Fowlhunter [GL]

“You seem in a good mood,” Chime said. "You been up to lots of adventures lately?"

“Fuck yeah,” Ennanis said. After hanging her lantern on the hook she threw down her stave and flopped to the ground just outside the cell. The teenager rustled her wings, arranging herself and getting comfortable.

Chime raised her brow at the foul language. “Now I know someone’s chipper.”

“Hm? Don’t people normally swear when they’re angry?”

“They also swear when they’re comfortable,” Chime said. She looked at what Ennanis was doing and did a double-take. “Prometheus above.”

Finally settled, the angel was cross-legged, her wings folded. She had loosened the drawstrings of a satchel and laid out its contents on the ground like a sort of prison picnic. The rockfloor was littered with boxes of kueh cake, jars of silken soybean pudding. There were also non-food items: stacks of books, novels and pulp fiction, biographies and history, encyclopedias and atlases... there were a couple of gadgets too, spinning cubes with lights and tactile puzzles, effectively toys meant to amuse adults.

“Which nobleclan did you ransack?” Chime asked, wide-eyed.

"I didn’t. I bought them," Ennanis said.

"You bought them," Chime repeated in disbelief.

"Well, it was over the course of a while," Ennanis said, gesturing at the piles in turn. "This side was from after missions in Archizoun. This heap is from a shopping trip with Kikko and Lila. That's from when me and Ulysses were training in Wataron..."

"Why do I get the feeling you have a thing for overspending," Chime said. "Oh shit!" Her arm whipped out between the bars and snatched up one of the objects. "You have fucking chapteh?"

"Someone's happy," Ennanis began to smile. Chime, meanwhile, was twirling the 'chapteh' with a new light in her greyed eyes. It was like a shuttlecock, but with long colourful feathers, attached via a short rubber tube to a stack of bronze, coin-shaped weights.

"What is that?"

"You bought it without knowing what it's for?" Chime stood up and tossed the chapteh into the air. As it dropped weight-first, she lifted the edge of her prison garb to hop on one bare foot, catching the shuttle with her other foot before it hit the ground. Her ratty curls bounced behind her as she continued to jump around the prison cell, kicking the chapteh so it stayed in the air. "It's a toy. I used to play with one all the time as a kid..."

"That's from Fenlin, when I was travelling with Sabira and Derrick," Ennanis said. "I just thought it looked interesting."

At that, Chime kicked it higher so she could catch it in her hand. The straw-haired girl gave her a funny look. "So you got all this... for me?"

"I didn't know what you liked, so I got a bit of everything," Ennanis answered truthfully.

Chime didn’t look at her, studying the chapteh, dangling by its feathers in her hand. Her grey eyes lit with some realisation.

"Ohh,” she nodded to herself. “So you brought all this here so you could figure out what I liked, based on what I chose from the pile. Like what they do to tell the fortune of a baby."

Ennanis, herself, merely shrugged. "You wouldn't answer any questions I asked you." A small pause. "And you've been helping me so much... Chime, I want to be friends with you too."

With a jerk, Chime glanced up. She was met with the angel's slit-gold eyes, dim in the lanternlight, but full of seriousness. This was the innocent, almost-blinding sincerity that Ennanis had learned to harness over the past month. It had worked well for her this far—which was why she was so surprised when Chime shook her head.

"I'm glad that you've been making friends, Ennanis," Chime said, "but I can't be one of them."

"Why not?" a crestfallen angel asked.

"Because you're one of them," Chime pointed. "You may not be the one who locked me in here, but you're still my jailer. Until the day we stand on equal ground, we cannot be friends. Don’t overthink the fact that I helped you; I only helped you out of obligation. There was never anything else behind it."

"But you could have just refused," Ennanis said.

"And what would you have done, had I refused?" Chime said lightly. The shadowed light and her long prison garbs hid much, but on closer scrutiny those marks of dirt on her skin might’ve not been really dirt... but rather bruises, welts. Localised burns. Many far too fresh to be old scars.

"You know,” Chime continued, “you could do anything to me here, and no one would know. Or care."

