Chapter 13: A Place of Reunion
This was a memory from long ago.
Fish had always been a jack-of-all-trades.
While it was usually the women of the village who took up crafts, giving the men time to go out and hunt, Fish loved absorbing one skill after another.
It began with fishing. His father was a skilled spearfisher. When the men failed their hunts, it was his father who kept the villagers’ bellies fed.
His father, understanding the value of fishing, taught this skill to his son.
Agni was a girl who often picked fights because she hated to lose.
From her, he learned many random skills of play, from skipping stones at the river to climbing trees. The latter would help him out whenever he wanted something sweet to eat, making him the go-to guy for gathering tree fruits.
He was good at moving his body, but he didn’t enjoy it as much as the other men did. He wanted to do something else. But what else was there to do?
One day, while waiting for Agni to arrive at their usual play spot, Fish decided to play with grass to ease his boredom.
He had seen his mother use grass and leaves to make beds to sleep on before.
At first, he considered making one himself, but realized it would take way too long.
So, instead, he began mindlessly twisting the plant fibers together.
It wasn’t an action he put much thought into. But gradually, he began learning a few things.
Some fibers were too brittle for use. Others were too short. The wet ones were difficult to use.
Some dead fibers were better, but others were too damaged for use.
As he twisted more fibers together, he noticed that doubling them before twisting made them hold together better.
Before long, he had managed to make for himself a short, primitive rope.
“... Strong? Entwine… twine?”
Fish realized this primitive rope was stronger than plant fibers were on their own. Since he had intertwined them together to make the item, he simply called the material “twine.”
He didn’t know what he could use twine for, but he felt that it could be useful later on. Sure enough, he’d be proven right minutes later when Agni finally arrived at the scene.
“Uugh.”
Agni was teary-eyed and limping. It seemed she had injured herself on the way to their usual play spot, tripping on a rock on the path. The scratch on her knee didn’t seem particularly bad, but the pain was enough to put the usually energetic and tomboyish Agni to tears.
“Hurt, hurt.”
“Agni, okay?”
“No. Hurt. Pain.”
Hunters had their ways of treating wounds. When out on the field, they used specific plants they found to tend to their wounds. While Fish wasn’t a hunter yet, he had learned of a few plants from his father, and so he looked around the area for them. It didn’t take him long to find them.
“Fish, doing, what?”
“Heal, wound.”
Fish took a couple of herbal leaves and wrapped them around her injured knee before binding them in place with the rope he had made.
“Wound, done.”
“Wow! Fish, smart!”
“Heh.”
Fish took the compliment with pride. Urged on by his inflated ego, he decided to put his newfound skill to use once more.
With quick hands, he gathered more grass and twisted the plant fibers together into new rope. Next, he tried fixing the two ends of the rope together, but it proved more difficult than he thought it would be.
Agni, who was watching from nearby, curiously tilted her head.
“Fish, what?”
“Twine. Wound, remember?”
“Oh! Me, want, help.”
The children eventually figured out how to bind the two ends of the rope together, making a small bracelet. It took some time, but they managed to get it done.
Fish felt pride well up once more at their success, and Agni was simply happy to have helped and glad that she had learned how to make something new.
“So, this, what?”
“This? Look.”
Fish took a nearby flower and roughly plucked it from its stem.
The flower head still had a short bit of stem attached. Using this protruding portion, he clumsily slotted the flower head onto the bracelet, successfully crafting a simple flower bracelet.
Agni started beaming as she stared at the primitive trinket in adoration.
“Pretty!”
“Here, yours.”
“Really?!”
Since Agni took a liking to the flower bracelet, Fish promptly decided to give it to her. He had originally planned to give the bracelet to his mother after showing it off to Agni, but after seeing her face, he decided to change plans on the spot.
There wasn’t much meaning to this action, to Fish, at least. He just wanted to make his friend happy. But to Agni…
“... Thank, you!”
Chu.
Deeply impressed by the flower bracelet, Agni planted a small peck on Fish’s cheek.
She knew this was something her late mother often did to her father whenever the two were feeling happy together, and felt it was right to do in this very moment.
She felt something she couldn’t describe—something that made her happy, and compelled her to do something that would normally embarrass her.
She pulled back her face, curious to see how Fish would react, but…
“Agni, why kiss? You, not, mother.”
“... Huh?”
Fish only understood kisses as something mothers did to their children.
At this revelation, Agni’s face turned crimson red, and…
THUD!
“FISH, STUPID!”
… she gave Fish a hard fist to the face before storming off.
