Chapter -150: Decay of Affairs

The following morning, Sarajin was up bright and early, tired and his face all red from all the crying he did in his pillow while he slept.

He lumbered down to the living room and saw his mom tidying it up a little. She was swishing her finger around in the air, guiding a small gust of air to pick up the dust and send it out through the window.

She finished with a flourish and then looked at her son from the corner of her eye. She smiled and as though last night was a horrible dream, she simply asked him, "Did you sleep well, honey?"

Sarajin rubbed his dry eyes clean and let out a yawn, and a couple smacks. He then weakly lifted his head and told her, "Could've been better..."

"Well, allow me to start your day off right with a good, hearty breakfast." She then made her way to the kitchen and checked the cooling box as Sarajin sat down at the table.

"Oh..." She muttered shamefully.

"What's wrong, mom?" Sarajin asked, peering over his shoulder.

"Sarajin, we're out of eggs. Could you make a quick trip over to the farm and pick some up?"

"Sure mom. You can count on me!" Sarajin stood right up and then picked up his mom's spare woven basket in the corner before heading out the door.

He stopped to pet Moses, who was nibbling on a large spider, then was on his way. The farm was on the east side of town, on an island all of its own, and protected by a large glass dome so the creatures don't accidentally fall off the side.

The dome stuck out so much that even a stranger wouldn't be able to get lost finding it. It was pretty quiet in the village this early in the day, with only a few adults up and out. Sarajin didn't want to look any of them in the eye, the events of yesterday still bothering him a lot.

Once he got close to the farm bridge though...

"Hey, kid! What're you up to this morning?" Who else but Nimus came falling out of the sky to greet him.

"Oh, hey Uncle Nimus." Sarajin replied with a half-smile.

Nimus raised his goggles up and remarked, "You're not giving me the usual enthusiasm. Something got your clouds all gray?"

Sarajin raised his head and asked, "Can I tell you on the way to the farm?"

"Heh, sure thing. I was just finishing my morning flight and figured I could use a glass of milk straight from the udder," Nimus took in a deep breath and sighed. He just couldn't be bothered by anything and Sarajin admired him tons for that, "Aaaah, nothing like a whiff of fresh air that's been blessed by the dawn."

So as the two crossed the long bridge over Sarajin had to betray his admiration for a moment to bother him with his question, "Nimus? Did you steal the food you've eaten from other Tribes?"

"Well that came out of nowhere..." Nimus rolled his hand around in the air and replied nonchalantly, "I guess I have, from a certain point of view."

"Even you?" Sarajin said in a slightly taut tone.

"'From a certain point of view', kid," Nimus chuckled and patted him on the head, disarming his tension, "The Tribesfolk would call me a thief, but guess what? They don't own what they eat."

Sarajin tilted his head and Nimus chuckled some more, "Heck nobody does, really. The Winged Flame that birthed this world gave life to all things, including the Titans that created food like fruits and fish. Food is meant to be eaten by everyone."

"But what about the people who worked hard to pick the fruit or catch fish?" Sarajin asked poignantly, "If food is for everyone, then...it's ok to steal from one person to feed yourself?"

"Oh heck no, that's actually thievery," Nimus blurted out with humorous intent behind his reply, "Food is for everyone but it still works on a 'first come, first serve' basis. So say...if someone up here sent their birds to pluck fruit from a tree or fish from the sea, then that's fine. But if a bird took those out of someone's hands, that's wrong."

"..." Sarajin breathed deep and sighed through his nostrils, staring down at the rickety boards below.

"I get the feeling you're not satisfied with that." Nimus sharply detected.

Sarajin's head sprung up and then with a melancholic look in his eyes he remarked, "Why didn't dad say it like that...?"

"Haaaa, its like I told you, kid. Parents just think they're smart," Nimus then looked him in the eyes fondly and smiled, "But you're questioning them. That's a good thing, really. Nobody should be shamed for not wanting to be ignorant."

"...But my dad and I used to get along. Ever since I started wanting to go to the surface it's like he's become..."

"Hostile? Distant? Aloof?" Nimus nailed it in three words, "Well, you always know who to rely on to be honest with you, cotton puff."

Sarajin smiled and looked up towards him, "Thanks, Nimus."

Nimus smiled back and then put his hands behind his head, "Just make sure not to steal from people and you'll be fine."

Then, under his breath, Sarajin could've sworn he heard him snarl, "If this place wasn't so isolated..."

