Tales From The Kronos

The corpse of the leviathan stood in front of the exhausted survivors. Silva stayed on the ground, while the leader examined the beast from closer with a drooling mouth, already imagining what it would taste like. As she looked at the monster in detail, she noticed something carved into one of its fangs. It was a small metallic box, almost identical to the one that contained their first treasure. She immediately went toward the rest of the group, announcing the good news.

"Look! It's the second treasure! It wasn't all for nothing!"

Everyone gathered around, curious about the content of the box. The leader opened it, and inside was a small fang of an unknown creature.

"A fang?" Said the leader disappointed "I feel like those 'treasures' are just a bunch of trash put together."

The leader kept the box in her pocket and continued to analyze the creature. The rest of the group prepared a fire, and finally took a break from this long day.

For the first time since the trial began, they were all able to finally eat, aside from Uriel. The group enjoyed their time away from the stress and talked about various subjects. The only person who seemed unhappy was the leader, who just stared at her meal with disappointment.

"It tastes like rubber..."

"What did you expect?" Asked Silva "With the size of this thing, it was pretty obvious."

The leader complained inaudibly while eating the tasteless meat, with a look of disgust on her face.

"I'm sure they're eating the best stuff on the ship, Ina is good at cooking... I miss her cooking..."

"It's been two days! And when we go on missions, there's nothing left for us after!"

The leader stayed silent at Silva's answer, still frustrated about her bland food.

"Anyway, I wonder what they're doing on the ship now." The leader said, in an attempt to change the subject "Shiro is probably in his room cleaning knives, Ina in the kitchen, Gwyn in her lab mixing new meds, Emely working on a weird gadget."

The leader had a soft smile on her face while imagining how everyone was on the ship. Sepide noticed the softness in her speech, and how she seemed to love everyone there.

"Is everyone on the ship so important to you?"

"Of course!" Answered the leader with a smile "You're all like my children, I can still fondly remember the day you all first arrived in the team."

"You seem to be a good group of friends," Uriel said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"More than friends!" Answered the leader enthusiastically "We're like a big, loving family!"

"I never thought about it like that before." Silva answered with a melancholic gaze "That's what a family looks like..."

Sepide noticed the sad tone in Silva's voice, and went closer to her, in an attempt to make her feel better.

"Well I don't remember my family, but I'm glad you're my new family now!"

"Yeah, I'm glad too." Silva said with a soft tone "I enjoy my life on the ship, everyone's nice most of the time... Except Emely..."

The leader let out an annoyed sigh and started to talk like she was scolding Silva.

"Come on, can't you stop already? Every time I hear you two talk about each other, it's to complain."

"She's right, why don't you like each other?" Sepide asked with curiosity in her voice. She wasn't here for long, but she always saw them insult each other when they were together.

"It's not my fault if she's just the girl that repairs the coffee machine. And she can't enjoy my art anyway."

"But when I first saw your art, you said it's normal if it doesn't look good." Sepide was a bit confused and desperately tried to understand her logic.

"Yeah, but she's not allowed to say it." Silva pouted and looked away with her arms crossed.

The leader chuckled a bit and leaned slightly toward Sepide like she was about to tell a secret.

"Silva doesn't like Emely because she's jealous."

"E-Eh!? That's not true!" Silva looked suddenly flustered and embarrassed, making Sepide think that the leader may be right.

"When we found Emely, she already was good with technology. It was Silva who found her first actually, and everything was fine. But everyone started to treat Emely like a savior, the watch we used kinda sucked before."

"Isn't it a good thing then?" Asked Sepide, with a curious tone.

"It is, but thinking back, we didn't treat Silva in a good way. It was hard dealing with her, Neige was the one raising her most of the time, and he taught her how to write and read. Since she was blind, it was not easy to deal with it in the beginning."

"I'm right here, you know?" Said Silva with a fake annoyed tone.

