Eighty-nine...ninety…ninety-one…ninety-two!

“Abeni…can you answer me?” Abeni froze as she finally noticed that the female ẹda had been cautiously trying to get her attention. As if she was walking on eggshells around her which was ridiculous considering that this female ẹda was supposed to be a senior manipulator according to what the old man said last week. Able to defeat five or more juniors. Compared to Abeni who might not even be a junior.

But that wasn’t her concern, she had slashes to do.

Ninety-three...ninety-four!

Abeni paused at the continued silence, turned away from the bedroom wall she was staring at when her mind drifted away in deep thought, arms aching with the familiar sting that she’d grown to recognise as progress. “What did you say again?”

A frustrated sigh. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” she nodded to the female ẹda, before resuming her side-to-side swings. Ninety-five…ninety-six! Abeni smiled to herself. She’s quicker than yesterday. Her lips dropped to a frown, it certainly...hurt more today too.

A frustrated hum then an impatient tut. “Are you sure? You’ve been training too much.”

No, she hadn’t been training enough if you ask her. Ninety-seven...ninety-eight! When Abeni wasn’t searching for her parents’ stash, doing her finances and swinging her knife, she needed to be figuring out how to train her mind manipulation ability. Because she had so many questions about her ability that needed answers as well. Like what if the receiver was unconscious, didn’t understand her or couldn’t hear her?

But without a target, there was no way she could figure that out on her own...

“What do you mean?” Abeni stopped swinging again to look at her. The female ẹda clearly didn’t have plans to leave any time soon as she leant her untransformed body on the wooden door frame.

“I mean…for a grown eniyan, this is fine. But you’re not grown and yet you’ve been doing hundreds of swings and going on a run every single day…you’re going to collapse, you know?”

“You’ve been watching me?” It wasn’t that Abeni was surprised, the female ẹda lived here now, they even ate together sometimes and it wasn’t like she hid what she did from the other being. But still...

“Err…did you forget that I live with you now? I can hear almost everything you do.”

Yeah. “Well…I don’t know how else to train,” it was true, she didn’t. Abeni just figured if she mastered something simple, it could be useful. Hence, knife swings and jogging. “Unless you have any better ideas?” Abeni looked to the female ẹda with genuine interest. Any tips would be welcome. This was about protecting her life here in Aajiz Village, after all. She had to ask.

But the female ẹda just crossed her eniyan-sized arms over her slightly rounder stomach. Likely bloated due to her how much of Abeni’s stew she’d been eating recently as the female ẹda eyed the limply swaying sword in the white-haired girl’s right hand. “Frankly, I don’t get why you’re training your body so hard when you have a perfectly good ability to use. An ability, might I add, that forced the mighty me to bow down to you.”

The white-haired girl’s gaze drifted around the room, the bed, the baskets and bin, hesitant to have this conversation. She knew where this was going. But she was getting sick and tired of people assuming that she was too weak to fight. She needed to do this. To become stronger. Abeni appreciated the thought, she really did, but why was this ẹda interfering now after days and days of just watching? It wasn’t as if she was going to stop now.

The other being continued speaking despite the lack of response. “Why are you training like this all of a sudden, huh? Did something happen? No offense, but training your small ass body instead of your true weapon might not be the best move.”

She was already aware of that, but it wasn’t that simple. Nothing was anymore. “Ugh...that’s the whole point! It’s because I want to become stronger than I am. And because I don’t have someone to train my mind manipulation ability with, I…” Abeni’s voice faded out as she appraised at the female ẹda once more and one of her problems solved itself, right then and there, “Fight me,” before saying what she should have said all along.

Stillness befell the pair as their eyes met. Holding onto the room like a desperate fungus found in that maze and forcing down any potential words that either of them would have said back down their equally tight throats.

Until...

Until the female ẹda panicked.

