Only Human

The Grass ch.6

     Roku and Misaki flew over the city and searched the grounds. They landed for the sixth time and Misaki climbed off. She searched around the debris and Roku walked around the area, searching everywhere else. With each trip Roku's face became more distressed. Roku's little sister was supposedly very cute with auburn short curly hair that bounced when she ran. Her eyes were big and hazel. Misaki kept the description in her mind and smiled at the kindness that appeared on Roku's face as he described his sister. Misaki stumbled around in some debris. Her left foot sank into some deep mud and she glared at it. She tried to pull it out, but it wasn't budging. She placed her right foot against a rock and leaned over to her right, pulling on the left foot harder. With a loud squish, the mud released her foot and Misaki lost her footing. She tripped over the rock she had used before and fell. The grassy ground beneath her opened easily and Misaki was falling through what seemed to be a deep ditch. "Misaki!" Misaki's body fell yards into the ground before hitting hard cold ground. Misaki groaned painfully and sat up. She rubbed her back and looked around. She jumped at the hand that intertwined in her hair and jerked her head backwards. "Ahhh!! R-roku!!" The hand stopped pulling as Roku appeared in front of them. The hand let go and Misaki crawled hurriedly to Roku. She turned and found her attacker. It was a girl about Misaki's age, maybe a year or two younger. Her slick hair glowed a mossy green and her eyes were a clear light blue. She wore a green tight dress that cut off at her thighs and curled like leaves. She was definitely fully a grass demon. Behind her was multiple other grass demons who were circling around an area behind them. All had the same green mossy hair and light blue eyes but none were wearing the type of dress her attacker was. "Roku you say?" Roku stood beside Misaki. Confused as to why these demons questioned his name. "Yeah... What about it?" The demons  looked at each other. Then there was whispering in the back. "Roku!! Roku! Roku!" Roku jumped at the small voice that called him and ran to it. He shoved through the crowd as Misaki slowly followed. He burst through and they saw her. A small girl with curly brown short hair and hazel big eyes sat on a grass bed. Her pale face was a sickly red and her hazel eyes were puffy. Her tiny body rolled out of the grass bed and fell into Roku's arms. They hugged each other endearingly and tears sprang up on both of their eyes. "Lily!!" "Roku!!" Misaki frowned at the bandages on Lily's left shoulder. They separated and looked into each others eyes. Lily kissed Roku's cheek and Roku kissed Lily's forehead. The girl from before crouched down in front of the two and smiled. "We rescued her a couple of days ago." Roku smiled at the girl, Lily burying herself in his chest. "Thank you." Roku picked Lily up and stood. He spotted the bandages on Lily's shoulder and frowned. "What happened?" The girl stood, now serious. "No humans escaped without being affected in some way. Lily's shoulder was cut in the explosion rather deeply and the cut is infected." Roku seemed to freeze. Grief crawled into his face and he tensed up. Lily also grew serious in his arms. "The infection has spread throughout her body. She isn't going to live long." Roku stared down at the ground. They clung onto each other. "W-we can't.." The girl shook her head. "There's no way to save her." Roku turned around with Lily in his arms, walking slowly to the opening they had fallen from. Misaki's heart beat rapidly, afraid Roku would leave. He won't leave. He still remembers I'm here. She turned back to the girl. "Hey, do you guys need a place to stay?" The girl looked at Misaki. "Oh, I'm sorry I pulled your hair before, I thought you might be dangerous." "It's alright, I would've done the same thing. So? Do you guys want to come with us?" "Come with you? Where?" "We found a really big cave the other day, it's next to a lake. Would you all like to come with us to live there?" They all nodded and started to pick bags and other things of the ground. "We're not too far off. We'll have to walk though." The girl nodded. "That's alright." Misaki smiled. I'll Have to lead them. Roku should go ahead with Lily. Her heart started to race again. Forget about him. He'll be busy. I have to get our first survivors to the cave. Misaki walked to the entrance and everybody followed. Once everybody was out, Misaki approached Roku. His face was serious as he clung onto Lily. "Roku you go on ahead with Lily. I'll lead them to the cave." He looked up at her. It was obvious they were both thinking about the argument they had just had about separating. He turned to look at the grass demons, assessing each and every one. Then he looked at his sister, who was breathing heavily with a fever. Without responding to Misaki, he walked over to the crowd of grass demons. He glared at them. "Listen up. You see that girl over there?" He pointed to Misaki. They ask turned and looked at Misaki. "Yeah. That's my human. And she is going to lead you guys to our cave. I will be leaving her safety in all of your guys' care." They nodded and some softly agreed. "But here's the thing." They all looked up at him and he glared at them. "If my human doesn't come back or comes back with even the slightest cut or bruise, I will hunt you all down. It won't be pretty." They all frowned at his threat, but nodded in understanding. Misaki walked up to Roku as the grass demons began to stuff bags into bags to reduce the size of baggage. Roku looked seriously into her eyes. "Be careful getting to the cave. You know your way there right?" Misaki nodded. "If they do anything --" "they won't Roku. Did you see how much they are afraid of you?" Roku stared into her eyes and nodded. "Okay. Be careful." His wings burst out and he set off into the sky. Misaki walked back to the demons and signaled for them to follow. They began to walk and Roku flew out of sight. The girl from before walked next to Misaki. "What's your name?" Misaki smiled at her. "I'm Misaki. What's your name?" "Olive. I'm the doctor of the group, that's why I'm mostly the one in charge right now." "You guys are full demons right?" "Right." "So none of you were very seriously injured right?" "Right." "That's good." "So, is this cave of yours populated?" "No, it was just me, Roku, and a friend of ours until now." "I see...We will help around to improve the cave then." "Thank you." "You're welcome."

