Five Years On

by Hetanna

Pit encounters two fleeting figures of his previous adventures and gets an opportunity to catch up with them five years after the war against the Underworld.

Bare feet were skimming across the stone pavement beneath fluttering toes with a speed unlike the others who surrounded the teenage girl as she tittered and giggled to herself, the wind flying through her fingers placed upon outstretched hands on outstretched arms. Past the fountain, she gave a hop and landed in the water pooling beneath the shoot, causing a splash that soaked a nearby apple seller who gave her quite the fierce glare; she didn't look back, instead only rushing towards the town gates. Thrusting them open with a ferocious shove, the girl's faithful canine companion was struggling to keep up as she headed for the hills. Stone slowly turned to grass as if blessed by her excited strides and she scaled the land and greeted the sky with her eyes. A certain sparkle met them as if a gift from the heavens themselves. But the glint was surely closer in origin to such an idea than the girl could ever have expected. She stopped dead in her tracks and a gasp replaced her mindless tittering.

Just over that bumpy hill sat a figure upon a cliff, letting his feet dangle out into the nothingness as the rest of his body was leaning forward as if daring it to challenge gravity. While the girl was surely a curious and reckless one, she would never put her own life in danger by going so close to the cliff. Her instincts, akin to an animal's, warned her against it. So when she saw this image across from her eyes, concern washed over her excitement in an instant. The dog by her side began to shuffle up close to her, and she let her hand skim over his ears as if to calm him. However, he then began to bark. She tried her best to quieten him with soft words. For the most part it appeared to work. But both parties were quite aware that there was something more to this situation than mere concern upon closer inspection. Closer inspection that they were both very tempted to absorb.

The girl and her dog slowly began to creep towards the peak of the hill upon which they currently stood. They crept over the uneven surfaces until they were just behind the first of many a large rock that led up to the cliff. The figure was now straight in front of their eyes. And the dog stiffened on his feet. The girl paled. There was something about the figure that was just so... familiar.

Suddenly he turned his head, as if snapping his neck to take the two into view. Both shivered violently upon the glare—which they soon realised not to be a glare at all; the figure was just as surprised and startled as they were. In blue eyes stood a clear image of curiosity and wonder mixed with the right balance of helplessness that signalled to both the girl and her dog that this figure was not at all a threat, and was instead on the same page as them.

The girl slowly pulled herself out from behind the rock. "Hello...?" she said hesitantly, leaning upon the stone and keeping her distance only out of courtesy. It was then when she finally saw the wings. Her heart was now in her mouth.

Pit blinked his eyes quickly, and swung away from the edge of the cliff, getting to his feet to go over to her. He was smiling cheerily, but as soon as he saw how her expression had changed, he realised that something was the matter. He looked about and then over himself, checking over his shoulders too; he couldn't quite place what was wrong. "Uh, is there a problem?" he asked innocently.

The girl slowly raised a finger and pointed towards Pit's left wing. Pit thought for a split second that she had spotted an injury or stain on his feathers and his complexion became white in an instant as the wing extended out fully—everything felt just fine—so it slowly began to lower down as the angel became coy. He realised that the girl was likely shocked at the fact that he had wings at all. Was she one of those who had not yet heard of him, and what had happened, five years ago in this very town? Did that mean that he had given her a great shock with his existence? He truly never thought that those who didn't know of the existence of angels and other winged creatures were in the majority, especially considering how often residents of Skyworld would interact with residents of the Overworld. This girl must have been a true hermit, not to know of such things; as such an immediate sense of sympathy and sadness overcame him to think of the years she must have spent alone indoors and not enjoying the wonders of life and nature. It likely stemmed not only from his angelic instinct, but from memories of a similar sadness he had felt in his early childhood, in the days before his first instance of flight. He had felt very captive in Skyworld, unable to see any more than the clouds that surrounded the group of floating islands he was able to easily hop between, especially considering the fact that all the other angels and the centurions were able to see far more than he could ever hope to see, and he would face punishment from his goddess if he found himself unable to make a jump and almost plummeting towards the earth. He was so protected by her in his youth that he found himself resenting that sort of captivity whether voluntary or not, in the stead of all other beings, subconsciously.

