Chapter 4

While the World Withers

Ethan hastily used the same bloody whip to dig out a makeshift grave and bury the corpse before ensuring his clothes were clean as he returned to the lodge. He didn't kill the man because he enjoyed it, or even because the man attacked him–but just on the off chance he had friends he could have brought back. It was a habit that those who ended up living long lives in the post-Descent world all picked up: never leave a potential biting in the ass alive, no matter what.

He could scarcely recall a time when taking a human life had more of an impact on him than 'oh well'. Though he knew that his current self was far better equipped to survive the world that is to come, he still missed the feeling of being human–the empathy toward each and every life, no matter how seemingly lost it may have been. Returning to the lodge, he looked over himself once more just to make sure there wasn’t even a spot of blood anywhere on him and, by some miracle, there really wasn’t.

Layla was in the bedroom, arms cradling the knees, head buried in them. As soon as she heard the doors to the room opening, she looked up and beamed him a smile.

“Ethan!” she cried out excitedly and ran over to him, tossing herself into his arms as he heaved her up.

“Ho ho, you that excited to see me?”

“Hmm~” she nuzzled against his chest as he walked up to the bed and sat down, though she still remained unmoving.

“So, did you read some things on the internet?” he asked after a moment of silence. She seemed to calm down at the question, guiltily looking away.

“... no.”

“Layla.”

“... maybe.”

“It’s fine if you did. I’m not mad.”

“You’re not?” she asked, facing him.

“Of course not. Why would I be mad?”

“... bad things are happening.” She said.

“They are. Is that why you were worried about me? Because of bad things happening?” she nodded.

“Are all those people gone? Just like mama and papa?”

“Yes,” Ethan replied honestly, caressing her head gently. “They’re all gone. Just like mama and papa.”

“It’s sad,” she said.

“It is.”

“But I’m also happy. That you didn’t go.”

“I already told you, I ain’t going anywhere,” he tightened the embrace gently. “Now, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Pancakes.”

“With syrup?”

“And chocolate!”

"Alright. How about you come to help me?"

“Really?!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Of course. You’ll be my sous-chef. Every world-renowned chef needs one, you know?”

“He he, you’re not a chef, dummy!”

“Wow, to think you’d say that. I am terribly hurt,” she giggled freely at his terrible performance while he carried her to the kitchen, setting her down and giving her simple tasks to help him along–bringing him things, stirring for a little while, nothing tedious or dangerous. Within twenty minutes, pancakes with syrup and pancakes with chocolate were laid on the table next to the morning orange juice, and the two dove in.

This morning’s ‘incident’ startled Ethan a bit. Though he wasn’t blind enough to believe nobody would find them, he wasn’t expecting it on the first day. As such, he didn’t put up any perimeter defences or alarm systems to let him know when someone was approaching. There was a perfect alarm system just fluttering by his head, drooling at the sight of pancakes as though they were the most delicious things in the universe.

“Can you show yourself to Layla?” Ethan asked, prompting Layla to look up in confusion as it didn’t seem like he was talking to her–but there was nobody else in the room.

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“Bah, what do you take me for? Of course I can! Watch this! Ba-da-di-daum-dee–”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Poof!”

“Ah!!” Layla exclaimed in shock at the sight of a tiny, palm-sized creature suddenly appearing next to Ethan’s head–it had fluttery, glittering wings and charming, large eyes and was whizzing about swiftly like a fly, yet gracefully like a butterfly. “What–what is that?!”

“This is… ey, what’s your name, anyway?”

“You forgot my name?”

“You never told me your name.”

“Of course I told you my name!”

“Fine, then I forgot it. Tell us again.”

“My name is Tian!” the creature replied, flying about in a sporadic, flamboyant dance. “There is no need to cheer.”

“Nobody’s cheering,” Ethan shrugged. “So, yeah, this here is a… buddy of mine, Layla. Call him Tian. He’s a funny-looking funny dude, I think.”

"Wow," Layla's eyes shone in wonder as she stared intently at the fairy-like creature. She had only seen them in movies and picture books, after all–never in reality. Namely, because they didn't exist. And yet, there was one before her right now. "He's soooooo pretty~~"

“At least someone in this family appreciates me properly,” Tian puffed out his chest as he landed on Layla’s shoulder, causing her to giggle with joy.

“O’, the appreciated one, I have a job for you,” Ethan said. “I need you to be on the lookout, letting me know if there’s anything happening within roughly two miles of here.”

“Very well,” Tian said. “I will be your watchful eyes in the sky.”

