5. Strange

The air was cold now, the sun had retreated and the only source of light that shined was the moon through the cracks of the mill. In corner of the second story laid a bloody body, now cold and still, and on the other side laid Shiro, bruised and battered. Her head rested on a tattered blood stain robe that had lifeless feet sticking out the bottom. The moonlight that had shone inside slowly made its way across her face causing her stir awake. Groggy and tired she slowly raised her head and cleared her throat, it was dry and rough. Pain shot across her right hand causing her to wince and grab it, upon inspection she noticed it was nicely wrapped in a piece of soft white cloth. Once she sat all the way up a cold breeze struck her body, sending chills and causing her breath to become visible. She crossed her arms around her shoulders and pulled her cloak down, attempting to wrap it around her body like a small blanket, when it hits her.

"Ganta." Now alerted, she looked around the room to see if her attacker was still around. She saw a body laying in a pool of dark red blood across the other side. Fearing it could of been her friend she falls back down in shock and bangs her head against someone's chest.

"Oof! The boy bellows as the hit wakes him up.

"Glad to see you're awake and about." He finishes while rubbing the point of impact.

"What happened to you? Your...face." she replies while caressing the left side of his face, it was bloody with a long vertical cut down the eye.

"Can you see, does it hurt?" She starts to use part of her red cloak to clean some of the blood off the wound, most of it has dried and stain the skin. The boy blinks a few times before putting a hand atop her head.

"Barely, but what I can see is more then enough for me." He tries to give one of her signature smiles but just ends up looking silly to her. She can feel heat rise to her cheeks and it worries her. Was she getting sick, she thinks to herself while finishing up with his face.

"I heard your voice and came upstairs to see that bandit attacking you. I..didn't want to kill him..but...he gave me no other option. He starts to rub his hands together to combat the cold.

"I don't feel anything right now but the cold. Does that make me like him?" He gestures towards the lifeless corpse. Shiro gives him a hug hoping to warm him but most importantly, expel those horrible thoughts.

"No you're nothing like that monster. He seemed to enjoy hurting me when he was trying to kill me. Thanks for saving me." She smiles, nailing the signature. He sighs and deeply stares at her.

"Every damn time." Before she can ask him what he's talking about they hear faint footsteps outside the building. They sit up and approach the window, staying crouched and hidden. She peeks outside and sees a man and woman walking hand in hand, talking and laughing with one another. Relieved that they aren't guards or more bandits she takes a deep breath and looks at her friend.

"What are we going to do now, we can't stay here."

"I know a way out of town, I used to sneak out to visit traveling merchants by the roads."

"We should fix your eye wound before we leave though. I don't want it to become infected." She says with a concern tone.

"About that." The boy rummages through his pockets before presenting a shattered blue jewel.

"It got destroyed in the fight earlier, it won't do us any good now. I doubt we'll find another one too, Efornia crystals fragments aren't exactly easy to get. I only had one because it was in the basket I was left in at the chapel." She thinks for a moment before her eyes set on the locked chest once more. There may be something they could use in there. She asks him if he ever found the thin tool in which he replies by pointing towards the corpse. She walks over to the body and kneels down, the spear head was lodged in his neck. This could of been her if Ganta hadn't appeared when he did. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and shakes her head erasing the thought away before reaching for the spear. It takes some effort but she dislodges it and wipes it down on the bandit's clothes. She makes her way towards the chest, picking up a brick along the way, and gets to work.

A quarter of an hour goes by before she successfully pries the lock off. Excitement courses through her veins as she opens the chest and calls for Ganta. Inside she find an assortment of files and papers, a few old rusted daggers, a leather pauldron and holster, and old piles of clothing. Disappointment clearly evident on her face, she slowly moves the content outside the chest when she notices a small latch inside. Her adventuress eyes sparkle to life once more as she pulls it open and discovers a small decorative dagger hilt adorned with gold and rubies. She holds it up towards the moon and sees an inscription that reads: Crimson Drops of Blood Forever Stolen yet Never Lost. She reads it aloud but thinks nothing of it, just thrilled with herself for finding treasure.

