"Thanks for the save." Showa bowed her head lightly, "Evading that bastard's punishments is a rare occurrence, so I'm in your debt."
"Don't mind. We'll call it even for you saving me from those locals." I shook my head, "Right, speaking of—What do Olya's punishments actually look like?"
It was just a guess, a paranoid notion that he might've actually started to beat her or worse if she had stayed behind alone with him. The smile he had on was scary, too scary even. I had never seen such a grin before in my life, so that must've been why I still opted to have her be excused.
"Meh, it's more so a chore to listen through." She shrugged, "He just has you sit down with him and chews you out thoroughly for doing whatever it is you did. He does offer cookies though, so it's not all bad."
"Eh? You know what cookies are, then?" I tilted my head, "Even though you primarily eat fish, coconuts and bamboo stew?"
"He used to make them with that Brown Notebook of yours." She pointed to thr Misfortune I tightly held in my hands, "It really is a nifty thing to have with you. Though now that you have it, I guess I wouldn't have gotten any cookies this time."
"Sorry, I'll make you some in his stead, then." I showed it to her, "Wanna try doing it yourself?"
"Hm... Nope." She took a gander inside before handing it back, "It's wasted on me. I can't read that handwriting."
"I write in block letters, though." I sulked, "Hey, wait a second. The entire Book is written in block letters to begin with. It's not cursive, so there's no way you can't read it."
"I'm telling you, I can't." She fussed, "It looks like a totally different language to me."
"A totally different language..." I thought to ask, "Just to make sure, you're not illiterate, are you?"
"I can write and read just fine!" She crossed her arms and pouted, "In fact, I write poetry in my spare time!"
"Oh yeah? Then spit a verse, would ya'?" I egged her on, "Come on, lemme see what your handwriting looks like!"
"I don't have a pen with me right now."
"No, on the ground!" I took a nearby stick and handed it to her, "I just wanna make sure you're not making stuff up."
"Sigh, fine..."
It took her a moment to get accustomed to the stick's horribly fat nib and the ground's rough texture, but after a few minutes, she managed to whip up a short three sentence poem. This was when I had realized an issue in her writing. Namely, she's horrible at handwriting. I can let a few points go because of the conditions, but I just can't excuse these letters! They're so unnatural, some of them are upside down, some go above and below, and to top it all off—She used a 6 instead of an S!
"So you really were making stuff up..." I smirked as a passer-by leaned in to read it.
"Yet another masterful work by the stoic beauty, eh? Let's see..." He praised her before reading, "The budding flower, longing for the Sun. A dormant raincloud obstructs it, yet it provides water nonetheless. The flower yearns for more."
"You got all that from that?" I furrowed my brows, "Geez, you must be accustomed to her handwriting, guy."
"Wrong, miss Fairy, you're just illiterate." He smiled before leaving, "Have a good day!"
This... This guy just called me illiterate. Just like that. How the turntables.
"So in essence, I can read my handwriting just fine but don't understand yours, and you have the same experience with mine." I concluded, "Then maybe it's not the handwriting that's different, but the entire script!"
Yeah, I was trying to grasp just how far up they were on the technological ladder, but turns out comparing their pace of advancing to the rest of the world's standards is like comparing apples and oranges! They have literate doctors and poets, but they don't know what ice cream and the likes are. They have very talented architects that can build such incredible and efficient buildings, yet they have to focus on field tilling all day. They're neither primitive nor futuristic, they're just... humans.
"That poem." I kept looking at the odd letters in the sand.
"Bah, ignore it!" She started erasing it with her foot, "I just wrote something on the fly! I didn't think Shamz would show up to read it to you-!"
"Wait, wait! Leave it be!" I stopped her, "It'd beautiful! It's nothing to be ashamed of!"
The look on her face, bewildered under the lowering Sun, was without equal. Simply put, it was stunning. She was older than me by a few years, maybe in her early twenties, but she wasn't anything like Lem in terms of appearance. This, I thought, this is what a true older friend was like. Creative, bashful, strong willed and brave, and though Lem filled out around half of those criteria, she was on a whole other level.
"If it's alright with you, could I write it down somewhere for myself." I smiled, "Ah, I promise I won't steal it! I just want it for personal use! Studying! Yes, I'd like to study your script!"
"Is that the case..." She giggled, "In that case, we can learn from each other.
"Yeah, I'd like that!" I jumped for joy, hugging her tightly around the waist as I did.
"Bwuh, h-hey! It's slipping!" She yelped.
"Eh? What is?" I backed my head off before growing bright Red, "Ack! Sorry, I didn't see anything!"
Damned leaf bikini, it's way too easy to slip off the important bits! No wonder she panicked so much, I accidentally loosened it iff her chest area. And you're telling me these people work hard grueling jobs in the fields in these clothes? Something tells me she should've already gotten used to this situation by now if that's the case...
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***
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
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"You're going to visit him?" She asked as we walked through the main residential area, "Your partner?"
"He's my friend." I corrected her.
