So, after combing the hair of the twitching body of my female half, we stood ready for the starting day. If only there wasn’t the forest in the way to the village in the distance.
Here’s to hoping we won’t die a horrible death being eaten by a monster after leaving the safety of the castle. Well, relative safety, seeing as it was a crumbling ruin.
So, after waking up in two bodies at the same time in a clearing within the forest just before night, getting a faceful of dirt every few steps I made and being hunted by some kind of wooden zombie wolves reeking out of their mouth, falling down into a cavern because of the rainfall and, you know, running for my life, landing in a heap with the wooden abomination dead at my feet, finding myself inside a closed trap room with destiny in form of some Chosen One weapons, I feel this day can only get better!
Hopefully.
Getting down the staircase from the observatory was easier with the better control I flimsily had over my two bodies, I found myself back in the lavishly decorated hallways of the castle that avoided all kinds of looting for some reason. Probably because of the forest that wants to kill you just on the doorsteps outside. Not that that would stop a dedicated explorer from doing so. And get half their entourage killed in the process. Because profit and relics, bitch!
Staring at the glass cases with some shiny bling in it, I really couldn’t help myself. Ourself. Somewhat between that. Just ignore these ramblings and you’ll be just fine.
I just couldn’t resist lifting the case.
Seriously, have you seen these things in here? Gosh, you would be drooling all over this place. What got my attention though, were the two necklaces on a gold and silver chain respectively. One had the sun symbol I have seen all over this place like no one’s business, while the other had the symbol of the moon that was equally as present in this ruin.
So, of course, I took them. I promptly got shocked by electricity for that. I chalked it up to some build-up static on my part and admired these beauties.
I would give them back, promise! Not like anyone needed them anymore. Some museums would probably cry and fuss about it, but I want to see them try to get here. Well, my hunger addled mind is mostly speaking here, hoarding shinies for the opportunity to get some money for food. Although, I’m not sure if I would part with these if I’m being honest here. Whatever, you can judge me all you want, they’re mine! Somewhere in the back of my mind I sat there as a drooling mess jabbering about ‘My precious’, but to do that would be over the top. It was a funny picture though.
Now that I think about it, this whole world seemed way too much like a fantasy novel, bordering on Lord of the Rings. Only with zombie wood wolves thrown in for good measure. And if Gandalf had a pointy hat decorated with bells. You know what, I had half a mind to beg all the known deities to just dump me there instead. Then at least I had a choice in the matter.
“Okay, nom noms first, then existential crisis," we said in our distinctive voices. Still hadn’t the hang to speak with only one mouth. I was like one of these puppet toys you could wind up that got broken some twenty-odd years ago with how erratic my bodies behaved if I wasn’t completely in synch.
Slowly, on the way out, an idea formed in my mind on how to solve that particular problem. So, after leaving out of the entrance hall and looking over the massive gorge not so far away with a rickety bridge that looked like it sweetly invited you to step on it, only to break apart once you got far enough and kill you in a horrible way in the misty abyss, I started singing a song at random.
Practice makes perfect, after all. And how to get better practice on trying to speak with only one mouth, while trying to get over a bridge that screamed practically ‘I’m made with the planks for your coffin!’? You’re right, by screaming frightened to death any song that came to mind while trying not to die.
It was a slow process, the creaking boards groaning in protest under my legs, trying to ignore the howl of the wind that the gorge underneath me made. It didn’t help at all. Creepy forest of death, man. At least my lungs got good exercise...
I was lucky that nothing majorly stupid happened while I went over the bridge, I wouldn’t have liked to test out what would happen if one of my bodies died. Looking back to the bridge behind me, I saw a board fall into the abyss and decidedly ignored my twitching eyelids. It wasn’t mocking me, it wasn’t mocking me, it wasn’t mocking me!
Reciting my new mantra for a whole ten minutes instead of singing, I followed a small path that led to the general direction the town was supposed to be. That bridge thing was just a coincidence, I’m sure. The talking with two different mouths was sometimes garbled, as I tried to suppress the urge to use both my bodies for talking. It seemed to be working at least, even though half the things ended in incomprehensible garbage.
Okay, it was pretty bad, but still a step forward!
Wandering around here in the day wasn’t that bad, and once you learned how to avoid the stinking announcement of bad breath wolves, you could definitely get around here danger-free. Well, somewhat. I still tripped pretty often over some roots I overlooked.
