A Scrapped Project — Chapter 2

Disclaimer: this project has been discontinued.

She woke up tucked away in sheets.

The ceiling above her was run-down and old. The bed in which she lay was rough and hard against her back, but she was used to worse.

Careful not to make her presence noticed, she sat up silently, testing her muscles. How long had she slept?

She tried to recall everything before she passed out, then her heart sunk as she remembered what had happened in the alleyway last night. Her eyes darted around the room searching for exit points as all sorts of alarms fired off in her mind.

“You cry in your sleep.”

Startled, she turned her head to find a boy standing next to the doorway. He held what seemed to be a wooden tray in his hands.

“Eat,” he pointed to it.

Making sure she heard him, he slowly approached the bed and put the tray beside her. She could see that he had prepared a simple roasted fish with bread. The aroma made her mouth swell.

The boy pulled a chair next to the bed and took a seat, but the girl didn’t even notice. She was wolfing down the food greedily.

Once the pang of hunger began to settle, she stole a few glances towards the boy. He had rough gray hair with harsh, narrow eyes, making him look almost angry or cold. His eyes were focused on her.

Her heart skipped a beat and she directed her glance elsewhere, and it landed on his bare chest. Her cheeks flared up.

“Sorry, my only shirt got stained with blood. Your blood. I’m drying it outside.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name’s Auga. You’re in my home.” He gestured towards the walls. “I live here with my brother. Well, used to.”

His eyes grew distant for a slight second but he returned his gaze towards her.

“Do you remember what happened back at the alley?” he asked.

The girl nodded slowly, hesitant, and cautiously asked, “Why am I here?”

“Out of the goodness of my heart,” he countered. “Now tell me your name.”

The room fell silent, the tension almost tangible. Auga felt uncomfortable at the sudden stillness.

“I can still turn you in to the constables. You know that, right?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“It’s Fela,” her voice was shaky, “and I steal because I need to.”

“It’s possible to choose to live without stealing,” Auga gazed harshly into her eyes. “Where’s your home?”

“I don’t have one.”

“What about your family? Any relatives?”

“…No.”

Auga nodded. “Well then, Fela, you can choose to go back to living on the streets, in which case your clothes are hung on the rack by the door and you can pick them up on your way out. Or, I can give you a shot at living an honest life.” He stood up and picked up the wooden tray.

“I will feed you and give you clothes to wear, and you will be given shelter here in my home, although I’m not going to let you stay for free. On work days you will help me around the shack, and you will help me put food on the table. I will teach you how to fish and cook, and eventually we will find you an honest work somewhere.”

His voice was upfront and serious. Though it wasn’t exactly flowing with kindness, Fela couldn’t sense any hidden motives or malice behind his offer.

“What will you do?” Auga asked.

Fela spent some time staring at her hands, recalling the events that happened yesterday. Her left shoulder still ached, and the bruises across her body weren’t doing much better. She was sure she had broken a rib or three, and was cautious not to move her torso in any sudden motion.

Then she thought about Auga, how he had decided to save her instead of leaving her on the streets.

“… I will stay.”

“Good. Rest for today. You were out for three nights. I had your wounds checked by a physicker — you’re to remain in bed until the last compress change, due tomorrow.”

He stood up and left the room.

Fela sat silently for a long time until she fell back into her pillow, closing her eyes.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she fell into a deep slumber.

Half a fortnight later, the usually silent shack was… energetic.

“Come back, you cur!”

“Fela, for god’s sake, stop!”

Furniture were thrown, tables were flipped, and insults were spat. Auga wasn’t one to be easily pushed around, but Fela’s fiery rage rivaled that of a demon’s. Auga was genuinely afraid.

For the last five minutes he had been trying his best not to let Fela get her hands on something dangerous, like a kitchen-

Knife!

A silver flash zoomed right above his skull. Every bit of Auga’s muscles were screaming as he barely dodged what would have been a fatal attack.

“What the hell!? I could’ve up and died!”

“I don’t care, freak!”

Fela was already leaping for Auga’s throat.

I’m in serious danger…

His instincts were telling him to run, escape as far away as possible.

“Stop and listen!”

Auga had never felt this threatened before in his entire life. He prayed to come out of this in one piece as he dodged a flying chair with a half-assed roll.

He looked around frantically, then leapt for his bed. Hoping it will actually work, Auga grabbed his pillow and prepared to strike.

Fela, blind with rage, launched at him like a tiger.

Wham!

Feathers exploded into the air as the leaping terror suddenly fell to the ground. Seizing this moment, Auga jumped on top of her, pinning her wrists to the floor.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? You don’t need to kill me-”

Fela bared her teeth, little fangs pointing at him menacingly.

What kind of beast is this!?

“Let me go!”

“Not happening.”

The fiend howled.

“I only put them up to dry!”

“In what mind did you think taking off someone’s undergarments was a good idea?! And who told you to wash them in the first place?!”

“But they were stained!”

A fist tore free from Auga’s grip and landed squarely on his jaw.

Everything darkened, his hearing vanished, and soon he was nothing but a saggy rag-doll on the cold, hard ground.

A voice woke Auga from his peaceful sleep.

“… find this?”

Confusion began to set in as his sights returned.

“You can’t take a hit at all…”

That condescending voice… Fela?

His face was swollen and hurt like he got stepped on by a horse.

“Ugh… Oh god.”

He groaned miserably as he sat up, realizing that he was on his bed. Rays of sunshine peeked through the windows.

It felt as though he was knocked out just a moment ago, and that daylight had come in just a span of a seconds. It was terribly vexing.

