Waiting until Dusk

As Koku and Yoru located another camp, which was mentioned to have a stronger leader on paper, they stopped to watch it from afar. "Something feels off," Yoru muttered as she stared deep into the camp. "For now, let's wait until the sun starts setting," Koku told Yoru that they'd be waiting until the dusk hour for their move.

"While we wait, can I ask you something, Koku?" Yoru had something on her mind that had been bothering her for a little bit of time now. "Hmmm?" Koku nodded at her. "Ummm, Koku, d-do you have someone you like?" Yoru asked, showing signs of hesitation.

Koku smiled and looked at her dead in the eyes, "Like? Well, you could say I like a few people. Actually, more like tolerate them, or just like, not sure…" Koku's response was vague and didn't really give Yoru her desired answer. "I DON'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT…" Koku almost jumped at her sudden outburst. "I'm right in front of you, Yoru. It wouldn't hurt using your inside voice."

After saying this, there was a second of silence, and Yoru looked to the side as she crossed her arms, "We're outside, idiot…" After this, she turned her face towards Koku and sighed, "I mean like, as in like… you wanna hold hands, k-k-KISS AND-" Yoru was interrupted by Koku, who seemed to be giving her a smirk, "Lower your voice, Yoru. We might get exposed," Koku mentioned as he then lowered his voice after hearing Yoru.

"And have a family with…" Yoru's face was pretty red, and it seemed she began to sweat. "Now that you mention it, I should say. The spot for that person isn't occupied, and who knows, maybe it won't be." Koku slightly smiling turned his head towards the direction of the large camp but not without giving Yoru a look of interest.

"Now that your question is answered, Yoru, can you tell me what your home country is like?" Koku asked with curiosity. "Sure, I can do that. I gotta think first… I speak from the outskirts of Merfolk since I haven't been to other places in Merfolk. But Merfolk is really bright and full of colors; its terrain isn't the easiest to overcome, I hear, but after you get the hang of it, it's easy to get around…" Yoru mentioned some other things about Merfolk, such as the landscape, and eventually moved from the land to the way things worked there.

"Merfolk has lots of weird rules; one of those rules is that you can't use magic flames, but natural flames are allowed… another one is that you can't bathe on the day and night of a full moon." After Yoru had told him all about the weird rules and the normal ones, she moved onto the topic of legends passed down from generations before.

"The tale of the lonely green giant?" Koku asked, confused as he did not know anything about this story. "Yeah, it's in the demi-human formal language. It goes like this; Long ago, a world atrocity occurred. This atrocity left the world hurt and recovering, so a giant was born to speed up the world's recovery and assure its protection; one made of stone, magic, and a pure green soul.

The giant was said to have been very lonely; when seen, people and demi-humans alike would shake with fear. They called it a monster of nature, a weapon of war, one made to fight during the atrocity that was not named for some reason. The giant walked the earth never interacting with a human or demi-human. But the animals of the world had no fear or hostility towards this moss-covered giant; from birds landing on its head, arms, and back to deer walking alongside it with its young. Animals alike loved this green fellow.

During the hundreds of years this famed giant walked the earth for, not once did it show hostility. When the forest would catch fire, the giant was there to rid the forest of the flames. Whenever trees died, the giant would heal them. No one had cared about this fact, so instead of showing support, those who resembled humans began spreading rumors of it viciously attacking travelers of all kinds.

And on a gloomy rainy day, a young lady found herself on the run from nasty people. The nameless girl ran deep into the forest, eventually losing the men who had pursued her but had hurt herself in doing so. She had twisted her ankle as she fell when the ground beneath her feet had been unelevated. She fell and lost consciousness. After rescuing her, the giant waited for her to wake up, and when she did, the girl had seen something different. "You're the green giant. You're not as they say," she famously said as she looked at it with a smile. This was the birth of a good friendship; however, just a few months into this friendship, tragedy struck. The nameless girl had been bathing in a lake she had been accustomed to, but the men who she ran from found her.

Sensing the presence of these people, the giant hurried over to the location but was too late. The men had stabbed the girl in the heart and set the forest ablaze. Seeing its only friend die, the giant for the time showed hostility. Its green-lit eyes darkened and with violent movements killed the men. In a desperate attempt to keep the girl from having her soul ascend, the green giant pulled its magic-filled heart and condensed it into a smaller size for the girl's body. It engraved the heart into her body, losing its body forever.

The nameless girl who has the heart of the green giant was never heard of again, and the sightings of the giant ceased. One of the treasured items of earth, the heart of nature's child, full of purity, had then been stained with impurity and lost to time and the mysteries surrounding it; the powers of this giant were never uncovered nor mentioned. All you can hear are the weeping cries of the nameless girl deep in the woods, near bodies of water at night." Yoru had finished the story and had sighed. "This story is quite sad and one of my favorites, did you enjoy it?" she asked Koku, who had been pondering, "So she turned into a ghost?" Koku wondered as he asked Yoru.

"Well, I'm not sure about that, Kokuhehe, it's a story, nothing too much to worry about," she suggested. Koku, however, found this story interesting but couldn't understand why, maybe the heart? or the nameless girl? Regardless of the reason, Koku had been interested in this story.

"Hey, Koku, isn't it dusk already?" Yoru pointed out as she giggled. "Oh, you're right, shall we get going?" Koku held his hand out to her. "Of course." Yoru grabbed his hand and got ready for what awaited them.