"Sune! Wake up!"
Sune's eyes fluttered for a moment, shutting again.
"Wake up! We have to leave!"
Sune levered his eyes open. Sunlight beamed down, blinding him. He raised his arm to block it.
Sune's attention darted around. His surroundings blurred, sound rang thin like a siren, flooding back into his ears.
His vision began to focus, he noticed he lay in a forest. His body slowly unnumbed. He felt hands, gripping him at both shoulders. Shaking him rigorously.
"Sune, wake up!"
His eyes finally adjusted. He could see that the one shaking him was a girl. Freckled ivory skin and luscious dark bangs in her hair dangling just below ear-length. He knew the face, he was still grateful to wake up to it.
"…Pan? Is it really you?"
Pandora let go of him. Letting out a deep exhale. Silence lingered through the forest.
"Yes, obviously. Come on, we have to go." Pandora sighed. Turning and leaving him.
Sune remained sat down. His back rested against an oak tree. Taking in the forest. Trying to discern where they were, what had happened while he was out. Broken branches strewn across the floor, some still attached to trees in positions trees did not ever bend in.
"So…we crashed?"
Pandora didn't turn around.
"They chased me all through the night. Too tired to steer properly. Struck my falcon with an arrow. No time to summon another." Pandora replied blankly.
Sune watched as she made some preparation he was likely not knowledgeable enough to understand. He noticed Pandora's clothing. She wore a large brown cloak, similar to a hunter. He watched as she flicked the hood up over her head. Underneath the cloak she wore what appeared to be a white ceremonial robe for a shirt, along with a pair of white shorts at knee length. Both matched each other, complete with intricate golden accents and patterns.
Sune had also noticed her tone. Cold. Detached. With a hint of anger. If there was one person in the world he did not expect to act this way, it was the Pandora he knew.
Clearly, this was not the reunion had hoped for.
"…Sounds intense. You ok?" he pried softly.
Sune advanced closer to her. As much as he was able. His knees were still weak, his mind still dazed. Feeling as if there was something missing. Not important, not situation-altering. But something simply… off. He still awaited an answer.
"Yes. Let's just go."
Pandora unsheathed a blade from her forearm. It extended sharply, sonorously. Rather than her holding it, it was attached. In her other hand was a compass. Golden and ornate. She studied it carefully, acting as if Sune wasn't even present.
After a few seconds, Pandora sharply switched directions from where she was facing. Approaching a cluster of vines. Swinging her arm surgically, she sliced through the greenery, blade singing as she carved a path through the forest.
Sune simply stood there. As much as she had seemingly changed, as much as she was dismissing him, as if he were some annoying child she had been stuck with, he simply enjoyed watching her do things. Anything. It did not matter. The point at which he came to his senses and followed her, was when she was nearly out of view.
*****
Every attempt to make conversation with Pandora proved even more taxing than fighting Cohort VI.
Each and every attempt to break the ice Sune conjured up was immediately held down like a prisoner and frozen back into place.
There was much Sune wanted to say, and yet the one person he wanted to tell it to, simply did not want to hear it.
After some deliberation, Sune arrived at something she might've liked to hear.
"I'm sorry."
Pandora turned her head back but an inch.
"I'm sorry I was missing for so long. I should've told you. But we agreed not to talk until the time came, and once it did, I was so preoccupied, I had forgotten—"
"You should be sorry!" Pandora snapped. "There I was, ready to sacrifice everything for this, and you can't be bothered to show up? And on top of that, you spring it back on me months later? What's the matter with you?! What the hell were you doing all this time?"
"Listen! You have to understand, they would have killed me! They would have carved me into little pieces before we could even set it all up! I had to train! I had to become stronger. I was so fixated on that, that I couldn't—"
Pandora whipped around. Scowling.
