Chapter Songs

Along with them

One building after another passed the children. As they walked to their first stop, the Clinic, they could see the sun in full force.

Zeias, felt like it had been a much longer break from the usual hunts than it needed to be. After everything that had happened so far, he was more exhausted than he led on. Eris was to stay at the Clinic so she could be with Noah. Due to time, she wouldn't stay long, but nonetheless, he and Anya had to keep going and make the goodbye short.

To Zeais's surprise, Anya looked a lot more chipper than he thought she would be. He expected her to be a bit more scared and nervous, but the smile on her face was almost blinding.

He found himself staring at her for too long, of course, she caught on and looked at him as well.

"Hm? What's the matter?" Anya asked, with a slight tilt to her head.

Zeais turned his head back in front of him. "Oh, uh, nothing. Just daydreaming..."

From the corner of his eye, he could see she looked confused. He could it in her actions though, even if she did want to hide her fear. Her eyes were looking straight ahead but her walk was as stiff as a board. He didn't want to press her any more than he needed, it would mess up the confidence she built up.

"Is something wrong with your leg Anya?" - Eris blurted out - "Your walking kind of funny."

Get a clue you idiot!

Zeais turned back to glare at Eris who was walking behind them. The look on her face told tales of how oblivious she was.

"No, no, I'm fine. Just a sliiiight bit nervous, but I'm fine." Anya said. She looked to both of them with a wry smile.

She reminds me of Tanya when she first started hunting, just a little bit taller. I should visit her when I get back.

While mulling around in his thoughts, his attention dissipated when he suddenly tripped. He managed to catch himself by jumping on one foot. He looked down to see, part a dark shaded object stuck in the dirt.

"Phew, that's dangerous, jeez."

This is why I let people in front, so they can do the tripping for me.

He heard a snicker from his side, along with a quiet snort from behind.

Zeais let out a sigh, feeling a slight heat to his cheeks.

"Well sorry, all the ground looks the same."

More giggles burst out. He held his arms together, trying to walk with more confidence. The laughter had worn off when Eris spoke out, "We're here".

The same sign that the doctor was looking at only a few hours ago looked Zeias. At the bottom of the sign, he could see the slight flicker constant.

Is that an eternal candle? That's what he meant by fix, huh.

His thoughts didn't stay too long when Eris walked straight to the door.

Anya made an audible gasp behind him. She cried out "Ohhh it's Dr. Dubey, I once cut my finger with a knife while cooking and--"

A strange thunk sound swiped Zeais's attention along with Anya's gasp. Before he could look at Anya to find out why she gasped, he saw from the corner of his eye why she had done so. Eris's head smashing into the opened door was all he could see when he turned.

Now I see why.

Eris put her hands to her forehead and made a hard grimace, cinching her teeth in pain. He could feel the pain from her expression. Anya ran up to her and asked her questions of concern. As for the one responsible, he opened the door and peeked out to see what he had hit.

"OH MY GOODNESS." A cry of surprise in broken English yelled out. Dr. Dubey looked down to the child he'd struck. "I am sorry, so sorry Miss! Are you okay? Do you feel light headed?"

Eris made a prolonged whimper before painstakingly saying "No. I'm fine, thank you, Mister."

In a way, Zeais felt bad, but in another way, he felt like it was the Karma thing that he heard people talk about. He watched the doctor frantically apologizing to Eris. Anya tried to soothe Eris's forehead by helping her rub it. Watching the people in front of him had somehow brought a smile to his face. It wasn't brought by someone else's pain though, he felt a sort of odd warmth watching them.

It was different from him seeing other children suffering due to hunger. The times where he had to see some of his best friends taken away for medical treatments. It felt different for him yet good.

"Hey, Eris."

While she rubbed her head, she turned to look at who had called her. When Zeais looked into her eyes, he could see her irritation, but he carried on with his words.

"See you in a bit"

Eris had resorted to lightly scratching her head. "See you in a bit" she let out with a half frown.

Anya gave a short gasp, "We're leaving so soon? Right now?".

"Not exactly the ideal goodbye but we do have to get there quickly. Remember?"

Anya sighed, her dark gray hair drifting a bit from small gusts of wind. "Right. Well, see you soon Eris." A wry smile sat upon her face.

Anya spread her arms open to give Eris a hug. A surprised look flashed on Eris's face. She looked straight to Zeais with eyes that he wanted to think were uncertain. Pointing both hands toward the open-armed Anya, he gestured for her to go ahead. With awkward and stiff movements like a broom, she reciprocated the hug. He couldn't help but let out a loud laugh, he kept his hands on his mouth to hold back his snicker.

Once their hug had ended, Eris had stepped backward and he could tell right away that hugs weren't her forte. Or maybe she does like them but is shy? The look of unease on her face was clear though, but behind it was a hint of gratitude. At least that's what he wanted to believe.

Zeais started to walk away from the two, “Alright Anya, off we go.” Surprised by his sudden leave she chased behind him. He didn’t leave Eris with nothing though, he gave her a quick wave followed by a thumbs up. She did the same, not as enthusiastic as him but she had a slight smile nonetheless.

Goodbyes tend to get Zeais in a bad place, keeping them short he thought, was better.

Even if Eris never came back to meet with him and the worst of the worst happened. He at least wanted them to be on the same page when they left.

I’m sort of selfish huh.

To top off his thoughts of being selfish, he was excited about something that awaited him in Brights.

I hope she’s on duty today, I want to see her.

His cheeks tingled a bit while lost in thought.

“What are you all red for? You miss Eris all ready?” A clearly questioning Anya said, as she closely stared at him.

“Not at all. What I’m thinking of is much better than Eris.” He couldn’t help but smirk.

