Ria
I refused to speak to Rin anymore after he had all but let me fall. I was constantly looking down, fearing the drop.
To be fair after the scare Rin had begun flying smoothly again, but I didn't trust him. He could drop me at any second. This was why I hated flying.
The last time I had flown with Arsheus we had almost ended up crashing down and the time before that the angels had caught us and followed us because of his black wings.
What was to say they wouldn't see them again and follow us? It was just as stupid an idea as when we had done it in the first place.
I wanted to speak and let them know, but the bile in my throat told me to keep shut or face the consequences and I honestly didn't want to puke all over Rin, he was mostly nice, so I kept my mouth closed.
" We're almost here!" Rin's smile was bright when he reached a different part of the forest, one not connected to anything at all and landed softly on the snow. Luckily the level of snow here wasn't as high as before, so we didn't get swallowed up.
" Now what?" I turned to look around, but there was nothing special about this area of the forest. There wasn't even a hut to protect ourselves with from the snow and cold. It would've been better to stay at the hut. I was already shivering from the cold. When the night hit I was going to die from frostbite.
" Over here" Arsheus's voice didn't come from anywhere near me. It came from far away.
Where had he landed?
My eyes wandered all over the place until they finally landed on Arsheus, who was trying to pull something from under the snow.
What could he be pulling? Was it something important?
My curiosity took the better of me and I ran over, ready to discover whatever he was pulling.
Rin chuckled as he walked up to Arsheus slowly, not caring about what was under the snow. I did.
" Come on, no need to be so eager" Rin caught up to me and threw his arms over my shoulders.
I steadied my face and pretended I didn't care. For once he was right. There was no reason to get excited or curious about anything that Arsheus did. It was pointless.
" I know you two love each other, but there's no need to show it to the world"
Rin's tone was completely mocking as he eyed me and Arsheus, barely holding his laughter.
I should've known it would be like this. He loved to mock people, or at least he had spent all the time I had known him either mocking me or trying to actively mock me.
" Come on, stop teasing her"
Rin pouted and made a sad face when Arsheus ordered him to shut up, but he did. Wearing that irritating smirk, but he did shut up, which was a plus.
" What are you doing?" After throufully ignoring Rin I leaneded over to see what Arsheus was doing.
" You'll see"
Arsheus smiled at me smugly and resumed his task.
Okay, no answers from him it seemed.
I was still hungry and had begun to get tired.
I ignored Arsheus again, he would only tell me what was going on when he wanted to and I was tired of that, and went on to speak to Rin.
" Do you have food?" I eyed him hopefully.
My stomach was grumbling and my whole body was begging for food. I was honestly so hungry I could eat a whole boar.
" Sure" Rin smiled as he threw a tomato my way. I was so entranced by the red color that I failed to catch it on time and it fell to the snow.
I stared at the red fruit in the snow.
How had Rin gotten one of these? They were incredibly rare, not as rare as meat, but still.
" Do you not want it?" Rin looked at me and then at the tomato, making a face.
" I do"
I launched in and grabbed the red fruit.
It was ripe and smooth as I ate it.
Oh, God. It was so good.
I all but moaned as I ate, relishing in the feeling of having something so tasty in my mouth.
Rin chuckled looking at me and his eyes darted to Arsheus. I could see his dark intentions in his eyes.
He wouldn't dare.
" Arsheus, did you hear her moaning?" I turned red and stopped making sounds, all too conscious of the noises I had been making.
Rin turned to look at me and smirked.
" Please don't stop. They were lovely "
It was decided. I hated him too.
I run over to Arsheus, knowing he was safer than Rin when it came to teasing me, although this morning he had done a number.
Despite his previous smile at Rin's jokes he didn't smile this time. Right now he was frowning and glaring at Rin, anger clear on his factions.
He continued pulling on whatever he was pulling as he glared at Rin, not stopping.
With one last pull I watched as the snow peeled away and left way for an underground bunker.
Wow.
" Come on"
Arsheus's smile was genuine as he offered me his hand to help me go down.
He was so handsome when he smiled like that. My panties lit on fire and my pulse spiked.
I wanted to kiss him.
As he grabbed me by the waist and jumped down I didn't even have time to get afraid. All I could feel was lust as I smelled him. He smelled like frost and sin personified. He smelled like all that was forbidden.
I was so out of it that I didn't notice I was in his arms until he let go of my waist and cold settled all over me again.
What was I doing?
I turned red and looked around. Thankfully Arsheus hadn't seen me, he was too busy looking up at Rin.
The demon in question flied down in a fluid jump. One second he was up and the next he was down, the gate closing behind him as the whole cave went dark.
I couldn't see anything.
