บท 9: Time to Breathe a Little
"What do you mean?" Alex asked, returning the cup to her and stepping to the next room. Shit, she already discovered? Is reincarnation a common concept here? He thought to himself but on the outside, remained stoic. He sat on one of the cushions on the ground with crossed legs and waited for her to say something.
"What do I mean? Valther… you died. I saw it. You weren't breathing." She said, following him and standing with both hands on her waists, as she seemed to do when she was upset. "And then you killed Grapr, then slain monsters… then you are able to destroy two chimera's thugs?" She crouched to look at him. "Something changed in you, I can feel. You're the same anymore. And magic? Since when?"
He sighed, both in relief that she didn't know the extent of his situation and because it was really too much to process.
"I have no idea, Tina. If I'm being honest with you…" And he half was, "I don't remember much. My memories are all scrambled up. When I died… something changed inside me." He said, looking to the ground. He wasn't ready to tell her his secret, and he doubted he would ever be. "I don't know why I can do magic or why I'm stronger now, but that's a good thing, right?" He said and dropped the bag of coins with two hundred pieces inside it.
She sat beside him and sank into the cushions, sighing deeply, too.
"I guess so…" she finally said, leaning more on the ground and looking at the ceiling. "Are you okay?"
"I'm great…" he replied while lying at her side. "It's just confusing. Can you tell me more about the money we owe?"
"Can't you remember?" She said, turning her belly to the ground and putting two hands on her chin.
"Not really… I know we really needed the money, but not for what."
"I was sick… really sick. Consulting the shaman and buying the medicine was too expensive. We used the money to buy the potions and pay the rent since I couldn't work and you were here taking care of me."
"One thousand coins for medicine and rent?" That seemed a lot even for Alex, who lived in an American metropolis for a good part of his life.
"We only asked five hundred, the rest is interest."
"Bastards…" Alex muttered, staring fixedly at the ceiling. If it wasn't enough that the end of the world would occur in one year, he had a debt that would last until two months before the apocalypse? That was almost funny.
"Don't say that word…" She locked gazes with him, her voice a smooth but harsh mutter. The red moonlight made her anger seem even more sharp. He had hit a hard spot on Tina.
"I'm sorry," he said, turning to the side to look at her. It seemed both of them were bastards somehow or orphans. But it was quite clear to Alex that the only person Tina had in the world was Valther, and the inverse was also true.
"Let this word to the ones who hate us. Let's not speak this in here."
"Alright," he replied, now holding his head with one hand, "what are we going to do with the coin? Clothes seem to be a priority."
"Clothes?" She laughed at him. "That's fun. First, we're going to pay the rent that is already late. That's fifty coins. Then, we are going to buy food and wood for the stove, at least seventy coins. Then, we need to buy medicine. I'm not completely healed yet. Another fifty." She calculated in her mind but counted on her fingers.
"Okay, but we'll still have thirty coins left," he said, finishing his own calculations. Alex wasn't good at math, he never was, but that was simple enough for him.
"Were you serious when you said we would hunt monsters?" She asked, her eyes glimmering. "I assume you wouldn't say that if it wasn't true. Knowing me as you do." Her eyes pierced his.
"Yes, I was being serious. I feel strong, powerful... and the payment is too good. In the mining job, we could be attacked by monsters and explode by hitting the wrong spot on the wall, so if it's to be in danger, let's at least make more out of it, right?"
"Right!" She said, getting up in the blink of an eye and walked towards the window, looking toward the horizon as if thinking about the next words, excitement brimming out of the girl. "So if we are going to join the adventurer's guild, we'll need weapons! That's the minimum to get inside it. Yeah, it would be nice to have armor and magic equipment, but they're accepting new members with only weapons, for all I discovered in my research,"
'Okay…" he said slowly, not wanting to interrupt her excited talk.
"So I'm thinking I'll buy one sword and one shield, and you should do the same. It's supposed to be easy to learn, from everything I've read in books over the last couple of years. You could use a big hammer now that you are all strong. Wow, you broke the thug's jaw with just one hit... how did you do it, anyway?"
"I—"
"Oh, never mind. You have no idea, right. So, one shield and one sword for both of us. I can talk with the blacksmith in the White Elf district. He'll do it for me. Thirty coins for two old shields and swords. That's my plan. We use it for one month and in the next, we can buy better weapons and armor if we are good at slaying monsters."
"Okay, breathe now," he said, almost laughing. "That's a great attitude, I appreciate it."
"You go out and buy a shield and a sword for yourself. I'll use the other fifteen coins to buy good pants, shoes, and a shirt. Like the ones the thugs were wearing. Do you think it's possible?"
"Yes... If you go to the right store on 13th Street."
"Great, so that's what I'm going to do."
"But how are you going to fight the monsters?" she asked with a shocked expression, and he removed from his pants pocket the black knife he had picked from the thin elf who had assaulted them.
"With this," he said, showing the completely black dagger to her. It shone brightly in the moon's sky.
"Just that?"
"And my fists, of course," he said, smirking. His boxing skills would come in handy, and he wasn't the type to use a shield. He was the type to attack, to be fast and strong, to end fights before the enemies could feel comfortable or when they were wrongly comfortable. A shield wouldn't do the work.
"Okay…" She said, removing her hands from the wall and walking towards him. "I think it's better if we go to sleep and discuss more tomorrow. We have a lot to buy."
"Sounds great," he got up and walked towards the bedroom, laying down on one of the beds.
"Can you go to your own bed?" She asked, her tone showing a little annoyance. "Sleeping in the same bed as you would be discomforting. It's terrible enough to hear you snoring in the other bed."
"I don't snore."
"Yes, you do. Like a dragon."
"Okay," he said, getting up and in the same movement, laying on the other bed. He didn't have the energy to do much more than that. The bath would have to wait until tomorrow. She laid on the bed and remained silent.
Alex removed his dagger from his pocket and examined it, his hand passing over the blade with care. It was beautiful, curved in some spots, almost like the drawing of a flame or a thunderbolt. It had a double edge that glimmered in a different tone of black, and the hilt was completely black too, wrapped in black leather from an animal Alex didn't know.
What a strange day…
"What a strange day," Tina said, still looking at the ceiling, "And to think that it began with us being threatened by Grarp, then he actually fulfilled the threat, and you came back to life." She feigned a smile, but when Alex locked gazes with her, he realized she was about to cry.
"I was so afraid, Valther…" her eyes now unable to contain the tears, "I thought I would be alone again… I don't know if I can handle being alone again. I don't know what happened to you. If it was a miracle of the Goddess or what, but I'm really happy you're alive and well."
"I'm happy too, Tina," he said, and felt a piercing pain in his guts.
"And we have our whole lives ahead of us to make our dreams come true. It's like a miracle… Like those corny phrases… 'This is the first day of the rest of your life', you know?"
"Yes, I know,"
"And tomorrow… everything will change. I wonder where we are going to be one year from now," She sighed and turned her face to the wall, closing her eyes to embrace sleep.
"I have no idea," Alex muttered ,while looking at the ceiling where a blue box shone bright for just him to see.
Countdown: 364 days, 21 hours, and 49 minutes.
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