Egg World

Chapter 6 - Fateful Night

Illustration credit goes to Konomi at https://www.instagram.com/konomidrawz/

GREY POV:

The inside of the plane was quiet. There was a light hum around us from the wind blowing past the plane outside. I rested my chin on my hand as I gazed at the night sky through the window.

Sylvie sat quietly across from me, munching on saltine crackers. I turned my eyes to her. Although we hadn't talked much since getting on the plane ride back to my own country, there was no awkwardness in the atmosphere. I felt at peace, more at peace than I had been in a long time.

A part of my mind was still perplexed about seeing this child as my first friend in many years. But another part of me had grown in appreciation for her, whether I admitted it or not. Her presence had become a part of my life.

Sylvie noticed me staring and looked up at me, her mouth still half-full of crackers. A small smile broke out on my face at the sight of her eating.

"...Is there something you'd like to ask?" Sylvie asked, her voice muffled by the food in her mouth.

I let out a chuckle. "No, not in particular. Although if I had to ask..." There was one question that I had been holding off on asking her. I leaned forward towards her, my hands folded in front of me as I made a more serious expression on my face.

"Sylvie. Is your country one of the ones that I attacked?" If she had fallen victim to a war that I had participated in, it would definitely put a strain on our relationship.

But Sylvie just laughed in response. "My country was attacked, but by people a lot scarier than you are."

I leaned back into my chair, relieved that I hadn't been the cause of Sylvie's death. But her statement at the end still made me raise my eyebrows.

"Scarier how?" I asked.

"Hmm...well for one, they had horns," she said as she looked up at the ceiling, struggling to recall her memories.

I snorted. "Horns, huh." Another one of her delusions.

But there must be some aspect of truth in her stories. Her growing up in war would explain the maturity that I had perceived in her, and the depth of sadness that I had seen in her eyes and smile every now and then. I decided to go along with the fantasy-like details that she added into her past; there was nothing wrong with a child seeing the attackers of her country as monsters with horns.

SYLVIE POV:

"So, what about you?"

I turned the conversation around onto Grey, thinking that this would be a good opportunity to learn more about him.

Grey looked down at his hands, as he thought about his past. I put my crackers to the side and brushed the crumbs onto the floor to get into a better listening posture.

"...I also grew up in a warring country. As an orphan," Grey began his story. I nodded to indicate that I was listening.

"I was taken to an orphanage at a young age, and it was a place like home. Our headmaster was like a mother to me, and I had two friends who I went through childhood with." Grey chuckled. "Although it certainly wasn't an ordinary childhood."

I hesitated briefly before asking, "Could you tell me more about what happened with those two friends?"

Grey looked up from his hands at my question. I matched his eyes, with what I hoped was an inviting smile on my face.

He looked back out the window and sighed. "We were just children," he said softly. "There was a lot that we did wrong. But it's no excuse for the way that I treated them. I pushed them away when they needed my companionship and...things went horribly as a result." He had a faraway look in his eyes as he gazed at the sky, his chin resting on his hand again. We sat in silence for a while.