Over the Void

Chapter 8: Sick Day.

Confined to the bedspread, Royal fully expected a dull day. He didn't whine about it, that wouldn't solve anything. But he knew from the moment he woke up with a sore chest, it would be a long and slow day. Allegedly, Eldrie was elsewhere, so he wasn't expecting her to pop out of nowhere and give him a heart attack. Instead, it was just him and Esther, alone in a cave.

He looked around in the dim light. Esther entered the cave holding some sort of porridge.

"Good morning!" She said, happily. "Eldrie showed me how to make porridge this morning to help you feel better!"

She was absolutely glowing in Royal's eyes. Her positivity couldn't be beat. Complacently, Royal indulged himself in the food Esther had spent time making for him. But it was actually really good, like it was sweetened or something.

"Hey, what's in this? It's really good." He asked between mouthfuls.

"Uh, Eldrie put some kind of seeds, some water, and a sweet juice from river plants." Esther said. Eldrie had told her what the ingredients were called, but Esther didn't recall at the time.

"Ah, that makes sense..." Royal nodded. "Here, try some." He offered the dish back to Esther.

"But it's for you..." Esther said, uncertainly.

"Food is better when you share it, though." Royal said, sort of teasingly. He held out the stick he was using to eat. "Open wiiide!" He joked.

Esther took it seriously, to his surprise. And she enjoyed every second of it. But she didn't have much, just a couple bites before insisting Royal eat more.

"Alright, I'll finish it. Thank you Esther." He smiled up at her, a gentle smile. And he then proceeded to dig into his porridge with renewed fervor.

After eating, the full knowledge of how uneventful the day would be sink in. Even if he could do art or writing, he had nothing to use. He couldn't move around, so no training or cooking. He just sat and could talk to Esther if he wanted to. 10 minutes or so of crushing silence passed before Royal decided he might as well. As long as they'd been together, they hadn't talked much about their lives.

Of course, asking this was another matter altogether. So he went the slow route. "Hey, Esther. Since there's nothing to do, we can get to know each other better maybe." He stated.

"Hmm? I guess. What did you want to know?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, uh, what was your family like? Before... You know..." Royal only then realized how insensitive that sounded.

But Esther took it in stride. "I don't really remember. I didn't get to be with them long. Void Elves aren't very well liked... But my mother had a very strong laugh and smelled like lilacs. I remember that much." She said, mentally pushing away the bad side of her past memories. "What about yours? You never told me."

"My mom worked a lot, so I didn't see her that often. And my dad wasn't always around. Sometimes he would disappear for days straight. I didn't have any siblings, either. So, it was lonely a lot." He said. "You know, you're the first friend I ever got that stayed around this long. And that means a lot to me."

"Why did your other friends leave?" Esther asked, looking sympathetic.

"Well, I didn't do much of anything. I'd text them sometimes, asking how they were, but usually I would sit around, kinda like  this actually. But instead of talking, I just watched television." Royal replied, forgetting for a moment that Esther didn't have a great understanding of electronic devices.

"Text...? What is a text?" She asked, curiosity peaked.

"It's a short little message you can send to people, and it gets there much faster than writing a letter." Royal answered. Esther nodded in understanding. "It sounds useful..."