Fish, knocked out cold, lay in the grass as Agni’s figure disappeared into the distance.
“... Embarrassing, memory.”
“Do not be embarrassed, child! It could not be helped. You were much too innocent then.”
“Still, embarrassed.”
A man who looked similar to the boy who was sprawled in the grass watched the scene from afar with a strained smile. The silver-haired woman beside him chuckled.
“... Memories like these are important to her, too, you know.”
“Agni?”
“Of course. Although it happened a little too late, you realized how she felt for you in the end, no?”
“... Yes.”
“You feel the same way, do you not? Longing. Love.”
“Longing… Love… Agni.”
“Yes. Love. What a curious feeling…”
A ringed star in the sky watched a young man atop a mountain, sitting beside an identical, silver-haired woman who had her eyes shut and hands clasped, as if in prayer.
The young man was chewing on dry, uncooked instant noodles straight from an opened packet. Clearly hungry, he savored every bite of his meal when his hand slipped, and the noodles fell. He reached out for the noodles in vain as they dropped a considerable height onto the head of a pot-bellied old man.
The pot-bellied old man saw stars for just a moment before he tripped and fell forward, face-first, into one of the ‘spirits’. Naturally, chaos ensued.
The old man’s barely existent hair combusted, sending him panicking and screaming.
The young man still atop the mountain, on the other hand, was on all fours, lamenting the loss of his last flavorful source of sustenance in this world.
The sight of the man caused the ringed star to giggle. Her smile deepened as she continued gazing at the young man’s form.
“Emulation… Perhaps, if I continue emulating mortal life, will I grow to understand this feeling better~?”
“Star Mother?”
“It is nothing, child. Now, have a look.”
The scene shifted to a young girl running. The tips of her ears were tinged red as she kicked her feet, hurrying back to the village. She had a face that screamed a desire to dive into a bed of grass and hide there for hours. Around her wrist was the flower bracelet a young boy had given her.
“She still clings to your memory, unable to move on.”
“Agni…”
“That is why… I request your help. There is a place I would like to take you. A place everyone will eventually go to.”
The man… no, Fish, turned his head to look at Esphera. Gentle eyes stared back at him as hope began to flower in his heart.
“Will, help, Agni?”
“Yes, of course. I will not let her continue to suffer. This, I promise.”
Esphera fidgeted with the twine bracelet around her wrist.
Crude crafts like these would wear out with time quicker than pelts did, so she’d have to make new ones now and then. She made it a habit to swap the old ones out with new ones.
There wasn’t really any particular reason for it. It’s not like the bracelets she made were pretty.
Nothing she made could compare to the ones Fish gifted her.
No, perhaps there was a different purpose to it. She recalled the man who taught her how to craft twine. Fish, whom she had loved dearly since childhood.
Perhaps she had simply missed him and wanted something around to remember him by.
That’s right. Fish was precious to her. That’s why she couldn’t stand the thought of losing him again.
That’s why… despite her lingering fear after the last time her father hit her, she felt she had no choice but to ask.
“... Father.”
“Yes. Talk.”
“Miss, mother?”
When Agni had arrived back home, she was greeted by the sight of her father sharpening his wooden spear.
Bear was shocked at his daughter’s appearance. Something was clearly amiss with his daughter, as she returned looking like she had just escaped a monstrous beast. But after giving her another up and down, she was clearly unharmed, but hurt somewhere else.
Bear bore many scars of the heart in his time, so he readily offered his daughter a chance to talk about her own.
The conversation started with talking about the long departed. Someone close to both of their hearts.
“Why, ask?”
“You, no, talk, mother.”
Agni lost her mother at birth.
Her mother simply could not handle the pain of childbirth and passed before delivering her daughter safely.
Bear never talked much about Agni's mother, so Agni knew very little about her and the circumstances that led to her death.
She couldn’t tell what her usually stoic father thought of her mother, whom he rarely mentioned throughout all her years.
“Yes, miss, mother. Very.”
Bear was the village chief. The strongest hunter in the village. For that image alone, he had to avoid showing any weakness.
Strength was the greatest value in a primitive village. It is through strength that they could survive against the magical beasts of this budding world.
Strength commanded the respect of others. For that reason, many young men often seek to prove themselves to each other through sparring. And, it is also for that reason that he could not bring himself to speak of his departed beloved, as it would force him to tears. Tears would not suit the village chief, whom the entire village relied on.
“Miss, mother. Want, embrace. Words. Cry.”