"There's nothing in here for your eye unfortunately, but there's several sets of clothes. Your robes are covered in blood you should get changed to avoid getting another infection." She suggests while trying on the the leather holster and pauldron. Ganta rummages through them for a bit before settling on a pair of clothes. He looks up and see her staring at him, smile and all.

"I can't with you standing there." He says as he blushes and holds the clothes closer to his face. She looks confused but does as she's told and heads downstairs. Once down she peeks through the barricaded window and is hit with a strong alcoholic scent, reminding her of her dad on his birthdays. She lets out a little giggle at the reminiscent of home before she realizes that alcohol works as a disinfectant. She wanted to tell Ganta but she felt like he didn't want her to see him from the earlier conversation, which in turn upset her. She throws her cloak on and quietly opens the front door, peeking left and right first, before going outside to find the source of the smell. It's fairly dark but she uses the moonlight to navigate the surrounding buildings in search of the disinfectant.

"There it is!" She shouts excitedly picking up a large half empty bottle of rum. While examining the bottle she sees a collection of clothes in a nearby alley where a series of grunts and moans can be heard. Thinking the bottle belongs to them, she moves closer to the sound in hopes of purchasing what little alcohol remains.

"Oh excuse me, does this bottle of rum belong to you two? I have an emergency and could really use it. Will two coins cover it?" She asks the two dark figures in the alley, they seem out of breath and are panting a lot. One of them lets out a feminine screams in response to hearing her offer while the other moves its hands over their body, as if it's trying to hide.

"Just take it and go! Get out of here!" A voice, resembling an adult male, shouts at her. Shiro looks down at the clothes on the ground and picks up a shirt.

"Thanks but aren't you cold? There's some clothes just lying here if you need them." She offers but is met with cursing and yelling. After running back to the mill she see Ganta loading some things into a old leather rucksack he found. His attire was now completely changed. The bloodied parchment colored robes were now replaced with a cyan long sleeve shirt and brown vest combo; tan colored trousers, held up by a strong leather belt with a silver buckle; short dark brown boots, relatively new; and a long forest colored scarf, handmade by the looks of it.

"Hey I found something for your cut. Sit down over here." She jumps on the window sill and gently pats the empty spot next to her. He walks over and takes a seat next to her tilting his head back and closing his eyes, allowing her to get to work.

"So I got this bottle from these very rude people outside." She tells him while cleaning his cut and dried blood off his face.

"People are usually rude when you steal something Shiro."

"I didn't! I offered them two coins but the woman screamed at me while the man said very rude things about me. He said I could take it and I was returning the favor by offering them clothes."

"Clothes? Why would they need clothes?"

"Well it's cold outside and they seemed to be shaking a lot before I arrived." Ganta thrusted forward causing some of the alcohol to fall into his mouth and make him start coughing and choking. She starts padding him on the back to help relieve him of the liquid.

"Hey what's wrong Ganta I was almost finish with your eye." His face was flushed with red but it wasn't because of the dried blood, he knew what she saw even if she didn't.

"Err..umm..let me finish the rest myself please." He takes the bottle and stands up, slowing inching his way away from her. Shiro was now annoyed, first he tells her to leave upstairs and now he doesn't want to be near her downstairs. She pouts but doesn't want to fight with her only friend so decides to change the subject.

"May I have some for my hand?" He extends the bottle towards her, avoiding her eyes as best as he can. She reluctantly take it and begins to unwrap the makeshift bandage from her right hand when she notices small embroidered words on the cloth: Property of Brother Ganta.

