Chapter 15: Sisters of Lose

December 1, 2023 7:26 PM

Flonne groaned in effort as she pushed open the unshrunk door leading into the abandoned wood shack. She managed to open it just enough for Aviel to slip in through the narrow crack between the door and its frame. Flonne watched Aviel disappear inside and waited for her to say she could enter. Aviel was worried the baddies or something else might be inside and didn't want to get into another fight. Flonne didn't either with her wings all messed up. They still hurt really bad, but she tried to ignore it for now.

Aviel reappeared a second later and motioned for Flonne to come in. Flonne grunted and pushed the door further open so she could get inside. The inside of the hou-, no shack. Aviel had said it was a shack, was pretty small compared to most unshrunk houses Flonne had been in. It was only a single room and a pretty tiny one at that. A small wooden table with a pair of chairs were set next to the left wall while a tiny moldy bed was on the opposite wall.  A strange pot-thing with a big metal pipe going up was set into the far wall beside a large stone fireplace. All of the furniture was rotting away from lack of upkeep and looked to be about to fall apart.  A large layer of dust was on everything.

Flonne slipped inside, being careful not to bump her wings, before turning and pushing the door back closed. She managed to close it after a few seconds of pushing and then went to shivering as she hugged her arms to her body.

"Its still really cold," Flonne said with a loud sniff. Her face was very red from the cold and wind they had fought through to reach this small shack. Her antennas were practically clamped against her head trying to stay warm and she could barely feel them. Aviel looked to be in a bit better shape having Flonne to act like a wind buffer and Flonne's body heat keeping her warmer. Flonne didn't feel jealous for her, though. Flonne was supposed to keep her and Sanders saf-...Flonne felt some tears beginning to form as she thought of Sanders.

"We need to get a fire going! Flonne, break that table and chairs apart and bring me the wood!" Aviel shouted up to Flonne. Aviel had decided not to use the radio anymore as she was worried of the mean Sword girls hearing their radio-things and coming to find them. Flonne nodded before heading over to the the large, to her, table and chairs. Flonne tried to summon up some of her magic, but nothing happened save for her head starting to hurt. She had used too much of it trying to escape from the bad ladies and would have to rest before she could use anymore. She groaned in annoyance before punching the chair. To her surprise, her fist easily splintered the rotten wooden and caused the chair to topple over. She smiled as she set about breaking off the legs and back rests of the chair to use for wood.

Flonne picked up the wood she had gathered and hauled it back toward the fireplace. She looked around her feet for Aviel before she noticed her waving from on top of the fireplace. Flonne could just barely make out a small rope going up the to the top of the fireplace's lip. The lip was made of stone as well and jutted out from the actual fireplace about half a foot and stood the same distance off the ground. It was so, what had Jr. said? Awesome? Yeah awesome, that Aviel had climbed up that huge, to Aviel, distance in so short a time. Flonne wished she was that awesome as she walked over toward Aviel with wood in tow.

"Put it in and I will light it!" Aviel yelled up to Flonne once she got close. Flonne nodded and placed the wood into the fireplace. She stepped back as Aviel moved up to the huge, to her, pile of wood in the fireplace. Flonne watched as Aviel took a lighter she carried in her pouch and quickly lit a small part of the wood on fire. She blew it a few times to start it spreading before retreating back toward Flonne.

By the time Aviel got back to the edge of the fireplace, most of the wood was either on fire or catching fire. A very welcome wave of heat came from it which both Aviel and Flonne basked in. Flonne's shivering began to die away as she warmed her hands near the fire.

"Ahh~! That feels so good," Flonne said as she sat down next to the fireplace. Her head and shoulders were high enough to still go over the lip and she laid her head down onto the warming fireplace. Aviel sat down as well and the two of them just enjoyed the warmth for a few minutes.

As Flonne enjoyed the warmth, she opened her eyes to look at Aviel. Aviel was looking away from Flonne and seemed to be going out of her way to not look at her. She looked over to the right half-expecting to see Sanders there. But he wasn't...and it was her fault. She hadn't keep hold of him, hadn't protected him, hadn't saved him... But maybe...

"Aviel?" Flonne asked having to fight to keep her voice from breaking.