Sun injury didn’t make those kinds of marks. Ennanis felt her stomach turn.

"Don’t say that,” she said, agonised. “Wardens—they’re not supposed to do that. I’ll report it as soon as I can-”

“Please. Didn’t you hear what I said? No one cares,” Chime waved her hand.

“I have to try,” Ennanis said.

“Lady,” Chime sounded wry, “I’m dying. There is nothing you can do to make this better or worse.”

Ennanis folded her arms. “If that’s so, then you were lying, before.”

Chime, “Why’s that?”

“If there’s nothing I could threaten you with, then you didn’t help me out of pure obligation,” Ennanis explained. “There was something behind it. That day when you called out to me. That was far from obligation.”

“...Hmph,” Chime exhaled, looking away. “You really are an asshole.”

At that, Ennanis smiled a rare smile.

“I kinda wanna meet those who you do call friends,” the angel admitted.

Chime laughed. “Oh. Well, you might just run into them someday.” She leaned on her knees. “You’d find them quite peculiar, I assure you.”

Ennanis paused. She gazed out over the rows of cells.

“...You once told me, that making shallow connections wasn’t hard,” she quoted. “You then gave me advice based on that.”

“That I did.”

“Then, I want to know how to forge deep connections, too,” Ennanis said. “How does one go about that? How do I make the deepest connection possible?”

Chime regarded her. She rubbed her chin in thought.

“Well, if you really want to know,” she said with thin eyes, “the surest way to someone’s heart… is to save their life.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. Just think about it,” Chime said. “For someone to go on breathing, to go on laughing and loving, to go on living because of you… is there any greater bond than that?”

“...I see,” Ennanis said.

Their words trailed off as they gazed into the dawning sky; the honey-yellow circle of the sun glowing gently on the summit, colouring the clouds streaked across the horizon. Ennanis got to her feet, sweeping off her robes and picking up her stave.

It was time for her shift to end. Once upon a time, she would’ve been relieved; but at some point or another, she found herself wishing that night would last longer.

“Hey, what about all your stuff?” Chime called as Ennanis got up to leave.