She smiles and caresses the cloth between her fingers thinking of how he must of ripped his precious robes just to help her. She finishes applying the bottle and places a new bandage, from the leftover clothes from the chest, before pocketing the bloodied white cloth in her satchel. The duo then proceeded into the city, where they then take their time and avoid open areas along their way to the secret exit Ganta had provided. Throughout their skulking Shiro seemed cheery and is constantly humming to herself which confuses the boy as she was rather upset earlier when taking the bottle. Putting her strange behavior behind him he looks to see if the coast is clear before crossing the dirt road towards the village palisades. Once they arrived at the wooden defenses he walks up to each palisades and put his ear up to them, knocking twice each time. She was bewildered but followed along and even put her own ear up to a few in hopes of learning what he was doing. He passes about a dozen more before letting out a small cheer and pressing his arms up against the wooden wall.

"Need a hand?" She asks walking up behind him. Together they pull for a few seconds against the wall before it gives and reveals a hole about two feet high but goes through all the way to the other side.

"Exciting! It's been a while since I've been out on the road." She tells him while crouching down to crawl through. He looks away and tries not stare while following her through.

"How long have you been away from home or should I say this adventure?"

"Hmm about six days I think. It took me one day to leave Raitholis, it was kinda hard to sightsee the human capital ya know. She laughs.

"About two days of walking to get here in Alveros and the last three days I've been just trying to leave this place with more supplies to continue adventuring.

"So you're from Raitholis huh, how'd your parents keep you a secret there? Father....er I mean those priest told me the purges there were the worst."

"It's okay you dolt I know they are the closest thing you have to a family so you don't have to alienate them to spare my feelings." She playfully tells him.

"And to answer your question, remember how I said my mother is a member of the queen's royal guard? It turns out the queen's workforce doesn't get searched or bothered with house inspections. I know she cared about me a lot though otherwise she wouldn't have taken the risk of adopting me." She finally reaches the other end of the palisades and helps Ganta up, his expression being sad yet determined.

"Sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like l was patronizing you. I'm just trying to let them go as we leave but it's hard. They're all I have. Growing up they never really loved or cared about me. It was always another mouth to feed, always another body to clothed. It wasn't until I was around ten when they really started to acknowledge me as a person. He tells her while adjusting the straps on his bags as they walk down the dark trail with only the moonlight to guide them.

"What changed?" She asks, looking behind to see if he's still close by.

"I broke my arm."

"See they care about you, they just didn't show it until it counted." His expression grows darker and voice becomes more sincere.

"No it wasn't for the broken arm but the fact that I mended it by mistake. You see I had been playing in the attic of the chapel when I stepped on a loose floorboard and fell through. I remember crying in pain but Protus just scolded me and sent me to the bed chambers. It was there where I held that Efornia crystal and cried in pain and before I knew it my arm was better. I never told them about the crystal because I didn't want them to steal it and abandon me. They thought I was special so they started to feed me actual meals and gave me warm clothes." His voice started to get soft and emotional.

"They taught me how to read, use magic, and even accepted me as a member of their society. Over the years they tried to replicate what I had done but couldn't accomplish it without the crystal. Seven years in I eventually forgot how horrible they had treated me, but your arrival reminded me of just how selfish and cruel they really are." He stares at the ground as his entire body begins shaking, small drops of tears pass by his clench fist and strike the dirt near his feet. The entire time he was talking he had been walking on auto pilot and eventually walked straight into her arms. She had him in a tight hug and told him.

"It's alright you've loved now. I love you with all my being." She holds him close and his shaking slows down until it comes to a complete stop.

"Shiro. Wha..what did you say?"

"I said I love you with all my being, silly." She repeats still holding him while messing with his hair.

"You're my only friend why wouldn't I. I don't want you to be sad."

"Friend?" He asks, a little confused.

"Of course, you called me that in the chapel remember? Friends should love one another, especially when we're sad."

"Oh that kind of love." Ganta says, sounding a little disappointed. Shiro tilts her and gives a puzzled look.

"There's another kind?" He gently pulls away and starts to laugh causing her confusion to only grow in magnitude.

"You sure are strange Shiro, but thats what I love about you." She gives him a warm smiles and starts to jump around him as he continues to laugh under the moonlit trail.