Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 1
Chapter 20: Northbound Reunion
(PART 1)
The group of Ubica, Napoleon, Tsubiri, Daey, Trojia, Strauphius, and Niomyo have been walking north for a couple days. After staying at a couple towns along the way, the group has exhausted their supply of money and are now resting by a small lake.
It is a beautiful sunny day, and the scenery around this lake seems like a perfect occasion for a picnic. Green grass accompanied by numerous colors of poppy flowers stretch as far as the eye can see and few trees spot the grassland and the areas around the lake.
Ubica walks to the flowers and intentionally falls on his back, he sighs and shuts his eyes to let the warmth of the sun beat on his face.
Tsubiri walks up to him and says, "You're not wearing the jacket I bought you.."
He looks up at her and can see right under her skirt, he flinches and turns away quickly before saying, "Because it's not cold out, and I'd prefer not to look like an idiot wearing that thing unless I absolutely have to."
Tsubiri frowns, "Haven't you ever heard that gifts should be cherished!? You seem to like that stupid beanie that Trojia got you!"
Ubica is wearing the beanie, though there is no need for the jacket, it is still a little cold, so he feels the need to keep his ears warm.
"I can’t help it if my ears are cold."
Tsubiri reveals an evil grin and her glare grows sharp.
"Your ears are cold huh?"
She pounces on him, takes off his beanie and chucks it away.
"Uaaaahh! What are you doing!?" Ubica desperately shouts as he's being manhandled by this nineteen year old girl.
"Muhuhahahahaha! Allow me to warm up your stupid ears!!!"
She grabs both of his ears and begins to yank on them extremely hard. The loud screams of Ubica mixed with the evil witch like laugh of Tsubiri causes a scene and everyone gathers to witness the carnage.
"This is all fun and dandy, but the problem is, we're broke." said Napoleon as he huffs air out of his nose in annoyance.
He and Niomyo are leaning against a tree.
"So what are we going to do?" asks Niomyo as she takes off her shoes.
"When we get to the next town, we all have to look for jobs."
"We don't have time for something like that!"
He looks at her and then back to Ubica and Tsubiri. Because of their wrestling, different colored flower petals are flying all over.
"We also don't have a choice. Let's just hope that there will be some high paying jobs that won't take too long."
Niomyo walks into the shallow end of the crystal clear water. "...Yeah, I guess your right."
"How does the water feel?"
She kicks her legs, splashing the water she turns and smiles, "It's great!"
He chuckles at her kid like reaction and proceeds to take off all of his clothes.
Niomyo is instantly flustered at the sight of Napoleon in his briefs, though he is quite tall and thin, his body is perfectly toned.
Napoleon jogs into the water and floats on his back, he smiles and shuts his eyes.
Niomyo is zoning out on his abs like a pre-teen school girl seeing her favorite idol shirtless in a magazine.
Napoleon notices her staring at him. "What?"
She jumps in surprise and scrambles to find the right words to say. "Eh uh... it's just that, this kind of thing... it doesn't seem like you."
Napoleon back paddles in circles as he says, "These kind of carefree moments..."
He once again glances to Ubica and the rest. Now Trojia, coming to Ubica’s aid is trying to get a relentless Tsubiri off of him, Daey is picking flowers while laughing and Strauphius has eyes full of envy with his shoulders slumped in an overly dramatic way.
Napoleon slashes his hands in the water and loudly laughs, an occurrence never before heard nor seen by the group.
Tsubiri halts her vicious attack and they all stop to stare; they wonder what is so funny that he would actually show this kind of emotion.
Napoleon never really had a childhood, he was the son of a military man and his mother died shortly after his birth, so he was raised by a strict father who demanded discipline.
His father fell ill from an old wound and on his deathbed, asked a then fourteen year old Napoleon to fulfill his wish of joining the La'Juutian army. Naturally Napoleon agreed and after a full year of living on the streets, he joined the army when he reached the required age.
These events made his childhood rough and rotten, he doesn't remember the last time he actually had fun, but seeing the other’s carefree rowdiness makes it feel like they are all sharing in a nice moment, despite the situation they have found themselves in.
After a few long moments, Napoleon finally stops laughing, he looks at Niomyo who is stunned just like the others and says with a smile, "I guess they're starting to rub off on me."
"Woah I think the sky is falling!!!" shouts Ubica who is completely shocked.
"Really!?"
Like an utter idiot, Tsubiri took him seriously and looked up to the sky.
"Did you really just do that??"
Tsubiri, knowing that she had just made a fool of herself can only frown in embarrassment while Ubica mercilessly laughs in her face.
She readys to slap him and swings her hand down, but Ubica grabs it and shows her a devilish grin.
