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“Okay, here ya go!”
Orin comes up with a grand flourish, his ponytail whirling as he spins around before bowing down low to Éclair, a hot fresh pastry in the hand he presents to her.
“One large chocolate chip cookie for Éclair…”
Éclair tales the cookie with an amused smile as she watches his theatrics. Orin spins around again, this time holding his other hand to the sky like a beacon.
“…and one rainbow sprinkled cookie for me!”
Like a little kid he greedily wolfs it down, while Éclair eats her cookie slowly, savoring every bite. They eat without talking, waiting for the pleasant silence to end. It’s Éclair who asks the question.
“Any news of Zephyr?”
Orin looks down to the floor, and kicks a rock.
“She’s long gone. She passed three weeks ago. A guy and a girl were accompanying her.”
“Who?”
“One guy is a highly skilled assassin, known for a scar across his nose. His nickname’s Killer, since no one knows his real name. The other girl, however, they didn’t know. They just said she had long red hair and flaming eyes.”
Éclair narrows her eyes.
Richter…?
Orin seems to catch the look on her face.
“You know the girl?”
“Maybe. But we can never be sure.” Éclair says. She gets off from the wall she was leaning on and starts walking towards the stables. “We should go.”
Orin catches up with her and walks along side with her.
“You know, Éclair…I’ve been meaning to ask for a while but…” Orin pauses, collecting his words together. After a few moments of silence, he starts. “…Well, once we find Zephyr, what do we do?”
“What do you mean by that?”
He is unnerved by her unemotional tone, wondering if he said something wrong, but nonetheless keeps talking.
“I mean, we’re going to run into her sometime or later. What do we do then? What can we do against...well, her?”
No answer. She keeps walking.
“I mean! …ummm….It’s just that my dad always is telling…always was telling me that I should never rush into things without a plan—“
“Do you not want to do this?”
It takes Orin a few seconds to process her sudden interjection. Then he immediately goes to protest.
“What? Oh, no, no, no! I’m only saying that I don’t want my—our work to go to waste once we find her and only end up with her getting away or even worse, killing us…you know?”
There is silence. Then, Éclair is back to regular warm self, the slightly distant aura around her gone.
“Simple. I talk to her.”
Orin stops walking, gawking at her with a slack jaw.
“What?”
Éclair stops walking and turns around, a pleasant smile on her face.
“Is something wrong?”
“Is something wrong?” Orin sputters. “Is SOMETHING WRONG? We’re searching for the psychotic girl who killed my whole town and is just going to talk with her! TALK with her!! Pray tell, how is that going to help us?”
If possible, Éclair’s smile seems to get wider. In fact, it could almost be classified as a smirk, should it have been possible for the sweet girl that Éclair was to smirk.
“Don’t underestimate the power of words.”
And with that, she turns and keeps walking, leaving a dumbfounded Orin to catch up. He does so, while mumbling something about, “…crazy smiling girl…”
“Okay, fine. So we’re going to battle Zephyr with words. I’m totally cool with that. Just don’t blame me when you get killed.” Orin says with an exasperated sigh. Then his face brightens up. “So, where we going next?”
Everything is back to normal. Éclair grins and takes out the map from her pouch. She spreads it out in front of them and with her finger traces along their path.
“Okay…we are at Symphel right now…and…I think we should go to Tewrik. That’s probably at most a 30-minute walk. What do you think?”
“But that’s through the forest! Haven’t been hearing what the villagers have called it? They call it the Cursed Forest because anyone who goes in it never comes back alive!” Orik protests.
“Well, good thing we aren’t coming back now, is it?” Éclair says, closing the matter as she puts the map in her bag. She walks ahead before turning back to Orik, who has stopped to gawk at her again. “Are you sure you’re okay? This is the second time you’ve stopped now. You sure you don’t want to stay at the inn for the night?”
Orik stares.
“Orik…?”
He snaps out of his daze.
“Yeah…I’m fine. We need to keep moving.”
He catches up again, this time mumbling, “Can’t win…just can’t win, can I….”
“Probably cause it is one.”
Orik glares at Éclair, opening his mouth to complain, before closing it. He’s learned his lesson. He settles for saying a, “…you…”
Éclair turns to him with a smile.
“Don’t worry. As long as we stay off the path, we probably won’t die.” She says pleasantly.
“Somehow, that isn’t all too reassuring…” Orik grumbles. “And how do you know that, anyway?”
“Because all the missing villagers probably kept to the path, which is where Zephyr’s traps would most likely be.”
“True…” Orik admits, knowing her logic actually makes sense for once. “I still don’t like the feel of this place.”
The horse and Orik walk carefully among the tree roots and grass, silence between the two humans. There are no birds chirping, no active life.
And then it happens.
Éclair suddenly freezes, her horse moving back warningly. It starts to balk at something, neighing at an invisible enemy. Éclair starts to cough.
“What the hell---calm down, Snowflake! What’s wrong with---oh no!”
Orik suddenly notices Éclair’s state and rushes to Snowflake’s side, and takes her down from the still frightened animal, holding her. Her eyes start to dilate, and her breathing becomes labored, each breath coming in shorter until she starts to choke.
