Granite turned to look at the eggs in Olive's tail with glossy eyes, and in the split second before he returned his gaze to May I saw her smile falter. She smiled brightly again as soon as he turned around and hugged him right after. "I'm so happy for you! I can't believe I'm going to be an aunty!" He returned her hug happily but his expression changed to surprise once he saw me. "Is that...?"
May nodded and let go of him. "Yep." Granite then slithered over to me and raised his hand for a greeting. "Wow, it's a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness." My eyes moved to his hand that wanted to shake mine and I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him again and crossed my arms. May cut in and held her smile as she spoke. "Forgive him, he's a very mean man. We came here today because I am helping him on the Sudre quest." He looked at her with sudden worry. "What?! That quest is too dangerous! I know you love helping people, but you can't put yourself through such risk!"
May waved her hand in disbelief. "You don't have to worry about me, Granite. I'll be totally fine with Rin. He can fight like nobody's business. I have the utmost confidence that we as a team will be able to complete this quest with ease." Granite sighed and crossed his arms as well. "I have a feeling that no matter what I say I won't be able to change your mind."
May shrugged. "Nope. I already promised. And you know that my promises are unbreakable. Now down to the reason we stopped by. The first test we have to pass involves... Defeating Medusa in a permanent sort of way... And I thought to ask if you had any tips on doing that?"
Granite hesitated for a moment before answering. "I guess some information you should know would be that the only way to kill her would be to chop off her head. Although, you can't look at her at all or else you'll be turned to stone. Also, she'll try to kill you herself even if you don't look at her so you'll die either way. It is really impossible to defeat her. No one ever has so I don't think you should try to."
May seemed a little worried after his explanation, however, I was the opposite. I raised a fist with enthusiasm and thought aloud. "This is perfect! I've trained for years with a blindfold and knew that it would one day come of use! Ultimate power, prepare to be mine!" I then turned around to leave and waved my hand to tell May to follow me.
She shrugged and started to leave as well. "Don't worry Granite, we'll be just fine. Just make sure to take good care of Olive while we're gone. Bye, bestie!" He smiled and nodded in response, and turned as well to go back and check on Olive. Once we were out of the cave May stopped me from going any further. "Wait a second, before we go I just need to uh, go to the restroom. I'll be right back."
She flew away before I could say anything and I sighed as I sat down on a rock. I waited for a while and my patience was thinning, but she still hadn't come back. I felt suspicion the longer I waited and I finally stood up to see what happened to her. I climbed up the rocks to where I saw her go and spoke once I saw her sitting a distance away on the top of the cliff. "What the hell May? How massive was that-?"
I stopped my sentence at the sight of tears streaming down her face as she looked at me. She then quickly tried to hide it, turning her head away and wiping her face with her hand. "Sorry, I-I'll be down in just a minute." I stood up and sighed as I walked over to her. I then sat down next to her and forced myself to say what I did next. "Ugh. What's wrong now?"
She pursed her lips, attempting to quiet her sobs before she answered. "...I'm a horrible friend. My best friend is beginning a new chapter in his life and all I can think is... I don't even have one! Why do they get seven?! Do you know how they met? They were five years old, he gave her a flower and said 'One day I'm going to marry you and we're going to have tons of babies!' Do you have any idea how much that pisses me off?!"
She sighed and hugged her arms as she looked down in sadness. "Damien and I would always talk about our future together, and he would say how he couldn't wait to have a family with me and live happily ever after. How was it all a lie? What kind of a person would do that? And more importantly, how did I fall for it? What if he was right? Am I that unlovable?"
I couldn't help but snicker after she finished her thought and it quickly became laughter. May turned to look at me with confusion spread across her face. "Why are you laughing?" I calmed my laugh and responded, continuing to giggle.
"Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound to me? Here you are just barely an adult and crying about how you're not settled down with a bunch of bratty snot-nosed kids. Imagine if you were, would you really be happy without discovering who you are first? And who gives a rat's ass if nobody loves you? Haha, do you think I cried when I realized that not even my own family loved me? No, instead I loved myself and that's all you need to have fulfillment in life. That, and a lot of power. Now shut up and let's go kill Medusa before I die of old age!"
I stood up when May spoke. "I suppose you bring up a lot of good points, but I don't feel much better... Can I at least get a hug before we go?" I hesitated. "No." She raised an eyebrow. "Lesson number one hundred fourteen." I stopped to the memory of her in my head repeating itself. 'When comforting someone, hugs are the best medicine.' I slapped my forehead in irritation now that I had no choice. "YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS!"
She then immediately popped up from the ground in excitement and wrapped her arms around me. "Yay!" I had to fight every part of my body from pushing her off while she hugged me and stood still as she did. Once five seconds passed I instantly shoved her away and turned to walk back to the decline of rocks, quickly. "Time's up!! Let's go!" She followed me again and we were finally on our way to the first test.
We walked deeper and deeper into the canyon until the rocks were black and moist from the small amount of water flowing between the boulders and large rocks we were going across. It was mid-day, but we were so deep that it looked to be late at night from the many rocks that covered the sky overhead.