"I think it’s time we join napoleon."
"Huh?"
He grabs her waist and lifts her from her mounted position, he then stands up and throws her onto his shoulder.
"Whaaaa! What are you doing!?"
"As revenge for the death of my ears, you're going for a dip!"
Tsubiri starts pounding on his back and shouts, "Don't you dare! Don't--kyaaaaahhh!"
Ubica takes off running with Tsubiri in tow, he takes a giant leap and before she knows it, she is under water in the middle of the lake.
Tsubiri pops her head out of the water and what she sees is Ubica laughing at her.
They are both soaked with all of their clothes on.
Since the split of the group a few days ago, Ubica has been paying most of his attention to Daey due to the death of Rudo. Of course this is a justifiable reason for being ignored, but she feels that even when he wasn't with Daey, he ended up spending more time with the others. So at that time, she promised herself that if they ever were to be alone together, she'll go to any lengths to seduce him.
(Chance!)
Tsubiri throws her arms over his shoulders and clings to him, she wraps her legs around his back so he can't get her off. Their faces are only a few inches away from each other and this makes Ubica extremely nervous. He tries to move his head back but she pulls the back of his neck closer to her, thus making it impossible for him to get away.
"What are you doing?"
She runs her fingers through his hair and says, "I can't swim."
"Are you kidding?"
"Nope."
"What are you, a toddler?"
She yanks his hair back, punishing her for his condensation.
"That’s why I told you not to throw me into the water!!"
"Ngggyyaaaahhh that hurts!!!"
Daey and Trojia are watching the chaotic scene of Ubica once again getting beat up by Tsubiri.
Merrily picking flowers, Daey says, "They sure get along well."
She spots a multicolored purple daisy and like an excited child, grabs it and marvels at it as though it was a diamond.
Trojia plops herself onto the ground, kicking up flower petals in the process, she folds her arms in a pout and sharply replies, "They get along too well if you ask me."
"Geez, you need to relax when it comes to him." Daey said while wrapping the stems of a few dozen flowers with a piece of string she pulled from her dress.
Trojia pouts and says under her breath, "I can't help it..."
To tease her a little, Daey flashes her self made bouquet in Trojia's face and says, "Hey take a look, it's pretty right? I wonder what Ubica will say when I give it to him?"
Trojia turns slowly and gives her a sour look. “I don’t need to be bullied about it.”
Daey backs up and nervously says, "Okay okay I was only joking."
She wonders how angry Trojia would be if she found out what occurred between her and Ubica back at the stone house.
"You don't need to get so worked up all the time. It's not like you guys are lovers or anything, you haven't even kissed yet."
As soon as the word kiss leaves her lips, Trojia's face turns beet red and her shoulders rise.
Just by seeing her reaction, Daey drops her bouquet and along with it falls her jaw.
"Have you!?"
"I get it I'm sorry! You can stop pulling my hair now!!" Ubica shouts.
She sighs and decides to relinquish her attack. Tsubiri releases her death grip and tries to tidy up the scruffy look of his hair as though she felt a little guilty about it.
"Good as new."
He takes a huge sigh before saying, "Since you can't swim, let’s get you out of the water."
Tsubiri gestures as if she is about to say something but then stops, she can't find it in her heart to say that she actually just doesn't want to let go of him yet.
He gently moves her hand away from his shoulder and in a dream like motion he steps on to the surface of the water and stands like he would be if he was on land.
He is holding Tsubiri's hand to keep her afloat and she is looking up at him from the water as the sun shines behind him, making his wet white long sleeved v-neck shirt transparent, and making his silver hair glitter like a diamond.
He lifts her up out of the water and holds her close, she embraces him tightly as if she is afraid to fall back in.
"It's alright... put your feet down." he said with a soft smile.
Tsubiri looks at this beautiful smile, she hesitates at first, but she puts her feet on the water surface. And much to her surprise she finds that she can stand perfectly.
"Huh?"
"Don't let go of my hands or you'll sink."
"Okay."
Tsubiri is in awe, she feels like she is in a fairy tale; the man in front of her simply isn’t from a world familiar to her.
"Ubica... I’ve been thinking about the way you were able to save me when I was falling into the abyss, and now we are standing on water. If you’re not human, then what are you?"
Ubica strains his lips as if he is trying to find an answer to give her. “I’m not so sure of that myself anymore... but I know that I am capable and willing to do good.”
Tsubiri smiles and looks him in the eyes, “That’s good enough for me.”
“Is it really?”
Tsubiri starts laughing and pushes herself off him, springing herself into the water. He scrambles to get her out of the water thinking she can't swim but to his surprise she surfaces about ten feet away, and is now floating effortlessly on her back.
