Rainfall Chronicles: Amelia Reinhart

Chapter 9: My Glimpse of History

Amelia: Chapter 9 — My Glimpse of History

It's been a whole day since that conversation with Mr. White Hair.

Right now, I'm back on the forest trail I used to escape... except there's a small difference than the last time I was here...

"Are you just going to follow me the whole way?" I look back at my savior who was following me the whole way back.

He shrugs his shoulders.
"No, not the whole way. Once we get close, I'm going to leave the rest to you."

I scoff at him.
"Then what's the point of you accompanying me if you're just going to stand back?"

He catches up with me.
"To protect you of course."

Is this guy for real? I'm a lot tougher than I look, you know.
"Oh, how chivalrous." I say sarcastically.

He gives me a dead serious look.
"Don't you know?! There's been stories going 'round that a beast who attacks anyone on sight that lives in these very woods! In fact, my father and I were almost killed by these beasts a few months ago!"

I stop dead in my tracks.
"A-Are you for real...?! So those rumors were true?!"

He looks at me again.
"Nah, but you believed it, didn't you?"

This prick... I don't even respond. I just groan, and continue walking faster. He tries to speed his own pace up, but I start walking even faster to try and avoid him. Was it petty?— Yes. Bite me.

He tries to talk to me from behind.
"Wow, haha... that isn't how you're supposed to treat the guy who saved you. After I so graciously let you stay the night at my place."

Man... he just had to bring that up. It's true — he let me stay the night. He only showed me one room, but I could immediately tell that his place was massive; I highly doubt that this guy lives alone...

I remain silent, but I slow down allowing him to catch up. He's walking slightly faster than me now, so he eventually begins going farther out. I'm almost tempted to just go in a different direction and watch him walk away without noticing me...

Before I can complete my thought, however, he stops moving and looks back at me from afar. Huh... at least he's well-mannered enough to check back on me. He pulls out a small umbrella from his bag. As he opens the umbrella, he looks back at me and gives me a smile.

Is he... suggesting that we share an umbrella?

Well, I wouldn't be opposed to the idea...

To hell with it!— Why am I even overthinking about this anyway? It's just an umbrella... I'll just walk over and thank him...

But as I approach closer, he begins walking away. I try to speed up to catch up with him, but he's walking away even faster now. I stop walking after I realize that this was the game we were playing now. God, this guy is even pettier than me...

Whatever... it's not like I wanted to share an umbrella with him. I stop even trying to chase after him, staying back at a constant pace. I think he realizes that I'm not going to play along with what he's doing, and he begins slowing down to allow me to catch up.

Finally... it feels like we've been going nowhere with this... 

...?

Even though the sun is already setting...?!

What?! I didn't check the time before we left, but no way we've been walking for this long!

I look over to the west where the sun is setting. I... guess it's been that long if I don't think about it too much, but it's almost like... time just skipped or something, and I didn't notice.