she were swimming with a man. Most of the times that people went swimming was with both men and women. It was a social activity, not some shameful thing. The way that Eric was acting made her feel as if it was wrong somehow, but she knew that it wasn't. However, it also made her think that he may be uncomfortable with some of the Festival attire. That would be amusing to watch..

"My culture is not strange, yours is. There is nothing shameful or indecent about a body. I'm not forcing you into sexual relations, am I? Of course not. The body of a grown adult is no more wrong or awful than the body of a newborn baby. Every person has a body and they're all the same, more or less. Nobody should feel that they can't be comfortable or enjoy themselves just because their bellies are showing."

 

[Nav]

"Well, in Europe, women cannot show so much skin if they wish to be considered good wives. If a woman isn't considered a good wife, she'll be shunned and impoverished. Only whores show so much of their bodies," he explained, his cheeks reddening against despite the coolness of the stream across his ankles, "Not—not that I was trying to say you were one!" And now he was embarrassed. A groan rippled through his chest as he pushed back his hair away from his forehead, knowing just how insulting he had sounded. It wasn't his intentions to slight her, as she had shown him nothing but grace and generosity, but their cultures were markedly different, of that she was certain.

"We just come from very different places," he finally defended himself in case she had taken offense to his statements. He looked down at the water suspiciously, but finally sighed. Why not? After all, he was not going back to Europe and if her father would not shun him for making his daughter indecent, well, what was the problem? Stepping back on to the bank, Eric slipped his shirt over his head and pulled down his trousers until he was in nothing but his undergarments before trudging into the stream. The bottom was sandy and welcoming to his toes as the water provided relief to his flushed skin. His skin was smooth and the color of caramel, though a nasty scar across the back of his left shoulder left the skin there knotted and pale with reparative tissues. The wound had long healed, and it showed no recent signs of pain or inflammation. The bruises, however, were still present from his time spent tossing around the ocean.

They were beginning to transition from dark purple and blue into green and yellow, showing early signs of healing.

"Your culture is the strange one," he declared again as he sunk deeper into the stream, until the water splashed up his throat and to his chin. In one motion, he dunked his head below the shallow rapids before emerging a moment later, pushing his hair away from his forehead. The curls slicked down and he smiled when he came to the surface, feeling good. "We're not allowed to share our bodies so freely," he mentioned, cracking open his eyes. Water droplets clung to his long black eyelashes, making the smoked hickory of his eyes appear lighter and warmer, like melted chocolate.

"I guess it's just the way I was raised."

 

[Ethys]

Eric really was a lucky man. If he had been saying such things to Li instead of Rani, he would have gotten a solid slap across the face. That, or she would have been shrieking in offense. Perhaps both. As it was, Rani was shocked, but she did not immediately react outwardly. In reality, she was more hurt than anything by his harsh assessment. Was it true that only whores displayed so much of themselves? She had thought that whores existed for selling sex. But this was swimming. No bit of her that was actually used for sex was displayed. She didn't understand how it was bad.

What was worse, though, was that she was now wondering if she would be a bad wife. If a good wife would not ever show so much, then she certainly could not be one. Did that mean she should be shunned as he had said? She frowned, distressed at the thought. Many married women that she knew acted in much the same manner, and their husbands seemed delighted. Were they all wrong too? Should she shun them for behaving in a way that made them happy?

"Oh," was her simple response, her voice quiet. She watched him finally give in and undress, her normally bright eyes dark and troubled. At least he was relaxing enough to enjoy the water. Did that make him a whore too, or did that only apply to females? He had said good wife, not good husband. Perhaps ideals for women were supposed to be different instead of equal as she had been taught.

"I guess we are strange," she finally acknowledged, though the admission just pained her worse. If there really was an entire world out there, and they were all like Eric, that made them the outcasts. The freaks. They were the different ones who didn't know what was proper and acceptable.

It felt like her world was falling apart.

 

[Nav]

Eric didn't immediately no something was wrong. He dipped below the water's surface again and this time, he stayed there for a while. The water pulsed in his ears, causing all the sounds of the forest and its animals to be drowned out in a dull roar. Air seeped between his lips in the form of bubbles, escaping to the surface like refugees. Until his lungs began to ache for air, Eric stayed there. Pushing off the bottom, he broke the surface and flung water back, stroking his hair away from his face again with both hands. It felt good to be clean, even after the bath he had the night before. There was something invigorating about the fresh water.

"Well, yea," he laughed, though he hadn't opened his eyes. Instead, he swiped his hands across his eyes a few times to get rid of excess water. "You live very differently here than I do back home. It's just something I need to get used to. This isn't like everything I've ever known before," he admitted, though all kingdoms were like. France, Spain, Portugal… they were all different, so he could only imagine an island that had lived out of contact for so long would be different, as well. It was then that he caught a glimpse of Rani for the first time. She seemed downtrodden—her eyes troubled and her brows knitted. He sank deeper into the water again. "I didn't mean for it to be bad. It is just—very, very different for me."

The guilt was like oil in his guts. His insides died slowly in the toxicity, needing no more than a spark to set it ablaze. It didn't take a brilliant mind to figure out what was troubling her and he knew he was at the root of it.

