The SilentWhisperer

Chapter 2 (part 2)

"Jade," Neco whispered the next morning. "Jade, wake up."

Jade sat up and rubbed her face. "I'm up, 'm up,"

Neco backed away and started to laugh, his eyes sparkling. He stood and cleared his throat, a smile still threatening to cover his face. "You drool when you sleep," His face contorted in an effort to hold back his amusement. He failed. He walked away from her, still laughing.

Jade sighed and rubbed the spit from her chin, but she was glad he had not held onto his anger overnight.

"We'll probably reach The Forbidden Grottos by nightfall," he went on, managing a calm voice. "But we should have been up about an hour ago, so then again, we might not."

We should have been up an hour ago? She shook her head, it wasn't even light out right now! Whoever was the 'them' that Neco had talked about must get up early. But she only rubbed away her sleep and stood up, swinging her satchel to her shoulder. She watched Neco gather his things and kick dust over the last dying embers of the fire.

She walked to his side. "So...why are you going to Tallpine Forest again?" she tried.

"Because I need to."

Jade rolled her eyes; she had known her attempt would be futile. She didn't press him though, so far he had been pretty tolerant of her questions, but she didn't want to press his patience.

She tried a different tactic. "Why are you out here alone, I mean, why aren't you with a few friends?"

Neco's cheery face froze, and then hardened into an ugly scowl. "I don't need friends," he glared at her, "I don't need anyone." He strode back to the path and walked along it, toward The Forbidden Grottos.

Jade stared blankly after him. Who was this boy who was so mysterious? How many secrets did he have? Why did he swing from mischievous to cold and back again? Why was she traveling with someone like this? She frowned. Did it matter? She hardly knew him, how could she expect him to trust her?

Jogging after him, she called out, "Hey I won't ask questions about you anymore! I'll come with you, I'm coming!"

Neco continued to walk, then, seeming to change his mind, stopped and waited for her to catch up. "Look, it's not you, okay?" he said when she reached his side. "But let's just leave it at that, alright?"

Jade nodded, biting her tongue to keep back the questions that burned in her mind.

They began walking, and Jade had to jog to match with his long stride. She tried to keep up, but before long she was gasping for breath. For someone who was not much taller than she was, he sure did travel quickly. After a few more minutes, Jade broke the silence. "Can we slow down a bit?" she asked.

Neco's face split into a smile. "Yeah," he said. "Sometimes I forget that all you normal people do is laze around all day." He grinned as she punched his shoulder playfully. "Even your punches are soft," he went on, "I'm always surprised when people like you do anything other than sit on your butt and eat all day."

She tried to respond, but he cut her off, mocking her teasingly any time she tried to offer up a protest.

"Well what makes you forget what a normal life is like, then," she asked, slightly irritated, when she finally grew tired of his teasing.

That wiped the grin from his face for a second, but then he only smiled at her and answered, "I don't live a normal life." He winked.

Jade sighed. He made it impossible to talk to him; so she wouldn't bother. All he did was tease her anyway.