The Garden of Heathen

Catastrophe

"Listen, I don't mean to scare you- you'll be safe, like I said, it happened just the one time," Aussie scrambled to say when she saw the freaked out look on his face. "But I think it's only fair to tell you the truth, you're in one of the most jacked up places in the world, my dude."

He slightly tilted his head when she called him 'my dude'. He remembered the word somehow, but it just seemed odd coming from Aussie in the middle of all this. She walked this line of realism and optimism, swaying violently on either side of it as the moment struck her. But somehow it came off as comforting.

"Have you ever seen the-the things?" He asked her.

She gave him a doubtful look with a little chuckle thrown in.

"You think they let me into the maze? I'm an under weight asthmatic with dehydration issues, I don't go past the first corridor in the maze," she laughed. "Only the strongest and fastest and smartest and bravest go deep in the maze. You basically gotta be good at everything."

"What are you then?" He asked her.

"Like, what's my job here?" She asked, her features almost wincing.

"Yeah," he nodded, wondering why this was a touchy subject.

She sighed.
"I dunno if you remember Thena calling me 'Mom', but basically I just just take care of all the Newbies that come up till they adjust. And when they go off I do any odd job, mostly things the other girls deem nonessential," her voice dropped a few octaves and showed her contempt for the word.

Gally almost chuckled.
"Like what?" He asked. He wasn't sure why he kept pressing her to talk, but knew he'd keep doing it.

"Oh," she seemed to shy away again. "Mend clothes and bedding, put fresh coats of paint on things, basically anything that makes an already functioning thing look better. But I do actually useful things too, I do laundry and some of the cooking... gardening-"

"Toppling governments to save boys from pits?" He interrupted because she was shrinking again.

Her shoulders had been folding and her face was downcast as she listed off all the mundane things she did. She seemed to be saying she was the farthest thing from the idolized runners and, if that square shaped girl was any indication, no one really held her in high esteem.

Part of Gally realized that it made sense, the strongest and smartest were the most useful to solve the problem of the maze and any less could be considered dead weight. But he didn't like that either. So far in his experience here, Aussie was the only one with a heart. And, yeah, that probably isn't enough to solve a maze full of girl eating monsters, but it's the reason he wasn't still stuck in a pit.

Aussie looked up at him, surprise in her eyes as her little body unfolded slightly. It felt completely foreign to him, and he wasn't sure he was even doing it right, but he tried to smile at her. What he thought was a smile was just his brows going slack and the right corner of his mouth going up a little. She seemed to recognize the attempt though, her own eyes softening and a little lopsided grin taking her mouth before she turned away from him.

"I didn't topple a government, I just... talked some sense into a nervous girl with a lot of responsibility," she said as she got them moving toward the maze again.

He'd call Thena a mean girl on a power trip, but that was his time in the pit talking.

"So..." Aussie began, not looking at him as she spoke. "I get the impression you might, possibly, maybe have a temper? Which is fine!"

He looked at the bruise on her neck and felt ashamed.

"But just so you know, the Garden is our home, we take care of our home. If you want to run off any anger or frustration there's a track around the perimeter. But if you want to do anything... aggressive, like throw and break things, you do that in the entry of the maze. Basically, break their snit not ours."