My Normal Life Now Has A Final Journey

If Sarine could do one thing for Tama before she left…

It was make sure that stupid girl finished her backlog of homework. Tama muttered curses under her breath as she scrawled, with thought, answers to another set of formulas. She put her pencil down at midnight and pushed herself out of her seat.

“We should sleep before we go,” Sarine said, but Tama headed towards the door, a silent refusal. She didn’t know why she bothered. The little faerie sighed, following her stubborn partner, at the least grateful they wouldn’t return to an even bigger pile of assignments than they already expected.

Assuming they returned at all—but who wanted to think of that fate? They snuck out of the apartment complex, went around the back, and hopped on the sled. A single pull of the handlebars let it roar to life as Sarine held her hands to her heart and whispered the right words.

They blinked out of existence together.

A simple glamor, the kind often seen associated with faeries—the vehicle reached a decent speed, allowed for multi-terrain driving, and now with their existence hidden from normal people, they’d be able to drive their way right to where Pleasa was hiding with no one to stop them.

Tama revved the engine. “Anything we forgot?”

Sarine said nothing. Tama nodded, and took off into the night. The sled provided some enchanted protection of its own, swerving out of the way of obstacles, but it still worked best with a conscious driver. Which…

Tama did her best, but Sarine saw her life flash before her eyes before they reached a road. Her eyelids hung halfway; they clung to consciousness with a feeble hand. “Hey, let me take a turn, okay? You sleep.”

The girl shifted, the two-person seats providing a decent amount of room for a nap. Even for a human. “—Later. You sleep first.”

“I’m fine. You sleep first.”

“No, you.”

“No you!”

“No—hey!” The sled pulled away from a car at the last second. “Okay, fine, but only for a little bit!”

With Tama tucked away in the back, snoring as soon as she rested her head against something comfortable, Sarine let the world blur around her. Yeah, she couldn’t reach the handlebars—but applying wind pressure did the job just as well. She could handle this.

Tama deserved a break for once. She’d been working hard for this mission, catching up on work and buying supplies. Food, blankets, cold-resistant heaters.

Sarine wanted to imagine Pleasa, terrified. But she didn’t want to think about that woman at all.

She killed Chiho. Hollowed Tama inside and out. Sarine yearned to fill what’d been lost, but it seemed whatever Pleasa tore out of Tama continued to fall, kept slipping away—maybe it’d never be found again.

Sarine focused on the blur of buildings in the distance as they merged onto the main road they needed to take. For about a few hours, before they moved onto the next one, then another few alongside a break. From there, a drive up the mountainside, then a trek for the last stretch.

Nothing complicated. But they had no plan to arrive with subtlety. Sarine prepared herself to see Pleasa waiting for them—but they could vanquish the Nachts now, and Pleasa couldn’t cultivate them in the middle of nowhere.

Not to say she wouldn’t have other tricks up her sleeve…

Sarine shivered, before her wings ever touched cold. She wanted Tama to wake up. Letting her thoughts hone in on this did no favors to her hopes, to the faint dream of victory.

When they won, what would they do?

When they vanquished this evil, returned to their lives—then what?

Sarine didn’t want Tama to fight anymore. Not after everything that happened. The idea of her ending up like Chiho, of her taking on her so-called ‘heroic destiny’ and getting herself killed for it hurt too much to bear. There was that saying: ‘The grass is greener on the other side.’ Well, Sarine had seen enough. She’d done enough. She’d get them through this, she’d destroy Pleasa and Lavi before they had a chance to hurt anyone else, then she’d…

Go.

So that this never happened again.

She curled her legs close, one hand up to control the breeze. It didn’t take much to keep it in place, at least.

Fate seemed so cruel, now. Simplicity—heroism, what was good for the world and what was good for Sarine and Tama. Maybe there’d be conflict. Maybe things wouldn’t line up so cleanly, maybe there’d need to be sacrifices, but. But. But.

Sarine peeled her eyes back to the road and refused to leave it be. The blur of buildings transformed from a dull grey to a dark green, then, to white.

The coming of spring proceeded to snuff out more and more snow, though the white, deadly cold clung, however fiercely, to the most tucked-away mountain peaks few dared venture to. One area in particular, untouched by the destructive hand of man, lied under a beautiful blanket.

Snow covered most disturbances. But as the two raced up the steep path, Tama spotted a pair of footsteps. Sarine revved the engine and followed.

The wheels of the vehicle froze over, the engine sputtered. It creaked to a halt as they hit the peak, smoke sputtering out the back; “Uh…shit, hope we can still use it,” Tama said, jumping out.

The snowmobile exploded moments later.

“…We can probably figure out a way to contact Society Prime,” Sarine said, pouting. “But—damn it, I guess we’re not gonna be able to sneak attack this.”

Tama turned around, glancing about. The footprints ended in the middle of nowhere. She dug her hands through the snow, but came up with dirt, rocks and some dead plants. “No secret trap door here. Maybe we can melt all this snow with magic?”

“You’d need a sun to do that.”

“Hey, at least I’m brainstorming.”

Sarine grumbled, following her partner. They walked everywhere and pressed on every snow and twig, but nothing happened, the wind howling even louder as clouds blocked the sun out. Tama wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. The heavy coats the pair brought did nothing to protect from extreme cold.

But monsters needed no such thing.

And as a hot breath hit Tama’s back, she turned around—met with a Nacht which looked just like herself.