Alex awoke the next morning with a stiff back. Groaning and yawning at the same time, she sat up to stretch her sore back. While stretching, the girl took note of the unbearable heat. If she had other clothes, she would have certainly changed then and there. Sadly, the book didn't have a section for clothes that the chosen could change into.
Finally managing to un-stiffen her back, Alex stood up and exited the tent that she had crashed in for the night. Outside, the morning light was so bright that she hissed at it like a vampire from the books Fana always got her to read. She's even called Alex a vampire a couple of times due to her odd sleep habits that pop up every now and then.
Looking around – once her eyes got used to the light – the brunette saw the purple haired boy from the previous day. Mieli had told her that he was heartless but seeing him still urked the girl. His face was so void of emotion that she wanted to slap it to get some emotion on it. Rage would have been much better than nothing. Though, the good side of her disagreed with this. Aka, Mieli told Alex that it was a bad idea to go around slapping people to get reactions from them. Her voice of reason got to her and she simply walked up to him to get a drink of water since he was at the well. The boy turned to her and his eyes narrowed but still held no emotion.
"Can I have some water... please?" Alex asked, remembering to be polite at the end. The purple haired boy stared at her for a moment before sighing. He almost seemed annoyed to have to get water for the girl. "Someone needed to teach this guy some manners and quick because if someone doesn't, he's going to have a hand print on his cheek soon."
The boy pulled up the bucket and handed it to the brunette. Rolling her eyes at him, Alex took the bucket from him and drank straight from it. Alex never realised how thirsty she was until then because she ended up emptying the bucket. Though, she was confused as to why there was no more water in the bucket and ended up peering into it. When the girl saw that there was no more water, her mouth formed into a pout like a five year old.
From the corner of her eye, Alex noticed the boy watching her strangely. He was probably weirded out (if emotionless people can feel weirded out) by her pouting. It got Rempo laughing that's for sure. It took most of her strength not to smack the spirit and look like a fool in front of the boy who already found her strange.
Huffing in annoyance – because of the fire spirit – Alex handed the bucket back to the purple haired boy. He took it and threw it back down the well. The two of them didn't say anything to each other after that. Alex didn't know if the boy could feel it, but from the lack of talking, the air around them felt really awkward to the brunette.
Eventually, Alex couldn't take it anymore and said to him, "Look, we got off on the wrong foot earlier. Let's start over. I'm Alex and you are?"
. . . . . . . . .
The girl drank the water rather oddly. Instead of waiting for the cup the boy was about to hand her, she drank straight from the bucket. Then, when she was done, she looked into it and pouted. No one had ever done something as strange as that. The nomads tended to be very reserved people and would never use such a child like expression.
The brunette huffed for some reason before handing the bucket back to the boy. He put her huff from his mind and threw the bucket back into the well. Neither of them spoke after that; not that the boy minded. Silence was normal for him. However, the girl looked like she couldn't handle the silence because she kept fidgeting.
Just as he had thought, the girl began to speak. "Look, we got off on the wrong foot earlier. Let's start over. I'm Alex and you are?" The purple haired boy turned to stare her dead in the face like he did with the other nomads that insisted on trying to make him speak more than necessary. Though, instead of turning away like the others, the girl stared back. She seemed have a much more intense look than his because he could practically feel her staring back at him.
They remained that way for a bit. This seemed to be the only type of silence she could handle because she just stared right back at him without moving. She was so still that her blinking seemed very out of place. Never once had a human gone this long in a staring match with him. If he could have felt anything at that moment, it certainly would have been confusion.
Finally, he couldn't handle her eyes anymore and turned away. The boy began to walk away when her hand caught his sleeve. The purple haired boy's head turned and his eyes re-met her eyes. This time, they were begging him to tell her his name. Something inside of the boy thumped and he turned his head away from her. But, not before saying his name. "Anwar."
The girl let go of the boy's sleeve and asked, "Wait, what was that?"
"My name is Anwar. It means desert wind," he told her before walking off into the desert.
. . . . . . . . .
"Anwar," the purple haired boy said. Alex was so surprised by his sudden word that she let go of his sleeve. They had been staring at each other for so long that she was actually amazed that when she had met his eyes the second time, he spoke to her. She had figured that he would have shaken her off and walked away.
"Wait, what was that?" the brunette asked. She needed to be certain that what he had said was his name and not some random word that would make her let him go. Rex always did that to Alex. And it worked every single time too.
"My name is Anwar. It means desert wind," he replied before walking off into the desert. Alex stood in her spot and stared at his disappearing form. Mieli and Neaki joined Rempo out of the book to see Anwar disappearing into the desert.
Mieli suddenly started to giggle. Rempo and Alex turned and gave the forest spirit a bewildered look. She stopped giggling long enough to say, "His heart just thumped." The forest spirit's comment sent a heat wave through the girl's whole body. She had a pretty good feeling that her face was as red as Rempo's flame coloured hair.
"Wh-whatever. Let's just go and find Ur," Alex stuttered, turning the opposite direction of where Anwar disappeared to. All three of the spirits were laughing at her flustered state. If she didn't need their help so much, she would have sent them to the next world. If it was possible to send spirit's to the next world from force.