"What?" Aviel said as she looked back at Flonne. She didn't look too happy being bothered, but Flonne had to ask her question.

"Sanders is alright, right? He's not..." Flonne asked before glancing down in shame. Aviel sighed as she turned away. For a moment she didn't say anything, her face completely neutral. Flonne worried that Aviel wasn't going to answer and just leave her to feel guilty. However, Aviel turned back to Flonne.

"He is fine, I'm sure of it. Idiots have a way of surviving despite being stupid," Aviel said  with a smile. Flonne giggled a bit at the joke and nodded in agreement. For a second, Flonne forgot that Sanders might be dead and remembered back to all the silly, or stupid as Aviel called them, things Sanders had done.

"Yeah. He is a dummy...like when he tried to pick up a penny cause it was supposed to be lucky and almost got squished by it," Flonne said with another soft giggle, her antennas bobbing with her chuckles. Aviel smirked as Flonne remembered back to Sanders trying to wiggle out from under the penny and saying he didn't need any help. Flonne had to pick it up off him, eventually, but not before he spent a good ten minutes trying to get out. Flonne, Aviel, and even Isabella nearly fainted from laughter watching him fight a losing battle with a penny.

"Or when he decided to try and help a stray puppy and its mother came and bit him in the ass?" Aviel said getting an even bigger smile. Flonne started to laugh, but stopped as she winced in pain. Her antennas shoot off her head and straight up as pain rocketed up her back and wings. Flonne wanted to heal her hurt wings so bad, but she had used too much of her magic up. Now trying to use just made her head hurt. She reached back to her wings and began to gasp in pain. Aviel stopped laughing as she looked to Flonne with concern.

"Are you alright, Flonne?" Aviel asked as she stood up. Flonne took a second to nod and give a halfhearted smile. She didn't want Aviel to worry about her. They had enough problems without adding her wounds to them. Aviel didn't look all that convinced by the smile, though.

"Let me see your wings, Flonne," Aviel said as she moved to get behind Flonne. Rather than move to let her look, Flonne moved to make sure Aviel couldn't see. She didn't want Aviel seeing her hurt like this. She would start to worry about her instead of worrying about herself and Sanders. Flonne was a big fairy, she could deal with pain.

"Flonne, turn around NOW!" Aviel said getting a harsher tone in her voice. Flonne winced back at the harsh words and stared at Aviel. Even though Aviel was small compared to Flonne, her glare sent a chill down Flonne's spine. Flonne looked down at her knees and felt a sad frown form on her face. Her antennas drooped too as she gave in and shifted around to let Aviel get a look at her wings. Aviel was, technically, her superior and Flonne had to obey, she lied to herself. She knew deep down it was because Aviel's glare was just too scary to disobey, small or not.

Aviel was silent as she looked over Flonne's back and wings. Flonne tried to turn her head to see what Aviel was doing, but only caught a glimpse of her on occasion. She was able to see the upper part of her wings, though. Her butterfly-like wings were badly mauled with a number of holes and rips in them. A few places were badly reddened and their usual transparency was gone in favor a dull redness. Just looking at them made them hurt all the more so she turned to face forward again. The room was silent for a moment longer save for the crackling fire.

"Keep still, Flonne, I want to get a good look," Aviel said. Flonne did as she was told and held still. Then a tiny shot of fresh new pain went into her back. Flonne twitched a bit at the pain and tried to look back at Aviel.

"Oww! What was that?" Flonne cried out as her antenna shot straight up. She reached back to rub the spot where the pain was and felt Aviel push away from her hand.

"I gave you a shot to help you heal faster," Aviel said matter of factly.

"A-A shot?! Why didn't you tell me?!" Flonne said in shock. She backed away from Aviel and whipped around to face her, with a hurt look. How could she just inject her with something and not tell her?! That wasn't nice at all!

"Because you would have freaked out, like you are doing now," Aviel said. Flonne opened her mouth to respond, but closed it before she said anything. Aviel wasn't...but she didn't... As much as she wanted to argue that point, she had to admit she had freaked out a bit. Instead of saying anything, she just pulled her knees into her chest and buried her head in her arms with only her antenna sticking out. Aviel didn't say anything either.