I was glad I didn’t trip over any stumps while being chased by a pack of wolves. Small wonders, and that. Gandalf would still hear some choice words from me if he ever crossed my path. Which would never happen, I’m sure, but damn was I angry for the whole Chosen One thing.
All other heroes were stupid for not running away the first chance they got. Maybe I could just pretend I didn’t know anything about that and live my decidedly weird life in peace. As long as no one mentioned the damn things on my wrists. And knew about them, to begin with. And had the authority to haul my ass into a hero training camp.
Yeah, I just knew someone would.
But that wasn’t yet the case, so a little hope was in order. Just sit back, hope no one notices, and everything would be great. How hard could that be, right? Fuck you, Murphy, in advance!
While it was still dark during the day in this forest, the ambiance was a lot friendlier with birdsong and the random squirrels going up the trees. If I didn’t know better, I would have said the forest was pretty nice. I’m sure it just wanted to lull me into a false sense of security.
This forest just can’t be nice, I knew it. I felt it in my left pinky. Both of them.
“Paranoia is unbecoming unless justified. Then it’s very becoming,” I mumbled to myself. Huh, I actually used only one mouth this time! Trying to do it again, though, was a fruitless effort. Well, a fluke like that is still a win in my book.
It wasn’t long until I got a full kick of fight or flight instinct running through me, that the hairs on the back of my necks stood all up in alarm. A shiver went through me. Nothing good would come of this. I was already jittery enough, thank you very much! Just for safety's sake, I touched my bracelets on the emblems. The telltale flash of light heralded my new gear and came to face with another monstrosity.
“You know, that’s something different, alright."
Before me stood some kind of lion bat thing with shaggy fur in a sickly pale yellow and bright red mane. I could see the ribs poking out through the fur on the hungry beast’s sides. Oh yeah, a totally normal thing to find in a forest. Oh, who am I kidding? Whimpering, I held my sword in front of me, wobbling slightly in my shaky grip. I didn’t even know how to wield this thing, man!
This couldn’t get better, could it? Sighing, I tried to look for an escape. Climbing the cliff would be foolish, not just because it got friggin’ wings, but to do so would need all my concentration to get both bodies up. Yeah, that flew out of the window fast. Running? Hah, good luck with that! So, charge it for the sake of confusing it enough? Ah, well... that would’ve been a nice idea... if it hadn’t that massive stinger for a tail.
This day couldn’t have gone by quietly, huh? My body a hungry mess with a hungry mess right in front of me. Just how I like it. So, I turned tail and ran as fast as my cowardly behind could haul me. With two bodies, it wasn’t easy.
Chasing after me, the lumbering beast bellowed a mighty roar, spurting me to run even faster. If I don’t have muscles of a champion after this, I swear! Friggin’ thing almost nipped me with the huge as fuck claws a few times. If I wasn’t just this tiny little bit faster than that thing, I would be dead by now, I’m sure. Once again I found the adrenalin pumping through me without abandon, giving me the slight boost I need to stay out of reach of that thing, whatever it was called. I think it was something from Greek myths. Now that I think about it, wasn’t there something similar in World of Warcraft?
Gah, better not let my mind wander, I’m kinda in a chase here! Pumping my legs as hard as I could, I found a series of stones just tall enough to use them as stepping stones to get up the cliff face. Only one thing. If I miss a step with either one of my bodies, I die. The missing step would lead to me falling even further because of a cliff going also very far down on the other side. Lucky, right?
Well, either that or get eaten by a foaming mouth of the second nightmarish beast I have come across. It really came to show how much my life hated me in this forest. Taking the first step, everything went down as expected. The second followed with a short leap, forcing me to leap to the next one or risk slowing down and not make the jump. By some stroke of luck, my female body just hit the steps right after the male without having to slow down either. The beast flapped its comparatively tiny wings just enough to make a bigger leap after us.
I jumped to the next stone, almost slipping up. My other body nearly did too, her stance more steady. Next leap, next stone, the beast still behind us. Five more leaps and I would be on a narrow pass leading to the last two leaps. Come on! I grunted with both my bodies, the first leap of the five went by without a hitch. Second leap, my male body almost overstepped. Third one down in the bag, two more to go!
