Arwa

17- The Assesment

I'd pulled on an old jacket Chimaera had provided me as well as a hat for my head, it seemed to be a cold day. The only problem was that this hat had holes in at the top for horns so it didn't keep as much as the cold away as I'd like. Hallow seemed to have a lot of old Mynx clothes, maybe she used to make them herself or maybe they were just from Mynx children in the past.

I was looking at the drawings Chimaera had made, sitting on an old pad on the seat. They were good, really good, I remember seeing drawings in the den's walls. I bet he drew those too.

After I've cleaned myself up me and Chimaera go out to meet Hallow, the weather is still but very cold and there's these odd white crispy things under my feet. Not leaves, leaves are brown, this is like flaky white things that are stuck to the leaves, some of It's see through others are just hard white. They look fluffy yet sharp. Chimaera sees me looking at em.
"Frost's cool innit? When water freeze on those spiderwebs that's when I think it looks really nice yeah." I turn to him,
"Frost?" He nodded, chuckling,
"Yeah, yeah, this is frost 'ere..." he picked up a 'frost' covered leaf. He wasn't surprised anymore by my incompetence, I think he's gotten used to me not knowing what half the things in this broken world were so he just goes with it. I like that about em. "Y'know water a'right? When stuff gets really cold yeah, that water turns from liquids to solid. And this solid is Frost, 'nuther name for frozen water part-cle." I take the left from him and look at it more, the water looks like crystals, all dainty and intricate on the leaf.
"What's a part-cle..."

"A particle is an extremely small piece of matter that makes up all living things." Even though I know they're giving us a home, Hallow's presence still daunts me. Her huge stature and commanding voice just makes me wanna sit down like I'm some form of student to listen to everything she says. With expert precision she scooped up a single leaf on the lip of her staff, looking at it. Her crimson eyes don't even blink,"There is solid, liquid or gas. The water that you quench is in liquid form, frost is in its solid form. When you boil that liquid water, gas. They differ between how much energy they have, and their energy is determined by heat. Because it gets colder in the darker months, it's more likely that the water will become frost. The particles I talked about, they go cold and hard and solid, into frost..."Chimaera had his eyes wide,
"Then, then does that mean the 'ole reservoir... the 'ole thing is jus' frost!?" Hallow chuckled shortly,
"No, child, because there is so much it means that there is more heat, therefore the reservoir you speak of will be fine." She began to stride forwards, so we followed willingly.
"How d'you know this? All this universal stuff?" I asked her, she replied back with her eyes closing down slowly and then back up again.

She was always so calm, or that at least what she painted in herself to be like. Even though the entire world was crumblin' and breaking all around us, she still sits there and takes her time speaking, takes her time thinking of stuff she wants to do.

"I was always one for physics..." Chimaera on the other hand seemed completely confused but I couldn't say anything, so was I. I had never heard anything like this before.
"Wass' 'fis-kiss?" I tried hard not to laugh, Chimaera shoved me a bit,"Ey! Don't make funna' me! This is jus' 'ow I speak! It's... 'fizz-kiss, no, 'fis-kicks..." Hallow bowed her head, she still didn't smile.

Because I'd been with Chimaera so long I was always used to smiling Mynx. She didn't do that. I don't know why I felt so
"You're close. Say Fizz."
"Fizz"
"I-"
"I-"
"Kss..."
"Kss," Hallow nodded,
"As one now, Physics." I could see Chikaera was trying really hard, his fists were clenched and everything,
"Phisssss-icks?" I grinned as he looked at me,
"You got it man!" He sighed, he did look proud of himself. I patted him on the back,

"Hey, don't worry bout pronouncing things all right all the time. We know what you're talkin' bout and look at me! I can't even say the stuff either." That seemed to perk him up a bit. Hallow looked at us.
"I am still surprised how you two are so... close..." Chimaera shrugged and laughed,
"Dunno. Ya great though Arwa, ya awesome." I turned to him.
"So you mate, you're freaking cool."

We then got to a river and just before Hallow grabbed her staff to fish, Chimaera jumped in and seconds later came back with his arms full of fish,
"A-Arwa come 'ere and hep me will ya?" So I did and started to hit each fish in the head once with my hammer before we both turned to Hallow. I'm sure Hallow could of done with the help.

She looked confused by also surprised, her head was cocked to the side a little as she studied us. I thought she was gonna say something, but she didn't. She just stayed there, silent, staring us and we were now starin' back.
"... Peculiar..." she whispered to herself before snapping out of whatever thought she was on at drawing her attention to the fish as if she'd never been staring at us for five minutes. Chimaera was still staring at her though, that was before I noticed her was studying her. He then looked at me like he knew about something I didn't, he couldn't even stifle his grin.
"I'm gonna bring the fish back and gut em' see ya," then he just trotted off.

It was just me and Hallow now, it felt almost painful not having Chimaera around. Hallow stayed stern as usual,
"I was concerned about you child, I was worried. I was worried about you Arwa. I shouldn't of really shirked you feeling off like that, and... I apologise if that caused you more stress." I didn't really wanna think about it, it would only stress me out. I tried to focus on the moment, that helped me a lot,
"It's fine, Hallow don't worry bout it. Seriously. Thanks for the clothes, and the room." I just flicked my hammer back in my belt, Hallow looked at it for a moment, I knew she was thinking.

I think deep inside she was quite an emotional person. Yet from the outside, she like have to put on a persona almost, hiding behind seriousness and stoic. Sometimes at times like that she would shine through, her softness. But that was not all the time.

Hallow put her staff away and turned to a tree parallel to us. She went to it and just dug one of her nails in. I didn't know what was happening, if this was something she did or something bigger, it seemed to be something important because Chimaera left us alone, and as I grew closer to him I noticed how protective he could be.

Hallow stood beside me and pointed at the small hole in the trunk of the tree.
"Can you hit that, child?" I looked at my hands, I think if I looked in her eyes I'd just be crushed. I just realised how she called us both child. It didn't seem like a bad thing, something about it was nice. Somebody higher than me, somebody there who seemed to know everything, it made me feel comforted yet like I was ignorant in some way.
"Hit with what? My-my hands?" She shook her head sternly,
"No, you hammer. Throw that hammer at that tree." I gulped and then remembered back to when I'd done something like this before, back in that lab. I'd thrown my hammer and nocked out that dude.

God I knocked out a man and put him in that torture chair! I just locked him up like they did to me. I hope he's ok, I hope I didn't hurt him too bad. Man... that was ages ago too...
I wonder if I'll ever really know why they locked me up there.

"Arwa?" Hallow was looking at me more intently,"Are you ok?" I nodded, trying to focus,
"Yeah... I'm fine, just remembering something... I've done this before." I threw my hammer.
"And how did it go?" She said as we both watched the hammer fly through the air.
Bullseye.
I hit it right on! Man I wasn't expecting that, before I thought it was just dumb luck and adrenaline but now I hit it right on that mark. I turned to Hallow, I was out of breath,
"Hit it right on."