Paz

Chapter 9

The next few days weren't exactly tedious, but something along those lines. Before truly learning how to fly, I had to be taught how to fight with my wings, and to make sure they didn't get in the way with some things. It did make me wonder why we were all training and learning like soldiers. No one told me what or if there was anything to fight in the first place, I was sort of just pushed into all of this, and everyone seemed to be ignoring any of my questions.

After the third day of working, and ignoring the shadows as best as I could, - we had moved to a spot closer to the center of the Clearing, Celeste had been worried that the edge of the forest had been doing something to me - I finally asked one question that had been plaguing my mind:

"Why are you making me do this?"

"I already told you that, bug, we need to get you into the habit of moving with your wings being a neusance." Celeste replied matter-of-factly.

"No, I mean... Who are we fighting? Why is everyone training so hard?"

Celeste stopped moving and looked at me with pursed lips. She seemed to be thinking hard over what to say. After some consideration, she sighed in frustration, throwing her arms up in the air.

"We're going to have to start from the beginning then, I suppose:

"Quite some time ago, when Seefe and I had just arrived here, and before we were a couple, there was a woman who sort of kept to herself quite a lot. She never gave anyone her name, and she almost never left her tent. When she did, it was normally to go out and get food or something along those lines, and people started just treating it like another thing, apparently she was there long before the two of us showed up, so it didn't seem like a big deal.

"But, overtime, Seefe started to get suspicious and dragged me over to the woman's tent with her to talk to her..." Celeste gulped and picked at her coat, looking for a place to sit down. "We opened one of the flaps to see if she was there -not like we needed to know, she was always there. The woman was sitting on her bed as she always was, knitting something like a scarf as she sat hunched over her work. Seefe introduced the both of us and asked if we could come in. She didn't say anything, so we entered the tent and looked around. It was dark. The place just felt, wrong, I can still remember it, and the smell, it...

"The woman barely acknowledged that we were there, she just kept working on her scarf, and she didn't look up until Seefe asked her a question. I remember that question like it was yesterday:

"'What's the deal with your tent?'

"Oh boy, you'd better believe she wasn't happy with that. She shooed us out and yelled just about any swear word she could think of as she pushed us out. When we stood outside again, everyone was staring at us, I remember that I was so embarassed, my face had turned three shades darker, and Seefe just shooed them away to give me some space."

"Wait a minute," I stopped her, "Why would someone get so worked up about something like that?"

"I'm getting to that," she replied and continued:

"A little after that, Seefe and I were all but ecstatic about figuring out both of our powers, and it raised the question that kept nagging at our minds - what was the lady's power?

"We asked pretty much everyone who wasn't bothered talking to us, and every single person without fail, replied with basically the answer, that is to say, no one particularly knew. Some people assumed it had something to do with death or something, because her tent was always so dark. So, as Seefe and I were both too young to understand matters, we decided to go in again to find out.

"Upon announcing herself, Seefe walked in just about as confidently as she did before, almost like our first encounter had never happened, and she pulled me in shortly after. What we saw in there will most likely haunt me for the rest of my life, Bug." Celeste's voice faltered once again.

"Well?" I encouraged. It didn't feel particularly good to push a story that she was obviously worried about herself, but like I said, I've always been curious.

She gave me a look before speaking once again. "As we walked in, everything felt darker than usual, and it just seemed like it was bigger than it was supposed to be. Looking around was a bit of a hard thing as well. The whole place looked like just a chasm, like nothing was in there or ever belonged, and it just smelled.... dark. That's the only way I can explain it."

  I watched her hopefully. Celeste must have realized how much information I was trying to pry from her, and had probably said too much, because she stretched her arms and stood up. "Come on then. It looks like it's gearing up to rain soon." She said and was a little jittery with her movements. "Let's get going before the storm starts. Seefe likes to watch the rain with company."

  I sighed and stood up, craning my neck to earn a satisfying pop. It sounded like that was all I would be getting out of her for today.

                                ***

  By the time I got back to my own tent, Celeste had left my side, and it was beginning to drizzle slightly. Nuniq met up with me, and the rest of the group followed not long after. Asia was the first to reach us and he wore a large smile at the sight of me.

  "Hey, Paz!" He said excitedly, "Come on, I'll show you how to set up your tarp!" He took my hand, and led me towards my tent. I made a sharp noise of discontent. Asia looked back at me with concern, and saw my expression, letting go of my hand quickly. "Too soon?"

  I stared blankly at him with wide eyes. "W - what?" Too soon? Did he think -?

  "Sorry, I should have made it more clear.." Asia rubbed his neck.

  "What?"

  "Where we... Were we not a thing back there?"

  I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of annoyance. Asia was a more... Complicated person than I thought. He looked amused rather than embarassed, and it only served to agrivate me more. I huffed and pushed past him to my tent. Putting up a tarp didn't seem so hard.

  A few minutes - and multiple failed attempts - later, Asia decided to show his face again, the nerve of him. When I caught sight of him though, he looked almost embarrassingly confused and probably didn't have a clue why I walked off. I went inside my tent to put on a jacket. The rain had begun to fall harder, and Asia asked to come in, in an almost pleading voice. He walked in himself after I didn't answer for a while.

  "Hey, Paz?" He said, staying in the middle of the room so as not to get anything wet, "About what I said earlier, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and just assumed-"

  Wait, was he still talking? How long had I not been listening?"

  "-So I just wanna say, than I'm sorry, and that-"

  "I'm gay." May as well get him to stop talking.

  Asia stopped and gaped at me. "Sorry, what?"

  I rolled my eyes, "I'm a lesbian, I like girls, I swing on the same side as you, how much more obvious can I be?"

  Asia froze, then he was out of the tent before I could blink. I sat down on the hammock-bed and yawned, drifting off a little later.

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AUTHORS NOTE
heyheyhey not dead still im so sorry that this has been taking so long i literally have no excuse

Social news: paz's personality may have changed a bit. I've been reading hellblazer and i feel like her and Constantine need to relate a little more.
Also like i said, asias pretty interesting
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