Chapter 38: Weird girl
Arbus walked through the forest silently with a complicated expression. Earlier, he had been hunting for a few Tabbits like usual, when he came across a peculiar scene. He found a young girl about his age laying on the forest floor, unconscious.
At first glance, he'd assumed she was simply a white Mornan whose ship had crash-landed on Tarok. That was until he had gotten a closer look.
He was stunned when he realised that she was a Human.
A human who was just casually laying around in the open forest, defenceless. At that moment, his mind raced with several possibilities.
The first thing that came to his mind was attacking her while she was still asleep. He hadn't forgotten the last time another human suddenly came to Tarok. It had resulted in the destruction of his life, in a sense.
He also remembered all the terrible things some commanders told him about his father a year ago.
"Your father is a monster, boy. You'll understand when you're older."
"Reincarnators can't be trusted. It's in their nature to destroy."
"He's fooled you, just like he fooled your mother. I can't believe I let him into my home."
He didn't want to believe them, he simply couldn't. He already understood how the universe saw humans. His perspective was quite different from theirs, since he was raised by one. Throughout his entire life, he had never doubted his father's nature... until that fateful day.
For several minutes, he had stood above her unconscious form, wondering what the best choice to make was. He'd watched the peaceful expression on her face as she slept quietly, unaware that it had brought a faint smile to his own.
In the end he had decided to give this girl the benefit of the doubt. He got a sturdy stick as a makeshift weapon as he decided to protect her unconscious form for a while.
He wanted to believe that he was right, and that the Emperor himself, was wrong for taking his father away from him and destroying his family.
If he could prove that not all Reincarnators were monsters, like everyone claimed them to be, maybe he could find a way to bring his parents home.
He also wanted to get more information about Reincarnators from her, since his father never told him anything substantial, even about his power. He always kept him at arms length when it came to this matter.
Unfortunately the girl hadn't been too forthcoming with him, although that was to be expected, since she had just met him.
From what he could tell she was most likely Reincarnated recently, since everything about this world seemed to fascinate her. She couldn't keep herself from checking out various plants as they walked through the forest. He was just glad there was nothing poisonous around this area.
Her childish expression quelled some of his doubts about her intentions.
Eventually they reached their destination as They emerged from a cluster of violet bushes. Arora paused, as she looked up with a stunned expression, her mouth falling open in amazement.
In front of them was a towering dark tree, completely covered with orange leaves that were far livelier than those in the autumn. At its midsection was a sturdy and well-crafted treehouse. It was about the size of a small home, with a platform and wooden railings encircling it.
Its design was a mix of clashing colours, primarily purple, white and red. This was the first time Arora had ever seen anything like this. she'd stare out the orphanage's windows from time to time, searching for something as unique as this. All she ever saw were the mundane government buildings that surrounded them on all sides.
"Welcome to my sanctuary. It's nothing much, but I'm quite proud of it really. Make yourself at home weird gir- I mean Arora".
He smiled as he gazed at the treehouse, remembering how him and parents would stay up all night, building it piece by piece.
"This is incredible!" she said as she gawked at the impressive structure. "You built all of this yourself? I don't think I could even build a mini version of it, even with all the proper tools and instructions."
He smiled pridefully. Happy about his family's hard work being recognised.
"Not exactly. But I can tell you have a good eye for things. Anyways come on," He said as he led her around to the back, where several climbing ropes hung down from the platform. "Let's get up there and figure out how to help you with your... situation."
He scaled the rope with ease, his enhanced strength making climbing such a large tree seem trivial. When he reached the top, he noticed there was no movement on the other ropes and glanced down, only to find Arora still standing at the bottom, staring up at the rope with a terrified expression.
He frowned.
"What exactly are you waiting for?" he shouted down with an annoyed tone. "Get up here, unless you'd prefer to spend the night down there with whatever decides to hunt in this area after dark."
She took a step backward, shaking her head. "I can't. I've never been good at climbing, and this is..." She said, gesturing at the towering height of the tree. "I'll fall. I know I'll fall." She said, remembering all the times she fell on her back when climbing. falling to her second death like this would truly be too much.
Arbus let out a long, thoughtful sigh.
"I'd already figured you were rather weak-willed when I first saw you" he muttered as he grabbed a rope and began heading down. "but I didn't realize it was quite this severe"
Arora frowned at his comment.
"I am not weak-willed!" she snapped back, her cheeks flushing with indignation. "I just have things that scare me, same as everyone else. Don't tell me you've never been afraid of anything in your entire life."
He paused halfway down the rope, his expression unreadable "Not anymore no. All my fears have already come to pass" Arbus said as he finally reached the bottom.
Arora wasn't sure what he meant by his last statement, but she didn't feel like it was a good idea to press further right now.
Arbus walked up to her as he wrapped his arm around her waist. "Fine then. If you can't climb, then I'll just have to—"
"Whoa!" Arora stumbled backward as she pushed him away, a blush colouring her features. "wh... Wha... What do you think you're doing!? Are you some kind of pervert?! I knew I shouldn't have trusted a random stranger in the woods!" she shouted.
Arbus froze for several moments, confusion etched on his face. "What are you talking about? I'm trying to carry you up to the treehouse since you clearly can't manage it yourself."
An awkward silence descended upon them for several moments.
"Oh," she said, her voice softer. "That... that actually makes perfect sense. I should have realized..." She cleared her throat awkwardly, taking a tentative step closer. "Sorry about the, um, misunderstanding. We should probably head up now before it gets any darker."
Arbus stared at her incredulously for several moments. Eventually he simply shook his head as he wrapped his hand around her waist again, and began the climb with his free hand.
She weighed practically nothing to him due to his Tarokian genes. He noticed that she kept her eyes squeezed shut throughout the entire climb.
'This is going to be tiresome' he thought in exasperation.