Cairo - 2 Cairo

I remained still for a moment. Perhaps it was longer than a moment, but no words came out from under my tongue. I made sure to keep my eyes away from hers; I couldn’t let her see into them again.

“I’m sorry, Rina.” I turned, and headed for the exit. I knew there wasn’t much hope of staying for the night, as the outdoors would be my bed for this evening.

“You can’t just walk away from me!” She yelled behind me like a little girl who just got her lollipop stolen.

The thing is, she knew I could. I paid for my meals, my stay, and my comfort. If I wasn’t paying, then I wouldn’t stay. I swung my travelsack over my shoulder, and just as I was about to swing the exit doors open, she stopped me.

“You were in the war… Weren’t you.” She said, slowly and calmly this time.

I took my hand away from the doors, but I kept my back faced to her. I didn’t really know what to do, or say. It wasn’t a question as to how she knew about the war, but why she would ask me. She had to have known what happened to the survivors. There was no other explanation.

“I was a victim too…”

I couldn’t see her face, but I could tell she wasn’t lying from the tone of her voice. I could tell she was desperately clinging onto the memories from before the war, or perhaps the ones she lost inside it. Either way, I didn’t care.

“Many fell victim.” I replied in a rather cool voice. “Many lost lives. Many lost hope. Many stopped searching.” I turned back around, making sure my face was still hidden under my hood.

She looked confused for a second, as if she didn’t have a reply, but desperately wanted to give one. “What do you mean by stopped searching?”

To be completely honest, I didn’t know how to describe my answer. Luckily, Cartuja gave me the splendid favor of explaining it horribly from the back of the bar where he sat, drinking his pint of beer like a broken sailor. “He means they’re weirdos who wear hoods and don’t speak a word!” He laughed to himself, but he wasn’t necessarily wrong. He basically got every part right except the only one that mattered.

“I’m still searching…” I whispered, but they could both hear me.

Rina started coming closer, and I started backing up. She stopped unexpectedly, glaring into the shadows of my hood. “Your eyes…” She spoke like an angel from the heavens. An angel that I always wanted, but never found. “I want to see them. Please, let me see them.”

I thought to myself if I should really do it, but I knew it would only make it worse for both of us. I noticed my grip tighten around my travelsack, and my teeth began to clench with anticipation. That’s when I knew that I’ve stayed for far too long.

I grabbed three pennies from my travelsack, and placed them on the nearest table to pay for the Fo. “Thank you, Rina.” I said, and walked out.

…

It only took me about ten minutes or so to wander through the empty streets until I reached the edge of the woods. It would’ve normally taken twice as long if it was midday, but the nighttime emptiness made my walk go smoothly without any interruptions.

After stepping foot into the densely packed trail and reassuring myself of my surroundings, I whistled with a swift motion of placing my thumb and forefinger into the edges of my mouth.

It wasn’t loud in the slightest, as I was still practicing daily to get the perfect pitch, but it got the job done. It was a quiet whistle, like that annoying sound ringing in your ears when there’s too much silence. I let my fingers dry in the soft breeze of the trees around me, and waited patiently for Mooks to show.

However, I noticed something out the corner of my eye in the distance. It was barely visible, but the longer I hesitated, the clearer the image became.

Two red eyes appeared from the darkness like glowing flames in a crawlspace. They rushed toward me, approaching closer and closer with every breath I took.

I went on the defensive instantaneously, dropping my travelsack and making sure my knees were ready to launch me in any direction. I felt the dirt below me soften as my boots gripped the ground like a pair of shovels, notifying me that I would have to put more effort into my movements.

However, the red eyes had already leaped off the ground into the air, and all I could see were the vicious white teeth of a deadly beast glimmering under the moonlight above me. I could even see the drops of saliva hit the ground from the jaw of the beast, almost as if he could smell the remains of the Fo lingering in my stomach.

I wrapped my hand in my cloak as quick as I could and stuck it out for the beast to bite on. I felt the teeth sink into my arm, but there was no gruesome pain that followed the bite. Instead, it felt as if the beast just grabbed my arm with its teeth, kind of like a binky of some sort.

