"Is everything okay?" Lafia turns her head to look at me, concern reaching her brow.
*Ding*
*Cutscene Complete!*
*Would you like to Open your reward?*
No, fuck off. And no I'm not 'okay', I don't know what the fuck just happened to me, but I can't just tell her that, right? That darkness. What was that? And why would this psycho want to go down there? Are you nuts? You know what? that is a good question, wh-
"Why in Heaven's nut sack would you ever want to go back down there?" ...Didn't mean to say it like that, but it gets the point across.
However, the concern on her face is immediately replaced with fierce retalliation.
"Excuse me, Who's nut sack? And I don't know what's the big deal, I told you it was just a-" she interrupts herself. "Oh my Galel, you're scared of the dark aren't you, you little baby, awwwe, that's a adooorable."
"No, I'm not, what are you talking about?" Is this girl a psycho in this dimension, too?
She's jumping from one emotion to another, and I'm really confused. I can't get a read on her. I cautiously continue, "...There are things that literally eat people dow-"
"You mean the 'bwad beast in the dawk?'" She says to me with a pout, both hands in a fist, balled by her cheeks.
Oh God, she's mocking me.
"The same beasts who ate the 'bwad childwen' who 'stwayed too far fwom Gawew?'" She's tilts her head and hides more of her face with her hands.
... I shudder. I grimace at her and mutter back, "Okay, okay, I get it…"
She laughs and then continues to say, "Don't worry, Dean, right? It's a metaphor, a metaphor."
She gives a hearty slap on my back a couple times.
"You know, about light and dark, and holding onto the light that will raise you out of the darkness."
She pauses to think. "You know, all that good stuff. Don't worry you're little head about it too much, okay BB?"
"You know I am a man," I start to say.
"A man in high-waisted jeans," She retorts back.
"So you do know these are for girls!" I cry.
Lafia immediately starts laughing.
"Only traditionally," she responds.
*Ding*
*Lafia seems to appreciate you. 5 points awarded*
Oh fuck off. Damn though, it was kind of funny. Lafia takes a good minute to collect herself, no doubt admiring her own genius with messing with poor innocent travelers.
"Ha ha, well, only traditionally. I didn't want to assume." Wow, she might actually be a bigger asshole than me. "And besides, people have already gone down there, although it's definitely not easy."
"What do you mean? What's down there?"
"Other world trees." she takes a turn along the path, and I see that we are reaching a clearing.
"But why go there? What's wrong with this tree?"
"You really do ask a lot of questions, you know?"
She looks ahead and sighs deeply.
"We don't know exactly how many other World Trees might be out there, but this one is called the 31st world tree, or the Reincarnation Tree." She glances at me for a second. "It's name is pretty self explanatory. It's the only tree where transmigraters and reincarnaters appear. However, this puts a massive strain on our world trees ability to produce natural resources and overall sustainability. So while other world trees live in relative abundance, we barely have enough to get by."
That's… a surprisingly modern problem, despite the fantastical nature of it all.
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to. you know..." Exist I guess? I don't know I still feel bad. I'm essentially just one big Greenhouse Gas.
"Don't worry about it, really," she replies "It's not your fault. Anyways, it's not really a bad thing."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, another way to put it is that the amount of energy and resources put into creating your being is similar to the amount of energy that can sustain a whole town for a century."
She gives me a greedy grin.
"Meaning you're completely filled with raw, potential creation energy. Meaning YOU'RE my ticket out of here."
She must have noticed me sweat-drop, because the greed in her eyes were replaced with kind ones.
"Meaning you're also the best thing to happen to me in the last five or so years. so really, Thank you. Now wanting to leave this place doesn't feel so stupid."
*Ding*
*Lafia seems to appreciate you. 5 points awarded.*
She's blushing.
But it feels different to me.
Whenever girls blushed at me, I was always sunk with dread. That my very existence turned people into mush. It was, for some reason, something I started to hate to see.
But this feels different. She's blushing and feels awkward, but its because she opened up to make me feel better. She wants me, for I am her hope, but not her heart. She really feels like a friend. She really is, just a good person.
"Thanks," I look up to her and smile. "So are you."
"Careful cowboy, I still have a fiancé, you know," she pulls back and looks at me with slight trepidation.
I twitch. Maybe not.
"You just saved my life from certain enslavement, I thought you said I needed to learn how to express gratitude."
"That was a little too much puppy-eyed gratitude," but she smiled. "But I'm glad you're not so scared of the dark anymore." She laughs a little.
Har Har, laugh it up. Before I could even say anything, it suddenly got brighter as we passed the clearing, and I had to cover my eyes for a bit.
"Ooh, we're here!" She exclaimed. "Welcome to my home."
I looked up. I blinked a couple times so that my eyes could adjust to the brightness.
Huh.
Would you look at that? I wasn't just seeing things.
Standing in the middle of the forrest, standing out like a sore thumb.
That's my house.
"Now you got to be fucking with me."