Naturally, in that moment, he was utterly wrong about the girl. Not that he would have known that until she made her true nature known.

"I know you!" the teenager yelped out, "I've never seen wings like those in my life, but... the way they feel; I remember it!" She immediately lurched forward and delved her hand into the feathery mass. Pit jumped, eyes bulging, but he immediately tried to hold still in order to fulfil the other's whim. The girl's eyes fluttered shut in contrast and her lips slightly parted as she threw herself into deep focus. The way the smoothness melted against her fingers, and the whiteness that filled her eyes in memory despite the fact that they were so softly shut; it all brought her back to that time before when she had felt herself slip away under the control of a being that harboured such pureness as this, yet with whom she had been too young to truly communicate. She had been forced to watch, forced to endure the fear that came of being controlled in such a way. And as a result of her young age, she had cowered and run away as soon as she was free once more.

It was as if the contact after all this time was enough to spark the memory and understanding in both of their minds.

Pit's expression slowly relaxed into something sombre. The girl's eyes slowly opened in return as they finally mirrored one another in expression. And both parties slowly broke into a smile. On Pit's part it was not to last long.

He quickly threw his wings back as if they were hairs standing on end. His eyes again widened and his face became hasty as he grabbed the girl's shoulders in his hands tightly, the girl responding with a squeak of confused surprise. Pit ducked down his head suddenly and gritted his teeth before allowing his words to spit through. "You have to forgive me!" he yelled out, "I didn't know what else to do! As soon as I knew I could move again, I... I... I couldn't just stand and watch! Oh, I'm so glad you survived all this time... No thanks to me..."

The girl recovered from the surprise in a moment or two. And she slowly shook her head, bringing a hand to her shoulder and lightly pulling the boy's hand in an attempt to get him to let go. He slowly complied, raising his head with sorrowful eyes full of misery and shame. While he hadn't thought about it for all this time, as their encounter had been so fleeting, he couldn't deny that it was vital, as without her, who knew what could have happened to the ring in which he had been imprisoned? That dog had only happened to wander by the area where the ring had been dropped. It wasn't a likely thing that it would have wandered on a few feet further if the girl hadn't been there first. It had likely only picked up the scent of a human on the object after the girl's touch. He had been imprisoned in its cold metal for three years. It wasn't like the mere presence of a soul inside had ever been enough in those three years to attract anybody, human or animal. The girl was a blessing, perhaps from the smallest traces of power Palutena still had whilst under the control of the Chaos Kin in order to call him back from the all but dead. And yet he had put her in danger.

Pit's eyes slowly skimmed down to the dog by the girl's side and a fond smile came over him as the canine's tongue fell and a sparkle came to his eyes. "Hey, boy..." He definitely recognised this dog as that which had picked up the ring following the child. Another blessing that he should meet both of these familiar beings at the same time in the same place on such an uneventful day in this future.

The girl understood at once. "Menace wasn't my dog back then," she explained, "But after the war ended, we found each other, and we were inseparable since that day. I suppose it must have been the lasting effect that having an angel's soul in one's body had on the both of us that brought us and kept us together. I thank you for that. Menace has been my best friend ever since."

"Oh..." Pit seemed pleasantly surprised, a shaking tone in his voice, "Then, I'm happy to hear that. I was scared I might've scared you. You were so little back then. I didn't want to scar you for life, but I didn't have a choice."

The girl seemed confused once more. "I was little? But, that was five years ago," she began, "And you seem to be my age... Were you not as small as I back then?"

Pit paused and merely twitched his wings for the girl to understand the truth.

"Oh, I see," she tittered modestly, "I'm sorry. I suppose it doesn't quite work that way for beings of your species. Then, how old are you? I want to respect you as an elder if that's what you are."

