Disclaimer: NO. Legend of Mana is owned by rich people, who are creative and smart. I am neither. I am the epitome of poverty. Therefore I have never experienced holding a hundred dollar bill. I made a meaningful argument, so I must not be sued.
Author's Notes: Right. I am back. (holds adamantite shield in front of her) This was just some random thing that popped in my head when I was about to drift to sleep. And I just had to write it down. And so here it is. XD This is for the people who have those knives pointed at me for not updating that fic. Yes, you. I am afraid of you. Spare me! O.O
Do You Have A Heart?
"Elazul, do you have a heart?"
I looked up from my half-empty glass of apricat juice, surprised at the question. The hustle and bustle within Amanda and Barrette's had long dissipated, and there were only three of us left—three and a half if you include the rabite that was sleeping next to my arm on the table. The winged barmaid was aimlessly walking around with a tray in her hands, glancing at us sharply every now and then, as if trying to tell us to get out. Besides that though, the bar was comfortingly quiet, and I happen to be very fond of quiet. I was gladly savoring the rare moment of peace among us—whilst wondering how uncharacteristically silent my companion was—when she abruptly broke it with her annoying, little voice.
Well, I guess I didn't have the right to categorize her as annoying as of the moment. Hearing a question like that from her only meant one thing.
I did something wrong.
And she's annoyed with me.
She stared back at me, elbows on the table, green eyes expectant. She didn't look relatively annoyed though. So I tried my luck by saying,
"Did you say something?"
She huffed, and it was then that she actually looked mildly irritated. Unlucky.
"I said, do you have a heart?" she repeated impatiently.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Huh?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
"What—"
"I apologize for dragging you all over Gato."
"No—"
"And for taking advantage of your kindness."
"Ela—"
"And—"
"Elazul!" she interrupted loudly, making the rabite jump and roll over to the edge of the table. With a frightened squeak as half of its body hung over the end of the table it bit into my arm, just as its master hurriedly leaned over the table to prevent its fall. She then pulled at its tail; it was at that exact moment that I realized just how painful it was being bitten by a properly raised, high-level rabite, and that trying to make it stop by pulling on its tail will not merit any good results; in fact, it will merely make the experience just a lot more painful, what with the aggravated little monster on the verge of trying to bite off the skin between its teeth. The aforementioned skin, by the way, belongs to me.
I gritted my teeth to suppress the wail of pain I was to release, when she yelled "CHAPPY, LET GO!" right to where my ear was located.
Thankfully, the yelling rescued my flesh left arm (not my ear though). Chappy released my violated arm at the command and let itself be lifted by the tail by its apologetic-looking master.
See, this is the reason why I like Pearl and would do anything to have her beside me. She doesn't have a rabite that eats people and she never yells in my ear. And she doesn't ask allegoric questions when she's mad at me, just so she can force remorse on me. Point in fact; she's never gotten mad at me at all. She's quiet, shy, and gentle. She would tend my wounds with utmost care, would hold them like fragile pieces of porcelain. She would speak to me in soft tones and would spend comfortable silence with me. She doesn't boss me around, or talk a mile a minute, or take food from my plate, or elbow my ribs when I speak rudely to sproutlings, or shout indignantly at me when I try to protect her, or let her non-existent rabite eat me, or ignore me when my arm is wounded.
Unlike this one here, who's paying more attention to said rabite than said wounded arm.
"Oh, poor Chappy," she cooed to it, stroking between its ears, "there, there…"
And she asks me if I have a heart.
I glared at her and decided that I have the right to label her annoying as of the moment. I decided at that same instance that I dislike rabites.
Why is she always able to aggravate me in so many different ways?
Once was when we crossed through Luon Highway in search of Pearl; there we met a cat-girl named Daena. She wanted to see Gaeus, one of the Seven Wisdoms. The cat-girl asked her if she would accompany her.
And, without second thought, she agreed. Right in front me, her current companion. And then she had the gall to ask me if it was alright to go with the cat-girl! Of course it wasn't! We were in Luon to search for Pearl, not to go gadding about with strangers to speak to a big talking rock. Apparently, at the time, she was excited about the new mission and the new person. After all, Pearl getting lost was nothing new to her (as if it was to me?). I wasn't anyone new to her either.
Still, she didn't even consider that she might offend me, or that she might make at least an undesirable impression on me. So she had this label on her that day: insensitive little brat. I was so offended at that time that I merely walked away without saying anything.
