Merry-Go-Round Second Draft: Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten - Fighting

“How long do these diplomatic missions usually take?” Sieural asked his red-headed comrade sitting across the table from him.

“Depends, really. At least a week, usually. I just hope they stay safe, hm? Elleani… isn’t the safest place.” Araschaun sighed, looking at the stony ceiling.

The red sunset light shone in through both the trees as the small entrance to the Coalition.

“Oh…” Sieural replied.

“Yep. Me and Shiara lived there since we were kids, although we moved to Kereial later.”

Sieural nearly fell out of his seat. “Wait. I thought everyone here was from Kereial.”

“Really? Where’d you get that from?” Araschaun took his attention off the ceiling, and looked toward Sieural.

“I guess I just assumed it.” Sieural sighed.

“Me and Araschaun are from Elleani.” Araschaun’s twin sister, Shiara, began to say. “Alexis, Kaelyn, Koellis, and Riania are from Kereial. Oh, and of course, you. The others, Luna, Kairius, and Eria are from Lakai.”

“Although, it doesn’t make a difference. We’re all here and fighting for the same cause, right?” Araschaun grinned.

“The same cause…” Sieural looked around the room.

Luna was near the front of the building, pacing back and forth. The light-blue haired Koellis sat quietly next to Eria. The two of them sat at the very edge of the main room. Kaelyn and Alexis were in the side rooms.

“Yep. The same cause. Fate’s what brought us here together, hm? To fight together against the Protectorate?” Araschaun grinned.

“Don’t be so corny, Araschaun.” Shiara playfully hit her brother over the head.

“Hey, it’s true. If it weren’t for the Coalition, we might still be working for the Protectorate. And it was by some miracle that it happened, too.”

“Miracle, hm?” Sieural sighed.

No miracle took place for Oaklyn. And as hard as he tried, Sieural couldn’t do anything for his friend.

“Yep. Can you believe that the Coalition back then was like, 30 people? It was like an army coming into the camp and saving us!” Araschaun exclaimed, much like a child would.

Shiara sighed. “Stop going crazy. It wasn’t that amazing. And they never even came into the camp.”

“What are you talking about? Don’t you remember? Oaklyn, she came into the camp and helped us out, and…”

Sieural cringed at the mention of Oaklyn’s name. Obviously, Shiara and Araschaun noticed, and immediately stopped talking.

“Sorry.” Araschaun quietly said, turning away.

“If you’re going to get all worked up over one person dying, then you’re in for trouble.” A voice said from across the hall.

Sieural turned to see Koellis talking to them, without moving closer.

“Quit being depressing, Koellis.” Araschaun said, frowning.

“It’s not depressing, it’s the truth. Better accept that.” Koellis continued to point out, in his low, deep voice.

“Man, that’s what I hate about you. Just because you’re the oldest one here—,”

“It’s because I’m the oldest that I know. Why do you think there are only ten people in this Coalition?” Koellis stood up and began walking toward the three.

The younger member, Luna also took notice, turning toward the brewing argument.

“What do you think happened to them? Why do you think the Coalition is made up of little kids? It’s because everyone else gets killed. You’ll have to accept that, and not cry like a little b—,”

“Enough.” The white haired girl that sat with Koellis, said, although extremely quietly.

“Sorry.” Koellis, surprisingly, immediately stopped. Nobody was sure if he was apologizing to Eria or Araschaun and Sieural.

