Other Friend

The friendless vampire finally found another friend after five years, and that friend is no other but Miracle.

Miracle talks to Galen about herself and he also talks about himself to her so it wasn't a surprise that they both easily got closer with each other.

As time went by, Galen learned to know that Miracle is fond of space, stars and planets. Whenever the girl looks up to the night sky and watches the moon and stars with amusement in her eyes, she would reach her hand dreamingly and say how badly she wanted to go to space to watch the stars closely.

If only Galen could bring the girl to the Galaxy and watch the Milky Way with her, he would. He knew the girl deserved to see how beautiful it is outside the planet earth. He only wants her to behold beautiful things.

"Do you know that Space is completely silent?" Miracle asked a question, breaking the silence between them.

Galen shakes his head gently as it is the first time he heard that. Miracle smiled because she is excited to tell the guy about it.

"Sound waves need a medium to travel through, and since there is no atmosphere in the vacuum of space, the realm between stars is always silent. There are plenty of noises here on planet earth because we have an atmosphere and air pressure that allows the sound to travel. As far as I can remember, it's also like that on other likely planets…"

"Do you know how many stars there are in the universe?" Galen asked Miracle in curiosity.

The girl thought about his question for a while before she answered.

"I basically have no idea of how many stars there are in the universe. Stars are uncountable so maybe… a zillion stars?"

Zillion is any uncountable amount.

Galen nodded his head to say that he understood what the girl said. 3 minutes later, Miracle started to share facts about the planets.

"Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun, does have ice on its surface. It is hot, but not too hot for ice. Venus does not have any moons just like Mercury. Mars had a thicker atmosphere in the past, while Jupiter—the most massive planet in the Solar System, is a great comet catcher. There's a field of ice and rock debris circling around the planet Saturn, and it is the reason why the said planet appears to have a ring when you look at it from afar. Uranus is more stormy than we thought and Neptune has supersonic wind…"

Miracle continued to talk to him about space topics for hours and Galen listened to her attentively. They didn't notice the time passing in a blink of an eye. It's been already 5 hours since the girl started the topic about space for their conversation.

They just stopped when Miracle fell asleep and Galen guided her head to lean on his shoulder while she's sleeping. He couldn't help but smile while remembering all the stories the girl told him earlier.

He glanced at the girl who's sleeping peacefully and raised his hand to tucks some strands of her hair behind her ear.

"All your stories are truly amazing, Miracle." he whispered.

He said it even though he knows the girl won't hear those words. Galen could sit anywhere and listen to Miracle talk, he wouldn't get bored. He loves listening to all of her stories especially when he sees the sparkle in her eyes while sharing it to him… He didn't get tired even once. He wanted to listen more.

Miracles' stories are beautiful and admirable. He felt like he was a kid listening to a story of a fairy tales coming from children's books.

Like an innocent child getting so engaged with the stories that their mom reads them during bed time. Miracles' stories are all innocent and pure, and he isn't complaining about it.

Days quickly pass by in a short amount of time, and Galen and Miracle are now in front of the flower garden which they found while exploring the forest.

Galen immediately felt uneasy when he remembered the garden at the orphanage—the garden where they celebrated Hina's birthday before and the place where he buried all his family members' bodies.

He felt like there's a thorn stucking on his throat and his hands were also shaking. His breathing became heavy as his heart started to rip apart. He could feel his emotions wanting to drag him down, but when Miracle turned to him while wearing a big smile on her face, with a flower stucking on her right ear, Galen immediately calmed down.

"This flower is so beautiful, do you know what's the name of this flower, Galen?" Miracle asked, having a child-like smile.

Galen looked at the flower she's pertaining for a couple of minutes before he stared at her face softly.

Faith, hope, courage, wisdom and admiration… that's what that flower symbolizes.

He didn't give any warning and closed the gap between them to give the girl a surprise hug.

Flabbergasted, Miracle was completely oblivious as to why the guy suddenly hugged her. She only asked him a question if he knew what the name of the flower was... She didn't expect that the guy would hug her.

"Iris…" Galen speaks, making Miracle blinked in confusion and swallowed unconsciously.

Iris? Is that the name of the flower she's talking about?

"I will call you Iris from now on." Galen said.

Miracle let his words sink into her mind before she smiled approvingly.

The name sounds cool and pretty so she didn't hesitate to agree on what the guy said and simply added Iris to her name. Someone would only give you a name if you are special to them.

Now, her full name is Miracle Iris Omari.

The idea of Galen giving her a name because she is special to him makes her happy. But she can't be happy fully because the more she gets closer to the guy, the more she forgets the real reason why she came to the black forest.

She shouldn't forget what's her real goal. So she reminded herself that she is here for her other friend and not for the guy.