𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒓: 𝑬𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒕 (𝑹𝑬𝑾𝑹𝑰𝑻𝑬)

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚- 𝑼𝒏𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕

Azulis waited patiently for Tygren to return. Which took some time. Whilst he waited, Apexis happened to wake up. "Where are we?" She attempted to sit up, eyes tired. "The forest near Ataraxia. If you don't mind me asking, what happened earlier? With the fish things?" Azulis asked as he supported her. Apexis blinked slowly, trying to recall what had transpired beneath the surface. "All I really remember were these flashing images. Well, some of them were memories, but most of them I didn't recognize."

"So...some sort of...echoes of the past?" Azulis thought aloud. "Where's Tygren? Is he okay?"

"Yeah, I assume, but why are you so concerned? You've never worried about him before." He furrowed his eyebrows. Apexis made a strange face that Azulis couldn't read very well. "In those memories, I saw a lot of this person that looked very similar to him. Only he was much younger and-" Before she could finish, Tygren appeared. He seemed...off? Confused? He wasn't exactly irritated, which was unusual. Azulis opened his mouth to ask what happened.

"I didn't run into her." He sheathed his sword, sighing. Apexis muttered to Azulis, "And he was surprisingly caring."

"I can hear you, who are you talking about?" Tygren's ears flicked back as he made a bland expression. "It's nothi-" Apexis almost immediately received a face full of doubt from him. She scoffed quietly, crossing her arms.

"Bullshit. You're a terrible liar. Do continue describing this person, I'm intrigued."

"There isn't a person to describe, Tygren. Relax." Apexis stood up, only to nearly fall back down. Azulis quickly got to his feet and caught her. "You need to rest. Stay off your feet." He was genuinely concerned for her, which made a happy feeling bubble up inside Apexis. Tygren frowned, sitting down in front of them. "Care to tell me what even happened?"

"...I still don't recall much of what happened." Apexis fiddled with her hair as Azulis and her sat back down, her sitting in front of him. "Right, I'm sure that's true," Tygren said dramatically, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, why would I lie? I'm not afraid of you doing-"

"Afraid of me doing what? A strange-looking fish creature nearly drowned you, it's not like I'm going to throw you back in the water. I'm the one who dragged you out in the first place, so I deserve to at least know what happened." Tygren leaned forward, temper already rising. "Wait, I thought Azulis saved me?" Apexis turned to Azulis.

Azulis shook his head. "I can't swim..." He laughed awkwardly. Apexis paused, turning back to Tygren. "Why?" She asked. "That's beside the point. What happened?"

"I saw some weird visions or something. They seemed to be from the past, which confuses me. I saw someone who looked a lot like you, as well as someone else, who was older," Apexis explained. Tygren thought for a moment, before muttering a curse to himself. "Well, this is great." He stood up and started pacing around. "Why is this bad? I can finally learn about my past." Apexis argued.

"Are you sure you want to? There's an innumerable amount of reasons as to why I haven't told you about it in the first place, how have you never wondered why?" A frustrated smile made its way onto Tygren's face as he abruptly stopped pacing and glared down at them. "I just thought you were being an asshole, to be honest," Apexis stated dully. "I'm fully aware of my asshole-ness, thank you, but I don't see why you're particularly interested in your past. It already happened, right? So why dwell on it if it had no lasting effect on you?" Tygren's voice was full of discontent.

"Isn't that kind of hypocritical? Since you dwell on it a lot?" Apexis shot back defensively, going to stand up before Azulis stopped her. "I dwell on it unintentionally. It's a burden for me. I don't want to have to deal with the side effects of telling you about it."

"Ah, so you don't want me to become another you?"

"No, I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about me. I don't know how many times I have to tell you this- I CAN'T HANDLE IT. WHAT HAPPENED AT SENDARIA WAS A PRODUCT OF YOU ASKING ABOUT SHIT I AM NOT WILLING TO TELL YOU!" Tygren yelled, pupils slitted and unusually sharp teeth bared.

Somehow, Apexis had never seen him this angry. It was the most emotion she'd ever seen from him, aside from at Sendaria. She quickly glanced at Azulis, who was downright frightened. He'd heard him yell before, just not to this extent.

"I-I'm sorry, I've just always been curious, and I never really took the hint that it was- I mean...Xaro told me to tread lightly on the topic briefly, but -" Before she could finish, Tygren turned around and began to walk away. Then he stopped. "I'm going to take a walk to clear my mind. When I get back, you should be resting. Agreed? Thank you." He demanded, then continued to walk away. Apexis sighed quietly.

"He's right...I need to learn to respect his boundaries. And everyone else's. I should be less pushy, and maybe learning what I want will be even easier. Whenever I've tried by being overly persistent, it's always ended awfully. Azulis, will you help me overcome this apparent issue of mine?" She asked, blankly staring into the forest. He smiled softly. "Of course, I will. I'm willing to help you in any way I can."

"You're sure? I don't want to burden you with anything," She muttered, leaning back into his chest. Azulis paused, face tingling with a light blush. "Yes, I'm sure," He finally replied, exhaling through his nose.

Tygren let out an irritated sigh as he walked through the forest, pushing past low-hanging tree branches that happened to be in his way. A while into his walk, he stumbled upon something strange. Two Ardoni guards, one Nestoris, one Kaltaris. They were dead, laying in a murky pool of mixed yellow-green colored blood. They suffered from stab injuries reaching from the neck to the abdomen. The wounds were messy and jagged, zigzagging across their bodies. The gashes were roughly the same visually.

Tygren knelt down to inspect further, looking at the Kaltaris' face. "Elmarous..." He muttered, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. He did not recognize the Nestoris. His ears flicked back as he heard a quiet rustle. Drawing his sword, he stood up and slowly backed away. His eyes darted from side to side, examining all of his surroundings.

Tygren glanced up to see a hooded figure in a tree. He backed up further as the figure drew a blade with jagged edges. "Drop your weapon." Their scratchy voice demanded as they pointed the blade at Tygren. "And why would I do that?" He shot back, grip tightening around the hilt of his sword. The figure jumped down, a few feet in front of Tygren. They had a human-like figure and stood at around five feet and five inches tall. "So you don't end up like your friends over there."

"Friends? Please, the only reason I recognize the Kaltaris is because he's a traitorous asshole."

"Oh. Well, the whole reason I, you know, did all of this was to be noticed by you." They suddenly shifted, becoming a...'normal' human. Tygren lurched backward in response, pointing his sword at them. "I've been following you since you left Mount Velgrin a few months ago." Their voice became that of a young-adult girl, which severely freaked him out. "Okay, what the fuck?" Tygren took a step back as they extended their arm to shake hands. "I'm Deveni. Nice to finally meet you, Tygren Voltaris."