Ness
As the rain fell, Ness approached the cabin. Despite the dilapidation of the building, he was sure this was the one. In the distance, he could hear the trickling of the river flowing through valley nearby. The rain washed his baseball cap, and he tilted it to keep it away from his eyes. Ness gripped the wooden bat tightly as he wrapped around the fence surrounding the entrance to the cabin. He was immediately met with two of the blue-clothed men he'd seen all over the village.
"Who's there?" one of them boomed, squinting through the rain.
Ness opened his mouth and shut it again, apparently lost for words.
"A silent man is a violent man!" the other bellowed, unsheathing a paintbrush. "Blue, blue!"
At once, the two men shrieked in a vaporous attempt at a war cry. Pounding footsteps slammed against the wet grass as they approached. Ness stood for a moment, temporarily disarmed, before readying his nerves. His stomach lurching in anticipation, he did his best to act confident before charging.
Paula
The crows were filled in with a new noise. Yelling and the peculiar tone of what sounded like a stick hitting a watermelon echoed faintly through the wooden door. Scuffling. Yelling. A few groans. Then, silence that only the downpour filled. The room remained as dark as ever under the night, but a feverish energy descended on Paula.
Paula sat up swiftly, more alert than she had been for days. In those preceding, she had never heard noises like these before. She wiped the hopeful smile creeping up on her face for a moment, and tried injecting rationality into her thoughts. Maybe the guards outside got into a fight with each other or something. Maybe one of the villagers got too close.
But maybe…?
Despite all attempts at playing down the situation, Paula felt her hands tremble. She headed carefully towards the bars of the cell, wrapping her fingers around the cold iron. The teddy bear lay abandoned in the corner.
She was about to call out cautiously when the door slammed open.
Ness
By then, the moon had already risen high up in the sky, hidden behind the rain clouds. The inside of the cabin was completely devoid of light. Sopping wet, Ness carefully entered the front door, hefting his bat in preparation.
"Is-is anyone else in here?" he inquired, injecting as much authority into his voice as he could. The trembling still present embarrassed him.
Silence preceded the response.
"Just one." A girl's voice – instantly recognisable.
"Paula?"
A small murmur of assent came from somewhere within the cabin. Using one hand, he reached blindly for a light switch that didn't exist. As he thumped his hand against the wall, he felt its dust and grime underneath his fingers.
"There's a fireplace to your left, I think the two cultists outside put some stuff in it already."
"So it's a cult," Ness spelled out slowly, "I thought they were just really specific interior decorators…"
His voice trailed off as the insensitivity of his joke came to him. How could being kidnapped be even slightly comedic? Ness heard a faint laugh in response and nearly shriveled up in embarrassment.
Ness edged over to the left. As his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness of the cabin, he saw vague outlines of a figure in the cell.
There had been a fireplace in his old house. Ness removed a match from the pack in his bag, and after a few moments of coaxing the flame, the kindling beneath caught. After a few moments of the minute crackling of the flame licking up the wood, Ness spoke.
"So, how long have you been kept up in here?" he asked, carefully monitoring the fire. He supposed he should've looked at her when he spoke, but maintaining the fire provided a busy job. Eye contact was never really his strong suit, anyway.
"Well, since I tried to send that first sort of distress call, I guess it's been around four or five days."
The slight stammer and uncertainty persisted in her voice.
"Has it been really bad? In here, I mean." As soon as the question escaped Ness's lips, he flinched at his own stupidity. How could it have been anything other than bad?
"I haven't had much to eat, and it gets pretty cold in here. What do you think?"
There wasn't much hostility in her voice, but he still felt childish all the same. He choked out a small sound of agreement before focusing his attention on the fire. When the resulting flame was strong and warm, and his clothes mostly dry, Ness turned over to face Paula.
Paula
With the opening of the door came a rush as forceful as a tornado. Even the Carpainter's energy wasn't this overwhelming.
