Chapter 12: Respite

Carina heard that the Kid had finally waken up. The young scout decided to find the girl, a quest where she was joined by Warden Jaren. They arrived at the mayor’s place but no one was home. The Kid had just recovered from a critical injury and there she was, out and about up to something. Knowing the girl, Carina was not surprised in the slightest. The young scout paused to think, was it conceited of her to claim to know someone she only knew for a day?

It was a question that bother her and her only.

The two finally found the Kid in the field, with her face planted on the ground.

“Are you alright!” Carina exclaimed and ran to the girl’s side.

She helped the Kid up, who was clutching her side in pain, there was still a smile on her face though. “Practicing quickdraw now was not one of my brightest idea, I swear.”

They made their way to a small shed, containing the Kid’s training supplies. The girl pulled out a stack of paper with a wooden board. The Warden glanced in, wondering what kind of firepower was in there. There were now trading routes from their kingdom to the far West. But even after sending their best spies, the secret of this ‘gunpowder’ still eluded them and so was the desert land’s source of Blind’s metal.

The Kid sat down slowly, still holding onto her back. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

“How are you feeling now?” Carina asked.

“… Fine-ish? I want to say something witty but the pain is- ouch.”

Carina also sat down, breathing a prolonged sigh of relief that lasted way longer than she had expected. The young scout realized she finally got to rest proper in how long no one knew. A sentiment also shared silently by the Kid. They both breathed out again at the same time, looking at one another, they laughed together.

The Warden watched the two with a smile, yet there was a hint of somber in his eyes.

The girl flipped through her papers, which were filled with sketches of all kind, from landscapes to portraits. The lines were unrefined but lively, contrasting with the effort to be realistic. It was a conflicting style, a reflection of the Kid herself.

“Did you draw all of this?” The young scout asked.

“Yes!” The Kid replied. “I like to draw in my free time. Would you be a model for me!”

Hearing that took Carina aback, she looked around to see if there was anyone around that could be for. There was only the Warden who commented, “Pretty sure she meant you.” The young scout then turned to the Kid who was still looking at her with a wide grin.

“I… guess it’s alright.”

Finding a spot to settle down, the young scout sat completely rigid. “Should I have a pose or something? Maybe placing my hand on my chin?”

“Whatever is fine, just be you!” The girl replied.

Carina tried to do what she said but her elbow could not find purchase. After fiddling around with arm placement, the young scout gave up and just sat upright with a smile.

The Warden watched the drawing. “Did someone teach you to draw like this?”

“Nope.” The girl immediately replied. “I tried to copy Doc’s style. Ever since I saw his drawing, I wanted to be able to draw like that.”

“So he also draws, I can’t really imagine that.” Carina commented.

“Me too, but apparently he used to, a long time ago.” The Kid said. “I found some of his old drawing. Most of them were diagrams of body parts or something. But among those were some portraits and they were so beautiful.”

While the girl was always excited, or at least appeared so, this was the first time Carina could truly felt it. It was like opening a floodgate, she was now talking about the Doctor’s drawing nonstop.

The Kid talked about the three portraits of three women that stood out the most to her. The first was one with striking red hair. She was not an alluring beauty, yet there was still something so captivating about her. Was it because of her confidence without a shred of arrogance, oozing out through the paper? Quite a feat to convey such a thing since the painting was apparently unfinished. “He didn’t finish the eyes, her irises were all black.” The Kid commented. “Ah, I really want to see the complete piece.”

“Why don’t you ask him about it?” The Warden said.

The girl replied. “I wanted to, but Doc always seemed so sad, looking at that painting. I tried once, but he just ignored me anyway.”

The second portrait was a different matter, however, apparently it was Doc’s favorite. It was of a woman with blond hair and blue eyes, she wore a stone ring around her neck. Aside from that, there was not much else. There was nothing that stood out about this person. But the Kid did not find that a bad thing, “I could look at that painting for days,” she said. Once again, the Doctor was cagey but he did let it slip once, apparently it was his mother.

The last was certainly the most bombastic. The portrait was of a younger woman with sparkling blue eyes and red lips. Unlike the first painting, this one was radiating with arrogance in every single line, not just in her condescending smirk. Her platinum hair was combed backward, showing two metal horns running from her forehead up along the skull…

“Wait what!” Carina did not expect that.

“It looks like a decoration.” The Kid said. It made sense since the young woman also wore other sorts of jewelry including earrings and necklaces. The girl seemed to like such accessories though, describing them in great details.

The young scout certainly did not mind having them as well. She imagine what would such luxury looked like on someone like her, the answer she came up with was not a good one.

