User blog:Thriefty/Have another drabble~

Their Watch

The flames crackled, but he was the only one that was awake to hear them. For once, Allen was alone in his watch.

It was quiet. There weren’t any sounds beyond the wind blowing through the leaves and the constant crackling of the fire. It was rarely so. He was used to chatting quietly with his partner, learning more about wide, diverse world of Liafyse. The silence was unwelcome.

He had never liked being alone. As the only envoy to his goddess, he had spent too many nights alone in the empty temple. It was not the fault of the goddess, she had her duties to attend to. It was simply the fact that her wishes never brought forth another envoy. It was already a miracle that he had manifested. But, while other envoys had others in the residence, he was almost always alone.

The wind had left; the only sound now was the crackling fire. It was the only illumination in the moonless night. There was no worry that the light would attract nearby ruinators, the wards set up restricted the fire’s illumination to their party’s campsite. The only way for a ruinator to find the campsite would be to blunder into it by chance. The watch was a safeguard against the slight possibility.

He understood the reasons. It was just that it was so much more tiresome when he was the only one on watch. Time did not pass as quickly as it did when he had chatted with the others. He could not even rely on movement of the stars to tell time, not on this night, where the clouds were thick, black blankets over the sky.

In the dark and quite night, the crackling flames was his only company...

Or so he thought. Soft footsteps were his only warning before a hand fell upon his shoulder.

“You aren’t doing a great job of keeping watch if you didn’t see me approaching.” Zephyr stated as he took the spot beside Allen.

Allen stared, still somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of his partner. It wasn’t Zephyr’s turn; his watch was the one right before sunrise. Why was he awake?

Zephyr answered as if he could read his mind. “I know you never like taking watch alone.”

Allen took a breath. “Of course you’d know.” He said, even though he didn’t know how. He had never told Zephyr about it. But then, this was Zephyr he was talking about. The envoy with one of the most notorious reputations in Heaven, the one that knew how to find the weak points of others and used them mercilessly. The envoy that was and is his partner for the past years. It would be stranger if he didn’t.

“You do realise this is your own fault. If you weren’t so insistent on forcing Sara to rest, she’d be joining you on this watch.” Zephyr said, his words coming brusquely. But Allen noticed the gleam in his violet eyes and knew what was coming.

“Well, she was hurt…” Allen said, though he knew the words were useless against the next onslaught.

“Hmm? But Yuri got hurt too. And I got knocked into a tree. Yet, only Sara gets special treatment?” Zephyr then leaned in, whispering conspiringly into his ears “Me thinks our healer is biased.”

Allen clicked his tongue, but did not retort. Zephyr was a master of using his words against him, so the best reaction was not to react at all. However, in Zephyr’s books, not saying anything still counted as a reaction. “Cat’s got your tongue? Or is it that you are too shy to admit it?” Zephyr even slung his arm over Allen’s shoulder.

Allen sighed. This was one topic he did not want to talk about. Zephyr would go on mercilessly if he did not draw the line now.

His movement was quick and precise, as if well-practised. It was simple, but effective. A single elbow driven straight into the ribs. A satisfying yelp came from his partner.

“Geez, take it easy on the injured!” Zephyr growled as he rubbed his ribs.

“Your own fault.” Allen replied.

For a while, nothing more was said. Silence descended once again, but this time it was comfortable. The warmth came from more than just the burning flames. It came from the thought that his closest friend had come to accompany him for his watch.

“Thanks Zephyr.” Allen said. His only reply was a scoff, but that was how Zephyr was. He always acted tough. However, his actions always showed that he cared more than he would admit.

“Will you be okay tomorrow though, staying with me? You still have another watch at sunrise, right?” Allen asked, remembering their schedules.

Zephyr raised an eyebrow. “You’ve gotten used to the new sleeping schedule, haven’t you? Compared to before, we’ve been sleeping too much.”

A guilty smile surfaced upon his lips. He had been enjoying the longer rest time. Back when it was just him and Zephyr, they had often prioritised the mission, working through the nights. When they did rest, it was rarely more than two hours a day. It was mainly when they travelled with humans did they relax more, syncing their sleep schedules together so that they would not arouse any suspicion.

For humans, it was natural to sleep a full eight hours, and functioning without some external stimuli was difficult with anywhere less than four hours. Envoys on the other hand, could go on for a day or two without any issues. As divine beings, their basic needs were far less than the humans.