Why was she always so mean to Flonne? If she had done something like that to Sanders she would have been laughing at his reaction and making jokes. Instead, she just stayed silent and didn't seem to care in the least. She probably only wanted to heal her cause Flonne had wings and was her only way out of her. Flonne wanted to be mad at Aviel for treating her like that, but she just couldn't bring herself to. All she felt was sad that Aviel still didn't like her... didn't treat her like everyone else... and she wanted to know why.

"You don't like me do you?" Flonne said as she looked up from her arms. Aviel looked over at her in confusion, seemingly caught off-guard by the question.

"What? Why would you think I don't like you?" Aviel asked with a surprised look on her face.

"Because you are always mean to me. You only talk to me when you have to and you don't trust me. If you trusted me you would have told me when you gave me that shot," Flonne said looking away to her left. Aviel sighed to herself and was silent for a moment.

"I don't dislike you, Flonne. If I didn't like you I wouldn't work with you, alright?" Aviel said before rolling over as if to signal the conversation was over. But Flonne wasn't going to accept that, glares or not. She moved closer to the fireplace and looked down at the the small Aviel with pleading eyes.

"Then why do you act like you don't?!" Flonne asked more loudly this time, her antenna now fully straight out. Aviel sighed to herself as she rolled back over to look at the fairy.

"Why do you care so much?" Aviel asked with an annoyed look. Flonne's determination began to falter a bit looking Aviel in the eyes. It..it was embarrassing to say and she didn't want to just come out and SAY she hated being different. That all she really wanted was to just be normal and not treated like something else...to not have people be scared of her like Sanders was... or be seen as dirt like the bad ladies did...

"W-Well....I...You..." she tried to say, but couldn't get any real answers out. It was just too...

"See? You can't say. Sometimes there is just stuff we don't want to talk about and you should respect that. Unless you are willing to tell me why you want to know, you shouldn't expect me to say why I act the way I do," Aviel said with a harsh glare. Flonne backed off as Aviel rolled back over with an annoyed sigh. Flonne sat there in silence for a second. How could she expect Aviel to be truthful with her if she wasn't truthful to Aviel? How could she expect Aviel to have the courage to say what she meant if Flonne didn't either? It was a fair enough question, but Flonne wasn't going to back down. She wanted to know, HAD to know, why Aviel treated her differently. She tightened her grip and took a big gulp of air for courage.

"B-Because you are the only one w-who still treats me differently. Isabella is a-always so kind and gentle while being stern with all of us," Flonne started with some nerves in her voice, "Sanders treats me like I'm an adopted little sister and never comments on me being different. Even Sander's family treated me like just another person... You are the only one who doesn't act the same around me." Flonne finished with a sad tone, but her nervousness was gone. In fact, she felt a lot better just getting her question out rather than keeping it inside. She didn't even feel nervous about how Aviel would answer.

Aviel was silent for a moment before rolling back over. She looked at Flonne with the barest hint of a smirk as she sat up. Was Aviel impressed by Flonne's bravery?

"Well... guess I walked into this. Fair enough, but don't blame me if you don't like the answer," Aviel said with a sigh. Aviel took a deep breath and looked down. She looked back up without any emotion showing on her face before she answered.

"I treat you different because I am afraid," Aviel said with a stone-face.

"Afraid? Afraid of what?" Flonne asked leaning closer to Aviel. She couldn't imagine Aviel being scared of anything. She was always so tough and in control. Even when about to be crushed by the bad ladies, she looked completely calm and collected. What could possibly scare her?

"Of losing people I care about. Sanders wasn't my first partner. He w-," she stopped, "is my third partner. The other two all died...right when I started to like them too. I'd open up to them, get to liking them, and then they would be gone forever. So I stopped trying to care and instead tried to keep people away from me, especially people I worked with. And that includes you."

Flonne looked down and sniffed as some tears began to run down her face. Aviel...Aviel had never been treating her differently because she was a fairy. She was treating her differently because she was new! Just like she would have to anyone else, fairy or not! She...she had been treated like a normal person the entire time and just didn't realize it... Flonne tried to hold back her tears as a wave of guilt and happiness washed over her. She looked back up with red swollen eyes with a smile.

"You...you were treating me like everyone else then this whole time?" Flonne asked through her tears. Aviel stared at the crying fairy for a moment before chuckling to herself at some private joke.

