Green and Gray

Chapter Four

Chapter Four - Adarra

I'm woken from an uneasy slumber by a gust of warm air. Then another. And another. The air keeps hitting me right in the center of my face, over and over, until my eyes flutter open.

"Wha..?" I blink sleep from my eyes to see a curious face staring directly at me, a curtain of white hair trailing across my cheeks. It's him. My throat closes around the words I want to scream, my heart races. I try to scramble away, but I'm frozen. I can't move, my emotions paralyzing my muscles. What is he doing here? How did he find me? What does he want from me?

"Hi," he leans away a bit, and I see that he'd been kneeling above me as I slept. The hot air was his breath.

"Please- I-" I gasp. "Leave me alone!"

His expression doesn't change. "Why?"

Why? Is he serious? Does he not understand that he shouldn't be alive? "Because you- because you're a monster!"

"Me?" he blinks.

"Yes!" my voice cracks, tears stream down my face, stinging the open wound.

"Oh," he says softly, leaning close to me again. He wipes the tears away from my cheeks; gently, taking care not to touch my cut. "Rain eyes?"

"Wh- what?" I squirm a little.

"Rainy eyes," he gives a satisfied nod as if answering his own question.

"Stop, you're not making any sense," I say, my voice shaking. "Get off- of- of me!"

Obediently, he swings his leg over me and sits beside my rucksack, still fixing his curious gaze to my face. "Hi," he repeats.

"What- what do you want?" I sit up and move away from him.

"Hiru,"

"Who- who is Hiru? I'm sorry, I- I don't know who he-" I stammer, desperate to get him away.

"Me," a little smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. "You?"

He has... a name? I think, my eyes widening. Why would someone name him? He doesn't deserve a name. He doesn't deserve anything! Especially not information about me.

"I'm- not telling you!" my bottom lip weavers.

"Okay," he shrugs, his wings rustling. He crawls towards me and I freeze again.

"What are- what is happening?" I ask, hunching my shoulders. He reaches towards my head and I flinch away. "What are you doing?"

"Sharp," he - Hiru - says, stretching his fingers up towards my head again.

"What's sharp?" I push myself further from him. He points to his head in response, gesturing around the area where horns would grow.

"Wh- what?" I squint at him, still not understanding. He leans forward and taps the top of one of my horns, nodding in the same self-satisfied way he had earlier.

"Hungry," he says, standing up and looking in all directions for a sign of food. "Hungry?"

"Am I hungry?" I slowly get to my feet as well. "Well, yeah, but I- I can find something."

"No," he shakes his head, his white hair trailing across his skinny body. He has no clothes, only a small, tattered blanket tied around his waist. At least he has some etiquette.

"What? 'No'?" I back away.

"Come," he turns and starts walking into the forest, then stops and looks back at me when I remain solitary. "Okay?"