The darkness of the room and his concentration on the fireplace meant she didn't see much of his face. From the back, the boy was as unassuming as could be. A striped shirt, slightly faded from wear. A faded tan backpack slung around his shoulder, bulging as if threatening to burst. Jeans and sneakers, all worn from use. On the surface, he didn't appear too athletic, but the grace with which he moved suggested hidden dexterity.
A baseball cap adorned his head, partially covering his onyx hair. He must be one of the only people left in the world not to wear it backwards, she thought idly. Total renegade.
By the time he had deduced that the fireplace was well-lit, the cabin was already awash in a pale orange glow. Paula welcomed the warmth.
The effects of the journey had already taken their toll on Ness. As he faced her, he caught sight of his thin face, inlaid with small scratches and scars. If she'd seen him on the streets, she probably would've pegged him as a problem child, if not for the innocence still impregnated in his eyes.
Paula had envisioned someone freakishly thin and intelligent. Or a monolithic, stoic warrior type. Ness filled none of those expectations. She was surprised, but also glad that Ness didn't appear extremely exceptional on the surface. Her muscles relaxed.
"I guess the journey was rough?" she asked, giving way to a small smile.
Ness
As soon as the light caught the cell, he knew the past few days had not been kind to Paula.
The detritus of the cabin seemed to have settled not only on the walls, but also on the girl nestled cosily in the corner of the cell. Dust splattered every ruffle of her dress. The bows in her hair were lopsided, her legs grimy and scarred. But there was a particular sparkle still present in her face regardless of all else.
Ness caught glimpse of a teddy bear in the back of the cell. There was something in the careful way it was propped up against the two walls that elicited a sincere, if small smile upon his face.
"It definitely wasn't easy."
Paula chuckled. Ness realised that it might've been the first time she'd done so in days, and his heart dropped into his stomach. The fire had illuminated her gaunt face.
"Are you hungry?" Ness asked, pulling out packages in wrapping from his bag. "I have some stuff you could eat, but it's not really that much…"
Upon seeing the food spilling out of Ness's bag, Paula's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. The hunger etched on her face was evident. It felt like someone was prodding his heart with a metal rod.
"I'll take anything you can spare. I'm sick of fresh produce."
Indeed, another corner of the cell was stacked neatly with browning banana peels and eggshells. Instantly recognising the origins of the musty smell in the cabin, Ness slid a hamburger through the corners of the bars.
Her fingertips were cold. With indecent enthusiasm, Paula began attacking the food. Ness grinned as he sat down on the old chair. He leaned the baseball bat against the table and stretched out his strained hands.
It didn't take long for Paula to finish eating. She rested her back against the wall of the cell, a sleepily content look on her face. Lacing her fingers around the iron bars, she turned to him.
"So, how was the way here?" she asked after a moment of satisfaction. "Would you mind giving me a recount?"
Ness looked at the battered and tired girl sitting in the corner. The last thing she needed was to live vicariously through the stress and loneliness from the past few days, but he could hardly turn her away from such a simple request.
"Well, I guess it started a couple of weeks ago when–"
"Sorry," Paula interjected, a smile upturning her lips, "You're a little faint. Could you speak up or move a little closer?"
He was never good at projecting his voice. Without another word, Ness slid onto the wooden floor. The warm metal of the cell bars leeched onto his arm.
Paula
His recount wasn't very long, mainly because it sounded like he tried to shorten it for her benefit. After he finished it, Ness turned to look at her, as if waiting for some exclamation or rejection of belief. Instead, all Paula did was nod carefully, one detail lingering in her mind more than any other.
"So, it's up to three boys, a girl and eight magic Sanctuary spots to save the universe from destruction to this Giygas?" she relayed.
"Yeah," Ness looked sorry for telling her. "But we all have to be special in some way, or another. Like, I can do some stuff, with–"
"Your mind?" Paula finished. Ness nodded. "Can you show me?"
He focused his attention to the chair he had abandoned only recently, his brow knitted. For a second nothing happened, but then a peculiar buzzing filled the room. The fire dimmed ever so slightly. Paula felt her hands shiver and her heart drop. With a crack like a whip, the wooden chair jerked backwards, slamming against the wall with a great bang. One of the legs detached and fell to the ground.