"What's that?" He prodded, causing Nimus to flinch and chuckle in his carefree manner.

"Ha! Don't worry about it, kid. It's nothing." And the way he spoke was enough to believe anything he said.

The two then made it over to the farm, where the rocky isle was filled with grassy green pastures for the cows to munch on, while the chickens got their own massive house to lay eggs in.

Sarajin picked up a dozen freshly laid eggs while Nimus got his cup of milk, leaving a lot of questions to remain unanswered.

The two then parted ways with Nimus doing his cool backwards dive off the city, and Sarajin returning home. By then his dad had woken up and came to the meal table. But it was a silent breakfast, and nobody dared to say a word to upset it.

By the time it was over Sarajin was full and ready to depart. He had vowed to meet up with Justek to go to Oreore and once again, it looked like he was going to be a little late.

So he kicked up his feet and rushed out the door, only to be halted by his mom calling his name, "Sarajin? Where are you going today?"

He craned his head back and remarked, "I'm going to pick Justek up and head to Oreore!"

"Oh, a new Tribe?" His mom encouraged him greatly with her smile, while his dad just eyed him with a tensely wide glare.

"Well, tell us both how it goes, honey." She said, followed by a string of quiet coughs into her fist.

Sarajin's expression sank a little so before it could get worse, he pulled himself away from the house and made his way to the usual departure spot.

He was relieved to just get away from there so he could destress with his friend somewhere else.

Another nice day meant another nice flight. It was unfortunate his path took him away from where he would wind up later, he was anxious to take a peek at what Oreore was like. But! It would have to wait just a liiiittle while longer.

As his destination started to emerge over the horizon though, something was different than usual. There were all these small pillars of thin, dark gray clouds rising towards the sky, and the air felt a little...colder than usual. And not in the way the body felt it. This hit deeper. Sarajin's insides were twisting up, and a part of his mind was telling him to "Back away".

But curiosity drove a wedge between the signal and his brain, causing him to keep pressing forward unabated. He then began to see more and more of the village, and here, the sky was unlike anything he'd ever seen before.

Behind the village the blue skies were turning a grimy brown and red, and it wasn't like the change that occurs when the sun sets. It was like this new sky was bleeding into the old, consuming it.

And on the ground there was an incomprehensible mess of actions going on all at once. There were these beasts with scales that were much taller and bigger than he was, that stood on their hind legs and had wings bigger than any bird.

And they were surrounded by other beasts, whose flesh resembled the sky above...If what they had could be called flesh. As they moved around, tangling and attacking the scaled beasts, their bodies were dripping and peeling apart. When their parts hit the ground, the ground molded up and dried away, leaving these awfully unpleasant, slimy cracks in their wake.

Despite boasting a greater size, the scaled beasts were being overwhelmed by the flood of molding creatures. A beast with slimy, mangy fur leaped from the ground and bit down on the arm of one the scaled giants, causing them to let out a roar so pained it shook the air Sarajin flew through.

And in turn, wrestled him out of his momentary daze and forced his attention forward unto Justek's village, where the dark gray clouds were coming from. And the source of them were these boiling hot brown flames, that didn't look like flames more so they did puddles of muck.

The dark gray clouds were so thick that Sarajin couldn't even make out any of the houses.

His heart was racing and the signal to his brain was getting so strong that no wedge would be able to hold it back for much longer.

Yet he disobeyed himself and dove straight towards the clouds, thinking only of his friend's safety as he screamed their name, "JUSTEK!"

As he breached the clouds he quickly found it hard to breathe and the coughing caused him to plummet straight towards the ground. Though the landing was rough he was able to put up a barrier of wind to force the clouds away.

He then stood and looked around. His vision was blurry and all he could hear was stuff breaking and bursting, with the crackle of flames streaking right past him.

He turned to his left and saw black flames burning across the ground, where it hit one of those strange, furred beasts and pushed it deeper into the ground, where it laid there, searing alive.

Sarajin winced and felt sick to his stomach. He tried to run away but the discomfort extended to his legs, making him wobbly as he moved.

Not even a couple feet away, he felt disoriented as a foul wind passed by his side. And his innocence was dealt a cruel blow as he watched the beast he saw fall run viciously across the land, still on fire, still melting the ground it touched.

With a thunderous snarl it lunged through the air, and another being roared. A roar...that was quickly silenced.

