Argathripe - Book 2 ~ (The Dead City Series)

»»---- Chapter 12 ----««

 "So, tomorrow is the big, weird party?" Scar asked after we had cleaned up our dinner plates.

"Correct," I said.

"Do you usually come to these things?"

"No."

"Me neither. I don't like dressing up all fancy, and I don't really enjoy parties that much. They're overrated, I feel. I also kinda hate dresses."

I smiled. I enjoyed Scarlet's company.

"Wanna go get that ice cream now?" I asked her.

"Sure!" She went to go get a coat on.

I felt like I had finally made a friend. I felt happy. I saw a weird shadow float over in front of me. I stared at it. I thought I could see the faint outline of something and I felt negativity coming from it. No one else seemed to notice it. Except-- the human. A, or whatever her name was. Who's name was 'A?' "Oh hi, my name's AaAaAaaaA." Stupid human. The negativity from the shadow seemed to grow stronger.

"Go away," I whispered to it.

To my surprise, it actually drifted away. But it went towards the human. I started to get worried. What if it really was a demon, and it was going to Corrupt her? But then I saw something terrifying. A. left, and the shadow followed. I knew I had to follow A. Something bad could've happened to her. But right at that second, Scarlet came back. She pushed me out of the door as if she were afraid I was going to change my mind. Dangit-! I thought. I would check A's soul later to see if it was Corrupted. Unfortunately, I forgot to do that later on.

We were sitting at a random bench near an ice cream station. I was surprised that there was one even in Argathripe. Scarlet was enjoying her Strawberry, and I enjoyed licking at my Blue Moon. We talked for a while about what life was like before being called to the stupid prophecy. She told me about her brother, Johnathon, her Mom, and her Saldwin friend named Vici. I told her about how I was one of the highest in the Royal Guard, and that I didn't have many friends. I didn't say that I had none, because I didn't want her to feel bad for me. I didn't need anyone's sympathy. I didn't want it.

"Are you okay? King Salhom seems so nice and... energetic. But you seem kinda far away from everything," She said out of the blue.

I looked at her surprised. Usually no one noticed me, much less cared about me and noticed how I seemed to be feeling.

"Ah, yes. I'm okay. I just... don't know how to feel about this whole situation," I explained.

The look on her face said 'I know how you feel.' And I didn't doubt that for a second.

"How are you doing with all of this? Is it weird?" I asked, interested in how this all felt as a new perspective.

"I'm alright. I'm bad at my fire, and I miss my Dad," She said solemnly.

She had told me her parents were getting a divorce. "Aren't you just going to go back to him after this is all over? I don't expect this to go on for the rest of our lives, after all."

She sat there, staring at the ground. She took a bite of the ice cream, and I flinched. I didn't understand how people could do that. Must've been a 'fire element' thing.

"My Dad's dead."

I breathed in sharply, the freezing air slicing my lungs and taking me a bit by surprise.

"I'm sorry," I said, apologetically. "I shouldn't have said anything."

We sat there for a bit. I ruffled my feathers to keep myself a little warmer. I stood up.

"Let's head back. It's getting darker. It'll get colder, and soon even you will be freezing," I said.

"Okay then."

We started walking back to the palace. She took the final bites of her cone, and I quickly slurped up the last bits of my ice cream, then started on the cone.

When we got back, the warmth of the palace seemed to scare my nerves but I instantly took off my coat and sat on the couch with my wings outstretched. The warmth felt so much better. Scarlet took off her coat and sat next to Katrina, who was playing on her phone.

"Where's Theo?" Scarlet asked.

"Asleep. He needs all the rest he can get. After this, we definitely need to go to the Creator Kingdom after this. It's a shame Queen Clara doesn't come to any Angel Seasons, because we could've asked her to do a grocery run before she got here," Katrina answered, joking but not joking at the same time.

Queen Clara was actually the only Royal I hadn't met yet. I was told she loved her people, and her favorite was her Royal Guard. Well, not all of them. Just the commander of them.

"Have you ever met Queen Clara?" Scarlet asked.

"Nope," She said bluntly.

"Have you, Hunter?" She asked me.

"No. She's the only Royal I haven't met before," I said, checking to see how cold my feathers were.

They were luke-warm. It's never good to fly in really cold weather. I would be able to fly like this, but if it was too much colder it would hurt. I decided to let them soak in the heat for just a little longer.

"Where's King Salhom and the Royal Jesse? And A?" Scarlet asked.

She asks a lot of questions.

"The Royals are out on business, they'll be back in the morning. I think that A. is in the greenhouse," Katrina answered.

She had incredible patience.

"Why is she there? What business are the Royals on?" Scarlet kept on coming with these questions.

"Why don't we go ask A why she's there?! And you're not allowed to know what business the Royals go on," I said, having enough of her questions.

I liked her, but she could be quite annoying sometimes.

"Okay!!" Scarlet said, bounding towards the greenhouse.

As soon as she was out of the room, Katrina said, "Oh King Salhom, thank you."

I chuckled and followed Scarlet. "No problem."