Dawn- An age of Darkness

I spent the morning alone in a room. The old man went to the market alone. There would have been trouble if I had gone along with him. Meanwhile, Jowy was with Alisa in a room next to the one I was in.

Ever since I came to this house, Alisa was staying away from me, almost as though she was avoiding me. Maybe I was just imagining things or maybe was she really afraid of me or something? or perhaps she secretly hated me for letting Brenda die? After all, Brenda died for my sake they were pretty close.

Should I ask her? But that would make the situation awkward. In that case…

I just waited patiently. My turn will come anyway. Eventually.

The old man came back sometime later. He brought back a lot of stuff. Some of that stuff looked quite fancy, especially the slice of rib eye he brought.

The geezer along with Alisa made lunch: I really wished Jowy was involved more than just supervising though. The odor was still pretty extravagant.

"Eat well, this stuff was pretty expensive. Ha ha ha," the old man declared.

"Yeah, it\'s cooked well too," I said. The taste wasn\'t anything worthy of jumping around but it was definitely better than what I was used to.

Alisa puffed her chest in excitement. "Thank you for the compliment." This was the first time since all morning she interacted with me. Even if she hated me, she hid her animosity pretty well.

Wasn\'t the geezer the one who cooked this? Then why are you acting all high and mighty?

"That reminds me, I heard you want to come along with us?"

Naturally, act natural.

"Ye-yes."

Her stutters made me wonder a lot of things. But I maintained my composure. I had to know. "Why? I\'m sure you already know that this journey would be very dangerous. "

"I-know. But I want to."

Interesting answer.

"That doesn\'t tell me why." I pressed on.

The other two went pretty quiet. They were enjoying the food a bit too much.

"I lied about me not having any work and all that. I just couldn\'t stand that town anymore." She became embarrassed and hid her face behind her hands.

So you already lied before.

"Then your parents-" If one was a lie then there were possibilities of other ones being a lie too.

"That\'s- wasn\'t a lie. I\'m really orphaned. You see I\'ve always had this grand dream of traveling the world. But now that my parents are dead that\'s almost impossible for me." She made an innocent face but to me, that didn\'t seem all that innocent.

The other two weren\'t as surprised as I was. I got the impression that they already knew.

Again I\'m the only one who\'s left out, huh?

"But that doesn\'t mean-"

She didn\'t let me finish. "I\'d do anything… from cooking to washing. I\'d do all sorts of work. So please." She begged and her eyes trembled.

"I think we should let her come along Daarc. Or would you prefer the old man\'s food?" Jowy said.

Nice one! Who knew you\'d lack so much common sense. And weren\'t you the one who cooked!

Though it seemed like the old man and Alisa cooked, I did see Jowy maintaining order in the kitchen. Meaning this food tasted good because of him. After all, I had the old man\'s cooking for over three months. SO this kind of extravagant taste wasn\'t something he could pull of and I knew that like second nature. Of course, they thought I didn\'t know, so I didn\'t say it out loud.

I kind of knew both of the old guys were already fond of her. So I tried to get the information as a last resort. "But first you\'ll have to tell me the truth."

She tilted her head in confusion. Her bunny ears drooped. "What?"

"What did you see in that monster? Why did you react like that?" I knew I was assuming a bit too much, but there was no helping it.

She stayed silent for a few minutes. She looked down. Her tail twitched and I neared the limit of my patience. "I-I could sometimes hear monster\'s thoughts…"

"Just like the kid!" The old man couldn\'t hide his excitement. I was excited as well but didn\'t let it show.

But his excitement seemed a bit too real for it to be real. Meaning, he already knew. The very thought made a sigh escape my lips.

I see that\'s why you two are so damn impressed by this brat and want her to come along.

"Then how come you couldn\'t understand the statue?"

All that time Alisa acted like she couldn\'t understand the statue and more often than not she\'d made an offbeat comment about the things around us. At first, I didn\'t really pay attention but as things went on, my suspicions just increased.

"Actually I could but I-"She looked at the ground and toyed the ground with her feet. That was annoying and honestly, I was more or less pissed off by now.

"Do all beastmen have this talent?" I still didn\'t know much about this world in general let alone the beastmen.

"No-no. I was special. And that\'s why-" she paused.

"That\'s why?"

"My parents are dead. I was supposed to die too and-"

She didn\'t finish.

"Sigh* Very well. But you\'d have to pick up your own pace. We can\'t save your butt every time a monster shows up." Things weren\'t looking too hot for me anyway. She had valid reasons for traveling with us. It wasn\'t because she wanted to travel the world; rather it was because she had to be on the run constantly. And even with my tiny brain, I could surmise that much.

"I-I\'ll try my best," she said. Her hands cuffed her chest. She was determined. And looked kind of cute too. I always had a thing for everything bunny-like anyway.

"Don\'t blame me if you end up dead," I muttered. I didn\'t want to say it but it came out anyway.

My eyes had turned pretty lifeless when I said that. I shouldn\'t have been able to understand that unless I\'d seen the mirror behind the old man who sat right in front of me. I kind of regretted it. After all, she was just a kid.

Alisa looked at me with genuine determination. There were tears in her eyes but she didn\'t cry.. She reminded me, even kids could have iron resolves.