ANDRE.
"You know, Samuel, I personally thought you were better at this. I mean, this is the worst haircut I have had in my life!" I exclaimed.
"Considering that this is the only haircut you have ever had in your life, it could also be considered the best." Samuel quipped.
How can he come up with such witty remarks on the spot?
I really should learn that skill.
"Anyways, so how far are we from Lonris?" I asked.
"Not far," he answered the same moment I asked.
"Hmm... that's good, like maybe a few hours on foot?"
"four," he said in a voice that was barely high enough for me to hear.
"four hours?!" I exclaimed.
"If it is only four hours, then we should consider ourselves lucky since we are at noon; we may reach Lonris at sunset, and we could even find shelter somewhere in the city!"
"four days."
oh. My brain shut off for a moment.
The bastard got my hopes up just to crush them.
"You should have seen the look on your face!" He started wheezing like a tea kettle.
"Yeah, very funny." I said, rolling my eyes. "Ok, so can we stop fooling around and tell me what are we going to do now?"
"First off, Take this." he handed me a piece of cloth.
"what am I supposed to do with this?"
"you are supposed to hide my 'horrendously' shitty skills at barbery by wrapping it around your head." he said while he was wrapping up another piece of cloth around his head.
I wrapped it around my head and secured it in place using a knot at the back of my head.
"okay, now what?" I queried.
"now we gotta make haste of this four "hour" journey." he winked.
that bit-.
I need to always stay calm.
we are in a situation of survival and I am sure the reason behind his annoying yet supposed to be funny behaviour is to put our minds at ease and to not make the two of us extremely tensed up.
but it is still as annoying as harvesting corn from the grumund plantation.
I gnarled my teeth and just followed behind him.
****
SAMUEL.
"are you sure this is the right way?" Andre asked for the millionth time.
"you know," I rotated and looked back at the ten-year-old "if you don't trust my sense of direction then you should just follow yours." I smirked.
"oh no don't worry," he waved his hand indicating that there was no problem " I trust your of direction as much as I trust your skills in the art of barbery." he gave me a wide smirk.
that bit---.
my blood boiled in its vessels, how could that child have such a bad mouth?
anyways he is just a child, I thought gnarling my teeth.
"Anyways, I think we should set camp here," I set my arms akimbo and looked around "we have been walking for some time now and I believe a rest is needed, what do you think?" I motioned to him using a lift of my chin.
"Ok no problem lets set camp away from the road then." suggested Andre.
"Good idea lets go a bit into the forest." we went into the forest.
After some time we picked a spot to lay down and we laid down some of the items in our survival kit.
I looked up and saw the orange sky through the thick branches and leaves of the trees.
it has been nearly a week since our 'grand' escape from that damned plantation, and ever since then I have been tensed up and always on guard, I didn't even get to enjoy the taste of freedom yet.
I chuckled at my situation which led to Andre giving me confused looks.
"hey Andre bring me the book they gave us back at Ettor, will you?. I left it in your survival kit"
he went and started searching for it amidst the dozens of stolen goods we were able to secure before our escape.
"I think this is it right?" he held a book up and I saw the colour of its cover due to the illumination of our campfire.
"no that one has a brown cover, the one I want has a red cover, I think." I said.
he sunk back into the survival kit and after some time he got back up and threw me a book.
"ah yes that one, thank you Andre." I thanked him.
"no problem" he said as he sat opposite me," but why do you want anyways? I don't suppose you can read and write." he stated.
" Well that is true but I thought to myself maybe it will have illustrations of the techniques and things like that."
I opened the book and flipped through it not understanding a thing, but I noticed that there were some images in there and I began looking at them.
some illustrations contained people sitting cross-legged and in others punching and moving their legs in a specific manner, some other illustrations have green lights floating in them and some others have people with their hands covered in green blades.
the book's pages seemed to be well made and the cover too felt expensive.
I stopped flipping at an image of a man with a star in his chest, or rather his heart, of course I couldn't understand what it was but my best guess is that that is how Ru is gathered inside one's body.
I stopped as I thought that continuing will be of no benefit so I closed the book and laid it down beside me.
I then looked at Andre who was already inhaling the meat sandwich given to us by them back at Ettor.