"Uh, that's really not necessary," Pit uttered awkwardly, holding up a hand, "I couldn't tell you how old I am anyway, and, well, it's not like I act like an old-timer or anything like that." He shyly curved his lips into a smile, however. "It's nice of you to offer that, though. I don't want to be treated like a kid, even so. I guess half of me wants to know what being an adult is like."

The girl stood back in awe. "You're stuck as a kid forever?"

"Well, it's not like that, but..."

"Oh, I can't imagine what it would be like to be a kid forever!" The girl didn't seem to be listening. She twirled off with a dreamy look in her eyes, seemingly off in her own world. "I love the freedom of being able to run and dance and sing wherever I go because the adults don't seem to care. I love how I can get away with so many things and I don't have to do all the work the adults have to do to get by! But..." She returned to Pit's side and took his hand. "Being protected all your life? Being locked out of the world of work? The vote? Starting a family of your own?" She took a hand to her chest and exhaled sharply, as if the world would end should what she described come true. "I feel so sorry for you..."

Pit laughed awkwardly. "Maybe I'll know what all that feels like in another 25 years or so, huh?"

"But by then, I'll have done everything there is to do already..." the girl lamented, "Life is so short, yet after half of it you're wishing for it to end already..."

"Whoa, whoa, that's a bit extreme!"

"Oh, you know what I mean." The girl pushed on Pit's chest and sent him stumbling back a bit, towards the cliff. He gulped and shuffled forward to stop himself falling. It appeared the girl wasn't thinking about such dangers upon the assumption that his wings would save him. Menace barked as if he understood the situation, but the girl only ignored him and turned away with a long sigh. Then she swung around again and looked upon him from a slight distance with questioning eyes. "It feels as though I know you, yet I never asked your name nor felt it when you were inside me."

"Huh," Pit grunted, getting his bearings, "That's a little weird, I guess."

The girl waited. Pit did too.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "You wanted me to tell you? Right, uh, well..." He cleared his throat, straightening his posture. "I'm Pit, servant of the goddess of light and captain of her personal guard. I lead her army of centurions in battle with the duty only to protect my goddess and the citizens of the Overworld from any threat from this world or any other." A smirk formed on his face, a hand landing smugly on his hip. "And that means I—"

"I know," the girl interrupted, "You're the one who saved us from Hades, aren't you?"

"Aw, I thought you didn't know!" Pit whined, "I was gonna reveal it to you all dramatic like. I never get to do that any more since everybody already knows..."

"There's only so much you can milk a cow," the girl tittered, "It was five years ago. Those who weren't there have been told by now. Those who were... well, they were there, weren't they? Of course they know."

Pit huffed, his face warping into a pout. "Well, excuse me for wanting a little glory for saving the world! Even if it's been five years, that's five years nobody would've had without me." Then he paused. "But why did you have to ask my name if you knew?"

The girl got a little closer, looking at him with an amount of pity. "Like you said, I was little. I wasn't young enough not to know what was going on. By the fact that you were in my body, I knew that something odd was happening. I knew it by the fact that my town was being attacked. But I was little enough to think it'd blow over in time, because I let myself be reassured by the people who wanted to protect an innocent child from all that. As such, all I knew was that there was an angel who made all the bad monsters go away... But all it took was for you to mention the goddess Palutena, and I knew it was you."

Pit heaved a sigh. "Me and my big mouth..."

"But, still," the girl continued, "To think that I had the hero of Angel Land inside of me at some point; maybe it wasn't just an angel's influence that held me and Menace together. Maybe it was the courage and nobility of a person—not only an angel—like you."

Pit was wordless, shocked, as an awkward red glow came to his face.