The beast roared behind us once more, still hot on our heels. If we can get to the narrow pass on the side of the cliff, we could gain some distance again.
Second last step, the stone almost broke off before my second body could make it. My tunnel vision helped me make the last leap to the pass, but then...
Then it went all wrong.
Crying out from the scratch on my back from the beasts claw, the monstrosity slid down the cliffside with its claws buried in the rock making desperate leaps up with the wings on its back.
My body went sailing from the last leap to the passage. Fingers desperately stretched out in a last-ditch effort to somehow make it to the edge.
A second went by, my scream echoing full of fear through the valley below me. I know how Lara Croft must feel, making these unbelievable jumps in the games now. Even with another recovered memory, it didn’t help the terror I got in that little moment.
People say dying is accompanied by your life flashing by, right? Well, I had none of that at that moment, but I was certain I wouldn’t make it. Maybe that was because of the missing memories, but I really wished I could see anything but the sheer drop right there and then.
It was as if the real height from the drop stretched even further down, making it look like I was far higher up than I actually was. I guess that’s what it is like to have a fear of height, right? The stretching ground beneath you, mocking you, telling you you wouldn’t make it out of this situation, no matter how much you prayed to a deity to help you at that moment.
The ground down below that meant your death just sat there, impatient, for its victim. Gravity pulled, eager to introduce me to my demise. Everything went by in a really slow motion. That feeling you get, that tells you, let go, but you don’t want to believe it. Your cry of desperation, begging for a miracle to happen, because you wanted to do so much more with your life, other than just sitting at home reading a good story or watching a movie of your favorite adventurer that always got out in the nick of time.
I wished I was someone like that.
That sense of adventure you would get by accomplishing something you thought was previously impossible.
Well, you know what they say about that word, that word that told anyone that said it:
I’m possible.
And that was the only hope I had at that very moment, terror running through my veins, mixing with that particular feeling that gave you the freedom to do what you always wanted to do. The hope and the terror, clawing at your heart trying to tide you over to one side over the other.
That was what I accomplished in the end. Hope lost, terror running rampant, and yet... there was that spark. The last flicker, just as I was about to accept my doom.
Hope was always the last thing to go.
Crashing against the rocky wall, my fingertips found a small ledge to hold onto and said: Well done, girl! You did it. The spark of hope was the only thing left to set the bonfire in my soul alight. This was a chance to take, and by God the Allmighty, I would take it.
My male body reached down in the adrenalin induced haze, allowing for free movement between my bodies for the very first time since this happened to me, and clasped my hand tightly from the ledge. Heaving myself upwards, we watched the beast loose purchase on the rocks. It snapped its wings out and glided with a growl to the ground below.
It stayed there.
That was it. That one moment, nothing but a memory anymore. That was life to the fullest, my heart in my chests beat like a drum.
Bumm, bumm, bumm, bumm.
Bumm, bumm, bumm, bumm.
A sigh escaped my lips, closing my eyes, letting me relax for the moment. It was over now, no worries anymore. I let out the breath I was holding again, taking one once more. Peace was all I sought right now. All I needed, for the moment.
Clutching the necklace of the moon in my hands, I was attributing everything good that happened in that moment alone to the little trinket. I smiled at the warm touch to it, most likely because my body was akin to an overworked furnace right now.
I could do with a tea right about now, though. Wishing for all that is holy, that I won’t ever have to experience that again, I sat there in the embrace of my male body. This, was really... stressful. I let out a laugh, letting it take over my body. Oh, man. Here I was, in two bodies, and I pulled a Lara Croft. Too bad I had nothing to record this on video. But that didn’t matter, I made it!
Me, the coward that I was. Did something I thought impossible. Was this courage? This feeling of relief after doing something that scared me to death? I guess it was. Something for me to remember for eternity, because this moment, this memory, would stay with me forever.
It would be probably the only time I would ever accomplish something like the impossible jump in my life, but once was enough already.
I held the necklace around my neck in a death grip, having found my lucky charm. I felt renewed in a sense, more alive than I ever was. My hearts calmed down, at last, relaxing there with the view of the castle in the distance, the morning sun just a bit over it, casting a long shadow making it look majestic in all the glory it possessed with that state of disrepair.
Just thinking about it gave me a smile. I made quite the distance in the past hour and escaped another beast spawned from hell, survived a jump against all odds and get to live to tell the tale.
