-Break-
Φ As I am preparing to finish up my day, I receive a visitor, it was Orb. “Hey Sequoia, I know you are probably tired after everything that has happened recently, but would I be able to talk with you for a bit.”
Orb is not one to bother people if it is not essential so I say, “No problem, let’s head inside my room first,” after we both head inside; he giddily sits down wherever he can.
“Would you like anything to drink, Orb?”
“No, I am fine and sorry about this.”
“Don’t worry, it’s no problem. Now, what is the issue? Is it that you might want to extend the punishment period a bit more, since it ended today.”
“No, having Buloke be my servant for the last two months was fine enough, and I made sure to embarrass him lots over that period, so I think it’s fine.”
He made Buloke do everything for him, even at a point I started to feel bad, but it was a light punishment considering he tried to kill Orb. He would’ve had to go through something worse, if Orb hadn’t proposed this himself. “So, what would be bothering you.”
“It’s just that, I will probably be leaving soon.”
“Huh, this is very sudden. Has anything happened to spur you on?”
“I have had this in mind for a while, but there were issues I needed to fix, which were mainly to calm the concerns of the dissenters.”
“I see, so you needed to get most of the dissenters to accept you, which has been successful due to Buloke being their leader.”
“Since the attempted murder incident, Buloke has become more accepting of my existence. I would even say he is my friend, and he has also had talks with the other dissenters about not judging us before they have tried to see what type of people we are, so now people who have been very hard pressed to get rid of me, have become a lot more talkative with me. Though if there is still an unresolved issue, people are still suspicious of Cole.”
Over the last two months, I have had fewer people complaining about Orb. However, most of them are still suspicious of Cole, especially since he isn’t as much of an open book as Orb, so people can only judge from what they see.
“Still, I have seen everyone trying hard to understand him. They have all tried to start conversations with him, and with the fact people have been leaning less towards murder, I believe even if I go, Cole would be safe.”
“Still, this is a bit too sudden even with that reasoning. Is there something about this village making you want to leave?”
“No, there is nothing like that. I love being here, but I feel that if I don’t leave as soon as possible, it will keep getting harder to leave, so I have just decided to push myself.”
“Well, if that’s the reason, can I ask you to put off your decision until the end of the year, so at the very least you could have spent one full year with us and when that time comes, could you make your decision.”
“I guess it would be fun to have one of my birthdays with you all, so I will take you up on that offer.
Orb is about to leave soon I have got to act fast, is what the girl who is listening thinks.
-Break-
Φ “I am so bored.”
“Get used to it, Orb. This is how it will be for a while since all hunts are put on hold.”
“I know, I know, but knowing it is happening for a reason, doesn’t make me any less bored.” Apparently, around this time of year, the forest king comes out. It is hazardous, so we simply survive on all the stored sonbits until that monsters hunting period is over.
“Well, I have some news to entertain you.”
“What is it.”
“To my knowledge, Maple apologised for all her mistakes to Sequoia.”
“She apologised!” This must be why he was so chipper earlier today, “That’s good to hear for her, but now I am going to have a hard time sleeping.”
“Why would that be.”
“Because since I have been here, she has been screaming every night; her voice has become kind of soothing.”
“Don’t worry; I can all but guarantee you Maple will be back up on that pole in no time,” Willow tells me with a confident look.
Willow doesn’t usually talk about people like that, but I guess one of the only times I have seen him mad is when it directly concerns Maple. As this thought goes through my head, I hear someone scream, “ORB!” The voice in question is one that I’m very familiar with. Its Maple.
She runs up to me while screaming my name, but as she does that, I can definitely say one thing, her face isn’t one of a reformed child.
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“ORB!”
“Hi there, I heard you apologised to your father.”
Hearing my words, her face twisted in anger. “Yes, I did, but that’s not important. I need to talk to you.”
“Maple, do you know how rude you’re being right now,” Willow says to her.
“Why are you here, you pest? Why don’t you go to your corner and sit there alone like usual.”
“Willow, you used to spend your time alone. I wondered why you didn’t seem to talk to anyone, but I didn’t know it was because you had no friends.”
“No, Orb, that’s not true.” He says, embarrassed.
“Don’t lie, Willow; the truth hurts, doesn’t it.”
Willow’s faces becomes overrun with anger, “Well, what does that matter now since I don’t have to do that anymore because, unlike you, I have a friend.”
“HUH!”
As the two of them continued to get angrier and angrier, I decided to break this up. As I get in between the two of them, I say, “That’s enough now. What did you come here for, Maple?”
“Well, as the person who saved your life,” She says while smirking at Willow, “I have come to ask you to finish our deal humbly.”
“What deal?”
“The one where you promised to tell me about the outside world”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sorry, it was a while ago.”
“That doesn’t matter. Just fulfil the promise now.”
“Yeah, I can’t do that.”
“Why.”
“After you snuck in my room Sequoia specifically asked me not to tell you anything about the outside world.”
Maple looks like she is about to scream, but calms down and mumbles, “You shitty dad.”
