"Have you ever heard of a guy named Cazor?" Ant asked Noelle. Noelle pursed her lips. Then she shook her head. "I have no idea who that is. He sounds familiar, though."
If someone as notorious as Cazor actually existed, why did Noelle not know about them? Then again, she might've just been uneducated. They had met back up at the hotel after Ant's meeting, and they had begun to wander again. The same old day, every day was like this. Ant longed for some more action, more… danger? Zo would be the one to give it to him. Lily was clinging to his side, grasping his hand and interlocking their fingers, and after around 30 minutes of struggle Ant gave up on trying to make her go away. He ended up with him and Lily looking like a couple, and a few people commented on their relationship every two minutes.
"No, we're not dating."
Noelle did not comment, but looked away.
When they eventually returned to Hotel Edgar, the countdown grid on the piece of paper was placed on his bed ominously. The timer that stated five days before had been black out and replaced by a black rectangle. The next square on the grid showed two weeks. They wouldn't be going back to Ferunt anytime soon. The cardboard that protected them from the fall had not been removed, and Ant wondered when glass-layers would arrive to fix the window. The blanket on the couch where Lily slept was shuffled into one side.
"Oh my god, not this again!" Ant groaned loudly as he struggled to push Lily out of the doorway. Her face was scrunched up in an emotion of longing. "Respectfully, get the fuck out of my bedroom," Ant said.
"Oh, come on!" Lily jumped and latched onto Ant's shoulders. Her legs twisted around his back. "Let me sleep with you! Just one night!"
She knew that there was no chance Ant would accept it. He was not the type of person to think with his lower half, but she might as well just try. Noelle watched with a bemused expression and she didn't know whether to laugh or to remain silent. Wasn't the couch comfortable?
"Stop doing that," she said finally. "You'll damage the pants. They might tear."
Lily surrendered. "Tsk," she muttered. "I'll try again later naked, then."
Noelle's eyebrows narrowed. "Don't."
Ant took the moment to slam the door in her face. He then locked it.
"Stupid girl…" he muttered, peeling off his blazer. He pulled off his tie, collapsing into a couch that had been conveniently placed in his bedroom.
Was there a library in Mox? Ant thought to himself. He would look into 'saviour history'. Noelle knew nothing about Cazor… What would the books know?
"Excuse me," Ant Infele asked a wandering Sable. He asked the Sable where the library was. "You know, a place with books?" he said after the Sable had a shocked expression.
"I know what a library is," the Sable said. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Ant Infele!" he said. "Can I have a photo with you?"
"Sure..?" Ant shrugged. He didn't know what the Sable was going to take the photo with. He had never seen a phone in Mox. The Sable took a twitching eye out of his pocket. He was holding it by a golden ring, and when he lifted up the eyeball, it blinked. A photo printed out of its back. "Thank you!" The Sable sounded happy. Ant was taken aback by the 'camera'. "About the library…"
The Sable pointed its arm behind Ant. A giant building made of marble stood before him, its name written in a text Ant could not read. "I thought that was like a government office or something," Ant said. "Well!"
The entrance to the library was more grand than anything Ant had ever seen and at the end of the hallway there stood an extremely tall curved table where a hunched-over old human woman stood, her wrinkles as deep as trenches. She took notice of Ant's appearance and nodded, the crystalline glasses on her grey hair bobbing. On the left was fictional works and on the right was non-fiction. Ant took the right door, where an even larger room stood. The bookshelves touched the roof that was infinitely above Ant's head. There were stairs to get to books.
"Oh, brother," Ant muttered to himself verbally.
To the side of the room there was a screen, like the ones back on Earth. There was no keyboard, nor a mouse. "Saviour history," Ant said knowingly. The screen flashed and a list of books popped up.
