Hiraeth |✔

The fool

"They are crushed! They will die in the minefield, Zen! Ha! Humans are too innocent to be lost this way. Phew! What a thing we have eluded from!" She bit her lips as her eyes trailed Zen's face.

"Scar," Zen drew a smile across his striking face, as he shoved himself closer to her weak body, "remember how we met?"

"Unfortunately, yes!" She bobbed her dull yet captivating face.
Scarlett smiled at the memory. A day her life was smashed against a gruff rock and at the same time, it was soothed with a friend like him- a friend who knitted his into hers spanning the right bait.

"Must be a melody to your heart, that song!" He grinned, "so, then just go back and recall the little and big things that came about your-..our way." He paused for a moment of breath and added, "a cruise of death and life. Over the malignant blue turf, we were swindled into darkness. You met Odlin, smiled after a long time. You struck the heights of bravado, well, you confirmed my speculations, when you stole a gun from that shabby guard. You served your past and I let you savour my present. We watched the brewing sunset and note that all this was done under the vicious eyes of the wicked. We were separated for a matter of time, which, of course, seemed like forever, but then we were miraculously glued back. We fled from the hands of those malicious people, and yet nothing would have been possible if one, yes, even if only one had given up. Spectacle, isn't it? A long journey, Scar! Anything could have happened but thanks to God's benevolent love, we are alive. Do you still feel shattered and down?"

"No, immensely grateful, Zen! Maybe I would feel better if you stop adding dramatic actions as you speak!" She was mentioning the way he kept his physique competent with his words. Her smile grew bigger, fending new ways for optimistic thoughts.

"I get lost when I think about the past!"

Zen pulled her closer, holding her limps softly. Angling more towards him. "You could have just come more closer, you know the effort is less. I'm heavy!" She chuckled

"Ow! The effort is special!" He winked with a surge of tease.

"Now tell me," Zen started in an attempt to change the conversation rally, "the one thing you want to do, once you have reached home, when I say home I mean somewhere you are safe like an eyeball, without a speck of fear and sorrow of a dusty heart?"

Scarlett rubbed her hair, she said "me? Probably sleep on a feathery bed!" Their laughter stained the evening breeze. "Oops! Let me bounce back to a more serious side, Zen, let me think. You tell me first, that works better."

Zen roamed his creamy eyes dreamily, "I've unfinished words, ready to sprint out of the corner of my mouth- like caged birds. I will probably let them free when I'm free!"

Scarlett squinted her eyes, "Fascinating..." She found the answer to be oddly piquant. She kept her mouth shut and didn't dig into it more, letting him get away this time.

After a brief silence, Zen added, "Ms.Scarlett, done thinking, yet?"

"Uh? Y-yes...once we are out of this turmoil," she huffed heavily, "I long to see your face- That face you haughtily bore before all this. I want to see your authentic form, that carefree, feisty young man. Do you think I don't sense the terror you are covering up to be a strong man? That would be some other girl, not me! I want to see your beautiful face without that invisible tremor and the lines of marred emotions piping into your veins. Crazy, huh? I don't care!"

All the while Zen was listening to her intently with a peculiar smile. "That's an expensive wish!"

"How terribly your ego hikes!" She chuckled.

"Scar, what if I tell you this is me. This is who I am and whatever I was before all this and what I will be after this isn't who I am. A man evolves into his authentic form in his adversities. Before, I didn't decipher what it is to care for or be a human. It was like me being in the centre and the world around me. This experience has refined me into a better man, a version I would not regret. And in that, you have had the honours of playing the major part."