Author's Preface
"You know a bit don't you?"
Yuna's question stumped Vera.
The little girl simply shook her head, her eyes swimming. But just then, her stomach began gurgling from hunger. Her face becoming flush with embarrassment.
"Hurry up, Shrimpy. Whether you know or not, I don't care. I have my own problems to worry about...Well I guess you don't know what I'm talking about..."
Naren's voice lurched, his eyes reflecting a tinge of sorrow that he couldn't show in any other means.
Even if Vera's forgotten, nothing's changed. After all, there's only one reason that shaman come down here.
"But we still have to go to the city of witches. You remember that much don't you?"
—————————————
The early lights of the twilight oceanic sky breached through the dark shadows of the corridors. A curly haired boy with a dull red scarf sat on the floor leaning on his hands.
In front of him a little girl sat, as properly as she could, flattening the wrinkles on her uniform. Her eyes floating around, scared to meet Naren's.
And in between both was an unconscious one-eyed man, gauze wrapped around his abdomen where a ghastly wound once laid.
The man's eyes shifted for a moment, then fluttered open. His pupil snapping around in an effort to take in as much relevant information as necessary. His mind already trying to put together where he was and how he got there.
Sitting up, Cairo looked from Vera to Naren. His hands hovering over his waist where the cloth scabbard should've been, but wasn't.
His anger immediately fixated on Naren.
"Where it at?"
"No good morning?"
Naren answered while pointing to a pouch of tools, including kunais, shuriken, silver wires, and Cairo's beloved blade.
Lurching to his feet, Cairo clicked his tongue from the sharp pain pulsing from inside him. But that didn't stop him from reclaiming his blade at least. Once he had it, he was able to relax. Even if it was only slight.
Turning his attention to Naren, Cairo opened his mouth.
Naren expected any myriad of questions like "Who are you?", "What do you want?", "What'd you do to me?". But what he didn't expect was:
"So you 'posed to be my friend?"
Naren titled his head.
Friend? What the hell gave him that idea. His memories should be wiped clean or at the very least jumbled to where he doesn't remember Naren.
At that very moment, before Naren could retort, Yuna turned the corner. A pouch in her hand and the hood over her head completely concealing where exactly her voice came from.
"You could say that."
Taking off her hood, her dark blue almost black hair jumbled in the cloak. The cloak which was able to conceal her identity. At least, in a town of non-humans, this much was necessary.
Yuna unloaded the pouch in her hands, a collection of wild and unique items. A centipede, green herbs, a jar of some sort. And a pot.
Yuna sat down, neatly organizing everything as she spoke:
"Stain. We're in a dreameater's nightmare. Though I doubt you could've put that together...Anyways, even if you're memories are hazy, the feelings that you hold can't be erased."
A silence staged the four as Yuna pulled out two white wired buds from inside her cloak, putting them in her ears. She rummaged through her ingredients. Cutting into the centipede and dislodging it's meat, before putting it in the pot.
From the buds, Naren could hear a melodic beat escaping. Though, he wasn't focused on that right. Instead, right now he was staring at Cairo.
The one-eyed man tilting his head:
"What you want?"
Did Cairo really think of Naren as a friend?
His face brightened as he couldn't help but let a subtle smile creep up onto his face.
Naren lunged out, grabbing holding Cairo in an embrace.
"You really think of me as your friend man? Oh I take back all the things I've said about you. You, you're one of one man. You're priceless."
"Eugh, the hell're ya doing. You tweakin dude! Get off!"
Cairo intensified his body heat, Naren peeling off him in a frenzied pain as he tried to put the embers out as they latched onto his shirt.
Yuna pulled out the pot with all the ingredients put together, drenched in water, urging it in Cairo's face.
"Cook this with your fire."
Cairo flinched back, his face scowling.
"You think Ima oven? Why in the hell would I?"
Naren's stomach growled:
"Cook it, candle. I'm so hungry."
Yuna giggled at Naren's comment as Cairo lashed out:
"Candle? Fuck you!...The hell's in this pot? You slow shorty?!"
Vera watched in silence until Naren pulled her over, yelling at Cairo and blaming him for starving such a little kid.
For a moment, all of Vera's worries washed away.
Vera couldn't help but laugh. Wishing this was a moment she could never forget. Yet she knew it couldn't.
Looking at Cairo, she was certain about it now. Even if he was alive right now. She knew she herself was responsible for putting him in this state. She was a witch. It was inevitable that as long as Naren and Cairo were with her, they would constantly be facing such danger.
Vera pushed away from Naren, scooting over towards Yuna instead.
"P-please don't touch me. I'm not sure who you are?"
From the corner of her eye, she caught Yuna glancing at her. The princess's expression hard to read. Until she spoke, in a soft whisper meant only for Vera to here.
"Why come to me? Nobody here really knows each other."
———————————————
In another part of the maze of alleys in Lastlight, a figure was leaning against the wall. Their short stature lurched as they held their cloaked wrapped around their bleeding arm.
Pink feathers wrapped around Dian's neck coupled with a tied scarf.
In Dian's good hand was a hand-sized black box, an antenna reaching out from it.
Short bursts of static continuously spritz out with nothing legible to track.
Dian grinded his jaw, to help mediate his pain.
"Dear Ashwin...You have to let us know these things..."
He threw the communication device, pulling out a small canteen from his pouch and chugging it as he slid down the wall. Light red drops spilling from his mouth.
This was a disaster now. They had to bring back Vera. That was their only job.
Yet it turned out to be such a troublesome task that Dian was beginning to rethink his allegiance.
"Even if...you belong to those Bluebird...Monsters..."
A sudden rustling stopped Dian's already slow movements as his attention focused on the end of the corridor.
The sounds grew closer. Kicking rocks and debris aside, followed by the occasional sneezing. Then a long and weighted yawn before a figure turned the corner.
Dian stared for a second as his feelings tumbled around. A floating glee lightening his load as his eyes traveled from the figure's golden eyes to their red hair converging into black tips. Then finally, onto the scruffy red scarf around their neck that stole his breath away.
"My...soulmate..."
Naren tilted his head as the memories of the previous loops trickled in.
That's right. This guy was a nut-case.
Why did he have to run into him all of a sudden.
"Uh, sure dude. What was all this about Ashwin though? What else do you know?"
Yuna had assigned Naren a straightforward task an hour ago after their breakfast: While there was still daylight, and while the wolf's virus slept. Find more clues.
And that led him right here. To a man with ripped clothes and a blade wound on his arm. Yet...
Naren saw no bite or clawmarks.
He recalled something from the fairytale Maren would tell him. A detail he never thought was important. The disease was always called a virus.
Before Dian could answer, Naren added another question to the plate:
"How long have you been infected?"