'What The Prophecy Means' written by Jonas Revor'The 1000-year gap' written by Elia Senth'Mox's Saviours' written by Humbert Kato'The Meaning of Disaster Wheel: an analysis of the fictional story' written by Brendan Asel
"Mox's Saviours," said Ant to the screen. A robot drone came from underneath the table. It flew to an aisle Ant could not see, and one minute later it came back with a book. It was around the size of an A4 paper and looked to be nearly 600 pages. The first page had copyright and production information. The second was blank, and then the book finally started. There was a page of contents:
IntroductionJikokuArtisLesseMox's Shadow KingBerinLocuhold
"Really?" Ant said to himself. "That's it?" There was no mention of Cazor in the contents page. With nowhere to go, Ant was tempted to try another book, but his interest was piqued by the chapter called 'Mox's Shadow King'. He flipped to the page shown, where there was an illustration. It was similar to one that would be shown in old folklore books on Earth. A person whose silhouette was completely black stood at the centre of a field, where two armies came from both sides. The army on the right wore full body armour made out of steel, and the ones on the left wore rags.
Underneath the photo, there were words.
"Many things are hard to contain. Mainly, the economic states of the world, stocks, the black market, and illegal sellings of drugs. These are but a few of the thousands of uncontainable things, and it is all but a library to the hexagons of Babel.
One may declare that one of these unthinkable objects to reign over the bound may be quite simple–Darkness. But one may argue that all it takes is a flashlight, but as one very famous defence lawyer once said: "Even if you shine a light, it only reveals more emptiness" (this quote could differentiate depending on certain translations).
As far as this civilisation is concerned, there is no real way to capture darkness. Even if one walked into a room plunged in utter black and brought in a plated box, they would walk out to open the box and be greeted by nothing. There will be no trace of the darkness you attempted to hold.
And yet, within these pages you will learn of the one person who harnessed darkness, and used it not to destroy but to liberate from shadow.
We do not know their name but we do know their title:
Mox's Shadow King."
This was interesting, but Ant didn't know how it could tie into his research on Cazor. He read on Mox's Shadow King for a short while, reaching the end of the chapter, where apparently, during the middle of a war, he vanished, and his body was not found. People that were near him told stories of him disappearing mid-spar, leaving nothing behind. It was as if he was pulled from the world. How peculiar, Ant thought. It was also noted that The Shadow King belonged to a race that never existed on Mox before, and he would be the first and last edition of this species.
The next chapter was called 'Berin' and it was the one that was the second most interesting title. It was much less interesting than Mox's Shadow King's story. Berin was the name of a writer who wrote books about Mox's wars which prevented a battle between Humans, Sables, and Drayls for land rights. It resulted in a treaty. Ant thought he had heard about this before. How many treaties were in Mox's history? Thirty? How many were basically the current Parer treaty? Fifteen?
Ant closed the book. He left it on a dashed-line square, with the words "return" on the table. The book was instantly picked up by a drone and was delivered back onto a shelf. He looked lazily back at the screen that displayed books. Which one should he try now? The 1000-year gap by Elia Senth? He doubted that any of these books were on Cazor. He began to think about Zo's words. He could always find the new Queen of the Loongs, or at least find someone who could tell him. However, he had his doubts, even with his authority as 'Saviour'. He would think about it. Mox's Saviours was an interesting book anyway. He would borrow it from the library.
Ant walked out of the non-fiction hall, greeted by the unacceptably-tall desk of, which he presumed, librarian. The first thing he noticed was how the windows were dark outside. It was already night? How long had he spent reading? He looked up at the librarian. "Excuse me," he said. There was a grunting sound from the wrinkly woman. "I'd like to issue a book."
"Library card, please," she said.
"I don't have one."
The librarian tsked against her dentures. "Put it back and leave, young sir. I am about to hop off for the day."
Ant's eyebrows narrowed at the old lady's language. "Surely give me the book," he said without thinking. "I'm the saviour of Mox, aren't I?"
The old lady scoffed. "What use is a saviour that uses their authority to cheat the weak?"
"Listen, old lady," Ant said through gritted teeth. "I didn't come to the library to deal with your attitude."
"Then…" the old lady spat at him. "Leave!"
Okay… so, apparently, Ant wasn't popular everywhere. Why did she hate saviours? An idea began to form.