      Misaki continued to walk with the demons until the darkness caught up with them. They settled down around a fire that Olive had built and slept. Misaki couldn't sleep. She stared up at the night sky. There was no moon, so the only light came from the fire. Misaki stayed up that night and watched the fire. Roku you're an idiot. Morning came and Misaki woke the demons. They continued walking. A few of them asked questions like "Is there food?" and "Is it big?" They also liked to ask Misaki questions of her relationship with Roku. She just dusted off their questions and repeated that her relationship with him  was only one of demon and human. She recognized the lake that was next to the cave and let all the other demons run to it. She walked slowly until she reached the cave. Deep inside she could see Roku sitting in front of Lily. He had built her a bed of grass and undoubtedly found her the blanket that was wrapped around her lap. Misaki's heart sank at Lily's face. Her face was now pale and sweating. The wings blew from in back of Misaki and Roku turned. He looked at her up and down before looking at her face. She smiled and waved. Then turned away. If I go up to him, I'll have to ask about Lily. And if I ask about Lily, he'll have to remind himself that his sister is dying. She walked towards the lake and found Gorru staring at Olive. Olive spotted him looking and turned away quickly. Misaki smiled at the pink that appeared on Olive's cheeks. She walked over to Gorru. Gorru noticed Misaki approaching and quickly looked away from Olive. "She's pretty isn't she?" He looked up at her innocently. "Oh, hi Misaki, you're back who're you talking -" Misaki grinned at him slyly. "You know exactly who I'm talking about." He stared at her. Then Gorru's face turned red. He looked away. "I..I don't know what you're talking about." "Her name is Olive. Go introduce yourself." He looked back at Olive. "I...I don't know how to." "She's a doctor, go show her a bruise or scratch on your chest and ask her if she think it's infected." "I don't have a scratch on my chest." Misaki smiled and grabbed a sharp glass shard from the floor "I'll fix that. " Olive kneeled down beside the cave and organized medicines in her bag and labeled them. "Hey." She turned and found the handsome guy that had been staring at her. She felt her face warm. "H-hey." She avoided his gaze. "You're a doctor right?" She nodded because she knew she would stutter if she talked. When the guy lifted his shirt. Olive pretended not to notice. "Does this look infected to you?" Olive turned and her eyes traveled to the guy's chest. Her face burned. The scratch on his chest was obviously barely made and was a shallow clean cut. She shook her head, trying to avoid talking. "Can you tell me what to do to about it if it gets infected?" She cursed at herself in her mind. She had to answer with words. "D-d-dont l-let dirt g-get i-in i-it." She had succeeded at one word. The guy smiled and nodded. "Thanks." He brought down his shirt and looked over to the side. From the corner of her eye she could see the guy mouthing words to someone that Olive couldn't see. He turned back. "Hey. My name is Gorru. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand. Olive shook his hand. "Nice to meet you Gorru." "Nice to meet you too Oliv--" he clapped his mouth shut and his face went red. Olive had never told him her name. Olive turned around and saw Misaki smiling wide in the direction that Gorru had been nothing words to. Gorru stared down at the ground with his red face. Olive giggled. She accidentally snorted and she slapped her mouth shut, her face immediately burning. Gorru looked up at her, he was covering his mouth but it was obvious he was smiling. Misaki grinned just as wide and walked away. Who knew those two would hit it off so quickly. She giggled and realized she had no idea where she was walking too.