"Yes?" She tilted her head, "Is that not what I said?"
"Ah, you meant it like that." I chuckled, "Yes, in that sense, you could say he's my partner."
"So you two are together then?"
"What!? You tricked me!"
"Then again, seeing how much you care for his wellbeing, I hardly doubt you just met recently." She continued, "I assume you two were together when that old geezer took you to our island."
"Oh... Y-Yeah, we came here together." I looked down.
Geez, what's wrong with me? I keep twisting her questions to be something weird! Honestly, I'm so embarrassed, I shouldn't have kept jumping to conclusions. She might be phrasing it in a misleading way, but maybe it's just another case of our culture and slang being different.
"Mhm, I see." She giggled, "I hope it works out for you two, then."
"Ha-ha... I hope we'll leave the island safe and sound too."
"No, I meant your relationship." She smirked, "He is quite handsome from what I saw. I hope you reward him nicely for what he went through for you."
"Ack! So you WERE talking about romance!" I pouted, "You...! Hmph, like I said, we're just friends."
"I see." She smiled, "I'm sorry for getting the wrong idea. You must get that a lot to be this angered by it."
Whoa, she got the memo fast. Heck, my parents still can't accept that Lem and I aren't like that, not to mention Kevin and Jelena constantly teasing me whenever the topic of Lem comes about. New info unlocked: The people of Schnell's Archipelago aren't immature children.
"Wanna come with me?" I asked, "It gets pretty scary sitting in an empty hospital room alone at night."
"Am I allowed to?" She asked, "You explicitly told us we're forbidden from entering it."
"Meh, I'm over it." I grinned, "Besides, I only said that cause I thought you guys would harm him. Though I don't completely trust everyone else in the island, I'm positive you won't do anything to stunt his recovery."
"That's..." She bowed her head kind of deep as a show of gratitude, "I'd be delighted to, if you'll have me."
With a newfound excited skip in her step, she walked in front of me as we made it to the hospital. This island's hospitals are kind of odd, in that they don't have a hospital staff you have to greet every time you enter. It's practically an open building, and since the island is kind of small, there aren't any other patients besides Lem inside it. I guess I should say thank goodness for that.
"Knock knock." I knocked before entering, "Hrm... Still not awake."
"It'd be a miracle if he was." Showa entered after me, despite being the one in front the entire way here, "Pardon the intrusion."
"Is this another sign of courtesy of the Archipelago?" I chuckled.
"Yes, when visiting a deceased or a wounded individual, the people who enter must come in the order from most closest to least." She explained.
"Fascinating. And kind." I smiled, "Oh, hey. I should properly introduce you two. Lem, this is Showa. Showa, this is Lem."
"N-Nice to meet you." She awkwardly uttered, "Geez, it's kind of scary talking to someone you know won't be waking up."
"Don't say that. He'll come back one day." I lightly told her off before ruffling his hair, "We just gotta wait patiently for that day."
"Looking at him properly this time..." She noted, "He's pretty handsome."
"Is he?" I chuckled, "He's got his charms, but most of it comes from the inside. I don't think there's anything special about his looks."
"Really? But his light Brownish hair looks so fun to play with." She hesitated to pat him, "Err, ahem. His skin is very smooth too, and he seems to be rather toned, in spite of his age."
"He does go to the gym with Kevin on occassion." I recalled, "Ah, but isn't this a pretty scrawny body for a 19 year old?"
"Whoa, he's nine years old?" She smiled naively, "That's crazy. Not to sound like a creep, but he looks pretty mature for his age."
"Not 9." I scowled, "He's 19. Add ten."
"...What?"
"Yeah, not so mature for his age now, is he?" I chuckled, "Just look at where his feet are under the covers, he's as tall as me, and I just turned 15."
"He's so cute!" Her Eyes glew like never before, "Wait, he's just a couple years younger than me, yet he's this... bite-sized!"
Pfft. Bite-sized? He's so not gonna like it when I start calling him that. But what does she mean cute?
"And here I thought you were the same age, but he's actually closer to my age than yours?!" She squeed, "That's adorable! Like a little baby! I wanna hold him!"
"Put some decent clothes on first if you wanna do that..." I weakly replied.
"Hooray!" She ignored my warning as she gave him a rather envy-inducing squeeze, pressing practically every part of her torso to him as she did, "Mffff...! Baby! Don't ever grow!"
Does... Does she have a thing for shorties? She hasn't even heard him speak though, so I'm sure she'll get disillusioned soon after he starts opening that trap of his. That being the case, I hope he doesn't know what's going on right now. Getting a properly balanced chest in such a lascivious swimsuit such as hers pressed on top of him must feel like bliss, but I'm afraid he might... Wait a second, the fuck do I care if he likes it or not!
"You can let go of him now." I unapologetically ripped her away from him.
"Ack, sorry!" She fixed her "clothes" up a bit as she hurriedly explained, "I have little brothers at home, and he just really reminded me of them. What I did is a thing from my culture that expresses..."
"You don't have to define what a hug is, I already know!" I shouted.