“Hmm, really?” Anya’s eyes lowered suspiciously. “What’s better then?”

Zeais felt an odd pressure coming from her words. What? I feel like I shouldn’t answer for some reason.

He tried to muster an impatient voice, trying to sound convincing, he put his hands in his pockets. “Let's go, the more we stick around, the more animals that walk around.”

“Hmm, Okay. Let's go” Anya’s suspicious gaze wore off when she gave Eris one last wave as she disappeared into the clinic.

In truth this is was what would happen and would be a problem since she couldn’t fight. Zeais had to think about the safety of someone who couldn’t hold their own, which wasn’t rare.

If she’s like the younger children she will run and hide. If that's the case she’d die if I don’t teach her what to do.

“Do you mind taking the lead? I don’t know where the nearest gate is.” Zeais said.

Anya skipped ahead of him, taking the lead. “Sure!” She said proudly. “Follow me!”

Her hair bounced behind her as she hummed a song that wasn’t familiar to him. This girl was going to go out into the world, knowing what can happen to people. He wanted to know. He wanted to see the real face she made. Was this how others were?

Was this how others were?

She is afraid. Isn’t she? That happy tone and confidence. Is kind of. Scary…

The two walked for had to be at least 15 minutes for Zeais. During that time he had only made small talk with the girl in front of him, rarely making whole sentences and pointing at things.

Awkward! This is definitely different than having the other kids around. Actually, how did I talk to Eris and Nova? I can’t remember at all. Is it because three people are better than two? I don’t even know Anya that much. She’s more of Eris’s friend and—

“Hey.” The familiar voice of Anya interrupted his thoughts. When he looked in the direction of her voice, she was already behind him. He was confused about why she was suddenly behind him when he bumped into something solid in front of him.

When he looked up, the face of a disgruntled looking guard peered down to him. “Whoops, sorry mister.”

The guard lifted up his helmets cover and look right into Zeais’s eyes.

“Where do you two think you’re going? Where are your guardians?” The guard’s eyes looked taught on keeping the two of them here.

“Sorry, but I’m not from here. Just traveling back to my town after I got some rest.”

“And the girl next to you?”

“Same place.”

His dark brown eyes looked skeptical of the children. After looking them over one more time, he waived his hand to the tower above.

“Let them pass! Just traveling Children!”

The tower guard gave an affirmative hand signal and moved toward the front of the tower. He disappeared, but someone else soon replaced him.

A young child looked over the edge of the tower. Zeais noticed the child’s eyes, seeing as it was the only color out of everything around him.

The helmet on top of the child’s head was a little too large and slipped down a bit when they looked down further.

The armor-clad child gave Zeais a wave then promptly began to do a hand signal. A tube-like hole made by the hand for an eye to look through, and a twist of the hand with the thumb pointing outward. Zeais couldn’t make out what the child was doing, but he had an idea.

Without any hesitation, he imposed his words of will of words first. His eyes shined dimly to the child above, who’s eyes presented a mellow blue light.

With a questioning face, Zeais asked *Yes?*

The voice of a girl resonated in his head. *Be careful out there little one. There have been some reports lately about people being attacked.* Zeais thought that the child sounded a bit older than him.

*By what exactly?*

*Abnormals.*

Zeais gave a deep heart filled sigh as he heard the word he didn’t want to hear the most. He rubbed his forehead and let it fall lazily off his face in disappointment.

The young guard continued, *Not just children either, there are packs of animals with them as well.*

Are you serious!? What is this? A joke?

Zeais could feel his irritation rise, it wasn’t the nice carefree week off that he thought he would get.

*Do you know how many there are?*

*About four children. Um, and I think the merchants who came back said about two foxes with three wild dogs...*

*Why now of all days… Whoops, sorry ignore that. I-Is there at least a route that's safe to take?*

*Another group of people after the merchants said they saw a group go by. It looked like they were putting out flaring crystals. They were going the opposite way against the riverbed. It might be safer to travel near the water.*

*Great. Thank you, umm-*

*Jaleh*

*Well, Thank you, Jaleh. We’ll be going now.*

*Alright, remember little one, be strong.*

The guard, Jaleh, gave a quick wave as she disappointed into the tower.

Anya looked at Zeais, a face of what looked like curiosity rested on her face. She leaned closer to Zeais, he could feel the warmth from her head.

“What?” Zeais asked as he took a step away from her.

“Do you guys just stare at each other when you talk?”

“Y-Yeah.”

She leaned closer to him, staring into his eyes. Zeais thought it would be worth a try, word of will wasn’t exactly hard to do.

Anya seemed like she caught on and stared into his gray pupils. When he peered back into her eyes, he tried focusing on her deep yellow irises.

I don’t feel much of anything when I look at them. It just doesn’t feel like were the same. Strange. Even though I feel, something.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“No, nothing.”

“Hmmm, okay.”

Anya turned around, Zeais thought he could see a little disappointment appear briefly, but it was gone as quickly as it came. The large wooden gates began to make a loud grinding sound as the guards on the ground activate the gate's mechanism.

A sort of awe washed over Zeais, he could only see a small portion of the gate, but he knew it had to be heavy.

I wonder how they get it to move, something like that would be useful in Brights.

“Come on let's go”, she said with a smile. “After you, wise guide.”

Zeais walked ahead of her. He knew nothing of the area, he pretty much only knew about the river. Wise was a bit too tall of responsibility, he thought.

“Sure thing. I've got it.”

He kept walking forward until he noticed that there were no steps behind him. When he turned around Anya only stood there, smiling. Zeais felt a very uncomfortable vibe from her. The smile she showed was as empty as a glass cup with no water. It was void of any action or intent, she stood there frozen.