“It’s all yours,” Ennanis nodded. And then she left, leaving the imprisoned girl to her thoughts.

~~~

“Have you ever played elephant chess?”

“I know the rules,” Chime said. “Why?”

Ennanis spread out the playing cloth between them on the rocky ground, close enough so Chime could reach it from between the bars. Next, she loosened a woven pouch, dumping a heap of circular pieces over it. “I thought we could play a game.”

Ever since that day, Ennanis never brought up the topic of friendship with Chime again. She did, however, continue to visit Chime with food and trinkets. One day, Ennanis had brought a set of elephant chess. It was a popular boardgame in the undercloud, where two players moved their pieces in a strategical simulation of a battlefield, where you could use pieces to take away the other’s pieces when in the right position, with the end goal of capturing the General. It was a complex game, and few were masters at it. But it was one that almost everyone, from uneducated pauper to noble, had learnt to play at some point.

“Don’t you have any of your friends to play with?” Chime eyed her as the angel arranged the pieces in starting position, at the intersections on the playing cloth’s printed lines. The pieces were circular wooden discs with characters engraved into them, symbolising their role in the game. Chariots, cannons, elephants and steeds; the General and his retinue of advisors; and lastly the pawns. It was just a game, but it was a game of war.

“My friends are all busy, or uninterested. But mostly uninterested,” Ennanis said. “It’s not the most physically-stimulating game, after all… most of them would rather play flying discus. The only angel who plays chess with me is my senior Warden; she makes me match her to train my tactical thinking, but she’s so stiff about it. I just want to play for fun, for once.”

“Sooo… you decided to play with me.”

“If it’s your cup of tea,” Ennanis shrugged. “Also, it would be nice to have something to do with our hands while we talk.”

Ash eyes slid over the tiles spread over the cloth. “Hmm. What if I say no?”

Ennanis pouted, her eyes large and gold.

“That’s not going to work on me, Angel,” Chime maintained. “If you want me to play with you then you’ll have to order me. Or threaten me. Like with that cane.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“Then we won’t play.”

Ennanis nearly vibrated with frustration. But then she calmed herself, rubbing her chin in thought. Finally, she snapped her fingers.

“If you refuse to play, there will be no consequences,” said the angel. “But, if you do play, I’ll bring apple cider next time.”

“Wh-” Now Chime sat up, eyes wide. “Seriously? Over a game of chess?”

“I’m only ever serious,” Ennanis’ eyes twinkled.

Chime had once previously requested that Ennanis bring apple cider for her into the sunprisons. However, Ennanis had rejected the idea, as it was prohibited to bring alcoholic beverages onto Mount Casca. The logistics of smuggling ordinary food and drink into the sunprisons was challenging enough without adding liquor to the mix. However, now Ennanis was offering to sneak Chime’s all-time favourite drink up the mountain.

“Hmph,” Chime scoffed as she folded her arms, trying but failing to act nonchalant. “Sure, whatever. If you’re so desperate, I’ll play.”

At that, Ennanis grinned. “Okay. I’ll let you start first since I suggested it.”

They played. After a few rounds, Ennanis’ confidence began to dim considerably.

“I thought you said you knew the rules,” Ennanis said, sounding miserable.

“I did,” Chime’s smile sparkled in the lanternlight.

Ennanis threw up her hands, wings flapping agitatedly. “Why are you completely demolishing me, then?”

“I said I knew the rules. I didn’t say I played poorly,” Chime advanced her red steed. “Check.”

“No no no, I can still move my General here.”

“My cannon is right over there.”

“And here?”

“That’s still a check, see?”

“Urrrghhhhh,” Ennanis groaned. Watching the normally stoic-faced angel burst out into theatrics over a game made Chime stifle a giggle.

“One more round,” the angel insisted, “I’ll win this time.”

“I love your optimism, sunshine, but I sincerely doubt that.”

The angel rolled her eyes. “How did you even get so good at chess, anyway?”

“......” Chime considered the board between them. “I spent a lot of time at home alone as a child. I was bored, so I taught myself to play.”

Ennanis raised her brows. “Really? It wasn’t your family who taught you? Or teachers?”

“No. They were always busy on the farm,” Chime said. “I went to school briefly, but not long enough.”

Now Ennanis was paying attention. Chime hadn’t talked much about herself thus far. Up till now, their conversation had mostly been about Ennanis' life, Ennanis’ friends, and Ennanis’ missions.

“So you were a farmer?”

“Grew up on a farm,” Chime corrected. “I didn’t do much actual farming. Like harvesting crops and all that. …The only thing I really did was handle livestock.”

“That’s still farming though?” Ennanis tilted her head.

The red and black pieces on the playing mat rattled as Chime swept her hands through them. Absently, the girl began to rearrange the pieces for another match. “Whatever,” she mumbled.

Ennanis sensed that Chime wouldn’t talk further. Curiosity burned a hole in Ennanis, but she also didn’t want to make the girl uncomfortable. At least she had gotten something out of it. So she changed the subject:

“Man, if Warden Ju saw the way you played, she’d say you make a better war commander than me,” she joked.

At that, Chime’s hands stilled. “That’s not necessarily true.”

Ennanis’ brows raised again. “How so?”

“Firstly, in chess, both sides start with equal number of soldiers, on equal ground. That’s not the case in real life,” Chime said. She placed down the last pieces on their positions on the cloth mat. “Second, all your pieces and the opponent’s pieces are laid out in front of you—there’s no hiding, so you can anticipate the other’s moves. That also doesn’t happen in real life. Elephant chess isn’t anything like real war.”

“And you would know about real war?”

“Well, when a war happens, you can’t escape it, whether you’re a commoner or a commander,” Chime quipped. “It affects everyone’s lives, even if it’s in the most subtle of ways. So it’s best to know all that you can, isn’t it?”

It was a vastly different mindset from most angels. For angels, if they weren’t directly involved, it was none of their business.

Ennanis studied Chime with interest. Meanwhile, the straw-haired girl looked back at her, gesturing at the mock battlefield.

“Your turn,” Chime smiled. “Try not to make any more mistakes.”

~~~