She did apologize after a while—I accepted it because I was the one who needed her help anyway. She never did do it again, although I always felt her disappointment whenever she had to politely refuse new people just because I was there with her. I wasn't numb to that fact. But I never showed her that it affected me; I never showed her that I felt like a burden to her. And that it was aggravating me.
And she asks me if I have a heart.
Of course I do.
She placed her fast-asleep rabite gently on the table, oblivious of the fact that I was glaring my eyeballs off at her. It seemed as though my presence was shunned away to nowhere as she spent all her attention on stroking the little yellow ball of fluff…
"Do you have a heart?" I blurted out.
She stopped and blinked up at me. Finally, she has come to realize that I was sitting right across from her.
She stared at me for a long time. I think she was trying to discern whatever facial expression I had on my face.
Then she giggled.
She giggled!
Why…why did she giggle?
"Of course I do, Elazul."
But why did she giggle…?
"I need a heart to survive, silly."
"…What?"
She gave me a strange look. "Why? Don't you know the basics of human anatomy? Humans need a working heart to be able to live."
I paused. And just stared at her. She…she didn't get it. I asked her if she had a heart. An allegory to feelings. And she answered me with human anatomy.
……………………………
"That reminds me! That was the same question I had for you."
I blinked away my stupor. Wait a minute…
"I've always been wondering, you know, if the Jumi have hearts. I mean, wouldn't it be too crowded there in your chests to fit a heart? Your cores just seem too darned big to leave enough space for your hearts. Is your core your heart? Is that why when it's taken out you die?"
……………………………
"Or like, if I want to kill you without doing anything to your core, do I stab you at the heart? But where is your heart? Is it at the same side where human hearts are? Or is it someplace else? Because you bleed, I'm guessing that you have a heart that pumps blood through your veins. So it can't be your core. But it looks too crowded there to fit a heart.
"Do you have a heart?"
……………………………
Was this really…?
…She was actually asking about Jumi anatomy?
I scrutinized her carefully, trying to affirm that her questions really did come from mere curiosity.
She blinked her green orbs innocently at me, an expectant smile on her face.
Label: confusing little midget.
"Hmph," was the answer I gave, just to put her off.
It did. She stopped smiling.
I put my arms across my chest and looked away, fully recovered from the confusion. "What do you think?"
She sat back down in a huff and said edgily, "I already told you what I think!"
"Well then, be a good girl and shut up."
"You haven't answered my question!"
I looked briefly at her before turning away again. "Why? Don't you know the basics of Jumi anatomy? The Jumi need a working heart to be able to live."
"…so you do have a heart?"
"Yes, now shut up," I told her sharply.
"But where is it?" she persisted. She never really listened to me anyway.
"Close to my core. Are we done with this conversation yet? I really would like to drink in peace now, thank you."
She nodded, yet there was a curious look across her features. I decided to ignore it and returned my attention to my completely overlooked half-glass of apricat juice.
Soon after, another comfortable silence followed. The only sounds to be heard were the soft purring of the sleeping rabite and the barmaid's footsteps. It was relaxing. As I sipped the last drops of my beverage, I snuck a peek at her, and saw that she was still donning that questioning look.
Even as it was finally time for us to leave the pub, she still wore the same expression on her face. She carried the sleeping yellow fluff in her arms and looked straight ahead as we walked to the inn. I resisted the urge to ask about it. I figured it might just lead to another meaningless conversation. I might as well have asked a sproutling, if that were the case.
I walked in after her into our room and headed straight for my bed. I caught a glimpse of her still curious expression as she placed her Chappy beside her pillow before I collapsed into my own mattress and fell right asleep…
----------
It was around noon when I woke up—it was one of the very few times I ever woke up that late. The sun was oh-so-cheerfully beaming right at my face so the first thing I did was to turn away from the light of the window. My eyes then fell on her bed. All her stuff were packed, spear and rabite all on her bed, ready for travel. I groggily rubbed at my eyes with my left hand (I'm not stupid enough to scratch my face with my right one) and realized that almost the whole of my arm was bandaged.
I blinked. I don't remember tending to the bite wound last night…
…was she the one who did this?
The last time she did something like this, I ended up with more injuries than I originally had, mostly because the way she treated my wounds was as though they were mere scratches and not broken bones or slash wounds. The current wholeness of my arm bewildered me. How did she manage such a feat?
