《Aino and Eien》Chapter 3

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Aino nearly whacked him with the chimera horn she was swinging.

"Aw, hell! Ai, why do you have that anyway?" Eien asked, ducking and shifting out of the way.

She stopped, pointed to a lone tree a few yards away and threw the horn like a spear. It spun horizontally and impaled the tree with a crack. Eien whistled.

"Shit. Should've gotten me one, too."

"You would not be able to throw it correctly," she said, twisting the horn like a screw. He shrugged.

"Maybe, but it looks hella cool." She holstered the horn, and they continued on.

“How much farther now?” he asked, wrapping his hands around the back of his head. He waited for an answer, but she did not answer.

“At least we haven’t seen anyone from Beldam. Are you sure they are going to come after us?” She was silent.

"I wish you'd actually talk to me instead of being quiet so much. It would make you more human, you know."

He sighed as he dropped his arms, letting them loosely dangle to get rid of the pins and needles he had accumulated.

"Anyway, how do you expect us to reach the edge of the map with the amount of supplies we actually have? We are gonna have to stop and get something. Are there any towns? Stores? I know you brought some money.” In fact, it was more money at one time that he had ever seen in his life. If only his family could have had that much growing up.

She kept her brisk pace, briefly touching the throwing club at her side. He listened closely, eyeing the sky and peering briefly over his shoulder.

"Nothing. I see nothing."

She kicked up a bit of dust from the road with her left foot.

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He relaxed a bit and said, "Why're you uneasy? Even when we get to the edge of the map, we will need to do something to survive. We can't keep traveling like this. We have to do something else eventually."

At this, she turned her head towards him, flashing a brief glare with her amber eyes before maintaining her stoic demeanor.

"We have enough," she replied.

"I don't want to keep eating old troll meat and hitchbark."

"We have enough."

"Even you can't deny that your long-term plan sucks," he retorted, grabbing lightly at the end of her shiny, white braid that swished behind her.

She whipped around and punched at him, but he danced backwards, putting his arms up as she punched with the other arm.

Her stoic face showed no anger or resentment. He was used to her stone-like face. After all, she was his squad leader for the better part of his short military career.

"Can I win this one time?" he asked. She relaxed, pulling away from him.

Aino was never much of a talker, but Eien could read her small gestures as if she was. At least some of them. It took a long time to figure out she was…not who she purported herself to be.

Even though she was his squad leader, she barely talked and delegated most team management to Bair even if she was the one who came up with the strategies for their missions. He suspected that Bair was more of her handler than her actual squad co-captain. And every once in a while, he would catch her amber eyes darting one way or the other with emotion. At least, he thought that was why. It was difficult to tell. He had been apart from her for a while, but he seemed to ease back into her unique language after a few days together.

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Silence reigned for the next few hours, and he really started to struggle with the pull at the back of his head. It seemed worse than it had been. It called him to go back to Beldam. He felt at his wrist for the flap of skin.

There was a reason there were so few traitors to Beldam. It was the contract.

Every soldier underwent the contract after they enlisted. It ensured that they were compliant with requests made. It was also the reason why traitors were so easy to catch. You could be tracked or called via the contract without much say in the matter. It made for good soldiers, but it was itchy as hell.

Eien wondered if Aino felt the same thing. He concentrated on her.

She was irritated but not necessarily irritated with him. He could tell because she snapped a bit earlier when he hit her braid. Every once in a while, her eyes darted to the sky. She was unsure about their direction. Her left foot faltered every few steps. She was seriously considering change something about their trek.

He sighed. He was used to waiting on her, but sometimes he wished she would just say what she was thinking so he could have a normal conversation. A lot of what he had were just guesses.

Either way, he had nowhere else to go, so following her seemed to be the best thing to do. And she definitely took advantage of him.

He was tasked with carrying the two guns, ammo, his knife, and the bulk of the food. They had run out of rations a week ago and were subsisting on whatever they managed to kill or scrounge, so he had to endure the reek of troll meat in his bag. The scent was like cat feces and wet dog while the texture was as unpalatable as burned tree bark.

Of course, Aino ate the stuff with not so much as a wince, but it took him twice as long to try to eat even a bite. Grass tasted better, so Eien plucked grass as he went along, chewing until it turned into a gross paste and forcing down a swallow.

“Ai, I know you're like a robot and can probably eat nothing for weeks, but the shit we are eating is starting to take a toll. First night, fine, I can stomach it, but now, after almost a week, I don't think I can do it anymore. Thinking about the stuff makes me want to vomit. I can see smoke over there, yeah? East, right? Let's go check it out. There's got to be something else to eat there."

She tensed. He noted her hand hesitating on her throwing club, her comfort piece. Her pace slowed to a stop as she turned her head towards the smoke rising in the distance.

Her face was still blank, but the stillness of her body indicated she was anxious about the smoke.

"What do you think? Hour away?" Eien asked, stepping up to her side.

"There is no town there," she said.

"No? What then?"

"Not anymore," she responded.

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