Chapter Two: The Sword (Part Two)

I blocked the attacks with my sword. If this didn't involve an innocent civilian you could say that I was almost excited to use my brand new sword. As we kept fighting this demon I finally took a stab at him through the arm he fell to the floor in agony and Astro tied his foot to a pole to not escape. I figure we need to take the girl out of here since she was still on the floor presumably in shock for the whole wave of events. I go up to her and give her a nice warm smile. 

“It's okay I'm here to help you,” I say as I offer my hand she looks up at me and as I'm looking at her face something inside me lights up, I've never felt this way before I was almost taken back from this I am not one to notice someone in that way, not like this. 

She takes my hand and stands up. I am now directly looking at her and am intimidated for the first time in a long time. Astro walks up to us “I've already called for backup. They should be here any moment to take this guy in’’ he directs himself to the girl “Hey do you need us to take you anywhere, maybe to your house or something?” she smiles and says “Don't worry I have somewhere to go that's not too far from here I can see you guys are busy so I do not want to take up much of your time thank you for saving me!” she says as she walks away holding a basket with what I think are flowers.

“Yeah, no problem!” Astro yells back to her. I find myself looking at her leave and I can’t help but wonder who she is, her hobbies, whether she has a good relationship with her family, and whether she has any long-lost secret. I wanted to know it all. My thoughts are interrupted by the demon “How long are you children going to keep me suffering!” Astro rolls his eyes and bends down to the demon level “Hey not to be rude but can you shut up help is on its way you are being annoying right now.” 

“I am bleeding my arm out, I am in pain!” he says in an angry tone. 

“We both know that's not true and you wouldn't be bleeding your arm out if you didn't attack that girl,” I say 

The demon rolled his eyes and shut up sulking in silence. It wasn't long before help came and some other members came and took the demon to a captive facility, if they weren't able to get any useful information out of him then they had no choice but to release him. That's the awful thing about playing for the good side; we must abide by the rules. Long before the war the queen and Erebus made a pact saying they could not hold each other's subjects in captivity, this was to keep the peace between the two kingdoms. Now this rule has become inconvenient to us for obvious reasons. 

“Hey guys don't worry we got it from here,” says Jace 

Jace is one of the older kids. He is ranked higher but that just means he has more skill than us. We have interacted somewhat but the times he has he has let us know that he is pretty cool. 

“Alright thanks, Jace I'll see you around tomorrow,” I say 

“See you later man” Astro waves 

We make our way to the cafe and take a seat, the waitress takes our orders and now we are just waiting for the food. Astro stared at me for a few seconds before I asked “Is something wrong?” 

He squinted his eyes, staring at me more intensely. “I don't know Mari is there?” 

I became slightly nervous. “I'm not sure Astro” We stare at each other for a second before he blurts out “So we aren't going to talk about how you had a moment with that one girl?” 

I choked a little. I didn't realize that he saw through me that easily. It was obvious. Could she see it too?

“I'm not sure what you are talking about,” I say, deciding that I should play it cool. 

“Oh I think you know perfectly well what I'm talking about you can't fool me Mari I saw the way you looked at her” 

“I think you're overthinking this” 

“I'm not! I know I'm not” he points his finger at me as if he were trying to interrogate me “You are going to tell me what that was missy!” 

I smiled and looked to see that the waitress was standing above us with our food. I realized that we were being way too loud to the point other people were staring at our table. She gave a nervous laugh, set the food, and walked away quickly. Astros face turned red immediately he quickly his face with his hands and took a long sigh. I started giggling at Astro's embarrassment. 

“Do you still want to know Astro?” I said to him, “I'm ready to share my feelings!” 

“No I don't care anymore” he starts to quickly eat his cake. I laugh and start to eat my cake too.

“Hey, did they assign you a mission for tomorrow?” I ask 

“No, I think I'm just going to be training. I hope I don't get Luca and his little friend group. They are always trying to prove they're better than me and for no reason too like I'm just trying to exist I'm not trying to steal your spotlight!” he rolls his eyes. “Why do you?” 

“Yeah they assigned me a mission with my sister” 

“That's weird you and Angel are never assigned a mission, must be serious did they tell you what it was?” 

“No, they said they were going to tell me tomorrow must be top secret or something”  

“That sounds fun I wish I could go with you” he takes a bite of his cake “These days they don't assign me any fun  missions I wonder why” 

“That's pretty weird I could talk to Brandy if you want”

“No, it's cool I kind of like just chilling it's less stressful” 

“Yeah I get you,” I finished my cake. “That was so good.” Astro is finishing with his so I take the liberty to look around. I look outside the window and notice the bookshop that's across from the cafe. I've lived here my entire life and yet I have never even gone to the bookshop and it's not like I don't like books. I love to read a good story from time to time. “Have you ever visited the bookshop?” I asked Astro. 

He swallows and answers “The bookshop?” he thinks about it “Yeah I've gone there once before” he smiles before taking another bite. 

“I don't know it's a little weird I haven't visited it” 

“It's a lovely place,” he thinks about it “If you want we can go another day”

“Yeah sure” 

He yawns “It's getting late, we should go home, the sun is setting and I want you to be alert for your important mission tomorrow.” 

I laugh “Yeah okay let's go” We leave money on the table and we stand up to leave. As we are walking home I see the sunset and Astro isn't talking, we are just appreciating the beautiful scene ahead of us. After a while of walking Astro goes his way and I go mine. I walk into my home and say a brief hello to my siblings. I went into my room and took off my necklace and set it next to my bed and a vase I had placed there a few weeks prior. The flower I placed had died already but I had been too busy to replace it. I kick off my shoes, change into something more comfortable, and go to sleep.