125 Aquarina’s Resolve
—–
Meat was being cooked over the grill. The pieces of meat were from all sorts of beasts, from Wild Boars to Six-Limbed Lizards, and even other sorts of creatures. There were some strong ones that father had gone to hunt by himself in other areas of this floating continent, but I had not seen them so I couldn’t really tell what this other meat is. In any case, most of it was red.
There were also some fishes, crabs, shrimp, and skewers with vegetables and mushrooms being prepared. All in all, there’s a big feast today. I also heard my mother say that she would prepare a cake and that it was almost ready, so I can’t wait to eat some delicious cake from mama.
For now, I followed Aquarina from behind.
“Aquarina, don’t be mad at your daddy. I recognize your efforts. I won’t get worried, don’t worry,” I told her.
“S-Sylph…” Aquarina ended up sitting near a tree as she looked back at me.
We were quite far from the rest of our family. Zack decided to stay with the adults because my father offered him a piece of meat to taste it. Plus, he liked to be spoiled by the adults a lot.
I sat near her and hugged her, rubbing my face over her shoulder.
“Come on, Aquarina…” I said once more.
…..
Aquarina grew redder as she began to release steam from her ears, which got very red from the hug.
“S-Stop…” she muttered.
“Huh?” I asked.
Did she tell me to stop?
She never had rejected my hugs before.
“O-Okay. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I won’t do that again,” I said while bowing my head a bit.
“Uwah! N-No! I-I don’t mean to stop forever… I-I love to be hugged by you…” she said in response.
“Is that so?” I asked.
“Yeah… it makes me feel comfortable. Since I was a baby, we’ve always been together, right?” she asked.
“Indeed, I remember when we first met… there was that big and scary bug,” I said, only to sigh.
“Oh… you’re right, that thing was pretty scary…” Unsurprisingly, she also sighed.
“Yep, but we’ve grown out of that already… we even went through a crazy challenge by ourselves…” I giggled.
Aquarina looked at me with a worried look after that.
“Y-You think what happened back then is a laughing matter?” she asked rather seriously.
“Huh? N-No… I… I didn’t want to make fun of it… I just want to lighten up the mood,” I replied while shrugging my shoulders.
“Hmm…” She let out a sigh after that, looking down at the grass while touching it tightly with her hands.
“Aqua…rina?” I asked.
“S-Since that day that I was left… quite… scarred… my life… your life… it was all hanging on a thread… we were so close to dying… for all our journey to end so soon…” she murmured.
“…”
“A-And… I couldn’t… I-I… it made me so frustrated when I saw you do so much for me… because I was so useless… it made me so angry with myself… I hated myself,” she continued.
“Aquarina, you don’t have to…” I muttered.
“B-But that’s how I felt!” she replied, crying rather loudly.
“…I see.” I could only say that in response.
“A-And… I know you also felt bad… even if you like to pretend everything is okay…” she said soon after.
“…”
“So, because of that, I decided to just grow stronger myself and help you out… I don’t want you to protect me, I want to do it the other way around!” she said, while blushing and looking into my eyes.
“Aquarina…”
“A-And… I asked papa to teach me… his training is harsh… it hurt a lot… sometimes I even started crying… Papa comforted me, but he was also harsh sometimes… he said that a person cannot grow stronger without bleeding and crying in the process… the path to grow stronger is harsh and filled with painfulness and bitterness…” she told me.
“T-That’s not really something a father should tell a five-year-old child…” I could not help but say.
“I know papa was a bit harsh there but… I wanted it to be that way,” she replied.
“I see… so, you’re dead set on growing stronger, huh? I already noticed it back then. Actually, you’ve grown pretty strong.” I told her.
“T-That’s not enough… I don’t know if it’s enough…” she said with a sigh.
“I think it’s enough for your age so…!” I said in response.
“S-Sylphy!” she exclaimed out of nowhere.
After that, she moved closer to me and looked into my eyes.
But unlike the first time I meet her, where her eyes were filled with doubtfulness, fear, and timidness, there was now a strong conviction within them. She was different.
“Let’s spar!” she said out of the blue.
“Eh?!” I uttered out of shock and confusion.
Spar?!
Wait, she wants to fight me? Why?
Is she angry at me?
“A-Aquarina, sorry for making you mad… don’t get angry! I don’t want to fight you…” I replied.
“I-I’m not angry in the sense you think… I just want to test my own strength, and see if I can compare to you, even if a little bit…” she explained.
“I see…” I slowly nodded after that.
It might be my birthday now, but I guess there’s no point in arguing with her. I want to see how strong she is as well… but I had never truly imagined that she would ask me to spar with her.
With that, I stood up and extended my hand to her.
“Then come,” I said with a solemn expression.
Aquarina nodded in response, but instead of taking my hand, she got up by herself.
“Sure!” she said as she shook my hand instead.
After that, we moved to a clearer area above a small hill on the grasslands surrounding my home.
Zack and our parents already noticed we were doing something weird, so they slowly walked towards us, finding both of us facing each other.
I unsheathed my blade, while Aquarina unsheathed her knife.
“Wait, what are these girls doing?!” my mother blurted out in surprise.
“Let them be,” father said in response.
“EH?! B-But they’re going to fight!” Mother was quite worried.
“Yeah, look at their eyes. They really want to.” On the other hand, father wasn’t.
“Aquarina… you’re bolder than I imagined, my daughter,” Shade could not help but say.
“S-She’s really going at it, huh?” Nepheline said with a sigh.
“These girls are really crazy… ugh.” murmured Zack while facepalming.
As the soothing wind caressed our faces, we faced each other, wielding our convictions within our hearts.
—–