A Forest: A Second Chance
They look at each other in confusion.
Naoyoti quickly pushed Gold away, a bit too hard some might add. "Sorry po, miss...?" She says as if asking for Gold's name.
Miss? As in Ms.? Does she think Gold's a woman? If you think about it, He DOES look somewhat the part but he still has a small beard–but then again, on some rare occasions, women have beards as well. Maybe Gold should cut his bangs to make his face more prominent...No, no, he'd still look like a woman. Curse those long white eyelashes of his, maybe he could cut those to get less mistaken as a woman. Or maybe he should just go bald. Matter a fact, let's just cut off everything including his– ehem.
Gold doesn't respond again and looks nervously at Naoyoti. Perhaps he fears that she might kill her, too, or something along those lines. Seeing as she didn't try to kill them the first time, she probably won't try this time right? I mean, why would she when she only seems to kill when she has grudges?
Naoyoti is a bit annoyed by Gold's silence but turns Kalbo and rushes to hug him. Kalbo evades her, and she falls head-first to the ground. A large thud could be heard from her collision with the ground. Ouch. How much is she going to suffer physically? She kinda feels like a ragdoll at this point. Well, it's more impressive that she can take so many painful injuries without flinching.
"Kuya...?" She looks up, trying to get a glance at Kalbo's expression. In accordance with the context clues, "Kuya" might possibly mean "brother," like how Kalbo calls Naoyoti "Ate."
Kalbo gives a glance of either fear or disgust; it's hard to tell before looking away. When Kalbo isn't shocked by his sister, his genuine reaction is being disgusted? That's hilarious yet sad. Well, it's only sad for Naoyoti.
"Galit ka ba? Sorry na." She pleads, her eyes resembling those of puppies. Is she trying to gain sympathy through Kalbo's attachment to pets?
Gold, with nothing to do, tries to listen in but he can only understand words like "sorry" or other words that he's familiar with. If you think about it, aren't any other words Naoyoti could've possibly used with the equivalent of "sorry" in their language? It's almost like she's purposely helping Gold to listen in. How peculiar.
Kalbo takes a deep breath and tries to walk away, in the opposite direction of the camp, just to be dramatic, but is stopped by Naoyoti when she grabs his wrist.
Kalbo finally looks at her and his eyes waver. "H-hindi ko pa k-kaya." His eyes start watering. His body and voice are both trembling. He's breathing faster than normal. He's scared.
Naoyoti's eyes widened, and she finally let go. She looks quite puzzled about what to do, maybe because she wants to fix her relationship with him but also doesn't want to bother him.
This situation is reminiscent of scenes in stage plays. Dramatic and nonsensical. Drama is made from nonsensical misunderstandings and characters who refuse to communicate. From an outsider's viewpoint, the whole incident may seem like it wasn't Naoyoti's fault but the green powder. Some may even refer to the green powder as a drug since they have many psychological effects, like what happened with Naoyoti. So to speak, Kalbo shouldn't be that angry at Naoyoti because of a situation that she couldn't control.
Well, even if she was purposely drugged it still doesn't erase what he saw that day.
Kalbo looks at his sister again and his brows furrow. Rubbing his temples, he sighs again. "B-bu...ks" Kalbo mutters. What did he say? He was barely audible.
Naoyoti looks up, eyes full of stars and hopes. Her frown turns upside down and becomes a smile. "Seryoso?" She asks.
If one had to guess, he's giving her another chance? If you put two-and-two together, with her eyes beaming and his regretful mumbling, one could assume that he's starting to start anew.
This stage play might have a happy ending after all, hopefully for at least one of them. Both of them suffered too much.
Naoyoti stands up and uses her arms to wipe her tears away. She waves goodbye or at least that's what it seems like. She slowly disappears into the cape of the moon and it's just Gold and Kalbo again.
That was...odd, to say the least. Who knew she had just come to see Kalbo? Who knew she thought Gold was a woman? And who knew she would shed tears not blood?
Goblins seem more emotional than they make it seem. Most stories about goblins portray them to be mischievous, aggressive, and much more hornier versions of humans who don't think. Or maybe Kalbo and Naoyoti are the exception; after all, their father did have children from a human AND an orc; how much more freakier can you get?
Back to the Koalemos-made-duo, Kalbo turns to Gold, looking rather dejected. Gold, restless from worry, offers a hug for Kalbo and this time, Kalbo embraces it. It may be because Kalbo's too tired to protest but maybe it's because he genuinely needs a hug right now.
Kalbo stops shaking, and the tears that were supposed to fall earlier finally fall. Droplets of water that came from Kalbo soaked Gold's already wet homeless man's clothes.
Oh. A realization just hit. He didn't smile even once Naoyoti arrived. Seeing her must've reminded him what had happened. When he told Gold about Naoyoti, he didn't show much emotion except for gloom but when actually facing the said person, he's like a possum, freezing and unmoving when they're scared. The difference between showing and telling.