Getting up from our position we fell back in a semi synchronicity, the adrenalin boost gone, and with it, the brief moment of truly independent movement. But I was positive I could manage something like that with time. I would take all the small miracles I could get.
Making my way on the passage, we made short work of the last two leaps. One step closer to civilization! And hopefully, something to eat. The fatigue was setting back in, no more adrenalin there to help me get through this, so I made haste. It wouldn’t be far from here on. One last look to the tower of the castle overlooking the whole forest, I entered the foliage.
Feeling that there would be no danger, I banished the armor back into the bracelets. No need to draw more attention with a glowing walking stick and a cold breeze coming from the light sucking cloak, right? One would think they would cancel each other out, but that sadly wasn’t the case.
The half garble coming from me trying to sing again was a welcome sound after the terror from the chase before. I decidedly tried to ignore the fact that it would make me easier to find by another predator, but I needed this. This bit of lighthearted singing. It was getting easier too, at least. My female voice sounded angelic most of the time, as long as I didn’t mess up. I wasn’t that experienced in singing, but I thought I did pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Glancing at the necklaces, I rubbed a finger affectionately over them, glad I found them. The sun and the light of the moon, it certainly had a ring to it.
Sol and Lux. Now, there were some pretty good names, the Latin translations for sun and light. Short, easy and they fit the theme here. I grinned, yes they were indeed perfect names. I’ll let you guess which body got which name, it was kind of very obvious.
Now then, let’s see here. Coming upon the treeline, at last, I was already struggling to stay conscious by the time I got there. A path led to a small town that I saw last night from the tower in the castle and some people were going about their day.
Well, that was a curious thing right there.
Not the thing about the people going about their day, but the literal rainbow of colors of their hair. Seriously, either I was dreaming, or I got dumped in a world where people had an accident with one too many paint buckets.
Blonde hair? Sure, pretty normal. Blue hair? Well, if you like dying your hair. Green, orange (and I mean really friggin’ bright orange with that), violet, pastel yellow and so much more? On every person? Sometimes even multiple colors? Yeah, that was weird, man.
Shrugging I made my way to the town a short walk away, with some strange houses you wouldn’t even know how to describe. Seriously, what was that hat shaped thing supposed to be?
A few more meters and I could rest somewhere, hopefully. Well, that was the plan at least, but you already know how my plans turn out in the end. The darkening edges around my vision and the spots flittering all over it didn’t help my already bad balance at all. My overworked body protested every step that I took.
So... face met dirt and all that.
“Oh my!” a voice said before my bodies passed out from too much exhaustion and lack of nutrition. And probably a lack of fluids, now that I think on it. Or maybe the claws of that monster were poisonous? I couldn’t tell.
What I could tell, though, was that I at least made it to safety. With a bit of a catch for my dreaming mind, though.
The delirious sleep I ended up in, left me in some kind of weird Wonderland, all the things around me were in weird proportions, not even beginning on the odd animals running around. Sure, the winged pigs were kinda cute, but when the buffalo decide to dance around you, wearing the pinkest dresses you have ever seen, it began to unnerve even me.
So yeah, I kinda wished I wasn’t in the capital city of drug abuse, but what could you do about dreams like that, huh? Say no and not give a crap? Yeah well, I thought that too. Turning around to say ‘Nope!’ to this shit, I was met with the latest nightmarish creature I had met that day.
And promptly got pierced by its massive stinger, beginning another fitful sleep the third time in a row. You know, I was getting tired of this. Get it, tired? Yeah, okay that was a bad one, but anyway. I found myself once more fighting against all kinds of threats.
More often than not, it ended with me falling down a cliff.
Not a pleasant experience, let me tell you. And if I was somehow able to save myself from that, I got eaten by the big kitty cat. Sometime after my tenth experience of the same thing ending more or less the same way, I was left floating in a calm black abyss and finally found some rest.
Although, someone stroking my forehead was probably another hallucination, but it kinda felt nice. So I slept there to the humming of a somewhat familiar voice. I couldn’t quite place it. It was soothing, though. That was all I was concerned with, so time passed by quickly for me.
A few days later (I just assumed it were a few days, based on the stiffness), my eyes cracked open to a stark white ceiling, a constant beeping of a heart monitor at my sides.
