Pinky Promise Me, Sky

-January 31st, 2446-

--Sky's Perspective--

"Let's get moving guys!" I yelled out to Dani and Carl. Dani still seemed upset about something, but Carl was as chipper as ever. We were slowly getting stronger in our fight against Orion, our time is getting closer and closer now.

The wildlife and greenery around us were mostly dead at this point. The little things left alive were the Redwood Trees we lived on. The world looked gray and dead, disappointing, to say the least.

Even on the beach, it was sapped of color. The sand looked like a bland yellow, almost brown at this point. The stone walls to our old base had fallen over because of the lack of support after we left, and the wooden buildings from within were almost as weak and disappointing as the sand beneath our feet.

"It feels like forever since we've been here!" Carl shouted out. I agreed, walking into the forest by where we put Domin's grave. The flowers left on it were dead, but that was to be expected. I quietly cleaned up the flowers and threw them into the ocean as the waves climbed up the beach.

"It's crazy to think it's been a couple of weeks now. Right? I think..." Dani asked. I nodded.

"It is. Time has flown by really fast. Some nights I can hardly sleep because of the anxiety. This was our start, it's always nice to come back. But, we have things we need to pick up at Ellie's house. Let's get it so we can come back and hang out here for a bit." I told Dani and Carl.

We walked along the beach. Carl and Dani weren't present for the memory, but I confidently walked past the beach where I once killed the deer that threatened our lives. That was my first exposure to death. I knew everything died, but causing it was a different feeling I hadn't known.

After a lot more walking and talking about pointless things, the three of us arrived at Ellie's house. It was in perfect condition, a perfect contrast to our stone walls and weak wooden houses. We walked up to her porch. Dani stood to watch outside, looking all around, while Carl and I gathered her belongings from her desk and bed.

It took us about ten minutes to collect everything, but we quickly finished and returned outside. Dani joined us for a walk back to our original base. The three of us sat on the overhanging rock overlooking the ocean. We didn't say a word, we only watched as the ocean waves crashed against each other in the distance.

"Let's head back," Carl said to us. I lost track of time, but I refused. Dani agreed with me, wanting to stay. "Then I'll head back with her things, you guys can stay here. Be careful." Carl said, departing from the rock.

Thirty seconds went by after that. I counted as painful silence was starting to deafen me.

"I don't want to be useless," Dani told me.

"Huh? What do you mean? You're not useless." I reassured her. Was this what was bothering her?

"You're learning so many things. You're becoming a leader, a better person, and all I'm doing is learning to fight. I'm just learning to kill. I can't keep up with you, no matter how hard I try..." Dani told me.

"I'm not learning these things to be better than anybody, I'm learning them to be enough for everybody. My leadership was lacking, it got Domin and Red killed. I won't ever have another one of you die on me like that again. No matter what it takes, even if I have to destroy myself with Corruption, I will not let anybody else die." I responded to Dani.

"Then, it's not because you want to be better?" She asked me.

"I do want to be better... but first, I have to be enough. I have to atone for my bad leadership and own up to my mistakes. I will do that by being enough first, and then I'll do better. By then, I'm sure you'll be right next to me as another leader. You'll never be useless to me, Dani." I told her. I felt my cheeks getting rosy.

Dani held out her pinky to me. What was this? "Then, pinky promise me!" She demanded. I was confused... what do I do?

Dani took my hand and folded my pinky around hers. "There! Now, if you lie, you'll have to cut off your pinky!" She yelled at me some more.

"You'd really take more off of my body like I'm not missing my right arm?" I asked, playfully of course. She got nervous and waved her hands back and forth to diffuse the awkward atmosphere she created. I couldn't help but laugh as she pouted out of irritation.

"Of course, I promise you. But, let's forget the pinky thing." I told her. I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, standing up afterward and stretching. "Come on, we should head back now," I told her. Dani quickly got up and followed right behind me. I felt hot... did the temperature rise?

Dani and I walked back to the elevator at the base of the large Redwood Tree, catching a glimpse of Ellie in the trees and waving to her. She must've seen Carl return earlier as well. I can't believe she was still up there...

"Hey, you two! I need some help moving some boxes to the volcano, interested in helping me?" Tavian asked. He peeked around the corner once we made it up the elevator. Both Dani and I agreed. She smiled.

"Looks like I'm already catching up to you. You better be careful, Sky!" Dani said. She ran over to Tavian to see what boxes she could pick up.

I guess in a way she was catching up. I already thought of Dani to be the third strongest in the group, besides Ullr and me. The only reason I thought of us as stronger was because I beat Ullr almost to death, and he was physically stronger than Dani.

But, the more I thought about it, I realized we all had our strengths and weaknesses. It wasn't fair of me to rank the people I know in terms of strength because some would really turn into useless members. I had to ditch that mindset. They were all useful to me.