Chapter 14: Outsider

...Lyra felt frail and dreary. She felt hot and lightheaded with numb fingers and cold tips.

Her breathing was shallow and feverish. Her back was cold with sweat and she struggled to maintain composure.

'... It's happening again...' she thought silently to herself, placing an arm against her aching head.

She had been feeling feverish for a while now. At first, it came within short intervals of striking headache and dizziness, but as time passed, those intervals fell and became shorter.

It started not too long after she began traveling with Huey. Her eyesight would blur out and fade through, one second as she would miss her footing, and revert the very next.

'Get a hold of yourself, Diego...' she struggled as she shook her head to ward off the dizziness. Not the smartest move but works regardless, even if shortly.

"...Are you okay?" 

She raised her heavy head to Huey's steady voice and met his red eyes. 

Lyra blinked. It was slow; everything around her felt unclear and murky.

And that was bad.

She could not let Huey know she felt unwell. He would abandon her. What was the use of having someone tag on with you if that person was just going to slow you down?

Lyra held her head and lingered for a minute.

"I'm fine." She said taking deep breaths to calm herself.

Heuy remained still and impassive. Eventually, his ears perked on a not-so-distant sound from a corner.

He sharply turned his head and coldly narrowed his eyes.

"Someone is here." He uttered coldly.

And Lyra's eyes widened after a few short seconds at his choice of words.

"... Someone?" She said, confused.

Then she felt cold.

Huey on the other hand reached for his black sword placed down on his left side. His red eyes glowed dangerously and his next words came out in literal growls.

"I'll give you three seconds, come out." He let out his aura.

"One."

 He declared.

"Two..." The person behind the corner shuddered and a figure slowly emerged partially.

Lyra's eyes widened further and Huey drew back his aura, his way of showing his surprise.

The person from the corner continued to shiver and tremble. She was a little girl not much older than the age of 5 to 6. She had short brown hair braided with colorful feathers, fair skin with strange tattoos painted on her face and around and eyes, and a beaded necklace around her neck. The little girl was dressed in a single-piece native gown and stood barefoot against the rough floor.

Huey observed her warily for a moment then stood up in place.

"Who are you?" He questioned and it was Lyra who gave an absent-minded reply.

"An Outsider."

.

.

.

.

...Huey stood for a minute with silent and not-so-subtle judging eyes over the trembling little girl, a frown deepening on his white face.

"...Hmm. I don't get it." He protested with a grunt then turned his head back to Lyra behind.

"What's a little kid doing all on her own out here? You called her an Outsider, what does that mean? And most importantly, what's with her?" He barraged her with questions.

Lyra didn't reply and stood to her feet, carefully masking her unstableness, before slowly approaching the girl.

She observed the girl's whimpering behavior and said to Huey instead.

"Maybe you should give her some space, I think you're scaring her a bit."

"Oi. Did you just call me ugly?"

"... I don't understand how you got that from what I said."

Huey reserved his comment with a small grunt and ultimately withdrew from the girl according to Lyra's suggestion.

From the back, he silently watched warily, and on guard, at the interaction between the whimpering kid and Lyra that unfolded.

Lyra swallowed down a gulp and took slow, steady, and careful steps toward the girl to avoid startling her. Then she softly called out to her with a small smile.

"H...hey there," she stuttered — "What's your name?" She asked and the girl lingered.

The girl remained partially hidden behind the corner but eventually fully stepped out and revealed her whole self. She looked passed Lyra and turned her brown eyes towards Huey at the back instead.

Then her big round eyes slowly widened in awe as she peered into those red eyes.

"Pretty..." She whispered in almost hypnotic mesmerization, drawn into those red visages.

Huey smirked then turned his head towards Lyra.

"On second thought...I kinda like this little fella." He said.

'...She ignored me, didn't she? She totally ignored me, huh.' Lyra thought depressingly to herself.

"So, you little brat. What's your name," Huey took half a step forward and asked then paused to think, "You do have a name, right?" He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

The little girl hesitated, still momentarily entrapped by his gaze, then withdrew and lingered.

"Addy," she nodded.

"Addy?" Lyra approached from behind, "is that your name?" She asked.

The girl turned and then nodded once again.

Then Lyra drew forward in a lean.

"What are you doing all the way out here, little Addy?" She asked amiably and the little girl, Addy raised a small hand and pointed a little finger back at Huey.

"I was following big bro." She said and the two shared a confused glance.

"What?" Huey blurted.