I lay there for a moment, trying to remember how I got here. Please, don’t tell me I lost more memories? Groaning, I turned my head to see more of the room around me. It was as if modern-day met the Hogwarts infirmary, then got lost in the eighties and learned about the twenty-first century.
“Am I in a hospital?” I croaked out, my mouth feeling like I took a dive into a sea of sand. Otherwise known as dry as a desert.
On the other bed rested my male body, still out cold as it seemed. Well, that was new. Not that I was complaining, but why wasn’t Sol also awake? One half of my vision was black, while I was still able to completely see around. It was weird going back to only two eyes after getting used to the double vision kind of thing.
I slowly sat up, hissing as my hand flared up in pain from putting pressure on it. Looking down on it, I saw a needle sticking out the back of my hand. I grimaced, having half a mind to rip it out. Following the tubing to the IV bag hanging above, I sighed. Yeah, ripping it off wouldn’t do any good.
Lucky I got here then, eh? Grumbling, I let myself fall back against the pillow, feeling absolutely exhausted.
“I really could go for some water..," I croaked tiredly. Fumbling around the bed, I found a call button. Pressing it without further ado, I began waiting for someone to come by.
Not a minute later, the door opened to our room, a woman with pink hair wearing a cap entering. She gave me a smile, seeing that I was awake at last.
“Hello, Sweetheart. I take it you must have a sore throat? It was quite a long time you slept,” she said, coming over with a glass of water. Passing it over to me, I immediately began to guzzle the drink down, ending in a coughing fit.
“Slow down, take it easy,” the nurse said, taking the glass from me. “Now, there we go.”
I nodded thankful, taking slower sips after I got my breathing back in control. It was a bit embarrassing being fed the water like a small child, though. Guess I brought this upon myself.
“There, that should help it. Feeling better?” she asked me and I gave her a small yes, barely loud enough for her to hear it. She gave a satisfied smile, placing the now empty glass on the nightstand beside a vase full of flowers. “Now then, before I let you rest again, I just need some information, is that okay?”
Seeing my nod, the nurse went and took out a clipboard at the end of the bed. Flicking out a pen from the pocket on her white shirt, she sat down beside my legs giving them a reassuring rub. I guess I had nothing broken there, the. Or this would have hurt like a friggin’ banana taking a fall from near orbit.
“Can you tell me your name?” her eyes looked to me, her voice carrying a bit of authority in it.
“Lux,” I mumbled. It was kind of awkward with giving her a name I just gave my female body on a whim.
“Sorry, could you repeat that a bit louder?”
“My name is Lux. That there is Sol,” I said getting over my nerves. Might get this over with as soon as possible. No need to be childish about it.
“Okay. You’re brother and sister, right?” she asked. I gave a small nod, not so sure about how to answer that one. It would sound kind of crazy if I claimed that this was only half of my conscious body, that the male one was the other part. Now that I think about that, I should probably never ever mention that to anyone. One never knows what might come of it.
“Okay. Any diseases running through the family?”
“None that I know of,” I answer, not that I would remember anyway.
“Have you taken any medicine, drugs, or alcohol in recent times?” she asked, making it known to me that these were only routine questions. They needed that information for my personal files anyway. So I gave a negative, answering any following questions that pertained to the status of my health, at the same time telling her the same would also be true for Sol. Man, it was weird to speak of myself as if I were another person.
“Well, that would be all. Just one last question and you can go back to sleep, dearie,” Nurse Redheart said, as I found out was her name. I nodded waiting on her question.
And boy, how should I answer that one. Why was it that I came in with malnutrition from not eating since I popped up into this world.
So I told her the tale of me and my ‘brother’ going out camping in the forest and losing our food and tent to the wooden wolves, Timber Wolves as she told me, go figure. She seemed to accept the reason well enough and warned me to not go wandering into the Everfree Forest, the name of that dastardly place, again.
Not because of the monsters or anything, but it was actually off-limits by royal order since one thousand years ago. Well, that was a thing, then. No wonder the castle wasn’t looted senseless. Apparently a witch also lived in there in some kind of hut. Glad I didn’t stumble upon any gingerbread houses then. Not that I would be stupid enough to go into one. A shudder went down my spine for some reason.
“That’s everything then. Have a good rest then,” Nurse Redheart said, taking the clipboard with her, closing the door behind her. Groaning, I really felt like sleeping for another week again.