"I should really rethink our current partnership aka brotherhood." I said seriously.
"and why is---"Andre -who had a mouthful of meat and bread in his mouth- started coughing like a rabid fox, "ahem ahem... and why is..ahem...that?" said Andre with utmost struggle.
"because I think you would eat me in my sleep if you continue wolfing down on food like that, or you would end up choking and dying exactly like what was going to happen now." I said chuckling.
Andre's face turned red from embarrassment and he was going to leave the sandwich but that pig's gluttony overcame his feeble sense of self-respect and he continued munching the sandwich albeit quietly and more reserved now.
Looking at him eating his sandwich caused the hunger pangs to hit hard and I was forced to get my own sandwich and eat it, but how could I eat a whole sandwich? I am not an extravagant person!
In the end, I managed to settle for only eating half of the sandwich, as my hunger demanded it. I would have preferred to eat only a third of it, but my stomach had other ideas.
****
ANDRE.
After my near-death experience, I slowed down and made sure to chew before swallowing.
although I wanted to eat faster than this but I can't give Samuel any more material that he could use in making fun of me.
I wonder why did he shave our heads and make us were cloth atop them?, I have to ask him.
I looked at him and found him cutting his sandwich in half painfully, it was as if he was killing his own son.
he, by accident , cut a part smaller than another by around a few centimeters. he looked at the two parts and picked the smaller one.
after that he began eating slowly, as slow as a turtle.
"it wouldn't hurt to eat a little bit faster Samuel." I said.
"look at who's talking" he looked at me and raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"ok suit yourself," I shrugged with the sandwich in hand "anyways what are we going to do once we reach Lonris?"
"We are going to join a gang."
"a gang? "You mean a mob, yeah?"
"Yeah, a gang, a mob—refer to it in whatever way it fits you; all that matters is that you understand that we are going to be bandits."
"What, why?" I exclaimed.
"I thought we were going to Lonris to work and earn a living, maybe even get an education! I protest, Samuel!" I shouted in his face.
"Look, I understand where you are coming from, but let me lay it out clearly for you," he said quietly.
"Now think with me, Andre, we stole some of the grumund's money, exactly 1506 dalis, ok?" Samuel started explaining, and I sat down while nodding.
"We basically have no idea how much a single dali is and how much it can buy; that is my first argument: we can't enter society with no knowledge of society."
"We too have been "triangulated," and around noon tomorrow the effects will take place and we will start having actual power, but how do you expect a society to accept us non-Ru users easily?" He offered a good argument.
"But Samuel, can't we use the same trick you always used?" I asked.
"Oh, that Protista trick, well, although I had formed quite the impeccable lie, still someone may see through our lies, Andre. Trust me, lies never hold their own weight. No matter what truth surfaces now or even after a year, when that happens, problems will occur to us, and if the grumunds knew about our existence through these means, then we will surely die."
"We need to abandon our current strategy and find a new location where we can't be found."
"And that location is in a gang?" I said it sarcastically.
"I will count the benefits of being in the gang for you," he said, and he opened his fingers and started counting on them.
"First, we won't be found," he said as he held his thumb.
"Secondly, we will have a chance to practise and understand the powers that we are going to achieve in the future." He held his index finger.
"Thirdly, we will socialise, and we will have the chance of knowing more about the world as well as more about Ru." He held his middle finger.
"Fourthly, we will be able to make some money there, and maybe even have new plans." He held his ring finger
"Lastly, we will work with the gang for two years; after those two years are done, we will leave the gang." He held his pinky.
"But how are you sure?" I was puzzled.
"I am not sure about anything other than that I will always survive," he said solemnly.
"Andre, we currently have nothing; no one we care about; nothing we ourselves own; we are fucking illiterate; we are nobodies." He said it with strength in his words.
"Listen to me, please; we are not going to be blessed by some god, and we are not going to get a cheat code that will turn our lives into easy sailing, Andre."
"We only rely on ourselves to build ourselves." Once these words entered my ears, I went into a daze.
What he is saying is true; in fact, nothing can be truer than that, but hearing him say it makes it all the more touching and heart-wrenching.
"Before I think this over, I have a question. What if we go to Lonris and don't join a gang? I queried.
"We have no worth, Andre."
"The other route is to be beggars,"