"When I want you to come with me, you must." Jarius suddenly spoke all of a sudden from an extreme silence that bothered between him and Eva.
Eva was stunned and could not digest the words that Jarius said. They remained the speed they had a while ago, and Eva wondered if they could or not find at least one of their squadmates. And now, Jarius talked to her out of nowhere? She could not even understand the topic he was trying to raise.
"Huh? I already did?" She expressed. Her forehead narrowed while staring at him at her side. She wondered why he said those words when it was him who wanted her to stay under the trees while waiting. Jarius remained at his position. He continued to speak a lot while looking straight on their way.
"When there's a need for us to separate, then we must."
"Hey, what's with the sudden-" Eva shrugged her shoulders and was about to slap Jarius', thinking that he was joking around, but Jarius continued talking.
"But, we must find each other no matter what comes in our way, understand?" At this point, the atmosphere between the two became more serious. Jarius even glanced at her with his wide eyes and wrinkled eyebrows that he wanted Eva to understand what he was trying for her to receive.
Eva leaned backward when she saw Jarius's expression. She blinked her eyes twice as she analyzed the situation. She was pondering the sudden shaking of Jarius's eyes as he looked at her carefully.
What's wrong with him?
"Y-yes-" Eva responded with her chattered voice. After which, Jarius sighed and air. He relaxed his shoulders and made his horse moved to continue walking. Damn, Eva was even unable to realize that both of them stopped for a while.
Then, silence filled their atmosphere once again.
Eva looked down as she saw Jarius going ahead of him. The unexpected actions of Jarius bothered her so much that she could not stop overthinking! She wasn't even sure if that "promise" he mentioned a while ago connects to how he acted right now.
The cold breeze of the air swayed their capes. It touched their bare elbows and even their faces as they moved back to where they passed by before they got lost a while ago. Eva thought of initiating a quite different conversation with them. She also wanted to make things clear and help Jarius with what was disturbing him too much, so she leveled her horse with Jarius's and grabbed his hand.
Jarius was startled by what Eva did. He quickly twisted his head to see her holding his pulse with her two hands. Eva slid her right fingers unto his, at her eye level while covering their faces, while her other hand was still holding his pulse. Eva was lucky that her horse wasn't bothered by her position.
Jarius did not mind saying a word since he already knew what she was going to do. Besides, it made him more comfortable.
As soon as Eva held his hand tightly, she twisted their hands at the side, showing both of their faces.
"Hi! I am Eva, your one and only companion. Are you jailed with your thoughts? Go out of your cell and express them to me!" Eva's voice was enthusiastic that she even made some of the words in wittiness as they pronounced them with diction. When she chuckled and laughed, her pinkish cheeks raised. These made Jarius smile.
Jarius could not avoid adoring what she did. He laughed in silence. His face finally lit up just as Eva wanted him to be. He gently removed his pulse from her, and like what he did a few moments ago, he bumped the side of his palm into Eva's forehead.
"Let's keep moving." He said but compared to his approach a while ago, this time sounded alive. It was exactly the voice that Eva wanted to hear again.
Eva covered her forehead with her right palm as she looked at him moving forward again. Her eyes shrunk again. "Hey! You really have fun hurting my forehead, huh?"
"As if it is your first time!" Jarius raised his voice, but he ain't looking in her direction.
Well, he had a point there! Hehe!
-
While Eva and Jarius walked along with their horses in the middle of an empty roadway with trees at their sides, swaying with the wind, they were unaware that two to five branches were crawling towards at their direction at the back. The sound that these branches made were not enough for these two people to notice any commotion from the ground. They remained relaxed, especially that the sun went slowly down, and they were heading in the direction of the sunset's horizon.
"Ah, another day has fallen," Eva commented while her face was struck by the last sunlight's red-orange grimace. She widened her eyes to see more of nature's view where the sun rays reached. She then looked at Jarius, who was staring at the landscape as well.
Surprisingly, he wasn't expecting them to reach this part of the forest. The plane lands with grasses ahead of them made him feel refreshing.
"Do you think we can still find them?" Eva added, referring to their squadmates. Her shoulders were raised in the thought of wondering if going back is possible this time.
"I don't know," He answered. He straightened his back while glancing at those diverse flowers ahead. The wind touched his ears, and it seemed that it wanted to bring him a message from the past. "But I believe that the remains of this sun's rays will lead us to them." He also added. At this point, he tilted his head and moved his eyes to the side of his sight to see Eva, but he wasn't facing her totally.
Eva raised one of her eyebrows while her eyes quizzed. "Oh, I understand. I am assuming that it's a metaphor-"
Jarius let out a small smile as he bowed his head a little. He did not look at Eva at all. "It can be, and it can be not." He cut off her words.
Eva stilled for a second before she blinked her eyes several times. She was intrigued by what Jarius spoke. "Hm?"
Jarius noticed her reaction, and so, he continued speaking without looking at her. "Growing up, we believe in the one who created all the things we saw in the universe, including our existence. The god of all the gods whose name is Aegir bore branches of several creators which contributes to who we are and what we have today, including what is ahead of us in the future. He produced nine goddesses and nine gods to shield our innocents and guard our freedom."
Eva leaned her horse closer to his. "And those children of him are the ones we knew as Ae's right?"
Jarius glanced at him for a least second before he looked back to the way they were striking. "Yes." Then, He continued telling the history to Eva.
"One of his children is one of Pag-asa's respected Esperer warriors. Who would have thought that an Ae can actually be a human?"
Eva held his hair that was tied in halves using one of her hands. She placed it in front of her chin and covered half of her face crosswise using it. Her eyebrows curved down, and her eyes seemed to shrivel in silence. "I also thought of that idea before..."
Jarius noticed the change in Eva's voice, so he stopped talking for a while and waited for her to calm. He knew the reason behind that certain gesture syndrome of her. It means thinking while fearing.
When he saw Eva's bare eyes glancing at him, covering her nose down to her chin with the use of her below the shoulder-level hair, Jarius sighed and continued. He felt relieved after seeing her immediate counter-response. "In short, there are a lot of possibilities that we have to dwell in this world. Many are still left undiscovered not just through our naked eyes, but as well as our thoughts. How creative a person's mind can be to realize that it is possible to have one of the eighteen children of Aegir as the face of the sun."
While saying the last word at his statement, he looked above the sky where his face was directly hit by the sun rays. He closed his eyes and feel the warmth at its last appearance for this day. The mixtures of cold and warm air clothed around them and Eva finally took off her hand from wrapping around her hair on her face.
The person Jarius mentioned includes himself. Eva knew exactly what he was trying to say. She was like him, occupied with such questions sometimes. His thoughts were the same as hers, but Eva remained unconscious about it until the seeking gradually fades. She can actually feel it! She was still unsure about what she truly thinks at this very moment, yet she knew and reflected within herself the reason behind her thinking. Ah! What is she even contemplating that way?!
"God Aegir made eighteen children who were supposed to maintain their identity as Ae's but they can surprisingly be turned into humans according to their will. But we, woke up to this world as pure human beings can't turn to be like them. Inheriting the face of the sun is impossible for us." She whispered amid her thoughts without making a sound from her lips. After which, she shook her head and pretend that she wasn't thinking of that anyway. She must not next time!
Eva straightened her posture as she held the ropes back. She operated the horse and moved along with Jarius at a faster speed.