Acquaintance
1061 Words
Mila descends from the air and lands in front of my doorstep. Her looks changed so much. Her black straight hair is now long, reaching her back. Her face has become slimmer. She's wearing a black sleeveless dress robe like what Lady Danae used to wear except Mila's robe is black. She looks mature and I can say that her body finally caught up to the maturity of her mind.
“Nice to see you again, Leo,” she says with a hesitating smile. Her voice changed too. It's very soft and lady-like.
I bow, saying, “The pleasure's all mine, my lady.”
As soon as I stand up straight, she says, “Did you forget about what we agreed on? I told you to call me-” She realizes Halona is still here behind her. “Oh...,” she realizes stepping aside to let me talk to her.
Before saying she should go, I introduce them first. “Halona, this is Lady Mila, the Goddess of Death.”
She kneels before her and says, “I'm your humble presence, my lady.”
“I'm honored,” says Mila.
Halona looks at her eyes for long seconds then says, “I'm going home now, my lady.”
“Be safe,” she nods.
Bowing once more, she turns and walks away. That leaves me and Mila in my patch of land. “Let's talk inside,” I say to her. She nods without looking at me.
I open the door for her and she comes in. There is only one chair in my small cottage and I give it to her. I'll sit on my bed instead. Before that, I made lime juice for her. She looks thirsty for refreshments. Crossing the Atlas Ocean is very tiring. We have no ice but all I have is sugar. I mix them in a wooden cup. And I was right in guessing. She's fast reaching for it when I give it to her. She drinks it and the gratitude comes after. She sighs.
“So,” I speak, sitting on my bed. “What is it?”
“What do you mean, ‘what is it’? We had a deal, remember? It's been two years since then. I've never even talked to you even for a bit.”
She's not looking at me in the eyes. I compare her and Lady Danae. There are no differences. It's like Lady Danae just became younger and became the Goddess of Death.
“You and Lady Danae are as pretty as each other,” I compliment.
She clears her throat slightly and still looking at the side but her eyes are closed. “Don't toy with me, I didn't come all the way here for you to hit on me.”
“Hit?” I ask. “I don't what you're talking about.”
“Ye- uh... ugh!” she growls while stammering. “J... just do what we agreed on!”
“Well, actually, I changed my mind. I won't be returning to serve, Mila.”
“What?!” she reacts, frowning and finally looking at me. “But you told me-”
“That was a lie. I never intended to return and I thought all of you will forget about me.”
“No, we'll never forget! You might not know it, but you're an important person for all of us!”
“That's not true. I'm a dangerous one. You saw how we barely even made it through after I went out of control, remember? I should settle down here until I die peacefully. And don't worry, I've written what I learned about the power of Gravity in a journal. So that the next God of Gravity can use it.” I pull out the journal from under my pillow. “Here.” I hand it to her.
She receives it and opens all of it. Every flip of a page makes her frown even more until she makes the whole thing rot.
“No!” she yells. There's nothing left of it.
I keep my calm and inform her, “I worked hard on that, Mila.”
“We don't need this! We need you!”
“I don't think you should using the word ‘we’. You talk as if you're talking on behalf of everyone but the truth is you're talking on behalf of yourself. Why do ‘you’ need me?”
Frowning, she looks down, crumpling her dress on her lap with her hands. She's angry because I was on point—maybe. “You're the strongest, Leo,” she whispers.
“No. you have Darius. As I heard from the travelers that pass by here, coming from the west, he's training hard every day while I'm here the whole time, planting carrots and potatoes. No doubt, he's much stronger than me now.”
“He's been training every day because of you. He always wanted to catch up with you! You're the one he's looking up to. He trained every day so when you meet again after two years, he can be at the same level as you.”
“Well, he has surpassed me. And I'm a bit glad he became stronger. Now I know how much I'm not needed now.” I nod.
“I told you, we still need you!”
“I told you to stop using the word ‘we’. I guess two years didn't change you, after all, Mila. You might have changed in looks but you're still afraid to accept the truth.”
I stand up and go to the door to show it to her. I want her to leave now. She stands up, holding her hands in front of her, looking down, and slowly walks to the door. She passes by me and I realized how much I've grown taller than her. Well, it doesn't matter now.
She walks out of the house and before she could even turn to say something, I shut the door. I lie down on my bed, thinking about the journal I worked hard on. I don't know if can write it again.
Was I too harsh to her? Maybe I shouldn't have shut the door at her face. Damn... why am I even concerned?
- Writer
