Faith, Fate, and Fools

Eclipse

I sat beneath the peach tree in the chasm, sketching a young crane that was hunting in the river. I watched the bird hold a flailing fish in its' mouth as it spread its' wide wings. It flew away clumsily, still not adjusted to flight. "If we had wings like that..." I said to Mach while he scribbled over a misspelled word in his notebook.

"If we had wings like that, we'd crash into the chasm walls." He smirked and continued to write.

"Oh dream a little would ya?" I glanced around at the bright colored flowers that lay around us and began to sketch a few irises.

"I'd rather not. Dreams are a distraction." He stared at Michel and Aurora as they jabbed spears into the water. Aurora dropped one of her caught fish, making water splash onto Michel's legs. Michel retaliated, and the two began to throw water at each other. Mach growled, "She is too."

"Come on Mach, they're just having fun. What's your deal with Aurora anyway? The past few weeks you've been a total ass towards her." I sat my sketchbook and pencil aside and turned towards him. "You jealous Michel has someone else to pick on him?" I said in a mocking, baby-like tone. "Or are you just mad she and I-"

"That's not it." He bit down on his pen, holding it in his teeth as he reached into his bag and grabbed a small trinket. He held his hand in front of me, showing me a gold medallion, decorated with scuffed ruby and citrine gems, surrounding a small sun in the center. "I found this in the creek three weeks ago. They're looking for her Vin."

I took the medallion from him and examined it. "She's been here for over a year, why start looking for her now? Maybe this belongs to her and she dropped it – you should give it back."

"If it was hers, she'd be looking for it." He said in a stern tone. He bit down on his pen, and spit out a chipped piece of tooth. "Unless it is hers, and she just doesn't want it to be obvious that she's fooling you."

I threw my fist into his soldier. "You should stop biting your pens, sooner or later you won't have any teeth left." I stood and tossed the medallion back to him.

He grunted and rubbed his shoulder as it began to bruise. "Don't change the subject. We need to prepare for war Vin... how are your aircraft designs coming?"

"Those designs aren't for war- you know that."

"But Vi-"

"Shut up." I growled. He grumbled and bit down on his pen again. I turned away from him. "How's the fishing coming babe?" I hollered at Aurora.

She ran up to Mach and I, smiling and soaked, with a net full of fish in her hands. "How's this?" she held up the heavy net.

I smiled and kissed her wet cheek. "Perfect; I'm sure the chefs will have fun tonight." I chuckled.

"Who has kitchen duty tonight anyway?" she sat the net down and began to wring water from the bottom of her shirt.

Michel approached us, picking bits of soggy leaves from his hair as he whined, "the one who always has to cook the fish."

Aurora and I laughed. Mach stood, shoved his papers into his bag, and left without a word. He turned to us, stared at Aurora, then stomped away towards Renaissance. "Vinnie..." Aurora frowned.

"What's wrong love?" I glanced at Mach as he ascended the stairs, then turned to her.

She faced the ground with sunken shoulders. "Does Mach hate me?"