"Old lady, what's wrong with saviours?" he asked.
"They're fraudulent. Every single one of them," the old lady disappeared behind the stupidly long desk and she was not seen again.
"Great…" Ant muttered. He left the library pissed off. Who did that old lady think she was? He found something else to think about by looking at the sky. Ant thought: it's late. I should probably go back to the hotel room and think about how to find more information. He thought about contacting Zo regarding the whereabouts of the Loong establishment, but he didn't even know how to contact Zo. He had never said anything about a phone number or even a few magic words that could summon him. The only way he was sure of was visiting Locust Mash, but even that was uncertain. Were there certain times when Zo showed up? The next time they met, Ant would surely ask.
Outside the library there was a stand where pieces of paper were held. They were square-shaped and rolled up. A sign was over the stand with the words 'FREE!' inscribed on them. Ant took one of the rolls and unfurled it. It was a map. Although it was decrepit and stained with dirt, it was still usable. Somewhat. The map was centered on Chelsey, highlighting the many mountains in the city. This was the moment Ant realised that the walled city was shaped like a cross, all centered around the Maximum, and by default, Hotel Edgar. This isn't very useful, Ant thought to himself. He noticed a fold at one edge of the map. Not expecting anything, he unrolled it. The map nearly tripled in length and the second, more hidden version of the map was shown. It was a map of the country. Like last time, it was centered around Chelsey. West of the city was Ferunt, the town Ant started in and where Noelle and Leon lived. North-east, Supra, very far west, the Heaven-piercing Throne. Now… where did the Loongs live? Ant traced from his finger, Chelsea to Ferunt. There was an arrow behind the village which stated that there was an ocean very, very far west, possibly where the Drayls lived.
When Ant arrived back at the hotel, he would ask Noelle about Loongs.
Noelle, Leon, and Lily were lazily sitting down on the couch when Ant arrived. Noelle was wearing a white bathrobe and so was Leon; Lily was wearing the white turtleneck Noelle had loaned her. They had been waiting for a while and were probably really tired. Not even Lily noticed his presence until Ant called out: "Hey. Noelle."
"What?" said the lazy voice from the couch. "Can you tell me about Loongs?"
Noelle sighed loudly for some reason. Lily perked up, raising an arm. "Can you tell me about your Loong, Ant?"
They both ignored her.
"The dragons? The ones that look like snakes? The levitating ones?" Noelle's eyes were closed. "What about them?"
"Well, I want to know where the Loongs live," Ant purposely didn't mention the information about Cazor.
"Why?"
"To look for allies."
"The Loongs aren't 'allies' with anyone. They kind of just help when they want," Noelle made a spinning motion with her hands in the air. "Who are you planning to find."
"The Loong Queen."
Noelle laughed. "Good luck, then. If I remember correctly, the place where the Loongs reside is in…" she paused for a few seconds. "Up north. A tundra of some kind, I forgot what it was called."
Ant nodded. "I'll depart tomorrow," he rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. He would get Zo to come as well.
"Can I go with mister?" Leon said from the couch. Ant didn't realise he was awake.
Noelle frowned.
"I don't know. Ask your sister," Ant said.
Leon pleaded. "Please, can I go with mister Ant to see the Queen?"
Noelle thought about it for a few seconds. She looked at Ant with a knowing look. "Uhh…" she stuttered. "Sure. I trust you, Ant."
Ant's eyebrows raised. "Well, then… have fun with Lily while we're gone."
Noelle's face contorted like she had forgotten that Lily existed. "Dammit," she muttered under her breath.
"Well, I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight," Ant waved at them, taking off his tie.
"I'll be back in a week," Ant said. He had nothing packed and neither did Leon. The only things they would be bringing were their clothes, because they had nothing to bring.
"You better!" Noelle had bags underneath her eyes for some reason. "If you can, come back sooner."
The reason for her complaining was Lily, who had her arm around Noelle's shoulder. She clearly had never heard of the words 'personal space'.
