Sitting underneath an apple tree in front of the barrack, I was flipping the pages of my book, titled 'List of Herbs and Spices in the Faerie Kingdom.' This book could be very useful for me if I'm living at Angelis for a while, or forever. Oh boy, it's been months since I've been here. Sword-fighting, gun-slinging, butt-kicking, it's been pretty intense but pretty fun, actually.
I get to explore new places and made new friends with the locals here, unlike Slaborough, which is small and boring, although I'm starting to miss it. The Little Owl Coffeehouse where I would help my family out after school, the wide-open field where I get to play tag with Ferdinand and Naomi, and the school where I looked forward to debate with Archie and Amra. Goodness, it's not the same as Angelis, where I have to act like an adult.
Then, a brown ball landed on my head, making me drop the book from my hand. I rubbed my forehead as I glanced at the ball. Oh, great, I rolled my eyes. Looks like Nat has interrupted my peace, again.
"Hey, meatbag," he shouted. "Can I have my ball back?"
I let out a sigh and continued to study herbs and spices. Well, if he kept calling me meatbag, might as well ignore that douchebag.
"Hey, meatbag," he repeated. "I'm talking to you."
I pretended not to hear him as he approached me, giving me a death glare. "Are we going to do this the whole day?"
"Clearly, you're intruding my study session right now, dickhead," I warned in, staring at him right in the eye. "How 'bout you take your ball yourself and leave in peace, yeah?"
He let out a snort, laughing with his gang. "Whatever, you're such a fucking coward. You don't even belong here."
Clenching my fist, I tossed my book aside and jumped on him, punching his face. The Knights of Moon gathered around and cheered as Nat tackled me on the ground, with my neck in his hand. Yanking his hair, I dragged him up and kicked his groin with his knee, making him shriek like a vulture. He tightened his lips as he swung his fist at my left eye.
I hissed as he elbowed my guts, but I managed to stop him and pushed him to the ground, kicking him in the abdomen. Before I could punch him, the Sergeant rushed to my aid and grabbed my fist, standing between me and Nat. "Both of you, in my office, now!" he shouted, releasing my hands.
I nodded my head as I kicked Nat's leg, following him to the Sarge's office. Great, looks like I'm in trouble, again! This is all Nat's fault. He had to disturb my studying session. God, why can't I ever get motherfucking peace from that boy?
As Nat and I reported ourselves to the Sarge's office, he ordered us to close the door behind us and sit down, facing him. He crossed his arms as he glared at us for a few minutes, making me tense. This reminds me of my aunt if my sister and I got into trouble.
"What's the first code for the Knights of Moon?" he questioned. Nat swallowed his saliva hard, stuttering. "Be brave and courageous."
He shook his head as he shifted his focus towards me. "What about you, Bugsy?"
"Be respectful of others, regardless of race, religion, gender, and sexuality," I answered, recalling my last lessons on the codes of Knights of Moon.
"Thank you, Bugsy. At least you're smart enough to answer that question."
Nat stared at me, his eyes turning green. "This is the fifth time both of you have fought each other and I have enough for your antics."
"But Sarge, Nat started it first," I spoke up. "He kept calling me a meatbag instead of my real name."
"She's lying," Nat defended himself. "I was just minding my own business when this meatbag just showed up and punched me in the face."
"Why, you son of a-"
"Alright, I've heard enough," he interrupted as he opened his drawer, taking out a yellowish scroll. "You two are adults and yet you both fight like children."
I elbowed Nat as the Sarge handed me a scroll, which contained the list of herbs and spices in Angelis. "What's this for?" I asked, wondering what's the task given to me. "I want both of you to get me these from the forest."
"Wait, with her?" Nat exclaimed, snatching the list from my hands.
"With each other, yes, and oh, miss out one, and you're both sleeping outside the barrack. Am I clear, cadets?"
I groaned and nodded. This is all Nat's fault. I swear to the Lord I'll kill him if there's no such thing as rules. "Yes, Sarge," I answered sheepishly, as I punched Nat's shoulder and walked out of the office, grabbing a basket. He punched me back as Sergeant A'tynn glanced at us, rubbing his temples. He must be stressed out dealing with misbehaving cadets, just like Aunt Inara.
As we headed into the silver forest with our weapons, both of us held our tongue as I began to pluck the rosemary-scented adult from the trees tossing it inside the basket. This is exactly like what I've been doing in Slaborough back home. Foraging for food in the forest. My favourite tasked assigned to me unless I have to work with someone that hates my guts.
