Remembering the Past

[Mint]

Mint's eyes remained half closed, her body relaxed by the warmth and comfort of company. Her eyes drifted to Kylie for a brief moment as he settled beside the fire. Looking back to the flames, she let the golden being's previous words flutter through her thoughts.

"...I am an angel..."

Her eyes had narrowed when he had uttered such a phrase. An angel? Mint recalled little from the time when her wings had also been a color pure. It had been so long ago. So long, in fact, that she had forgotten why she had ever been cast out in the first place. She only knew that there was no redemption for her. Her gaze left the flames as Kylie handed her a stick. Watching him a bit longer, were they really so different? Besides appearances and personality, why did he remain an angel and her an outcast? She speared her fish.

Mint was pulled from her thoughts by a cry. The cat had been struck by a branch. Unfortunate. She looked back to her fish and turned it in the flames so it would cook evenly. She adjusted herself to pull her knees close. The other two must have been cold with their garments still somewhat damp. She placed her right arm across her knees for her chin to rest on. She didn't mind the cold so much.

The orb sparkled in the light of the flame, the fire more stunning in the night. Mint pulled her fish from the heat before blowing on it. She wasn't a big meat eater but the morsal smelled delicious. She watched the cat happily before she bit her own fish. A pleasant look spread across her face. It was really good! She continued to watch the restless cat as she finished her fish, tickled by how the feline couldn't sit still. Looking to the angel once more, she smiled. She liked their company, but what would they do next? When morning would come, where would they go? Mint had been to many places, so it mattered little to her. She would go along happily to wherever destination they would decide. It would be different traveling with companions, but she looked forward to it.

"Thank you. For the fish."

[weavedingold]

Kylie watched the two women as they ate their fish, neither seemed upset at the taste. That was good. He watched Mint imparticular. She fascinated him. He wondered what she thought about. With Shizuka, she spoke her mind, and you knew all that she was interested in. But with Mint, everything was a mystery. He himself fell somewhere between the two. He wasn't certainly wasn't bold and outspoken like Shizuka, but he certainly didn't think, at least, that he was as quiet and mysterious as Mint. In his mind the three were a whole, each filling a different part in the friendship that was theirs, but non being able to take each other's place.

Kylie pulled his mind from the topic and focused it on more pressing matters. Where were they going? How early were they leaving? And he and Shizuka still knew nothing about Mint. Kylie encouraged the introductions to continue.
"So, Mint, it's your turn. Tell us something about yourself." He snatched up his fish and began to eat, waiting for Mint's response. He wondered about his companions. Were they truthful? He certainly hoped so. In regards to current or, not so current, issues of Algaesia, there was a lot of deceit, and treachery. Something Kylie thought could solve the many problems of Algaesia. He for one vowed, then and there, to be truthful to his new companions so that there was no room for misinterpretation, if he could help it.

If there was one thing Kylie wanted in his life was friends. Not just people he could call his friends, but people he could believe as friends; people he could trust, and people who had faith in him too. He didn't want people to pressure him into spilling all of his secrets, but he wanted someone so kind enough to be there waiting to hear his thoughts when he was ready. Someone who wouldn't think or judge, just listen.

[blitzstreak]

Feeling completely full from the single fish made her tired. Her day was very stressing and yet getting eventful as the sunlight reached the climax of the sky and descending down into the horizon. She wanted to sleep, but yet she wanted to learn about those she would be adventuring the world with.

Shizuka could not get in a comfortable position. She was continuously shifting her head, arms, and legs until she eventually stood up once more, only to sit down next to quiet, shy Mint. Shizuka could not picture herself being quite and keeping everything to herself. She’d go crazy. Stretching her legs, she laid back to gaze up into the sky between two trees. The sky was clear in this tiny area with bright stars shining down.

Being bored, she wanted to attempt to strike up a conversation that Mint would talk about. She knew Kylie would talk with her, but she wanted to know more about this girl. It had to be spontaneous and funny, nothing serious. She promised herself that after this conversion, she’d go to sleep in order to have enough energy to go through tomorrow’s travel plans. Suddenly a spark ignited a thought into her mind. Snow.

“So, I am going to be kinda out of the blue, but do you like snow? I can’t wait until it begins to snow so I can play in it and eat it.”

She really did like snow, especially building snowmen and eating it. It just melted in her mouth. She didn’t mind the cold as long as she was dressed properly and wasn’t wet like she happened to be now.

Shizuka felt an itch on her leg, but as she sat up to scratch it, she saw that it wasn’t an itch but yet a creepy, eight-legged bug crawling up her calf. Her fear of spiders was very high. She could not even explain how much she hated these things. Without thought, she screamed bloody murder and jumped into the air. She didn’t stop jumping up and down until she saw it crawl away. Now Shizuka was paranoid to sit back down onto the ground. Sure they had crawled on her before, but every time made her even more scared.

Checking out the land before sitting down, she sat down cautiously. Sitting upright with her propping her up, she relaxed slightly. Now she felt utterly stupid for being such a baby for some little spider that was probably more scared of her than she was of it in front of her traveling friends.

Now she was getting tired. Scanning the area, she found nothing to cuddle with during the night. Well now was the time to wean her off that bad, childish habit. Shizuka laid down on her stomach, head closest to the fire. A yawn escaped from between her lips. She gave her wings a good stretch and then folded her arms in front of her and resting her chin on top of her folded hands.

