Interlude 2.30: United part 2

The next day

In front of me, I see the two faces that matter most to me: my parents. I run towards my father, who picks me up, and in his arms, I give a kiss to both of my parents on their cheeks and say, "I want to see you both so much."

My father rubs my head and says, "I know you do, but you can't come see us."

"But without you both, I am all alone in this world."

My mother says, "Mariana, you know as well as I do that is not true, god would never allow it."

My father says, "While it might be years till you see us again, that doesn't mean you need to cry. All you need is to cherish those who you have around."

In unison, they both say, "Bye, Mariana."

Opening my eyes, I rub the tears in them away and say, "Another one of those dreams. I guess my fears of my mother's fate are still bothering me."

Sitting up and looking at Charles and Nero, I say, "Well even if it is just a dream I should heed them."

Suddenly, Nero sits up and starts to throw up, so I say, "Another bad dream?"

After he finishes, he sticks his thumb up and says, "Yeah."

Standing up, I go over to him and give him a hug, saying, "It will get better."

Blushing Nero says, "What are you doing?"

"Simply comforting my friend. What can't handle it?"

Looking away from me, he says, "If you touch me for too long, weird things start to happen."

Confused, I say, "Like what?"

Turning even redder, he breaks my grip and says, "Just leave me alone!"

"Hey, I was trying to help!"

As Mariana and Nero fight, Charles walks up and, after looking at them, he smiles and says, "Good morning."

Suddenly, from outside, all three of them hear a very familiar voice, "All of you humans gather outside the entrance at once!"

Charles says, "Was that Dónal?"

-Break-

Location: Animal pens

As Mariana, Nero, and Charles stand in a crowd alongside everyone else in their Campsite, they start at Dónal, who is standing on a podium in front of them all with two Merarks by his side.

Holding a shattershell up to his mouth, Dónal says, "As of today, everyone who currently works in your campsite will be working half the hours and the other half will be spent here, you insec-, I mean you humans.

The work will entail taking care of animals. Each and every one of you will be assigned animals to take care of, and their individual maintenance will be up to you for the foreseeable future.

If anything were to happen to negatively affect the animals during their stay here, I would make sure the one responsible would be severely punished." As Dónal finishes his speech, the Merarks open their mouths and growl, frightening the crowd.

But as others look on with terror, Mariana and Nero have very plain faces.

Without a doubt, he messed up and couldn't get anyone else to take care of this job, so he is making us do it, which is what Mariana thought in her head.

He probably chose our campsite because he thinks he is most familiar with us; if he had picked another campsite, he might have actually scared them into submission, which is what Nero thinks to himself.

As Dónal starts down at the crowd, he sees both Mariana and Nero giving him looks of pity. These looks cause panic to start appearing on Dónal's face, so he says, "ALL OF YOU LINE UP AN-ND RECEIVE YOUR ASSIGNMENTS."

-Break-

Walking over to the animals that were assigned, Mariana looks in front of herself, and says, "Is that a pig?"

Looking over to Nero's horse, she says, "Hey, switch with me!"

With a smug expression, Nero says, "No way."

"Hey, you bastard!"

"Stop complaining and learn to enjoy what you have, like Charles."

Turning around, Mariana looks at Charles and says, "Is that a cow?"

Charles says, "Is that what it is?"

Nero says, "Yep, they are rather delicious."

Staring directly into its eyes, Charles says, "You're very cute, Blu two."

He named it! This is what Mariana and Charles think at that moment.

Putting her arms up with fervour, Mariana says, "I won't let this get me down!"

-Break-

All those of the campsite who were made to take care of the animals had to do many jobs, but the three main ones that everyone did were the three.

Feed the animals.

Handing the pig some vegetables in front of her, Mariana squeals as it jumps for her to take it. Looking over to Nero, she says, "It's eating it out of my hands, help me!"

"Don't worry, pigs are nice."

Charles, beside both of them, says to his calf, "Eat lots, ok Blu two."

-Break-

Clean the animals.

With a sponge in her hands, Mariana hesitates to rub the pig's body. But then Nero says, "Coward!" She used a cough afterwards to cover up the sound, but it was still loud enough for her to hear.

Spurred on by this, Mariana says, "JUST WATCH ME!"

With passion filling her veins, Mariana starts to scrub the pig, and as she does, it starts to fall down and make a cute noise.

With a surprised expression, Mariana says, "You're actually kind of cute."

Beside them, Charles rubs his calf saying, "Get nice and clean."

-Break-

Walk the Animals.

As Mariana runs through a pasture of grass, the pig follows close behind her, and as it does, she eventually stops, causing the pig to jump into her arms and knock her down.

"Pinky, you really are such a good girl."

Looking from afar, Nero says, "She really can switch things up as her mood changes, what a beast."

From behind him, Nero is hit by his horse's head. Turning around, Nero says, "Was I not giving you enough attention? Sorry, she was just shining a bit too much, but I hope this is enough relaxation to refresh her."

-Break-

The next day.

Location: Far east of the River Lúide, inside a nearby forest

As the video plays for Mariana, Nero and Charles, Nero stares at Mariana, who is making a very stiff face.

Concerned, he says, "Is everything ok with you?"

With her face growing even stiffer, she says, "Everything is fine!"

As Nero goes back to face the projection, he thinks to himself; I guess relaxation wasn't enough to get her to do better here.