“It’s fine, Koellis.” Araschaun replied. “I think we all know what you mean. But… It’s not like everybody’s going to be happy. Some people react differently than others when they lose someone, hm?”

~~~~~

“Calm down, Ari. We’ll go find Sayu after school is over.”

Ariana was crying heavily in her sister’s arms. “But… That’s a whole week…”

“Ari, why do you like that guy so much?” Shiriana sighed.

“Umm… Ummm… Well… I think…” Ariana stuttered, looking around the room.

“Forget it.” Shiriana leaned back in the small cushioned bench she sat on and stared to her ceiling.

“I do want to look for him too… since… well…” Soriana said quietly.

“I know, Sory… I just don’t know what you two see in him.”

“I thought you were friends with him…”

“I guess. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a stupid idiot… I mean, he couldn’t even tell you and Ari where he was going to go. And… what else is, he didn’t tell anyone about that incident with Oaklyn… What was he thinking?” Shiriana stomped her feet on her wooden floor in frustration.

“But Alexis didn’t tell us where she was going either…” Ariana said, eyes still wet with tears.

“Well, she actually has a place to go. We knew she wasn’t going to be staying long. Besides, how do we even know that Sieural followed Alexis? For all we know, he could be in the city, right outside our house… just—,”

There was a knock on the front door. Ariana immediately jumped to her feet. Shiriana also stood up and walked to the door.

She pulled open to door to see Deshael and Yukishi.

“Hey again.” Deshael said.

“Oh! Hi, Deshael! Hi, Yukishi!” Soriana greeted the two.

“Ummm… why are you here?” Shiriana asked.

Deshael laughed. “I need help with my homework.”

Shiriana nearly fell over. “What? What about Yukishi?”

“Different grade.”

“Oh! Shiri… Actually… I was going to ask you about the homework… too.” Soriana said meekly. “I didn’t get it either…”

Shiriana sighed. “Fine. I’ll help.”

“Does that include me?” Deshael laughed, walking towards her with his assignment in his hand.

Shiriana hit the white haired boy over the head. “Whatever. I’ll help you too. But, really, why the heck am I doing this for you?”

“Because I’m an idiot, and you’re smart.” Deshael grinned. “Thank you for helping me, miss.”

A second strike hit Deshael’s head. “Shut it before I change my mind.”

“Okay, okay.” Deshael said, as he, Shiriana, and Soriana sat at the table and began working on their assignment.

Meanwhile, near the front door of the house, Ariana has walked up to Yukishi. Looking up at the taller girl’s face, Ariana smiled. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Yukishi answered back, returning Ariana’s glance.

“Are you Deshael’s sister?” Ariana asked continuing to stare at Yukishi’s face.

Yukishi shook her head. “Friend.”

“Oh. Are you going to come with everyone to find Sayu-Sayu?”

“In a week.” Yukishi answered in her normal monotonous and soft voice.

“Yup. Have you ever been to Elleani before?”

Yukishi nodded.

“Oooooh. What is it like there?”

“Sophisticated.”

“Really? How?”

“…” Yukishi hesitated, as if to find a way to reply in a short manner.

“Don’t stress her, Ari.” Deshael laughed. “If you ask questions that quickly, she won’t be able to think of her short little answers quick enough.”

Yukishi quickly walked over to Deshael and hit him over the head, much like how Shiriana had done twice before. Immediately after, she walked back to Ariana, and said, “Everything.”

Ariana continued to ask questions. “Like what?”

“Buildings… People… Everything.”

“Eh? The people are sophisticated?” Ariana asked as she sat down on the couch, still looking directly at Yukishi. “How?”

“…” Yukishi once again struggled to find an answer.

“Enough… Jeez, Ari. You really will make her go crazy at this rate.” Deshael laughed loudly.

“I’m okay.” Yukishi continued.

She turned to Ariana again, and said, “Different lifestyle. Different motives.”

“Huh… Different than ours?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“They love money. We… don’t.” Yukishi said, looking at the ground.

“Ehhh? So, it’s like… we…. Ummm…”

“This conversation is hurting my brain!” Shiriana yelled. “Stop asking questions, Ari!”

Immediately, Ariana closed her mouth. Silently, she nodded, although, evidently, her feelings were hurt.

“Don’t be so mean, Shiri.” Both Soriana and Deshael said.

Yukishi sat down by Ariana and patted her on the head. “It’s okay.”

Ariana looked at the light-blue haired girl, and silently nodded her head once more.

Yukishi, surprisingly, continued talking. “I… don’t know everything about Elleani. Sorry.”

In response Ariana hugged Yukishi tightly around the stomach.

Shiriana sighed. “You know, I didn’t say stop talking, Ari. I just said stop asking annoying questions.”

Ariana turned toward her older sister, and smiled. “Okay.”

As the three-member study group continued, Ariana slowly dozed off to sleep on Yukishi’s shoulder.

~~~~~

For the second time, sunlight did not meet Sieural’s eyes, but a softly lit candle. For the second time, Sieural found himself waking up to see a stony ceiling, an unknown world, and surrounded by unknown people.