The girl raised an eyebrow innocently. So arrogant he was, yet when his prowess was acknowledged by another, he was knocked straight down to modesty? Perhaps she'd never understand the angelic kind even if she had been inhabited by one in the past. She rushed past him then and looked up over the cliff, once more lacking the will to get too close to the edge. But she was wistful and longing in her gaze. She was sensible. But Pit had made her think. Her childhood was shorter than she had ever thought it to be when she compared it to the angel's. Perhaps despite her wishes to be free and her endeavours to do so over her years, she was a little too sensible. She almost wished she could get a little closer to that edge. Just to know what it would feel like to be in danger, and unprotected by those who wished to shield her from such a thing. Just one moment of true, concentrated, childish exhilaration. The thought alone that such a thing would indeed be a positive experience, perhaps, signalled that her childhood had not yet fully died. She had to take full advantage of it. It was a blessing that it was still alive.

"Pit?" she called softly as she looked out over the grassy hills.

Pit blinked, petting the dog who was attached to his side. "Yeah?"

"What is it like to fly in the sky?" the girl asked plainly.

The dog immediately looked up at Pit with a loud sniff, eyeing him attentively and stiffly as if awaiting his answer and warning him that he would judge him should he say a thing out of line. Pit's cheeks again grew rosy as the dog's eyes pierced through him. It was as though he could read his mind. He wondered if he should just come clean without prompt. He wouldn't be lying by saying that flight was something he adored with all of his heart; something he couldn't live without—something that was a part of him, and who he was. But he wouldn't be telling the whole truth, either, if he didn't mention what of it that was not entirely natural. And it was as though the dog was trying to tell him that with this gaze.

But Pit valued what others thought of him. He thrived on the knowledge that others truly admired him for all that he had done and all that he was, even though he knew that what he was was a representation of someone much greater, in not only his own but the people's eye. He didn't want the girl to be disappointed hearing that he was an angel who couldn't even fly by himself.

He didn't have much time to think. He could only speak from the bottom of his heart and tell all of the truth that he could. Menace was very quiet as he seemed to listen to his words.

"Well, it feels like I don't weigh anything at all," Pit began meekly, "And I can go so fast—like I could break the sound barrier, like I could pass by everybody and make them wonder what hit them. Going anywhere I want on my wings... There are so many possibilities and that's what I like best about it." Before he lost himself, he paused and collected himself. He slowly shook his head as he rolled his palms together. "But even if you can go fast, and even if you can go anywhere, there are still places five minutes will never take you to."

He shut an eye tight and looked upon the girl as if bracing himself for what she might say. But she simply began to laugh. "You're impatient, aren't you?" she hummed, turning around to face him, "You can't expect to go everywhere in five minutes. You're the one who has all this time in your life. You should take things slowly, so you don't run out of things to do in all that time you have to spare."

Pit understood her words, but he knew that she had misunderstood. He shifted uncomfortably, as he knew he had to be more explicit. "No, it's not like that, I mean..." He sighed sharply. "I can't fly for more than five minutes because that's all Lady Palutena can grant me. And without that, I wouldn't even be able to pull myself off the ground."

The girl's face did fall as he had expected. Pit was about ready to take his leave so as not to cause the situation any more undue awkwardness. But Menace stood firmly in front of him as if barring him from that option.

"But... how could that be the case?" the girl asked a little breathily, "You have wings..."

"Well, yeah—" Pit cut in, "Wings that don't work!" He almost seemed to be pouting again at this point. And that was what caused the girl to drop her saddened demeanour. The way Pit took the matter suggested to her that she didn't have to grieve it with all sobriety; it was an annoyance to him, that she could see, but it wasn't something that caused him tears of despair.

She smiled. "I think my point still stands," she said carefully, "In fact, I think it stands even stronger."

Pit huffed and folded his arms. "How does something as pathetic as that relate to anything at all?"

"Tell me," the girl began, "In your youth, what did you make of your flightlessness? Did you think of it as a phase that'd just pass with time?" She asked this with a face that was almost stern; Pit could only see it as accusatory—or more simply put in his own head, 'yes-is-the-wrong-answer'. As such he was quick to lie as if to appease her.

"No, of course not!" he exclaimed, but quickly found that he had assumed of the situation the exact reverse to what was true.