"Well. Best of luck," Ant said, waving. One of the reasons he was going on this trip was to get away from Lily's 'affection'. When Ant closed the door behind him, he heard Lily ask Noelle if she could 'show her the ropes'. Ant could imagine Noelle's bemused expression.
"Where do we go first, mister?" Leon asked.
"South."
"But the Loong Tundra is north?" Leon tilted his head.
"I have to meet someone first," Ant shook his head.
"Who?" Leon asked curiously.
"This really strong guy named Zo."
Leon eyebrows narrowed upon hearing the name. "Sorry, could you say that again?"
"This really strong guy named… Zo?" Ant said again with a confused expression. Leon's head tilted. He scratched his ears. He looked at his finger, where a small dot of blood was found. "I didn't hear what you said."
Wait. He can't hear Zo's name? Ant thought to himself. What would happen… if Leon saw Zo? Just hearing the name made his ears bleed a bit. Thank goodness it isn't as bad as that time with Raiden, Ant said to himself. Now that he thought about it, the only people to refer to Zo by name were himself, Zo, and his followers.
"Leon, I don't think you can come," Ant said.
Leon's eyebrows raised. "What? Why?"
"It might be dangerous."
"Everything we've done has been dangerous."
Their argument continued for ten minutes, but finally Ant gave up. "Sign this nonexistent general release of liability waver first!" he said, throwing his arms up in the air. "Your head might explode."
Leon rolled his eyes. "Can we finally leave?"
Ant snorted.
It took them around 30 minutes to reach Locust Mash. As they reached the entrance, Ant told Leon to wait there. He couldn't risk Leon's head exploding. "I won't be long," Ant said. "Don't die."
"I won't," Leon replied, chuckling.
Ant walked into Locust Mash. This was the third time he had been here. Once again, the robed followers reacted to his presence. One of them walked up to Ant, bowing. "It is my regret to inform you that Zo is not here today. I can write a note for you," they said.
Ant sighed. "Yeah, you can write a note. Can you tell Zo to meet me in The Loong's Tundra as soon as he can."
"I'll get right to that, sir," the hooded follower turned away and disappeared into the crowd. Ant didn't know when Zo would get the message but he hoped that it would be fast enough.
"That was quick!" Leon said. Ant had been gone for around 30 seconds. "Where is the guy you were talking about?"
"We'll meet him later," Ant said. Thankfully, due to the circumstances, Ant didn't know what would happen when Leon saw Zo. For the time being, at least.
Ant and Leon marched in the general direction of the Tundra, orienting themselves with the handy map Ant had found the previous day. It was a journey that was difficult and hard, for they had no means of transport, or even food. The Tundra was farther than Ant imagined. There were many cases where Leon got tired and Ant resorted to piggy-backing him.
"How much longer, mister?" said Leon groggily.
"I don't know," Ant sighed. "You didn't need to come, you know?"
The snow was ankle-deep and sleet soaked into Ant's shoes. The Tundra, Ant didn't know what to expect of it. It was either worse or better. Ant and Leon were lucky, the snow was very light.
If Ant knew how cold it would be away from Chelsey, he would've brought an extra jacket.
After two days they came across a small village. Dark-brown wood made the houses and torches illuminated the surroundings. The village pierced the night sky.
"That place looks warm," Leon mumbled on Ant's back.
"It fucking does," Ant's legs wanted to collapse. The villagers noticed their presence. The villagers wore brown furry hoodies. Goddamn, they looked so warm. The people that stood on the roads of the warm-looking town watched the two strangers approach them.
"What do we do?" one of them asked.
Ant surveyed the ground in front of him. He tried to find a safe space to collapse, and then he found one. He walked over to the spot and his legs gave way.
Damn… gravel hurts. Ant fell asleep. It felt like two minutes had passed when he shuffled awake. The bed was not soft. It was not a bed. It was gravel. He turned from his side position to look at the sky. It was day and there was no pillow. Someone had thrown a blanket over him. It was so thin it might as well not exist.
Ant looked to the side. A crowd of villagers were surrounding him, staring. Some of them were taking notes.
