09: Meeting at the bonfire

There is no better word to describe what the unfortunate Brat lived than:

Irritating.

Wasn't it enough to treat her with disdain? Apparently not, he had to hang it upside down from a tree with the best fire ever under. All because she didn't want to cut her hair that, miraculously, grew to her waist in less than a year.

"Okay, I understand that you like your useless hair, so this time I'll be nicer and give you the opportunity to keep it" were Seng's malicious words, who as was routine ripped off Airys.

"Why do I still believe you?!" she said without knowing that Seng's voice was similar to that of her great uncle who used to tease her since she was little. It should be noted that those jokes were at least funny.

It was fortunate that the wind during that night prevented the smoke from reaching her, however, if it let go of her hair or did not flex upward that giant flare would touch her beautiful waterfall and dry it in seconds.

She at any moment could leave, yes, wouldn't really cost her nothing.

But…

"If you can protect your hair hanging like this until dawn, I promise that I will never do anything bad to your hair again"

"I swear I'll kill him…!" She gave in to exhaustion and twisted her hair to relax her abdomen. "Later ... after I'm as strong as him... yes, I'll make him kneel before me... Of course! Haha ...! Ha... haha ​..." she forced the worst laugh from her to keep from sobbing.

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"Come on... come on... please now... now come out..." said Airys with her cloudy eyes fixed to the east.

The fire had almost completely subsided by now, but those hours hanging from it had destroyed all the energy from her in her stomach and the ones she went through on her head caused her dizziness and a terrible headache.

"Please…"

A halo of light crossed the branches of the trees and; as if it were a corpse, he dropped down with just the angle necessary to avoid falling into the embers.

"I did it..." she murmured immersed in the limbo of those who dream.

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The situation was a huge nuisance, he was already tired and needed to find some way to defend himself if he wanted to be able to escape to freedom.

Ehcsos's life didn't seem as easy as he thought it would be.

Ironically, he was only able to flee thanks to that pair of subjects that also wants to capture him and knowing the abilities of his para-siblings the only viable option was to go to the mountain.

He had been around for a day and a half, and hardly had any idea where to go.

Now that he thought about it, he never had a place to run, it's natural when you're an orphan and run away from your Home.

"Should I get caught?" he muttered. "Sure, they don't know and they wouldn't believe me… ah…" he sighed. "If only I hadn't been an idiot, what would it cost me to keep my mouth shut? Maybe my future would be to use that place to my advantage, but nooooo, Mr. Genius had to go around telling everyone about his great ability."

He leaned his head from a tree.

"Maybe with a sword… it wouldn't make a difference, but it would be something…"

He gritted his teeth and teased a little.

"I have to continue…" he gave the log a light punch. "Although what nonsense, finding a sword in the middle of a mountain, hahahaha.

He took a few steps with a desperate laugh that caused a real one in seconds because of how ugly he was.

"I shouldn't have hung out with Rin so much." he thought as his nose reacted to the smell of burning in the environment, he turned his head and there his bad joke became real. "Hahaha a sword!"

Without doubting for a second that he had ingested something mind-blowing he trotted straight to the rock where the sword rested without paying any attention to the human behind it.

"I say this doesn't change anything, not at all that it does, but boy am I lucky!" He bent down, unsheathed part of the sword, and was delighted by how neat she looked. "Nonono, Markus was right."

He raised his face to heaven, together with his palms and with the sincerity of his soul said:

"I know I had denied you... but if this was you... please help me out of this..."

He stayed there a minute, Markuz had told him that he had faith many times, that he who is on top always responds if he has patience, pure nonsense. Although good, he did not lose anything trying, nor that he had much dignity left with everything he has done.

"What are you doing, Seng?"

Ehcsos heard Airys's soft, sleepy voice. The white skin that had managed to keep her delicate through the years on the farm was a little roasted in exchange for keeping intact that light blue hair that resembled a piece of clear sky. Her eyes with her faint silver gleam managed to keep Ehcsos from noticing her huge dark circles, her worn training clothes and the dirty brown leather bib he carried on top of her.