"See? Impatient, like I said," the girl continued, as if in punishment, "Even back then, you weren't willing to wait for the day when flight finally, naturally came to you. Instead, you either wanted it to come right there and then, or not come at all. Thus, you ended up assuming that since the former wasn't true in that moment, the latter had come instead. Are you usually so hasty? It seems to be a part of your nature if you did such a thing even when you were young."

Pit blinked, unsure how to respond. After all, if her judgement had come of a response that hadn't been true due to a misconception on his part, then that would mean that the complete opposite was the real truth. According to the girl's logic, then, he would be the most patient being in the world, and if that was the case—did that mean that one day, flight really would come to him?

That was what he had always hoped. After all, it was what he had always been told by Palutena and all of the centurions, even when the angels—in a time when they were still a plentiful Skyworld race—would take pleasure in telling him otherwise. He'd sit and watch them fly through the sky and a centurion would always wander up behind him and spare him a word of encouragement. That he'd be able to do just that someday. When that day never came, Palutena had always reinstalled the hope in his heart with her comforting hand, and he'd gone on like that for years and years even when all the angels were gone.

In a sense, eventually flight did indeed come to him after years of waiting. He had been blessed with it through Palutena and even Viridi's power of flight, albeit not through technically natural means. Still, after patience had resided within him for so long, flight came when he least expected it. He could hope that following this girl's logic would lead him to what he always wanted if he just waited a little longer, and didn't think so very much about it.

He didn't tell any of this to the girl. He didn't think it wise. Indeed, he was being accused by the girl, and even despite their previous interactions, it wasn't as though they were truly even acquaintances. Pit didn't think highly of himself in the grand scheme of things. He was merely an angel at the command of one definitive force. However, he was still a divine being and was still above the humans in status. Even if not personally offended by the girl's words, he valued the natural order, and so he didn't think it was particularly appropriate for her to continue as she was; he had some authority to silence her if he wished, and knowing that, felt no guilt at swinging her tone from accusation onto something more acceptable and natural at his own will. So, while the girl had not meant for him to feel it, he had been calmed at her words through his own afterthought, and made it clear in his response at last.

"I feel better hearing you say that," he said simply, "Thanks."

The girl was very clearly confused, but Menace simply began to wag his tail and looked up on Pit with a gleam in his eye that was filled with something of a sense of pride.

At the very fact that the girl was confused, however, she slowly lowered her head. The angel had performed an action that she couldn't quite fathom, for the second time in this short period of conversation. Once again she had been forced to accept that she didn't know the ways his mind worked, and it was the fact that it had been twice that made her rethink her tone with Pit. She knew an angel's name—that was an honour in itself—but to know the name of and be able to speak with the angel who had saved all of everything everywhere? It was something unfathomable, and she was clearly taking it for granted if she felt she could speak to him as though he was a peer. He certainly wasn't her own age and it wasn't her place to talk down to him like she suddenly realised she was. As a result she became very quiet in an attempt to regain her natural status, and the soft breeze of the day was finally heard as Pit returned to the cliff where he had been sitting, and sat there once more, looking out over the hills and the sky and everything that he could see beyond it. When the girl spoke again at the mercy of her sheer curious and demanding soul, she was far meeker and didn't expect a direct response—leaving her expectations in the pit of her heart, now, where she supposed they were always meant to remain.

"Why are you here?" she asked simply, giving no justification or words that she deemed unnecessary. She simply waited in an empty limbo of preparation and denial of an answer's arrival.

At first Pit wanted to let her words become one with the wind and let them pass him by in a similar fashion. But as had been established, he didn't think highly enough of himself to do so. Perhaps he wanted to establish himself as he truly was for a few moments, but the more he thought about doing so, the less natural it really felt to him. He preferred to think of himself as close to the humans in nature. They had hearts and souls and he felt like he was just the same. Not to mention, a lot of the things he enjoyed in life came from the human world. He wondered if it was prophesied that over time the Underworld, Overworld and Skyworld would become closer and less definitively separate—that would explain why all of those areas were already a part of Angel Land, and why it was so possible to move between them as any being under the right circumstances. But such things were merely delaying his thought process in this moment—he would return to speaking fondly to the girl so as to displace this odd feeling of awkwardness that had unnecessarily overcome them.

