Those of Us Alone

Chapter 53: Travel Conversation has Surprising Results

Midori's POV

"General Joo-doh," it's been a while since we've left the Earth Tribe Capital, and I took it upon myself to break the unnerving silence.

There was a grunt that came from the man, but he ended up steering his horse to com side-by-side with the one which I was riding, "Yes, Midori?" While he was compliant - with trying to converse with me, he didn't seem to be in the best of moods.

But that didn't deter me, "How would you describe me?" He opened his mouth - to reply probably - but I quickly cut him off, "I mean - before . . . y'know. . ." 

We didn't talk much about what happened in Awa. We couldn't, really. I had no account of what happened and had left the only people who knew what was going on. They, of course, were not involved in all that had happened.

Joo-doh had cut off my thinking with one swift reply, "Level-headed, yet courageous."

I blinked, "That . . . isn't that a bit of a paradox?"

"You thought things through, yet if there was something you were passionate about, you stood up for it - even if it wasn't your best option, as a political figure, I mean."

"Oh?" I was interested, but I felt I wouldn't get more from him.

Silence cut through the group again. I got what I asked for . . . how he'd describe me, but that last explanation . . . it seemed so familiar . . .

~~~~~~~

I, looking about sixteen here, was being escorted by a young General Joo-doh.

Looking around at the surroundings, I could see that I was in a castle of some sort - it was primarily red in color. In complete contrast, I was walking next to the dark-clothed general of the Sky Tribe in my own ornate attire. I was in a mint dress, and there was some ornaments in my hair.

I was also quite calm . . . too calm considering the look that Joo-doh wore.

"If you greet everyone with a glare, General," my voice was smooth and calm, now I could tell how much malice I was hiding, "you'll always let people know what you're thinking."

Bitter muttering was a quick reply, but eventually he spoke up enough to let me hear him, "It's better than never allowing people to see your feelings. You hardly ever do that."

"Well, don't worry," I mutter, allowing some annoyance show through, "not even I can ignore this."

We arrive at a door. We were here on a mission, but I . . . watching this back . . . couldn't know the motive. At least, until Joo-doh threw open the door.

There stood one of Yan Kumuji's head cronies - Renzo - and who loomed over a young court lady - Chizue. The Lady, cowering with only her arms to shield her from the onslaught of physical attacks sent her way, caught sight of us.

Apparently, having an audience wasn't something that which Renzo seemed to be ashamed of. At least, not yet he wasn't.

Joo-doh jumped into action, attacking and pinning down Chizue's assailant, whilst I went over to her and checked on her. Of course, she'd been happy to see us, but the same couldn't be said for Renzo as he tried to 'reason' with me, "I did nothing wrong! You have no ability to arrest me on - !"

"You did NOTHING wrong?!" I snapped at him. Never before had there been an instance where either Chizue or Joo-doh had seen this extent of my anger. Frankly, not even I thought I could get that angry. Neither was dumb enough to try and hold me back, but instead of yelling further, I seethed with pure rage, "No one is allowed to hit a woman! We're not your toys that you can throw around or break at will!"

"He," Renzo snapped at me - referring to the general, thinking he'd won his way to freedom, "doesn't have the jurisdiction to arrest me."

I gave a sweet but ill-intended smile, "But I do." The man was now slack-jawed, and I happily turned to Joo-doh - who tightened his grip on Renzo's wrists, "General Joo-doh."

A dark grin covered his face, "Yes, milady?"

"Do arrest Sir Renzo," I raised my hand to silence the upcoming 'defenses' that Renzo had planned, "under the crime of attacking and wrongfully pursuing an unwilling second party."

~~~~~~~~~~

A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my . . . uh . . . memory. Of course, there was only one person that it could belong to, as everyone - including Joo-doh - was looking at me with concern.

Soo-won, who was still holding my shoulder, spoke up, "Are you okay, Midori?"

I turn towards him, "Why . . . why wouldn't I be okay?"

"You spaced out," Joo-doh spoke up, concern wafting through his voice. "We were talking about you before the . . . uh . . . incident, and you almost fell off the horse."

"O . . . oh . . ." I paused looking forward before turning back to face him. I was unaware as to where that memory appeared and what was actually told to me, "What. . . what was the last thing you said again?"

The concerned look only deepened as he repeated what he said before, "That you were, level-headed, yet courageous. That you thought things through, yet if there was something you were passionate about, you stood up for it - even if it wasn't your best option - "

"Like with Chizue," the words fell out of my mouth before I could even think to stop them. The look on their faces - even those that I hadn't been extremely close with - were covered in shock.

Soo-won had an air of confusion around him, but Joo-doh was the one who managed to speak, "You . . . you remember?"

"Isn't that," the king that sat behind me was confused, "a well known story? That you, Joo-doh helped reprimand Sir Renzo? With a young court lady?"

Joo-doh's eyes hadn't left mine though, he went to speak, but I managed to get my words out instead, "I practically yelled at the guy." Now, I could feel the surprise coming from Soo-won, "I was fuming when I had heard that Renzo was hurting a court lady."

The silence came back to our group, but it was with a realization: if I could remember something like that - something that not many people knew the details of - what else was I capable of remembering?

________________________________________________________________________________

Hey, everyone!

So, first week back at college, and I am tired, but happy. I'm just getting back into the swing of things. Being at school - in my major - is a pain in the neck.

I am doing well though. 

I realize this chapter isn't the longest, but considering I wrote this pretty quickly, but had to move what I had already written to another drafted chapter, so I think that I've done pretty well. 

I have decided that since I kind of established a friendship - though however small -  between Joo-doh and Midori, I thought that a memory was something that I could give them. Besides, I wanted to incorporate more memories into the story, but thought that writing ones like about what has already happened in the book would make this 'lost memory arc' seem too rushed.

I understand that reading about how Midori is unaware of a lot can be annoying, but I've committed to this arc, and I need to flesh out the fact that the memory isn't there for a while. I'm planning on allowing it all to come back, but EVENTUALLY.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter!

Thanks for all the support,

~Ashley