As quickly as it had come, the sound dissipated. Paula was suddenly conscious of her vice-like grip on the bars of the cell. Her freeze power was comically miniscule in comparison, and she'd been honing that for nearly half a decade. If he was ever approached by the reporters, they'd flee, screaming.
"Sorry, it's kind of hard for me to control sometimes, but I'm learning from it." Ness explained matter-of-factly, wiping his forehead.
"W-Where did you learn to do that?" Paula stammered.
Ness shrugged, unperturbed. "I didn't, really. It just came to me, when I fought the ant."
"Can you do anything else with it?" Paula ventured shakily, regretting the question as soon as it escaped her. The last thing she needed was more malevolent energy in the cabin.
"I can help repair some cuts and colds, and another force I think best to save for more open surroundings."
"Repair?" she asked, carefully avoiding the second half of his sentence. "Do you mind fixing me up?"
She showed him her battered legs, unprotected from the splinters on the floor.
"I haven't done this with anyone else yet, but I think I know how this works. Could you just –"
He motioned awkwardly towards her legs. After she rested them as close as she could against the bars, he gently rested two fingertips against her knee, his face passive as he closed his eyes. Slowly but surely, a pleasant tingling spread across her legs, and she watched each scar fade swiftly. Despite withdrawing his hand, Paula was sure his touch lingered on her kneecap. She felt her cheeks burn. Silence pervaded for a few more minutes before she spoke again.
"So, do you think the other two boys can do this kind of stuff with their minds?" Paula asked.
"Maybe, but I don't even know who the other two people are," Ness muttered helplessly. "I figured that since you spoke to me in my dream, and you got kidnapped, and you're a girl, you had to be important to me."
As soon as he finished the sentence, Ness bowed his head, as if embarrassed. The oddly intimate nature of his concluding statement caught up to her, but Paula understood where he was coming from – the events lined up too perfectly to be coincidental. He was silently asking her to come with him, on this adventure into the unknown.
The unpleasant chance and risk in the journey sent Paula's head reeling. The thought of home danced tantalisingly in the back of her mind. But the tugging in her stomach was almost painful now. Something, somewhere, was pulling her towards the boy and his daunting task.
Either way, Paula didn't like leaving debts unpaid.
Ness
"Once you bust me out of here, where else do you plan on us going?" Paula smiled.
Ness beamed and lifted his head. A hopeful grin spread across his face.
"Not too far, actually," he explained. "There might be another Sanctuary spot nearby. After I get you out of here tomorrow, we'll go."
He took another attempt at wiping the beam off his face, but it was no use. Not only did Paula believe him, but she was also willing to come with him. A friend!
Paula nodded in affirmation. As if a sudden thought had struck her, she dug through her pockets and fished out a badge about the size of his palm. There was an unnatural brightness to the thunderbolt inscribed on the badge.
"Take this with you, when you go." Paula pushed the badge through the bars of the cell. "My dad gave it to me for good luck when I was really little – he said Ben Franklin wore it when he did his thing with the kite and lightning."
Ness picked it up and held it in his outstretched palm. Sure enough, engraved along the circumference of the badge was the name of the founding father. It still looked brand new.
"Well, if it didn't get him killed, it probably won't do me in, either," he remarked. Paula laughed. "This seems really valuable…do you really trust me with this?"
Paula smiled. "Take it as a thank you, for coming all this way."
The motion seemed loaded somehow, as if she was putting all her trust in him. Ness supposed in a way she was. He looked at her again, and noticed the exhaustion on her face.
"We should get some rest," he rationalised, extracting a thick jumper from his bag, "I'll have to extinguish the fire, so take this in case it gets cold."
He forced it through the bars. Paula made a small sound of protest, but Ness had already stood up and made his way towards the fire. By the time he had finished tending to the flame and come back to his spot against the wall, she was breathing heavily, nestled on the floor with the sweater wrapped gamely around her upper body.
Ness sighed, and rested his head on the floor after pinning the badge to his shirt. The warmth in the room wrapped around him as he closed his eyes.