"Guess I was. You being a fairy never did matter much to me. That you were a potential friend that I could lose mattered far more to me. So I tried to keep you away and not become friends, just like I did with Sanders," Aviel said as she closed her eyes. Aviel looked like she was fighting back tears too and Flonne knew why. She had made Aviel have to go back to all those painful memories for her own selfish reasons. Guilt only made her cry harder and wish there was something she could do for Aviel.

She reacted purely on instinct and snatched up the depressed Aviel in her hands. Aviel looked shocked by the sudden pick up and even more shocked when Flonne pressed her into her shoulder. Flonne didn't know what to say, but she could at least show Aviel she cared. Give her a shoulder to cry on.

"I...I'm so sorry Aviel. I didn't mean to make you have to remember that stuff. But thank you for telling me that you thought we could be friends. But you don't have to worry about me leaving. I'm a lot bigger and stronger than you or Sanders. I won't leave you like your other partners," Flonne said as she hugged Aviel closer. Aviel couldn't hold it back anymore as she started to cry and returned the hug.

"You...you got one thing wrong, though Flonne," Aviel said as she looked up at Flonne through her watery eyes. "I don't think we could be friends. I know we are." Flonne's features brightened as a big smile spread across her face. She hugged Aviel to her even tighter feeling so happy at being told she was friends with Aviel. Aviel returned the hug as best as she could as she dried her eyes on Flonne's jacket. They stayed embraced for a minute or two before Flonne spoke up.

 "Sanders is dead, isn't he?" Flonne asked in a neutral tone as she looked down at Aviel. Aviel nodded her head as more tears came to her eyes. Flonne's emotionless face fell away into one of complete sadness as the two of them tried to comfort the other about their lost friend.

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December 2, 2023 9:48 AM

The muffled sounds of crickets echoed into the room as she rested her head on the shoulder of her mother. Her mother slowly carried her toward her bed, her free head slowly petting her head. Her mother bent down and laid her in the warm bed of straw. She pulled the torn bit of fabric up to bundle her in the warmth and knelt down next to her.

"Can you sing, Mommy?" she asked. Her mother smiled and nodded and began to sing her lullaby in her soothing voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2xnPSRSSzU

She listened with a smile as her eyes got heavier and heavier until sleep finally took her...

Flonne's eyes fluttered open in confusion. She was cold and  she instinctively reached down to pull the covers tighter. Only there were no covers, just her jacket...why had she thought there had been covers? Flonne's head felt fuzzy and strange, like she was trying to remember something but...

She sat up and rubbed her head trying to get the feeling to go away. It helped a little as the fuzziness began to fade. Sunlight was dimly fluttering though the dirty windows. The old wooden shack looked the same as it had when Flonne had fallen asleep. She looked up and saw the fire in the fireplace had died almost completely away. She would have to get some more wood for it before it went out or Avi- AVIEL!!

Flonne began to look around trying to find any sign of Aviel while keeping as still as possible. She couldn't seem to remember anything that had happened after Aviel had admitted Sande-... Oh.... She had to find Aviel, she couldn't lose them both! Aviel was nowhere to be seen, but Flonne noticed that a small path looked to have been made through the dust leading toward the wall next to the fireplace.

She stood up and followed the path to the edge of the fireplace. As she walked she felt a little...off. It was like something was different but couldn't put her finger on it, like she was forgetting something... Right next to the fireplace was a small hole that looked to have been by some kind of animal from back before they were shrunk. Flonne knelt down and looked through the hole and could just barely see sunlight through the jumbled mess in the hole.

Flonne thought to yell through, but suddenly thought against it. They were still trying to hide from the mean women and yelling out might give them away. Instead, she tapped on the wall just loud enough to be heard outside. She waited a few seconds before a small figure appeared in the hole.

"Flonne, is that you?" Aviel said through the hole.

"Yeah, I was worried about where you went," Flonne answered. Aviel began to move through the hole and Flonne leaned back onto her shins to let her get out. A few seconds past before Aviel pulled herself out of the hole. Her clothing was covered in the white powder of snow and she shivered a bit as she started to knock it off her clothing.

