Heaven's Light (Book 1)

Chapter 8 - Jeriah

"Hey, memory stick, did your powers finally get to you? You forgot your shirt?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"My shirt? Why, are you jealous of these abs?" Red teased and flexed the muscles in his torso, showing them off. The fact that his chest was bare brought out the orange hair I had grown to hate. That type of hair began to make me think of Red, which then made me grow a little hatred toward anyone with it, even strangers.

"What abs?" I replied callously.

"Now, you listen here, Jerk-"

"Now, now, you two," Virdigo interrupted as she whisked by. "If the master finds you two fighting, you know he'll punish you. You don't want to have your blood sucked away again, do you?"

We both grumpily looked away from each other. "No, ma'am," we replied in unison.

"Good," she nodded and walked back behind the bar to polish some beer shot glasses and other dishes.

I sat alone in my booth, my sentimental cape draped over my shoulders as always, my black hair hanging in my eyes. It seemed like another boring day at the guild hall. I wanted to ask the master for any individual tasks I could do for a little cash, but he wasn't around. I couldn't go on the raids, either, for the exact same reason. I was bored to death.

After Virdigo split us up, Red had disappeared, I assume, downstairs where we stored all of our books. He liked to read different books on battle strategy and legends since his powers allowed him to memorize whatever he wanted. It came in handy sometimes, no doubt about it. Sometimes, it helped saved the lives of the entire guild population. It was definitely respectable.

I plopped my head down on the wooden table and sprawled my arms around me carelessly. I was so bored. I hadn't completed any sort of job in almost a week; I was running low on food money.

"Jeriah?"

I recognized that voice right away. "Hey, what's up, big guy?" I greeted nonchalantly without moving my head.

I felt Hubris squeeze into the other side of the booth, taking an extra-long moment to get a little comfortable. "Nothing, just a little bored of not being able to do anything. I assume you're in the same situation."

"You know me too well, big guy," I responded and began blindly tracing on the table. "We should really have some other way to do tasks or raids other than asking the master and approaching him. He's gone all the time."

Hubris' voice rumbled, "Hmm, that's not a bad idea. Maybe, when he next returns, we should ask him about that to see what we can do. I'm sure it would make us more successful and build our reputation up as a guild. He can't deny it."

"Jeriah!" a voice called out excitedly.

I froze and took in a sharp inhale. "Oh, god."

"Incoming," Hubris chuckled.

"Oh, Jeriah! Why's your head down? Are you feeling okay?"

I let out an over-exaggerated sigh and lifted my head from the table. My eyes automatically fixed on Hubris' shirtless figure sitting straight across from me. "I'm fine, Zero. What do you want?" I asked, refusing to look in her direction.

"Aww, I just wanted to say hi! What's so bad about that?" she whined.

Hubris' shoulders jumped slightly in a small, silent laugh. I knew he was thinking that no matter what I said, she would make it sound like I was being rude to her.

"Nothing, I'm just a little tired." I still refused to look in her direction.

"I could try to wake you up a little!" she suggested, poking my shoulder.