“Maybe it is time we retired for the evening so we have a good start in the morning.”

She waited for the signal that the others were going to rest first before dozing off.

[Mint]

Mint had been caught off guard by the question directed toward her. She wasn't one for sharing personal information. What was it that they wanted to know? She closed her eyes in thought, trying to decide on an appropriate answer. A little about myself, huh? She let her gaze return to the fire, her lips curled back into a smile just as vibrant as the flames.

"I really like flowers. White lilies to be exact. I've found time passes me by quickly, and I've long since tried to remember. Anything. But, the charm and elegance a white lilly possesses has never left me."

Talking about the flower brought a sparkle to her eyes. It's all she could answer with, really. She didn't care to tell them anything deeper than that, for now anyways, but that's not to say her love for white lilies was insignificant. They had been an item that had left an impression on her. And while it was true that she didn't remember things, the flower had tickled her fancy enough to stick with her. To her, it held importance for that reason alone. But then again, maybe that wasn't an appropriate answer. She looked away from the two just as the cat had settled next to her.

“So, I am going to be kinda out of the blue, but do you like snow? I can’t wait until it begins to snow so I can play in it and eat it.”

Had that question been directed at her? She was still a little too flustered to look at her companions. She hoped Kylie would answer this one, leaving her to hide her face. Something that didn't go on for long as she looked back a little startled as the cat screamed. She watched questioningly as the feline jumped up and down, stopping only as a little spider scuttled beside Mint's bare feet off into the darkness. She watched after it a little longer as the cat finally settled again.

“Maybe it is time we retired for the evening so we have a good start in the morning.”

A pleasant idea. She turned before settling on her side, her back facing the fire. With her left arm as a pillow and her right resting on the ground in front of her, she allowed her eyelids to become heavy.

[weavedingold]

Kylie listened as Mint spoke. His ears listened intently and clung to her every soft spoken word. Her response was beautiful. Kylie wished he could express himself in a similar way. She didn't speak for a long time, and her response was on nothing too important. Kylie could tell she was an insightful person. He already enjoyed the short time he had with his companions more than was probably necessary. Shizuka was outgoing, the type of person who always spoke her mind. Mint was nearly the opposite, yet both held wonderful potentials of friendship.

Kylie allowed himself to relax a little, throwing his fish remains into the fire. He let a long hollow breath escape him and then he was laying still on his back, concentrating on taking even breaths. His eyes watched the sky. He was concentrating, hard, on tracing constellations with his eyes. He was on his way up the handle of the little dipper...

Kylie opened his eyes, shivering. A little bit of snow had fallen to cover him. He seemed to be the first one awake. He walked to get his wet clothing. Luckily, it was dry and not frozen. The snow must have fallen early this morning. Kylie thought to himself. He set about clearing the area to start a new fire. He found some dry sticks underneath a tree, hidden by it's canopy. Quickly rubbing the sticks together, he soon had sparked and lit a fire. He built it up and had it quickly melt the little snow flakes around the edges of the fire. He rubbed his palms together, sitting closer to the fire than he had last night. How can they sleep in this chill?

[blitzstreak]

Not realizing that she was fallen into a deep slumber, she was jolted awake by a snap, crackle, and pop of a small fire. Kylie was already awake, sitting next to the fire. He was probably the one who made it. Mint, was still where she had fallen asleep. Sitting upward, Shizuka rubbed her eyes, and damn she was cold. Her clothes weren’t cleaning considering they were cold too. She crawled over quietly to the fire on her hands and knees. Shizuka was NOT a morning person. It took her a long time to get with the program.

“Good Morning Kylie. Damn, it’s cold.”

It wasn’t until she said that, did she realize the thin layer of fluffy white stuff on the ground. Jumping into the air, Shizuka took flight, only a few inches from the ground, and threw herself into the snow Even though it wasn’t a lot; it was probably the only snow she would see until next year. It had been a mild year. Forgetting the cold, she rolled around laughing, covering every inch of her body with flakes of snow. After about ten minutes and yards and yards of disturbed snow, she crawled, out of breath, back over to the fire.

Secretly, inside her hand laid a snow ball with Kylie’s name on it. She didn’t dare wake up Mint. She hoped that she didn’t already. Shizuka wasn’t really one for quiet time. She stared at Kylie over the fire. Swiftly she launched the snowball at Kylie, hitting him in the shoulder. She couldn’t help but to laugh one of those big belly laughs mixed with a snort here or there.

Quickly, she ran across the field, only to prevent a snow fight with snoozing Mint nearby.

“Bet you can’t get me !!”

Shizuka stuck out her tongue. There were times when everyone acted like a child, Shizuka’s life was just mostly made up of those moments. Life wasn’t always about being serious. People need fun in their lives and that is that. Shizuka ran and ran, not looking behind her to see if Kylie had followed her.

All of a sudden, thunk!

“Ow!” “Yum”

Shizuka had tripped over something, but she was too worried about eating the snow than to rub her aching knees and ankle, which hit the thing she had tripped over. Her mouth full of snow, she rolled onto her back. Every place she had either rolled on or ran through was now grass dusted with snow rather than the thick coating that covered over everything else.

Shizuka flopped back onto her stomach to eat more snow. This was the life of no worries. Worries were for later or until Kylie got back at her.