He shrugged a bit, not sure what else to say because nothing else felt right to say. Their cultures were as different as black and white and sometimes that made it hard. "What does it matter, anyways? Europe is exploring everywhere in the New Worlds and if they haven't found this island yet, I doubt they ever will. I'm probably the only one like me who will ever be here." And that was hard.

 

[Ethys]

The knowledge that Eric would likely be the only visitor did little to make Rani feel better. Just because he was the only one didn't mean that they were any less in the wrong, did it? They were still.. indecent, somehow. Unrefined, maybe? Was that what it was? She didn't know, having nothing to compare herself to except for Eric. He had arrived fully dressed and covered, wearing clothes that didn't really breathe. She showed skin every day. Maybe that was enough to prove that she was in the wrong after all.

"Probably," she agreed, though the word felt hollow.

Swimming suddenly didn't feel as fun as it had before. She climbed out of the water, wringing her hair out before sitting on the grass in a patch of sun. If she had been dry, she would have redressed immediately, but the silky material would have stuck to her wet skin. So, instead, she occupied herself with munching on some fruit from the basket quietly as she continued to brood upon the whole indecency subject.

Not bad, just different. Was he saying that because it actually wasn't bad, or because there was nobody here like him and he feared for his wellbeing? He had already said that it was indecent and something for whores and bad wives. Certainly that was bad, not just different. Why change what he said now? She frowned, setting her chin on her knees as she thought.

 

[Nav]

Deciding he had done enough damage for one day, Eric kept his mouth shut. He hastily scrubbed himself clean, including get out as much of the dirt from underneath his nailbeds as he could before he pulled himself from the water and collapsed down on to the grass. Water dripped off of him, making long, glistening lines down his body. The sun was quick to wick away the moisture from his skin and hair, and before long, his hair began to show signs of curling again. The loose, glossy black tresses began to fluff up in the wind, creating a series of perfect little spirals that slid down his shoulders and upper back.

Sitting back on his hands, his fingers curled into the grass. His head lolled back and his eyes closed, deciding that if they were going to experience a moment of silence because of his negligent manners, at least he would enjoy some sunshine. Thoughts rolled around in his head, bouncing between the corners of his brain. He knew that he should have been more worried about his own well-being and making sure he had a comfortable place on the island, but all he could fret over was how he had made Rani feel. After everything she had done for him and after all the help she had extended, he had gone and mucked it up. It seemed to be a genuine theme of his existence. For whatever reason, Eric just couldn't hold on to relationships—family, friends—they slipped through his fingers like he was grasping for water.

His mouth always said the wrong things at the wrong time.

Lolling his head to the left and resting his cheek against his shoulder, he looked over to Rani who looked more like a lump than she ever had. "I really don't like this," he finally blurted out, "We haven't known each other long, admittedly, but I don't want to make you feel bad." His fingers curled deeper into the grass until he broke through the dirt, his nails slicing through the damp soil and dirtying his just cleaned nailbeds.

"Don't make yourself feel a certain way on my account. Your people have lived this way for… how long?"

 

[Ethys]

"Thousands of years, but that doesn't make it right," Rani said, frowning to herself.

"We've been here, cut off from everybody else. There wasn't anybody to tell us if what we were doing was.. wrong, or indecent, or awful," she went on, feeling quite miserable. "Now we've changed so much from how we're supposed to be that this is a terrible place that only makes bad wives and whores."

She knew, deep down, that she was probably being a little bit unreasonable. After all, he seemed to be trying to reason with her and tell her that it was okay, but she wouldn't have it. It made no sense for him to double back now just to make her feel better. All she could think was about how uncomfortable he was bound to be for the rest of his life. Even if she changed, nobody else would. They were set in their ways. It was an entire culture based around comfort and practicality with the heat, but now it was being tossed on its head.

"I wish you had ended up on a different island. They would probably be better," she murmured, looking down at her toes. Her body was now dry thanks to the sun, so she got up and left him in the grass alone as she went to go put her clothes back on. Thanks to her newfound self-consciousness, it was almost a relief to get back into clothing and shy away from any sort of attention.

 

[Nav]

There was no reasoning with her, he supposed. A part of him assumed that she probably had a right to not be reasoned with, if she didn't want to be, but it didn't make it any more disheartening or frustrating. He already felt bad enough for his actions as it were, and hearing her slice his peace offering into two clean halves was demoralizing. He was torn between being annoyed and knowing he probably deserved it. So, deciding not even to bother for the time being, he fell back with his back into the grass and forced himself into silence. He had to fight his knee-jerk reaction to tell her he wished he had never ended up on any island at all, but he kept it to himself because he knew it wasn't true.

If he wouldn't have ended up on an island, he would have ended up dead—and that would be much worse than everything the Island and Rani had given him. Now he just wanted to pick a fight because she was, but he supposed that was what always made him difficult to befriend. It was also a reason he ended up on a ship in the first place, instead of settling down in the Spanish countryside. Eric had a temper to him sometimes, but he swallowed it down, closed his eyes, and forced himself to attempt to begin unwind. Like a coil that had been wound too tight or a rubber band that had been stretched too far, Eric felt like he was on the brink of falling apart at his seams.

