Abeni didn’t know why she expected her commands would last until they reached the village. She didn’t know why she automatically thought they were permanent when they couldn’t be. Because who else but her would undo her own mistakes by making an even more senseless one?

“Female ẹda,” she received a hum from her side as she continued down Pessimum Path, relieved that they were already halfway there. They have long since passed the mole tunnels without finding any moles, much to the female ẹda’s disappointment, and now they have around ten minutes until they reach the groundwater pond. The third checkpoint of five.

“How old are you? I’m thirteen if you couldn’t tell,” the more she knew about the other, the better.

“Hmph! That’s not for you to know…but…I’ll say that I’m probably two times…no three times your age. You’re a little baby compared to me.”

Really? Three times her age…that’s at least 30. 39!

“Thirty-nine?” Abeni tried, looking to the other being for approval. Subconsciously gripping her right ear and touching its missing top. Triple checking that this was not a dream and that she really was still travelling around with a middle-aged ẹda who knew the ẹda that killed her parents the day prior.

“Around that, yeah.”

“You’re…younger than my baba,” he had a four at the beginning of his age.

“Oh really?” Abeni noticed the female ẹda looked at her from the corner of her eye but didn’t comment on it.

They kept moving after that, with nothing more to say when Abeni started hearing the sound of water up ahead. Running water.

Is that…what she thought it was?

It was!

The groundwater pond. On the right side, but still inside of Pessimum Path! It’s just as she recalled, a pond large enough for her to swim in with water that had been cleaned by the sand and minerals it had passed by on its way from the supposed desolate surface.

Like the rocks edging the rest of the path, there were rounded multi-coloured ankle-high stones on its border that she could easily rest her knees on. So, with that thought, the white-haired girl jogged up to the pond and did just that. Leant down to cup the water in her hands and took a huge gulp of water.

“Ah, that’s refreshing!”

“…Really?” The female ẹda sounded intrigued. But Abeni ignored that.

It’s only been one night and yet she’s so thirsty. Was this what it meant to be on the road as a traveller? Abeni had only ever heard of the profession once before and immediately rejected the idea. Preferring to stay with the people she loves than wander alone. And today had cemented that fact.

“Hey! Don’t hog the water, you stupid eniyan!” The female ẹda reprimands at some point, slithering up to the pond.

“You should be quicker next time then!” After all, with their difference in speed, it should have been easy.

“Excuse you?” The female ẹda asked with a warning tone.

Abeni continued to quench her thirst as she defended herself, too desperate to stop drinking or give in to fear. “Y-you don’t even need to drink water! You’re just…a big fat worm with arms and a flower for a face.”

The female ẹda rolled her eyes. “Are you stupid? Ẹda need water too. That’s an obvious fact.”

“I…” she slurps some more water, still kneeling on the smooth rocks. “I don’t agree.”

“You don’t ‘agree’? That’s ridiculous!” The other being raised her voice. “I’m not going to stay with an ignorant eniyan who can’t accept common sense. Every lifeform needs water.”

Really? “Are you s—?”

The female ẹda crosses her arms in front of her chest as she watched Abeni and speaks with a condescending tone. “If you disagree, I’m leaving you to travel by yourself.”

And despite this being what she had wanted to happen the entire way here. For some reason…the thought of it sent a shiver down Abeni’s spine. Her body protested the idea. At some point, things changed. It seemed that while she was still apprehensive of the female ẹda, she’s more scared to be alone. Conflicted.

Maybe because she watched Abeni’s body while she slept? You know what, it didn’t matter! The white-haired girl would just take her words back. That way things would be as they were and the female ẹda would stay for just a little while longer. Maybe if the ẹda realised that she wasn’t following her of her own free will, she’d be able to break Abeni’s command naturally and without any bad blood.

So, Abeni sat up on her knees, stopped drinking from her hands and crossed her arms. “OK. I take back everything I said, you’re ri—!” only for her expression to drop straight away as she clamps her teeth together.

But it’s too late...the female ẹda was already looking down at her with an unreadable expression on her face again and Abeni could tell she messed up.

Big time.

No, no, no! What did she just do? What did she just say? The white-haired girl felt a tingle in her stomach, which meant she used her ability again and…cancelled what she said before? She hadn’t meant it like that, but the female ẹda’s reaction was telling. Her commands…have been undone!

What could she do?

She’s in danger.

Tension was present in the space between them. So present that even the water dropping from Abeni’s hands onto the stones now sounded incredibly loud to her ears. Abeni almost felt like she couldn’t breathe with how tense it was as she watched every movement the female ẹda made, even when she whispered to herself.

“That’s right…why am I here again?” The female ẹda asked with confused eyes as they had a stare-off.

Abeni decided to slowly stood up and back away down Pessimum Path and the female ẹda stayed by the pond but never took her eyes off of the white-haired girl as the female ẹda’s gaze switched between being dangerous and calm. Her veins appeared and then relaxed. As if that curse was continuously coming and going.

Or more like…she was trying to manage it?

“You can c-c-control it? The curse?”

The female ẹda took a deep breath but gave no response. And somehow that’s scarier. That made Abeni even more terrified and made her want to run. To go home and find out how to use her abilities so this never happened again.

“Only so much,” came the short reply.

Those words were enough. They were the trigger for Abeni to start sprinting down Pessimum Path past the groundwater pond and round a corner.

Of course, there were other, more public adjacent paths that she could try finding that would lead elsewhere, but the village was the safest place she could be. She didn’t know these parts, and frankly, Abeni didn’t want to chance getting lost.

The female ẹda didn’t follow her straight away which relieves her…until she heard a bang, rocks crashing down and ultra loud slithering sounded just like before from behind her.

The female ẹda must have transformed into its bigger form.

Great.

Just...amazing.

Should she give up?

No! Relax, Abeni! She told herself as she ran, trying to ignore how quickly the other being was catching up. This was just like a board game. All she had to do was use certain moves to beat her opponent— Bang!

But before she could even blink, Abeni’s small body was thrown into the wall by a huge, wrinkly grey body with specks of coral on it. It punched the air out of her lungs but nothing broke. She fell to the ground from a short distance. Nothing was sprained. She’s just sore.

Why? Why?

“You dumb eniyan! I don’t know what you did before, but I can’t…I can’t resist these urges anymore. I can barely hold back.”

She turned to see the female ẹda writhing around on the ground, holding her hands to her body as if trying to hold herself together.

Oh.

“Argh!”

Could it be that...despite cancelling her commands…this female ẹda wasn’t trying to hurt her?

Oh.

The other being kept yelling, “Do something, you dumbass!”

Well, that changes things. If that’s the case then…it’s her who made the mistake of binding them to each other in the first place and therefore, she had the responsibility to make that right somehow.

For the both of them.

So, without a second thought, Abeni made her move. “Go on, fight me!”

[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 1]