{ **IMPORTANT NOTICE: please read creators thoughts at the end.}
"What should we do now?" I asked in a low tone while dusting off the sand and dust over my clothes. I knew things were going to get complicated now, especially that those masked guys had taken Ross with them and that big bird we were riding had vanished, dead probably. I am unsure if Zeo and that Obrion guy have noticed that we are missing. If they have then please hurry to get us. I don't want to spend my night in this rusty forest.
"I...don't know what...to do now." Millia said, seated beside these rocks of small and large shapes. Her voice was unusually dull and shuttering. Was she crying? Her face was opposite to me so it was kind of hard for me to decipher if she was. In case she is crying, I think I know the reason.
"It's alright. Your dad will be fine. Don't you remember how proudly he had boasted about his so-called genius plan. I believe he is just doing that, trying to make himself be caught and then figure out who the hell is after all this." I consoled her with my cheerful words. She turned to me. She was indeed crying. Her eyes were red and glittered with pears of pain. The sight of Millia being this vulnerable was unusual for me. I was familiar with that fearless, logical and undeniably annoying Old Granny..but this girl in front of me was a different Millia. Probably the one she hides from most of the world. She glanced away from me.
"You know, when we were falling, I had seen dad use all his mana in a single attack. The Dimensional Siege. He had done it to overpower the Dimensional siege of those masked guys...just to protect us from any damage." She said. I was a bit shocked to know this but then I remembered I did hear some spell like that while we were falling like paper planes.
"It's all my fault. If I hadn't been that stupid and naive to fly above that bubble, in the spotlight of everyone's eyes.. maybe..maybe dad would have been here with us. " She cursed herself.
"But you just wanted to save him." I added. She shook her head in disagreement.
"Your intentions are hardly of any consequence to anyone, your actions are....." She declared.
"I think I should have protected dad from myself." She added. We both remained silent for a few minutes after. I just sat quietly beside her gazing at the setting sun and the dark blue sky painted with shades of pink and red.
"You know the sunset on Earth is just as beautiful and soothing as the one here." I heard myself say.
"Is it?" She said, her voice still low.
"I like sunsets. I watch them quite a lot, either alone or with someone to talk to. It helps me a lot." I said.
"It helps you...how?" She asked.
"Whenever I am sad, watching the sunset reminds me that this sun will rise again tomorrow with a new light and essence. Even if today is a waste, I can still make a beautiful tomorrow."
I turned towards Millia who was looking at me too. "What's done is done. It's not in our hands to alter our past mistakes but to avoid it again is." I said.
She shyly smiled a little. Wait! Did I say something stupid?
"What !!" I exclaimed.
"Nothing....It's just that such words of wisdom coming out from a guy like you is kind of weird." She explained.
"I am wise." I boasted.
"Yeah. I am sure you are. " She said in a sarcastic tone. I glared at her and we both fell into a laugh.
She got up and gave me a hand to get up too. I felt a sudden drift of heartbeats as I stared at her gauzy brown hairs fluttering wind with the cool evening winds and her hazel eyes glittering in the sunlit dusk. I didn't take her hand and stood up for myself.
"So what are we going to do?" I asked, shoving off the awkwardness rising in the pit of my stomach.
"Let me see..." She started and her next words were lost in the string of her thoughts.
"Our house is quite far from here. We won't be able to reach it before dark on foot." She said.
"So will we have to spend the night in this pine forest." I asked in disbelief as those huge figures of wolves crossed my mind on my first night. No ! I don't want to be eaten by those creatures.
"Of course not. That's more like a suicide gamble. We will spend the night in my clinic near the main village from here. I think we will reach it before it gets dark." She announced and it brought relief to my hung breaths. She pointed at a narrow path among the logs and started moving in that direction. I followed her.
It took about forty-five minutes to get to the village she was talking about. Well, calling this place a village would be an understatement for this place was bigger and inundated with more people than our town back on Earth was. It had gotten darker by the time we reached the place so the streets were certainly stacked with people. There were streetlights and lanterns of green and yellow, hanging along the shops. There were vendors calling for their goods, traders defining the utility of their items, sellers boasting about the quality of their food items and obviously customers to fill up these places. But the most annoying thing about all this was -- my height. Why the hell is everyone so tall here? I felt so small and invisible in place that I just couldn't bear it.