Moments later, Mariana throws her hands into the sky and screams, "I DON'T GET IT. Why the hell is the word for pink a mixture of the words for red and white

-Break-

One week later

Location: Animal pens

Nero, while tending to his horse, looks down at Mariana, who is lying against her pig, completely mentally exhausted.

Sighing, Nero says, "What am I going to do with her?"

Behind him, Sandra and Pluso, who are also tending to their animals, a sheep and a cow respectively, ask, "Is everything ok with Mariana?"

"Yeah, she is just feeling down." I freeze for a moment; I need to make up some excuse fast, "Because of the rain. Yeah, because of rain."

Sandra says, "I see, so it is because of whatever you guys always sneak off to do."

Pluso says, "Well, cheer up, Mariana, I hope you can be happy just like my Raimarron here."

With her face still against her pig, Mariana turns her head to face Pluso and says, "You named your cow."

"Oh, nothing like that, Raimarron is simply what we call cows back home."

"Huh, why is that?" Mariana asks, confused.

"A long time ago, there was a woman named Raia in our village who ate a lot of cows, so much so that she almost wiped out the entire population of cows. Her hair was also a rather peculiar colour, which was very close to the plant named Marronaity. So we started calling cows Raimarron thanks to that."

"That's really funny," Nero says with a mini smile.

But behind him, Mariana says, "To name something, you combined the names of things in your surroundings."

Sitting up, Mariana stares at Sandra and pluso then asks, "Hey, does red and white have anything to do with pink?"

Sandra says, "I believe the mixture of red and white makes pink."

With a look of pure concentration, Mariana says, "That was some sort of correlation."

Staring at Mariana, Sandra smiles and says, "You know, a long time ago, the great sage Cordum visited my people."

Nero, Pluso, and Mariana have extremely unimpressed looks on their faces.

"Yeah, Cordum has visited almost all of our people at different points in time," Nero says.

A little annoyed, Sandra says, "Just listen to me! During that time, she told us something essential: that languages are derived from their environment. So the differences behind each country's words can tell you a lot about said country."

Mariana pauses for a moment after hearing this, then jumps up with passion and says, "I can definitely do this now!"

Pluso asks, "Do what per se?"

"Silence, Pluso, because if you ask any more questions, I will have to bury you alive."

Pluso, with a tired expression, says, "You really threaten murder quite often."

Ner,o with a sigh, says, "It is just part of her charm at this point."

Turning to Sandra, Mariana gives her a smile, and says, "Thank you."

"No problem."

"I need to go do some stud-." Nero stops her sentence by hitting her on the head.

"Watch what you say!"

With a fury, Mariana starts to turn around to attack Nero, but then suddenly, a loud noise happens outside.

After a moment of initial shock, they all run towards it.

There, they and all others who ran towards the sound were greeted with a particular sight. A giant cow stands next to Charles's calf, while just a little bit away from them lies Charles with some blood flowing down his head, as Edward lies on the ground in front of them.

Running over towards them all, Nero asks, "What happened?"

Charles, with slight distress in his face, says, "That big cow started to run towards me, and Edward got in the way to protect me from the bow, and now he is injured."

Nero is getting close, and he says we need to patch him up then.

Suddenly, another voice roars through the area, but it is a familiar one. Dónal shouts, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" While seething with rage.

He walks over to us, his eyes transfixed on Charles.

This is bad; the only thing Dónal cares about is Charles, who is now injured.

Moving over to Dónal, I explain the situation, and the very moment I finish, he looks at Nati and says, "It was your job to mind this cow."

Scared, he says, "Sorry, it just started to run."

Dónal slaps him across the face with a force I didn't know he could muster. "DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT WAS GOOD ENOUGH, YOU DUMB HUMAN!"

As the area falls silent, Edward looks at Dónal and says, "This was your fault anyway."

"What was that human?"

"Nati, stop," I say.

Sandra says, "No, it is his fault it happened anyway. You split up a mother from her newly born calf. What did you think was going to happen when they ended up seeing each other again? And the way you have us managing all the animals is random and inefficient; it is like you don't even know how to do your job."

Φ Feeling sick in my stomach, I shout, "SHUT UP! What do you think gives any of you the right to talk to me? You're all scum who deserves to be looked down on because from the moment of birth you were all inferior. If I ask you to jump, you jump, if I ask you to run, you run, if I ask you to die, you die, even if I lock you in boxes till you suffocate, you say th-."

Suddenly, images of my childhood flash into my mind; Aren't they just like me?

Stopping my rant, I look around to see the countless faces of hatred and disdain, something all too familiar to me, so I say, "All of you get back to work." Then run off.

Φ As Dónal leaves, I see everyone huddle around each other and talk.

"Thanks for standing up for me."

"No worries, you did nothing wrong, and if anything, Sandra said more than I."

"Just said what was necessary. Now let's get you and Charles bandaged up."

Walking up beside me, Mariana says, "Hey Charles?"

"Yes, Mariana."

"One day, I want to make it so that none of us are slaves."

"Then we need to work hard."

"I know."

-Break-

The next day

Location: Far east of the River Lúide, inside a nearby forest

"I STILL DON'T GET IT."

Nero says, "Did you think you would just start magically understanding everything after yesterday?"

Dejected, Mariana says, "Yep."

Rubbing her head, Charles says, "Good job."

Getting up with passion, she says, "All I have to do is simply keep going till I win."

Nero says, "This isn't a battle, but I do get what you mean. So let's do this."

With a more flavourful than usual tone, Charles says, "Yes!"

So the three studied with all of their heart, and as they did, time passed.

Three years later