One Mission

For a while now, the kid has been playing 'One Mission' on Tai's pad. The goal was simple enough; to use a barrel ranged weapon to kill anyone who are considered 'tainted'. People who were considered tainted were programmed to have blue skin and attack the player at close range. To win, the player only must successfully eradicate all tainted people in each location. For the kid, being presented with a foreign object that changes its appearance on a flat surface might've been too endearing, but its straightforward nature kept him from misunderstanding any instruction given by it. For a few tries, Krys just spent time figuring out how to properly maneuver through simple controls. But within a tin click, he managed to push through one level just fine. A sound of victory, along with the fanfaron tone of the ending theme, was enough to make him smile.

"How do I go again?" Krys asks.

Tai, although his concern grew, he still points to a button on the top right corner. "You press this button."

An hour or two had passed. Krys has just been playing the game, garnering wins, and losses this entire time. Tai took this chance to rest. Being chased down by historical beasts from a planet he is bleakly unknowledgeable about brought chills down his spine. Even just a subtle reminder could make both his hands tremble.

"My lord! No!" Krys shouts in frustration. "So close! How did that just happen?!"

He checks and presses a button with the symbols "retry", but it doesn't work, which frustrates him even more.

"What?!"

Tai looks over and notices that the five heart at the bottom right corner of the screen are now empty. "Game over." Tai tells him. "You have to wait for five hours for all hearts to refresh."

"I don't get it... but that's-" he coughs again, the blood from his mouth spilling to the screen, almost covering the whole character menu.

Tai stares for a while, as if he unaware what action to take. But he thinks he should. He grabs the orange pills inside his bag once more and lets the kid swallow it. He takes a moment to even out his breaths, lying on the stone-cold floor.

» » ------------- ¤ ------------- « «

A couple hours before dusk, the shade from a tall and faintly eroded hoodoo right across reaches the cave keyhole. Tai slowly reaches out his right hand to check if it is safe enough for him to walk across. It doesn't melt one bit, but it does cause extreme discomfort, as if there was an iron itch buried in his palms' flesh.

"Is it done?" Krys asks, just awoken from a nap. "Could I play again now?"

Tai checks on the device, and the hearts have in fact fully replenished, but he had something else in mind. He's currently using it and giving it to this kid for long would only delay him even further. That, though sorry, he didn't find favorable at the current circumstances. Besides, in his state, just like a father figure had told him, it's better to rest than fill one's mind with pointless entertainment during an infirm.

"You have to wait another hour." Tai replies.

"Aw. It sounds so long." he complains with a drowsy voice. "How long is an hour anyway?"

Tai ponders for a short while. That question really resonated with him. A vivid memory of asking this kind of question in the past.

"Device! Explain an hour like you would to a toddler."

.

.

Absolutely.

Imagine walking down a path with your mother. It would take you approximately 9,000 steps to reach your destination.

.

.

Krys' eyes squinted; his mouth curled upwards. "What did it say?" he asks in confusion.

"If you... walked. It'll take 9,000 steps to tell that an hour had passed."

"9,000? That number is so high." Krys pouts, turning his back as he wraps his arms around his neck.

Tai sighs, flips close the pad, and sits down beside the kid. "How are you feeling?"

Krys hugs himself tighter. "I'm scared."

That phrase. It didn't set so well in his mind. There have been two people who told him this exact phrase in this exact tone, and neither of them survived. To Tai, this was a curse. He felt the need to utter something, as the previous ones, he never even spoke once. Even to ask why. This had to change. At least, for him.

"...why?"

He couldn't understand this feeling of worry towards someone he'd only met. Only himself can realize that he could leave the kid to fester in this impetuous cave. His interactions with the one he truly cared about really shot a lingering arrow through his heart and softened it. Up until now, he blames himself for that. Maybe this time, he thought to himself, the outcome would change.

"I want to go home." Krys begged to himself knowing how rigorous it would be, his voice distorted and muffled being buried between his arms. "Sister... I hate it here."

Tai's eyes and mouth somewhat widened after hearing the first sentence, understanding what this kid is worried about. Being left alone with only but a stranger that isn't even the same as him. And being saved by this stranger after looking forward to seeing them in curiosity.

Somehow, it completely reflected his experience the first time he met a human on his own planet. A lone ship that separated from the mothership and crashed from afar. As a kid, Tai's curiosity got the best of him as he went towards it. Upon arriving, he only saw what remained of it. Bits and pieces of metal that circled around a bed of burning purple grass. And at the middle of it, a man. The man looked exactly like him, except the skin color. His was deep blue like the fungi the floated in the sky, and this man's were more darker orange, similar to what he'd see during sunset. The man was still breathing inside a thick green glass like substance, which only piqued his curiosity even more. Even then, he only wanted to greet this man and see what it is capable of. And yet, the cataclysm came. And the roles reversed.