A titanic shadow fell from afar, crashing down hard enough to knock him off his feet. It was one of those scaled beasts, its rectangular jaw stiffened open while its eyes were frozen in a hazy brown glare.

Sarajin scrambled to crawl away on his hands, pushing forward towards where he believed Justek's house was. But he could never stop looking at the fallen beast's eyes, and how they failed to move with even the hint of a spark in them.

He stood and turned, tripping over the side of one house and struggling to keep moving forward steadily.

"JUSTEK!" He screamed, his voice hoarse and panicked.

It wasn't just that he was nowhere to be seen, none of the villagers were. This place was being ravaged by two groups of savage beasts, each member as horrifying as the last.

Sarajin's head jerked around as he heard snarls and watched shadows speed around the smoke. The sounds were getting closer, and closer.

Sarajin grit his teeth and looked around, shouting once more as loud as he could, "JUSTEK!"

And finally, as the snarls were but feet away, one noise broke through the chaos, "Y-You?! What are you doing here?!"

It came from up ahead, with him barely able to make out the sight of his friend's house, and the presence of his face within.

Before Sarajin could make a move, however, a flash of pink light came from within Justek's house.

"DUCK!" An echoing, feminine voice hollered.

Sarajin ran and then dove for the ground, leaving a burst stream of pink and white flames to scorch through the air and consume a pair of those furred beasts that were ready to pounce on him.

As his heart was now near fatally pounding his chest, he forced himself up and stumbled his way into a run the rest of the distance. He then leaped into Justek's house, accidentally tackling his friend to the ground.

The world suddenly felt brighter and warmer, enveloped in a mystical pink glow that covered the area around them.

Sarajin raised his head and finally gasped for breath, while Justek stood up and put his glasses back into place, with a crack now on the lens.

"Y-You're alive...!" Sarajin was so excited his heart was going to burst, "What-"

Justek slammed his hand over his mouth and looked pissed off, gritting his teeth into a snarl and saying, "Y-You damn fool, shut off your wind, NOW!"

Sarajin did just that, though took his time doing so. Justek then pulled his hand away slowly and dropped to his knees.

Sarajin then looked around and the only thing he could recognize was the big metal object in the center, and the top of the ceiling.

"...W-Where is this?" Was all he could bring himself to ask.

"...This is still my home." Justek muttered tiredly.

"But-"

Before Sarajin could say anymore, the echoing voice from before returned, "Are you two safe now?"

And this close to it, Sarajin could make out a familiar sound from it, "H-Huh?! That's...your mother, isn't it?"

When he panned his head around what he saw was the head of a beast similar to the scaled ones, only more feathered and with horns that were coiled up behind their eyes. And the head was attached to the rest of the pink in this area, which in turn, was bundled up inside of this house tightly. The beast did not have any hands or legs to speak of, but it seemed serene, in a vein similar to Ividae.

"...We're fine, mother." Justek remarked.

"M-M-Mother...?" Sarajin stuttered, unable to see this beast as the gentle, if not towering figure he's met many times before.

The planet quaked beneath them, as the loudest roar yet ruptured the air. Sarajin planted his hands against his ears and continued to tremble long after the quake subsided.

The pink beast coiled in closer, pressing both its young wards against its soft, warm skin.

The big metal object in the house then began to shake, cracking apart the ground at the tip as it rose up, grasped by the black-scaled claw of the largest scaled beast yet.

Standing heads over the others, it had piercing eyes that were on fire and the molded flesh of those other beasts adorned all over his body.

Wielding the massive metal like it was a stick of wood, it advanced forward, lunging its head towards the sky and screaming like thunder.

It was hard to make out what it was saying. It sounded like the word "Devil".

Sarajin dragged himself towards where the metal was and looked up. His whole body was frozen over, with skin pale and bones rattling, as he saw the target of the scaled beast's wrath.

A body like the moon split in twine. Heads as numerous as fingers, spread all across its body, from its barely held together wings of molding flesh to the back of its tail.

The sky bled forward as it flew. The air could not breathe. It had many mouths, none of which could scream. For wherever it flew, the land would scream for it.

And this massive scaled beast challenged the fear it spread without backing down, assailing it with a breath of dark blue flames.

As the planet rumbled from this clash of titans, Sarajin curled up against the floor and went silent. He wanted to scream, but he had already been emptied. Of emotion, of feeling, of desire...This beast was a void that consumed it all.

