Dawn approaches across the land, yet no ball of light shows to declare it morning. Instead, dark clouds hover in the sky. Crashes echo throughout, foreshadowing a thunderstorm to come. Below on the ground, in an empty cave, our two protagonists are found lying around the hardened ground of the grotto.
The pink rabbit opens her eyes at the sound of the rumbling energy from outside. She gets up and looks out at the outside, realizing the condition of the weather. “Seems like it’ll rain,” she says. “We have to get moving.” She turns to the kobold, who is lying on his side and bundled with his cape and hood. “Hey, Lizard boy, get up. Time to get moving. Storm’s coming in, and we need to scram before we get caught in it.” He makes no movements. “Berc, wake up!” She places her paws on his side and pushes him. “Come on! Let’s go!” The rabbit pulls away at the first sign of movement from the kobold, as well as a groan. “Took you long enough to wake.” As the lizard turns to face her, his eyes struggle to stay open. His expression shows tired eyes and a pale face. “Holy Gods… You look terrible…”
“I feel terrible,” he replies weakly. Berc clutches his stomach as he remains on his back. “I don’t think I have the energy to get up…”
“What?! You must!” Haya grabs his claw and begins to pull. “We need to leave immediately! A storm’s on its way and the Black Lotus could be around! Any longer here and we will be stuck!”
“No!” Berc continues to groan and complain. “Haya, I can’t… I can’t get up…”
“Oh, but you must! We have to flee!” The kobold stays in his position, becoming weight for the rabbit. Eventually, she lets go and allows him to curl up on the cave’s floor. Haya lets out a sigh. “Why must things always be difficult with you?” The only response from Berc is a series of coughing, followed by moans. The pink bunny takes her paw and presses it against the kobold’s forehead, feeling the heat emitting as if a little fire has ignited inside. “You’re feverish… Ugh, why must you be sick now?”
“I… I think… I caught something… being in the... water…”
Haya grunts in dismay. “If I have to carry you again, so help me… I’m done dragging you around!”
“I just… I just want… to rest…” He spurts out a couple of coughs.
With the crack of thunder, the rain begins to pour, hindering the allies’ chances of leaving. The rabbit grunts and plops a seat in front of him. “Well, now there’s no way we can travel with your condition and the weather. Guess we’re staying here until everything clears up.” Berc begins to tremble, curling up more. “What’s the matter with you?”
“H-Haya… I-I…” The lizard bundles himself with his cape, yet it’s not enough to stop it. “I-I c-c-can’t s-s-stop s-shivering…”
“You’re cold? How can you be cold? You were running a fever…”
“I-I d-d-don’t k-k-k-know…” Berc wails and moans, stuck in his position with torment. “Oooohh!”
Haya puts her paw on the kobold’s mouth quickly. “Sh! Be quiet! You want the Black Lotus to hear you?”
“H-Haya… H-help… P-p-please...”
“Hang on…” Haya drops some wooden logs down and gets a fire going. The flames slowly grow to meet the size of the fuel it’s using. “This should be good enough.” She plops down onto her seat.
The kobold cuddles closer to the fire, but it isn’t enough. “H-Haya… C-can you h-hold me…?”
“Why? So you can get me sick? No way!”
“P-please…?”
“Berc, no!”
“P-p-please…” He continues to beg at her, but his efforts halt when he coughs heavily. His cape still covering him from chin-to-feet.
“How do you even get sick? You’re a kobold; you live deep in the caves, where it’s cold and damp. You should be immune to that!”
“I-I hadn’t b-been outside l-l-like others before m-m-me... D-didn’t g-g-get sick too much… U-until I-I-I met… y-you…” His eyes shut tightly, about to wail again with a returning fever.
“Hold on…” Haya grabs some fabric from their belongings, rips a piece off, then leans out the opening of the cave to soak it in the rain. After about two minutes, she comes back down and applies it to Berc’s forehead. He lets out a sigh, feeling it cool to the touch. The rabbit remains near the kobold, keeping her paw on the rag. “Well, get comfy… We’re going to be here a while, it looks like.”
“Why do we need to move…?” asks Berc weakly. “Why can’t we find a nice town to stay…?”
“Have you forgotten? Every town we enter, the Black Lotus follows! They’ve been hunting me ever since I was a little girl.”
“Why do they want you so bad…? Did you do something to them…?”
Haya remains silent, recounting some memories. “I’d rather not say. It’s horrible to begin with.”
“Come on… Why can’t you ever tell me…?”
“’Why’ are you asking me these questions? Knock it off, will you?! Besides, you need to get some rest. The sooner you’re better, the faster we get out of here and away from the Black Lotus.”
“But…”
“No ‘buts.’ Rest.” Berc snickers and repeats the word “buts” as if Haya meant something else. “You’re so childish, you know…”
As time goes by, the two allies remain in their natural shelter. As Haya kobold-sits Berc, awaiting for him to recover, she tries to find ways to pass the time; cleaning her katana, meditating in the quiet when Berc isn’t moaning and practicing her combat skills on some rocks and breaking them to pieces. At times during her sessions, she checks on the kobold’s condition before continuing. Around dinnertime, Haya prepares some hot soup for Berc.
“Hey, wake up.” She pokes the red lizard, forcing his eyes to open. “I made you some soup. Sit up and eat.” Berc, with the rabbit’s help, props into a near-sitting position at a two hundred forty-degree angle against the cave wall. Haya thrusts the bowl into his clutches with the spoon before going to get her own. She takes a spot next to him to ensure he can eat. “Not really lavish, but it was all I could muster up. Dig in.” Berc does as ordered and starts eating at his own pace. Haya, on the other hand, practically gulps down each spoonful. She doesn’t stop until noticing Berc staring. “What is it…? Taste bad? I told you it wasn’t going to be a luxury meal.”
