Chapter -116: Time for Ourselves

With their affairs in Obscura sorted out for the time being, Sarajin and Temporis made their way back towards the outskirts of Oreore to set up camp.

Within the confines of the Titan's barrier they'd be safe from Rot Walkers and also, wouldn't be burdening anyone else with their presence.

The sun had started to fall quicker than they expected and the blue skies gave way to twilight, and slowly the sparkling stars would appear to litter their view.

Sarajin created some wood logs and then lit them with a small ember to get the heat going. Temporis sat her butt down on a small stone and took her gloves off so her skin could soak in the heat.

"Aaaah," She said, soothed by the sounds of cracking wood and warm colors, "This is the life..."

Sarajin was pacing around on the other side of the fire and she tried to draw his attention with a cry of, "Hey!"

When he kept moving she raised her voice, "HEY!"

That made him spring to attention and look her way, appearing rather ashamed of himself as he grinned and said, "W-What's up?"

"Think you could add a little more wood to the fire? Get it REALLY smoldering?" She said eagerly.

Sarajin wagged a hand out beside his face and told her, "Alright but I'm going to have to cool it down before I make dinner."

He then gestured that same hand out and concentrated on the both of Nature, creating a cylindrical shape out of green energy that then created another smooth log, which he levitated on top of the campfire.

Temporis whiffed the plume of cinders and then fell loftily atop her back like a cloud floating in the air. She then stretched her hands out and with a deep breath, let her coat slide off her arms.

"Can't get enough of this..." She murmured to herself as her hands went behind her head.

Sarajin then sat down with one leg up and the other crossed down, resting a hand on his knee and the other on the ground. He shook his head and chuckled quietly, "I'll never understand how you're able to nap anywhere you go."

She threw her hand up and snapped her fingers urgently, "Hey! Less pontificating and more meal-making!"

Sarajin closed his eyes and sighed, "Alright, Bunny. What are you craving tonight?"

"I told ya what I want. Something with meat in it!" She shouted, viciously licking her lips and moaning with hungered anticipation.

"Well I don't have any meat on me at the moment."

"Then fly on over to Aquamoria and borrow a fish from Lulu, I'm sure she won't mind."

"I haven't been over there in months, I'd hate to just make a quick trip for food." Sarajin said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Bah!" Temporis pulled herself upright and looked at him with a brief flicker of dismay, "You and your particulars, Sarajin..."

She then craned her head back and saw a flock of birds overhead flying in a "V" formation. She then pointed her hand up and grabbed hold of the back of her wrist as she summoned a crossbow around it.

"W-Wait a second, Bunny!" Sarajin watched as Temporis groaned at the same time as her stomach. He then gestured his hand out gently and urged her, "Do it in one shot, I don't want them to suffer."

Temporis relaxed her posture and shook her head, "Heh, honestly..."

She then formed herself back up and pointed her crossbow at the head of the flock. She then stopped time and fired off a quick aura arrow, hitting her mark with ease.

When time resumed she extended her hand out and waited patiently with a smug smile. The big bird plopped down onto her palm and her smile widened. She then tossed it right over the fire to Sarajin, boasting over her contribution, "One fresh Millwing, as requested!"

Sarajin then grabbed the dead creature by the neck and stood up, letting out a particularly humored sigh before remarking, "Alright, one bird broth, coming right up."

Temporis clenched her fists in the air and cheered "HELL yeah!" before letting gravity pull her down.

For the next hour or two Sarajin prepared their meal. First by skinning the bird of all it's feathers to make sure it was clean and ready to be cooked. Then he converted some nearby stone into metal and molded it into a pot over the fire, which he then filled with water, vegetables and seasonings. Once he cooked the bird meat he added it in too.

Temporis would occasionally nag him by tugging at his pants with an aura hand, so he gave her some nuts to silence her stomach for a bit.

She chewed them obnoxiously because she didn't like the dry feel, but endured because she hated being hungry more.

She paddled her feet around until the stars were clear in the sky. Her smile then widened, as the moon was starting to come into view as well.