Fear begun gripping me. I didn't like dark places. Beasts could be hiding anywhere and I wouldn't know it.
I found Arsheus in the dark and held onto him.
His red eyes shone in the darkness as he looked down at me.
" Are you afraid of the dark, little girl?"
All I heard of his sentence was how he had called me. He had said I was a little girl. I was not! I was a grown up adult.
" I'm not a little girl" I faced Arsheus and glared. I was no little thing.
" Sure. If you say so"
I was getting pissed.
" My name's Ria"
" So that's your name" I felt the moment I made the mistake. I could feel Arsheus's smile as he leaned in and grabbed a strand of my hair. " It suits you, little girl"
I glared at him and even hit him in the shoulder, but it did nothing.
" Wasn't her name Rianna?" Rin sounded confused. I could feel his brain shifting the situation to get a clear read.
" It's not" I didn't know what was going on, but I could guess Arsheus had lied and told him my name was Rianna, which it wasn't.
" Anyhow" Arsheus diverted the situation." Better like this?"
The whole cave suddenly lit up with light.
I could finally see where I was.
We were in the middle of a gigantic cave with multiple passages leading out and into more light. Arsheus had lit up the whole cave system. Wow.
Growing in the walls was ivy and the ground was covered in grass. It was a mini climate of it's own. It was amazing how this plants had managed to survive under the cold for this long and it wasn't just grass. Small flowers and bushes grew everywhere too. Wherever I looked there was a plant growing strong. It was the first time since I was little I had ever seen this much green.
It was amazing.
" It's incredible" I smiled at Arsheus. For once I was thankful he had taken me with him. It had been very long since I'd last seen grass. Probably when I was a child and the snow had yet to cover everything.
" It's an old cave system. It has everything we'll need to survive. It has food and water and even beds"
I stared at the passages leading out of the cave. For it to have all the things Arsheus had mentioned it had to be gigantic.
" Come. You're still hungry, right?"
I nodded at Arsheus.
The tomato had been a good snack, but I still wanted some real food.
I followed Arsheus as he led both me and Rin down a passage. As we took tunnel after tunnel I lost my sense of direction. All I knew was that this place was amazing. Even the inner walls of the passages were covered in plants that moved with the wind coming from above as little droplets of water fell to the floor.
When we finally reached the end I was somewhat desensitized to the beauty. It was beautiful, true, but it was also all the same and to top it all off there was no food.
I turned to look at Arsheus with a betrayed gaze.
" Where's my food?"
Arsheus chuckled at he pointed at the trees I had failed to notice.
The new cave we were at was filled with trees as high as two times myself and in those trees, hanging from the branches, were fruits. Fresh fruits.
Wow.
This was unthinkable.
How had they managed to do this? Trees no longer gave fruits or food.
" How did you do this?" Arsheus chuckled as he looked at me, his eyes gleaming with something similar to lust.
" They're just trees" I stared at Arsheus. They weren't just trees. They were trees that gave food.
" I didn't mean that. I meant to ask how you got them to give fruits"
Arsheus and Rin both looked at me as if I was stupid.
" Of course trees give fruits" Rin said it softly, as if he didn't want to destroy my reality. I knew they gave fruits, but that was a thing of the past.
" I know they used to give fruits, but that was ages ago, when the ground was covered in grass and the flowers bloomed"
Both Arsheus and Rin looked at each other, concern in their eyes.
" What do you mean?" Arsheus was the one to finally ask the question.
" I mean what I said. Trees haven't given fruits in a long time. Same goes with almost anything else that grows from the ground. They need special environments to grow"
" Really?" Rin sounded genuinely interested in what I was saying.
" Yes"
" How does it work?"
I stayed silent, not because I didn't want to answer Arsheus and give him a taste of his own medicine, but because I honestly didn't know.
" I don't know" I ended up speaking. " It is a secret. All I know is that plants don't grow food on their own anymore"
" When did this begin happening?" Rin sounded worried now as he asked.
" Around when I was two years old, so around 24 years ago"
The heavy gazes Arsheus gave Rin and Rin gave back told me something was very wrong.
" Do you know why it stopped?"
I shook my head.
" All I remember is that it's always been like that. The only time when I actually saw the grass was when I was very little. I barely remember it now"
It was always a happy memory. The way the green grass had felt under my feet and the flower's scent, a unique aroma I had never smelled again was imprinted into my memory.
I remembered the smell. It was just like here. It smelled of something calming and good.
" It's fine" Arsheus shook his head, dismissing our worries.
Even though he seemed sure I didn't calm down. I could see the worry hidden in his eyes.
" Here you go" Rin threw an orange fruit my way.
