Enemy Mind

Winter Get Away

It was pleasantly warm in the valley but up on the mountain there was a bitter chill. That was to be expected seeing as how high up they reached. It was a long hike me and Mida decided to take. Well more like Mida invited me to walk up with him. He wanted to get a lay if the land. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to get away from grumpy Jab-Jab.

Thanks to my time surviving on this planet and my years in the air force I was able to keep up with him up the mountain. That doesn't mean that by the time I was on the mountain top with him I wasn't panting.

"I miss Sangheilios." He said crossing his arms as he over looked the world around us. I found myself standing beside him mimicking his posture. I looked over the vast valley and to the top of the mountains beyond it.

"I miss....I actually miss nothing about my world in particular. It feels like a life time ago that I was even on it." I admitted.

"Surely there is something you miss?" He insisted.

"I guess....if there was one thing I missed..... It would be the ocean under the moon. The way the reflection ripples over the waves of water and it push and pulls against the sand. I guess, I could get that anywhere there is a mass of water though." I said. It was the by the ocean that I was the happiest because my grandmother lived by the ocean. I missed her, she understood me.

"Factually yes, but for you it won't be the same. Home is a special place." He said.

"Yes but...home doesn't have a set place. After all, home is just where the heart is." I said quoting the cheesy print on my grandmother's paper towels.

"I suppose your heart has no home then?" He asked.

"No, not really. I mean, after the service I was going to be lost as to what to do. I wasn't going to return to my family. I was just going to find a new place to go and start brand new." I said with a frown.

"Do you humans no respect family history and records?" He asked.

"No, well sometimes. I know that I am of Roman, Irish, German and Indian descent but I know little of their history. It seems that it doesn't matter because long ago we weren't united. Someone could move to a different country, gain citizenship, learn there culture and language. Then boom, their different now in the eyes of everyone. Some try to keep up with their history but I just don't care. I see it, that my families history isn't any of my business since I never really felt like I was a part of it." I explained.

"I can understand." He said.

"Same thing with you?" I asked.

"No, I see from what you have said. I still have a strong pride for my family." He said.

"Really? How are families in your culture?"

"In my keep we were allowed to know our fathers unlike most. Usually we never learn of our fathers identity until we have completed the cycles of training. That way rising in ranks due to being birthed of one strong in the way of sword is eliminated. Instead one will have an uncle. I was trained among the rest of the keeps young." He said.

"That's great but that didn't tell me of your family Mida."

"My mother was a very strong Sangheili, after training she would try to advise me along with my father. They expected greatness from me, a fierce warrior. Yet I failed them, my own interests and beliefs over ruling way was expected from me. My mother is disappointed with my rank of minor. My father, is hopeful I will rise through the ranks soon."

"I know what it feels to have parents that are insistent you meet there expectations. That's ultimately why I am her today, on a foreign planet, looking over a valley."

"Life is strange, is it not?"

"Yep, one phenomenon after the other with commercial breaks sprinkled inconsistently through." I gave a single laugh shaking my head slowly.

"Come, let us explore more." He said walking down the mountain towards the other one who's peak was higher. I followed him, begrudgingly. We walked down the mountain and up the next. I was lagging behind him of course but I was trying to play it off as nothing. If you could count leaning over to catch your breath while pretending to inspect the dirt as a good play off. I heard Mida chuckling at me paused in his walk.

"Hey!" I huffed out of breath. "This rock is interesting!" I defend.

"Do you wish to stop for the day?" He asked.

"Yeah, maybe a swim at the water falls would be nice." I nodded my head straighten back up.

"Perhaps." He agreed and started walking back down the mountain at a slow rate. I knew he was doing it for me and I felt inadequate for it. We walked to the Ghost and I got in his lap. He drove us to the water fall.

I got out and took off my shredded pilots top. Soon I would be forced to fashion furs into clothes. That'll really complete the feeling of being in the stone age for me. Being in a survival sandbox game might be a better way to describe it.

I would take off my pants but my underwear was long ago discarded. Two years of wearing the same underwear everyday wasn't good, even if you washed them. Of course it's not like I had a damn washing machine or anything.

"Ugh! I hate this. I always feel so dirty, I have no soap, I have no change of clothes and no way to wash them really. You must hate being around me when I am dirty. Well excessively dirty." I complained walking slowly into the water. It was brisk but bearable.

"Your aroma has yet to elevate to obscenely offensive. I am understanding of our circumstances and conscious of my own depleted hygiene. No need to be shamefaced." He reassured me as he began to take off his armor.

"I haven't smelt anything bad coming from you though." I frowned raising a single eyebrow at him.

"Human olfaction is....dull compared to Sangheili. Regardless, I do not perspire quite like you." He explained.

"Fortuitous, I prefer I didn't sweat so much. I hold semblance to walking body of water Evermore. You aspire to accompany me?" I asked stepping up my advanced use of vocabulary. I was feeling a little showed up by him, this wasn't his native tongue.

"Indeed, no need for a waisted journey to these falls. I shall join you once I have doffed my armor. You needn't fret, I shall maintain my modesty." He said.

"I wasn't vexed by the probability of your exposure. I am not virtuous nor bashful around anything of the opposed sex. I have showered myself among those of your likeness many times. Though, I have to admit your state of undress would've been aberrant. I among the rest of my species, by my knowledge, have yet to see your kind absent of your battle attire." I said as I finally reached the middle of the river. The water reached to my neck and flowed lazily away from the falls.

"Yes, we scorn doing without our armor. It is a testimony of our status. We don it with pride." He stated as he removed his chest plate and shoulder guards.

"Some humans feel similarly with their uniforms. I personally see it for face value, it holds no deeper depth to me that cloth, leather and metals. Don't mistake that as a declaration of my lack of care for what I cover my body with." I shrugged.

"You lack a faith in cause." He stated.

"You don't?"

"Despite my contrasting belief in the way my species perceives the ways of medical treatment, I have a strong loyalty to my brothers." He informed me discarding the rest of his armor. This left him in a skin tight black body suit. He still looked imposing as fuck.

"Well good on you." I said. I swam towards the falls as he stepped into the water. He didn't hesitate walking in like I had. Soon he was walking behind me, water reaching just below his chest. I reached a rock just under the falls and crawled on top of it. I sat on it folding my legs on either side of me with my hands on the rock between my knees. The water was pouring down at me but it was more the spray from the falling water behind me. Mida stood beside me in the water and lifted his head up letting the water drip down his face.

"This is nice, would still kill for some damn soap." I grumbled making Mida chuckle beside me. I couldn't help but to smile or laugh when he did. He was rather jolly for an alien who was raised for the honor of combat.