Eli and Luci

We've decided to gather different materials separately. Eli would be in charge of looking for tannin and firewood, and Lucian would have to produce stone buckets and tools for tanning.

I'm charged with going back to the waterfalls with Idris and Rai.

We need to get a good amount of water and I'm the best fit for the job. My goal is to shuttle vacuum bags of water instead of making multiple trips with our water jugs. This would've been easier if I had access to a space domain, but that's for another day.

I stretch my arms while walking, taking in the scenery that would've been rare back in Solandis.

Back then, I wouldn't have been able to walk like this. Every time we walk around, there's always the feeling of being watched.

Coming from prominent political and military families, we've been watched since we were born. Most would assume that we've had to face heavy parental pressure, but in reality, they were exerting the least amount of pressure on us. If there had been any way around it, our parents wouldn't even dream of sending us off to war. And this is precisely why I'm torn about our current situation.

I'm torn because I somehow feel relieved that we've managed to escape the war. And I'm torn because I felt so relieved. We've prepared for so many years, and to be free of it by force? I'm guilty of rejoicing.

Eli's the type to go in guns blazing, if she goes down, she'll just take as many. But I've always been a fan of the anti-climactic. I'm pretty much a bystander, so if I'm feeling this way, I'm sure that it's probably eating at Idris and Lucian.

With all the good things they managed to have, of course they'd have to have a flaw somehow. I couldn't help but smile at the thought.

On the one hand, Idris is the personification of "politeness".

He's so polite that it's difficult to gauge the intensity of his lip service. And then on the opposite spectrum would be my cousin and his best friend, Lucian. He's so angry that even good intentions appear as rage.

One is restraining himself too much, the other one is bound by his imaginary restraints. A sigh escapes my lips and Rai seems to have caught on.

"Rina…" Rai cautiously asks, to which I answer with "hm?" "About the Captain and the Vice-Captain…Do they hate each other?" He scratches his head, unsure if his question could kill him.

I chuckle at this and think of how I'll respond. Exhaling audibly, I replied, "I actually don't think so." Smiling at the confused Rai, I continue. "It normally isn't my place to say this but it'll be hard for you as the only person who doesn't know. After all, you'll be stuck with them for a while. You see, it hasn't always been like this." Even Idris looks at me.

Knowing my cousin, he probably reduced his backstory down to a few grunts and snickers. I shake my head at the thought.

"Before the age of six, Eli was Lucian's world." Rai gasps and I let him crane his neck like a confused ostrich.

Idris looks at me with questioning eyes so I give in, "They grew up together and they were inseparable. We all have childhood friends whom we see every now and then, but Luci and Eli were the everyday-type. Short of gluing themselves together, their parents thought."

"You've heard about them being childhood friends, right?" I ask Idris who responds with a nod. "But I'm guessing he left out the intensity of it?" With a knowing smile on my face, I sigh at the situation.

"I learned the elders talk about it." Idris looked towards the front and I laughed at how he heard of it.

"Well, we'll be stuck together so might as well share a bit. It wasn't even a secret to begin with." I shrug.

"Back then, it was impossible to get between them. Lucian only ever gave Eli whatever he thought of as the best. And I guess Eli thought that Lucian was heaven's gift to the world. Best food? Toys? Rocks? Even the worms did not escape Lucian's scrutiny." Knowing how they are now, anybody who hears this today would probably choke on their saliva.

"When we were 5, I remember visiting them. We went fishing and were tasked to look for worms for bait. I managed to collect some and wanted to share them with Eli. Then comes Lucian saying with a stern face that I should forget about it." I try to imitate the very stern look of an angry 5-year-old as a visual aid.

"Eli won't like them. They're not fat enough." I still snicker at the memory.

And both Idris and Rai had really such dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

"Eli was kinder in this respect. She loved following Luci around, like a little duckling saying Luci-this or Luci-that. When the adults go for conferences, Eli would normally miss her parents terribly. But the adults quickly realized that she'd be fine provided they stick her to Lucian."

I take a deep breath knowing how it is now. "So you can just imagine what that was like for Eli when Lucian suddenly changed. At around 6 years old, Lucian suddenly morphed into what you normally see today. Overnight in fact. And even now, none of us know what happened because he refused to say anything. But from that day onwards he went out of his way to torment Eli."

"Not to the extent of bullying or physically hurting her, but the treatment was like night and day. He even rejected seeing her face. For a while, Eli tried to patch it up with Luci but nothing worked so she just did as wished." I stretch my arms up, feeling tired just remembering how Eli tried so hard to appease the angry Lucian.

"What you see now is a product of that. For most of the years before entering the academy, they only crossed paths during combined drills. They only had to forcefully interact upon entering the academy because their placements put them in very awkward positions of Captain and Vice-Captain.

"Wow…Cadets back at the academy always mentioned how those two were like rivals. That Vice-Captain hates the Captain for securing his position." Rai tells me.

I smile wistfully, "Eli didn't even want the position but had no say in the matter. She improved because she had to. She's always been promising, with her genes, how could she not be? But Lucian protected her well. So when she lost that, she had to learn how to fend for herself. She's survived 3 kidnappings by the age of 8, you know?" I clenched at the memory of Eli bloodied from crawling through barbed wires.

"Of course, none of that was Lucian's fault. And Eli never did attribute that to him. But those two years pushed her to be strong and capable. That's what created the monster that she is today." Now I'm positive that Eli can defend herself.

Rai momentarily had to collect himself when I mentioned the kidnappings, "Hey, we're from the founding military families. Hostile nations would always look at us with contempt as the Royal Family had no heirs up until recently. We were the next best thing so we've all experienced it."