"Is there a reason I shouldn't be?" Pit asked innocently, attempting to keep his tone light and sounding like himself, "Sometimes you've gotta look at the world close up if you want to see how beautiful it really is. It's not the same when you're watching it through a projection in the sky."

The girl relaxed slightly as she heard the boy's reasoning. "In that case, I'm honoured you feel so fondly about our world," she murmured. Then she brought her hands together and twirled her thumbs.

Pit was sitting on the edge, so truly close to falling. If she were just to shuffle to his back and nudge his shoulders when he was not expecting it, would his being come to an end just like that? Yet he didn't seem to fear it. Perhaps a nature of an angel it was, even one who was flightless—that he shouldn't fear height; after all, he resided amongst the clouds so high as even the birds would not dare to near them.

It was clearly the case that Pit simply trusted himself not to fall, even though in his own body he was just as vulnerable as any human to the perils of a long drop. Even if aged, Pit's soul was mighty and young and just the same as the girl's.

Why should it be that she was not the same as him?

She took a steadying breath. Menace came to her side and looked up at her face curiously, his eyes blinking and a small whine coming to his throat that only she was near enough to hear. The dog was looking over her protectively, but at the same time did not seem to be making any advances. The girl then secured her hands' grip on one another. She looked up with a degree of certainty at Pit. An angel who had been responsible for millions of lives on Earth was not too sensible to stay away from the edge. And if she wanted to be the same, she could.

Because betraying all that she had come to know in these past moments, even if it was inappropriate or foolhardy of her to place her knowing in an angel, and one who was so important, too, she had already come to trust Pit to come to her aid if she required it. He was an impossible hero.

As she gradually willed herself to shuffle closer, the dog became more and more agitated, but the girl tried to drown out the feeling of worry from behind her and instead focused all of her thoughts on Pit. She took a small step each second, until she was close enough to the edge to feel its gravity like the ghosted touch of a reaper's scythe. But Pit had surely defeated many of those creatures in his time.

Her toes now faced the hills, and her palms flattened as her body became like Pit's in a sitting position, and her legs began to dangle into air so thin it was barely there. Finally Pit's attention was attracted and he slowly faced the girl who sat right beside him. He began to smile at her, and it was enough to allow the girl's confidence to soar.

But Menace could not hold back his protective nature any longer. The human he had followed longer than any other was very close to a possible death. And as a dog, all he could express this horror in was a bark—a loud, ear-splitting and panicked bark that was accompanied by the shuffling of feet in place; and it was sudden enough to break the near silence of the wind and cause the girl's heart to skip a beat, her eyes to widen and her grip to loosen. The moment was also enough for her to lose control of her centre of gravity. And she quickly tumbled off the cliff.

Ten seconds of dry earth crumbling, the scraping of tender cloth against hard rock and a dry throat becoming drier then came, and when it was over, the breeze died.

Then the girl opened her eyes, all moisture from her delicate gorge seemingly disappearing.

Pit slowly opened his own, and to be greeted with her face so close and life so clearly in the girl's shining mirrors was a miracle he knew he'd caused.

"That was pretty close," he mentioned nervously, the shaking evident in his voice.

"Pit?" the girl mouthed at him, unable to fully process what had happened just yet.

Pit was situated underneath the girl, his hands securely on her shoulders and gripped so tightly that the vice may have hurt should she have been paying attention to it, feet dug into the vertical cliff. Two trails were drawn in the mixture of earth and rock from the peak to where they had landed, ending right where Pit's shoulders were now dug into the ground. The girl's chest was upon his and her arms limp and hanging. But her eyes were anything but dead.

Pit struggled to move, prompting the girl to quickly get to her feet either side of him, and she hopped to the side with the intention to help him up, but he was on his own feet before she could even extend her hand. She looked up at the cliff from which they'd fallen and felt her stomach twist painfully.