"What do you guys want?" Ant mumbled.
"Who are you?" one of the villagers said.
Ant sat up, looking around for Leon. Leon was standing in the crowd with a confused expression. He was wearing a brown furry coat just like the villagers.
"Which way is north?" Ant asked. He dusted his pants off, his hands were now covered in grey grime.
One of the villagers pointed in a certain direction. Ant assumed this was north.
"Alright, Leon. Let's go," Ant waved to the boy dressed in the villager's clothes. Leon nodded.
"Before you leave, can you give us crops?" A young girl called out to them. "I heard you were the saviour."
The villagers looked at each other in a way that told Ant they didn't know what a saviour was.
"Sir…" the girl kneeled. "Please…"
"I don't know how…" Ant sighed internally. He stared at his right hand. He thought with all of his thoughts… crops? What did he expect?
"I can't help you," Ant said pitifully. He looked at the surroundings once more. What a sad little town. The girl started crying. Ant didn't know what to do; he only knew how to make things that could disappear, not permanent things like food. Zo said something along the lines of 'whatever a god makes, they lose a portion of their power equal to their creation'.
Ant mentally swore to come back in the future, after he had done all of his saviour duties. Whatever they were.
Ant waved apologetically at the villagers, who were consoling the sobbing girl.
"Why couldn't you do anything, mister?" Leon asked.
Ant didn't answer.
Two days later, they made it to the tundra. They swapped the single coat they had every 30 minutes, and whenever they came across a tree, Ant would chop it down and make a fire for warmth. Alas they had come across an arena of ice spikes that rivalled skyscrapers in terms of height, and the snow they stood on vanished, revealing the frozen ocean underneath them. Ant crouched down to look at the ground. The ice looked hundreds of metres deep. It was safe to stand on.
"Have we been traveling on a frozen ocean this whole time?" Leon asked.
"Seems like it," Ant said. Where were the Loongs? Ant leapt up on one of the shortest ice spikes. The spikes seemed to be in a pattern of circles. Him and Leon were standing in the outer ring. The spikes grew taller near the centre, and at the middle there was one giant spike around the size of a large city. It didn't look big enough, still.
"What can you see from up there?" Leon screamed from 40 metres below. From down there, the fog was too thick for him to see a kilometre ahead, but not from Ant's high perspective.
"Ice," Ant replied. Nowhere he looked, he couldn't see a single Loong. There were no flying snakes in the sky. "We should camp here until we see a sign," Ant jumped down from the ice spike.
"There isn't much shelter, though," Leon said. In the past, their shelter was trees. There were no trees here.
"I'll dig a hole in an ice spike or something," Ant said. "When it gets dark. I'll keep a lookout for a few hours until anything interesting happens."
"Can I come?" Leon asked.
Ant grabbed Leon by the top of his head. He jumped to the top of the ice spike and landed with flair. He set Leon on the ice. Thankfully, it had a wide top.
"Let's wait."
And they did. They waited for six hours while Ant counted the kilos he had lost during the journey. No food for around three days… Leon bought a piece of bread from the village a while back… Ant was not good at math. He had probably lost around… half his weight?
When he had nothing else to think about, Ant shuffled asleep. Though the ice was cold and uneven… it was nice to lie down.
Suddenly, Leon was shaking him awake.
"Mister! Mister?"
"What do you want?" Ant grumbled.
On the distant horizon, two giant pairs of wings were flapping. In fact, there were multiple pairs of wings. 14 wings were flapping, and then they touched down.
Those weren't Loongs. If he remembered Noelle's wise words correctly, Loongs were floating snakes with no wings. There was only one other species like this, and they were also defined as "dragons" by the human beings.
"Those guys are Westerners!" Leon exclaimed. He pointed towards the walking behemoths. "Why are they here?"
Behind the seventh dragon, there was a stupidly long chain that split into what looked like thousands. Thousands of small creatures were being dragged by the Westerners into the domain of the Loongs.
"What do we do?" Leon asked, grabbing onto Ant's shoulders.