Not shortly after that I was back to floating in the void of my conscience. It was relaxing for once to not have to worry about the next nightmare around the corner. I still worried a bit about what would happen next, what with me having no house to call my own, and certainly no job to pay for food or anything.
The next day came faster than I liked to admit. This time I awoke with both bodies again. And I wasn’t really alone in the room, either.
A tall woman with violet hair was sitting in a chair reading a magazine about fashion. I oggled her for a bit, a slight blush coming to my faces at seeing her there. She really was quite a beauty to behold.
Well, the serene picture was disrupted by my male body having a coughing fit. That was some dumb luck, damn it. The woman looked up, getting a glass quickly and coming over after filling it up with water.
I gratefully thanked her as I took a sip, feeling a headache already trying to give me a hard time. Well, at least I had some luck, seeing that my other body didn’t mirror my movements. It was easier to differentiate, now that I spent yesterday only awake with Lux. Moving at the same time, in the same way, seemed easier than doing two different movements, but staying still with one body while moving on the other one was easy compared to that. At least something came of that.
“Thanks,” I said with Sol. She gave a nod taking a seat on the chair between our two beds.
“Think nothing of it, my dear,” she replied. “You both gave me quite a fright collapsing in the middle of the street, though.”
“Sorry,” I said both with Sol and Lux. You know, I thought I had gotten a hang for this, but a slip in concentration set me back so synchronicity again.
“You need not apologize for that, my dears,” she said, shaking her head with her ladylike smile. It just made me blush more, damn it. “My name is Rarity, by the way.”
“Lux,” my female self stated, while my male side said, “Sol.”
“Quite nice to make your acquaintance, dears,” Rarity said shaking each of our hands. “My, you’re feeling quite hot. Should I get the Doctor over?”
“Please,” I nodded, feeling like my insides were ready to burst out while having a coughing fit. God, why did I have to get that type of cold again?! I wheezed a bit, feeling the soreness in my throat already hard at work to make my life miserable.
What felt like an eternity later, a man in a white coat came in, coming to a stop at Sol’s bedside. He took out a small flashlight, looking into my mouth, testing the reaction of my eyes and holding his hand to my throat, feeling for the swelling already making itself know. He pulled out a stethoscope to hear for my heartbeat and the noise of my lung while breathing. You know, the standard check any house doctor does to earn their keep.
He repeated the whole process on Lux, making me go red-faced in embarrassment while he listened to my heart and breathing on that side of myself.
“Well, Mister Sol got the short end of the stick, it seems. While Miss Lux only has a minor cold, you Mister, got the full brunt of the bacterial infection. I would ask that You stay at least for the week, your sister should be fine after a day, two at most,” he told us, Rarity having taken a seat again. She gave me a look of pity, so I gave her a small smile telling her it would be alright. On the inside I cried in despair, not looking forward to having to feel sick for that long again.
“Thanks, Doctor Heartrate,” we mumbled, not really grateful for the news, but it wasn’t like it was his fault.
He left us after that, while Rarity also made her leave, promising to come back the next day.
That left me lying here with high fever on Sol and only a full nose on Lux, sniffling hard at times. Gosh, I felt jealous of myself, I admitted. Not that it would change a thing which one got the full brunt of this. It seemed Lux had a better immune system than Sol. Lucky her. Or me, in that case. Still sucked, though.
I stuck out my tongue at my male body in a fit of childishness. I smiled with both after that. God, laughter really is the best medicine. Unless everything hurts because of it. Like, right now. I shouldn’t have done that, I groused.
The next day was even worse on Sol, which left my solely focusing on Lux. This sickness at least taught me the necessary control to move independently of the bodies. Multitasking was my new superpower, bitch! Would’ve helped in the damn forest, in hindsight. Not that it wasn’t easy to learn in the first place. Had I stayed in the clearing where I woke up, I would be dead now if I decided to learn multitasking on a whole new level, I guess.
So, what did I do? Have a conversation with myself, of course! I freaked the nurse out a bit while continuing my sentences after every word by the next body. It was kinda hilarious.
Around noon, the violet haired goddess entered my room, waving us a heartfelt hello. Lux gave one back readily while Sol was interrupted in a coughing fit that left me wishing I would be dead instead. Yeah, it was really fucking bad.
“Hello...” Lux said to her.
“How...” Sol followed after being done with almost dying.
