Soul Savior

Chapter II: Talk It Out

I pushed all my trinkets to the corner of the bed, and sat for a second, upset. Wallowing in self pity for a little while, I finally got up and changed to something a little more appropriate for visiting a friend. I pulled on a simple purple dress that had a thin gold belt, and a simple gold pattern at the bottom. I didn’t bother with jewelry, it didn’t seem important to me.

I went down to the front of the palace, where the servants had readied my horse. I nodded a thanks at them, and began to ride off, stroking my horse’s brown mane. She was beautiful, in my opinion. She was a chestnut horse, with a white streak on her muzzle, white around her hooves, and a chestnut mane. Some may say she looks a little common, but I think she’s perfect.

The way Albina walked seemed sad, as if she could sense the worry in me, and the death awaiting my dad.

“It’ll be alright, Albina. At least, I hope so. After all, he’s a great king, I’m sure the doctors will try their best, they are great after all. Even if they can’t fix things, then I’m sure Trinidad can. Trinidad is a great sorcerer after all, they must be able to do something!” I tried comforting as I rubbed her neck.

As if she understood, she snorted at me, and shook her head. I understood why though. After all, these were the things that I was told just a little while ago, and by repeating them, I was mostly trying to comfort myself. There is no way a horse should be able to figure these things out, or make me realize these things.

I groaned in response, upset with the unfairness of a horse making me reflect on myself.

  “You’re no fair.” I whined, only to get a whinny that sounded like laughing to me. “You’re too smart to be a horse.” I added bitterly. We finally got to Cruz’s home, after what seemed like an eternity of talking to Albina, worrying and complaining about current events and her super horse brain.

I dismounted, and a stable hand came to guide Albina to the Ramires family’s pasture.

“Welcome, Princess.” Various servants greeted.

“Thank you, tell Cruz I’m here, please.” I requested as I approached the door.

“Of course, Princess.” From the corner of my eye I could see a servant scurry off, trying to locate their mistress.

“Please wait over here, Princess.” A maid chimed in, guiding me to a waiting room, and seating me at a big, soft couch.

I played with the trim of my dress as I waited for a servant to come bring me to Cruz. Maybe I should have brought my phone and called her? No, that wouldn’t have done any good, my phone had died a while ago.

As I was wondering about when Cruz would show up, she appeared.

“Cali, what brings you here?” She asked.

“Something terrible.” I answered glumly as I rose to hug her, and we exchanged kisses on our cheeks.

“Come with me.” She guided me to her study, which was a comfortable little room that wasn’t that far off. It had soft sofas too, a desk, all the necessities. “What happened?”

“Cruz, I think my dad is dying.” I said, my voice wavering.

Her eyes grew wide as she gasped. She clinged onto me, and rocked sideways gently, obviously worried.

“Calixta, are you sure? Really? Are you okay? Are you going to be okay?”

“I’m pretty sure. He tried to lie to me, and told me they would get Trinidad.”

“But… Trinidad isn’t-”

“I know, they’re not here. He said that so I wouldn’t worry.” I ended up sobbing, clinging onto Cruz.

Cruz was my best friend for as long as I could remember. We helped each other figure ourselves out, understanding our genders and pronouns. She helped me tell my parents that I was trans, she helped me pick out a name, and she helped with so many other things. I helped her figure out that she was bigender, I helped her decide what pronouns she wanted, I helped her get a gender neutral name, I helped her tell her parents that she was also agender, and that she wanted to be Cruz. We were always there for each other, and we normally knew what to do for each other. We needed each other like we needed to breathe.

“Cruz, what am I going to do?” I wailed.

“I… I don’t know.” She stroked my hair, and rocked me back and forth as she pulled me to sit down with her, and we stayed like that, hugging, rocking, and crying for a good hour, scared, and not knowing what to do.