Arriving at the island, with a culture very different from his own to realizing he had lost everything he had ever known was a build-up, and now the little snappishness from Rani was just adding to his mood. Like a grey storm cloud had collected over his head, Eric's face, even with his eyes closed, seemed strained. All the emotions were building up in such a way that it was only a matter of time before they all broke out and got the better of him.

Sitting up after a moment, Eric dusted the stray strands of grass off his skin and moved to dress again, just as Rani had.

 

[Ethys]

Rani tried telling herself to get over it, but she couldn't. How was she supposed to just ignore the possibility that everything her people had been doing for who-knows-how-long was wrong? It may not be, but there was just as much chance that it was. She was starting to realize what her brother had been talking about. He had gone on and on for hours when she let him, back before they realized how sick in the mind he had become and their father forced him to stop talking to her without supervision.

Back then, he had chattered at length about how the other parts of the world must be so different. All he wanted was to see other lands, meet other people. He spoke to her about a longing deep in his heart to explore, and a feeling that the island was not all there was. It was not the absolute truth in the world that they had been taught. They were not faultless.

All this time, she had dismissed what he said. If he had been right, he would not have been the only one saying so, right? So she had swept it aside in her mind, confident in her convictions. Even when she had found Eric the day before, she had held strong to the idea that his land was just strange and everything here was perfect and normal and right. That wasn't fair. He had a chance of being right, just as she did. Now she just didn't know what side she was on.

"I'm sorry, I ju-" she began, starting to turn to Eric, but then she trailed off to silence once more, staring over his shoulder.

If he turned to look, he would see Yanna walking by just a dozen feet behind him. She wasn't looking at them at all. Instead, she was simply walking, her path taking her over the stream. Her feet didn't even touch the surface. She wore a long white dress, with long flowing sleeves and a high neck. Her hair was as long as Rani's, but a dark brown, covering her face. Behind her skipped a small boy of about seven, who was laughing as he trailed in her shadow. His feet didn't touch the water either. They were both out of sight in less than two minutes.

 

[Nav]

"You know," Eric trailed off and shrugged when Rani approached him, bringing forth an apology. He knew he owed her one, too, "It's alright but… hellllooo?" Was she really daydreaming when they were trying to apologise to one another? He was just about to snort with annoyance at her antics, wondering if she was just trying to get under his skin by doing something particularly rude just to get back to him, but the expression on her face told another story. Glancing back over his shoulder, he paused, and then turned all the way around. He hadn't seen the Yanna before, but judging by the boy trailing behind her and by her odd appearance, particularly the dark hair, he could make one solid guess.

Without even a moment's hesitation, Eric had sprung forward and splashed into the stream in his boots and clothes. The water hissed against the fabric, causing it to stick to his skin as he waded out to try and grab the boy, but when he swung his hand out to catch the back of the little boy's tunic, his hand nothing bet air. The boy, and the woman he had followed, merely vanished… leaving behind nothing but a running stream and a sunny, hot afternoon. Eric found himself scanning the forest back and forth, expecting to catch another glimpse of the woman, but there was nothing.

His heart was beating impossibly fast but his breathing had stopped, like something had gotten stuck internally. "She…" he trailed off in confused wonder. They were just—gone. "You said they come back right?" he looked to Rani, "The kids, they usually come back, right? That little boy… he'll… he'll make it back, right?"

Eric felt nauseous. If only he had been a little faster… a little quicker to react, perhaps he could have grabbed the boy before he was taken, and he cursed himself for that. If the boy didn't return, Eric wasn't sure he could grapple with that. How could he ever face a tribe of people knowing he almost could have helped a child, but hadn't been able to? A bubble of nausea crawled up his throat but he violently swallowed it down and looked away, back into the forest. "He has to make it back."

It was obvious he was struggling with what had just happened. He couldn't fathom how it had just happened.

 

[Ethys]

"No.. No, he won't be coming back. That was the boy that never returned. The one that we thought.."

Rani was stunned. All this time, they had assumed the boy had been attacked or eaten by a different demon on his way back with the other children. But this.. This was obviously not the case. The boy was happy, even laughing, and he was following Yanna. They had vanished together. She could have sworn that the edges of his body had looked transparent, as if bits of the sun were leaking through and making him glow. He looked more like Yanna and less like a human child.

He'd never be coming home.

She looked over at Eric, who looked like he was about to be sick. Apparently, meeting demons up close wasn't something that one got over in just a day. She felt guilty, exposing him to this in such a way. The way he had jumped after them as if he had a chance of saving the boy, instead of just hiding himself to avoid detection or harm. It was extremely noble. But if Rani had kept them inside the city gates, he would not have had to witness that at all. She sighed and looked away.

"We should go back inside the walls."

She picked up the food basket and went over to Eric, taking note of his dripping clothes. Another benefit of the light, loose fabric - it would be dry before they even left the trees. She decided to put their differences out of mind for now. His culture was not hers, but he was still her friend, and she cared for him. She smiled and offered her hand to him, hoping that he would take it and they could just forget the entire incident.