Two Sides of the Coin we lost

Chapter 5 - Love's unheard voice

After 30 minutes of Ven's most shameful moments where the 2 reapers touched every inch of his body, not only trying to find a way to help but also taking the chance to learn every bit of information about zeph anatomy possible they seemed to reach a conclusion. They stood next to each other in silence with their hands scratching their chins laying on their other arm's elbow. Ven got up from the rock embracing himself and curling himself up feeling extremely embarrassed, he looked at the girl with a serious expression sitting on a nearby tree. An arrow rested deep inside on a tree on the opposite side. The reapers started talking to each other suddenly.

"There can only be one explanation."

"Absolutely no other way."

"Certainly the truth."

"Positively no doubt about it."

Ven in his moment of shame grew angry and shouted:

"Will you just get on with it already?"

"Seriously." Muttered the girl.

After a brief silence, Poppy and Ruppy approached Ven.

"We couldn't find anything but we do have a theory." Said Poppy.

"So all that touching was for nothing?"

"Of course not! We learned a lot about your race!" Ruppy said overly enthusiastic with a huge smile on his face. Poppy hit him with his elbow.

"To help you guys in the future of course, he he he..." Ruppy continued, trying to hide his excitement while rubbing his hands together. Ven's expression turned to disbelief as he stared at both reapers. Poppy and Ruppy continued one after the other.

"You see, when we say something we can hear each other's voices but we can't see it, right?"

"What if after you go through your ritual your body starts making a voice that you can't hear but others can?"

"Instead of your ear, the mark on your hand could be doing the listening."

"And instead of your mouth it could be your horn, your brain, your heart or any other part of your body doing the talking."

"Without lots of cutting we can't be sure, especially since you'd need to be alive for us to test."

"And have a glowing mark."

"Which you don't."

Ven looked surprised. He didn't understand much but the reapers sounded really smart. He was about to talk but was interrupted by the reapers.

"But we are sure of one thing!"

"For the mark to glow both zeph have to be making the same voice."

"Otherwise one of you could have a glowing mark while the other didn't."

"Yes, we should call this voice... 'Silence'! A sound we can't hear!

"No, we should call it 'thinder' as the opposite of thunder which is loud."

"We could call it 'waves', since the sound seashell's make when you put them in your ear are somewhat silent and seashells are found on..."

"On water, of course! The ocean is made of water and the ocean has waves. Genius, Poppy!"

"Please, Ruppy. If you hadn't contested my line of thought I would never have reached this important conclusion."

Ruppy and Poppy shook hands in satisfaction over this very important discovery about seashells. Ven proceeded to ask:

"How can we make our marks hear each other?"

Poppy and Ruppy turned their expressions to one of concern.

"I'm afraid we don't know."

"We have no idea."

"Yes, not a clue."

"You zeph are very different from other races around."

"Super different."

"Just as different as the..."

"The zenno!"

Ven was stunned, he had only heard this name a few times before and it was always accompanied by the words "the opposite of us". He expressed his concern to the reapers.

"That can't be, the zeph and the zenno are complete opposites!"

"More horns maybe, anatomy? Similar."

"As far as we can tell, Very similar."

"We never stol... found one, only seen a few from afar"

Ven was nervous, he knew what Poppy was about to say next and he didn't want to hear it. Before Poppy could say it he said it first.

"And I should go ask for their help, right?"

"Well... that too but what would really help would be a fresh dead body of one!"

The girl made a low roar as she grasped her bow with an angry expression.

"Or a live one, or none at all, what are you even suggesting, zeph!? " Poppy said nervously, waving his hands around showing a negative sign towards the girl.

Ven stepped out of the rock and went towards the girl, on her front he took a knee, she was surprised and didn't knew how to react.

"I'm sorry about your brother... I don't know what losing someone feels like but just the fear of losing someone dear to me it's by far the worst thing I ever felt. It must be terrible..."

The girl was shocked by his words but they moved her. Since the accident no one had been kind to her. Tears slowly came back to her eyes as she looked down, she didn't feel like she deserved the kindness Ven showed her.

"It was my fault... I was supposed to be watching him. He relied on me and I let him down, I wish it had been me instead."

She put her hands on her eyes as she burst into tears. Ven hugged her, putting her head on his shoulder.

"It was no one's fault, sometimes bad things happen. We have to keep on living..."