"Wasn't 'He' supposed to be... well a 'he'?" Ehcsos said.

After she rubbed her eye, Airys was able to focus her vision. The light was coming from upstairs so it had been at least six hours since she hit the ground. She did not say anything to the boy without first stroking her hair, smelling her ends and remembering how sweet her mother was when talking about why his hair was like that, in short, she needed to make sure that that idiot keeps his word.

Echsos was captivated by that display of tenderness and weakness. He scrunched his face and ultimately believed that she was something sacred.

"Are you coming to help me ?!"

"Eh…?" Airys said.

She took a good look at him.

He was a boy with brown hair and brown eyes alike. Had strangely fair skin for someone of a brown race that was surely from a hatred of being in direct sunlight. His clothes were worn and dirty so it was obvious that they were the only ones he had.

"Who are you?"

"Ehcsos."

"What are you doing with my sword?"

"It's yours?"

"Yes."

"Hm..."

"Give it to me please."

"You see..." Ehcsos stood up, tying the sword behind him with the belt of the scabbard. "I'm in a desperate situation that I don't expect you to understand so I need it." Echsos made a smile with the same kindness that a debt collector does when he comes to take your goods.

"No kidding. Give me back my sword." Airys shook off sleep as she said that. Her eyes were filled with the rage accumulated over the long, painful months. "I just had a crappy night because of him" she pointed behind Echsos and he turned his head to see.

Airys smirked and didn't waste a second running straight for Echsos.

"I'm just going to hurt him a little" she thought half a meter from him.

"How sweet" Echsos said returning her gaze to her as if he expected her.

Airys extended her arm directly to Echsos's chest, he gave a not at all slight blow to the wrist to prevent it from reaching the belt, he proceeded to grab the belt that still did not fit well so that the sword would not shake too much while with his hand Left blocked Airys's right hand.

"What the hell?!" Airys thought.

"Lying is always a good option" Echsos used his leg to push Airys's, who did not see him coming due to exhaustion. "If they use their limbs for cover, hurts their limbs."

"Eh?" Airys thought, puzzled by the similarity of Echsos's words to Seng's teachings.

Ehcsos did not stop there and while he smiled confidently, he turned his belt hard to deliver a powerful blow to the rib that ended up destabilizing Airys and thus serving it on a silver platter in front of him.

"Feel free to break, cut or…" He placed the sword in her forehead. "Kill."

Airys broke into a cold sweat and his tears started down his cheeks.

"Calm down! I know what-I said kill but it's because my power is that I can read your/" Echsos covered his mouth with his free hand. "I'm not going to hurt you..." he expressed, still covered. "It's that seriously, seriously seriously, this sword might save my life."

Echsos has a very peculiar ability. His soul, being close to that of others, is absorbing knowledge from others, something like a slight ability to read minds, only that the deeper or hides the information, the longer it requires. Of course the opposite is also true and what people think frequently or would not find it difficult to express instantly passes to Echsos without effort.

That is why he himself was able to know her little elaborate technique apart from feeling when her state went from concern to a strange confidence and aggressiveness that came from the perception of another.

Also, the word "Useless brat" crossed his head.

He turned as fast as he could and lashed out with the sword.

Before even seeing the person behind him he concentrated on reading his soul to find out what he would do. Would he dodge to the side, back, would he have a weapon or power that could stop the attack? His response was the one he least expected:

Trap.

"Are you going to take the sword? Not sure it's me... "

That micro second of thought was of no use to him because he ignored a reality that he knew first-hand, there are subjects that are broken.

Seng take the sword with his fingers and stopped it dead.

Ehcsos nervously dedicated another quick thought to reading his soul only to run into the same answer as before and filled with a sense of urgency he tried to use both hands to free the sword from Seng's grip.

However, without pause Seng settled his hand around him regardless of the edge and in one jerk caused the boy to fall and used his other hand to grab one of his legs and lift him upside down.

"Oh no" Echsos muttered as he read Seng's following intention:

KICK.