“I-it’s not that,” Berc utters. “H-Haya, I a-a-appreciate you doing t-this for me… T-thank you.”
“Yeah, don’t mention it…”
“You t-treat me better than m-my buddies… I-I’m glad I-I-I left them…”
Haya keeps her gaze on him. “What…? What are you talking about?”
“Back home, everyone d-despised me… I-I-I was disl-liked… H-had to struggle on m-my own… Picked f-fights with others… Course, I di-didn’t have anyone when Momma d-d-died…”
“I thought you left to pursue adventure. You didn’t tell me you were bullied and pushed around.”
Berc lets out a sigh. “I had dreams of a-adventure… Learning of the stories of brave legends a-a-and h-heroes when I was a youngling, I began developing the ambition… Everyone m-m-made fun of me for it, though… They always called me out as a c-c-coward and that I would never make it… Every day was just the same; the t-t-teasing, the name-calling, even the fights… I didn’t j-just set out to prove them wrong, b-but to get a-a-away… I thought I-I’d show them th-that I can d-d-do what I want as long as I put m-m-my mind to it… The only one who was wrong was me… D-d-days out in the w-wild have proven difficult for me to handle… If I h-h-hadn’t met you, I’d be d-d-dead… I’m grateful to be blessed by your p-p-presence…”
Haya lets out a sigh. “Jeez… If I had known that before, I wouldn’t be too hard on you. Yet, you get me off with your pranks and jokes… How can you see light despite the horror you’ve gone through?”
“M-momma taught me to just s-smile and find funny, no m-m-matter how bad th-things are... Try to stay p-p-positive… I know you d-d-don’t because of s-something with the Black L-Lotus… I-I know it’s n-not my business t-to ask, but wh-what happened…?"
“You want to know why I hate the Black Lotus Clan? I’ll tell you… They destroyed my village and slaughtered my family. Pretty much massacred everyone.”
Berc’s eyes open wider and his mouth forms a small ‘o’. as he freezes. “N-no…”
“It’s no fable. The memory haunts me to this day, which is why I don’t talk about it.” Haya stares into the flames, recounting her memories as the fire burns brightly. “I’d think of those times being the only happy thing to ever happen to me… I would always play with my sister and her friends, and we’d get along really well. Yes, everything was peaceful and full of bliss for me… Then, it all changed when those armored men marched in and chaos ensued after… I never forgot the moment my sister and I snuck out for the night to meet up with our friends to see it all… All around me, buildings were ablaze, many citizens were struck down… We ran back to mom and pop to try and warn them, and maybe even escape with them… We were too late… They remained motionless outside our home as it burned… Blood pooling from their bodies like many of the other villages slain before me… What I remember next, my sister grabbed my paw and pulled me along… We had to get out… I felt a sudden push, propelling me into the trees and my sister yelling at me. ‘Keep running, do not stop, and never look back…’ That was the last thing I ever heard from her… Once I was at a safe distance and I looked back… Reality began to set in on me… I’ve lost everything: My home, my family, my happiness… The Black Lotus made me an orphan and took away all that has made me joyful… They hunt me because I never forgot that day. They know I seek revenge for my loved ones and friends. When my new master took me in and began to teach me, I’ve made it my mission to become a great warrior and take down the Black Lotus.”
Berc keeps his eyes onto her. His face still frozen in the first expression he had upon learning of her past. “H-Haya… I… I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be. You are not at fault for the lives of those I deemed my family and friends, loving and grateful people…”
“I-I just… feel bad for you… H-h-having to witness many fall in front of you…”
“I still live with it… It pains me in times, but it’s what helped shape me to this day… When I’m strong enough, I will take my strength and use it to crush the Black Lotus. I’ve been taking up mercenary jobs to increase my influence, my strength, and my mind. I suppose the reason why we’ve been going from town-to-town is because I feel I’m not ready yet…”
“Y-you can’t do it by yourself, th-though. You n-n-need good friends, and that’s w-w-why I’m here.”
“Yeah,” jokes Haya. “Like you’re big of help…”
“F-f-fate happens for a reason, Haya,” Berc tells her. “I-it brought us together, and i-i-it’s kept us that way.”
The rabbit sighs. “I suppose you have helped… I recall your gold from the Valley of the Veins helping us escape a fight, as well as your drunkenness saving me from the lizard bounty boy..."
“D-don’t forget m-my wits helped you w-with that wolanther with that t-trap, a-and we found a lot of those medicinal h-h-herbs,” Berc states.
“Yes… Perhaps you are of use to me. Not in the way I’d hope, but still resourceful. Maybe you’re right; fate happens for a reason.”
“H-Haya… A-are we going to keep r-running from the Black Lotus…?”
“I have no definitive answer for that. The Black Lotus will continue to hunt us, because they know we’re targets to them.”
“W-what will we d-do…?”
Haya looks out of the cave to see the skies turning darker. “I’m not sure… Perhaps sleep shall help us figure it out…” Upon finishing their dinner, the two hunker down for some rest. “Time will only tell… We just need to find out what to do…” She notices the kobold trying to drift into sleep, but finds it difficult to with the shivers and fever. Haya fixes his position, places folded cotton underneath his head for a pillow, and puts a large cloth over his body as a blanket. She then props beside him to keep Berc company and watch. “Rest up, Berc. First thing at sunrise, we find a proper settlement. Whether or not we stay there, depends…” The red lizard grabs hold of the rabbit and cuddles her in his sleep. Haya lets out another sigh, yet allows it. “This is going to be an eventful night…”