“Are...” Lux followed up.
“You...” Sol said after her.
“Doing...” I said back on Lux, enjoying this too much.
“Today?” Sol said, ending the sentence on his abused voice. It sounded quite pitiful if you asked me.
“Ah...” Rarity looked at us as if I grew two heads. Which I kinda did, in a sense. Wow, talk about taking a figure of speech seriously. I gave a hearty laugh on Lux, cracking a smile on Sol, too. I’m officially a lunatic.
“At least you have your humor still intact, my dears,” Rarity said after a moment, showing a small smile. Her eyes picked an interest in the necklace Lux was wearing again, having changed back into my cleaned, if somewhat torn, clothes. Curiously, on both of my wrists the bracelets were still present, not having been taken off.
“Quite an interesting necklace you have there, my dear. May I see it?” Rarity asked while I took it hesitantly off. My lucky charm has grown on me quite a bit. She inspected the chain and the crescent moon shaped gem with barely suppressed awe. “My, is that star-steel?”
I gave a shrug, not knowing what that metal was supposed to be, but it apparently was something really rare, judging by her reaction. I took the sun-shaped one out of the drawer with Lux and showed it to her too.
“My, oh, my. Wherever did you get these, darlings?” Rarity asked, fascinated.
I paused before speaking. I shouldn’t mention I stole these from the castle in the murder forest, so what do I say. Oh, I can’t just say I bought them somewhere, she would want to know where. And by the fact that it was such a rare thing to obtain, it would presumably be worth thousands. If not even a million. Fucking what did I get myself into with these?
“Um... they were a family heirloom?” I said unsure, but thankfully she didn’t seem to have heard my obvious lie. It was also a good one if I had to admit it. Celestia and Luna were kinda partly responsible for getting me into this mess with these weapons, so they shouldn’t complain if I claimed them as my own.
“Oh, really?” Rarity asked, intrigued. “Were your parents good friends with Princess Celestia?”
“Uh... I guess?” I answered, not really knowing how to respond to that. What did she mean, my parents could’ve been friends with her? Well, obviously I knew that I really didn’t have my parents here on this planet... or dimension, wherever this was. What I meant, though, how could they have been friends with a woman that lived over a thousand years ago, judging on the state of their castle?
It would be absurd if they were immortal, right? Oh god, please, tell me that isn’t the case. My eyelid started twitching. Thinking on how Rarity mentioned Celestia as if she was well known, duh she’s a princess, it was either that, or it was a descendant of the Celestia I saw around that castle, using the same name.
Something told me it wasn’t the latter case.
I really wanted to go find that woman and give her a piece of my mind right now. That would mean exposing myself as this stupid kind of hero to her, though. Ugh, this really sucked.
It wasn’t like it wasn’t entirely her fault. More like old man Gandalf, that bastard (and mine, for going along with the stupid idea of grabbing these weapons in the first place). That grisly old man had no common sense (me neither, but don’t tell anyone), I doubted he was also immortal in this case. Or he wouldn’t have become that old in the first place.
Now I wished I had a Tardis to go back and kick his butt to the moon and back.
This hero business could wait, I swore to myself. Let them search for another one. They didn’t need one for the past thousand years, so why now.
It wasn’t like I was in the apocalypse, there was no pressure for this hero thing.
You know, I noticed how Rarity didn’t even say something like if my parents knew Luna, or Princess Luna, gosh darn it, whatever. Did that mean... Oh God, was Luna still trapped on the moon? For a fucking thousand years? What did she do to deserve that kind of punishment?!
My eyelid started to twitch again.
Okay, calm down. Rarity is still preoccupied with these necklaces, no need to freak her out with my mental raging. Next chance I get, I would search the friggin’ library for some history books to get a bigger picture.
Fuck, I can’t believe Celestia would do something like that to her own sister! I deflated a bit, as I remembered the mural in the castle of her crying her heart out. Something must have happened that I don’t know anything about.
Okay, I would probably have to look for myths too, while I’m at it. Something that old would most likely be hidden behind some crappy fairy tale. I should be good to go with Lux around the afternoon. Only a runny nose, I don’t see no problem why I shouldn’t be able to get out of hospital with only that. Once I have Lux out, I can check the library. If this town has one...
“Say, Rarity?” I asked her, putting on a smile. “Does this town have a library?”