"No wonder you guys are different from us." He trailed, "To us average cadets, they looked like they had a great tacit understanding. We barely even heard the Captain issue a command to the Vice-Captain." He says with his chin resting on his finger.

"It's because Lucian didn't want a Vice-Captain. He issued no commands. Eliana had to dig a role out for herself because she had no choice. She used her own means to get information and found work that she could be in charge of." Idris seemed lost in thought as he explained. I'm surprised he knows this much.

"In reality, you didn't have a Captain and a Vice-Captain. You had two Captains. They're only able to work together when combat and clear danger are involved. They haven't completely abandoned reason after all."

"But because Eli was essentially working autonomously, it looked like she was supporting the Captain well. To most people that was what they saw as tacit understanding. When we were gathering information, you may have thought that we delegated the tasks so that it would be more efficient. But what you didn't probably notice was that they both read all the materials." Rai was caught off-guard probably because this time he was directly involved.

"Lucian and Idris are both capable of processing and remembering an immense amount of data, so to them, that is child's play. Eli is definitely capable but her advantage lies in being able to creatively connect what she's learned. If these two could work together in the future we'd have such a good life." I genuinely smile at the thought.

"If it were just up to Lucian, a ditch would have sufficed. If it works then that's enough for him. But Eli asked for a room because where does he expect us to change clothes? Outside?" I raised a finger up at them and now they realize that they also forgot.

"Eli was fine with doing that because she knew she was doing it for me too. If Eli had access to Lucian's abilities, we'd be living in a cave dwelling by now, complete with a floor plan. You'll see what I mean later." I wonder how many things Eli has produced by now as we finally reach the waterfalls.

"But yeah, to answer your question, I don't think they hate each other. Just imagine having to go from super close to nothing at all in a day, then being told that now you're stuck with each other after avoiding each other for years. How awkward would that be? What tone do you even use to converse?" I shrug as I ask them.

Suddenly clasping his hands together, Rai exclaims, "I get it now! They're basically like ex-lovers who are forced to work at the same division in a company! But if they just stopped talking, one day, did they even get to have a break-up?" He was thinking about it deeply, seriously wondering about a phantom break-up.

"Well don't let them hear you say that unless you're in a rush to reincarnate." I laughed because he's rather accurate. Those two were engaged without them knowing, up until Eli discovered it.

We start bringing out the vacuum bags so that I can funnel water into them. I've never thought so highly of vacuum bags until today. I don't know when we will be able to make glass or plastic so now I'm willing to wage a war for these bags.

It seemed to be working, the bags were holding their shape, and I could move the water like this. Idris decided to spearfish while waiting and Rai decided to help with that. We only wanted a few to test the taste, since we still had the meat from the hell pig.

The trek back to the cave was uneventful and I sure hoped it would stay that way since it would really be awkward to explain the flying vacuum bags filled with water.

Near the cave, we ran into Eli who was surprisingly pushing a wheelbarrow filled with logs, firewood, and a bunch of long fibers. Just as I thought.

"Is that a wheelbarrow?" Rai was so surprised when he saw Eli that he almost let go of the fish he was holding.

"Yeah, I figured I'd make one since I didn't really want to lug them by hand." Eli scratched at her ear. "I see you managed to get some water." she smiled at the floating bags.

"And you've learned how to be a laser cutter?" I point towards her creations.

"Ha! If only! I figured I could grow them into a certain shape, but I still had to polish them by hand to get smoother edges." She lamented, probably wanting to smoothen out the wheel.

As if suddenly remembering something Eli suddenly calls out to Rai. "You're a wind elemental user, right? I'm hoping to borrow your abilities for a bit later." She says excitedly.

"Yes, Vice-Captain, I'll try but I'm not sure if I'm going to be good enough." Rai purses his lips hesitantly.

"Call me Eliana or Eli, whichever works. We're going to live here from now on and I'm not the Vice-Captain of anything here." She Shrugs as she pushes the wheelbarrow into the cave.

This seemed to help calm Rai as he loosened his death grip on the fish. "Okay, I'll do that!" he nods back enthusiastically.

I followed Eli in when I saw her suddenly stop.

"What in the-," She says and I try to look at what's caught her attention.

In the middle of our cave sat Lucian who was now surrounded by boulders. Not stones or small rocks, but boulders.

Next to him were several stone weapons, which in my opinion looked better than the ones he made back in Solandis. This was probably due to his greater control of his ability.

That part wasn't really surprising, what was surprising was the amount of odd-looking containers lying around coupled with his very annoyed face.

"We haven't been gone long but why does this place look like a battlefield," Eli asks as she attempts to inspect the items on the floor.

It felt like a game of trying to find walkable spaces since there were piles of boulders everywhere.

Lucian glares at Eli, clearly unhappy that she's pointing out his lack of artistic talent.

"Captain, let's talk. I have a proposal." Eli looks at Lucian, then back at me. I know this look, she wants me to drag these two out. With Lucian's pride, she knows she can't do this with all of us here. So I nod in understanding.

I return back, dragging both Rai and Idris out saying, "Those two are about to battle it out, for it to be less violent, there can't be any witnesses." I look at both of them sternly.

"Huh? But why? Aren't we supposed to be there instead? What if the Captain beats up Eli?" Rai said nervously and Idris sighed, "If they do fight, how many fingers would you be able to even stop?"

Rai seems to have woken up from his gallant heroic dreams and has realized that being outside was for the best.

I wonder what she's up to this time.