All he could hear, all he wanted to hear, was the sound of his friend, as he nonchalantly remarked on what was happening with one last shock of Sarajin's fragile mind, "And that scaled beast...is my father."

Sarajin shivered and laid down, as the sounds of the world coming apart echoed outside the protection Justek's mother provided.

Who could say how much time passed before it all stopped. But it did, not with a deafening silence, but it just simply...did.

When the world quieted down and no more noise could be heard coming from outside, Justek's mother raised her head to the hole in the ceiling.

"It's safe now, dears." She whispered, a solemn grace period in this cataclysm. Then, she closed her eyes and the rest of her body was sucked into her head, which then descended upright towards the ground.

Then the layers of her head peeled off to retake the appearance of the robe she wore, with her right there in the middle, now back to normal...Whatever meaning that had now.

Sarajin slowly stood up, his knees weak, but solid enough to keep him standing for the moment. His breaths created a dim fog.

He looked up and stared long and limp at the sky, which was now back to its bright and blue self. It was like the last moments were just a horrible, stress-induced dream.

But as he slowly made his way to the front door, the reality of what had happened began to sink in.

The embers of battle were subsiding and painted a clear picture of what had been lost. Half the houses were split open, either from scars or from the bodies of those scale beasts collapsing on top of them.

The rest of the people of this village hauled this hulking bodies away atop their shoulders, marching in a single-file line to the entrance.

The ground was rotting away at their feet but it seemed like it was trying to heal, but it looked like the planet was fighting itself to try and do so.

There were no signs of any of those molding beasts either. Just their terrible, inhuman scent, and the death they left in their wake.

Sarajin was grabbing hold of the side of the entrance without realizing he was shaking all over, gritting his teeth and hyperventilating through his nostrils.

It was cold, just so cold...

A towering shadow loomed overhead, and when Sarajin looked up at it he saw Justek's father back to his "normal" self...Now covered all over in a foul smelling red and brown liquid, with deep gashes down his right arm that exposed the bone, and his left eye gone, replaced with an oozing malformed pus.

Sarajin pulled away from there with clattering teeth as the man pulled himself into the house, a trail of sludge being dragged in the wake of his robe.

The man then stopped and craned his head back with a pitifully tired glance as he muttered, "...Why are you here?"

And when he opened his mouth, vile was bubbling between his teeth.

Sarajin's skin turned as pale as it could get and he tried and failed to cover his mouth as he lunged forward, falling onto his knees and vomiting onto the ground.

"Mmrrrr..." Justek's father groaned and then turned away, crawling over to his wife and setting down onto his knees as she immediately placed her glowing hands atop his crevice filled arm.

Sarajin's vision was all hazy and disoriented. He couldn't tell left from right or up from down. He tried to stand only for him to nearly wobble into his own vomit.

His mouth felt awful, worse than his innards did. He wiped the vomit off his mouth and then finished catching his breath, giving him just enough strength to stand.

Justek's dad was grunting and groaning as his wife infused her energy into his arm, which somehow caused his flesh to regrow and stitch itself back together. Nothing could be done about his eye though beyond cleaning it out.

Sarajin just stared at this whole family and hung over, tired and silent.

Justek's dad glared at him from out of the corner of his eyes and muttered, "Why are you still here? This ain't a place for you right now, kid."

"Dear," His wife whispered, "Look at him, he's frozen stiff with fear..."

"At what? Can't be telling me he ain't ever seen a Rot Walker before..." He replied dismissively towards Sarajin's emotions.

"...Rot...Walker?" Emerged a brief glimpse of Sarajin's curiosity.

Justek's father flapped his eyelids hard while Justek remarked in the corner, reading his book, "He's from Arc Hurricanos, father, of course he hasn't."

He then nudged his glasses up and smugly continued, "But of course, you would think your transformation into that brutish form is something the Genestasians would consider normal."

"What? Doesn't he already know about that?!" His father exclaimed.

"Uhh, no," Justek replied candidly, "You told me not to say anything."

"Oh, so little know-it-all decided to keep his jaw shut for once..." After his father growled a bit he let out a few snarls of pain as the last of his muscles healed back up.

His wife then got to work cleaning him off manually with her hands, which grew the feathers seen on her beastly form.

Sarajin just turned away from them, looking to his friend for answers. Justek poked his head up slightly and then used a finger to bookmark his page.

"Fine..." He groaned, "But I doubt he's receptive to information at the moment."

Sarajin was squirmish but shook his head weakly and said, "N-No, please, tell me."

