Lucian was quiet, taking in all the information Kealor said — exaggerated and not.
'It's always her. Every time, ever since she came, we've been in one problem or another. And Sapphire… he's too nice for his own good. Why did he even bring her along?
If we hadn't met her, we wouldn't be here. Now Sapphire's injured and that one is stuck in some crack, according to Kealor. These idiots. It just had to happen while I was gone. If I'd been there, Sapphire wouldn't have been in trouble. Only Kira. Why did they even accept her?
But they accepted me too.
Whatever! At least I don't cause problems, unlike her.'
Lucian's mind was in shambles, emotion and expression fluctuating as he stewed.
Kealor, on the other hand, was waiting for him to say something. Waiting for him to explode. He'd try to defuse the situation, but Lucian remained quiet — which was surprising, knowing how much he disliked Kira.
Exhausted by running thoughts, Lucian stood. "Let's go back."
"Lucian."
"Hmm?"
"What's that on your neck?" Kealor said, pointing after spotting a bruise as Lucian got up.
Lucian flinched before bringing his hand to his neck, trying to cover it.
"Ignore it," Lucian said. Kealor noticed Lucian's agitated state, his hand rubbing at it as if trying to erase it.
"It looks like a bruise."
"It's nothing," Lucian said, before leaving the place they were hiding.
As Lucian stepped out, he spotted a figure walking a different way than the place they were assigned to do. He called out but no response, the girl kept on walking like she didn't hear. Lucian was thinking of leaving but something dropped from her.
"Hey! stop" Lucian shouted, the girl halted.
Lucian walked up to her, then bent down to pick what fell, a short wooden toy, wet and heavy
"You dropped this" he said as he was dusting it, the girl slowly turned around. Lucian hadn't noticed, 'Didn't it just fall, why is there so much sand' he thought, shaking the toy.
Relief hit when the last of the sands came out and the toy lightened. He turned his attention to the girl, hand outstretched. "Here you go—" he paused, the last of his words fading out to a sickening silence.
Eyes refusing to comprehend what stood before him. Skin the color of rot, an open wound cut deep into her neck already festering, hair and torn cloths matted with sand and clumps of black mud. Cracked blue lips. One eye, and an empty socket staring at him.
Lucian wanted to take a step back but his body refused to move, petrified and in denial.
Could he even call it a 'she'? She was dead. He was staring at a corpse.
Its hand stretched out and grabbed the toy, grazing his. Lucian trembled as the cold hand felt like frostbite onto his skin. The toy fell out of his hands landing onto the ground with a heavy thud. His eyes slowly shifted to the ground.
The corpse's hand was still holding the toy before its bare feet. He then slowly looked back up to see its shoulder that was missing an arm. The pungent smell of decay hit his nose and soon before him the girl's flesh began sagging, peeling off her body.
Her mouth opened and dark thick viscous liquid came out, her other limbs began giving out falling to the ground one after the other like dominos. The corpse's head left its torso, rolling and stopping before Lucian's feet. It's one eye looking up at him and stained lips still moving. terror ate at him as looked at the head. Just before he lost it.
"Lucian?!, why are you standing there", it was Kealor, "what are you doing there, the place where we are fetching water is that way" he said pointing the other direction.
"Lucian?" Kealor called again,seeing that he wasn't answering but it wasn't that
Lucian was still shaken that his words weren't forming. The corpse that was before him had disappeared leaving only the ground he was staring at as if telling him what he saw was not real and just his imagination but it was real, it felt real.
"Did you see anything?" He asked Kealor in a shaky voice,
"See what" Kealor asked, "Is everything okay" seeing Lucian trembling,
'He didn't see. Maybe it's just a dream or my mind is playing tricks. Can I only see it?' Lucian thought,
"Lucian, you're—"
"I'm just cold," Lucian cut in, not wanting Kealor to finish.
turning around, he looked at Kealor hard, his hand squeezed to a bone white by his side trying to stop his trembling.
"Let's go and finish our task before we are punished," he continued.
With that, he walked towards the direction of the stream. Kealor followed behind him not asking any questions as Lucian was going to answer.
Kealor and Lucian had returned. Buckets in hand, they blended into the group like they'd never left.
On their descent, they met Nirro, slick with sweat. He gave a slight nod to Lucian. Lucian returned it before continuing down the path.
Nirro noticed the change. His eyes tracked Lucian, catching the stiffness in his walk, the way his shoulders locked like he was bracing for a hit.
Then Nirro looked up to see Kealor, frustrated and muttering under his breath about fetching water and Lucian's behavior. The bucket in his hand swung hard with each step, water sloshing over the rim.
Kealor locked eyes with him. Something unspoken passed between them. With a sigh, Kealor said, "I don't know what's going on with him, and he won't talk." He stepped closer, resting a hand on Nirro's shoulder. "I'll tell you when we get to where Kira is," he whispered.
Nirro nodded.
"Kealor! Stop holding up Nirro. He's carrying a heavy bucket of water. The faster we finish, the earlier we get to eat lunch," Lucian called out from down the stream.
"Coming," Kealor replied. "Later," he said to Nirro, letting him continue up as he went down to fill his bucket.