"Hey! You can swim?"
"Of course I can swim."
Ubica frowns and is walking after her while she back paddles away. "Then why did you---"
“Just think about it for a moment." she interrupts with a playful smile.
Ubica holds his chin as he ponders, while lost in thought, he loses track of where he was walking and ends up right on top of her.
She grabs his pant leg to keep him from stepping on her and shouts, "Hey watch it!!"
"Oops, I was zoning out."
She huffs air out of her nose and swims away from him. She is overcome with happiness in this moment; while looking up at the magical man standing on the water, time feels like it has slowed down. In a dreamy haze, she begins thinking back on everything she has gone through in life that led her to this spot at this very moment.
Throughout her whole life, Tsubiri has never had anyone that she felt she could call a friend, and only until a couple of weeks ago, she would have said she would rather have it that way. However, she has been lying to herself; the truth is, she has always been alone and it has made for a difficult life. Her parents had abandoned her as a 4 year old toddler at the gates of the La’Juutian castle and she has suffered from dreadful loneliness ever since.
In La'Juune, this kind of thing happened often and was looked upon as a death sentence for the child, in most cases, the castle guards were ordered by the King to send them to be raised in a ruthless labor camp, or sent them to kill centers if the camps were overcrowded.
These labor camps forced men, women, and children of all ages to work unreasonable hours for slave wages. There is a branch of government called Exes, and they are in charge of monitoring people's wealth, debt, and other financial matters. If they find someone they deem fit of being below the poverty line and debt allowance, they will send out Collectors to get them. If one were to be caught by these Collectors, they would be sent away to do whatever amount of time the Exes executives feel that is needed in the camps.
Even when Napoleon's father died and it left him homeless, he had to spend a year running away from them until he was old enough to join the military. Joining the armed forces is the only way for most young able bodied men and women to avoid persecution. This tactic to send the poor and homeless to do hard manual labor was thought as an ingenious plan to keep the country wealthy and save people from an impoverished life; and to the detriment of basic human rights, it worked. 'The City of Grandeur' can be called this only because there literally isn't a poor household within those walls.
When Tsubiri was abandoned, one of the guards at the gate felt pity for the young child, so instead of handing her over to Exes, he brought her into the castle grounds and gave her to the head of maintenance who was a close friend of his. From then on she was raised to follow orders and would do odd jobs in and around the castle. Though she was always working and doing menial labor, it wasn't a fraction as bad as the camps, at least at the castle she had a stable diet and a roof over her head at all times.
She grew up as a servant until she was 9 years old, when on the fateful day of the Battle of La'Juune, she happened to stumble upon a panicked Xavier who got separated from his family during the chaos. Not knowing that this crying kid was the Prince, she grabbed his hand and took him through a barrage of flaming arrows and led him to the safety of the castle through hidden tunnels and escape passageways. She had spent her childhood maintaining every inch of the massive castle; Xavier on the other hand never left the pampered life of a Crown Prince and didn’t even know that there was this hidden labyrinth within his home.
When she found Xavier, the castle was already infiltrated by a few Trojan and Eiyalazonian soldiers who were killing anybody they could get their hands on, so the two of them spent most of their time desperately trying to get away from them and hiding.
Reaching one of the many different escape passageways was the difficult part, but luckily they were able avoid detection and made their way to the innards of the castle through a small door behind a vase in front of a pillar. After following the dark tunnels they eventually caught up with the fleeing royal family. As compensation for saving Xavier's life she was given status, and not too long after she was getting trained in a prestigious military school for upper class members of society. Upon her graduation she was offered the job as the royal bodyguard of the Prince.
Though this sounds like she has had a blessed life, she hated her upbringing because she was always isolated from real human connection. All of her conversations with the people around her were transactional, if she was ordered to do something that would be her time to speak. So she was forced to shut herself in and look upon the world outside herself and everyone in it as foreign and untouchable.
That is, until she met a certain magical man who showed her unconditional kindness when he defied the Prince and lent her his back, the man who brought out the voice she has kept hidden inside for her entire life. Somehow this man, even with all his secrets of his past and his god-like abilities like walking on water, is still able to make the world around her touchable for the first time in her life.
“Since you can’t seem to read the mood, how about I spell it out?” Tsubiri asked, letting go of his pant leg and swimming towards the shore.
Ubica shrugs his shoulder and says, “Please do.”
Turning to him in a smooth motion in the water with her magenta hair wet and glistening under the sun, she confidently smiles and declares,
“I just wanted to hold onto you.”
As if an anvil had fallen onto his head, a flustered Ubica loses his focus and sinks into the water with a big splash.
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