No Longer Freedom

14. Osmo's tropic.

Tom's POV

Behind the bath of the sirens a yellow glowing ball raised, painting the sky with warm tones of orange, red and light purple while the tropical air washed over me and Tord. Over the sound of waves hitting the rocks I heard a snoring. I assumed that Tord had fallen asleep in the middle of the flight but welp, it wasn't my fault that he missed the meteor shower. After all, I tried to keep him awake so he couldn't had blame me, right?

I grunted and decided to land on the lonely looking little island from the distance. It was the one and only familiar Osmo's island where I had lived once before. It was the place where I were the happiest, and there I were, carrying the man that I hated the most into my happy place. Come to think of it, I could had just easily dropped him in the ocean by 'accident' or set him on fire. Why didn't I do it? I didn't know. Maybe it was the knowledge what had stopped me from doing it. If I would had killed him Patryk and Paul would had faced a terrifying betrayal. They trusted their secrets to me and they had suffered too much. I didn't want to cause any more pain for them so if this were what they wanted, I would do it for them.

The white sand under my feet warmed them up as I twisted my head to see the sleepy man hugging my scales. I grunted a bit but he didn't move. Did he sleep well? Though, why did I care?

I shook him carefully with my hard warm muzzle but I didn't get any kind of an reaction. Was he acting again? Well, whatever, I thought while picking him up with my teeth by his clothes. Slowly, I placed him down on the sand next to me. However, as the sun rose, the brighter it got so I ended up covering Tord with my other wing so he wouldn't had burned himself or got woken up in the middle of his dream. Even the thought of a tired and angry Tord gave me the icky feeling. It would had been a pain to be with him if he would had been annoyed, so it were better to keep him happy then put up a fight with him.

As the time passed, the bird's started to sing and the sun shone above us. It felt like it would had been summer again when I heard mumbling under my wing. "Where am I? TOM! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Tord called. I couldn't really tell if he was annoyed or worried but, if I had to guess. I would had bet on anger.

I sighed and changed myself back to the humanoid form. When I finally stood on top of the sand with my two feet I stared down at Tord who were hugging my right leg with his strong arms. As he started to realize what was going on he slowly raised his lashes to me. "Aww what a wonderful view to wake up. Were you protecting me? You are such a good soldier." His smooth smirk didn't leave from his face even when he had just woken up. "Get up." I hissed and pulled my right leg forcefully away from him, causing him to fall on his stomach on the sand. "Ouch..." He mumbled as he rolled on his back. "Where are we?" He hummed as he stood up. Cleaning his clothes from sand, I replied with a simple answer. "We are in Osmo's tropic. It's a tropical island far away from KOTLO."

"So we are on a vacation together? How fun." He joked and poked my side with his elbow. "Lame." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I will show you around. Don't get lost. I won't come to seek you." I made myself clear and started to walk around the tropical forest with him.

I showed him the vivid misty forest full of life, the hills covered by tacky leaves, the waterfalls and the endless white beach. Caves which I had called home back then and the turquoise lakes. Everything, I had showed him everything, like an eager child that wanted to show his friends what he had just found. Like a brain dead kid, that was what I were...

I tried to remind myself of all the bad things what he had done, but that strange feeling of comfort tickled my heart when I got the chance to tell all the things I had known about the paradise. Come to think of it, Tord had been kinda suspiciously nice to me lately. Maybe he really had changed? Maybe... He argued with Paul and Patryk but when he saw me his mood switched immediately. Maybe he were really tried to be friendly.