469. Pragmatic flesh, 1

(Rose)

Nightmare laid an egg the size of a ball and buried it in the garden.

I didn’t expect that.

R - What’s inside?

N - A few birds.

As evening began to set, we mostly human beings settled in the lounge of the hotel.

The other kind, after a chat, split up. Nightmare went alone for a walk in the near woods, whilst Blume joined us.

Myls has recovered some of her cool but still feels very uneasy seeing my friend.

They didn’t recognise Blume immediately since her human look was different. She did that metallic sound they know well to confirm it.

Zeslinry is the only one that hasn’t changed over the years.

She looked my age when we first met.

Now I look twice as old and she looks like she hasn’t aged. I accuse the years over my face a little heavily it seems.

My hair is a mix of chestnut, grey and white.

Myls has transformed from young girl to woman.

Blume doesn’t count. Zes didn’t change, unfazed.

R - You’re the most amazing one of us all Zes.

She smiles quietly at that odd compliment.

Z - I’m nothing special.

M - Blume? Why do you have a human body again?

B - Oh, it was for a single reason. So I could do this.

Blume does that cute wink at them.

I contain my laugh. Zes giggles along. Myls looks traumatised.

M - Is that a joke?

R - It’s actually not that far from the truth. She kept bragging about how beautiful she could be in human form. I wanted to see what she looked like then.

Z - And that Nightmare became more human as well so?

Humans wanted to become as gods. Meanwhile ironically, gods want to become as humans. It’s nothing new. I explain it to them.

Blume may be the first one to go through that road and travel that far. But it’s definitely a trend.

Daiûas like what they find out about what humans were, generally. Intelligence, language, and our shape.

R - Myls. Just so you know, even though she lost her memories of it, Nightmare was once a human as well.

M - What? Really?

R - When the white day happened, you both survived... What she once were, not exactly the same. She became what would be later called the lord of nightmares. In a different world, your beings and lives could have been the reverse of what they are today.

M - Are you asking me to forgive her?

She’s so aggressive. I don’t understand what there’s to enjoy, nurturing and facing that. I don’t know what to say to her.

R - Just... Be careful.

She’s looking at my missing arm. I didn’t have the time to explain what happened to it.

I realise they now think I lost it to another monster in fight, or not unlike Zes, a long time ago.

Blume gets an idea. But she says she wants to wait for Nightmare to return before exposing it.

R - You really like her, don’t you?

B - She’s the first brethren I can really relate to! She’s like a long lost sister I was finally reunited with!

R - Hm...

M - Your sister is a bitch Blume.

Z - Myls...

M - Sorry...

Blume doesn’t mind. She’s not social enough to care about things like that. Although now I better realise how much their meeting actually changed not only Nightmare, but also Blume.

Blume isn’t looking at me right now... That says a lot.

And Nightmare decided to leave her nest, to play different games.

Just as we humans learn and evolve by meeting others, they sure did as well.

Something has changed.

For the time, maybe in history, two daiûas such as them have met, on circa equal terms.

I have a faint memory of the first Priest claiming that the world belongs to beings-like-them now.

I look at my human friends with a little more melancholia now.

After we’re gone, there will be nothing but them.

Daiûas, and bacteria.

~

Nightmare returned the next morning, her belly full and smelling like death.

R - What have you done?

N - I ate a few mad beasts. They didn’t taste good but I harvested a lot of blood.

Blume wasn’t around, so I asked.

R - How do you relate to Blume, since you two met?

N - She’s a god whom somehow chose to live with you and not of you.

R - Hm... I mean, how do you feel personally about her?

N - She’s a curiosity of existence; but she’s of no interest to me. I prefer to play with more typical organic life.

R - I see... And do you still see me as a friend?

N - ... You’re my weirdest friend.

I laugh. I think that was a kind joke. I’d like to be able to imagine what could have been, had we met before. Maybe in dreams.

Later, Blume finally exposed her idea.

Another game. A contest for all of us.

B - To craft a new leg for Zeslinry and a new arm for Rose. They will pick the winner for their missing part and play for the other one as well. I mean participate.

Zeslinry is about to say that she doesn’t need a new wooden leg. But then she glances at Myls’s reaction. Zeslinry nudges her to try it along.

Blume says we have a week, and that she or Nightmare can help craft complex materials if required.

I’ve never been very competitive. All I can think of to replace a missing leg is a wooden leg. Maybe a slightly articulated prosthetic? Zeslinry already has one, so I have no idea what more I could bring.

Still, I agreed for the contest. I’ll participate.

We all do.

And thus we spent a few days together around that place.

Even Nightmare was behaving nicely. She went away each night and we didn’t suffer too much from bad dreams. Just a little to remind us she was nearby.

As for Snake, the humongous bird beast, it never woke up since its initial feast of an entire forest upon arrival. The giant beast simply lies there, where it landed and ate the trees, sleeping and digesting. It’s part of the landscape oddly now.

~