Flame Touch

Chapter 33-Melody

“I am a terrible excuse for a human being.” I said out loud and punched the ground.

 Everyone was sleeping, so I went out for a bit of a walk and was reduced to punching sand.

I couldn’t sleep. How could I when every time I closed my eyes I saw Taris crying out in pain and sinking and I didn’t do a thing to stop it.

I punched the ground again, “I am a freakin’ idiot and a terrible person.” I said again as my fist made contact. A long time ago, Knox told me that the best way to get anger out was either by doing a physical activity or breaking everything. I personally liked the break-everything method, but there was not much to break. I brought my hand up again to punch, but someone caught it instead.

“Alright, I think the ground has gotten a fair beating from you.” Said the person who was grabbing my hand. I looked up and saw Semba’s face grinning at me.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Me neither.” Was the reply and for the first time I wondered what had happened to him and Knox when we were in the control of Libra’s light, “I was attacked by a zombie lion, you?”

“Jellyfish.” I said miserably and Semba nodded like it all made sense.

“That must have been rough for Taris huh?” he asked and I simply nodded, but my face must have told him that I wanted to know why. Why jellyfish? I mean, I know their creepy now with their electric tentacles and zaps, but why jellyfish?

“Back when his colony was captured by Aquatics, they used jellyfish as a form of high-end torture.” He said, reading my mind, “At the time, Taris was friends with many children from one of the orphanages because they were in the same neighborhood. One child was small and sickly, I think his name was something along the lines of Luis. Anyway, the Aquatic people tried to take him away. They didn’t want to take care of children, they wanted to get them to work for the Aquatics.”

I tried to picture the scene in my mind, tried to see the kindly Pisces whipping children and getting them to work. I couldn’t.

“When they tried to take Luis away,” Semba continued, “Taris became furious and knocked the attackers unconscious with his bow. He sent the little boy into hiding, but he, unfortunately, was caught. I think what happened was they put him in a tank of water and filled it with a bunch of jellyfish, the Portuguese-Man-of-War, I think.”

“I thought they were fatal.”

“They are, though not so much to one from a star colony. It just hurts like hell.” Semba replied and I looked down. He must have mistaken my reaction as pensive and not guilty because he smiled at me, “Hey cheer up. He’ll get over it, just give him some time.”

“He hates me.” I said miserably.

“No, he doesn’t. He can’t blame you for what the old Aquatics did.”

“No, you don’t get it. I was in a tank and I just watched him get hurt. I watched him sink and scream and struggle and I didn’t do anything.” I said, trying to suppress a sob that caught in my throat, “I don’t know why I didn’t. It was an urge that I couldn’t shake. Like I would be doing something bad if I helped him.” I stared at my shoes and tried to control the on-rush of emotion that welled through me.

“The fish and the arrow were never meant to meet.” He said sounding like he was reciting a line from a parable, I had almost forgotten that he was still there.

“Excuse me, what?”

“It’s what Carvus told us, but I don’t think it’s true. You being the fish and Taris being the arrow. I think that Libra wanted less people to think like that because she wants us to unite in the most important place.”

“A paintball tournament?” I asked and he laughed.

“No, at home. Now believe me when I say that Taris doesn’t hate you. He might be confused as to why you didn’t help him, but I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Understand that I left him there to drown?”

“Oh stop, take it from me, when you think someone hates you, you could be completely wrong and they think the opposite. The opposite of hate.”

“Like love?” I asked and was surprised to see him turn an odd shade of red, which was easy to see in the moonlight.

“What?-no!-I mean-maybe, but-er” he stammered and I saw him take a deep breath to regain his power of speech, “What I’m saying is, you should just try to talk to him.” And with that Semba turned around and walked back to where everyone was sleeping.

“Talk to him.” I repeated, “Easy enough, but I wonder if he’ll talk to me.”