"I'm sorry I couldn't finish this in a cleaner way," she apologized putting her sword back to its sheath.
Willow slowly shook her head this time, "It's fine."
'I was simply taken in by your beauty that I could only stare blankly. Though I will never say this out loud,' she added in her mind.
Saphira squatted down and brought out a rope from who knows where she kept, tying one smaller man that she thinks she could pull out of that place.
She raised the rope after doing so looking at Willow, "For evidence."
Willow's eyes shifted.
"Or..." Saphira added seeing as she was hesitant.
Willow looked back at her.
Saphira dropped the rope she was holding and brought out a shovel instead.
Willow furrowed her brows, just where were they coming from?
She only has her sword with her a while ago. Why is it that she has more things now.
Saphira bobbed her brows up and down.
"We can simply bury them and just have the people who wronged you come out on their own?"
The two of them walked out of that forest as Saphira supported Willow because she had broken her leg.
"Saphira," Willow spoke.
"Hmmm?"
"You said you didn't see Esther, what do you mean by it?"
Esther was obviously there but after everything she was gone and all Saphira said was that she didn't see her.
Saphira rubbed her chin with the hand that was not supporting Willow, "Hmmm, I just didn't see her?"
Willow didn't know whether she would laugh or cry. It was very obvious that Saphira allowed Esther to run away.
"I know why you are hesitating," after a while Saphira started.
Willow glanced at her before returning her eyes to the road they were walking on.
"Because Esther and her mother is currently being seen as saints in the Empire. If we are just to randomly accuse them and they vehemently say that they didn't do anything, then many people would not believe us."
Saphira chuckled, "We are the frontliners in the battle against the darkness. People see you guys as the heroes of the world. Yet when it comes to your own Empire, you are only second to those who stayed within the Empire and showed such acts."
It didn't escape Willow's ears the words 'you guys' that Saphira used.
And this gave a pang in her heart, something she shrugged off.
They were indeed revered and people wanted to befriend them but that is only because they were the heroes but then they were away for 8 years.
Other people can act different ways to get what they wanted.
Act nice and people will see you as nice, sometimes blindly even following you.
Act tough and people will see you as bruttish, some fears you.
But then what about the heroes who weren't around?
What will people remember of them?
None, because they only know them as heroes and nothing more.
Holders of mythological beasts.
Strongest among their peers.
But what else?
What were their characteristics after growing up outside?
"Since you haven't truly done anything yet then that's all the heroes are. Strong and strong and strong. Savior and savior and savior."
Somehow Willow felt like Saphira was bringing out things she wouldn't usually bring out in front of the others.
"Ah don't mind my rambling. If I were to speak of this with the rest, they will surely try to placate me but I know you'll simply listen and the current situation wasn't too far off so this example is not too bad, right?"
It was as if Saphira had read what she was feeling that she suddenly spouted.
"Anyway, unless they move in public, we really can't suddenly accuse them because of those uniforms. It may be forged and they were just framed. I can clearly see how they will evade just what had happened now."
Willows head snapped to her when she felt chill run down her spine as Saphira finished her sentences.
Her voice was laced with coldness.
Saphira noticed her look, "Oh, have my evilness leaked out? Well no one is perfect anyway, so obviously I have this sides."
"You are not feeling repugnant about it? I mean some will see us as heroes so being-"
"Being kind and all smiles must be the things they would have wanted to see. I know but then if they can't accept my whole self. Am I just supposed to hide it? In case I can't do anything and simply do that, then who will love me?"
Willow was taken a back by her words.
"If I can't even love myself for who I am whether dark or not, then aren't I pitiful?"
When she looked at Willow, her red orange eyes were staring straight at her green orbs and what Willow could see was genuineness and no lies.
Not even pretense of acting like loving yourself when in reality you still disgust your own ugliness.
It was pure.
Not pure because there was no evil but pure because she could accept everything no matter what.
Getting hurt and then getting angry before accepting that, 'Ah yes, I am not perfect. No matter how much I love them, I still have hatred towards some parts.'
Things that others wouldn't usually want to accept to themselves.
"Oh, have my words been too random?" Saphira asked seeing Willow lost in thoughts.
Willow shook her head, "Nothing like that."
Then a thought suddenly came to her, she couldn't help but to glance at Saphira who was now humming as they walked through the forest.
If not for her blood soaked clothes, it would look like she was simply taking a walk in the early afternon.
But with them on, she looked like a sadist who just enjoyed a bloody activity with who knows where.
And as Saphira hummed enjoying the views, Willow have decided to tell her the things that suddenly came to her mind.
"Saphira, what if I tell you that..." she paused.