Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira

“Here,” I said, handing Akuma a banana. He grabbed it, thanking me. “Okay, you good?” I asked as he peeled his own banana.

“Yeah,” he said, looking into the light of the newly burning torch.

“Let’s work with what we know, first,” I said, taking a bite of my own banana. “We know that these shadow creatures can fly, but they don’t have wings. We know that they don’t like light, because they blew the torches out, and only came close when they were out. And we know that they know where we are.” Akuma sighed, looking down at the sea. “Um, also, I don’t recall you sleeping that hard, as I am pretty sure you would have awoken to someone tugging at your arms and legs. So, just to be safe, we should assume that somehow they were able to keep you asleep. Do you remember anything as you were asleep during that time?”

He looked down, with a sigh. “No. I don’t think I felt anything, just your average dream,” he said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more use.”

“Don’t be,” I replied, “this isn’t your fault. If you were able to help, you would have.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t,” he yelled. “There will be other times. They know where we are, and therefore, where we are going. What am I supposed to do? Never go to sleep again? Or what if they can just make me go unconscious? It’s my job to make sure you don’t get hurt,” he looked away, turning his head to the ocean “and I couldn’t do that job tonight,” he whispered.

I opened and closed my mouth many times, unsure of what to say next. Finally, I said, “We’ll figure this out, but in the meantime, we’ll work on ways for me to know when you’re coming, so I can wake you if needed.” I paused, then, bringing a flame to my hand, added “and I’m pretty tough. I fought off a gang of shadow creatures if you didn’t know.”

He chuckled, replying with, ”so I heard.” I laughed, and the flame grew, creeping up my arm. The more it climbed, the harder I laughed, therefore, the higher it climbed. I couldn’t put it out, so I thrust my arm into the ocean. He and I laughed at my own clumsy act, as I brought up my newly soaked arm.

“Bad timing,” I said, finally, and after my arm dried, pulled out the map, and using the stars to figure out where we were, and how to get back to where we needed to be. Eventually, he and I were able to guess that we were around four miles off course to the west. I pulled up the anchor, as Akuma got out his own oar, beginning to paddle slowly back on track, both of us grateful to have an excuse not to sleep.

“Remember that time you and I stole your Grandmother’s boat? We were so proud of ourselves, and made it about a mile off the shore until she caught up, in Maktu’s boat.” He recalled, looking over at me.

I giggled at the memory. “Yeah, I remember that. We weren’t even allowed anywhere near the dock for an entire year.” I said, looking back at him.

“And, I wasn’t allowed to go to your house for a week, either.” He said, taking another bite of his banana. I smiled, and looked down, back at the ocean, continuing to paddle.