"The moon looks really full tonight, don'tcha think?" She whispered.

Sarajin looked up from the cauldron and saw the moon high in the sky with a subtly blue ring glowing around it, and it's surface was brighter than the brightest pearl.

He was then made to flinch in surprise as one of the broth's boiling bubbles popped and splattered onto his chin, almost causing him to drop the ladle into the broth.

He pulled it out and then wagged it around to cool it off, all while Temporis poked her head up and had a big laugh at him.

"Heeeeey," Sarajin swirled his ladle around in circles at her and said, "I shouldn't have to remind you how many utensils we've lost when you've cooked for us."

"Heh yeah, but I've got plenty of room for error when you're around, Mr. Utensil Maker!" She slyly snapped both her fingers out from her sides and then laid back down.

Sarajin closed his eyes in dismay and muttered, "I can't decide if that's better or worse than being called the Elemental Overlord..."

"I don't get what the big deal is! It's a cool name, own up to it!"

"But it makes it sound like I'm trying to rule over everyone," Sarajin murmured, "And not only that, I still don't have the Light or Darkness elements."

"Oh yeah, that's right..." Temporis threw herself back upright with a huff and then plopped her hands down on her knees, "You've been avoiding Caimanabel all this time."

The overall mood got melancholic and quiet for a few seconds, as both of them eyed the empty rock to the North.

Sarajin quickly turned back towards the broth and smiled as he kept stirring away, "I...I think it's almost done."

Temporis glared his way and then leaned back, closing her eyes and refusing to play the role of a silent lamb in this little drama, "Sarajin, you KNOW he wouldn't want you to wait for him. You should just go to Caimanabel already."

"...I know," Sarajin's stirring slowed down and he stared deep into the brother, "I just...It wouldn't feel the same without him around."

Temporis sucked her lips in with an annoyed grunt, then closed her eyes and remarked, "I miss ol' four-eyes too. But trust me, he's not the same person you remember him by."

"You still return to Sancturia?" Sarajin sounded surprised, "But what about your exile?"

"Pffft!" Temporis spat up in laughter and then grinned, "That dick of a dad can fortify his walls all he wants. Ain't nothin' he can do to stop me from getting in and out!"

"If only I could've..." Temporis stopped herself and looked down at the ground, quickly shaking her hand out from behind cover and insisting, "Ah, forget it!"

She then gave the cauldron a couple light kicks and remarked, "Your broth's about to boil over."

Sarajin fumbled his ladle around and then stood right up shouting "Darn it!" before hastily going off to prepare their bowls.

He pulled out some stone from the ground and used his sword to quickly carve it up into the desired shapes. Then he scooped the finished broth out into the bowls and walked one over to Temporis while blowing it cool.

"Thaaaank you!" She said with a wink. She then sat more upright and used her aura to make herself a nifty little spoon to start dumping the broth into her mouth.

Sarajin stared at her from the other side in sheer disbelief, "At least wait for it to cool down..."

"And deal with my bitching stomach for another second?! Pass!" Temporis then shunted the spoon right into her mouth and, surprise surprise, she looked like she was in a lot of pain. Her face started sweating and turned red.

Sarajin narrowed his eyes and said in a mildly sarcastic tone, "You ok?"

She pulled the spoon right out with a gasp and then closed her eyes with a huge grin, "D-Didn't feel a thing!"

She then rubbed her belly and forced the moans out of herself, "Mmmm...! Delicious! W-What kind of seasonings did you use this time?"

"I tried to add a little more pepper and garlic to the mix. I THINK I put too much water in though," Sarajin waited a few seconds before putting some of the broth in his mouth and let it soak in for a bit, "Yeah, still could use some work."

"Well I think it's good enough!" Temporis said, raising her spoon and shouting, "My compliments to the chef!"

Sarajin blushed and sank into himself with a smile, "T-Thanks, Bunny."

The two sat there and enjoyed their food with a quiet atmosphere. The real nighttime scenery had settled in, giving them the perfect window to gaze up at the stars above.

Temporis pointed at them with her spoon and said, "Look at that, a shooting star!"