“Ah! Not again! Abeni! Run! Run!” She screeched, head falling straight to the ground with a bang right by Abeni’s bed, grey nails gripping her thick coral petals in horror much to the white-haired girl’s utter bewilderment. “Don’t make me—!” Then quickly realised that nothing happened, no ability was used and they were safe. “...Huh? Wait. That wasn’t a command?”

Without warning, Abeni burst out laughing, dropping the knife onto the floor before she even reached a hundred as she used that same right hand to hold onto her tummy. Unable to control it as the tight knot of anxiety that had encaged her body at some point, abruptly changed, loosened, released. If only for a short time.

What was that?

“Wait, so…you can’t tell if I…pft!”

The female ẹda’s voice was not as confident as it was prior to her panicking. “I-I-I can! I can, shut it, you dumb…eniyan!”

“That’s low…but not as low as you just fell on the ground, hahaha!” Abeni kept chuckling to herself, holding her body.

It almost felt...foreign to laugh like this. Before her parents’ passing, she used to be so easy-going, always willing to explore and play board games, to do things that made her happy. But ever since watching them die, she couldn’t afford to be like that anymore.

They sacrificed themselves for her. To protect her out of love. So, Abeni had to stay alive. She was scared of the death that took them from her which was why she would work as hard as she could avoid it at all costs and live the best life she could here. No matter what it did to her body or her psyche. Being alone in this village in those first few days taught her that discipline.

But this laughter, this feeling of letting everything go and being who she was before the incident...it changed her yet again. While she couldn’t be an innocent child protected by her parents’ lies, or a powerful eniyan ready to utilise the ability she had to gain the respect she deserves, not everything about adult life had to be grim. This female ẹda’s existence was proof of that.

“Stop laughing, you stupid eniyan!”

“Hahaha!”

Maybe she should let herself rest.

The female ẹda, who denied ever falling down at first, soon resorted to just letting her laugh with a hesitant smile until Abeni eventually calmed down. “You know…sometimes I forget you’re just a child. Well, a teenager.”

The white-haired girl sobered up at that, finding herself not as annoyed by that comment as she perhaps should be. “…What do you mean?”

“Nothing, just…your face really loosens up when you smile.”

“Ha…I don’t think I’ve smiled this much since my birthday, so. I get it,” Abeni swallowed, unable to stop herself her mouth running now that she had finally loosened up. “You’re right. I’ll try not to push myself too hard anymore. Sometimes, I forget I’m this young too...since now...you know, I have to parent myself. All b-by myself…”

They’d spoken about that fact, the female ẹda already knew her parents died on her birthday. The funeral helped and yet...Abeni still found it difficult to live without them...but that. That was a bit much. A bit too vulnerable. That wasn’t what being an adult was about, was it? She had to be strong.

“Sorry…” Abeni muttered, looking down to the floor and wiping her eyes so she didn’t shed even a single tear. Why did she have to open her big mouth and ruin her own happiness? The mood was all dreary again. “My Iya always said I spoke too much…Baba too. I…I shouldn’t have said that. Sorry.”

But, the female ẹda simply stared at her with a serious expression for a long moment before slithering up to her and pulling her in for a hug.

One that felt like it lasted a lifetime as she squeezed Abeni’s small body close with those muscly arms, exuding a feeling of warmth and comfort that stunned the white-haired girl. Made her freeze up with how oddly familiar it felt. It was…just like how her parents used to hold her, but also very, very different.

So, Abeni let it happen. Looking down at the ground as she let herself be held with her own arms hanging freely by her side. Not that she could escape the female ẹda’s stronghold anyway.

A few more moments passed of her just soaking it in. Feeling her eyes start to well up again as she realised that this was the female ẹda’s way of showing her that she was here for her. That she would help her when no one else would. That she wasn’t alone. Just as she did when she appeared on her stone doorstep. Before Abeni was pushed back to where she was standing, received a warm grin and heard words that would soon change Abeni’s life forever.

“Let’s spar!”

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