“I guess we have. This is the first time we’ve been travelling together with others for this long.” Allen replied. It had been a month since they first journeyed from the town of Liuse, seeking the temples. It was the longest they had been in close contact with the same group of humans.

How long could it last?

The slight downward curl of his lips must have given his thoughts away as Zephyr cast another look around the campsite. Only when he was sure that the rest were asleep did he say, “I don’t think anyone has noticed anything off. The smartest one here would be Yuri... or Jade if he was here. And the most suspicion he’s shown is over Lippy. He doesn’t believe the teleportation incident story.”

“We did tell him that basing his backstory of a book isn’t a good idea…” Allen muttered. But the whole issue was that Lippy was too unique to be any creature of the surface world. And none of them could volunteer a more convincing story.

“It helps us that most of this group is way too trusting.” Zephyr said, his words without any bite.

Allen dipped his head in reply, but he idly wondered if Zephyr could have said it in a nicer way. Both he and Zephyr had spent many nights together discussing the backstories of their human identities, and while the stories were fairly solid, there were always small gaps. They have had inconsistencies pointed out by previous companions, and those had always lead to hurried patching up of their stories. They had always ensured they left soon after those incidents.

It would be nice if they could stay longer this time. However, upon a quick calculation, he let out a sigh.

“A month, huh...” At Zephyr’s raised eyebrows, Allen continued. “From here to the last temple, it’ll take us about a week? Then, three more to go back and do the ritual.”

“If it succeeds, our work will be done.” Zephyr remarked. It was the way that his features softened, the way his words sounded wistful, that betrayed how he really felt.

“Neither us really want to leave...”

The conversation faded, giving way to a period of quiet. Allen wordlessly added more fuel to the fire, to feed the dying embers for their friends. The wood burned, the twig and branches diminishing, disappearing. The physical object somehow seemed ephemeral.

“Allen.” Zephyr called. His next words broke Allen out of his reverie.

“You are being a hopeless optimist again. Who knows if the ritual will work anyway? The power of the goddesses of beyond may be great, but the seeds of ruins are too widespread. Even all our work here so far has barely made a dent in their number. Those goddesses will probably miss some, leaving us to do the clean-up. That’s how the gods always are, aren’t they?”

Allen let out a chuckle, neither confirming or denying Zephyr’s words. However, what he described did agree with how their gods acted. If the gods and goddesses were perfect in their work, then there would be no need for envoys.

He couldn’t help but notice something else about Zephyr’s guess. A gleam entered his eye; it was rare for such a chance to come. “Zephyr, that assumes that Kana doesn’t fail in the ritual. You have such high hopes for her.”

There was an aghast splutter, and Allen received a whack for his tease. He didn’t mind though. It was completely worth it to see Zephyr being embarrassed. Little fazed his seemingly stoic partner.

“Knowing her, she’ll probably botch the ritual with her clumsiness, leaving us to clean up after her.” Zephyr said with an annoyed huff.

“Really? I doubt she’ll fail. If anything goes wrong, you’d help.” Allen said with a smirk. When he saw Zephyr’s fist rising again, he hastily amended, “We’d help.”

It still didn’t save him from a second knock.

“Yeah, we will. That’s our job, after all. The powerful helping the powerless.” Zephyr said.

Allen rolled his eyes. “I remembered it differently. Wasn’t it ‘to watch over the humans, aid them when they were troubled, and guide them down the right path’?”

“Did you actually memorise that?” Zephyr asked exasperatedly.

Allen let out a laugh, the weight on his heart eased. With Zephyr around, he was never down for long.

“Tch, well, since you are fine, I’ll be heading off to sleep then. You should too.” Zephyr said. There was a moment of incomprehension before Allen realised that his shift was over. Time had passed by quickly in the presence of company.

“Then, have a good night’s rest, Zephyr.”

His partner merely gave a wave before retiring to their tent, leaving Allen to wake Lippy and Kyle for their shift.

His gaze drifted over to the tents where his friends rested. It was his, no their job to watch over them. He, Zephyr and Lippy. As envoys of the heaven, they were tasked to watch and aid them. They would do no less. But neither were they allowed to do more.

It was one of the darkest night, with the flames the only light. His only comfort was that he could enjoy their current journey. Beyond that... Would just be premature worries, right?

Stepping away from the flames, he headed off to wake Lippy first.