I continued to track around the forest and plucked the Witch's cumin, sniffing it with my nose. With the warm, penetrating aroma with a hint of lemon, I placed it in the basket and picked more spices on the list, like Mero Petal, which resembles dahlia petals, Fallomeg, which looked suspiciously similar like nutmeg, and wolf pepper, which made me sneeze, like an actual pepper.
I glanced at Nat, who was just lazing about underneath the trees. Geez, what an ass. Letting me do all the work while I'm here finding all those herbs in the forest. Pacing towards him, I shook him awake. "What now, meatbag?"
I handed him the scroll, looking away from him. He scoffed as he went through the list, then rolled it back. "You want me to find the other half of the list?"
I gave a nod, not saying a word to him. "Giving me the silent treatment, meatbag?"
Dropping my basket, I grabbed his neck and pinned him against the tree, staring daggers at him. "Call me meatbag one more time and I swear I will make your death look like a fucking accident."
"I didn't know you're that feisty," he chuckled, making me squeeze his neck even tighter. Well, today is the day that Nat will die and I will finally get a piece of my mind. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry I insulted you. Now can you please let me go?"
I sighed and released my grip on his neck. Oh well, maybe some other time. Nat coughed up as he tried to catch his breath, kneeling on the ground.
"I need water," he begged. "The Lord gave you two arms and two legs, use it."
"Fine," he complained, as I watched him crawled towards the stream, gulping down some water like a thirsty camel in the desert. To be honest, I kind of feel sorry for that guy. Kind of. Getting up, Nat was searching through the thick bushes for herbs while I sat there and took off my boots, letting them soaked underwater. "Aren't you going to help me?"
"I did half the work," I told him, ignoring his gaze. "Now it's your turn, dickhead."
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Bugsy is a pretty weird name."
"Says the guy whose name rhymes with Mentos."
One of his eyebrows was raised as he squinted his eyes. "What the hell is Mentos?"
I chuckled. Looks like he doesn't understand human pop culture. "It's a candy brand that is round-shaped and comes in lots of flavour like mint and frutti-tutti and so on and so forth."
"Sounds a lot like Roley Poleys," he said, picking up some pasurrel.
"What's a Roley Poley?" I asked with curiosity."
"It's a candy that looks exactly like you've described, except it comes in a sack."
"Oh, well, mine comes in a wrapper that's shaped like a cylinder."
"How interesting," he approached me, placing some herbs and mushrooms he found in the forest. I examined the mushrooms and noticed their spores on top of their red roof. "These are poisonous," I told them. "You could kill everyone on the base if we served them inside their soup."
He sighed. "Well, I can't really tell the difference between the poisonous ones and the non-poisonous ones, okay?"
What a dumbass. I wonder how he is still alive for the past 16 years of his life. "Well, you have to taste them first," I explained to him. "If it's spicy, then it's poisonous but if it tastes good, then it's safe to eat."
He nodded, repeating what I just said. "But what if it doesn't taste good?"
"Then don't pick that one."
"Do I have to bite the whole thing?"
"No," I shook my head. "You just take a tiny amount, that's all."
"Got it," he got up and walked away from me, scrounging some wild mushrooms for the Sarge. I rolled my eyes as I glanced at the fish swimming in the river. With scales as red as cranberries and eyes as blue as the sky during the day, it swam through my legs, tickling me. Giggling in amusement, I pulled up the bottom of my pants and chased them in the streams, splashing water.
As they swam through the rocks, I dunked myself underwater, looking at them. Reaching my hand inside, I felt a soft nibble on my fingertips, making me giggle underwater. Unfortunately, the water got through my nose and mouth, causing me to popped out and cough violently.
Catching me in the act, Nat burst out in laughter as he dropped himself on the ground. "Are you always this childish, Bugsy?"
I pouted, giving him a light slap on my shoulder. "I am a child, actually."
"No, you're 16, which is the legal age for an adult," he reminded me.
"Whatever, I don't even feel like an adult."
"Yeah, me too," he nodded, placing the mushrooms inside the basket. "It's like yesterday, you were chasing tag in the wide-open field then all of a sudden, you have to live on your own without Ma and Pa's help."
"I agree," I said, examining the mushrooms, just to make sure Nat got the right ones. "I mean, growing up seems cool, where I get to do my own thing without anyone telling me what to do but well, you have to act mature and all. It's just too soon for me, you know."
As raindrops fell from the gray sky, we rushed through the forest, frantically finding a place we could shelter. I was soaking wet from the top to the bottom, along with my hair as we wandered around. "Do you even know where we're going?" I asked, shivering.
"Of course I do, Bugsy, I guess," he shrugged, running around.