“What was that for, you feral woman?!”

Fela recoiled from his sudden outburst but quickly regained her composure.

“That’s what you get for abusing me!”

“But I didn’t even touch you!”

Truth be told, Auga was as oblivious as a rock when it came to the opposite gender. Completely hopeless.

“Anyway,” she sighed, “Where did you find this ring?”

She held out her hand. A golden object gleamed in front of him, with a red ruby in the shape of a diamond affixed to it.

“Oh, that. It’s a ring I found in my brother’s belongings.”

Fela’s stern expression softened, then turned into suspicion.

“Your brother?”

Auga tried to stand up, almost losing balance in the process.

“Yeah. I told you about him, remember? Now give it back.”

He tried to snatch it back from her, but in his current state he might as well be trying to catch a butterfly.

“I’m not buying it.”

Auga sighed. He began to question his decision of taking her in.

“Look, if it’s something shiny you want, then I’ll find you something else. Just give me back that ring.”

He tried to take it back in a futile attempt; she was surprisingly fast. Auga thought back to when he chased her through the marketplace.

“I’m not just looking for something shiny! I need to know how you got this ring, specifically.”

“As I said, I found it in my brother’s belongings. What’s it to you, anyway?”

Fela thought for a moment, her eyes vacant, staring into the distance.

“The men that worked with my father wore rings similar to this… I think.”

“Huh?”

Fela was still aloof.

“H-hey, if you know anything else about this ring, tell me. It’s my only hope of finding my brother.”

“What?”

Fela’s attention shifted to him as he finished his sentence.

“He left about three weeks ago, and I don’t know why. He didn’t say anything — didn’t even leave so much as a note. I looked around the city and the nearby towns for him but nothing so far.”

“… I see.”

Fela examined the ring in her hand, taking in all the details.

“Hey, what happened here?”

She held it to him, and Auga saw a small chip in the ring’s frame. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now that Fela pointed it out, the dent was pretty evident.

“I… don’t know.”

Fela nodded and continued eyeing the item.

“I think it might be tied to the Confederacy.”

Auga put on his shirt and looked at her.

“What makes you say so?”

“Those people that wore these rings. I think dad said they were from the… monetary administration? Either way, I can’t be sure. Take what I say with a pinch of salt.”

“The monetary administration, huh?”

Auga sat back down onto the bed, lost in deep thought. He racked his brain for anything that might have tied his brother to the Confederacy. For as long as he could remember, they lived here in peaceful isolation.

However, now he had somewhat of a lead and if he wanted to track down his brother, this was the trail to start with.

“Fela, can you to tell me more about your dad’s acquaintances?”

The room felt oddly still. “Fela?”

Fela wiped her eyes, leaving wet stains on her sleeve. “If my parents were still around, I could have asked them about it, but…”

“What do you mean?”

Then it hit him. She doesn’t have parents.

Considering that she was homeless, having to commit to thievery to survive, it was only logical to assume she might be an orphan. Somehow, the thought never crossed Auga’s mind. He felt stupid for not seeing it sooner.

He thought about steering the conversation away from her past when she suddenly turned around and left the shack.

Shit…

Auga was at a loss for what to do. Should he go after her and apologize? Maybe that would just annoy her even more, and it could be that she just needed some time alone. Unaware of what he was doing, he thoughtlessly stood up and followed after her anyway.

Fela was slowly strolling along a riverbank. She came to a halt as Auga caught up to her.

“It’s hard to live alone, with no one to depend on,” she spoke softly. “Waking up every day, not knowing if you’ll be able find something to eat that night.”

She looked up, towards the pink sky.

“But this is the life I live, and I’m used to it now. I’ve stolen and betrayed, and I will still do what I need to do to survive… I’m not a princess in distress. I can’t rely on a knight in shining armor to come save me, nor a fairy godmother to magically solve all my problems. Whether or not I will live depends entirely on me.”

She turned around, looking Auga straight in the eye. His gaze was sharp, peering deep into Fela. Her knees gave way as she fell to the grass, her breathing laden with shallow gasps.

Then she wept, letting out feeble cries. Auga stood beside her with a grim expression, motionless.

The last rays of sun were slowly vanishing, the twilight sky burning in a beautiful orange hue. Auga and Fela sat under a large tree, looking at the sunset in mutual silence.

The evening gust of wind gently breezed past the sloping hills, the grass subtly dancing along.

Fela’s eyes were still sore, but her heart felt… lighter. The breaths came more easily now as she took in a lungful of air and exhaled, relaxing under the evening sky.

She tried to think of something to say, anything to break the ice.

“I…”

Fela opened her mouth, but no words came.

The silence continued, almost tangible now that the sun had disappeared. The first evening star shined proudly.

“You try to carry all your burdens on those small shoulders of yours.”

Auga was first to break the silence. He stood up, looked at Fela and continued.

“I won’t ask you to help me find my brother. You’re free to go if you want to.”

She looked him in the eyes, and for a moment they seemed warm and caring.

“If you want to stay, then that’s fine too. I’ll have your back, you’ll have mine, and we will look after each other.”

Fela stared at him in silence. She simply couldn’t understand the reason behind his kindness.

Auga held out his hand.

“So, what’ll it be?”

Her expression was still blank, but she was tempted by the idea of having someone to depend on. Someone to trust. So very tempted.

Fela’s eyes darted between Auga’s gaze and his hand in front of her, and after a moment of hesitation, she reached out and shook his hand.

Auga grinned warmly as his grip tightened, and Fela felt the happiest she was since what felt like forever ago.