“Éclair! Éclair! What’s wrong! Oh sweet Terra, what do I do? Éclair!”
She choppily raises and finger points towards a direction, her hand shaking madly. She chokes out.
Orik doesn’t waste any time listening. Going upon Snowflake, he points the animal towards the direction with Éclair pointed to and kicks the horse into a gallop. Trees zoom by, the horse seeming to fly with fear. Orik narrows his eyes to block all the incoming wind.
Before he knows it, he’s at the edge of the forest and is staring a town wall. On the side, he sees a sign with the words, “Welcome to Tewrick, the town of modern technology.”
He breathes a sigh a relief, and hastily checks the girl he’s holding in his arms. Éclair is sleeping peacefully; her breathing is relaxed and normal.
“Thank Terra. I though you were going to die you satanic girl.”
Orik nudges Snowflake to the gate and looks for the bell or guards, before he finds a screen on the side of it. He looks at it questioningly.
“What do I with this…Oh!”
Orik notices the “RING” button and pushes it. It lets out a buzzing noise. A few seconds later, a person pops up on the screen.
“What is your business for Tewrick?” The guard asks.
“My friend and I have had some trouble in the forest and we seek shelter.”
The guard’s eyes widen.
“Trouble in the forest you say…” He seems to mutter to himself, before turning back to Orik. “Wait a moment.”
The guard goes off screen, leaving an empty chair staring at Orik. In the background, Orik can hear the guy talking.
“Yeah…Chief? It’s another one. We might more clues. Let them in? … Okay … Okay … Got it.”
The guard reappears back on screen.
“Come in.”
The large wall moves open, and Orik goes in.
“I’m fine. Really.”
“But after what happened yesterday…” Orik’s face darkens slightly at the thought. “Maybe you should just tell the police that you’re sick. They won’t mind.”
“Orik, don’t worry about me. I told you already. I’m fine.” Éclair says. “Besides, they might know what caused that reaction in me.” Though I already have an idea.
“If you say so…” Orik doesn’t seem convinced, but before he can say anything else, the elevator door opens up to show a research lab of sorts. A young man comes up to them and reaches out his hand.
“Hey, I’m the Chief.” He says with a friendly smile. Éclair is surprised at how young he is.
“I’m Orik and this is Éclair.” Orik says and shakes the hand.
“Nice to meet you two. Now if you’ll step in, we need to talk about what happened yesterday.”
They both step out of the elevator. Almost immediately, Éclair freezes, feeling the same nauseating pull from the day before.
She starts shaking, and drops to the floor. She feels her throat start to close up, and her chest feels like a thousand needles are a stabbing it simultaneously.
“Éclair!”
Orik drops down next to her. He puts her arm around her shoulder and helps her stand up.
“We have to get back—“
“No.”
Orik stops talking and seems shocked by her hard tone. Éclair turns to the Chief who is staring at her with a weird look on his face.
“It’s he-here.” She says in a shaky voice, trying hard to talk. “Bring me to it.”
The Chief nods.
“Follow me.”
He starts walking across the floor, weaving in and out between computers and lab technicians, Orik following close behind with a coughing Éclair. They reach a stone slab with a hole in the middle. The Chief puts his hand on it, and slowly, the door melts from the middle. The hole becomes bigger until it opens up to a much smaller lab. In the middle of the room is a container in which a floating red crimson ball floats.
The Chief leads them towards it.
“We’re here.” He says.
“What…what is—Éclair?”
Éclair breaks away from Orik, her gaze fastened on the ball.
Zephyr…what have you done?
She stumbles towards it. She doesn’t feel the pain in her chest, nor is she breathing anymore. All she sees is red.
She’s in front of the container and reaches for the object. Her hands melt through the glass and slowly…it’s coming towards her fingers. In the background, she faintly hears people screaming and yelling at her to stop, but she doesn’t pay attention it.
Zephyr…what have you done?
She grasps it, the feel of it like red hot metal. And suddenly, she can feel it all, like swords hacking through every part of her body. Like leeches slowly draining all life away from her. She can’t breathe. She can’t breathe. She can’t breathe. She needs air.
Zephyr…whathaveyoudonewhyareyoudoingthiswhat’shappenedtoyouwhyhaveyoubecomelikethiswhatdididotoyou…
She needs to stop the pain. She needs to stop. Stop it…stop it all.
Concentrate. Focus all of the power on your hands.
....grieffurywantvengeanceloveshelterpoisonlonl—
It stops. It’s gone.
She opens her eyes, not realizing they were closed. She looks at the orb in her hand, now a dead shade of red. She smiles. Her work is done. Then she looks around, surprised by the sudden quietness.
The whole lab looks like a whirlwind hit it. Objects are lying is disarray, pens and paper lying on the floor. Charts have been ripped and rustled from their spot on the wall.
Everyone is staring at her with jaws wide open.
“Ah…” She turns to the Chief. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen.” She turns to Orik with an excited smile, whose face is turning redder and redder by the second. “Orik, I think this is what cause my reaction!”
Orik explodes.