"Is your home far from here?" Tai asks the kid.

"It is. It's very far."

"Do you... remember how you got here?"

"We rode horses together."

"...no. That's not what I meant—"

Krys turns around as his face lights up like a child that had just received a gift on their birthday. "Are you going to take me home, mister?"

His hopeful expression, it reminds him of the princess whenever they travel to the flee market. Her joy of contempt and hope whenever she wants to spend time with him. It now only lives within his heart. Seeing it again makes him smile himself. How contagious.

"Weren't you the one who's supposed to… bring me there?" he asks, obviously joking around.

Krys' expression turns sour. "It's not funny."

"I'm not laughing, am I?"

He looks down in embarrassment, couldn't even glimpse at Tai eye to eye. "We don't have horses. Going back home is impossible. Can we?"

"I… I have no clue."

Hearing this mundane reply from Tai, he felt off. It's as if he felt the need to be in control. It was his choice to participate in a mission foretold to be dangerous, so maybe it is time he actually does something rather than being a nuisance to the man he was supposed to rescue. As so, he holds on to his pendant around his chest and sighs.

Krys stands up by using Tai's crossed leg to push himself up and saunters to the other side of Tai whilst holding his chest tight. He's having trouble breathing, and Tai could hear it indefinitely.

Tai stands up hurriedly. "Kid, what are you doing?!"

He places his left hand on the outer shell of the cave and points towards the direction perpendicular the cave's opening. "The river is—", he gets interrupted by his bloody coughs, "—is that way."

With the temperature going down, it's already safe enough for Tai to be outside the cave, albeit in a limited time before he starts feeling discomfort once again. He steps outside the cave and notices the kid pointing to the hoodoo rock formation in front of them. Behind it lies the ever so distant river.

"If we follow the river back, we could—", coughs interrupt again, "—we could get to the city."

No matter how relieved Tai was upon hearing this news, he can't help himself to stop worrying about the kid's state. "Stop being reckless! Where's the cloth I… I gave you?"

Krys strides back inside the cave and sits back down at his original spot. The once clear, white cloth he took out from his pocket is now drenched in blood. Covered, not even a single speck of white or the purple floral pattern could muster. It's clear he has been using it these past hours.

That napkin was a gift before her passing, so Tai cherished it well. To see it covered in human blood almost made his eyes water. He stared at the cloth, questioning himself whether he should have given it to him in the first place. These impulsive actions, should it be halted? In his mind, he couldn't tell.

Tai follows him inside and sits back down as well. "Are you… still scared?"

His legs were tucked around his arms, head down as if trying to avoid eye contact. And his response; silence. Tai sighs and takes a glance at the hoodoo. It is tall, braised, like a tower that sat a boulder on its head. It took the shape of an hourglass, which makes him question how it could withstand all that pressure coming from the boulder. No matter how long, one day, the middle will shorten too much to the point of collapse. And at that point, the boulder had won.

"…I think—" Tai continues until he gets interrupted.

"You know what, I'm not scared anymore!" Krys states, rising his head buried between his arms. "Screw them!"

Krys stands up, his left hand clenched as he rises it above his waist, invoking determination. "Leave me alone here? Is this a test to see if I'm fit to be a nadjey?! Go to hell brother Owais, Vihaan, and sister Nazia!"

He removes his footwear and throws it to the cave wall out of frustration before continuing. "I will go back to the city with mister Tai, kick all of you in the crotch, and show you that I am super fit to be a nadjey! Just you wait!"

He catches up to his own breaths, before sitting back down. He then turns his head to the side to look at Tai, only to see a man trying his best to hold his laughter.

"What?" Krys asks, his face slowly becoming red.

"N-nothing." He lets out a couple chuckles. "You… you resemble her a lot."

Krys groans in embarrassment but sets it aside and holds out his hand up in that air with his palms flat and exposed. "We can do it."

Letting his imagination run, it still confuses Tai. Staring at Krys' hand, his instinctive response was to raise his own hand as well, like an oath, something he is more familiar about. Krys' accelerates his palms towards Tai's palms as it created a single clap noise.

"Great! We're friends now."

Tai stares at his own palm, the one Krys' slapped. "What did… we just do?"

"It's a high five. You do it with your friends."

"Oh…"

With his eyes still focused on the palms as he bent his fingers one by one, Krys could only comment one thing. "You're weird, mister."