Mysteries of Elabhia

Chapter 4

After a long day, they were exhausted. Alida and Cherith were resting in one of the empty bedrooms together, too tired from using all their energy and mana yesterday. Meanwhile, Aradia was outside of the base, the thunder and lightning ringing through her ears. She was leaning against the porch of the building with her arms crossed. She loved the ambience. It always put her at ease.

She closed her eyes as she was feeling a little tired... She let herself think about the past, and what she truly wanted... "If I do choose to go down this route... people around me will die... Do I truly want to see Cherith or Alida die...? I..."

As she opened her eyes, a boy with messy orange hair and orange eyes was in her face. She jumped awake, glaring at him. He seemed to notice her anger and quickly backed up, looking wary.

"Ah!- I mean- ahem... you're the new recruit, right? Welcome! My name is Candy, and you are?" Candy extended his hand out to Aradia with a grin on his face. After holding his hand out for 5 seconds, he realized Aradia wasn't going to take his hand. He retracted his hand while chuckling awkwardly.

"I saw Kezuna had given you three trials... Were they as hard as mine?" Candy noticed it was raining, so he stood next to Aradia, looking up at her.

"Ehhh... You're... not quite the talker, are you?" Candy questioned. He got no reply, so he let out a sigh, lowering his head.

Aradia glanced up at him, then let out a quiet sigh as well. "What do you want?" When she spoke, he immediately lifted his head, smiling. "Well, I just wanted to make friends with everyone in the association! It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am!" Candy chuckled and placed his hands on his hips. Aradia side-eyed him then went back to looking at the softwood porch.

"Friends..." Aradia repeated those words quietly. She then shook her head in disapproval. "And why would I want to be friends with you? You look like you can't even hold your ground against an owl." She crossed her arms, closing her eyes and relaxing to the sounds of nature again.

"Huh...? Well- I'm the great Candy, of course! Student of Chrys himself and!- Wait... what do you mean by that!? I can beat any owl! It's just an owl!— Wah!" Candy's sentence was stopped abruptly as an owl landed on his shoulder quite roughly, holding on with its sharp talons.

"Woah!- Hehe, H-Hey, Catcher... you... didn't hear all that stuff earlier did you?" Candy gave a nervous grin as the owl simply just lifted one of its talons, like normal owl behavior.

"Is this kid insane?" Aradia questioned while she watched Candy converse with an animal. She stared for longer than she intended to, but once the owl spoke with a perfect sentence, her eyes widened.

"Of course, I heard everything. Are you forgetting that owls have extremely good and accurate hearing? Might you keep your personal 'feats' to yourself, Candy." Catcher stated as he let out his usual hoots. He then flew away onto a nearby branch, grooming himself.

"Hey!... You didn't have to be so mean to me, Catcher! Come on, it was a joke... I'd never hurt you..." Candy walked up to the branch Catcher was resting on and stood underneath it.

Aradia just casually shook her head as she thought about these two.

"This... kid is... odd..." Aradia seemed puzzled by the odd duo. She simply watched as Candy tried to get Catcher to come out of the tree, having his hands above his head as he jumped, attempting to reach Catcher.

Aradia turned back to the gray sky, her gaze shifting toward the dark clouds. "Kiku..." She whispered in a hushed tone as she then went to look at the palm of her hand. Her gaze was immediately filled with dread and anger...

She shut her eyes, recalling the past...

Before she could think any further... "Aradia, yes?" The voice of Delahsia filled her ears. She immediately opened her eyes and averted her attention to her. Delahsia held a kind smile on her face to ease the young girl. "I spoke with Chrys. He told me what you had to endure. My condolences on what you've been through... No one deserves that." Delahsia stated and placed a hand on Aradia's shoulder.