As if on cue, she entered; Chappy immediately bounded across the room to greet her.
She patted it with a smile then looked at me shortly. Then smirked.
"Good noon, sloth," she greeted, smirk still in place.
I sat up immediately to show that I wasn't lazy. "Shut up," I snapped, climbing out of bed.
Her smirk faded into a soft smile. She went over to her bed and collected her stuff.
"We'll be waiting for you outside," she simply said, before heading out the door, her pet bouncing after her. The door closed quietly behind her.
I looked at the closed door for a moment, perplexed at the sudden lack of argument. That was unusual. She didn't usually shut up when I tell her to.
As I was about to turn away, the door opened again. Before I knew it, something soft hit me on the face. It bounced off and fell to the bed with a gentle 'fump'.
"Change into that after you wash. I'm not sure if Chappy's poisonous or not. But trust me; you wouldn't want to risk an infection."
And the door was shut again.
Confused, I looked down at the thing thrown at me on the bed.
It was a roll of clean bandages.
----------------------
Nighttime was approaching as we neared her home. We hadn't talked at all for the whole day. She never spoke a word to me for the whole day. She looked at me all weird-like once, but other than that she didn't bother with anything else for the rest of the time.
It was very disconcerting. It never really occurred to me that she'd ever be able to manage something like that. This girl I traveled with for months was never able to keep her mouth shut for five minutes—much more for a whole day. But she was able to do so. Today.
Or she could be planning something. She usually has something up her sleeve planned within those rare five minutes of quiet time. Sometimes she would also have pointless queries to bombard me with mentally rehearsed within said quiet time.
The large tree of her home finally came into view over the horizon, just as the sun ducked over at the east. The last of the dim orange light blinked out, the stars swiftly flickering into vision. I looked up just to marvel at this…
…and tripped over an inconspicuously immobile rabite, making me fall face-first into an also inconspicuously immobile human girl's back.
I half-stood, half-leaned in that awkward position for quite a long time, her long blonde hair in my mouth and making my nose itch like something very itchy. I put my arms straight out to my sides to balance myself, all the while wishing she would both move and not move. The results after either action was done seemed really embarrassing to me.
"Mmrph!" I tried to say. It was supposed to come out as an indignant "Move!" but ended up a rather pathetic muffle.
Chappy squeaked in reply. Yeah, thanks a lot, rabite. You've been a lot of help lately.
That was when she moved. I cried out in surprise as I fell forward, but she caught me easily by putting her hands on each side of my head. Without another word, she helped me straighten up, staring at me strangely as she held my head.
Why was she staring at me like that…?
"You can let go of me now."
She didn't seem to hear me. She just stared at me with her eyes twinkling, the expression on her face unclear.
It made me nervous.
Then she put one hand to my chest and slowly closed her eyes.
What in the name of Fa'Diel…
…make that extremely nervous.
I felt my heart beat thrice as fast underneath her hand. I have never felt anything as remotely as frightening as this; I wanted to move but I couldn't. I was stuck there, with her hand on my chest with the other on the side of my head whilst mine were stiff at my sides, disinclined to move to my will.
She started to part her lips, and I knew at that second that I only had one hope…
…Chappy, please be useful just this once and BITE HER!
"…Wow, Jumi hearts beat faster than humans', huh?"
……………………………
"I mean, I've been thinking about what you told me. You have a heart and that your heart is close to your core. But your core is still too big to have the heart next to it, so I developed this theory that Jumi hearts are small."
……………………………?
"Now that I have affirmed the speed of your heartbeat, it gives my theory some backing, because a small heart would obviously have to put a lot more effort to pump blood proportionally into the body's blood vessels. Don't you think so?"
It was just then that I realized she was at a much more secure distance away from me. And that distance was rapidly increasing.
She was leaving me behind, still talking about her theory. She left me stupefied and paralyzed at what she had just put me through.
What the hell was that
Chappy squeaked at me reprovingly and left me behind as well, seemingly tired of waiting for me.
"Hey!" I finally managed, running to catch up with them. "What—?"
"Bud, Lisa! I'm home!" she called out cheerily to her cottage, which was still far from hearing range.
I was being ignored again.
Label: severely annoying and excruciatingly confusing bratty little midget.
After a while, I gave up running after her with a sigh. All right, fine. It wasn't as if I was important enough to wait on. I guess I'm important enough to be a guinea pig but that's possibly just as far as my significance goes. The rabite seems more important than me even.