He clutched his hands up against his chest and whispered, "I...I have to know why your people had to d...had to...d..."

He let out a deep gulp, and following silence it was Justek's father that spoke up for his sake.

"Our kind doesn't follow the rules set in order for the rest of the world. We ain't got elemental energy, nor a Titan...But instead, we have an incredible amount of raw power."

He crossed his arms against his chest as he turned to let his wife clean his back off, which let him give Sarajin an honest look in the eyes, "But that power is divided among two races. There's those like me, a dragon who boast planet-trembling physical strength...And then there's those like my wife, a wyvern that has magical energies comparable to a Titan."

"...So that scaled beast you turned into...?"

"That was a dragon, the mightiest of all living beasts on this planet." Justek's father said with a hint of pride in his tone.

Hearing that only led Sarajin's curiosity towards Justek, who leaned his head back and seemed to be in discomfort.

"Yeah," His father remarked, turning more sour by the second "The whelp could become one of those beasts too. Could, but he doesn't...Even though he's got both our blood inside of him, and all the raw power that comes with it."

Justek glared his way and then peered down at his book.

"Instead he wastes his days away on those crummy books..." His father scoffed, "Had I any strength to stand, I'd tear the spines from all your precious books with my bare hands."

"Oh yes, that'll show me..." Justek mumbled in turn.

"I could've died today y'know," His father grumbled, "Then what will you do when the Devil awakes? Read it to sleep?!"

"S-Sir..." Sarajin spoke up like a mouse would, gaining the attention of his flared up eyes. Looking his way did settle the man down, and following a sigh he allowed the boy a chance to speak.

"I...just never heard about your people before."

"Ain't a big surprise," He muttered, "We may not be many in number even before today's losses, but our power ain't just feared, it's coveted by the other Tribes."

"But I doubt anyone save your leaders and the Titans know of our existence," He raised his head and sighed, "See, we're something of a neutral party. That means we ain't gonna take any side but our own, and the only time we'll choose outright hostility towards something...Are against those things."

"The...Rot Walkers?" Sarajin inquired.

"Right you are." He replied grimly.

"...What are they?" The memory of their unnatural appearances and movements was a scar in Sarajin's retinas, "I've...I've never seen anything like them before. And when I was close to them, I felt like I was going to be sick."

"Yeah, you would, wouldn't ya?" Justek's father mumbled, "I couldn't tell ya where they came from, only that they've been around as long as we have, lurking the wastelands and rotting anything their moldy paws can touch or eat."

"They're mindless creatures but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. If they sense elemental energy or negative emotions, like fear or anger, they'll hunt you down relentlessly no matter how far around the planet you run."

"They don't stop because they can't stop. Neither pain nor death seems to work, they just come back eventually. But again, they're mindless, so they ain't gonna hurt ya so long as you don't trigger their instincts."

"..." Sarajin was agape at what he was hearing, with Justek echoing what he was thinking deep down.

"Once again you've been ridiculously lucky, managing to avoid them as long as you have."

Sarajin had another thought just beneath that though, one more concerned with the state of the world now that he knew what was plaguing it, "But none of these Rot Walkers have attacked the Tribes while I'm there. S-Shouldn't they be full of elemental energy?"

"Well the Rot Walkers can't fly so of course you wouldn't see one," Justek remarked, "But as for the others, who can say for sure?"

"...I-I saw a Rot Walker fly though." Sarajin said, the silhouette of the ten-headed one appearing in his head.

"What you saw is the Devil, kid," Justek's father said, even his voice conceding to a hint of fear, "And it ain't normal, even by those things standards."

He closed his eyes and murmured, "Our ancestral lords saw fit to give the Devil a name long, long again..."

His eyes were glazed with a fiery glow as he peered through them with an ominous chill spreading through the air, "The Khull Drago."

It was a name that Sarajin felt would hurt just to repeat. So he just listened, as Justek's father told the tale of this Devil.

"Before time could remember, that Devil has haunted the land, sea, and sky. Its roar being the only thing the lesser ones will obey," He then took a deep breath and relaxed himself, "That thing is still no smarter than the rest, but it don't matter...Whenever it awakens, it takes to the sky, commanding the many to gather like a flood to reduce all the planet to a rotting husk."