"Yeah, right. Anyway, we may have treated Silva like a liability in the beginning because of our inexperience and her needs. So when Emely directly started helping us, we were really excited about having a member who was useful right away. Emely came to present us with something she made, but alas, they didn't work. We all encouraged her and told her it would be alright. everyone except Silva, she called her... A..."

"A failed engineer who should go back to school, and she called me a stupid blind bat that can't draw to save its life." Silva recited those words clearly as if she remembered them from the top of her head. But instead of being annoyed like Sepide expected her to be, Silva had a soft smile on her face.

"Yes... That... Ever since they always insult each other. It was funny at the beginning, but I just wish they got along. Silva, is it really because we neglected you that you're like that with her?"

Silva shrugged with a neutral look on her face like she didn't know the answer herself.

"Maybe at the beginning. I admit it was a bit annoying to hear you all talk behind my back about how hard it is to take care of me. I don't know what you and Neige talked about since you're always in your room, but I can imagine he must have complained too... I know I wasn't easy to deal with for him, but he was patient with me... When I think back, yeah I was harsh on Emely, but now it's just how we communicate."

Silva took a small break to remember all the times she had with Emely. Her memories were filled with arguments they had, except for their last conversation, where Emely shared her worries with her. Now that she thought about it, it was weird that it happened. She thought that Emely hated her, but she showed her feelings to her for the first time. Maybe she was a bit harsh on her, Silva thought. She never really considered how her 'friend' could feel, and just assumed they both hated each other without a real reason. But now, she wonders if any of them truly hate the other.

"Silva," Said the leader, cutting Silva's train of thought "Neige came to me a lot, it's true. And I won't hide that he often talked about how hard it was to take care of you."

"Yeah, I can imagine." Said Silva with a hint of sadness.

"But most of the time, he was just scared that he couldn't raise you well. He always said how proud he was of you, he even talked for hours about the first time you hit the target when you practiced together!"

"He... Did?"

The leader nodded her head with a smile to answer Silva's question, before continuing.

"It's true that some might have been annoyed by your presence. You gave Gwyn a lot of work, and Kairo already had a lot to deal with since he was new here. But everyone loved you, and I know that Neige did more than anyone, it almost made me jealous." The leader chuckled a bit, reminiscing about the old times "I remember that he was reading a book about how to be a good father. He was really happy to have you and always proud of you."

A tear fell from Silva's cheek, she quickly wiped it before anyone could see it, but Sepide did, and went to her side.

"Are you alright Silva?"

"Yes, it's men's tears."

"Men's... Tears?" Asked Sepide, confused "Aren't you a woman?"

"It's Neige who taught me that, to show tears when I feel overwhelmed! To only cry when we're safe." Silva put her hand proudly on her chest as she said those words.

"I think we should have found a girl to raise you instead..." The leader said with a sigh.

"I never knew he saw me like his daughter, now I feel a bit silly for asking him out."

The leader and Sepide stared at Silva in a mix of surprise and confusion. The leader was the first one to ask what they both had on their mind.

"You... Asked him out? He never told me that."

"Oh, I guess I never talked about it before. I think it was more of a teenage crush than anything, but I told him that I was in love. That's when he told me he was asexual, but I think that even if he wasn't, it's for the best. I see him like a brother, and I love him as such."

The leader looked away, visibly embarrassed.

"Neige is going to tell me everything once he's back..."

"I'm glad he didn't tell you. I would have been really embarrassed." Said Silva with a voice of relief "Now that I think about it, it's around when I got more independent and we spent less time together. It was usually with Kairo that we spent time, and even then, it was when I started to paint more often. I'm glad that I can spend more time with him now."

Silva turned her head to the sky, even if she couldn't see the stars in it.

"We're going to save him, I'm sure. I'm not going to give up on him, just like he never gave up on me."

The group all stared at the sky, renewed with the determination to save their friend. Tomorrow would be the last day, and they were ready to give their all. They took the night to rest, preparing for the ultimate day.