Similitude of Ashes and Feathers

Chapter 7: Understanding Apologies

Aaron had been put in boiling hot water, so it would stay hotter longer than just warm water, thankfully. It took quite a while for him to actually wake up, or at least it appeared that way to Alexander. If that wasn't actually the case due to his lack of patience was debatable. He noticed immediately when Aaron began to stir. "Aaron, are you awake?"

The demon slowly opened his eyes before groaning softly at how uncomfortable the position he was in and strangely warm it now was. "... Alexander? What happened?" He looked around to see where they were, he hadn't actually been in one of the bathrooms yet and it also looked different in comparison to the ones in Hell.

"You passed out. The king looked at you and you were out," he snapped his fingers, "just like that." He gave a soft laugh, "he feels really bad about scaring you so but it was obvious you weren't feeling good too so that wouldn't have helped either. I guess I didn't quite understand just how serious you were being when you said you couldn't control your body temperature. I-... I'm sorry for getting so upset with you for lighting my book's page on fire."

"... It's alright," he was still registering everything Alex had said to him. How embarrassing, he probably looked pathetic. That might be better for him in manners of his likelihood to be forgiven for what he had done, but that didn't make it feel any less embarrassing. "I understand you don't know my circumstances, I didn't know how being here would be like for me either. It's not your fault, but I appreciate your apology. Consider it accepted... Did I-... Did I really pass out in front of your father–the king of the angels I mean."

Alex smirked before nodding, "yeah. It was a little bit funny. Not really surprising since I've been with you for a little longer than everyone else, but still funny." He pointed to the bathtub Aaron was in, "he was actually the one that had you put in boiling water. It was a guess that you would be alright, but if anyone would know better than the rest of the angels it would be him."

Aaron looked down at the water he was in, bringing his knees to his chest as he sat in it. "Boiling water? I know what boiling is but what is water?" He pronounced the word a little funny. "Like I've heard about it but I've never seen any pictures that weren't drawn. I thought it would be thicker than this, like lava. You know what I mean? Do you know what that is or is it just demons that don't know everything you have?"

"I know what lava is," he nodded, "it sounds like our books are more detailed than yours. We have a lot of colored pictures in our books, so we might not have lava in the heavens but we do have a good idea of what they are and knowing that it's incredibly hot. I've seen it in person before because I've been to earth, not everyone gets to have that experience. They have lava in these things called volcanoes–we don't have those here, I don't know if you guys do but that's what they are on the land of humans. Do you guys have volcanoes?"

The demon nodded, smiling softly at the enthusiasm Alex spoke with and gestures he seemed to always use whilst talking. "Yes, we have volcanoes and even lochs of lava-"

"A loch is just another word for lake, correct?"

"I think that's a synonym to it, we don't use it very often though. Is that more common for you? You asked that like you didn't know for sure and I'm assuming that's because you don't use it very often. Can I safely assume that much?" He raised a brow curiously at his last question.

Alexander shook his head, "no. We don't typically use that term. Although we also don't typically use 'lakes of water' to describe our lakes, just lakes. That's it. There's a lot of water on earth, there's these large bodies of water called oceans. We don't have those here but we do have ponds and rivers."

Aaron perked up, "we have rivers and ponds too-"

"Let me guess, those are also lava? So what do you drink if you don't have water in Hell? Do you just drink lava?" That would make sense to him but he wanted to be extra clear. The picture of Hell he had in his mind seemed similar to what Aaron was describing but there was a lot that was also not like what he was expecting, an example being Aaron's appearance.

He looked slightly confused, "um... Yes... I just said we don't have this stuff so I don't know what else we would drink. Rocks? Can't imagine why we'd do that, they're barely edible-" Aaron stopped himself as he remembered something, "actually we melt down metals and drink that. It's a delicacy since you only find metals in the part of Hell where the greater demons live so I've never had any but I've heard it's pretty good. Melting down regular rocks or gems just sounds silly though, completely different."

Alex looked amused and also confused, "they're really not that different. Unless yours are somehow different from ours, they're all minerals. Is it just the way they're melted that makes them different or how easily you can obtain them?"

"... I don't know exactly, it's just different. Trust me on that, I live there. I think I would know," Aaron shrugged his shoulders. "You'd probably understand if you lived there but seeing as you don't I doubt you would."

The prince sighed in mild exasperation, "sure. I guess I wouldn't know but it still sounds ridiculous to me." Alex thought for a moment about what to say, thinking over their conversation before remembering one piece of information. "So you won't drink rocks but you will eat them?"

"They're not very good-"

"Then why would you eat them?" He raised a brow, "I don't understand why you would if they're 'barely edible'."

Aaron shrugged, "occasionally you don't have many options, typically we just utilize them in other manners. My friend Bellamy and I used to take pebbles and see how many sahlias or snakes we could hit—admittedly that was quite cruel but they were always too fast anyway so there wasn't any harm in it. Although it isn't uncommon to eat either of them."

"Humans have snakes, give me a second." Alex went out of the bathroom, taking a few minutes before he returned with a book in hand. "I'm afraid I don't know what a sahlia is, assuming that's plural, but I do know what a snake is." He opened the book to a specific page to show Aaron.

As he'd been searching, Aaron could clearly read that the title of the book was 'creatures of the unknowing world.' An interesting title, surely angels didn't give humans enough credit for what they did know. Then again Aaron wouldn't know. He didn't deal with humans. "..." Aaron looked at the animal on the page and tilted his head slightly, "I mean that's the general shape."

"... your snakes don't look like any of these?" As he continued to flip through the pages, Aaron's eyes only narrowed. "None of them, none of them at all?"

"No, not really. Maybe-" he reached for the page but stopped himself and pulled his arm back, "maybe a black one, but not even that is the right color scheme or appearance. They look similar, all of them do really, but not similar enough. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Alex shook his head, "maybe a little but not really. I'll just pretend I do for your sake." Then the angel nodded, "sure. Yeah, I get it." He shrugged, "quite frankly there are a couple of things you've told me that haven't made sense to me but for the most part I understand. You still haven't explained what a... sahlia," he pronounced it uncertainly because he didn't know how to say it and hated to embarrass himself.

"It... How do I explain... it has four legs, it's very small, it has a tail, and it's covered in scales... I'm not quite sure how else to describe it. I'd draw it for you if I could but I'm not a good artist." He sighed, "I'm sorry I can't quite explain it very well."

"It's alright, you can't do everything. I think by now anyone can see that. No offense of course, just calling it how I see it." Aaron only silently nodded in response to Alex's words. "Especially given your current position. I can't even touch that water without burning my finger."

"Yes, I am aware of that much. This still isn't as hot as where I'm from but it is much better than before." He couldn't stop feeling cold before no matter how hard he tried. It was disappointing and uncomfortable for him. He could acknowledge that weakness though.

As they continued to chat the time seemed to fly by, both boys not noticing. It wouldn't be too long before Aaron noticed the bath water cool down. Supposedly by then his new clothes would be done, to the best of the tailor's abilities.