"But..." There were some hopeful undertones to his tone of voice at this point, "We're the living proof that the end of days can and has been stopped. The Tribes of Dragons and Wyverns, even when divided, have stood against the Devil's advance every time it is awakened. It takes every bit of strength we got, and lives are lost, but eventually the Devil retreats to slumber on his thorny mountainside in the west."

"S-So right now, they aren't a threat?" Sarajin said, feeling a little more relieved to know that.

"I bet my right eye on that, so that Devil better stay down for a long while..." Justek's father then closed his eyes with a sigh, "Would be what I'd like to say, but there's no telling when the Khull Drago will awaken again. Could be a month, could be a year, could be many years..."

"The only thing consistent about its sleep pattern is that it'll always be there waiting to plague the next generation...Like our kind only exists to stand between the Devil and the rest of the world."

He half-heartedly smiled and whispered, "You can be assured that we'll keep standing."

He then made a snide glance to his right and growled, "But it'd help if someone pulled their weight around here."

Justek turned his gaze a little towards his dad and then scoffed. This caused his dad's nostrils to flare as he raised his voice, "Damn you, boy, you just gonna let your people die? How damn selfish are ya?!"

Justek slammed his book closed and put it down on the ground, standing up and pulling his head back to glare at his father with a pair of glowing, slitted irises. With a gravelly tone of voice, Justek declared, "I could give less of a damn what you want, old man...I don't intend to die for your pointless battles!"

"Hmph!" Was the final note he left on before storming out the front door, his footsteps like thunderclaps.

"...Entitled brat." Justek's father growled and then stood up, fully cleaned off.

Sarajin took a few steps towards the door but was stopped by Justek's father speaking, "You shouldn't have had to see this."

He turned around and Justek's dad approached him with his hand mid-gesture, and a warning that was as fair as he could give, "Probably for the best if you never risk coming here again."

Sarajin looked down with tired eyes, then away, eventually meeting the door. He then ran out, following Justek's footsteps in the moldy ground out of the village.

He had been fast enough to catch up with him and holler out, "J-Justek, wait...!"

Justek did a sharp turn around and his expression was one of subtle distress. He snarled his bottom lip and mumbled, "You? Why did you follow me?"

"You looked upset, so I wanted to see if you're ok..." Sarajin mumbled empathetically.

"Yes, I am quite upset. So that gives you permission to be near me?" Justek scoffed and then started to turn away.

"You're my friend, Justek. I'm just worried about you..."

Justek turned right back around and screamed, "You are not MY friend!"

He dug his shoes in the ground and as Sarajin stood there, stunned, Justek ground his teeth together and muttered, "Lords almighty, how can someone this ludicrously dense...? All this time I've been at your back, I've just been using you for my amusement."

"W-What...?" Sarajin stuttered.

"Oh come ON now, did you seriously think all those barbs I made at your expense were because I like you?" Justek was nearly on the verge of laughter.

"...Y-Yes?" Was not the response he expected out of Sarajin though, "Well, I mean...That's how my friend back home talks to me."

His brows sank and he looked at Justek with a soft, tender frown, "...D-Do you hate me, Justek?"

Justek narrowed his eyes and pulled back a little and muttered, "Hmph, that would imply you're worth singling out among all the other rotten crap in this world."

He then turned his back on Sarajin and raised a hand dramatically towards the air, "Do you want to know why I was born?"

"Because I was not only meant to symbolize the peace between Dragons and Wyverns, but also to create a vain hope that their power combined would be enough to overtake the Devil."

He clutched the sun in his hand and squeezed it tight as he uttered, "But they're fools, the lot of them..."

He threw his hand down to his side with great "oomph" and then bemoaned aloud, caring little for whether or not Sarajin was still listening, "It doesn't matter how strong any of us get. That thing is Death, it does not care for strength."

"But they believe in that lie called 'hope', so they'll keep feeding bodies to Death's many maws until there's nothing left of us!"

He then turned around and stamped his foot on the ground, his eyes wide and tearing up as he screamed, "And I have no damn intention, of being anyone's sacrifice!"

Sarajin stared wide-eyed at Justek's distorted, angered face, as he once more snarled his teeth, "But what does it matter what I feel? I am trapped, and my only real friend, is the pages in my books."

"J-Justek, I..." In this moment, Sarajin felt like he understood Justek more than he understood himself. Balled in chains, crying for freedom, only knowing death and violence...

"Your very existence confounds me..." Justek muttered following a quiet sniffle, "You, who are so damn woefully ignorant, yet have wormed your way into the hearts of two Tribes."

