Meant To Be

Chapter Six

Artificer sat alone crying by the water, wishing that she had someone. Maybe the scavenger murdering part was too much...

She felt the pelt of another creature against hers and a paw carefully wipe the tears from her scarred eye. "You're okay," a voice said comfortingly and it was almost enough to convince Artificer that she was in fact okay. Too many terrible memories were racing through her head for her to be able to identify who was speaking, but all she could do was hope they would be okay with her talking about how she was feeling. She had to get this off her chest. Letting off small sparks due to her uncontrollable emotional level, she took a sharp inhale and began to speak. "I... I can't take this... I scared her away, didn't I? Could I have said something different? Was there a way this could have worked...?" Artificer didn't know why she expected this slugcat to know what she was talking about, but they seemed to understand. "What makes you think you scared her away?" She thought for a moment before replying. "Just the way that I couldn't control my emotions and I told her everything..." "I'm sure she still cares about you and wants you to be happy." "Quick, you should just leave now before I hurt you! I can feel an explosion coming..." Artificer often exploded when she experienced very strong emotions and it could sometimes destroy her surroundings depending on what emotion she felt. Grief and loss was one of the most destructive ones. "No, I'm not going to leave you." She opened her eyes to see who she was talking to but found that her vision was blurred by tears. All she could make out was an orange smudge of colour. Wait... orange? Blinking the tears from her eyes, she saw that it was Hunter who was sitting next to her. "Y... you didn't leave...?" She asked, barely daring to hope that this wasn't just a trick. "Of course I didn't. What happened to make you think-" she was cut off by a sudden explosion from Artificer that ruffled both of their fur and sent both of them into the air slightly.

As she recovered from the dazed state the explosion had left her in, Hunter laughed a bit as she rearranged her fur back to normal. "Aww, you look so cute when you're all flustered looking!" She continued to look admiringly at Artificer for several moments before she put her paws over her mouth in shock, realising what she had just said. Thankfully for Hunter, she was still too dazed from the explosion to notice what she had said. After she fully recovered from the explosion, the slugcat saw that Hunter was now the one who looked flustered, her face turning slightly red. "What's wrong? You're not sick, are you?" Artificer asked worriedly as Hunter shook her head. "Nope, I'm fine! I don't feel sick at all!" She looked at her with doubt but moved on. "Well, even if you are okay, we should go back to the den. It's going to get dark out soon." Artificer got up and began to make her way back to the shelter, looking back to see if Hunter was coming. "Actually, could we stay out a while longer? I like to watch the stars light up the sky before I go to sleep. It gives me hope that the world is a good place and almost makes me forget that I don't have much time left to do everything I want to in life..." Artificer turned back and followed Hunter up a hill and the two lay down next to each other on the soft grass. One nice thing about living in a world where it rained so much was that plants never dried up and the grass was always green. Unfortunately, the lush grass they lay on now was not the only kind of grass; wormgrass. There were patches of it on the hill that they had to be careful to avoid. Thankfully, they had managed to find a clearing where they were in no danger of being consumed by plants.

Next chapter will be a lot. Also, the wormgrass might seem oddly specific and for that I would like to say I made it to farm arrays a few days ago in my playthrough. Those of you who play the game will know my pain. Cover art not by me.