The Messengers of Sanctuary

39 - Chicory

He was so aggravating.

River was selfless in exactly the right way while also thinking far too much about himself. River was the type of person who would look at a broken vase and fix it so it would be better. Chicory was the type of person who would just buy a new vase after giving up.

Well, Chicory was ready to give up now. Finally, River could save the world, he didn't need her. He didn't need to be pulled back by her inability to achieve anything.

Chicory felt tears coming to her eyes as she ran through the forest, fleeing desperately, using all of her heartfire speed to get as far from the area as possible. She ran and she ran and she ran.

At one point Chicory stopped and pulled her letter paper out of her bag, writing a hasty note to River, hopefully, he wouldn't follow her this far but it was always a possibility. Chicory finished off the letter and pinned it to a tree, pressing a drop of her blood onto the top to make sure River wouldn't overlook it.

It was around that point when Chicory finally started thinking.

She looked back toward the pyros, thinking how much Nina would want to meet them. She looked back at River, remembering how he had come to save her. Clearly, he cared, in his own strange River-like way.

Chicory felt the thoughts burying themselves into her, tearing into her very center as she tried to rationalize this.

But in the end, she was only just giving up her dream. She was giving up all she'd worked for, what? Just because River was better at it than her? 

"You need to stand up to yourself and tell the person in the mirror that she's beautiful. She's a warrior. You wouldn't let a friend bully themselves, so why are you doing it?"

Chicory closed her eyes, falling to her knees for a moment as she tried to figure out what she even wanted. She used to be led on by that idea of finding what was on the other side, the idea that she could go where no one had been since the outbreak. That idea that Chicory could become someone important.

Now she was just another pig-headed idiot.

Chicory tore down the letter, clenching it in her fists and gritting her teeth as she stood up. Finally, she waited for River to arrive, deciding that this time, she would tell him everything. She would ask for help.

She was fully expecting this to blow up in her face. She was expecting River to shrug off her problems and call her weak because that's what she was.

---

River crouched down beside her, examining her for a long moment. Chicory was sitting against a tree, hugging her knees, with a torn-up letter scattered about the area.

He watched her for a long moment, saying nothing. Finally, he stood up. "So what do you want?" He finally asked, "What are you going to do from here?

Chicory shrugged weakly. "Everything I do fails anyway, there's no point."

"Uh-huh." River said incredulously, "Well you managed to get me on your cause, that's a pretty decent achievement. Plus you single-handedly reunited the eastern and western halves of North America. That didn't seem much like a failure to me."

Encouragement? From River? Chicory didn't believe it.

"It doesn't matter because you're so much better at everything than me. You always seem to make the right decision, you always know what to do, and you could easily finish your plan without me."