Inherently Innocent

Why Do We Jump Into The Lake?

Thyme was different. Liliac could see it. His eyes looked like those that appeared when Liliac looked at the still water that accumulated in the back of her cell in Program Imaginaria. Tired. Betrayed.

And Liliac knew the feeling much better than that still. His mother had left, not to hide and be safe as he had thought, but to raise an army. Why hadn't she returned for him already? Even beyond that, being attacked by the very people they wanted to help, to get help from, was painful. Xochitl knew it better than anyone. She stumbled around only with Aloe's help after getting her leg impaled. Even Peony, such a young child, had to stay seated because her knees were apparently hurt too. Juniper and Dera had left. Only Aloe stayed as a leader. Maybe Golshan as a right hand. But the air had lost the hopeful dream of tomorrow. It was all blurry, like Liliac's eyes when she thought about it. What they deserved was a break. She slid her hand into Thyme's. His eyes didn't light up. He didn't smile like he used to.

"Why don't you go see Golshan?" She spoke in the sweetest voice she could think of.

"Golshan? What for?" Thyme used his free hand to clean a rheum that had started to form in his eye.

"I thought you two..." Liliac didn't want to dive into any more painful topics. But there was no way for her to know.

"That was before all this. You don't see him coming here, so leave him where he is until he decides to come back," Thyme was bitter, and sour like a thistle. At least he wasn't asking Liliac to go away.

Lee looked around and saw Golshan offer a shoulder for Xochitl to rest on. Soon enough, Peony laid on their legs. They deserved that break. Aloe approached Thyme and Liliac quietly, and only placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Let him work. Maybe it'll clear up his mind, they said.

Is that the cure you prescribe him, doctor? Liliac answered ironically. It did surprise her to see irony was still easily communicated through guidance.

"Doctor?" Aloe lifted their hand and laughed. "Hah, nobody had called me that before. Then again, I never really had to heal as many people as I'm doing now. Doctor could stick."

Thyme could hear the spoken words, so he jumped into the conversation.

"Do you have parents, Aloe? Any of them here?"

Aloe's smile died off. "The ishine don't have a similar family structure as humans. Most of us discovered the idea of a family with you. We're all raised individualy together, we all look out for the younger," Aloe answered, but their tone was melancholically offended.

"But where did you come from then?" Thyme asked.

Liliac was just a spectator. Like that one talk they had in Horizon Hill. But that was in another cave, maybe much safer, maybe much healthier.

"I bloomed from the earth like in the origins of this world. a group of older ishine came to an agreement, and the seed appeared from nothing. Not far from here, I remember. And the moment I was born they taught me how to attack. How to move, how to plan. And I'm still living that part of my life, even if in a new group, but it'll soon be over. I'll live in some far away place. With Juniper. And we'll tell what we're living like it is an old story." Aloe frowned and met Thyme's eyes again. They spoke almost automatically, "What do you dream of for tomorrow?"

"Wither off with that bullshit, Aloe. I dream of finishing this withering war, and getting back home if I even have one. How can I picture anything else in my future when every single part of it is uncertain? It seems as if every day I learn a new fact that tears down my world again. And to know there are hundreds of more things I don't know, that could pop up any second now. I just want to know what's going on."