Hot perspiration flowed down Lieren's cheeks freely as he stretched both arms to the side perpendicularly, drawing brief but deep breaths roughly, pushing as much heat as possible into his legs and hips, making absolutely certain of his inner and outer equilibrium with meticulous attention and crystal-clear accuracy, taking all the necessary precautions that he could, making sure that he does not mess this up.
He definitely cannot mess this up, he reminded himself constantly in between drawn breaths, taking anything and everything in certain consideration. Why would he need to take such extreme methods, you say? Well…
"Hey…uh…sorry to say this when you're clearly doing your best over there…but you've just been standing there psyching yourself up for over an hour now. And, frankly…its getting pretty creepy."
There was a girl watching.
Like a shout within the snowy cliffs of a steep mountain, Red's insensitive and factual remarks about him caused his desperately kept concentration to cascade down the steep slope of his barely matured ego to come barreling down in a mix of chaos, embarrassment, and complete resignation, dragging his physical body down with him like a paper doll blown by a measly wind, pathetically and pityingly defeated by no more than thirty-five words said by a girl the same age as him.
"I miss the old Red." Said he as the taste of dirt and mud entered his mouth. He did not even bother to spit it out of pure surrender.
'She was so much sweeter…' He added, masking his face with a look resignation. Playing a poker face was still beyond his current capabilities.
With a defeated sigh, he laid down quietly like a dog longing for its owner, except humanoid and less adorable and more pity-worthy. He made sure to enshroud as much of his visible thoughts as possible.
Then, Red walked over to him, a handkerchief on her hand and a warm smile on her face. He still felt a little put-off by her sudden boost in self-confidence and no-filter dialogues, but otherwise felt proud and somewhat envious of her hell-for-leather mental development. Especially so on times like this, where his confidence and self pride has been thoroughly shattered to pieces mercilessly—no matter who and what caused it.
Instead of accepting the handkerchief as a bystander would expect, he simply laid there, resting his broken psyche, trying to recover as much as he could, as fast as he could. Red simply wiped his cheeks of mud and earth sparingly, her face impassive for everyone but Lieren, who subconsciously took notice of her invisible grin and joyful eyes, along with the familiar stench of something dirty and highly enticing.
'So that's what it was.' He regarded her odd, but not surprising demeanor. 'She's a—'
Before he could fully realize and solidify his shocking thoughts, a barely audible, but still evidently noticeable rustling of leaves and snapping of scattered branches entered his augmented hearing, making him jump to his feet and send a bolt of electricity to his lower half and hips, almost forcing him to come down to his hand and knees once again. This time, however, he resisted, pulling all of his regained focus and concentration through desperate will and forced discipline.
However, when he saw the lean man step out casually from the darkness of the enchanted forest, his stance relaxed, his mind eased somewhat. It was his Aegis, his sworn protector and guardian, the man who has swore his allegiance to him and him only. There was an intrigued expression etched into his well sculpted face. Harita whistled merrily.
"Damn, its only been a week…and you've already mostly recovered? That's pretty impressive. In fact, it's very impressive! Most people would have died if they suffered an injury like that, and even less of that actually surviving and living out the rest of their lives.."
Harita regarded his leg, casting a devilish glance on it, specifically his bandaged injury, and the deep, painful wound that it hid from the world, as well as kept various diseases from entering such a vulnerable point of his body. The lean man's gaze seemed to hold more than what most could possibly see, stretching and reaching beyond the world most people see, even surpassing it by a large degree. His feline eyes held something in them that Lieren failed to notice before, belatedly realizing the wisdom those eyes contained.
Without another word, he limped back south, to the enchanted tree where his crutch that his Aegis had made for him was leaning on, heaving it below his armpit and leaning his weight into it, entrusting the cruel integrity of the rickety wood and poorly made braces patched together with multicolored vines and whatever his Aegis could find at the time.
