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…… It’s dark……. Very dark……. What time is it? Where Am I? What’s going?
“Ugh… Ceroba.” I started waking up with pain shooting across my entire body, my shoulder was really hurting. I opened my eyes and adjusted at the sight in front of me as I looked over the scene. Deptuy was still standing on the balcony with Feathers on the left besides him still passed out. He was in the same spot when I was knocked out, but the balcony around us was full of burn marks and sizzled stone.
I looked around and saw that Ceroba was nowhere to be found, the only thing that was besides Clover and passed out bird… was a mask Kanako made… which Ceroba held so close to herself. “Where Ceroba!? Clover? Clover,Where did she go?” I was looking at deputy and his only words were:
“… I’m sorry”
“Sorry…? …No…” I walk over to the broken mask and stare at it… this gotta be a joke. Deputy would never done that. “You couldn’t.” I pick up the remains of what was once a beautifully crafted mask it’s shards are so small “She just ran away, she ran to the lab right?” Clover couldn’t done that he didn’t attack anyone across his entire journey! Even I was spared by him and I was trying to take his SOUL! Yea he just let Ceroba go and she ran away retreating after her loss! … or was it true? Did he really kill her?
“Wh…Where Am I?” I look up to see Feathers getting up and her immediately shooting up on, turning around to the kid. “Clover! Are you…” she looks at me and flinches for a second… her mood changing from worried to somber one.
“…I’m so sorry. We should been here to help.” Help? to someone like him? He killed her. What kind of help did he ever deserve!
“Help…?” I say with my voice quiet as whisper.
“…No one wanted it to end this way but…” She gotta be kidding me did she seriously thinks Ceroba deserved this!
“But what!? What the hell did Ceroba do to deserve this!?” I shouted with anger
“I didn’t said she “deserved” anything but come on! Look at what she did to us, and more importantly what she was planning to do to Clover and Kanako! She was Clearly –“
“She was lost!!” I interrupted Feathers. “In her mind there was no other choice!” She already lost everything in her life she was just tired and needed to be reasoned with! I look down.
“…All anyone ever sees is what they want to see. They never stop to consider “why, maybe to you she was some violent threat but… Beneath the crisis I saw her for who she truly was. A compassionate, hardworking mother who lost everything. Her hopes… her dreams… her only family…I knew her, I knew her than anyone. She could been talked down, forgiven even… but she wasn’t given a chance.” She deserved to be forgiven, she wasn’t thinking straight, why did it have to be this way!?
“…We tried. We wanted to resolve it peacefully. Even when things escalated, we attempted to flee… but she wanted Clover dead. She pushed them into the corner to the point they had no choice but to….. You’re a lawman, right? If so then I’m sorry, but under those circumstances… Clover was just.”
…Feathers was right. Ceroba was the first to provoke aggression and was the one who lied, manipulated and assaulted Clover and even injured me and Feathers while trying to take Clover SOUL… I don’t know what to think anymore at this point.
“I don’t know what “Just” means anymore. What’s right, what’s wrong… All I know is that I… lost my best friend tonight. And the wind… it blew her dust like she didn’t even matter. Even if she did terrible things she could been talked out… She didn’t deserve to be killed… even some of the most cruelest villains deserve to be forgiven. To the law maybe your actions are justified, but to me… you are lower than dirt.” I start to walk away keeping the remains on what was once my best friend… If I wasn’t a coward back then, maybe she could been my partner. Clover moved out my way and as I was about to leave. “… I could report your location now or try to get revenge… But in some sense you are right. What Ceroba did was not justifiable, so if I just follow in her footsteps and commit the same mistakes, I will no better than her… even if I wanted to, I can’t.
“Because I was always a coward in the end.”
With that I left. Today I woke up feeling wonderful, ran around the town and cleaned up everything up, met up with Feisty five and then I found Human whose culture I was always so obsessed with, I even wanted to make them Deputy of my town so we could been pardners… In the end I was walking with the broken shards of my passed away friend and losing all my faith in the person who I once admired, as he killed her.
For some strange reason I was moving away from Steamworks, I don’t know why, but my legs took me to the other entrance into Hotland as I was passing by sentry station that had never melting snow on it for some reason… Heh maybe if I was here the other day I would pondered on why it’s never melts here, but now? I didn’t care.
