Marcilene holds me around her neck with great glee, just happy for me to be back.
"What did you even do in the forest anyway?"
Flock asks me when he closes the door behind himself.
Tali nods along:
"Yeah, why'd you go have to go in there as well?"
Both those questions are something that I've already answered before, and that I'll most likely have to answer again and again.
"I had to earn the trust of Sply."
Tali and Flock tilt their head when they hear her name.
"Who's Sply?"
Tali asks and Flock nods along.
"She's the woman who I told you about."
Marcilene says, as I open my mouth to speak.
"The purple haired one with an RBF?"
Tali asks and Marcilene nods toward her.
"The same one that said she'd teach Lazuli how to use a bow an arrow?"
Flock asks.
I nod.
"But if thats what happened how come you have to earn her trust, if she said she'd teach you?"
I shrug my shoulders.
"I guess I have to show her, that I have the ability to shoot a bow and arrow?"
Tali shakes her head.
"No, that'd be stupid because then why'd you have to go and stay over night in Warren Forest, knowing of the dangers that could very well be lingering in that said forest?"
Tali asks me, as if I'd know the answer.
"I'm not sure, but I do know that I'll be safer next time."
"NEXT TIME?!"
Marcilene exclaims as she hears me say that:
"No way, there is no next time."
She pulls off of me and stands up before me, her face still red eyed and snotty.
"How else I'm I supposed to learn to be better with a bow and an arrow?"
I ask as Marcilene looks down to me.
"You don't have to be better with a bow. We are still kids, let's play hide and seek, and mess around."
Marcilene tells me, then sighs:
"I mean, in five to six more years, i'll be an adult and I just want to be able to have fun with my little brother until then."
I shake my head:
"What do you mean? You're ten? You will have so much more time before you become an adult?"
Tali and Flock both shake their heads.
"No, once she's fifteen she's an adult Lazuli."
'WHAT?!'
"But, Marcilene, I want to be able to protect you."
She gasps at me.
"I don't need protection, Lazuli."
"Marcilene, look at yourself."
Tali and Flock both look at Marcilene.
"What's wrong with me?"
Marcilene asks with a saddened tone, practically telling me; *Don't tell me the truth.*
"You're an Elf Marcilene... You can't even go outside without a fucking head covering."
I suck air through my teeth.
"Why... Why..."
Marcilene says, her voice, not letting out the words.
I see the look on her face, the sadness on her face, the want for me to be a child with her before she ends up being an adult and loosing out on being happy.
"Marcilene... I'm so.."
"NO!"
Marcilene cuts me off completely not making me finish.
"I don't care, if you plan to go and run into the forest and face dangers go ahead!"
Marcilene walks away from us all and toward the stairs, heading upstairs to her room.
"Marci..."
"NO! You said you want to protect me, then you should do so, but make sure you'll be safe, but no!"
She stops before taking up the stairs, tilting her head to me.
"If you want to die, then go ahead, I don't want to be with a brother that thinks the best way to try and protect me is to destroy his body!"
She then takes step after step up the stairs, not looking back once, after the first time.
Flock and Tali look between themselves and Tali lets out a sigh, before She gets closer to me and pulls me up.
Flock right behind her.
I get up and at the same time, Steel enters the house. His face looks sad, like he's been shot down.
He sees all of us, then plastered a smile on his face.
"Why's everyone just standing around? Lazuli, has something cool he has to say..."
Steel says, but I just can't bring myself to try and smile, knowing that one of the people that I've grown to admire sees me, like an asshole, because of what i've done.
"No... Steel. Marcilene, she's angry at me, so I plan... I plan to apologize to her."
I stuttered when I told him my plan.
"You don't need to do that Lazi."
Tali says as she walks around me to head over to the stairs.
I grab her wrist, not to grip strongly, but to stop her:
"No, because, why am I going to send someone else to go and talk to my sister for me, I love her, and..."
I sigh, letting out my breathe and pulling in new air:
"... I also want to see what she thinks of me, when she talks hears, me wanting to protect her, plus, if I truly want to be able to tell her the truth, I think us being alone would be the best way to do so."
