Acari

Chapter Five

Months have passed.

Acari had witnessed more fights break out than she could count, some coming from her own home. She had passed more and more sick and dying and starving dragons, some of which asking her for food that she doesn't have. Most of all, Acari had read so many books, her eyes might as well fall out of their sockets and her brain might as well spill out of her nose.

She learned how to read first, then write. They would read poems, stories, and textbooks. They would write essays, poems, even some of their own stories. Some of the lessons Aphid would give were excruciatingly boring, to where Acari would just doodle to pass the time, mostly of her old home and Papaya. But sometimes the lessons were fun and funny and sometimes Aphid would let us read what we wrote aloud. Sometimes Acari wrote about Papaya.

And with all this reading came the occasional joke. The occasional "haha funny". Mango would be the one telling all the jokes, poking fun at Aphid and Acari, and they would laugh, but it was nothing like the fun or laughing or joy she would experience when with her favorite sister, Papaya. It seemed that with every waking moment she looked at little things and thought of Papaya.

Sometimes Acari wondered what Papaya would think of this. This learn-all-day-sleep-all-night, type of schedule. Papaya would never condone such a thing, and Acari wondered what could have happened if she just escaped like she wanted to. Would she still be in the Rainforest, playing happily with Papaya and her animals? Or would she have gotten lost in the middle of the ocean? Both were hard to believe.

And now, she felt bad for even thinking about leaving, without Mango. If she'd left Mango to rot on this continent, he would be "the kind soul who saves them from the queen" and Acari would just be "the coward". She would have been dumping all that pressure and trouble onto her nonsensical weak little brother (still technically her twin), and it would be all her fault if he got killed. Besides, if he were to dethrone the queen, who would be the predecessor? Aphid? Mango did say he had a thing for Aphid a while back...

Recently, Aphid had begun teaching them more how to steal—how to steal from the wealthy and take for yourself. Maybe even steal from the poor if it came down to that. Acari hoped it never would. Aphid showed them how to sneak, how to trick, how to impose, and many more. Before long, Acari and Mango could have been licensed as criminals.

But one part of the stealing schmick that Aphid was definitely not going to try teaching was stealing from the actual criminals. She claimed they were too smart and clever at stealing and fighting, way smarter than whatever she'd picked up over the years. Not like Acari wanted to try and see what would happen if she stole from them anyways.

Now, they were in the library again, listening to Aphid ramble on about something. Acari chewed on a piece of her paper in boredom and tapped her claws on the table. Mango had his head down, probably sleeping or something. Aphid could probably tell when she was losing their attention at some point because after every barrage of words, she would ask questions that they would have to answer. Acari hated this.

"Well, I guess I've taught you all there is to teach you..." Aphid said after a pause, specifically looking at Acari. "We all can continue into more advanced lessons when you get back. For now, we've already taught you the basics of literature and stealing, so I guess it's off to Eyes."

Acari's head snapped up and her shoulders relaxed more than they had ever since this torture began. But then the whole thing sank in. She was being sent away? To... an eye? How does that even start to make sense, and what would she learn? And even if she did learn anything, she would have to come back and learn more?! Why did her life have to get harder every passing day?! Why couldn't she just rest?!