I S O L A T I O N

Chapter Five

Splat.

A thick wet mop slopped itself upon the wooden floor obnoxiously, vomiting water all over the surface. Clenched tightly around its splintery body were sore hands, hands the dragged the mop across the floor in an aimless manner with forceful motions.

As the mop was beat against the soaked floor, a young man in armor made from scrap and fur sat in a corner atop a bar stool. He picked apart berries that lay in a bowl before him and fed them to a small, glowing dragon-sprite, who received them happily. The man smiled as he did so, laughing as the sprite eagerly ate up the berries.

Splat.

"C'mon! How come I always have to clean up, but Cheese gets to eat berries all day?" A girl with blazing white hair complained. The man ignored her, scratching the bottom of the sprite's chin, and fed it another soft, succulent berry. "I'm going to kill you..." The girl muttered, clenching her teeth.

"Mouse..." The man, Autumn, began. Mouse, the girl, softened and cocked her head to the side. "Stop whining. If you can't handle the cleaning, then you're not going to be able to handle the real training."

Mouse scoffed and dropped the mop on the floor with a clack. She marched over and stood in front of him, glaring into his eyes.

"I can handle it! I already almost beat you the first time, Autumn! Let's get started already!" She huffed. There was a silence as their eyes remained locked. Then, the man stood from the stool and towered above her, a deep shadow casting. Mouse gulped.

Not a word was uttered as Autumn made his way passed her and picked the mop up off the floor. He twirled it around his fingers for a moment, then turned around and snapped it in half on his knee. He chucked the wet side behind him and tossed the sharp end at the girl. Mouse caught it and gave him a curious look.

"You think you're ready?" Autumn grumbled. Mouse nodded. "Fine. Take that and follow me."

The two of them, with Cheese sitting on Mouse's shoulder, headed out of the tiny wooden shack that Autumn had made his home for who knew how long and through the woods surrounding it. The older man snatched up the bow and arrows he had stashed within the rotted-out trunk of a tree and continued to lead her down the forest paths, dense with greenery and critters.

Mouse had her bottom lip clenched underneath her teeth. While she had been so eager to start the training she was promised, the man's usual leniency had been replaced by a bitterness suddenly, and she worried she might have walked inside something she shouldn't have. Her trainer, on the other hand, was faceless, set on his course without a single glance around or behind him. He had an unsettling aura about him, one that dug underneath her skin.

Then, Autumn was suddenly motionless. Mouse looked passed him, seeing a clearing just ahead. Just what was he up to?

"Having a dragon is a privilege, given selectively at birth..." Autumn began, continuing his march to the other end of the clearing; something told her that she was not to follow, and so Mouse watched with anxious eyes, grasping harder at the stick in her hand. "Each dragon is different; each rider is different. Their strengths and abilities are not all equal, and so..."

Autumn finally turned around to face her, brought his left hand in front of him, and glared deathly at the girl. A dark aura formed at his palm, and, with barely any effort at all, a roaring beam of fire burst from him, hurtling towards the girl. Mouse gasped and rolled out of the way, only to be thrown into the air by the remnants of the blast. There was a loud explosion in the distance, but the girl could only focus on that heavy pain of her fall.

"What... What the hell is wrong with you!?" Mouse yelled. Her eyes widened. He was gone. She peered all around, searching for him and any more of those strange blasts. Then, she felt his boiling presence behind her. She froze. The aura around her was intense, as if a knife was pressed to her throat. This wasn't the same man she had gotten to know for the past week.

"Sometimes the game isn't fair," Autumn continued, his voice low and rumbling inside her ears. "Like I said, Mouse, you're weak. You think you're ready to train, when you can't even mop the floors? Don't make me laugh; I'm not even trying to hurt you." Mouse flinched. Not even trying to hurt her? Who had she gotten herself involved with? "It's funny; No matter how much you washed my floors, did you ever notice how they always managed to be just as filthy the next day as they were the last?"

"That's..." Mouse began, straining to speak underneath the pressure of his presence. "'Cause you live in the woods, you stupid idiot."

"Exactly. I'm fine with the dirt. After seven years of wallowing within it, I've accepted it. But you... You scrub day-in and day-out, desperately trying to get rid of the dirt. Why?" He asked.

"I... 'Cause I... It's what you told me to do," Mouse grumbled.

"Are you sure? I didn't force you. In fact, it was simply a request," Autumn replied. The girl gasped and shot him an agitated look, the release of his pressure going unnoticed by her.

"You dirty- then how come I- I thought-!" She roared.

"It's because you can't stand the dirt, Mouse," the man said softly, crouching in front of her. She softened her own face and looked away. "That's the whole reason you're here, isn't it? You're tired of being looked down upon because of your difference, not just your dragon blood, but just being different in general from society. The other kids- they fall into what society expects them to do, but you don't. You see the monotony, and you are sick of being ordered around and mocked by listless faces. That's why you scrub the dirt— so that it'll all just disappear."

Mouse gulped, her hands trembling. How would he know? She never told him anything about her home life. Those girls, his parents, the other adults- how did he know her feelings of oppression by them? How did he know that just wanted it all to go away?

"But the dirt won't just go away because you want it to, or even force it to. Sure, for the time being it will, but new filth will appear in its place. It's a never ending battle, but it's only a battle against yourself. Mouse... You need to learn to accept the dirt and focus on the things that truly matter- like, becoming stronger... Or, you need to get high enough to where you don't notice it anymore," He finished, taking the loose locks of her hair and pinning it back with a small clip.

"How did you... Hw did you know I..." She mumbled, stunned. He smiled sadly and stood up, tracing his fingertips along his bow.

"I was once a kid, you know, but back then, there were a lot more Dragon-Twins," He replied, sighing.

"Oh right, the Great War of the Dragons; it killed off a whole buncha Dragon-Twins, right? How come any more ain't been born then-"

"Anyway, now that you see the difference in our power, let's get back to scrubbing those floors," Autumn interrupted her, a hint of sadness in his otherwise positive tone. Mouse sighed and followed behind.

For the next couple of days, things went back to normal; Mouse filled the shack with the obnoxious splatting sounds of the mop, and Autumn lounged around, playing with the little dragon-sprite.

Then, one day, Mouse stopped her scrubbing and leaned on the new mop, gazing intently at the lazy man. One question had been burning inside of her since the incident in the woods, one that she was almost afraid to ask. When they first met, the man denied being a Dragon Twin, but the birthmark and blast was definitely proof otherwise.

"'ey, Autumn," she murmured, just loud enough for him to hear. He turned his attention to her with a sloth's grin that quickly faded as soon as he caught her serious face. It was her question face. "Where's your dragon?"

Autumn was silent for a such a long time, Mouse thought that she had killed him. His eyes were clouded with something of neither anger nor sadness, but more they were haunted- eyes that she had only seen in the elders who had been in the Four Corner War. He stared not at her, but through her, at memories that he alone was burdened with. Then, just like that, he snapped out of it and looked down at his lap.

"I told you already... I'm not a Dragon Twin," he mumbled.

"But what about the birthmark and the powers and the-"

"Mouse," he breathed, "would you go to a graveyard and dig out a skeleton?"

"Wha-? Gross, course not!" Mouse squeaked. Autumn turned back to the path back to the shack.

Mouse crossed her arms. What was with this guy?