“At my next leave, I will buy you some, although they won’t be as good the painting though.” Carina said.

Hearing that made the Kid perked up for a moment but she settled back down. “It’s alright…” She said, laughing dryly. “They wouldn’t suit this character anyway.”

A curious comment, Carina wondered what did the girl meant. The Kid, meanwhile, finished up her stories of the portraits and her own drawing as well. The end was rather anticlimactic, despite the final woman being most peculiar the Doctor was rather disinterested about that drawing of his. The Kid could not get any information out of him about who that was either.

Finishing the drawing, the girl called Carina over. The young scout gazed upon her own portrait. Her plain self was transformed into someone beautiful.

“This looks way better than I will ever be.” She commented.

The Kid immediately replied. “That’s just not true.”

“You are an amazing drawer… and you are also such a great fighter.” The young scout said. “What do you intend to do in the future?”

A simple question, the Kid tilted her head to the side, thinking before answering. “I don’t know really. I will stay here until… then maybe I will travel around? Maybe be a guard or join the Knight Order?”

It was simple pause but its implication was one most chilling. The young scout looked at this young soul in front of her, who was willing to stay here until she was the last one alive. But when that day finally arrived, would youth still be with her? That Carina highly doubted. The thought of someone this bright spending her most of her life in a place like this was nothing but depressing.

The Kid continued. “What about you two, why did you both join the Knight Order?”

“Nothing much really, I was raised in an academy like every other mage but this one was under the Order. Joining them was mandatory.” The Warden replied. “Well, it’s not like I would pick anything else anyway.”

“How did you come to work with someone like X?” Carina asked.

“Hmm, one day us young mage was lined up to be picked as her partner. Someone who would keep tab on X to report back to headquarter her every move. Apparently it became so excessive the partner was to order to report on every single thing she did including toilets and bath in details. X threatened to go on a killing spree before headquarter decided to tone that down. That day I wasn’t picked though, so I just continued my training and went to be a Warden.” Jaren answered. “But then, in a mission, her partner died and they could not assign a newbie to finish it so I was sent in. Then, she seemed to take a liking to me so that became my new post.”

“Wait, when you was young? How old is X?” The Kid wondered.

The Warden explained. “I have no idea how old she is, acolyte can live forever and I think she predated the Order. I could find absolutely ancient records about the Llewellyn Brotherhood’s manhunt for her. In case you want to know, that’s the organization that predated our Order. Sometimes after out formation, she joined us, I don’t know the details.” As every old man, Jaren took delight in explaining the past to the young. “In fact, our full name is ‘The Llewellyn-Ó hÉalaighthe Knight Coalition Sworn to Preserve Order under the King and Our Holy Lord Atlas’. It’s… quite a handful to say so over time everyone would just call us the Knight Order. There was no official change though so that is still our organisation full name.”

The young scout did not remember learning that at all during her training. She wondered how many people now even remembered that name. Next to her, the Kid was trying her best to pronounce the name to no avail. The girl gave up, throwing her arms up in the sky, she turned to Carina.

“What about you, why did you decide to join the Whatever-Whatever?”

“That, I don’t think there’s much there. I used to work in a shipping warehouse, I did well and the manager put in a recommendation for me to replace him since he was moving to another post soon. But… in the end I did not get the job.” Carina smiled and sighed. “Since I have no family, the company decided that there was no assurance for me not running away. I… also tried to get marry, did meet this boy but it fell through in the end. His clan thought I was unreliable since I had no family so they pulled it. Then I saw a march of the 23rd Chapter and there was Captain Meredith, he was like me just he climbed so high. I decided to apply to join his unit.”

As she finished her story, the young scout looked up to find both the Kid and Jaren staring at her. “Sorry, I guess that was not too exciting.” Carina said, scratching her head.

“Eh no, the story in my head was way more plain.” The Warden said, laughing.

___

The Kid stood looking at her two companions. Their stories she found both interesting and somewhat depressing. Yet they did not find their own lives very exciting. Was it because they grew up like that? Jaren was raised since a baby to become a battlemage. Carina was born without a single traceable family, she was devoid of a heritage and history. Their hardships were always present and when familiarity set in, even the monster under the bed became the truth. Just liked how rains fall, water flowed, wind blew.

The girl wondered if there was anything like that about her. There was nothing she could think of… No use thinking about that now.

“It’s your turn now!” The Kid said enthusiastically to the Warden.

“Wait what.” He answered confused.

“To be my model of course!”

The Warden accepted. That drawing would not be finished, however, as they soon received a news. One of the Mutants called Snowdrop had appeared in front of End Of The Line and allowed himself to be detained. He wanted to talk to Captain Meredith.