Chiaroscuro

sette

Forest Land wasn't all that it turned out to be. As fate would have it, the 'butterflies' they'd been seeing around these parts were actually pixies. Similar to the carnivorous flesh-eating bunnies of Shroom Land and Candy Land, they weren't all too welcoming either.

There these pixies were, chasing after them with the magic of hostile plant life by their side. The flowers under their command snapped forward with sharp teeth and even sharper thorns. Floating overhead, their mocking laughter echoed, haunting their ears with their shrill high-pitched rings. Contrary to their adorable faces and sparkly dresses, they seemed to take great delight in seeing others suffer.

After all, they were the ones who had ambushed them in their sleep first.

As he and Lenore blasted down biting flowers and trees with grabby branches, streaks of sunlight and shadows with razor edges bursting forth, Aldrich could confidently claim that these pixies were wretched creatures indeed.

"To your left!" Aldrich warned.

On cue, Lenore deflected a group of pixies diving for his head with a shadowy shield summoned from his wrist.

Then, he tossed the same shield in Aldrich's way, which the Soleil smoothly caught before using it to bash down on the stem of a flower that almost munched on his ankle. The shield was cool to the touch, with steam rising from the tips of his sunkissed fingers.

Eventually, the battle came to an end once they managed to decimate almost everything in sight. The pixies were reduced in their numbers, with the remainder of them scurrying away for their lives. Scorching rays of sunlight burnt everything to a crisp. Shadows sliced through a mass of stems, leaves, and petals alike, leaving a trail of floral death in their wake.

Nothing could stop them once they worked together.

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

A few more months drifted by, making it over half a year since their arrival in this world. In the time that they'd spent fighting off menacing pixies and killer plant life, they had staggered into a few other things as well.

For starters, gnomes—small people capable of speech, thought, and reason—also existed. They resided in quaint flowery villages and were more cooperative in nature. They spoke a foreign tongue that sounded similar to singing, smooth and coaxing in lilt. But even with the language barrier, they were still capable of understanding body language. They understood that Aldrich and Lenore came in peace.

They were kind enough to offer them shelter, so long as they could provide their people with protection from the pixies in return. As of now, Lenore and Aldrich were roommates, sharing their own little cabin on the outskirts of the head village.

Finally, for the first time in what felt like forever, Aldrich could also take a hot shower. Bless these gnomes to the sun and back, for they had running water here!

"I'm glad that we've finally met people who don't want to kill us on sight," Lenore remarked. "It's a first."

In a toast of triumph, Aldrich raised a glass of apple juice to that. "To a good night's sleep on a real bed!"

With his own glass lifted, Lenore smiled before clinking their cups together. "To a good night's sleep on a real bed."

All Aldrich could really think about, however, as he gazed longingly at Lenore, was how to get him to smile more. It used to be rare for him to do so, but these past several months have brought a softer side to him somehow.

With more time in their hands, and a new support system in the form of the gnomes, Aldrich wondered what he should do. He still wanted to go home. That was and always would be their main priority.

But was it so bad to enjoy the present too?

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

"You told me that we could never be friends," Lenore said to him one night.

They had been in the middle of taste testing this new herbal tea that one of the benevolent gnome elders had brewed for them. As they were waiting for their tea cups to cool, that was when those words came to.

Aldrich snapped his head up, surprised. It was a vague notion in the back of his mind, but he did recall saying something like that. That had been months ago though. Way back in the beginning. He didn't like to think about the beginning, not when so much had changed since then.

"I was wrong," Aldrich countered. "We're friends now, aren't we?"

"Oh." Though his poker face didn't budge, Lenore still ducked his head down, suddenly embarrassed. "I don't know. I've never had a friend before. I don't know how this works."

That kind of stung. Aldrich almost wanted to argue what Lenore must have thought their relationship was if not friendship. Friendship was the only viable answer. Instead, he bit back his tongue because he knew the Umbra didn't mean it that way.

"We are friends," Aldrich confirmed. "Best friends, actually."

"Best friends?" Lenore echoed. Something akin to hope glimmered in his dark eyes.

Heat rushed up Aldrich's neck as he cleared his throat. Quickly, he switched over to a more lighthearted joke, telling him, "There isn't much competition for the title. It was either you or a homicidal pixie." He chuckled. "And I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be in your company than in the stomach of a giant plant."

Lenore chuckled too, a steady rumble of noise. "I guess that's fair."

"Exactly. Of course we're friends." Aldrich reached out to place his hand on top of Lenore's. "Best friends."

"Best friends," Lenore parroted back, testing the words out on his tongue.

Then, a few moments later, he was beaming, showing off a pretty little smile that sent Aldrich's heart aflutter.

Aldrich's face burned as he savored the moment, absolutely mesmerized.

If he could get Lenore to smile like that forever, then every single thing that he had ever endured in this world would be worth it.