Tali, Flock and Steel all look at me, flabbergasted, that I even have the intelligence to think about this, when I'm five years old.
"I just think that it'll be better for me to handle this… alone."
I reiterated.
Steel and Tali both nod their heads.
Heading into the livingroom first I plop my bow by the side of the couch and turning the corner to leave the livingroom, I turn and begin to walk toward the stairs, then up and to her room.
Which is closed, turning the knob I enter and see her facing outside toward the window in her room that gives her a view of the village outside, but she never gets to close, afraid someone might see her ears, but for the first time she stands at the window, her face pushed into it.
I knock on her door.
She wobbles for a second, then listens to my voices, bringing her hand to her face, while sniffling. Most likely from her crying.
"Marci… I'm sorry, that I didn't think of how it'd be from your perspective of my training."
She doesn't budge, standing at the window, looking outside.
I enter fully and the door behind me closes:
"I understand that you're not going to like my training, but when I couldn't hit Jahar with the bow, I got scared."
She shudders at Jahar's name, probably bringing back unnecessary memories:
"I want to be able to grow up with you, talking about funny things that we did when we were young."
Marcilene turns around and looks at me with eyes that are red and puffy.
"Do you think that I want to be crying? No. I want to go out and play with Elsa and Wes, tag and hide and seek, while we can. But I'm too scared to do that… without you. My brother."
Marcilene says, her voice saddened at she lets out small amounts of tears.
My chest begins to shrink into my heart, seeing the one person I promised to protect end up falling into sadness because of what I told her.
"Marci. I'm sorry, I should have thought from how it looks like for you, I want to be able to play tag and hide and seek too."
I take a deep breath:
"I'll… I'll make sure that I'll stop training, I'll tell Sply that…"
"No."
Marcilene stops my sentence:
"You chose to continue training, I just want to make sure that you end up safe, and able to come back home… I just want to be able to hear you laugh and cry when you come back home…"
Marcilene says.
"…that's all I want."
She walks closer to me.
She looks me in the eye and softly shakes her head:
"Nothing more than that."
She finally finishes.
"Sorry."
I say to her.
She smiles at me with a white teethed smile.
"You don't need to be sorry, you just need to be safe."
Marcilene moves closer to pull me into a deep hug.
My chest squeezes down into my heart, pulling me to tears.
Not heavy tears, but soft tears, one that shows disappointment and sadness but not to deep.
'I truly believe now, that if I had a sibling, I'd have been able to enjoy life a lot more.'
I wrap my arms around Marcilene as well, this time my head falling into her chest since I'm shorter than her.
"I'll make sure to be safe, no matter what."
Marcilene nods and I feel her breath on my head.
"That's good."
She then pulls back, after us both holding each other for a full minute.
"Now."
Marcilene goes toward her bed and sits down, tapping the side:
"Tell me what happened when you were in the forest."
She smiles at me and wipes her tears away as best she can, her forearm becoming slick with tears, and some snot.
She then waves her hand for me to come over.
"Hurry."
I smile at her, wiping away, the small amounts of tears that I had spilling out of my right eye.
I skip toward her, taking me less than a second for me to cut the distance and sit down on the bed right beside Marcilene.
Beginning to tell the story, from when I stepped in poop and hearing a disgusting sound coming form Marcilene's voice when she hears that.
~~~
Wes stands at the cabin that we live in, looking at the same window that Marcilene was recently standing at, seeing her tears in her eyes.
"She's so pretty…"
Wes says as he looks at her through the window.
Marcilene doesn't notice him.
Wes was supposed to be playing tag, wanting to get his mind off of Lazuli's achievements.
He just happened to see Marcilene there.
Then Marcilene turns around and her face is no longer in view, before he turns to walk away, he catches sight of something that is more than just surprising…
"Marcilene is an Elf?"
He says to himself.
"Wes, hurry up!"
Elsa calls for him, before she runs off again.
Wes turns around and walks away, but not before sending another glance toward Marcilene's window, just for her to not be there.