As he watched the fairy’s ego balloon due to Layla’s treatment, Ethan could only sigh inwardly and be thankful that the creature accepted the task. The two went out to play shortly after and Ethan stayed behind, looking up the news. Not much had changed–the world was beyond chaotic and lawless, and it was only the beginning. The cities would burn, and the entire nations would crumble–within a decade, bands of powerful Awakened would command armies to do their bidding, and few could withstand them. Those who couldn’t hid and bided their time in silence and darkness, though their time rarely ever came.

Ethan eventually got up and left the lodge as well. He saw Layla and Tian looking at some flowers to his right, with the young girl giggling away at something Tian said. He worried, terribly, about how the leave would affect the young girl–after all, ripping her away from her friends and everything she's ever known can't have been easy. Regardless, she would never say it out loud. It's eerie that despite not being related, Ethan saw a lot of himself in young Layla.

When he was her age, his parents were going through a messy divorce. And every day, over and over and over again, he was bombarded with the same question: How are you holding up, kiddo? And every day he would lie and say he was fine. But he was hardly fine. He couldn’t recall just how many times he came back from school only to bear witness to inhuman shouting matches between two people that, supposedly, loved one another at some point in their lives. Layla’s similar in many ways, guarded and closed-off.

That was his eternal struggle at this point in his life, he recalled–trying to get her to open up, to face whatever demons were crawling inside her young head, and to let him in. Sometimes, she would–and sometimes she wouldn't.

He ended up walking over to them and saw they weren't observing flowers but rather a pair of bees pollinating them. In the meantime, Tian was explaining how his merely looking at a flower could cause it to bloom immediately, and Layla was laughing at his braggart behaviour.

“He’s right, though,” Ethan said, causing Layla to look up at him. “One time, he even farted in a general direction of flowers, and they all withered. Right there.”

"Pfft, ha ha ha ha~~" As Layla burst out into laughter, Tian looked at him angrily. He had been building himself up to the girl, and the mighty image he created was just completely shattered.

“That was uncalled for!” he cried out, feeling injustice.

“Maybe. But it was funny.”

“That doesn’t make it right!”

“Eh,” Ethan shrugged. “I can’t have you lying to my little angel here.”

“I wasn’t lying! I really can make the flowers bloom!”

“... well, that’s just sadder. It’s better if you lied and said you can just make flowers the size of towers out of thin air. That would at least sound impressive.”

“You are a bastard of a man, aren’t you?” Tian grumbled and flew over to Ethan, sitting on his shoulder, arms crossed, large eyes staring intently. “Did I make a wrong choice in choosing you?”

“Yeah, probably,” Ethan chuckled as Layla grabbed his hand and dragged him over to a patch of mushrooms that was growing in the shaded end of the tree.

“Can we eat them for dinner?” the young girl asked excitedly.

“No,” Ethan replied.

“Eh? Why? Are they bad?”

“Maybe?” Ethan said, tilting his head. “I don’t really know. But we don’t have to risk it. How about we set some time aside to look up how to figure out if mushrooms are bad or not?”

“Really?! That sounds suuuper fun! Can we do it tonight? Please?”

“Sure,” Ethan smiled and gently patted her. “But only if you finish your veggies, okay?”

“... okay,” Layla’s excitement mellowed out slightly, but it seemed that even the vegetables were unable to beat down her jovial spirit. “Can we show Tian that spot you took me to yesterday?”

“Sure, let’s go. But only if you promise me I won’t have to carry you back.”

“I promise!” Ethan knew well enough that it was a hollow promise, but he didn’t care.

Hand in hand, the two walked among the swaying grass and flowerbeds and the old oak trees weaving a thick canopy providing shade to all life beneath it. Tian would occasionally fly up from Ethan’s shoulder and zoom about in an attempt to impress Layla again, and the young girl would laugh in awe and wonder at the fancy tricks he pulled mid-flight.

Eventually, they reached the 'spot' Layla was talking about–it was a borderline clearing with a steep, hundred feet drop to the front. A sprawling view of a mountain valley covered in green expanded to the front, disappearing off into the distant horizon. Surrounding mountains grew taller and towered over them, acting almost like shields against the dangers of the world.

The wind walloped them gently, belting away a song of the invisible, howling through the valley like a beast. It was a serene moment of calm and silence, things that Ethan found perfectly comfortable and felt at home with. Layla’s grip tightened, causing him to look down and see the young girl looking back at him, grinning widely. Chuckling, Ethan picked her up and set her on his shoulder, while Tian settled on the other. The two began to chat like a pair of curious cats about just how big the valley was and how fast the wind was and how cool Ethan was–though the last one was mostly Layla. All the while, Ethan trekked back through the forest in silence, beyond thankful to the strange, fairy creature that brought him back. For the first time in decades, to him, life… felt worth living.