I reached the room with big neon sign that read “WELCOME TO HOTLAND” or in my case “GOODBYE THE PLACE WHERE I HELPED MY PARDNER WHO REPAID ME BY KILLING MY BEST FRIEND” I moved further down into Waterfall before hearing running footsteps behind me. I turned around and drew my gun with agile and precise swoop holding it in my hand while keeping mask shards in the other, in front of me stood my pardner who betrayed me.
“What are you doing here? Didn’t you want go to King? And where Feathers?” I asked as I stared at kid in cowboy outfit,
“I wanted to talk to you, Marlet is waiting in the other room I asked her to give us some space.” Said killer of Ceroba, they were holding their hands in surrender gesture… just like that one time.
…You know, I can just shoot them there and take their SOUL if I want. I will get more respect and popularity while also getting my revenge for killing Ceroba. … But like I said – I’m nothing more then a coward, even if Ceroba didn’t interrupt us back then I couldn’t fire that last bullet. I was even holding back there hoping that I could exhaust them and bring them to King for him to do the dirty work… But of course it failed. Now though? No one is stopping me right now and I have more proper motivation to do that… except Starlo. Because he’s always a coward who could never do anything right. Like really what good did he ever done? Messed up his chance to hook up with a girl he had a crush on? Favoritized some kid in cowboy clothes cause they were Human and ignored his own friends? Tossed away his farm duties just to play some cowboy and be stuck in childhood dreams that never could been real? Was again too late to do anything… And lost her again…this time forever. I lowered my iron and soon Clover lowered his hands and started speaking.
“…North Star… I’m sorry, I didn’t want that… she… she asked me to do it.” Clover said with him being on verge of the tears, he was fiddling with his fingers.
“What? What do you mean she asked you to do it?” I asked him.
“She said she had nothing left to lose… so she asked me to pull the trigger. I know what I did was wrong, but after I saw what she was going through I thought that was the most merciful choice I could give- “
“THE MOST MERCIFUL YOU COULD GIVEN HER?! So you just saying that that you didn’t kill a person who literally almost tried to take away your SOUL just so he could get some fame and new friends and it was all because he a sore, poor FUCKING LOSER and nerd! And instead you gave “mercy” to a depressed alcoholic woman, who lost her daughter and husband in a year and was trying her hardest to cope with it and probably was mentally ill from stress and exhaustion! Like really? Did you seriously think it was a good idea listen to her what she was saying, when she was in such terrible condition and kill her just because she asked you to do it?!” JUST WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! I couldn’t control myself. Why it was me who gets to live?! I’m just some nobody-name farmer that just plays Sheriff to entertain people so I just could distract myself from my work and responsibilities! And instead of him putting bullet through my torso, he shot Ceroba! The one who suffered enough with all problems she had, the one who needed forgiveness! SHE DESERVED TO LIVE, NOT ME!!! WHY?! JUST WHY?!
I couldn’t keep it any longer as tears flew from my face. Clover looked at me with guilty expression and stretched his hand trying comfort me.
“DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!” I raised my gun again finger on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment. The kid flinched and stood with eyes full of fear tears coming down his face. “Just… just leave me alone. I don’t want to see you ever again.” I spoke with my words above whisper.
“…Does that mean, we no longer pardners?” The human said his eyes full of tears.
“Yes! Were not, now just leave me alone!” I started to storm off.
“…Wait! … If we no longer pardners, then here… take these.” Clover then took off his hat and unholstered his six-shooter giving them to me. I just stared at them.
“… And why would I need your items?” I asked with venom coating those words.
“... They yours, you gave them to me back in the Wild East. If we no longer friends, it would be rude to keep them for myself…” Clover said as he hang his head low.
“… Fine.” I holstered my gun and took away items that rightfully belong to me. “They my anyways, and I decide what to do with them. And trust me, I would rather give those to anybody else… rather then make you hold them in your dusty hands.” With that I left and was walking towards cave exit. On my way to it, I heard loud and painful sobs.
I continued to move through Waterfall, it was raining and I was soaking wet but I will get to Wild East to give Ceroba her proper burial. The rain ambience was calming me, as the rain droplets were rapidly crushing down and hit the ground. I was so focused on relaxing that I didn’t noticed the small bump on the ground, as I stepped into it I lost my balance and fell with hat and gun dropping by my right side as the only remains of my friend were dropped into the rushing river.