"All I wanted out of you, was to see you break in the face of the cold harsh reality this world has to offer and prove that what I think is the absolute truth," Justek glared at him with utter contempt, making him flinch back, "Yet you've stared Death in his many eyes and barely minutes later its like it hardly affected you."

"You aren't real," Justek was about ready to laugh and cry at the same time, "And if you are, you're an impossible anomaly in this world and nothing more."

Sarajin hung his head with eyes wide open, staring blankly towards the ground. He showed signs of life when he blinked and gulped, and followed that by saying, "I-I was affected by this, Justek..."

He cuddled himself with his arms and remarked, "E-Even now, I can still feel that thing's stare inside of me..."

"But...it's weird. Even though I'm scared of the Khull Drago...I don't want to give up on living."

"..." Justek had a tired expression as he forced himself to stand there and listen to what the boy had to say.

"T-This is the first time I've seen people die in front of me," Sarajin weakly smiled, "And it's just as gruesome as mom and dad made it sound."

He turned his head away a little and seemed drained of color on his face, "I...I saw a guy fall to the ground and he no longer blinked. He died with his eyes wide open...D-Does that mean he, s-saw himself die?"

His eyes squinted close at the thought, then he opened them up with a slight grin, "I don't know how to describe this cause, you're right, I'm ignorant...I just feel like, I have to keep living because they died and I didn't."

"I-It doesn't make much sense, I know, but..." Sarajin turned to Justek and when their eyes met, his were shimmering with a spark of life and he smiled, "What I'm saying is, you're right, Justek. You shouldn't have to feel trapped."

Justek flinched and his skin became riddled in goosebumps.

Sarajin then crossed his arms and nodded, "Parents aren't as smart as they think they are...Especially compared to you."

He smiled and sang his praises cheerfully, "You're like, the smartest person I know, Justek! It's really cool how much you know about all the other Tribes!"

"So let's just forget about what our parents try and tell us, and live the life we want to live!" Sarajin shook his fists in the air excitedly, "And who cares about the Rot Walkers getting in our way? All the Tribes seem to be safe from them anyways!"

Justek's glasses nearly slid off his face, and while he went to adjust them he whispered in disbelief, "...Why would you still want me to be around you after all I just said?"

Sarajin stalled his enthusiasm for a moment and muttered, "Well..I was a little sad at first when you told me that, but..."

With a grin that was maybe a little too sincere he said, "I don't think you hate me, Justek."

Justek's smile grimaced and with a lofty scoff he remarked, "Oh now you're just being ridiculous."

"But you saved me from jumping into the water twice now," Sarajin paused for a few seconds and then itched the side of his face while chuckling, "Which come to think about it, is close to how I first met Nimus. You two are actually a lot alike, really."

Justek folded his arms and then turned aside, brushing his fingers up dismissively, "Hmph, you think too highly of my actions. Anyone would've saved your life."

Out the corner of his eyes he saw Sarajin grinning wider and giggling, "You're a bad liar, Justek!"

"Think whatever you want," Justek said, shaking his head pitifully towards him. He then let out a long, exasperated sigh and tilted his head back, "I suppose for the time being the two of us can tolerate each other's presence for the sake of pursuing freedom from our parents."

He then turned sharply enough to get Sarajin to lose his grin, "But this does not make us friends in any sense of the word."

Sarajin tried to grin again only for Justek to poke him in the nose, "So get that grin off your face already!"

When the two were allowed to settle down a little Justek crossed his arms against his chest and sighed, "...So, you're still wanting to go to Oreore, correct?"

"Uhhh, could we hold off until tomorrow?" Sarajin slowly rubbed the back of his head and sighed, "It's been a long day already..."

"...Fine," Justek said, closing his eyes, "For once, we're in agreement on something."

Sarajin nodded and told him, "I'll see you here tomorrow then, ok?"

"Ok." Justek said little else after, watching as Sarajin moved a few steps away to take off.

But before he sent himself to the sky, he turned and gave Justek a prolonged bow and a solemn remark towards the whole day, "And...I'm sorry all these people died."

He then rose with a frown and looked away, using the wind to carry himself away towards the sky.

Justek watched him off with a minor smile he hadn't even sensed. He then shook his head and turned away to begin a slow march back home.

"I guess for now at least, I can look forward to tomorrow..." Was something that let him raise his shoulder with a tiny bit more confidence.

Next Time: March of the Miners