"I was outside seeing how things were and if I saw anyone coming. Snow came down really heavy last night. Covered the whole area in nearly an inch of snow. Probably going to be stuck in here till it melts later today," Aviel said as she got the last of the snow off her. She was still shivering a bit and Flonne suddenly remember that the fire was almost dead a few seconds ago.

"Oh no, the fire. I need to go put more wood on it," Flonne said before standing up. She rushed over to the chair she had broken yesterday and broke off the last bits of it. She took the big pile of wood and put it into the fireplace. For a second, the fire didn't look to be catching, but a few soft wind gusts from Flonne got it to finally come back to life. Flonne smiled at having got the fire back going and then looked around for Aviel.

Flonne found Aviel about halfway between the hole and the fireplace's edge. She was still shivering from the cold and was having to push through the thick layer of dust like it was grey snow. Flonne moved over to Aviel and was about to pick her up when she realized that might a bit rude to just snatch her up. Instead, she lowered her hand to the ground in front of Aviel and offered her the ride.

"What? Oh, thanks," Aviel said surprised by the hand at first before getting what Flonne was offering. She climbed onto Flonne's hand and Flonne slowly lifted her up and onto the fireplace. Aviel climbed down and let out a sigh of relieve from the warmth of the fire. Flonne sat down nearby and enjoyed the warmth as well.

"At least we can enjoy the fire while we are stuck in here," Aviel said as she sat down. She looked up at the ceiling before she continued.  "Once the snow melts we should try to scout around a bit. See if we can hunt down some deer and some fruit to eat. Our rations are not going to last forever." She sighed to herself before turned to look at Flonne. She seemed to be looking at her wings rather than her, though.

"Too bad your wings haven't healed yet. We could try to get out of here and find Isabella if they were," Aviel said before laying down. Flonne couldn't help but feel a little guilty for being hurt and making them have to stay. But it shouldn't take too much longer consider her wings didn't even hurt now. In fact...maybe she didn't need to wait.

She summoned up her healing powers into her hands, the familiar strain from her head causing her to cringe a bit. The soft glow caused Aviel to look over just in time to watch Flonne move her hands to her wings. She softly touched them and felt the slight spike of pain as the magic went to work. Thankfully, the pain faded away rather quickly to be replaced with the soothing warmth as the magic began to mend the damage to her wings. Flonne felt the last of the pain and stiffness fade and smiled in joy as she managed to move them without any pain. She turned to look at Aviel and give her a big smile.

But she never got all the way turned as a sudden flare of pain erupted in her head. The pain was unbearable and she clutched at her head in agony. She just barely registered Aviel yelling her name, but it sounded so far away so dis-

Another peaceful day in her small village. She grabbed a small slice of bread her mother had made before heading out the wood door and into the town. The other kids were all playing and laughing in the town center. She ran toward them with a happy giggle as her mother called out to be ca-

-s on the ground. Aviel was beside her and was desperately saying something. She needed to get up for some reason. Resis? What was a Resis? Aviel was so insistent she move. Flonne tried to pick herself up, but her head hurt so so so bad. It was no use, she was in too much pain. She tried to tell Aviel she was sor-

They were all herded back as the booming became louder. The ground was beginning to shake now and she felt terror begin to creep up her body. She ran back to her house as her mother appeared at the door. She ran into her arms and buried herself in her warm embrace. The booming was getting so loud...so lou-

"-ell is wrong with this one?" one of the Resistance men said. Flonne wanted to fly away and get away from him and his friends, but her head...why did it hurt so much? And when did the Resistance get here? Where was Aviel? A woman walked up beside him and looked her over and motioned toward others. Another group of five Resistance members began to move toward her, all carrying strange objects that all looked scary and made to hurt. Flonne felt terror begin to rise in her stomach, but it faded as Aviel slowly rose out of the thick dust to move toward the back of the grou-

There was so much screaming as they attacked. She clung to her mother's hand in a death grip as they ran toward the edge of town as fast as they could. Behind them screams of terror, pain, and mercy echoed as their village was completely destroyed. She was tempted to look back, to look at the horror, but her mother told her not to look and to keep running. She listened to her mother and keep running toward the edge of the forest. A few people were ahead of them and had made it inside, but suddenly came running back out. Her mother stopped as another of the monsters appeared in front of th-

