Giving Up!

Luna

"What have you done? How could you let this happen? The greatest evil has been born! Pain, death, destruction like never before has just been unleashed because of you. The world will never be the same. You shall atone for your sins. Begone! And I shall never see your face again nor you, mine until you have made everything right." I shuddered at the memory. My memories from the...that time were becoming fuzzier the longer time passed but somehow, that memory never faded. I could not remember the face of the person who had spoken. Not even where the person had spoken but I could never forget the words nor the panic, pain and sorrow that had filled me and even now still pulsed in every single vein in my body.

Looking down at Indrik as he stabbed at his food, I wondered if all that was happening was indeed my fault. Maybe I really deserved to be here. Even worse, I wondered if I did not deserve to be here, being the recipient of his gratitude like I was some saviour when I was infact the monster that had caused all these problems. This filled me with an urgent desire to help him in whatever way I could.

"Hurry up and let's go get in some training. We don't want to miss any day now, do we?" I tried to sound as cheerful as I could manage while hoping that he could not pick the sadness that was embedded in my tone.

He looked up at me and scowled. "No, thank you." If I had any doubt about him being in a bad mood, that had pretty much cleared it. Indrik, the one who always looked forward to training, who had endured the pain of getting whipped and tortured, the one who had drank poison all to get stronger, now turning down an offer to train? Yeah, something had definitely happened.

"Come on, master." I pouted. It felt strange but I wondered if the soft approach would work on him. "I will go easy on you, promise. Maybe a whack of the staff by the hour?" That would have been his cue to grin or shoot me some ridiculous look but instead he sighed and buried his face in his food, stabbing at the poor vegetables. I humphed and stomped toward him, grabbing him by the shoulder. "This is not the time to mope. Get up and quit being a wimp. You are better than this."

He raised his head so fast, I was lucky to not be within range or my head would have imploded from the force of the collision. His eyes blazed and his nostrils flared, showing me a glimpse of the Indrik I had come to know but it was gone just as quickly as his shoulders slumped. "Fine!" He dropped his fork with a miserable sigh. "I guess you are right." He pushed away from the table.

I figured that was the most response I would get from him so I hurriedly cleared the plates before returning to him, dressed for war in my white gown and flat sandals. His dejection was so great that it seemed to even suck the spirit out of my fear as I had to watch him to prevent his walking into a wall. Breaking out into the grove, the excitement was again sucked out by Indrik's gloominess. I was tempted to scream at him to snap out of whatever was eating at him but again, something told me he would not appreciate it. The most I could hope for was that whatever was troubling him would dissipate once we started training. It didn't help that I had to wrap my arm around his shoulder as I guided him to the entrance. With his dark irises that seemed to have grown even blacker and his posture that seemed to sway unsteadily from side to side, he looked so frail, it broke my heart to look at him.

Somehow, we made it to the heart of the grove although I did not lead him to the hut for fear that he would collapse on the bed and cry himself to sleep. "Get ready!" I told him as I made my way over to the trees. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to see but the trees were perfectly still. Not even the smallest leaves rippled. I placed my palm against the brown bark of the closest tree for what seemed like a moment before giving up and going back to Indrik. Reaching him and seeing that he had not moved from the spot, I realized that going to the trees was more like a delaying tactic. One that I pulled in the hope that Indrik would have recovered before I returned. Obviously, he hadn't.

"Indrik!" He didn't move an inch. "I have no idea what you are going through and you won't tell me either. Whatever it is, I hope that you remember..." The words froze on my lips as he walked away. Really! He really walked away from me. I swallowed my anger as I realized that he was starting to undress. I shrugged, figuring that was just as well. I ran a quick scan of the trainings we could do, one that would be tasking enough to get his mind off his problems and just as interesting. I decided to go with the very first training exercise we had practiced together. Blindfolding him, I stepped back, leaving a wide berth between us. "Are you ready?" I asked, picking up a sweet pebble.

"Whatever!" He mumbled, his stance still lackadaisical.

My first throw hit him smack on the nose which split with a loud crack. I gasped as I ran toward him but he held up his hand and held it in his other hand. By the time they came away, they were still bloody but his nose was healed.

"Go on!" He called. I hesitated but he called again so I threw.

"You are not even trying." I complained when all the pebbles I threw hit him rather painfully turning his face into a bloody surface.

"I'm not? Maybe I don't want to." He growled as he peeled off the blindfold and tromped off leaving me staring after him, wide-eyed.