“No-nonononono!!! I immediately jumped into the cold rushing water trying to catch as many shards as I could… But I was too late. All mask pieces were taken away by the current. Just like the wind on the balcony spread her dust like she didn’t matter, the river took away her only remains to forever be forgotten.
I climbed back to the cliff and pulled myself onto the ground before spotting the gear Deputy gave me. I hated it, it’s because of this cursed gun she was gone! In a fit of rage I took the gun with hat and threw them both in the same river. I was freezing and breathing shakily, I decided to go into nearby cave to hide from rain and dry myself. I found a small cave and climbed inside it, anger and sadness continued pulse inside me which awakened the memory of my childhood.
I was lying on the fresh grass with Ceroba looking at the stars above us. Even if they weren’t real stars, there was nothing a child can’t imagine.
“Oh look Star that star is brighter than the others!” Ceroba said pointing at a big gemstone above us.
“Hm, oh yeah I noticed that one shines brighter than the others. You know it kinda like Polaris.” I said with exciting voice, I really liked talking about stars when I was younger.
“Po-la-ris?” Ceroba asked me… she so cute when confused. I blush a little before shrugging it off.
“Yeah, it’s a star on the surface. Polaris or how some call it North Star is the brightest star in Ursa Minor constellation, approximately 434 light years distant from the Earth.
It is known holding nearly still in surface sky while the entire northern sky moves around it. That’s because it’s located nearly at the north celestial pole, the point around which the entire northern sky seemingly turns. Therefore it marks the way due north, the pole marks true north, which makes the North Star important in navigation, as the star’s elevation above the horizon closely matches the observer’s latitude. For observers at the North Pole, the star lies directly overhead. For observers at the equator, Polaris sits right on the horizon… or something like that, I read it a lot so I kinda memorized it.
“W-wow.” Ceroba was staring at me with wide eyes and opened mouth. “So it like the brightest star on the surface?”
“Yep, altho there also thing called “Sun” which is like a huge star that shines down on the surface, I read that it a big ball of fire!” I said to my fox partner.
“That incredible! I wish I was that good at this science mumbo jumbo like, but for some reason it not given to me.” She said with a sigh her tail lowering slightly.
“H-hey now Roba, you good at a lot of other stuff like magic or cooking! Everybody has their own weak and strong sides we just have to find them and improve them!” I told my friend trying to cheer her up. In reply she giggled.
“Yeah thanks Starlo, gotta say that maybe surface has Polaris as their brightest star, but you are the brightest star of the whole Underground.” She said to me with a smile which made me blush.
“Aw shucks thanks Ceroba.” I replied while scratching the back of my head.
“What? It’s true! You are so bright when you blush” She said with a playful smirk.
“W-h? Hey! That not true!” I said with a pout
“Oh reeeaaally? Then care to explain why you glowing right now?” She then pointed at me.
“U-um I just… fine you win!” I said turning away from her.
“Hahaha come on Star you know I’m right, besides I think that’s cute.” She continued to giggle and soon after I joined in “Hehe yeah.” We laughed for a few seconds before we calmed down and let the silence settle in, after a few moments I broke silence trying to ask Ceroba question I wanted to know answer to.
“Hey Ceroba, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, shoot.”
“Do you have any wish that you would want to come true?” I asked her
“Hmmmm, if I say my wish… You promise you won’t laugh at me?” She said looking at me shyly.
“Of course, I won’t laugh!” I said smiling at her.
She sat there for a while before sighing and speaking again.
“Someday, I'd like to climb this mountain we're all buried under, standing under sky, looking at the world all around… that my wish…” She said with a soft and calm voice
“Pft” I couldn’t help but get a little giggle out of such coincidence.
“Hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh!!” Ceroba groaned at me with blush on her face.
“S-sorry it’s just funny… because That’s my wish too.” I said with gentle smile.
“Huh, so we have the same wish?” Ceroba asked me.
“Yep! And one day it will come true, we will get out of here and we will explore world around us together!” I stood up with my fists close to my chest, before turning around and pumping my fist forward to Ceroba. “Partners forever?”
“…Yep!” Ceroba got up and pumped my fist her tail swishing rapidly behind her.
…Just why now? It doesn’t make any sense… Why it was her? We promised each other to explore world together… We were partners forever……… At this point I broke up and let the tears come running fully keeping my knees close to my chest, with my hands on my face as I cried and sobbed out my SOUL remembering the loss of my friend and betrayal of my recent pardner….