-viel plunged her sword into the Resistance member, a scary smile on her face. Another raised their gun to fire at her, but she turned his dead friend around to act like a meat shield for the bullet. She answered the bullet with her knife and it lodged into the man's head, killing him instantly. Aviel had killed all but one of the group she had followed, but the group closer to Flonne were raising their guns to fire. Flonne couldn't let them hurt Aviel, headache or not. she took in a deep breath and used her powers to send a massive gust of wind out from her mouth sending the Resistance tum-

She watched in horror as the monster lifted its foot to reveal the bloody stain that had been her mother. Nothing save the arm that had been gripping her remained and she gripped it in complete shock. The monster didn't even stop to finish her off...in fact it didn't seem to have noticed it had killed her mother at all. She laid there, simply holding the blood stump wishing that she would wake, that all this was just a dream, that she would hear her mother's song again and again and again... And then a smaller monster landed in front of her, the sun glinting off its wings. It smiled down at her before reaching ou-

-t but something was different. Suddenly, the monsters were not massive anymore. In fact...they were tiny now and SHE was massive. She didn't understand what had happened, but didn't care as she remembered her mother. Crushed, forgotten, ignored, dead... She felt her rage build up as she realized she would never see her, hear her, feel her again. And she was going to make sure those monster never felt, heard, and saw anything but terror again! She was the one with power and she was going to use it!

One of the small monsters looked back at her just in time to see her fist smash it into the ground. She crushed the monster as easily as she had crushed cockroaches and didn't flinch or feel pity as a sickening crunch came from its dead body. The other monsters turned toward her and screamed out a warning, but it was too late for them. She summoned up her power and sent a massive blast of wind to fling their weapons out of their hands as she slowly rose to her full height. Their tiny forms barely reached her ankles and she smiled down in vindictive glee at having the tables turned on these beasts. The monsters all took off running in terror, but it was useless as she easily keep pace with them.

She raised her foot and crushed one of them under foot, smiling at the feel of its bones snapping under her weight. Another turned and tried to run the other way, but she hoped over it and her foot smashed into the floor in front of it. It turned just in time for her other foot to splatter it to the ground. She turned and saw only two were left and she smiled in glee at still having more to punish. Suddenly, one of them stopped and started to beg for its life, whimpering and crying in terror. She raised her foot and was about to crush it, but...but something stopped her. Like...like someone else had been in this situation, someone she knew but... couldn't place. They...they had spared the monster and they were so...kind and funny and...and gone. No...they couldn't be...but...he was so nice... Instead of stepping on the monster, she simply thumped its head and knocked it out.

That left the last one who had almost made it to the door leading out. Someone else was yelling something at her, something about not letting it escape. It sounded like a friend she had once had...or still had...or... Hurry they yelled and she snapped back to seeing the monster close to escaping. She summoned her powers again and sent a blast of wind toward the monster. The air rushed forward before zipping under the monster and blasting it straight upward. She watched it fly high into the air, zooming above even her new towering height. She then sent another burst to send the monster rocketing downward. The monster splattered against the wood with enough force to send blood flying outward.

She wanted to smile after killing the monster, but all she felt was emptiness. She fell to her knees as the image of her mother's crushed form keep appearing over and over again in her head. Killing the monsters hadn't brought her back...and it didn't make the pain go away. She was about to cry when she saw the other person... a friend? moving toward the last monster. The person took out a weapon and raised it.

"NO!" she yelled before pushing the person away. She glared at the person for trying to kill the one she had spared. Suddenly, she remembered the person hated the monsters and would hurt it if she let her. No she couldn't let that happen, he had spared one so she had to too! She had to put the monster somewhere safe, somewhere. She realized where as she grabbed the monster. She pushed it into her place and couldn't help but gasp as it slipped in. It felt so good going in, deeper and deeper. She had to get it all the way in so the person couldn't get it. Had to... She cried out in pleasure as it finally slipped all the way in and fell back onto her back. She moaned as the pleasure slowly faded.

But as the pleasure faded, the memories came back. Her mother...her friends...her home... killing hadn't brought them back. The person was yelling at her, so angry, so...loud... She didn't want to be yelled at, she just wanted to go home. She began to cry as she thought of him too. Her head began to hurt more and more and more and more and-  And then everything went dark.