"Why...did you do that? And where do you come from? What about your parents?" Lyra asked.

"Hmmm..." The girl hummed as she thought with a struggling expression then said haphazardly.

"Addy saw big bro with pretty eyes and fair skin beat up the bad monster and thought big bro was strong. So Addy followed big bro to bring him for help." Then she nodded at herself, clearly satisfied with this explanation.

"Help? What do you mean for help? And you still haven't told us about your parents." Lyra questioned and the girl's expression fell dark.

"Addy's mommy and daddy, and everyone else back home is sad and scared of a big bad monster bully. So Addy saw big bro and decided to ask for help to teach the big bad monster a lesson!" She explained and pumped her fist.

Lyra's brows could only wrinkle at the revelation, not certain what to make out of all of it. So instead she shot a glance at Huey who was quiet at the back.

Huey returned her gaze with a gaze of his own that said "I have no idea" and shrugged nonchalantly.

Lyra sighed then straightened up and put her hand on one of her pockets before revealing a strange tubular container.

"Hey, Addy. Are you hungry? This isn't much but it's something." She waved the tube before the girl while debating this action internally.

'Synthetic paste won't cause her stomach problems, right?'

While Addy slurped in the dry and tasteless paste and made faces, Huey and Lyra privately tried to make sense of the current situation.

"Who is that girl?" Huey was the first to ask and Lyra shook her head with a tired sigh.

"I'm not sure," she said, "but she's most likely an Outsider judging from the way she looks."

Huey frowned lightly.

"You've been mentioning this for a while now, but what exactly is an Outsider?" He asked and Lyra lingered, gathering her thoughts and choosing her words.

"And Outsider isn't what but who," she said, "ever since the first invasion and the fall of civilization and the world, mankind was reduced to dwindling numbers — the 'lasts' of our kind. Fortunately, this was only so because humanity migrated behind the 'Walls', away from the poisoned air and tainted atmosphere."

"The Walls?" Huey interrupted with a question.

"Yes," Lyra nodded then continued, "these were Domed fortresses, a last line of defense for the human race against the Elder Gods. The survivors of the human race after the first invasion —the remnants of mankind— abandoned the Earth's tainted surface and territories to hide behind the safety and purity of these Fortresses, with only a handful scattered across the globe."

Lyra paused abruptly. The tongues of flames from the fire played a somber reflection against her azure eyes.

"But not all of mankind could manage to get behind the Walls. Despite our population vastly reduced, there were still too many of us and only seven Fortresses, with even more limited space and resources..."

Huey remained silent as he listened. His gaze lingered aloofly on the little girl. 

So did Lyra's as she sighed next.

"History says we had to cut our losses..."

"I see." Huey broke the silence that came next with a casual response.

"So those who couldn't get behind the safety of the Walls as you call it were left to die." He said plainly.

Lyra frowned at the bluntness and choice of words. He was right, but that didn't mean she liked what humanity had done, despite the circumstances.

"Supposedly," she sighed, "as you already know, the Earth is contaminated, and the territories behind the Domed Fortresses are the only places left unadulterated and purified even. Mankind reckoned that those outside would die in a matter of time. Except they didn't... somehow." Her eyes narrowed with a deep meaning.

Huey hadn't failed to notice that reaction but didn't bother much about it.

"And those are who you call the Outsiders."

Lyra lingered.

"Yes. There's not much known about them to be honest. But these people have braved the treacherous territories of the Earth outside the domes over the past seventy years...other than that and the fact we understand them to have a deep-rooted grudge and anger for obvious reasons... these people remain an enigma to we of the walls."

"So it's safe to say that little girl isn't a Knight as you call them?" Huey responded with a question without moving his unreadable gaze from the girl slurping on the tasteless content of the tube.

Lyra glanced at him and raised an eyebrow at the obvious question, bewildered by the meaning.

"Yes...? Knights are created behind the Walls of the Fortresses." She answered like it was obvious and Huey lingered.

Lyra watched Huey's still and distant mask slowly squeeze and tighten in a struggle. His forehead wrinkled and his brows furrowed while he hummed in thought.

"That girl," he said, with a frown, "she has "Mana"."

***

This shameless Author apologizes for the recent scanty chapter releases, and pleads for you to bare with them for only a little while to gather their thoughts.

I'll do my best to get a chapter out for tomorrow, already even started on it anyway. But in the meantime, follow up with my other Novel, "A Certain Magical Reincarnation", currently at 32 chapters and counting with daily updates.