Pit fiddled with the fibula that had weighed his chiton off his shoulder somewhat, producing a clearer view of the shirt underneath. The ring on his right leg had been forced slightly further up his thigh; his belt was askew and his crown had fallen off. He looked a bit of a mess. As did his wings. They slowly stretched out to their full span, but were covered in dust and dirt and few of his feathers were completely straight. Some were scattered around the site of their fall. Yet he smiled. He was filled with relief to see that the girl was at least physically unharmed. He kept fiddling with his fibula though. Like he didn't want to look her in the eye again.

In honesty he felt rather responsible. He felt he'd tempted her to come to the edge because he was so nonchalant in doing the same. He knew fully well the extent of danger he'd put himself into but he didn't think about the consequences should that danger have been applied to the girl. Just when he had thought about how similar he was to humans, he realised that the girl was indeed just a human, and surely that meant that she couldn't reach the capacity of nimble quickness that had allowed Pit to react to her fall so suddenly. If she had been alone he doubted she would have been able to save herself. And he also doubted that she would have done such a thing in the first place.

"How did that happen?" the girl breathed aloud, "How did you save me? I fell first..."

Pit looked up at hearing her words, but he looked through her rather than at her. "I was quick," he stated hastily, condensing his thoughts into a passable utterance, "You were lucky."

"There's no way that you could've reacted that quickly... Even an angel surely couldn't act against gravity in such a way; especially one who can't defy it in the first place..." The girl trailed off. "Oh... I see."

Pit blinked. "See what?"

The girl slowly looked towards him with a smile that was unlike one Pit had seen on her before. It was oddly expressionless but at the same time possessed a sense of hope that Pit felt quite familiar with. It forced his own smile to relax into something between awkwardness and understanding. In fact, it was neither.

"Your wings," the girl murmured, "Useless as they may be in flight, you might feel your wings only drag you down... Drag you down quickly enough to beat the race of time against gravity and secure yourself underneath me. In that sense, they did some good, didn't they?"

She peered over at him in silence for a moment or two before shaking her head and looking back up at the cliff.

"I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't say these things any more. It isn't right."

But Pit did see some truth in it. His wings were little for his age, but he should have been able to fly on them, at least to some limited extent. It was their weight, factored too with their defect, that prevented it from being a possibility. And that weight he had therefore come to curse, perhaps—but he had found that there was some beauty in the Underworld, where he swore he had been metaphorically pulled by these useless appendages, and now? He saw that if his wings were going to drag him outside of a metaphor, too, perhaps they would have their use. He didn't want the girl to feel bad for acknowledging it. Even if it felt as though he was becoming too close to this one human in the process. His heart called to her on this day. He would honour it.

"You don't have to be sad," he said softly, nearing her, "You should be happy. You didn't die, right? It's always good to not die."

"Yes... I suppose you're right," the girl hummed. Her eyes were still fixed on the cliff.

Pit furrowed his brow. "Is something else the matter?"

The girl bit her lip for a moment, before breathing the name, "Menace..."

"Oh! Your dog? I'm sure he's still up there, waiting for you. I think he trusted me to save you. Try calling him."

The girl only shook her head again. "You'll catch me again, won't you?"

Pit cocked his head slowly. "Huh...?"

"If I fall..." And with that, the girl neared the vertical wall, and began to climb it. Pit's eyes widened and he quickly ran up behind her. Her efforts were clearly futile, as she was going nowhere fast. And he simply didn't understand why she wouldn't call him.

"Hey, cut it out," he scolded, plucking the girl from the wall and turning her to face him, "Just because you can trust me doesn't mean you should put yourself in more danger thinking it's okay. Then you'll get in the habit and do it when I'm not there next to you."

The girl didn't say anything in response.

Pit was worried now. "Hey, what's the matter with you? Why do you look so sad? It's not just because of me, is it? Is it still about your dog? Look, I'm not great with these things, okay? I sang a lullaby to someone once and they ended up on the roof."

