Friends

" No!"

He hadn't expected that answer.

Infact from the way she was now feverishly scratching he thought it was a mistake.

He shook his head.

"Are you seriouse?"

He came closer to her.

She gave him a death stare.

" I'm deadly serious. I can handle it by myself"

" If you say so but I can see how much it irritates you, I've done this before so. Just saying"

Cly got back to hacking at the tree. He could see with the side of his eyes that she couldn't handle it.

Naha wasn't going to break for this tiny boy to see. She had pride in her ability to survive on her own. After all she had been forced to learn it.

Her dad was a brutal cobra and her mum, she never even knew her mum.

Her dad brought her up by forcing her to fend for herself. They lived in a cabin in the woods and from as far back as she could remember she was rarely in the house. Her dad would kick her out and ask her to bring him food. He was a strict meat eater so she had to hunt animals. The first time she went out she almost died if a nymph hadn't saved her.

Immediately she got home she received a beating and immediately after her father abstained from talking to her.

The next day she failed again but didn't return home until the day after.

She came home with a rabbit which she offered to her dad although she herself hadn't eaten since the first day. He had cut off the leg and given it to her then he proceeded to ignore her the rest of the day.

It went on like that, she would acquire a rabbit or hare and receive the leg and silence.

Until one day she caught something bigger.

Although that wasn't the point.

From her father's habits she learnt to shed her skin by herself. She mostly learnt it so she didn't have to bother her father.

Since she'd turned 18 she hadn't been able to shed her skin once. Although now it was only twice a year that she required to do so.

She'd decided to rough it out and her conviction was only strengthened when she got to the island.

She was refusing help for something that bothered her because she couldn't stand being someone else's burden. She couldn't stand being reliant or weak.

Her convictions were usually strong, strong enough for her to kill her friends for it.

But was her health going to suffer because of her convictions.

She scratched her back and tried to straighten her hands to continue her work but the four layers of thick skin that her body was painfully trying to get rid of wouldn't let her.

Her two years of neglect had finally caught up with her.

She looked at cly who was struggling to fall his third tree today.

' how weak'

" You can help, if you, want to."

She said shyly.

Cly stopped working and looked at the shouki.

'seems she's come to her senses'

He approached her. Her eyes were filled with annoyance and fury so he approached slowly.

' I know it's not me she's pissed at but, those eyes are really threatening'

He came up behind her.

" Are you going to...?"

She snarled at him then she turned back and nodded.

" Help me remove them"

He had to be quick about it so people wouldn't see and get the wrong idea.

On the island there wasn't any rule that prohibited the act but no one was stupid enough to try.

He moved the last layer of clothes down to her waist.

He wasn't going to move past that for now and didn't need to.

He used his fingers to test how thick the skin was.

' damn, how has she been coping this long'

Her shedding skin was extremely thick and rigid, it barely budged when he pocked it.

" I'm going to need something first"

She didn't turn back to reply.

" What is it"

" The skin is really thick so I need something to cut it with"

She paused for a bit.

" Break off one of my nails. It would grow back really quickly so it's not a loss."

After procuring the nail from her pinky toe he began to cut her free.

It wasn't that hard to do. It was like undressing a girl from a silk dress, just without the zipper.

He cut a vertical line from the neck down to the waist. Her nails made it like butter.

' I'd hate to be on it's recieving end'

He peeled off the first layer of dried hard leathery skin with ease.

Then helped her take it off completely by severing a line round her waist.

He proceeded to the second layer which was even harder than the first.

The nail required pressure this time so he had to be careful not to injur her.

If anyone had seen them the ideas they would conjour up would be wild.

The last layer of skin was tough and made cly cut himself by accident but he managed.

Soon after they'd begun the whole upper layer was free.

Cly thought he was done but naha had other ideas. She raised the length of her tattered trousers as high as they could go.

He sighed inwardly and began an even harder process of undressing her legs, systematically removing the skin step by step.

It took longer to remove the skin on her legs cause the last layer seemed fresher and thus wasn't like clothe instead it was still connected to her at every point.

Cutting it off made Nahashka wince but she had to do it.

Luckily for her the person helping her was good at it and hadn't cut her so far.

She looked behind her, at the calm face of the boy helping her. She couldn't deny he was cute, in a mature way.

" I've never had a friend to do this for me, no one else has done it for me before"

Cly looked up at her.

" It's fine I won't even think about it by tomorrow."

' I'm not some dog brain.' he was suspicious of what she meant.

She turned back.

" My friends usually never last"

They didn't speak again after that.

By the time cly was done with Both her legs her under skin had already turned bright pink.

It started to swell a bit then a liquid started being secreted out of it.

She was so relieved by the freedom her body felt that she wanted to remove the last parts of it now but courtesy restrained her from being rash. She had to get gloves but once they were done she took over the hacking of trees.

Cly sighed.

' at this rate I'll be the one left behind'

He looked at all the undone pills of wood then sighed again.