Once a vendor had offered me some kind of candy, thinking that I was a kid. I was so annoyed at him that I just wanted to punch him and make his face look like a flat tire... but I didn't.
"I am sorry. This kid doesn't like candies." I had told him, forcing myself to smile. After that Millia went laughing straight for about the next five minutes. At that moment I just wanted the earth to crack open and swallow me or for the sky to fall upon and crush me but, as sure as I knew it, none of that happened.
We walked for about ten minutes after entering the village. God ! What sins had I committed in my last life that I have to suffer this much?? My legs were tired, my body was aching and my mind just wanted to click the turn off button and rest.
"How far is it now?" I asked. It seemed like even my tongue didn't want to move either.
"Almost there.." She replied flatly.
Soon we did reach her clinic. It wasn't some repulsive, white-walled doctors room with those smells of medicines and people. The place was more like Millia's own room. There was that shelf of books and bottles and those flower vases. In a nutshell, it felt more like a home. But it didn't have anything like a bed in it, which was indeed obvious. There was only a desk and a wooden chair in the corner of the room.
"Where are we going to sleep?" I asked.
"On the floor, of course." She declared.
I looked at her sarcastically. I knew she was joking but she seemed s as sure as ever.
"Really?" I asked again.
"You've got a problem." She added in a serious voice. Yes! Yes! Of course I had a problem. I have never slept on a flat floor before, except for those few times when I was kid. Even when I went camping, I had a thick sleeping bags with me. My back would be sore and bitter if I slept on this floor. But as you guessed, I didn't speak any of it. Just shook my head.
She put out a small cloth from the purse-like bag she was carrying and spread it over the floor.
"Stay here. I am going to get something to eat." She said and I nodded my head like a dog. The truth was, I was hungry. Millia left the place without another word and I was left alone here.
As far as I have come to understand myself, it's kind of uncomfortable for me to be silent and inactive. It's not my cup of tea, I guess. Even if I am hungry, I keep on rushing here and there within the room, sometimes stealing glances from the small window of the clinic, sometimes checking out the thick books Millia had in her shelf but I never understood a word of it. I had even smelled some of those glass bottles and let me be honest with you --- they were all horrible!!
In this little treasure hunt of mine, I had finally found something interesting. There was a family photo kept in the drawer of the desk. There were two children along with a huge man. It was probably their childhood photo. Ross was still huge as ever while Zeo looked kind of mischievous. Millia's child face was not much different from now. It still looked annoying....but it still had a bit of innocence and cuteness. A Smile curved across my face as I saw her. Suddenly, I heard the doorknob twist and I instinctively kept the photo back at its position and closed the drawer. Millia emerged with some packets in her left hand.
"That's my seat.." She pointed at me.
"Oh !! Come on. Can't I just rest here for a moment. I am tired." I complained. She rolled her eyes and unwrapped the packs of food she had. I don't remember what it was called but it sure tasted delicious. I devoured all of it in less than five minutes.
After eating, we went to sleep. But things weren't that simple. How could I let myself sleep beside a girl? It's not that I haven't slept with in my life yet but not under such circumstances. If I had slept, it usually turned into something more than that. But here....no way...not beside her.
"You're not going to sleep on the floor?" Millia asked.
"No...I think ..I am fine...on the chair" I answered.
"Your choice."
After that Millia turned on the little lighting we had in the room. I was simply sitting on the hard chair with my back stiff. How am I going to sleep like this?? After about half-an-hour of silent turns and twists. I heard Millia say in a low voice.
"By the way. Thank you for your earlier thoughts. "
"Huhh?" I asked, confused.
"Your words, there in the forest. They helped. Thanks for that." She explained.
"You love your family, don't you?" I suggested.
"I do...I ..am..just afraid that I might lose them someday and my little world would crumble." She replied shortly after.
"I know. It's hard not to worry about your loved ones." I added. She didn't reply.
"Things will be fine. Just never let your hope die." I added.
"Hmm.." she replied slowly. She was probably sleepy so I didn't engage in further talks. I don't remember when I went to sleep while sitting on that wooden chair but I do remember I woke up to some rattling sound. It was Millia.
"What are you doing?" I asked, half asleep. As I had suspected my back was screaming with soreness.
"Get ready. We are leaving." She announced.
"Leaving for where?" I asked, puzzled.
"For the Whispering Forest!" She said.
"Hahh!!"