Inherently Innocent

So Take My Hand

Aloe stroked Juniper's head until she woke up. It was a silent opening of the eyes and jerking up, almost mechanical as Juno prepared to act.

But everything was still quiet. The sun hadn't appeared over the horizon yet, only its orange hues climbed up the dark blue sky from the direction of the settlement she had abandoned.

"What's wrong?" Juniper whispered, lifting Thyme's head from her leg and leaving him asleep on the grass.

Aloe's hand was pressed against the ground, their flowers gently moving in the early morning wind. Juniper smiled, thankful for seeing them another day.

"There's an ishine nearby. They're trying to speak to us. I suppose they can feel all these nymphs laying on the ground."

"Call them to us. Tell them we want to talk," Juniper placed a hand on Aloe's shoulder, sliding it up to their neck.

While Aloe nodded and closed their eyes, Juniper took a look at her Horizon Hill. Peony rested face down, legs out. Xochitl drooled over Golshan's stomach, who was close to doing the same on Thyme. A few others were slowly starting to move, their eyes detecting the dim sunrise. Liliac was oddly close to the group, sleeping on her side beside Thyme. Juniper didn't trust her yet, having heard Golshan's stories. But her trust in Thyme outweighed the feeling. She laid back, waiting for the sky to light up, the nymphs to wake up, and an ishine to show up.

She touched the grass under her hands, for a moment seeing the sky light up as if it were noon. She heard a chuckle, prompting her to sit up. The sky was still dark. She had been daydreaming.

Aloe pressed her thigh. The ishine had arrived.

Juniper stood, mentally preparing for a diplomatic talk, when a hand reached up her leg. Peony smiled, starting to sign a good morning.

Juniper signed the same back, even if she couldn't do it as fluently. Peony smiled. It wouldn't be long until she learned to communicate with nymphs and ishine through their guidance, but with human Juniper, she had to use sign language. Of course, it wasn't a burden at all. It was wonderful if it let the child say her thoughts.

Take care of them all while I go away with Aloe, alright? Juniper signed.

Yes! I'll protect them! Peony closed her hands into fists when she finished, a devilish smile appeared on her face.

Juniper stroked the girl's hair and walked away in the direction where the night was escaping through, once again going through the burden of rehearsing her speech. She sighed at the thought of following her family's steps. Her dream of the previous night was dead.

"Are you sure they won't attack us?" Juniper asked.

"If they're from the group I think they are, no. They're close to your settlement, Ro Marull probably talked to them years ago before this mess. I doubt they have hard feelings," Aloe shrugged.

"But aren't they the first to be attacked since they're the closest?"

Aloe took a moment to answer, kneeling to touch the grass before speaking again.

"I came from the mountains to the west. Any ishine community closer than that is a kindergarten of pacifists."

Juniper nodded. There was a chance they'd help.

And she wasn't completely wrong.

The ishine the couple saw walk towards them was taller than Juniper by about a head. Their skin was brown, halfway between resemblance to tree bark and human skin, and there was no hair on their head. Only moss and lichens flowed from their head and down their back. Its eyes, like most ishine, were golden in the colour of falling polen.