It was shaped like a circle and smelled fresh and slightly citric. I had no idea what it was.
As I was examining the fruit I saw Arsheus and Rin exchanging glances. I knew they were planning to distract me so that they could speak in peace, but I honestly didn't care enough to do anything as long as there was food.
" What is it?" I didn't ask anyone in particular as I bit into the fruit.
It was delicious. Not as rich as an apple, but definitely juicier.
My whole shirt got stained orange.
" It's an orange"
I looked down at the juice staining my shirt and then at the fruit. It was a fitting name.
I finished the whole thing in a few more bites and stared at the trees. All of them were brimming with fruits. Some, like the apples, I knew the name of. Others I had only ever seen behind glass and some of them I hadn't even heard about.
I wanted to taste them all.
" Can I eat some more?" I made my best puppy eyes, looking at Arsheus.
" Sure. Eat as much as you want" With a wave of his hand he gave me permission to eat the whole thing.
I was sorry, but I was going to eat every single fruit.
I walked up to a tree and begun eating all the fruits dangling low enough for me to reach them.
When I finished the first tree I moved on to the next, and to the next.
From behind me I could hear Arsheus and Rin whispering, no doubt discussing what I had told them. If they had added me to the conversation I could've told them all I knew, but I wasn't specially bothered by it, not at all. As long as I had food I was a happy woman.
I didn't hear them moving closer to me until a hand landed on my shoulder. I ignored Arsheus and kept eating.
" Are you done now?" Arsheus sounded amused as he looked down at my shirt, now stained in different colors.
All the fruits gave off a juice and each one had a different color. Long story short eating fruits that could easily stain while wearing a white shirt wasn't a very good idea, not that I cared. I liked the multicolor shirt better than the previous white color.
I swallowed the food I had in my mouth at once and cleared my throat.
" No. I'm not done yet"
" Come on" Without respecting his promise to let me eat as much as I wanted Arsheus grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the trees and their bountiful fruits.
I still wanted more.
" What's it now?"
Arsheus smiled darkly with something I couldn't quite place behind his eyes as he guided me down yet another set of tunnels.
I wasn't afraid this time as I looked at the walls, still covered in ivy and other kinds of plants that couldn't be seen outside. It was like a paradise.
" We're here"
Arsheus finally let go of my hand when we reached a room big enough to fit ten people. The army could've never gotten in here, but they were gone now. They had died giving us enough time to run away.
I hated the demons and still I couldn't deny the fact that they had been a lot braver than all the angels I knew. They had sacrificed themselves for us. If I ever found them again I wouldn't care as much about reviving them. I might even do it out of my own free will. If we ever met them again that was.
" What do you want me to do?" As I looked around the room I could guess what this place was for.
The walls were covered with maps and on a table there was a map of the whole realm with little blue and red figures spread all over it.
I leaned over, curious.
It seemed a lot like we were the red pieces and the angels the blue ones.
The blue pieces were focused on the past angel capital and the red ones were attacking the entrance.
It was the great war, or how the demon had pictures it at least. It hadn't gone as they had planned.
" I just remembered something" Arsheus walked over to me and grabbed a blue figure, twirling in between his fingers as Rin walked up behind me slowly. I tried to back away. What were they up to? " I remembered that during the angel attack you saw the spirits and got them to attack"
I looked for a way out, but there were none. I steadied my heart and faced him, eyeing Rin from he corner of my eyes. He didn't seem so harmless now. He seemed deadly as he unsheathed his sword, pointing at my neck.
What the fuck was going on? Weren't we friends?
I looked for some kind of care in their eyes, but all I saw was deep hatred in them. What had I done wrong? Had I said something that had pissed them off?
My trust in them evaporated as Rin pushed his sword a little bit closer to my skin and Arsheus watched, not moving a single finger to stop him.
I was afraid. They were going to kill me. For the first time I felt really afraid while looking at them. Had all the time we had spent together being a lie?
I shouldn't have saved him when he was dying. I should've taken his blood and run. I should've never been the hero. They were the bad ones. I'd do well to remember it.
" So what?" I steadied myself and looked Arsheus in the eyes.
I was going to get out of here, even if it meant repeating the same mistake yet another time.
My eyes darted to the spirits watching us with grins on their faces from the other side of the room. If the worst came to happen I could protect myself. I was going to survive no matter what.
" You're going to tell me how you're able to do that" Arsheus leaned in so close that I could see his pores. " And you'll better not lie, or else"
Rin's sword pressed harder onto my skin and a thin trail of blood appeared on my neck.
Motherfucker.
" What do you say?" Arsheus's smile was predatory as he looked at me.
" Sure" I gritted my teeth and begun speaking.