"Had to be stronger?! For what, exactly? Tell me this… was it part our plan for you to fight the damn Gale King?! Was it part of our plan for you to nearly kill yourself fighting Cohort VI?!" she hissed. No! It wasn't! All you had to do was sneak into the dungeons and free the slaves, Sune! No fighting, no reason to 'get stronger.'"
Sune fell silent for a moment.
"So what? Are we just gonna sit here and act like all that sh*t wasn't gonna happen anyway? Everything you just told me I 'didn't have to do' was already baked into your plan! All I did was move it all forward! Is that the part that bothers you?!"
Pandora groaned in annoyance. Sune kept going.
"Do you want to delay the inevitable? Is that it? Why are you running from your own damn idea?! Why are you hiding from it?!"
Pandora paced around the clearing frantically. On the verge of tears.
"Because I could lose everything, Sune! I could lose my family! My heritage! My Assurance! Everything I care about!"
Sune reeled back. Perhaps he had taken his point too far. Pandora stopped pacing.
"I could've lost you… and then— I would truly have nothing!"
Sune marched toward her. Placing his hand on her shoulder.
"I'll never let that happen."
Awkward silence ensued. Sune was the first to break it again.
"I'm sorry, okay? I should've told you everything."
Pandora sniffled. Lowering her gaze.
"I'm sorry, too." she muttered.
"What the hell are you apologising for?" Sune jested, trying to cut the tension. Pandora let out a small chuckle.
"No. It's just… the truth is…"
Sune sat down on a large boulder. Pandora perched next to him.
"When I stopped hearing from you, after our agreement. I was sad, angry, everything in between. But I was also…"
"Relieved?" Sune already understood what she was getting at.
"…Yeah. Part of me was just… glad I didn't have to take such a big gamble, glad I didn't have to step so far outside my comfort zone. I suppose. I know it's selfish of me. I mean it was all my idea and yet—"
"Don't. It's not. Trust me. I think my training as well… it was more than just preparation. I was also delaying the inevitable. We were both just scared, I guess."
Pandora smiled faintly. Studying the ground, and turning back to Sune.
"Listen." Sune said. "You have infinitely more to lose here. You're royalty, after all. You have a family left. I've no one left to protect, no one except you. So if you want to go back, you can. I can carry it all out by myself. You can go back to helping me from afar. Or not even that, if you don't want—"
"Are you crazy?!" Pandora exclaimed. "You think I'd just leave you at a time like this? It's you against the world, Sune. You. Alone. Against the five kingdoms. As long as that's the situation… I'll choose your side, every time." Pandora held her hand over his knee. Not confidently. As if she was testing whether it was okay. Sune turned to her. Looking her in the eye. He made no objection.
"Can I see your face? It's been a long time." Pandora asked.
Sune had forgotten that he was still wearing his scarf. He wondered whether she would appreciate what she saw. No human ever had, none except from her. But that was in the past. The person he used to be. He had changed much since then.
With one hand, he pulled at it, delicately unwrapping it from his face. Other than his dark forest green complexion, his skin was like glass, flawless. Shaking his head, he unmatted his hair. Short, dark, glossy, straight and slightly spiky in the subtle uneven fringes at the front, and yet, it was still neat and somewhat tidy. His features sharp and symmetrical. Fierce yet appealing. His eyes clear and hazel, even without Assurance. Pandora let out a nervous chuckle looking at him.
Sune turned back to her, grinning to one side of his mouth. Eyes narrow.
"So… where are we going?" he asked.
Pandora stared at him, absent-minded. She snapped back down to earth.
"Oh, yeah! Damn it! I forgot! We're losing time!"
"Okay… but for what?"
"I'll explain along the way!" she exclaimed. Grabbing his hand and pulling him off the boulder, rushing him down the forest.
Sune smiled.
It was the Pandora he knew, after all.
Sune, still holding his scarf, stared down at it for a moment. Covered in blood and soot. Filthy. Still, he draped it onto his shoulders.
'Just for a moment.'