Sarajin pulled his head back and just caught the tail end of a white light streaking across the sky. His smile brightened and left him adrift in thought.

"Y'know what I heard?" Temporis said, "If you catch a shooting star out of the sky, you'll be able to get a wish granted, no strings attached!"

Sarajin wagged his spoon out and remarked, "Oh, sort of like Aquamoria's Golden Reefquiem?"

"Yeah but unlike that golden flop, this is real!" Temporis then plopped her empty bowl down on her lap and leaned in with her hands clasped around her knees, "What'd you wish for if you caught a shooting star, Sarajin?"

"Ummm..." Sarajin grinned and chuckled, "I think my wish should be pretty obvious."

Temporis narrowed her eyes and spat bluntly into his face, "Booooring! Forget about the rest of the world for a moment. What does Sarajin Stratos want?"

Sarajin looked straight at Temporis and his heart started to feel fluttery again. The way her face looked in the fire's light and under the light of the moon really made her brightest features stand out, like her smile and pure and free eyes.

What he wanted was obvious, he wasn't going to deny that. But to say it out loud now, of all times, it just didn't feel right to him.

And deep down, a part of him didn't think she felt the same way towards him...

"I-I guess..." Sarajin closed his eyes and forced a grin through, "If there's anything I don't have yet, I feel like...I can work hard to get it someday."

"Haaaaa..." Temporis gently fell onto her back and stretched her limbs out, "Y'know, for a guy with so many elements, you're sorely lacking imagination."

"Sorry..." Sarajin said, his head sank against his chest.

He then perked back up and wondered, "What would you wish for?"

"Heh heh heh!" Temporis chuckled greedily, springing back up and declaring with vicious confidence, "I'd want my sister's body, duh!"

"R-Really...?!" Sarajin said with a heavy blush in his cheeks.

Temporis stared for a long time at him with an almost seductive pair of eyes. But then she broke into a snicker and reeled back in laughter, "Ha! You were imagining it, weren't you? Sarajin, you pervert!"

Sarajin glared and stuttered, "Come on, Temporis, I really want to know what you want."

"I WAS being serious, silly!" Temporis fell flat on her back and put her hands behind her back, gazing up into the stars, "Look at me, Sarajin. I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want, eat whenever I want. And every night I can fall asleep and gaze up at the stars next to a warm cozy fire while talking to my best friend about shooting stars."

Sarajin envied the ease at which she spoke her mind, saying such deep, thought-provoking words with a carefree tone.

She then raised her head up with a big smile and said, "You and I are some of the few people in this world who really get to enjoy being free."

"She's right..." Thought Sarajin in a despondent tone, "She's always doing things her own way and living true to her heart. And I-"

Sarajin was stunned silent as Temporis then cupped her chest and started to prop them up, "So I say with all this freedom what's wrong with wishing for bigger tits and a few more inches of height?!"

Sarajin hunched over, sputtering a few times in disbelief while Temporis peered over the fire wondering, "Huh? Whatsa matter, didja put the broth down the wrong pipe?!"

Sarajin clenched his teeth into a grin and then sat up with false bravado as he told her, "I-It's nothing..."

Temporis uncupped her chest and shook her head with a smirk, "Heh...!"

She then scooped her bowl up and presented it forcefully, "Speaking of broth, more please!"

The two refilled their bowls and settled down for a bit to enjoy it. When Sarajin was feeling less like an awkward adolescent he mustered up the courage to ask his friend, "So...How is your sister doing these days? Do you know?"

Temporis dropped her spoon into her empty bowl and let out a long, satisfied gasp while rubbing her belly. She then poked one eye open and remarked in a lackadaisical tone, "She's fine. Still the same ol' haughty stuck-up princess you remember her by. Though in terms of looks, well..."

She paused to let the anticipation inside of Sarajin swell, "She's turned into a really strong and beautiful woman. The kind of beauty some would consider a lethal weapon, if ya catch my drift."

"Catch your...what?" Sarajin said with a fish-eyed stare.

