26: Cornflowers

Airys waited patiently at the top of a huge scarlet-leaved tree, her gaze fixed on the horizon and the setting sun, she glimpsed the arrival of Hojita. She greeted her with a smile.

"Did you find something?"

"Pi pi" she denied and settled on her shoulder.

Airys sighed, Seng was going to scold her again. Discouraged, she plunged into the leaves and slid with one hand into a handmade liana, it didn't take long for her to collide with the ceiling of the hideout.

The place was a majestic natural hollow, spacious, covered with a reddish ceiling that dimmed the light, perfect to hide the cabin that Seng decided to build a couple of years ago, a hidden paradise.

Seven days had passed since that day.

Airys came down using some branches —as big as a person —like steps with agile and fast jumps, after a little slip, she recovered and stepped on the floor of Seng's hut. Pushed aside the cloth that covered the entrance and stepped inside.

The decoration —if you can call that decoration —was crap, clothes cornered at the end, no furniture. Seriously, it was embarrassing to others, it killed the mystical atmosphere outside, the only redeemable thing was the walls.

Seng didn't take long to sigh angrily when he saw her. He was sitting leaning against the wall, in the background next to Layd, who was laying on a piece of cloth that acted like a super makeshift bed.

The state of both was abysmally different. When Seng found them that day, Airys and Natsume were horrified, that is, Layd had a broken nose and lips, but they could tell that Seng's limbs were broken. However, as the days passed, his health improved greatly compared to Layd's.

"How is Layd doing?" Airys asked.

"How do you think?" Seng questioned. "The fever is almost over, but he hasn't learned to use his soul to recover yet" he explained dismissively.

"S-sorry," Layd muttered, inhaling exhausted, full of sweat.

Seng was not completely healed, he was still with bruises and damage under his clothes and in his arms, however, the worst for him was over.

"Where is Natsume?" Airys peeked around the entrance to take a look.

"She went to get dinner" Seng said.

"Alone?" Airys said.

"Not that I can stop her" Seng clarified revealing his badly injured arms.

They were silent for a minute. Airys avoided making eye contact with Seng and he didn't take his eyes off her, gradually Seng's frown deepened to the point where he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead to keep from exploding.

"Sooo?" Seng raised his tone, a chill ran through Airys's body and Hojita hid behind her. "Speak!"

"Y-yes!" Airys straightened up like a military man. "Well... neither Hojita nor Sandy have located the whereabouts of my sword or Garyon" she informed nervously.

"I see…" Seng crossed his arms thoughtfully.

Airys narrowed her eyes expecting some kind of reprimand —the usual —and was surprised at Seng's reaction.

That day, after reaching the hideout, after burying Echsos at the base of the tree, Seng told them his suspicions of the situation and the next day Hojita and Sandy verified it.

Garyon was still alive.

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Under orders from Airys, Hojita went to the place where Garyon fell only to run into the footprints in the ground. Sandy went straight to the location of Eheron's body and what everyone was waiting for was that he would see some remains eaten by the animals or nothing, it was a surprise to imagine what Airys told him when Sandy returned.

On top of that other Seng hideout, there were a couple of wooden stakes driven into a mound of earth, someone washed and wrapped the chains around the stakes.

Then the question arose: Why didn't he seek them out for revenge?

"The reason is me" Seng enunciated that afternoon as he fought the burning of his entire body. "Most likely, even if he wants to find us, he knows that I took care of his partner and that's why he can't just show up. Of course, he surely has to recover from his injuries as well."

Indeed, Seng was right.

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"I want you to keep your creatures watching over as long as you can, Garyon must almost be recovered."

"My 'creatures' have names" Airys sputtered and earned a glare from Seng.

"Just do it," he grumbled.

"I'll go find Natsume" she warned without giving Seng time to say something and she left along with Leaf while the fairy stuck her tongue out at the grumpy teacher of her friend.

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Natsume knelt down.

The tree next to her made her look tiny, the roots were so big that she was even smaller on her feet. In one of the dozens of spaces between the roots, was the simple tomb of Echsos. A circle of pebbles above her burial site, with blue flowers planted in the center.

It took her five days, but finally she found flowers in her little brother's favorite color.

Yes, he always said that he loved the color blue, she doesn't exactly remember the hue… anyway, she can't ask him anymore.

"Why?"

Unable to suppress her emotions, she blurted out those words.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

When she finally felt like part of a family again, she that she opened up to people, when she finally began to overcome the loss of her older sister, her mother and father... this happened.

She clung to the ground, hopeless.

"Why Echsos?" she stammered herself. "Who were those people? Why did you… who asked them?"

The newly planted flowers received the first watering from her, a couple of bitter drops, heavy with regret.

"What did you do to the world... to make them want you dead?" She choked for a second. "Why did this happen to you? You just… you were just a good boy… you had… you had suffered enough already…"

Natsume continued to repeat the same questions, not because they lacked answers, on the contrary, she repeated them in order not to advance, so that her head didn't reach the only and obvious conclusion.

That truth that she knows since child, the frivolous reality.

Airys watched her sob from afar. She was silent, not wanting to interrupt her. She looked at her left palm and relived the sensation of that instant, when she landed the punch in Maryon's face... when she unintentionally shared her soul.

"I better help her find food" she made up an excuse and went down away from Natsume.