Fight together (Ori and the blind forest fanfic)

Chapter 34: Through the storm

'Ha! I told you I'm better!'' Aru leaned his body over their game, pointed his finger at Emily and said.

Emily crossed her arms with an annoyed expression but didn't reply.

Aru had grown more comfortable around Emily, and likewise so had she had. Had it still been like three days ago, then he wouldn't have dared say something like that straight to her face. Least of all anything near a full sentence.

Aru felt self-conscious about saying too many words all in one go. One of the reasons being that he was now rendered almost incapable of pronouncing any english; and the other being that, to Aru's understanding, she could only understand a chunk of what he was saying anyway.

It sounded exactly what one would expect it to sound like. A foreign person trying to speak the native language of a land they haven't visited before without much experience to go off.

But they were both patient already, which made things easier between them when it came to conversation.

But right now, it didn't matter whether she had understood him or not. Aru had just won the game and desperately wanted to see what his prize was.

Almost with a dull click, the jar slipped lid slipped open and a sweet smell permeated the air. It drifted directly into Aru's nose, forcing him to hold a sneeze back as he moved his head to the side just in time.

Emily would've noticed this detail, but she had made a move towards her bags that rested beside Char further away. She rummaged around in her bag, all the while scratching Char's head before she finally found what she was looking for and made to return with her whole bag.

She pulled a smaller package from her bag, a large tub with a home-made loaf of bread within. She opened the tub with pop, finally grabbing Aru's attention, grabbing two pre-sliced pieces and placing them out on the lid of the tub.

Aru in the meantime though, curiously stuck his finger in the jar while waiting; stopping only when his claw grazed the surface and retreated with a small speck of the thick red substance on his finger.

He was curious and hesitant as he closely examined quickly noticing it lacked any of the seeds jam usually had, and seemed pristinely clear, easily fooling him.

Hesitantly, he brought the speck of "jam" to his nose, sniffed, then brought it too his mouth to taste.

He didn't know what he had expected to experience, but the taste test proved slightly underwhelming as to what he was expecting. But it tasted nothing like jam, and was much sweeter than marmalade or anything similar, which caught Aru slightly off guard.

Emily suddenly coughed, grabbing his attention and saying:

'Give to me and show. In exchange that.' She said in broken speech, but it was easy to understand.

She seemed to have quickly forgotten the he could understand English, either that or thought he only had a basic understanding.

She was pointing to one of the peach-fruits beside Aru, with expectation in her eyes as she brandished a butter knife in her other hand.

Aru sighed, somewhat exaggeratedly, but handed her the jar of jam while also throwing her one of the fruits carelessly. She had definitely planned this from the start, but he couldn't find himself to care, he could always just go get more anyway; something Emily certainly couldn't without his help.

Emily grabbed the fruit out of the air without a hitch, placing it to the side temporarily as she turned her attention to the jar. She brandished her butter knife, dipping it into the jam and lathering it all on one side of the before bringing it to one of the pieces of bread.