Corrupted Timelines

Making Friends

Gura was able to sit up after a long while and saw the Priestess for the first time right-side-up. She didn't look completely insane like all of the others and definitely didn't talk like them, either. A weird mix of calm and terror floated around inside of her. But she knew she couldn't run anyways or it would just be another round of convulsing on the ground.

"That r-really hurt," Gura complained slightly. She didn't really know how to act around this seemingly nice Priestess. The creature in front of her sat down on the sand facing the Atlantean.

"I just didn't want you to leave," it explained again. Gura almost rolled her eyes.

"You said that you wanted to talk to me, so go ahead. Not like I can go anywhere," Gura put her arms out to the sides as if to present herself.

"If you really don't want to talk, you can leave, I guess..." Ok, this time the Priestess did sound sad. Gura felt a slight bit of pity mix in with her other emotions. This one was different from the others.

"My name is Gawr Gura, but it seems like you already knew that," Gura said with a shaky smile. The Priestess seemed to light up with surprise and happiness at this gesture.

"My name is Ninomae Ina'nis, but I would rather just be called Ina." Gura's terror mostly disappeared by this point.

"So why'd you want to talk to me? Any reason besides wanting to?" Gura pushed her earlier questions along. The Priestess, Ina, hesitated before answering.

"You killed people here last night, right Gura?" Gura didn't like those words.

"It's not like I wanted to..." she mumbled to herself, but Ina picked up on them anyways.

"Elaborate," she requested, although it didn't feel like a request.

"I was hungry and sometimes I can't control what I do when I'm hungry," she explained shortly. This wasn't a topic she'd ever talked about before.

That wasn't fair, though. Gura knew the Priestesses were just tools for the Ancient Ones to use. If Ina could actually resist the power, like she was demonstrating, then this could actually be really interesting. This was probably the reason why she hadn't been attacked by a Priestess in a few decades.

"So you can't control it? You didn't want to kill those people," Ina probed. Gura nodded.

"I hate killing people," she said with gritted teeth and clenched fists. Ina went defensive for a moment before relaxing again.

"You see, I told you," she whispered to herself. Gura looked at her funny.

"Who are you talking to? The Ancient Ones?" the Atlantean asked the question this time around. Ina thought for a moment.

"Yes, we don't get along some days. They thought you were just killing people for no reason and wanted to stop you."

"Like the Ancient Ones care about humans," Gura scoffed. Ina pouted slightly before changing the topic.

"I take it you don't like them very much."

"Not at all," Gura said while pulling her gaze away. A few hundred years wasn't nearly long enough to forgive the thing that had killed her entire race. Although, she hoped she didn't hurt Ina's feelings with her answer. The other girl sighed.

"Yeah, I've learned that with time. Out of the few people who know about AO-chan, even fewer actually like them. Plus, most of them are cultists or complete psychopaths," Ina reminisced about past memories.

"You call them AO-chan?" Gura latched onto that detail. Ina nodded.

"Yeah, makes them seem less threatening to others." Gura cocked an eyebrow.