chaos and control | druig ✔︎

04 | talk

04 | I remember when we 

used to talk every day

575 B.C. - Babylon

Druig and Hestia were sitting on the floor of the Domo together, Hestia between Druig's legs, leaning the back of her head on his chest. His arms were around her, holding a piece of paper in front of them. It had a drawing on it, that one of the locals made to thank Hestia for helping them with making their fire. It kept going out after minutes, so she helped them keep it burning.

"The people really love you." Druig said softly, sometimes he wished he was so adored by the people.

"Well, I don't care what they think about me, if they love me or hate me, I only care about you." Hestia turned her head to look at the boy behind her with a lovesick smile on her face. Druig looked down with a similar expression at the girl.

"Phastos," Ajak came walking into the room with grace, "did you go to the party last night like I told you to?"

Phastos scoffed. "The party? Oh yeah, it was..."

Druig interrupted him from behind Hestia. "He worked all night."

Phastos turned around with a betrayed look on his face. "Who was talking to you? Shouldn't you be drooling over Hestia like you always do?"

Hestia turned her body around in his arms. "You like me that much? I'm honoured."

"Oh, shut up." He retorted.

"Get a life." Ajak said. Hestia had no idea who this was directed to, it could have been said to both Phastos and Druig. "And where is Sersi?"

"Late as usual." Sprite twirled a random piece of metal in her hands.

"I'm sorry, but I have something very exciting to show you, okay?" Phastos softly grabbed Ajak's arm and dragged her along to his workstation. "Wait till you see this." He chuckled. He started combining all the components to his invention for the humans.

"What is it?" Ajak asked the inventor. "I'd like to know that too." Hestia quipped.

Phastos started explaining his creation. "It's an engine. It moves steam from high pressure to low pressure. It'll help them till their fields at an incredibly fast rate."

"It's gonna freak them out." Sprite was still playing with the random piece of metal she found, twirling the circle around her finger.

Druig sarcastically agreed with the smaller girl. "I mean, they only have had the wheel 1,000 years, so..." earing a jab in the stomach from Hestia.

"You know, we could do that thing, you know," Phastos started and pointed at Druig, "where you use your mind to control them and then they could do it quicker."

"That's not how evolution works." Hestia muttered, but it was almost inaudible because Druig had started talking too. "Ajak, you listening to this?"

"Phastos, this steam..." Ajak trailed off, not knowing what the machine was called.

"Engine. It's a steam engine." Phastos sighed.

"It's too soon." She pointed her finger at him to warn him.

Sersi finally decided to make an entrance. "And there she is." Ajak welcomed her. Sersi was still panting, and with a smile on her face she asked, "what did I miss?"

Phastos clapped his hands together. "Nothing. Just the screams of my deep disappointment." He walked away from the design with an obviously disappointed expression.

"I'm sure you have something simpler." Ajak tried to comfort him, but it didn't help. Phastos was immensely proud of his design, and nothing was going to change that.

"Simple." Phastos noted. "Okay, let's see." He started taking apart his previous creation, removing parts.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the plow. 'Cause that's what it does. Plows dirt." The disappointment was evident in his voice, mixed with sarcasm.

"I met another group of settlers who are building their homes in the northern fields." Sersi added.

"What's that supposed to add to this conversation?" Hestia questioned, mainly to Druig, who shrugged his shoulders.

"They'll need to plant their own crops." She hinted towards the plow that was glowing above Phastos' workbench and Ajak put her arm up to point towards Sersi, clearly trying to show Phastos that his invention wasn't as useless as he thought it to be.

"Okay, that actually makes sense." Hestia muttered, feeling slightly stupid for not thinking of that earlier. Druig let out a little laugh and she looked at him with a fake pout. "Are you making fun of me?"

"I'd never do that, milady." He smirked, knowing she hated it when he constantly used such formalities when talking to her.

"C'mon, I told you like two hours ago, stop with the 'milady' thing! If you don't, I'll start saying sir after every sentence and bowing whenever you come into a room, you'll see how annoying it gets after a while." She had fully turned her body around between his legs, now facing him. She didn't find it annoying that he kept calling her milady, but that was something he didn't have to know, for now.

Both tuned back into the conversation that the others were having. "Listen, humanity may be coming along slower than some of us want. But there is no telling what wonders they will discover as they advance."