“Hey Orb, at what time did Maple sneak into your room,” Willow asks me eerily.
“I don’t know the exact time, but it was late at night.”
“MAPLE!” Willow shouts.
“What do you want, bug.”
“Did you do something as indecent as sneaking into Orb’s room at night”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
Willow blindly starts prattling on about something that doesn’t make much sense, while Maple responds dismissively to all his complaints.
Willow is acting strange, he is usually only this angry when it is something that personally matters to him, but a sudden understanding hits me. Oh, I see that’s what’s going on. I go up to Willow while patting his head.
“What are you doing, Orb.”
“Good luck Willow.”
“What do you mean Orb,” Willow says while flustered.
While looking at us confused, Maple says, “If you don’t tell me, then I will simply have to force you,” Maple then jumps at me with an attack.
She is coming at me fast. I guess that is to be expected with her becoming a warrior at her young age, but while she has spent most of the year tied up, I have spent it training, so after dodging effortlessly, I hit her across the back of her head.”
“That hurts”, She says with tears in her eyes. “When did you become this strong.”
“What do you think I have been doing for the past ten months.”
Utterly shocked by my words, she takes a second to compose herself and says, “If I can’t physically force you, I will use other methods.” Maple then walks up to me very slowly, and with her cutest face on, she says, “Please.”
I see Willow beside me, blushing. I see this is what was meant when Capti said women have a particular hold over men. Thanks for the example, but all I can say is “No.”
Stunned, she falls to the floor and says, “That always works, what’s going on.”
“If that’s all, I will be on my way” as I try to walk away, taking Willow with me, I feel someone grab onto my leg. As I look down, I see Maple.
With tears in her eyes, with a very helpless expression, she says to me, “Plwese tell me.”
“No, and your thirteen; it is very unbecoming of you to talk like a baby. You should act your age.” I kick Maple off my leg.
After getting up from the floor, Maple says, “If that’s how you want to be, so be it, but I guarantee you I will not take this without retaliation. Just watch until you agree to help me. I will make your life hell.”
“Bring it on, crybaby,” And with those simple words, the most annoying days of my life so far had begun.
-Break-
Since that day, without fail, Maple has come to bother me whenever she can; regardless of what I am doing or what time it is, she comes up to me and keep saying, “Tell me, tell me, tell me,” I go to sleep, and all I hear is tell me, I wake up, and the first thing I hear is tell me, this paired with my extreme boredom has made my sanity slip little by little.
So, to try and get my mind off it, I got to train, but she follows me as well, and when the other warriors try to tell her to stop, she puts on the defenceless face, and they all become wrapped around her finger.
Willow is the only person trying to help me, who starts arguing with Maple whenever she approaches. I would thank him for his actions, but I think he isn’t trying to stop her advances for my sake alone. I have dealt with this for two weeks and am almost at my breaking point.
-Break-
ΦI love walking through the village. It has a pleasant smell, and the people are always happy and active. Being here is so comfy it makes me forget all my problems, but there is a least one problem in this village, that would be Orb; he has had a desolate look in his eyes as of late; I should check on him.
“Hey Orb, how have you been.”
“Oh, Cole, I am fine. I see you have been allowed to walk around on your own now.”
“Yeah, but only in select areas without others supervision.”
“So, is there anything you want to talk about?”
“Well, I was just wondering what you are doing with that tread and needle.”
“Oh, this, I was just going to use it to close the mouth of an annoying little fly permanently, yeah, and after I do that, she will never bother me again, so now I will be off,” Orb says with a twisted smile on his face.
Stopping Orb from leaving, I say, “Orb, how about before you do something that will get you executed, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong, and could you please stop smiling like that.”
So, after my plea, Orb tells me about Maple’s constant annoyance.
“Orb, if it has gotten this bad, why don’t you tell the chief.”
“If I told Sequoia, it would ruin his mood. Have you seen Sequoia lately? He is constantly smiling, thinking that Maple has been behaving herself.”
“Well, that’s true. I wouldn’t want to be around him if he found out it was all an act, that’s for sure.” As the words leave my mouth, Orb and I look up to see Sequoia looking like the devil himself, walking towards the training grounds. We both quickly get up and follow him, and when he arrives, he screams.
“MAPLE!”
“Yes, father”, Maple says in her cutest voice.
“Stop that. I have heard what you have been doing to Orb. I have told you never to ask him such a question.”
“Why can’t I, everyone else is allowed to, but I am not.”
“It is simply because, I, the village chief, have said so, so if you oppose my decision, you simply have to wait until you’re the chief.”
“I have no desire to become the Village chief. I want to leave this village.”
Even angrier than he was before, he tells her, “That will never happen. I won’t allow it. There is nothing out there for you. Why can’t you see that.”
“Why can’t you see that if we had access to what exists outside this mountain, things like what happened to mom wouldn’t be an issue? It’s your close-mindedness and that of all our ancestors that killed mom, you murder.”
And in what can only be called a flash, Sequoia hit Maple right in her face.