Chapter 23: Damsels in Stress

The silence surrounded us. No one attempted to make a noise except the crickets hiding in the corners of the night. All I can see was his face that didn't move an inch. His eyes widened and his jaw slightly dropped. I didn't expect him to be this quiet to my question.

"Cainne?" I tried to bring him back to reality.

"H-Huh?" He stuttered to speak, and he was turning his head in every direction, didn't know where to focus his eye on, until he saw me standing in front of him. "O-Of course. Of course."

He averted his eyes away from me and just giving me fake smiles. He slugged his drink down until there is no more in his container. I raised an eyebrow, quite suspicious of his actions right now. As far as I know, he wasn't like this when he's talking to me before, except that time when he lied to me about his father.

"Is something the matter?" I asked, tilting my head to catch his attention.

"N-Nothing." He denied, but his voice made my suspicion increased, unsure if I'll believe what he was saying right now. I know that Cainne was somewhat the one who will try to lie, but I still can read his gestures. "I just… remembered something."

He lowered his head, grieving for something that happened in his past, which I know nothing about, and wouldn't attempt to ask. His eyes were pleading, trying to stop his sadness from showing, but I know it's there. Come to think of it, I didn't know much about his life then and now. Maybe, I'll ask about it once he's comfortable to talk.

Silence came back in our surroundings as none of us attempt to speak. I continued to stare at the illuminated town as I did earlier, but the quiet atmosphere is still bothering me, making me take a peek of Cainne's actions.

"Hey."

I almost jumped off of my position as I heard a familiar voice that was not coming from my companion. My cheeks flushed all of a sudden, started to get nervous if someone saw me peeking at him. I slowly turned around to see Dalary with her hands resting on her waist, as he gave us both a raised eyebrow.

"I see you both got a little chat here." She said, still not lowering her eyebrow, and started glaring at us with her narrowed eyes.

"Wanna join?" I asked, trying to hide the embarrassment I'm feeling right now. She turned her head around me and still gave me the look.

"Do you want me though?" She tried to bounce off my question back to me, in which I didn't have the answer to it. I just contracted my eyes at her, telling her that I wasn't planning or expecting something to happen. I really can't escape from her eyes. Unlike humans, tendrins are aging slower. Dalary had been the same ever since I was still a little girl, and she had always been by my side until I grew up to be an adult, so she knew a lot about me.

"Uhh…" Cainne interrupted, looking at the both of us side by side. We turned around to look at him, who had no idea what was going on with our conversation. "I'll get some… wine over there."

With that simple excuse, he immediately ran downstairs and left the rooftop, abandoning us both to continue the conversation. It looks like he doesn't want to deal with any of us for now.

"Where's Kandani?" I said out of the blue, which made her turned around at me with knitted eyebrows.

I know that she aimed to corner me with my interests to Cainne, but I wouldn't let her do that. There's nothing going on with us, to be honest. It's just that there's something about his whole presence that kept me pulling towards him, and I still don't know it yet.

With me, waiting for her answer, she sighed deeply, felt defeated.

"He's taking a nap. You know that tendrins and scarnets are polar opposites– BUT NEVER ENEMIES." She answered as she leaned towards me, emphasizing her last words to mock me about a general issue. Everyone knows that encantors despised humans, and vice versa, so she pulled that card out to take revenge on me earlier." They don't like loud noises and celebrations."

"I-I see." I replied, got shot by her insult in between her explanations. I only know scarnets not liking any sort of parties and festivals through books, so this is the first time I've witnessed something that I can only read in papers and somewhat, it made me excited.

After that short conversation, we stared at the party held at the bottom of the house. No tendrin was walking towards their homes to take a nap. Everyone was willing to spend the night having a lot of fun in their life. If only I, along with Farin, have a peaceful and contented life, I would plan a lot of fun things to enjoy.

"Ughh…" Dalary complained, in which I turned my attention to her. "…that's why I don't want to be here."

"I shouldn't have decided to come here in the first place." She rested her hands on the wooden fences of the roof and buried her chin between those, her eyes are half-open.

"Why?" I asked, even though I partially knew what's the reason behind. When I was a kid, she is always talking about how difficult it is to become a tendrin, especially if someone wanted to search for a work that required serious employees.

"Because they do this, every time!" She raised her head and started pointing the whole town with her hands. Her eyebrows reached her eyes as she gritted her teeth, despising what the others were doing. "They have no limits!"

"There's nothing wrong with it," I responded with an honest opinion. There's nothing wrong with what they are doing, at least for me. I've never been to a proper party before, so this kind of thing made me amused.

"There is!" She yelled once more, releasing all of her anger that she should have given to her family, towards me. I couldn't help but be nervous that I'm the one she was targeting. After that, she looked at the party once more, gnashing her teeth. "Because of me being one of them, people thought that I don't know to take things seriously."

I noticed her hands clenched and formed into fists. She then raised it in the air and smashed the fence with it out of anger. I can clearly see her face full of rage and loathe towards her own race.

"I wish I've never been a tendrin!" She finally shouted will all her might, releasing the anger she was keeping from the struggles she had been experiencing before. I know that she's complaining about other things every time, but I didn't expect her to hate her own kind that much.

"What did you just say?"

As everything was about to calm down after her yell, a familiar voice of a female came from behind our backs, making me jump again out of anxiety. I turned my head to take a peek and saw Dalary's sister, standing there.

"P-Pholly?" She spoke her name.

Her eyes showed the hatred that was flowing through her body, hatred at no one but the person that was standing beside me. I couldn't help but let my heart beat faster. I know that I've got nothing to do with this, but seeing my friend getting into trouble is making me nervous.

She started approaching Dalary with a fast pace, stomping her every step, her anger still remains. My companion couldn't help but to step back as far as she can, can't do anything after saying something that isn't good.

"You should be glad that I'm the only one who heard that." She whispered to her, still giving her glaring eyes, but loud enough for me to hear what she said. "If Mother heard it from your mouth, she will never let you go back here, ever again."

I took a step back further away from them, didn't want to get involved. I wanted to stop them both about their starting quarrel, but I don't have the courage to do that right now, especially they're tendrins. They're taller and stronger than me. Who will listen to a human like me?

"Umm… I think I should go–"

"No! You stay!"

As I was about to leave the scene, leaving them with their fight and waiting for someone to stop them, Pholly yelled at me with her deeper voice, shocking me in my position. The whole quiet and relaxing atmosphere we've got was no more, and it turned into chaos.

I gulped as she started to stare at me with her deadly glances. Now, without doing anything, I got involved in their fight.

"You wanna know what my sister's true color is?"