“Hmm?” she answered, giving me back the necklaces. “Why certainly. Ponyville has one called Golden Oaks, do you wish to go there?”
I nodded putting my lunar necklace on while depositing the one for Sol back into the nightstand. I saw Rarity bite her lip, watching as she struggled to put her words in the right way.
“You... may encounter a problem with that, dear. There has been no librarian employed for quite a long time, now. I’m not sure if you can get the mayor to give you the keys before the Summer Sun Celebration next week. There was talk about someone coming here for that, but I’m not sure,” she explained, giving me a pat on the hand, expressing her sorrow to me.
“Well, I might be able to convince her. I have no place to stay, my parents... passed away last month and my uncle kicked us out for ‘leeching like little parasites’,” I lied through my teeth. Well, considering I don’t know if my parents are alive back home, it had some small amount of truth in it. If you squinted really hard. And used a magnifying glass.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry, my dear. I should’ve known, what with you having these heirlooms,” she gave me her condolences, getting angry at the so-called uncle of mine. I don’t even know if I have one, to be honest. “Well, if anything else, you could stay with me if that doesn’t work out. Have you worked in a library before?”
Well, actually, yes. That I remember, considering my flat was atop my own library back home. I gave her a nod, no need to lie this time. I was kinda excited about the prospect of working around books again. Back home, people got more of the electronic kind, which left me with only other students coming by my library anymore. Friggin’ computers, man. For all the good they did, they kinda ruined my job.
Well, I was glad for more of the snippets of the memories I was getting back, but I kinda wished the bad ones stayed forgotten. Like the crappy prank a student pulled in my third semester, half my library was covered in foam that day. I don’t even remember what I studied, but that memory was just after coming home and opening the library for the day.
It wasn’t a big one, but I loved it dearly.
Well, maybe I could make myself a home here, after all. With a bit of luck, that librarian coming over wouldn’t mind co-owning the Golden Oaks Library. As long as they didn’t set the library on fire, everything would be fine on my part.
In the time between that Celebration coming up and now, I would have plenty of time to read up on this world.
“Nerd,” my male self said, grinning a bit after having a coughing fit wreck my body one more time. I couldn’t wait for me to get healthy again, man.
“Geek,” I said back with Lux. It continued for a while, Rarity watching me in amusement. This gave the whole talking to myself a new meaning, it was pretty fun to do. That was also a great way to bounce ideas around.
After the midday meal, I was ready to get out of this hospital. Well, with Lux anyway. I would have to suffer with Sol for the rest of the week, but I should be out and about before the Summer Sun Celebration starts. Plenty of time to get more practice in to make moving both bodies smoother.
“Shall we go, my dear?” Rarity asked, seeing that I stuffed my face in a dainty kind of way and was done. I was a fast eater, but not a messy one, thank you very much.
“Yes, let’s,” I replied, throwing on my hoodie jacket, still ripped up in places. I would’ve to stitch these seams again too, it looked like I would have my hands full for the foreseeable time.
“Whatever happened to your attire, dear?” Rarity asked aghast. I looked at it, seeing the rip the manticore made, the tears from the run in the night and the tumble down to the cave, while I barely escaped.
“Camping trip gone bad,” I replied sticking to the somewhat true story. If you turned the story sideways a bit and added a tent to the mix, it could’ve been just that.
Fucking murder forest.
“Oh, this won’t do. Not at all!” Rarity proclaimed, getting the rest of the ripped clothes from Sol into a bag while dragging me along too.
“Have fun!” Sol said using my sarcastic side as the outlet. Gosh, I was actually mocking myself, how low could one sink.
“You too,” I grinned, hearing Sol hack his lungs up again. I really should stop this, before it got out of hand. It was fun, though. And it had the added bonus of not making me look suspicious. Yay, and all that.
I’m glad that at least half of me gets outta here.
My sanity wouldn’t have survived otherwise. No telling how long it would have taken for me to try to strangle myself out of boredom. A morbid thought, that. I actually could do that to myself, if I was stupid enough to want to die.
Which I am not. Most days, at least. So long as my common sense was working, I should add. Looking at you, Gandalf!
Rarity led me down to the reception, where I filed the necessary paperwork with the nurse behind the desk.
I was free, at last.
Too bad that the sun shone right into my eyes as I got out and looked up in relief. Lucky me.