"Why don't we follow them?" Ant said.
"That's so far away though, mister…" Leon looked at his feet.
"Did you forget who I was?" Ant chuckled. He grabbed onto Leon, forcing him to ride on Ant's shoulders. Ant had been practicing. He charged something into his legs; even he didn't know exactly what he was doing. And then–boom. A golden trail of electricity appeared in the sky, lagging behind two little humans.;k
It had been two weeks since Ant and Leon departed. Noelle was hiding in a crowd of people.
"Alright, I understand why Ant hates Lily so much."
Noelle grabbed her hoodie around her head. She looked side to side to see Lily's shoulder-length black hair to avoid her. The past three days have been hell. There was one hope–every day Lily began to become less and less freaky. For example, on the first day Lily insisted on sleeping with Noelle. Today, she didn't!
"Goddamn it," Noelle muttered under her breath. "I thought she liked men."
It was true that Lily did not 'discriminate'.
When Noelle wasn't looking, Lily appeared beside her. "Hello, dear," Lily said.
Shit, Noelle thought to herself. Somehow she needed to get away.
"What restaurant do you want to eat at today?" Lily asked. She grabbed Noelle's hoodie and took it off. Noelle was half in tears. Lily had also thought up a nickname for Noelle: 'Eli', which was so random and unrelated Noelle wondered how Lily thought of it. It could just be that Lily was so fucking delusional.
"That place looks nice, don't you think?" Lily pointed to a cottage where people sitting on tables outside ate sandwiches. Her arm was around Noelle's shoulder as she dragged her to the sandwich place.
"Remember that time when you accidently bought $300 dollars worth of chocolate pastries?" Lily said. Noelle didn't reply as she had no idea what Lily was talking about. "What are you saying?" Noelle spat.
"It was our third month together," Yep, she was delusional.
"Mind explaining your unrelated thoughts?" Noelle slid out of Lily's arms. "And who the hell is Eli?"
"That's right, Noelle, you don't know."
Lily looked sad all of a sudden. "I'll tell you about her sometime. Keep being her for the time being, m'kay?"
"What the fuck?" Noelle voiced her thoughts out loud. "I'm Noelle…" she said all of a sudden.
Lily stared at Noelle's face as if studying it. "You just look like the name Eli I've known."
"Is the god inside you short-circuiting your ability to think?" Noelle muttered.
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Lily asked. She lightly touched Noelle's left shoulder. "Your shampoo smells good today!"
"What do you mean by reincarnation?" Noelle swatted away Lily's hand.
"You're Eli," Lily grinned. She grabbed the back of Noelle's head and pulled. Their foreheads touched and Noelle pulled away immediately.
"Can you… just… stop?" Noelle backed away, flailing her hands.
"I actually don't mind that Ant left," Lily kept talking. "I loved you."
"Jeez, what are you saying?" At this point, every conversation with Lily sounded like this. "The god in your chest is actually making you a psychopath," not like she wasn't one before.
"The only god inside me…" Lily hugged Noelle too tight. "Was you, Eli."
"Goddamn it… Ant… why did you have to leave me here with this freak!?"
Lily's mouth approached Noelle's ear. "Noelle," she whispered. "You're tasty."
"I thought you were straight," Noelle sighed.
"Ant was the one who made me straight," Lily smiled creepily.
It was indeed odd. In the short amount of time that Noelle knew Lily, this was the first time she had ever explained who or what 'Eli' was.
"Can you tell me more about Eli?" Noelle asked curiously.
Lily opened her mouth to speak, but then a yellow electrical flash blitzed out her ears. She suddenly looked dazed, as if she had woken up on a Monday morning. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"Eli."
Lily began blushing. She looked up without moving her head, as if trying to stare at her forehead. Another flash of lightning came out of her ears. Lily suddenly sneezed. Noelle knew where the lightning came from. Raiden, the lightning god that was in possession of Lily's body. It was very possible that Eli was someone not from Lily's memory, but Raiden's.