He sighed as he sat up. Unlike the day before, he had risen off his bed before his younger roommate. As he lifted himself to his feet, he looked around. Luna, the golden-haired child, was sound asleep on his bed. As he walked through the small doorway, he realized that there were absolutely no sounds within the confines of the Coalition building.

After continuing to look around the meetingplace, Sieural stepped outside. The cold, crisp early morning air met his face as he stared out the small rock crevasse that hid the Coalition from the outside world. He stepped out into the sunlight and looked around. Sitting underneath a tree, was one of the Coalition’s members, Eria.

As Sieural walked closer to her, Eria turned to him, surprised. However, noting that Sieural was no enemy, she relaxed, and greeted him.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.”

“I have to apologize for Koellis last night.” Eria frowned. “He should never have done that…”

“It’s okay. I understood what he meant.” Sieural sighed. “It’s true.”

“It may be. But, the way he acted was by no means right.” Eria shook her head, allowing her long white hair to flow freely.

“About that… how long has Koellis been a member of the Coalition?” Sieural asked, turning his head back toward the entrance of the meetingplace.

“Oh, nearly three years now. Both he and I were two of the first members here. Kairius, Riania, Kaelyn are the others that first made up the group who are… still with us.”

“Kaelyn? Three years ago? That would mean she was 8!” Sieural exclaimed, surprised.

“She was the leader back then, too. Even though she was the youngest, her ideas about the decisions were always the most developed.” Eria looked toward the sky. “She always had the best thoughts, the purest ideas, and they almost always work.”

“Only once did she make a mistake, and that ended in a huge loss for our whole group. Nearly everyone was taken prisoner, except for Kaelyn, Riania, and Koellis. They really performed a miracle to save the even a few of them… but most others were killed by the Protectorate before they could be saved.”

“What exactly is the cause of the conflict between the Coalition and the Protectorate?” Sieural asked, frowning.

“There’s a bunch of reasons.” A deep rough voice that could only be Koellis called out from behind Sieural. “The main one is just that we don’t like them, and they don’t like us. That’s the start of all battles, both in a figurative sense, and literal sense.”

“Good morning, Koellis.” Eria greeted her friend and fellow founding member.

“Hey.” Koellis stared down the mountain slope toward Kereial. Motioning toward Sieural, he asked, “You were born in Kereial, right?”

Sieural nodded. “So were you, right?”

“Yeah. Think about it. In three days, the Elleani army could cross this mountain range and totally crush our home city. What does that mean to you?”

“A lot. A hell of a lot. Everything I’ve ever known is in that small enclosed village down there.” Sieural followed Koellis’ gaze down the mountainside.

“Right. Just to protect things you need to protect. That’s just another reason that fights are fought. What you have, people want. It’s not even greed. It’s necessity.”

“And of course, there’s a material reason behind our war.” Koellis ended, holding up his wristband. “This.”

Sieural had also received the same style of wristband for his birthday. His had a light blue tint that seemed both translucent and opaque, both vivid and dull. It had a special sort of gloss and shine, but did not glitter like other jewels.

Sieural glanced at Koellis’ bracelet to find that his was not blue, but green. Although the same sort of incomplete color, the overall tint was different.

“This is the material reason behind our war. A few colored bracelets.”

“What exactly are these?” Sieural asked, waving his in the air.

“It’s made out of rare metals. Somehow, the metals react both with each other and when in contact with the skin.” Eria commented, walking up to Koellis and Sieural.

“Okay… What exactly do they do?”

“That depends. It depends on each one of us, actually. For the most part, it’s not something very prominent. For me… well, I can sense people’s feelings.”

Sieural took a glance at Eria’s wristband. Its tint was a light pink, almost white.

“But, there’s really no way to know your own until it’s manifested itself.” Eria continued. “Sometimes, the effect can be so miniscule that there it has no importance. Other times, it can be something important, like a bolstering of strength or unabated courage. It really depends.”

“Ugh. So I have no clue as to what this thing does right now, do I…” Sieural motioned to his bracelet.

“Sorry.” Eria said, nodding.

“Well, what’s the fun in knowing ahead of time?” Sieural sighed.

As he finished his sentence, he fell over and landed on the ground. One golden-haired little girl sat on his back as he lay face first on the earth.