The beast let go, and both me and him felt stupid.

“Mooks?” I raised a metaphorical eyebrow.

The beast sighed boringly, and that brought my tally of being fooled to two times today. It was Mooks. There was no denying it.

The white fur covering his body like a blanket of snow in December. The glowing red eyes like two cherries fallen into the snow. The sharp, deadly teeth that can eat and pierce through nearly anything. The nose that smells fear from hundreds of miles away, and of course, the self-proclaimed reputation of being the sneakiest wolf in the world.

“Why are you out here this late?” Mooks asked innocently.

“Why did you try to attack me?” I also asked innocently.

Mooks chuckled, but his laugh always sounded awkward since it came from a wolf’s mouth. “Fair enough… Did they kick you out or something?”

I pulled back my hood, giving him the answer he needed.

My face was surprisingly not so bad compared to the rest of my beaten body. I would say I have a handsome face, but since I never reveal it, I didn’t have any vouchers to prove my claims. I’ve been with a handful of women, but that was years ago, and an experience I didn’t truly enjoy too much. My hair was dark like a starless sky, and I had a few streaks of white running through random parts of my hair. I had a faint undercut, but it was hard to tell with the length of my hair dropping to the top of my eyes half the time.

tI also noticed my clothing wasn’t very welcoming. Having countless knives and small vials holstered along my legs and chest probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve come up with. I usually kept them hidden within the dim light underneath the table, but sometimes I could feel Rina looking when I opened my cloak to eat. My arms had bandages covering most of my previous wounds and scars. However, there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d be taking those off.

I proceeded to tell Mooks everything that had happened in the tavern. From Rina’s plan to reveal not only my reflesex, but my past as well. All the way to me leaving the tavern without giving her an answer. I made sure to leave out the part about her being one of the gifted, thinking Mooks would do something irrational that I wouldn’t be able to stop.

“Why would she care?” Mooks concluded after my story. “There are plenty of war victims. Even if she’s one of them, and let’s say you were too, why would she care?”

This is exactly why Mooks and I traveled together. Our minds think too much alike.

“However,” He interrupted my train of thought. “This is the first survivor you’ve met since the war. Perhaps it would be best to befriend them.”

This is another reason we traveled together. Mooks would usually always suggest something I haven’t considered, making me consider it even more.

“What good will it do.” I said, lowering my head.

“What good will it do to always run away from opportunities? A life without risks is a life not worth living.”

I gave him a wry look, one that’ll show him he’s right, but I was too afraid to accept it. “Say I go back. Say I tell them about me. Then what? We live happily ever after?” My voice was strong, and Mooks knew what my strong voice meant.

“All I’m saying is to take a chance. You need some friends. Friends could be your first step in finding what you’re looking for.” He smiled, but it looked more like he was hungry rather than happy. Besides, there was no way to differentiate those two states from him anyway.

I sighed desperately, slouched my travelsack over my shoulder for the tenth time today, slid my hood back in its place, and started heading back to the tavern.

When I arrived, I told Mooks to wait outside until I gave him the signal of coming in. That is, if everything worked out the way I hoped it would.

I gently shoved the swinging doors out of the way for my entrance, but there was no one there. Well, besides Cartuja who was clearly passed out drunk on the bar table. Fortunately, my entrance somehow woke him, and he popped up from his seat as if he wasn’t even asleep just seconds ago.

“Ayy! The hooded dude is back!” He yelled, loudly.

The back door from behind the bar table swung open, and Rina came out, polishing another unclean glass. She looked confused, but there was a slight tingle in her eye that made her look more excited rather than puzzled.

I slid down my hood, revealing my face to her for the first time in the long six months that I knew her.

As soon as I did, the glass she was polishing shattered across the floor, and the excitement I saw on her face vanished. Her expression faded into one I’ve seen far too often when revealing my face. Even Cartuja, who seemed like the type to always have a smile on his face grew dim, perhaps even afraid.

I didn’t know what I looked like to them. I didn’t know if they were afraid, confused, or a mixture of both. No matter the case, there wasn’t a chance I’d be able to escape their questions now, so I prepared myself, and began to decide my next words carefully.