It was a dark morning, the ocean stayed black but glistened as it was at peace. As I woke up before Athana, I watched the branches on the trees whisper. Athana slowly woke up with the fade of darkness. She stretched her arms over her head, brushing her gills on her face. She closed her eyes for a second and looked at me with a squint. I splashed her with a bit of water from a puddle on the stone. She closed her eyes again and tried to hit me with her fin but I guess her exhaust kicked in.
"What are we doing today? Why you up so early?" She asked quietly.
"I'm going to go see Joel," I said. I wrapped my arms around my legs and puffed my cheeks out to pout. "I haven't seen him in ages."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a week is sooooo long."
And to be honest it was. This week has felt… Weird. Nothing has been going the way it should be. The last day I visited Joel was last Thursday, which was our one year anniversary. The reason I speculate all this crazy discrimination against us copycats is because of that day.
Romance is all I wanted but we got a bad tasting atmosphere with my gut feeling nothing but disgusting anxiety.
"You'll have to leave the premises, Girl," one of the gatekeepers said. "Don't make it difficult." And to be honest I wasn't budging from his intolerance because I was shocked. When do guards randomly knock on people's doors at late night?
The only thing we found time to do that night was to watch animations together, especially Japanese animations. We never had a favourite but I bet you we were watching around 5 at a time.
Maybe our TV was loud, but I have sensitive hearing… So I'm unsure.
He walked me to the gate and I hoped over, with my wings expanding a bit to keep me afloat. I balanced on the brick that was out of place and looked back as I crouched and saw Joel peeking out his curtain. He looked upset for the first time in a long time, and I thought about that face all night, and all week.
Maybe when I see him tonight it'll be better, maybe he was just missing me like I was missing him. Badly.
"Can you roll me over into the water, it'll wake me up for good!" Athana wiggled in her spot and poured. I wiggled her more to the left and she splashed in the water. I hope it woke her up as much it did for me because I got one big splash. I giggled softly and looked up at the dying moon. A few more hours and I'll be able to go to him. I'll tell him how I feel too, about this whole mess.
I was walking alone in the trail in the forest. There were flowers bunched up in the grass, they wanted to breathe and escape one another to bloom on their own, but sadly their thorns were together, irritating one another's petals. I bent down to them for a better look and smiled slightly.
"Do you want a flower crown?" Athana said to me with her shy voice. It was the first time me and Athana met. It was in the east side of the Guilt Forest. I bent down to see the flowers in the rain and I looked down at the pond that was engraved in the grass.
We were 6 years of age, without guidance, without parents, so we promised each other we will care like family would care. And it's been sixteen years, and I appreciate her with all my life, as I know she does too.
We spent everyday together, outside and inside of water. Athana realized she could live without excessive water for 8 hours, but if she has a bit of water throughout those hours, she can be alright for a full day. We used that to our advantage. Everybody has their own phases of rebellion and Athana's was not listening to what her body needed. Countless times when I would catch her dehydrated like a raisin. It was and will be one of my fears.
But that's when I met a lot more people though, we realized we were not alone even with each other. As you know we had a religion based around those before us, the past experiments. The fails and the successful ones. 105, we called her Diao, we worshipped her for beauty.. Then there's 112, Dozen. We worshipped him for guidance. Then my mother, Crimson. We worshipped her for bravery and trust.
And there's even still ones we still don't even know who they were, but it's still our goal to figure these pieces out together.