“Morning!” Kaelyn grinned.

“Ow. Morning.” Sieural said, rolling to his side, causing Kaelyn to slide off of him.

“Good morning, Kaelyn.” Eria smiled.

Koellis turned away without saying a word. Eria followed him as he walked away from Kaelyn. At the same time, Sieural also rose to his feet.

“So, why exactly are you up so early?” Sieural said, shielding his eyes from the rising sun. “Little girls like you should be sleeping.”

“Hey, that’s mean! I have to wake up early, or else… ummm… well, I can’t get things done!” Kaelyn pouted. “I mean, I have a lot of stuff to do.”

“Like coming out here and talking?” Sieural said, grinning.

“Ummm… I guess…” Kaelyn said uncertainly, unable to come up with a reply.

Sieural sighed. “ So this is your job as the ‘leader’ of the Coalition?”

“I guess… Right now, I can’t do much because Kairius and Riania are in Elleani.”

“And there’s nothing important to do. It’s like the calm before the storm.”

“Exactly!” Kaelyn immediately brightened. “Wait, doesn’t that mean that something’s going to happen soon?”

“I don’t know. Koellis said something along those lines.”

“Don’t listen to Koellis! He’s a big meanie… and depressing.” Kaelyn stomped the leaf covered ground.

Sieural laughed. “Depressing, I guess… Hey. Is there a reason Koellis and Eria are always together?”

Sieural looked down the small valley near him, and saw Koellis and Eria walking towards the relative direction of Elleani.

“I dunno. They’re really good friends, though.”

“I can tell.”

Sieural then leaned against the rough trunk of the nearby tree. Out of the blue, Kaelyn asked, “Do you miss your friends in Kereial?”

Sieural thought for a moment, then said, “I guess. There are things I could do without… but all in all, I guess it’s better if they’re here. What about you? When you made this Coalition, did you miss your friends?”

Kaelyn did not answer, as if pondering her response. “They… were taken by the Protectorate.”

“…” Sieural could not think of words to express his feelings. “Is that why you made this?”

“Yep. Same with the others… Their friends were taken too. So… we all had a reason to fight… although I don’t know if that’s a good idea anymore.”

“Not a good reason? Why not?” Sieural asked, confused.

“Because… when we fight… we do the same thing to other people. Every person we hurt… it makes other people feel the same way I did. Doesn’t that seem… kind of stupid?”

“I’ve never thought about it that way.”

“It’s a bit sad, don’t you think?”

“I guess.” Sieural thought for a moment. “I see what Kairius meant when he said that you had a very innocent mindset.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Kaelyn pouted.

“Absolutely not. It’s a breath of fresh air when it comes to the violence in this empire. In a world that revolves around killing people to get what you want, I don’t think that thought goes around too often.”

“That’s not true! I know Kai and Riania think that… Same with Luna… and Eria… and Alexis… Maybe even Koellis…”

“I get your point. Whatever.” Sieural sighed. “Maybe I’m just the evilest one in the Coalition.”

“That’s not true!” Kaelyn yelled, “I know you don’t like killing people either…”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Why not?”

“So many reasons.” Sieural sighed. “It really doesn’t matter anymore.”

Kaelyn shrugged and grabbed Sieural’s arm. “It’s okay. If you wanna cry, you can use my shoulder.”

Sieural laughed. “You’re too short. I might hurt my back.”

“Hey, that’s mean!! I was trying to be nice, too.”

“Sorry.” Sieural continued to laugh. “I’ll be sure to come to you if I ever need to cry.”

“Good.”

As the rest of the Coalition began to rise, Kaelyn’s thought continued to ring through Sieural’s mind.

“When you fight, you hurt other people.” Sieural said to himself, as he walked into the Coalition building with Kaelyn still attached to his arm. “It sounds so obvious, but it makes so much sense. Maybe I should try thinking that.”

As the group’s second day of waiting for Kairius, Riania, and Alexis began, that same thought continued to repeat itself.

Frantic breathing and heavy footsteps could be heard a distance behind Sieural. After turning around, he saw Koellis and Eria running toward the entrance. Unsure of what to do, he stood there, preparing for the worst. Behind the two followed Riania and Kairius, who seemed to be holding something on his back.