"Look, she's just really, really gorgeous, trust me," Temporis then put her hands behind her head and turned it, mouthing out from her side a blunt and pitiful whisper, "A shame she's letting it all waste away inside dad's cage."

She shrugged and then leaned back to look up at the stars, "Anyways, I just pop by every few or so weeks to say hello to her, let her know I'm doing fine in the hopes it'll convince her to leave with me. But NOPE, dad's got his grubby fingers too deep into her mind."

"Your dad sounds like a bad person." Sarajin put it lightly.

"He's the WORST!" Temporis shouted with a rare display of anger on her face, "If it wasn't for him and his damn need to control everything, Justek would still...!"

She grit her teeth and looked at Sarajin's worrying expression until it cooled her down enough to let the remaining rage out in a grunt.

She then put her hands back behind her head and mumbled, "At least you and your dad saw eye-to-eye eventually. The only person that bastard listens to is himself..."

"..." Temporis made occasional glances at Sarajin while he looked towards her in silence. She eventually rolled her eyes and dropped her hands down.

Sarajin waved his hand out and remarked, "All of this happened because of that black monster."

"Yeah..." Temporis sighed, "If only I could go back in time and stop it."

Sarajin chuckled and tried to lift her mood a little, "Yeah, I bet you could pull it off with that Drive of yours."

"Huh? What's with the future tense?" Temporis said looking a little slackjaw, "I CAN travel through time, doofus."

Sarajin stared at her for a long time with a few blinks to show for it, "H-H...Huh?"

"Yeah, didn't I bring it up recently?" She said as a matter-of-fact.

"No! I think I'd remember something that important!" Sarajin spat up, more in awe than anything else, "That's incredible...! When...when did this happen?"

"I forget when it happened. I was just fiddling around with my time stopping abilities when all of a sudden I 'blinked' out of the area and wound up in the past of this world."

Temporis threw her hands up in a shrug and lacked her usual confidence as she admitted, "I think my Drive's one of the rare ones that gets more abilities the more it's used. So somewhere along the way, I accidentally unlocked time travel."

"Accidentally?" Sarajin raised his eyebrows, "You use that thing all the time, Bunny..."

"S-So, you can go anywhere in time?" Sarajin wondered.

"Eh, sort of?" Temporis crossed her arms beneath her chest, "I don't really have much control over it at the moment..."

"When I tried to get back to the present time I wound up going to the future instead. At least...I think it was the future?"

"What do you mean?" Sarajin wondered.

"The place reminded me of Sancturia. People were living in huts, they had Drive bracelets and everything...But everyone was so...Spirited! And the clothes were WAY more simple than ours. I'm talking like single colored shirts and plain blue pants made out of something called 'denim'?"

Temporis snickered and then took on a mocking tone, "EVERYONE had shoes and they all looked so stupid with their tiny ropes tied in a knot on top!"

"The future sounds weird..." Murmured Sarajin with a mild recoil of worry, "And you say it was like Sancturia?"

"Yeah but there's no way it could've been," Temporis chuckled, "The city was floating in the air for one, and it wasn't over Genestasia. Not to mention the people were happy. No way my dad's rule would ever let that happen, even thousands of generations later!"

"Still, while I was there I figured I might as well get a new wardrobe to celebrate." She said, proud of herself.

"THAT explains the new coat at least," Sarajin rubbed his chin in thought, "And why you disappeared for that one week."

"Yeah, like I said, it's hard for me to make accurate jumps with this thing," Temporis bobbed her head a few times, "But once I've worked out how to, I'm going to go back in time and stop that black monster from slaughtering Justek's tribe!"

"Mmrrr..." Sarajin groaned.

"What's wrong?" Temporis prodded.

"I...I don't think you should tamper with time, Bunny." Sarajin murmured.

"Huh? Why not?" Temporis bluntly retorted. She then leaned in and said, "Are you worried I'm going to get killed by that monster?"

"Yes!" Sarajin shouted, standing right up with a panicked look in his eyes.

Temporis froze up momentarily and stared into his eyes as he panted and mustered up the courage to say, "Bunny...you're one of the strongest people I know...But even the Titans were shaken by that creature."

