Mythical Shadows

Chapter 11: Distress

Kiqy, from the very beginning, had been special. She was the only person who saw past Codename's facade. She had calmly gotten everyone out of a few tight situations. And she had uplifted the team, even when it was about to internally collapse. Through all of it . . . she had been simply beyond words.

And now, with her as a companion, I didn't feel like I was alone anymore.

During this good mood, I decided to text Ferbooper, asking him if he wanted to play a nice game of Skywars. He accepted—and in spite of myself, I felt a momentary pang of discomfort at the mere thought of a social situation. But I was able to let my positive emotions overshadow the negative ones.

Ferbooper wanted to play in a few days, since he wanted to try out the new Football game that had been recently released. And this was fine, as we had plenty of time. So I agreed we'd play on the 5th.

"So how're you?" I asked him as we entered the starting cage. I leaned against one of the blazing cage walls, and looked out at the Tribute map. I wasn't in a rush to talk about anything, but I figured small talk wouldn't hurt.

"I'm doing pretty good," said Ferbooper. "You?"

"I'm doing pretty good," I said with a smile. He raised his eyebrows at me. "Well—" I began, "maybe it won't last, but yeah. I've been feeling a bit better."

He laughed as the counter began going down. "I'm not complaining. You're more fun when you're happy."

For a second, I smiled at his words. But then the dark side of my head considered them: if I was sad most of the time . . . and I'm more fun when I'm happy . . . was I not a pleasant person to be around? Was that what he was saying?

But the cage disappeared, and we dropped to the ground. I headed down the tunnel, and grabbed whatever I thought I'd use—and considering I wasn't the best at Skywars, that means that I grabbed everything. I went back up to find Ferbooper gone. He had already hopped to the center island, and already seemed well-equipped. It was pretty clear who was better at the game, but I wasn't going to complain.

We won a game, but lost most of the others, due to my stupidity.

"You know, Flawed," said Ferbooper in another game, as we camped out at one of the player islands, "Skywars is always going to be fun to me. But it isn't the same as the real fighting, where it's life and death, you know?"

I glanced at him and shrugged. "Life and death is fun, till you actually face the death part," I said. I started saying it as a joke, but then my own words began to sink into me, and it ended up dead serious.

"Aw, I didn't mean it like that," he said. "Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine," I said. I stared at the center of the map, where there were people fighting. "But you're right, I guess. There's something special about real fighting."

For a few moments, Ferbooper said nothing. But eventually he asked, "So do you think we'll have to do any fighting in the icy world?"

I inhaled through my teeth. "I don't know," I said, smiling flatly at him. "Depends if Sercher shows up."

Ferbooper sighed, glancing around at our fortified island. "He scares me," he said. "Sercher? Yeah. That guy always made me feel uneasy."

"To think we trusted him," I said. "To think I trusted him—"

"Now wait a minute," said Ferbooper. Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell he was looking at me. But, right on time, the chests refilled—so then he couldn't explain to me how it wasn't my fault, how I couldn't have known, how nobody blamed me, blah blah blah.