A Flight of a Thousand Miles

Kill the Suspicion

To say that Run was happy to be back in the mountains once again, was an understatement. No cities, no whiffs of smoke and drugs in the air, just clean, simple oxygen filling his lungs.

Unfortunately, others were less than pleased.

"Eehhhh, it's so quiet up here!" Lubbock exclaimed, holding his hands behind his head. "Do people have a 24 hour meditation session going on or something?" Bulat whacked the green-haired youth on the back of the head.

"Lubba, show some respect! We're here to help these people, not be rude to them."

A few days prior to them being set on the road, Najenda had called them to a mission debriefing.

"This mission cannot afford to have any mistakes, understood? If we can't show these people the might of the revolutionary army, we will lose a great adversary in this war, and we need ALL the help we can get."

Run mentally shivered, the woman could be frightening at times. He took note that he was probably going to try extra hard the next few days when he got back to get on her good side...

"I still don't see why this village is so important though," Mine said, "don't get me wrong, I'm willing and able to help, but doesn't this seem almost like a waste of time?"

Sheele looked down at her pink haired friend. "But regardless shouldn't we still help...?" The purple haired individual looked confused herself, but then again, she almost always looked confused. Mine still looked annoyed however.

"See Sheele? You're confused too, and we're all kind of wondering... Right? I know you are for a fact Lubba, Bulat's too stubborn to admit it, and I'm sure Run is also-"

"Not necessarily Mine," Run interjected, still not looking back as he walked in front of them. He was the most used to this kind of terrain, and he kind of needed to distance himself from all of their bickering, so he kept ahead. Mine gave the back of his head a look.

"What does that mean?"

Run shrugged. "I will admit, Najenda not telling us why the village is important is...strange, but that could be for a number of reasons. 1) This might be a test, and 2) We actually never did ask. We're just so used to not having to ask questions that it all escaped us."

Run would've...but he had a nagging hunch there was a reason Najenda left that out. It wasn't like her to leave an important detail out of a mission.

"Exactly, she never really leaves out important details. That's not how Boss works."

Once again, Run shrugged. "There's always a reason for everything, whether we like that reason or not."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever you say Mr. Philosophy."

Silence. Oh how a wonderful thing that was.

Except it wasn't an awkward or welcomed silence.

It was a tense.

Run felt it. He knew everyone else felt it, but no one wanted to acknowledge it. Run dropped his shoulders, and let out a small sigh, deciding to be the bigger person. Still not facing them, he said: "Anything you want to talk to me about Mine?"

The person in question crossed her arms. "I can't place my finger on it, but something's...off, about you. And I'm going to figure it out." Bulat sent the pinkette a sharp and questioning look.

"Mine, that's rude, he's our comrade-"

"No, no Bulat, it's fine," Run interjected. He knew someone was going to come to that conclusion eventually, he just didn't think the first to admit it would be Mine, no offense to her. Still, he wanted to handle the situation himself. He finally turned around and looked the girl in the eye. "You want me to answer some of your questions? I understand if you're suspicious of me, since out everyone so far we've interacted the least, so I'm sure you're curious-"