I stood at the end of the path to her cottage, watching her as she threw the bag of items we gathered in our travels to her little purple-haired apprentice, who was all too eager to take it. She then spoke cheerily to her other apprentice, who was a female one with the same purple hair. She seemed to forget that I actually walked her home like a real gentleman.
I scoffed. As if she'd notice that small detail.
"Hmph," I huffed, turning in my heel to leave the premises, "whatever."
"Elazul!"
I stopped. Oh, so I exist again.
"What?" I replied, trying to sound as irritated as I have felt moments ago. I whirled around to see her running up to me.
She gave me a smile and forcefully pushed a book into my arms, nearly causing me to drop it.
"…What's this?"
"A token of my appreciation!"
I turned the book over and looked at the title:
'Human Anatomy in Relation to Golems'
I blinked.
She laughed nervously. "I just finished reading that this morning. I want you to have it. It seems that you don't know much about human anatomy as much as I know about the Jumi's."
I blinked again. Then I looked up at her. And saw no jest in her expression.
I didn't know whether to laugh at or to feel sad for this girl. I decided to do neither and just gave her an indifferent shrug.
"You're welcome," she said sarcastically, her tone clearly stating what she felt about my reaction.
"Hn." With that, I turned to leave.
Poor girl. She understood so little because she knew too little. This may be why she can be quite tactless at times. I guess I should forgive her for now.
Label: clueless girl.
But maybe I should have just straightforwardly told her that our cores are imbedded into our hearts rather than just telling her they were close to each other…
……………………………
…nah.
I like to be heartless sometimes.
I looked down at the book. Maybe I can use this to finally be able to put Pearl in one place. I'll have her read it so that she won't have to wander off and get lost while thinking…
"Oh! Hey, Elazul!"
I turned around at the sound of her voice. It seems that I still exist for tonight.
She was unattractively waving her arms about, running to catch up to me.
"What is it?" I asked her after she had caught her breath.
"I just have one more question…
"Do you have lungs too?"
- Yes, she is nameless. I didn't want to name her. O.o The hero/heroine never really had a name anywho. You decide what name you want for her.
Also, ever wonder what the characters really felt when you ditch them for someone else? XD I haven't played the game for more than 3 years now (I've been reading the manga though) but I still remember some of their reactions when you do just that. Elazul, Escad, Larc, and Sierra all sounded offended (depending on the mission).
And I don't know what genre this is. O.o Just general stuff? I usually write, er, "from fangirls, to fangirls" stuff, so this is new to me. Friendship fic, anyone? O.O; I did tell you it's all randomness. Did it even have a point? I'm not really sure. Enlighten me? o.o
Furthermore, is anyone familiar with the origins of the name 'Chappy'? XD It's a tribute to my current fandom! Woo.
PLUGGING TIME!!!
Me needs a new beta! My two year beta ran off with my pet rock without accomplishing anything, and now I am stuck in the sea of wrong grammarness!!! Anyone interested? O.o I am contactable via PM or reviews. Thank you.
I hope it's an okay gift/peace offering. O.O It may be random and pointless but it was put up for you. It's the herald of my return in FFnet. If this fanfic still isn't enough THEN…
…have some LoM fanart by yours truly! XD Linkie:
http (colon) (double slash) i15 . photobucket . com / albums / a373 / AyaRaechan / chappy-elazul . jpg
http (colon) (double slash) i15 . photobucket . com / albums / a373 / AyaRaechan / escad-laz-fangirls . jpg
I hate FFnet's edit. Hope you like 'em! I made them with Paint, Powerpoint, love, sweat, and tears. Just for you! (heart) So don't kill me. :D
(End shameless plugging!)
Lastly, I know that it's pointless, riddled with mistakes, and generally sucks. 2500-plus words, 8 pages of complete nonsense. So no need to flame me. I just did it to myself. (putting self down) I like to hear about things that'll help me improve though. :3 Flames don't help; they just increase the flamer's self-esteem by stealing the flamee's. As long as I didn't commit plagiarism, I'm safe. X3
In short, I'd like some constructive criticism please. Comments would be nice too. :3
Right, I have rambled enough. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING! Review, onegai shimasu!
PS: I hate the new editing thingy in FFnet. It ruins my artistically licensed writing style (meaning, my double-punctuations and asterisks)! (cries) It's really discouraging…