They both head back to Kalbo's house and Gold hangs his wet clothes on one of the tree branches as advised by Kalbo. Kalbo, fortunately, has spare clothes made from animal skin. Kalbo didn't hand any undergarments to Gold; when someone looks up, they might be able to see what Gold saw before.
It does look a bit warmer than his clothes before so they probably won't be laying next to each other and cuddling all night like before. Hopefully not because both of them aren't wearing anything underneath. Not that's weird- no, it is weird, actually.
Anyways, they both lay down and drift off to sleep.
Tick-tock.
Tick-tock.
Tick-tock.
A clock?
ATower:Existence
Oh. I'm back again.
What was I doing before again? Let me see...
right. I'm back at "floor" one because I said the wrong answer previously.
I climb up the sticky "floors" again and encounter the bunny again.
She presents me with the same question, "Who are you?"
Before, I couldn't answer, but now I can. "I'm Gold."
"Correct." The bunny gives me a satisfied grin and pulls out a giant golden key from its mouth. How did the key even fit in her body?
I take the key although I'm not where to use it exactly. There's no keyhole anywhere here. When I take the key from her, I look behind me, and the "floors" dissipate into nothing. The clock is still there though.
I looked for the bunny for advice but she's nowhere to be found. So, what am I supposed to do now? I remember her saying she would guide me around the tower but I guess those were lies.
Great. Instead of a white room, I'm now stuck in a completely black room with the only light being my white hair. Has my hair always been white? I can't remember.
Knock.
Huh. What's that?
Knock.
Where is knocking coming from?
Knock.
Who's knocking?
Obviously, someone is knocking but where and who?
I try to listen to where the knocking might've come from, and it's from the clock. I can now come closer to the clock for some reason, I remember the clock being unreachable. Well, whatever.
Are the hands that always snatched me up every time the clock reached 12 knocking at the clock?
I'm not opening the clock. It hasn't even reached 12. And why is it even knocking in the first place? Before, it always snatched me up without warning and now it's knocking?
Or maybe it's the bunny? No. If I think about it, her paws couldn't make such a sound. They're too soft. Also, she would've used her voice.
Before I could ponder about it more, the person or whatever is knocking speaks, "Are you there...?"
Its voice is similar to the voice of a small girl. It sounds pure, but something is off-putting about it. I could've sword I've heard this voice before.
"Can I come in? I'm lonely..." The voice asks. I'm not giving in, no matter how pitiful it tries to sound.
"I'm lonely, please?" It says again.
...
"I'm so LONELY. Pretty please?" It repeats again but it sounds much more impatient.
...
It bangs on the door.
"LET ME IN. I'M SCARED AND LONELY. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE?" It shouts. Its voice distorts into something demonic at the last part. In all honesty, I'm the one who should be scared.
It bangs on the clock again before leaving.
I take a sigh of relief and I sat down. I think my legs gave up from fear.
Another voice spoke from behind the clock. This time it was the bunny. "Darling, could you let me in? We miss you so much."
Who's "we"? And why is the bunny calling me "darling?" Now that I think of it, the bunny's voice reminds me of someone. Let me think...
A cloudy image of someone with long brown hair pops up. Who is this?
I'm still not opening the clock though. It might be the bunny but I don't think it is. She had never called me "darling" before, and why would the bunny even miss someone they had just met? Personally, I think it's a trap. Maybe "it" hasn't actually left and it's trying to lure me using the bunny's voice.
"Are you not going to open the door, darling? I know it's been hard, and you're scared, so I'm not going to force you to open the door; it's your choice anyway. I'm just here to tell you that we support you no matter what."
It keeps saying "we", are there two of them behind the door, or is it just another trick? I don't know why I'm even on edge right now. Normally, I would just open the door, but something's telling me that I shouldn't open the clock no matter what.
A few moments of silence follow. I think it finally left.
I take another sigh of relief and try looking for the keyhole. And I find a pizza box just lying on the ground. I pick it up and I see a giant keyhole inside.
I jammed the key inside, and the door appeared before me. I couldn't open the door by using the handle. I looked around for clues, and there was a conveniently shaped pizza hole underneath the door. I slid the pizza box underneath the door, and the door opened.
That was easier than I expected it to be. I come inside the door, and I'm greeted by a jail cell. The tall figures made from paper that were standing near the door handcuffed me.
They then said something barely audible. Something about war and something about slaves. I'm not sure what it means.
The paper guards shoved me inside the jail cell before leaving. Or I think they left, I can't exactly see where they went after going behind the door.
I looked around the jail cell, and it was made with stone bricks. There was a window but the lights were blocked out from outside. What is the point of even having a window in the first place if it's just going to be blocked?
I tried shouting to see if there were other inmates, and there were. They all told me to shut up.
The hands didn't wake me up this time but something else did. It was the sensation of a break poking at my feet.