"Nevermind. It's fine." Noelle imagined Raiden yelling into the abyss that was Lily's mind: "Get your hands offa my memories!"
Lily licked her lips suddenly. "That sandwich shop looks nice. We can eat there later. Right now… I feel like…"
"...Eating you," Noelle finished the sentence for her.
"Can you blame me?" Lily walked behind Noelle, wrapping her arms around her. "Your skin…"
"Yeah, yeah," Noelle said. She put on her hoodie as Lily studied her face. Lily licked her lips. She grabbed the back of Noelle's neck and softly kissed her right cheek. "I'll buy the sandwiches for you, Noelle. Only if you treat me later."
"Nevermind," Noelle quickly turned away. A giant crowd of people had passed and Noelle seized the opportunity.
She retreated to the east end of Chelsey. Thankfully they were relatively close. Eight days ago Noelle was walking around Chelsey. She had hardly seen any of the city, and Noelle came across a tea shop. There, an old Drayl made her do tasks.
Noelle didn't know the old Drayl's name, but she came here every day at the same time. It was the first time Noelle had met a Drayl. In return, the old Drayl would tell her about history.
She started talking about a secret Drayl city. She told Noelle that she was an exile from said city.
"Haha… I remember the days in the city with my sister," the old lady sighed while drinking matcha. Noelle looked to the interior of the tea shop. Its architecture was different to the other buildings of Chelsey. It had a more traditional style that humans would call 'Japanese', but there was no Japan in Mox. Around 100 bottles and jars of varying sizes held coloured powder, arranged in a gradient from brown to orange to green. On the countertop there were jars full of green leaves. The old lady and Noelle were sitting on green couches. An untouched cup of green tee stood in front of Noelle on the hand-carved table.
"Sorry, miss… If you don't mind asking…" Noelle looked at her knees.
"Go on."
"Why do you keep this shop open when I'm the only person to come here?"
"Ha ha…" the old lady put down her cup of tea. "They only come when you aren't here."
The old lady began to talk about the Drayl city again.
"The only Drayls you see in the wild are exiles. I was exiled along with my pregnant sister."
"How could they do that?" Noelle asked.
"Well… those Drayls are very superstitious creatures. They don't want anybody of other blood to enter their city."
"I see…"
"Here's your pay for the day," The old lady dropped 20 dollars onto the table. Of course, she didn't pay Noelle with only stories. If that was the case, Noelle would never come. She was now more rich than she ever was before she met Ant.
"Feel free to bring your friends or family any time, dear," the old lady smiled. "Do you mind if I ask who's in your family?"
"Well, I have no parents," Noelle drank all of her matcha in one go before leaving. "I have a younger brother named Leon… And I have a good friend named Ant," Noelle didn't mention Lily.
"Could that possibly be Ant, the saviour?" The old lady's complexion changed.
"Yes! That's him."
The old lady shook her head. "If you're friends with him, I believe he's a good person," The old lady turned towards a photo on the wall. Two young Drayls were drinking an unknown liquid. "Not all saviours are saviours," she said.
Noelle had been working for a few hours so it was dark by the time she left. Closing the door to the tea shop behind her, she looked forward. A silhouette was coming from the main street. Two legs, two arms… it was a human. There were no features on the figure. It was something that Noelle's mind couldn't process. Her weak human body urged to shatter. Blood began to flow out of her ears and her nose. Her feet were frozen in place and she could do nothing but stare. The figure was short. It was as tall as Leon.
"Are you Noelle?" a voice said. It seemed to come from nowhere. The figure stopped walking as though it found its answer even though Noelle didn't answer.
Suddenly all the pressure around her vanished. The indescribable colours disappeared. There stood Leon. His nose was bleeding like a river.
"Holy shit," Noelle muttered. Leon tilted off-balance and fell as Noelle dived to catch him. "Leon! Leon!" She walked back to the tea shop cradling his body. Noelle was already worried. They had been gone for over a week. "Leon."
Leon mumbled something. His eyes slowly opened. "Sis?" he groaned. "Where am I?"
"Where's Ant?"