The crutch felt like it could break at any second, collapse at a moment's notice…at first glance, that is. True, one could spare just a simple glance and a casual inspection to know how fragile such an item is, but the truth remained different.
There was something about it, something of value that even Lieren was not sure of, despite using Mana Vision multiple times analyze the eerie thing, scanning every nook and cranny, then when that turned out to be nothing, he stubbornly checked it all over again, repeating this process since the first day he was gifted the crutch upon waking up and being banned from hunting—which he, by the way, was still very rancorous about.
He shot his Aegis an furious glare upfront, making certain of his resentment and seeded anger for the lean man.
Red stayed still as a statue the entire time, except for her vibrant eyes that scanned the two's expression with subconscious wit and acumen, unknowingly taking in the world around her with her utmost best. She was a maid, after all, she had to be observant if she was ever going to make it far…but not too much. Some people did not liked their secrets more than other people.
He began walking away, lifting and thrusting his crutch on the ground rhythmically as he went, not looking back. The incredulity and impudence of this did not escape him, making it more and more difficult to breathe, see, and painful to walk, while at the same time giving him an unhealthy dose of dopamine, poisoning his mind and corrupting it. The sweet taste of hostile opposition—rebelling, in other words—left a clear mark on his budding mind, forever reminding him of the wonderful sensation.
"—ey..—"
In the spur of the moment, he did not notice the lean man's shout, completely lost in the sensation. Things just felt right, for some reason, like the whole world was his to own and everything that was in it was his god given right to utilize as he wishes.
"Hey…!"
The second time, however, brought him back to reality much faster, leaving him with the feeling of hollow emptiness, as if all his organs have been carved out and only his lonely husk has been left.
With the sound of glass shattering reverberating infinitely in his head, he whipped around, lost as to what he had been so focused on. Harita looked at him with a suspicious, but otherwise harmless gaze. He was rubbing his neck awkwardly.
"Look, I know what I said, and I could tell that you're lost—unsure of what to do with your life, but I still stand by with what I said. I…care, Lieren, for what its worth. Though guessing by your behavior, it probably isn't much. And I respect that! It would have been much weirder had you not been… Look, what I'm trying to say is that… I'm sorry."
He stopped in his tracks and listened—this time more seriously—to the man talking, his ear perked, but his emotions calm. Something about the way he said those words both irked and intrigued him.
"What do you want?" He asked, almost pleadingly to the man.
Red remained still as a statue as she watched this all unfold: not with her eyes, but her ears and sixth sense. People did not like to be stared at in the midst of something important and potentially valuable.
Lieren took a deep breath, taking his sweet time, and finally answered; a full minute having passed in between his desperate attempt to keep himself in control. Sometimes, the greatest remedy of all was silence. He gripped his crutch tightly and asked:
"So…what? What are you saying to me? Because it sure isn't an apology or explanation."
His voice was seething—boiling with range and deep sadness, feeling the cold embrace of loneliness grip his heart once again. This time, it did not intend to let go.
Silence hung in the air once more as he sobbed and cried to keep the dark thoughts away.
'Why did things have to be this way? Can I really not trust, like, and love someone? Am I cursed? Is this some kind of divine punishment? …Am I really an Insig?'
As his heart began to close in on itself like a suffocating cave-in, a warm embrace melted the cold aura that permeated his skin, body, and soul, igniting life inside of it once more.
Glancing to the side, he could see the man's eyes without his clouding gaze defying his vision anymore.
"Let's make a promise."
Harita exclaimed as he looked forward with that piercing gaze of his once more. There was a strange smile on the man's face. With a tune much lighter than before, he said:
"Once you fully recover, I'll teach you one of my spells. It's about time you receive some proper tutoring."
The boy's calculative mind and strict discipline stopped working, replaced by the childlike wonder and youthful exuberance befitting his young age. With a sunny smile, the boy exclaimed aloud:
"Sure! It's a promise…!!"
The distant clamoring of binding chains could be heard in the far-off dimensional plane of existence that housed all interconnected souls in all of creation.