The girl pondered for a moment before letting her thoughts become clear in her words. "I think Menace has gone away," she stated, "I don't feel him there any more. Even when we're apart, I always feel him. But now he's gone."

"But how do you know for sure? You haven't called him."

"I don't need to," the girl said in a near gasp, "I don't have to say anything to know how I feel." She struggled gently out of Pit's hold, which he quickly let up and held up his hands to prove it. "He probably left because I was stupid," the girl continued, "He probably left because he doesn't want to deal with the stress again. Or maybe because I wasn't paying enough attention to him. Or..."

"Or...?" Pit offered to continue, folding his arms in front of him, but a raised eyebrow facing towards her, "Maybe, he just wanted to move on. Maybe, he felt like he'd done enough for you, and it was time to go onto someone and something new. Maybe, just maybe, his life is a book that he wants to keep on writing. And this scene was the end of this chapter."

The girl gave him a funny look. As though he was insensitive to say such things in such a situation—how dare he turn this into something that matched his vague description of 'deep'? It was entirely inappropriate!

Yet, that was just what she had done to him...

She slowly lowered her head. "Menace..." she breathed sorrily.

Pit patted her shoulder. "Cheer up. Maybe you'll see him around the town," he chirped. The girl looked up at him, and nodded her head with a saddened smile. Pit breathed a laugh, prideful and soft. "Maybe you should head on back. I can't imagine you want to stay around here for now."

"... Yes," the girl agreed.

After the two had straightened themselves out, Pit took the girl's hand, and slowly walked with her from the earthy hill zone back to the town gates. The girl held on just a little tighter to Pit's hand as she looked into the gates. Without Menace by her side, she felt far more vulnerable. The town looked all the more giant, all the more threatening. The people looked as though they could do her harm, for the first time in a good long period. Pit could feel this radiating off her. And he squeezed her hand back.

"It's okay to be afraid, you know," he said lowly, as he stood there with her at the gates, "But you live here. You don't need a dog to take you about. Menace wouldn't have left you if he didn't think you could manage on your own. You're strong, aren't you?"

The girl thought on that idea for a moment. She was strong? She hadn't particularly thought of herself under that light. She barely thought at all. She was a free spirit...

But perhaps now was the time when she could again prove to herself that being alone didn't necessarily have to be lonely.

On just one condition.

"You'll still look over this place, won't you?" she asked Pit innocently, "You'll still go back to the hills, and watch over the Overworld with Palutena even when you're in the sky. And even if you're not there by my side, you'll remember me, won't you?"

Pit laughed. "Of course," he chirped, "After all, we found each other after all this time. It's like there's no getting rid of you, huh?"

The girl released Pit's hand and pushed on his chest with a smirk. "Watch your tongue, featherbrain," she said playfully, meeting his eyes as she walked backwards across the stones. She slipped her arms behind her back and blinked slowly as she gazed over at him. "I suppose I might see you again, then."

"S'pose so," Pit grunted back. He lifted his hand in a wave and tittered softly, the girl doing the same with a grin. Then she turned her back to him. She looked about with a seemingly overwhelmed sense. But then she tore off, arms either side of her, and ran straight for the fountain, letting the water trickle through her fingers in a second before she was again gone, into the depths of the business district.

Pit paused for a moment as he took in the sight of the town, as it quietened after her departure. Then he turned away from it, and walked at a leisurely pace from the gates.

"Lady Palutena?" he called out meekly.

"Yes, Pit?" he heard called sweetly back at him.

"It's been a while now. Why didn't you grant me the power of flight when that girl fell off the cliff?"

He heard a giggle reflected down at him. "Well, Pit," Palutena replied, "I saw it as a nice opportunity for you to see how little you needed your wings in order to do a good thing."

"You mean you saw what she said to me coming?"

Palutena hesitated with a cunning hum. "Maybe."

"... So I guess you just weren't paying attention, then."

"And I guess you're just going to have to keep guessing."