Chapter 3

Floran takes the fish girl down into the dungeon, and we walk past some guards, some of who take a moment to hiss at the fish girl. That made her cling to me, for some reason that Floran can't understand. There aren't that many guards around, because most of them prefer to go into the woods to hunt, instead of standing around and guarding the very few prisoners that we have left. Most of them were probably already eaten, something that Floran avoided, because Floran was already full. Along the way, the fish girl never gave Floran any problem, and never attempted to escape from Floran. She probably never saw the point of doing it, there are many Florans out of here, and even with the few guards that we have, they would be fast enough to catch her. We finally reach the cells, and some of the prisoners started to hiss, slam against the bars, and try to reach for the fish girl, but Floran makes sure she's out of their reach.

"Flesh! Flesh!" screams one of the prisoners.

"Floran hungry!" screams another. Floran looks at the fish girl, and Floran can tell that she's scared. Floran pull out sword, and hit the bars closest to Floran.

"Quiet, all of you!" Floran yells, and the prisoners quiet down. They know that Floran could kill them, and feed them to the other Florans. What they don't know, is that Floran can't do it right now. There was an empty cell nearby, but for some reason, Floran didn't want to put the fish girl there, too close from the other prisoners. Floran decided to put her somewhere really far away from the other prisoners, a cell in the corner. Floran pulls a lever on the wall, and the door of the cell opens, and guide the fish girl into the cell. She takes a few steps into the cell, and Floran use the lever to close the door. After that, Floran just leans on the wall, and as Floran was told, Floran guard the fish girl. Floran look at her, to see what she was going to do, and Floran is surprised. Most Florans that are put in the cell immediately grab the bars and shake them, thinking that they can pry them open. She, however, just stands there, looking at the wall, but after a few moments, she drops to her knees, puts her hands on her face, and starts to make a familiar noise. Not only that, but Floran can see the fish girl shaking, and Floran knew what she was going. She was crying, Floran doesn't know if it's for the other fish men, or that she was going to be eaten, but Floran knew one thing. Floran didn't like to hear her cry, it made Floran feel bad, which is the weirdest thing. Floran didn't have anything to do with her getting captured, or those other fish men getting stabbed. Floran looks away, and sits on the floor, since standing the whole day was tiresome. The fish girl stopped crying too loud, but Floran knows that she's sad. Floran couldn't handle the quiet right now.

"You know, Floran hoped that you could have gotten away from those hunters," Floran says, even though Floran doesn't know if the fish girl can understand Floran, but Floran keeps talking. "Floran doesn't know why, but after Floran stabbed that bird man a summer ago, Floran didn't want to stab that kind of prey anymore. You're no bird man, but you feel like the bird man, in a different way." After Floran said that, Floran hears footsteps, and Floran looks at the fish girl, who moved close to the bars, and sits on the floor. "That's why Floran didn't want to stab you, Floran just didn't want to, and that was it. Floran doesn't know why, but if you can understand Floran, Floran is sorry about the fish men, and about you ending in that cell." Floran looks at the floor, Floran didn't want to keep looking at the fish girl.

"Guilt" says a voice, and Floran looks around, not knowing where the voice came from. Then, Floran looks at the fish girl. Floran couldn't believe it, but the fish girl speaks again. "You felt guilt." Floran is so surprised, that Floran had to take a moment to understand what was going on.

"You understand Floran?" Floran asks.

"Yes," answers the fish girl.

"Oh, okay. So what is this 'guilt' that you're talking about?"

"Guilt is when you do something bad, and you feel bad about it."

"That's guilt? Floran feels guilt? Why would Floran feel guilt?"

"Because you killed an Avian."

"Avian? You mean the bird man?"

"Yes, he was an Avian, and you killed him."

"Well, Avian was prey, Floran hunt prey, that's what hunters do."

"But he wasn't some random animal in the forest, he was a person. Someone with feelings, someone with thoughts, someone who probably had a family and friends, people he loved."

"You almost make him sound like a Floran."

"He wasn't a Floran, but he was someone, and you killed him." Floran doesn't know what to say, Floran gets up, turns away from fish girl, and walks to the rail, but Floran doesn't know why. Floran did what all Florans did, Florans hunt prey, stab prey, and eat meat. Florans are hunters, Florans must eat meat to survive. The Avian wasn't Floran, so it was prey, and prey is hunted for meat. Floran knows this, but it still doesn't make Floran feel good, it just makes Floran feel bad. He could feel like Floran, he could think like Floran, and if that was true, then that would mean the same for the many other that Floran have stabbed. It hurts, it hurts Floran's head, Floran puts hands on head, but it doesn't make it go away. The prisoners start to make noise, their hiss and words are just noise, it makes everything worse.

"Shut up! All of you shut up!" Floran screams, the noise goes away, but not the pain, it hurts everywhere now.

"Hey," says a voice, and Floran looks behind. The fish girl had a hand extended towards Floran. "Come here." Floran doesn't know for what, but Floran does what the fish girl said. Floran walks closer to her cell, but Floran keep out of reach from her hand. Floran looks at the fish girl, to see if she was planning something, but she only kept her hand extended. Floran reach for her hand, but Floran doesn't know if it's safe, so Floran does it with caution. Floran puts hand on top of the fish girl's, and she grabs it, but gently. Then, the fish girl extends her other hand, and Floran wants to get closer, as if something was telling Floran that it was safe. When Floran gets closer, the fish girl wraps her arms around Floran, and it startled Floran.

"How are you feeling?" asks the fish girl, and Floran wraps arms around her, but it's a little weird with the bars in the middle.

"It still hurts," Floran says.

"If he was here, would you apologize?"

"An apology won't bring him back, or the others."

"No, it won't, but you tried to make things right, and that matters."

"It still won't bring them back." The fish girl lets go of Floran, grabs Floran's face with her hands, and looks at Floran in the eye.

"Then accept what happened, what you have done, and forgive yourself, so you can move on." Floran doesn't know why, but it makes Floran feel better, and Floran cries. Then, Floran feels something wipe a tear off from Floran's face, and it was the fish girl's finger. "What's your name?"

"Seba."

"Seba, you're a nice Floran. A very nice Floran." She pulls away from Floran, and walks deeper into the cell.

"Wait, do you have a name?" The fish girl stops, and looks at Floran.

"Yuki, it was nice to meet you." Then, she lays on the floor, and stays there. Floran knows what was going on, fish girl was ready to die, and Floran was keeping her in her cell. Her, who was nice to Floran, the Floran who put her in the cell. Floran can't let her die, Floran knows that if she dies here, Floran will always feel bad for it.