This confession naturally surprised Agni, who had never seen her father openly admit to weakness. Bear, who looked to be at his most vulnerable, continued.
“Sad, natural. But, stay, strong. Strong, survive. Mother, want, survive. Family, us, important.”
Simple words.
It is only natural to be sad. Longing was inevitable. But they must stay strong of heart. It is the strong that survive, after all. And his dearly beloved would have wanted them to keep on living. To live for their family and each other.
“I… miss, too. Missing people, hard. Sad. Cry.”
Agni didn’t know how to explain her circumstances. That she had somehow been pulled back in time to relive her life, starting from childhood. That, without much thought, she decided to enjoy every waking moment with Fish, whom she had reunited with through this miracle. However, just as it had happened in her previous life, Fish was soon to become a hunter, just like the rest of the men in the village.
He had already undergone training and had started joining in on hunts more and more. To Agni, it was just a matter of time before she would lose him again.
She still remembered witnessing what was left of him as his remnants were buried under the dirt. The scene of the surviving hunters bringing back his corpse was a nightmare to her that haunted her for days.
“Lose, someone, no like. Ugh.”
“... Agni.”
“Me, scared. Goodbye, forever, no like.”
Agni was frightened to tears at the thought of parting ways with Fish again. That’s why she had been desperately stopping him from joining in hunts.
She knew what she was doing was wrong. The other hunters had recently started to resent Fish for not participating as much. And, she knew that Fish himself didn’t like being held back.
Despite all this, she persisted out of fear.
When words didn’t work, she used force. But what was left after force didn’t work? She didn’t know. That’s why she ran away. Perhaps it was her heart that led her here. Maybe she thought her father was the answer.
“... Father, stop, Fish, hunting.”
“What?”
“Fish, stop, hunt!”
Agni yelled in desperation. No, she was begging in tears at this point.
“Please. Me, no want, lose, Fish, forever.”
“Agni, no.”
“WHY!”
Agni struck the ground with her fist, the bracelet around her wrist shaking along with her aching hand.
“Fish, die. Me, no want. NO!”
Like a child throwing a tantrum, Agni slammed on the ground over and over again. Her skin scratched, and drops of blood flew. Granular stones dug into her soft hands as her movements grew more erratic.
“PLEASE! PLEASE!”
“Agni, stop!”
Bear held up his daughter’s forearms, lifting her with ease. Agni resisted, but was unable to overpower her father. So she kicked her father repeatedly instead. But her strength was lacking, so he barely felt any pain. Despite the futility of the action, however, she kept kicking anyway, sobbing all the while.
“PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!”
“Agni, what, wrong?!?”
“AGH!!!”
Slap.
“AH!”
Agni fell on her back after being slapped across the face. This was the second time her father had struck her, although it may count as the first in this life.
Perhaps because she had already experienced this before, it didn’t shock her as much as it had the first time. That didn’t, however, mean that she had returned to her wits.
“... Father.”
“Agni.”
“After death, what?”
“What?”
Eternal slumber.
Darkness.
The concept of an afterlife has yet to exist in this world.
What comes after death?
This marked the first time such a question had been uttered in Esphera’s world.
“... Death, mean, goodbye, forever. Death, sad.”
“Agni…”
“Hate, forever. Me, weak. Ugh.”
The pain Agni felt on her cheek was nothing compared to the pain of her broken heart. She simply couldn’t bear the idea of never seeing Fish again. She didn’t have the willpower that her father possessed to steel herself through the grief of loss, or the means to prevent Fish’s death.
She couldn’t persuade Fish to stop hunting.
She couldn’t force him to stop either.
She couldn’t persuade her father to exclude him from hunts.
She couldn’t force him either.
Then… what else was there that she could do?
...
“What if a goodbye did not have to last forever?”
A silver-haired woman silently appeared before the father-daughter pair. Beside her was a familiar young hunter whose gaze met with Agni’s.
“... Fish?”
“Agni.”
“Who, is…?!”
Agni was alarmed by the sight of Fish standing beside another woman. However, upon looking at the woman’s form, realization soon struck.
“Esphe—”
“It is time to wake up.”
Clap.
All of a sudden, the space around them warped, and the hut, along with the rest of the village and even Bear himself, disappeared like a mirage. All that was left behind were Fish, the mysterious silver-haired woman, and Agni herself in a dark void.
Agni, who was still sprawled on the ground… no, was there even ground at all? Whatever the case, she didn’t know what to make of all of this. Before her mind could process what she was seeing, the silver-haired woman offered her a hand.
"Child, there will be a place where you and Fish can meet again."
