Party of Two

Nisha's fangs are bare as she glares at me. She salivates, probably thinking about how delicious my Anthropa blood would be. Scared, I walk back slowly. Then she shakes her head, snapping out of it.

"No," she says, turning away. "don't ever say that again." Her voice is full of anguish. "I could've killed you. Please, don't make me do that. I'm trying all I could to control myself." She looks at me with teary eyes.

Oh, crap. . . I made her cry. She must've gone through a lot and I was a jerk to her.

"I'm. . . sorry," I apologize.

"You don't have to. I've heard those words a million times from millions of people who knew my story." She wipes her eyes with her arm and walks away. I follow her. "Leave me alone."

I say nothing. It doesn't make any sense but I feel it's the right thing to do. Somehow, I want to know more about her. If she needs Anthropic blood, I'm the only one who can help her. Though I don't know how much she needs.

"Say," I ask. "do you drink blood other than—"

"Other blood can only pacify my hunger. It is by drinking Anthropic blood that can truly satisfy me. But I won't do that. I'd rather die. So, leave or I'll throw you myself!"

"You know what?" I'm fed up with her. "I don't really have many options. I don't know much about this world and I have to get stronger faster. So far, I think you're gonna be a good companion." I transform into my Anthropa Frame. Before she could turn around, I lock her face with my arms.

"What are you doing?!"

"Take as much as you want! In exchange, help me clear that domain!"

Without answering, she bites my right forearm with a crushing force. Ugh! That means, yes. . . My bones break like sticks. She's sucking my blood without control! Argh! It hurts! We fall forward to the ground. With her every sip, I feel weak. I'm trembling, scared that she might kill me. All I could do is stick my frowning face against her back to endure the pain.

A second later, her bite loosens. Her heavy breaths turn into a soft snore. She fell asleep. My hand is now free. I sit on the ground, terrified at how bad it looks. It's very pale except for my deflated muscles. I gotta patch this up real quick. It takes half an hour until I heal myself as well as in other Frames. *Sigh* Healing like this is quite taxing. I have no more strength to even stand up.

With my remaining strength, I pull her out of the way and closer to the wall. She lies there and I sit with my back against the wall. I feel weak but not enough to knock me out. In a few minutes, maybe an hour, my strength will be back. While waiting, I eat.

It's just the two of us, alone in this dark alley. It's so quiet that I hear the walls speaking to me. Nisha's calm breaths are the loudest. Is this just because of my sharp senses?

She moves, sits up, and wipes her lips covered with dried blood—my blood.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"I should be the one asking you that," she growls.

"How is it—drinking my blood?"

"You're a reckless idiot! I could've killed you!"

"But you didn't."

"Why did you do that?"

"So you can help me, of course."

"Well, tough luck. I won't! Hmph!" She folds her arms, looking the other way.

"You will come back for more—I'm sure of it. Because you know I'm the only one who can satisfy your hunger. I don't mind having you around. We can help each other."

My eyes are tired like I want to sleep. I can rest easy now since she's gonna look after me this time.

"Tell me," I say as my eyes are closed. "how old are you?"

"Five hundred and nine."

"You're so old, then."

"My age is not that old!" she rages. "How dare you?! I'm still young!"

I chuckle a little bit. I don't know why that offended her. "Are you really the last one of your kind?"

"Yes."

"How about your parents?"

"They died three hundred years ago because of hunger. They saved the last cup of Anthropic blood for me and that made me survive up until now."

"So how many years worth did you drink from me?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe. . . Five hundred years."

"That's good to hear."

"But that depends."

"On what?"

"If I exhaust myself."

"That makes sense."

"So, shall we marry?"

"Why all of sudden?"

"To share EXP and gold."

"No, I'd prefer a party."

"The distribution is gonna be just the same. The advantage of marriage is that we can still share no matter how far we are from each other."

"I just don't like the idea of marriage in this world. Marriage was supposed to be sacred. You only marry the person you love—at least that's what it is in my world."

There is a moment of silence between us until she asks, "What's it like there—in your world?"

"My world? Dull."

"But I heard great stories about it. Things like planets, galaxies, and spaceships."

"Yes, that's true but the chances of seeing them with your naked eyes are slim. I and Zaori live in a dome. We cannot see the sky nor we can just come out and have an adventure. You have to be rich to do that. I'm not rich."

"Well, you can earn gold by clearing domains."

I shake my head with a chuckle. "Our world doesn't have that. We don't have powers. We rely on what we build using our hands and minds. We don't have Shadowclutch, wings, or anything like that but we can build things that can enable us to do what you can do." I'm thinking about airplanes, mecha arms, and the like. "Just give us the things we needed and we can do anything."

"Hmm. . ." She thinks deeply. "Like the Anthropae?"

"I'm not sure. Do Anthropae have powers?"

"Yeah. They can create anything from the soil. They even taught the Angeli and Daemons many things before the Great War happened. I'm sorry that our ancestors did that."

"No, don't be. It's not like I'm related to them or anything. I just got here."

After that, she stays silent, staring into the darkness.

I check my arms and legs if I can move them now. They're good enough for me to stand. "Okay, let's go."