"You guess? You know or you don't?"
"Look, I've been living in Angelis since I was four," he told me. "I know what I'm doing, okay?"
"Said the guy who can't even tell a difference between edible mushrooms and poisonous mushrooms."
"I don't think we have the time for-"
Before he could finish his sentences, we heard a rustle in the bushes, making Nat's eyes widen, and he gasped. Grabbing my hand, he dragged me with him through the woods, leaving me puzzled. "What the hell are you doing?" I shouted. "Let go of me."
"I'll explain later," he said, as I felt something was chasing us from behind.
"Maybe you could explain right now instead of holding it back, yeah?"
Before Nat could explain it to me, something large pounced on top of him, making me thrown off to the side. Rubbing my head, I noticed a wolf-like creature biting Nat's arms as he tried to fought back. I grabbed my pistol as fast as I could and loaded it, pulling the trigger.
The black wolf glared at me with its deadly, red eyes and ran towards me, its cheek bleeding. I loaded my pistol and was about to pull the trigger when it attacked me, scratching my abdomen. I screamed in pain as I stretched my left leg, kicking its stomach. The wolf let out a soft cry as I got up and lifted Nat with both arms, running for our lives. "What are you doing?"
"Saving your ass, now come on," I huffed, holding in the pain. As I saw a large tree ahead of us, I placed Nat on the ground and let him climb on my back, then continued to run towards that oak tree. When I stepped on one of the stumps, the wolf grabbed my left leg and tried to pull me with it. Holding onto my grip, I tried to pull myself upwards towards the top of the tree, but it was too strong.
Nat's arms trembled as she grabbed his pistol with one of his hands and took a shot, aiming at the ground. The beast howled as it let go of my leg, wincing in pain. I took another step on the stumps and grabbed each of the branches, reaching to the top. Nat let go of me as he laid himself between the thick branches, panting. "Goodness," I exclaimed, holding his bleeding hands. "You need to bandage yourself."
"I could say the same for you, Bugsy," he pointed at my blood-soaked tunic, along with my stumped toes. I shook my head.
"It's alright, Nat," I chuckled, hissing in pain. "I've been through worse, trust me."
He lifted my tunic slightly and gasped, as there was a deep, scratch mark across my stomach, with blood spilling out of it. He stood up and grabbed a leaf, making it into a cup. He then let the rainwater flow inside the cup and poured it on my wound. I closed my eyes and tightened my lips as I squeezed Nat's hands tighter. God, this hurts so much right now.
I did the same with Nat with both of his hands. "Could you be more gentle?" he complained, murmuring in pain. "You're too rough."
I poured it in a gentle manner as I wiped the blood off him with my handkerchief. "That'll stop the bleeding."
"Thanks, Bugsy," he gave a nod, as he glanced down, noticing the wolf running around the tree in circles, waiting for us to climb back down. My chest tightened around me as I felt my palms feeling clammy, despite the cold rain.
"What is that thing?"
"That's the Banehound," he told me. "They usually come out whenever it rains. They preyed on people like us."
My fingers trembled as I looked at the beast while holding in the pain. "Does it hurt?"
I bobbed my head, holding the wound with my other handkerchief. "Yeah, it's stinging right now."
Nat let me lay on his chest and held my wounded torso, whispering in a strange language in my ears. I began to yawn and fell asleep, my mind turning black.
Opening my eyes, I noticed the while ceiling above me, making me sit upwards. I saw Nat sitting beside me, giving me a warm look. "Where am I?" I asked, looking around the room.
"You're in the med-bay," Sergeant A'tynn told me, as he walked in. "How's your wound, soldier?"
I glanced at my torso, which was wrapped with bandages. "I don't really feel any pain right no, Sarge."
"That's good to hear."
"Hey, Sarge, about the herbs-"
He chuckled. "Oh, don't worry about it, Bugsy. You and Nat did a great job of collecting all of them."
"It was a team effort, Sarge," Nat told him, his lips curved upwards. "If weren't for Bugsy, I would have been a goner by now."
"Glad to see you two getting along with each other," the Sarge smiled at us, giving us a wink. "Anyways, I'll leave you both alone."
I squinted my eyes as he left the room, with me and Nat alone in the med-bay. "Hey Bugsy," he spoke, scratching the back of his head. "About what happened earlier, thank you for risking your life to save mine and sorry for being a dick."
I smiled, squeezing his hands. "I forgive you, Nat, and also, sorry for punching and choking you. "
"Nah, I deserved that," he laughed. "So, are we friends now?"
"Together, forever."
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