"..." Temporis closed her eyes part way as Sarajin wore her down with his resolve, "I'm not going to pretend I understand time travel. But I do know this."

"Maybe some things were just...meant to be," Sarajin tensed up, clutching his fist against his chest while remarking in a deep and melancholic tone, "What happened to Justek and his people...there's not a day that goes by where I wish I could've been strong enough to save them."

"But we can't just live our lives wishing for what could've been. We have to be strong enough going forward to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Temporis leaned back and crossed her legs. With a big smile she looked at him from the corner of her eye and chuckled, "You really had to try and one-up my earlier speech, didn'tcha? Shit, and I put my heart into it too."

She then shrugged and said in a carefree tone, "Fiiiine, you win, Sarajin. I promise I won't go getting myself killed fiddling with the timestream."

Sarajin slowly sat back down and said "Thank you". When he was level with her once more he added, "A lot of bad things have come out of that monster's visit, but I don't want to get rid of all the good that came out of it either."

He closed his eyes and smiled, leaving a brief uncertain shift in Temporis' own expression. She then smiled back and laughed, "Yeah you're right. Lingering threat of war aside, the last five years have been pretty good to us."

"And all of this happened because of that black monster." Sarajin said, echoing his earlier remark with a more optimistic tone.

"Heh heh, yeah!" Temporis giggled, and then stretched her legs out into the air, "Soooo, what's next on the agenda for us, Sarajin?"

Sarajin had to bend over and think about it for a while. He looked into his open palm and tried to take a humble look at himself, specifically his strength.

"What...do I do next?" He had prepared himself for the inevitability of war for five years and now that he had all this strength and knowledge burdening his mind, there were so many paths for him to take.

But in his heart, he knew there was something he had to take care of. A matter that was more personal than selfless...Just this once.

"I think tomorrow..." Sarajin clenched his fists and raised it before his chest, eyes steeled with determination, "I'm going to try and get into Sancturia to see Justek again."

Temporis widened her eyes and smirked, "About damn time. You're sure you're ready? Just a fair warning, if we run into any one of the Ten Sages, it's not going to be like fending off Colrez. Some of those guys are drunk on dad's philosophy and they won't hesitate to take you down."

"I just want to get in there long enough to see my friend again," Sarajin remarked, "If I can find an opening to get him out of there I'll take it, but I'm not going to risk a fight with anyone."

"..." Temporis was strangely silent for a bit before nodding her head and commenting, "Ok! And yeah, you know I'll be there to bail you out when your plan inevitably leads to a fight anyways."

"Geez, thanks for the faith, Bunny..." Sarajin rubbed the back of his head.

"We should probably get some rest then!" Temporis immediately plopped onto her back and took a deep breath to prepare herself for slumber, forcing a yawn out for good measure.

"Just make sure to put the fire out before you head home, o-k?"

"...You sure you don't want me to stay here with you tonight?" Sarajin said in a mildly shy tone.

"I'm NOT gonna get ambushed, how many times do I hafta tell ya that?" She replied humorously.

"...Well," Sarajin turned and began to slowly lay down, "I'll stay here so we can leave first thing in the morning."

Temporis shrugged and muttered, "You're practically an adult, why you askin' me what to do?"

"Hehehe...!" Sarajin chuckled and then laid his head to rest on the ground, flicking one finger out to put out the flame.

Then all they had was the stars in the sky to lull them to sleep, and the quiet evening winds to blanket them.

"...Good night, Temporis." Sarajin whispered.

"Yeah...tomorrow's gonna be a big day for us both."

Temporis paddled her feet in the air until she was certain Sarajin was asleep. She then sat up and stared at him from around the cauldron, hearing his childish and peaceful snoring with a fond smile on her face.

She then shook her head and chuckled to herself, "You big lovable idiot...Sorry, Sarajin."

She clutched her fist before her chest and whispered, "Unlike you, I'm not going to be chained down by promises."

She closed her eyes and vanished in a silent blink of light, to some time and some place unknown to even herself, in the vain hope that she could change the future...

Next Time: Reunions