Mido Enlightenment

He sat in his usual spot. Atop a hill on the lone bench provided, a single tree for coverage, and nothing even remotely close. The cigarette in his mouth was around half ash by this point, until it finally fell onto his lap, cooling quickly in the breeze. Despite sitting down, both his hands rested in his pockets, and Aiya’s head in his lap, sleeping as her adorable self. Honestly, he could sit here forever and just watch the sun rise and set on a continuous loop forever. But he cannot, the day must be filled with the darkness, ruining each moment with the drowned out sound of people going about their pitiful lives. He’d sigh, the smoke escaping like a wave before rising up, his head following, looking into the orange sky with very little thought running through his mind. What an empty existence he leads now, not happy, not depressed, nothing. It was just a day to day movement from one place to another. “You’re reaching the end again...Aren’t you, Neo.” Kech was here as well, she was everywhere Neo went. If they were the same species, I have no doubt that they would be mates, its probably a good thing that they aren’t, because as a result they can be even closer. “I don’t want to watch you suffer again. I don’t want you to disappear.” She had walked towards the edge of the bench, sitting on the ground beside him. Neo won’t respond of course, instead he’d just pull out one of his hands and place it on her head, signalling that it would all be okay.

It was true though. His condition has been worsening over the past month, each day his strength and will is receding back further into a shallow hole, as if his existence is being consumed by another force from within. JaLiRi only come out while Neo sleeps as well, so his body is struggling to cope, even with the curse seal, fatigue is getting the better of him. Little by little, Neo is dying, who knows many much longer he can live. The hand would be pulled from Kech and instead placed on Aiya, who’d snuggle against it in her sleep. His eyes, following the path as he now watched her, studied her. No, Neo will fight it, he can’t leave, not now. Aiya relies too much on him. And he on her. She, is why he fights to continue to be. “Forget about it.” It wasn’t much, but his tone alone was enough to show his current state. It was spoken slowly, like a man who has lived his life a smoker, cracked and raspy, yet stern and dangerous. But deep and lifeless was the best fit, the voice of a dying man, with a healthy body, it never does come out right. Still, despite that, it did do the job, it did reassure her that things will be fine. The three would continue to rest blissfully, waiting out the day until nothing was left but night.

Life beamed through the ranch, birds soared through, beasts roamed freely and the employees always with a joyous smile to brighten the mood. Neo walked through with Mido, Aiya riding his back, gripping at his fur on one side and Neo’s shirt on the other, excited to see all the new creatures. “R-Rache” It would say, before the little girl giggled, undermining its speech. “Ranch. Ran-Ch.” She would say, with a smile, turning to get another look at her companion before returning to her gazing. He’d ignore her look, only responding with lighting up another smoke, both palms being put back in their rightful resting place of his pockets. It was a nice day, sun shining, beasts active, Aiya happy. He couldn’t ask for much else, it was all the warmth anyone could ask for, and it was all his to bask in. Friends, were they all that? No, the workers were just acquaintances. The beasts were mostly the same. Mido was the closest here. Aiya was something else entirely, if one were to try and explain the way he feels, I’d say like the love of your life, without attraction or desire, the love of a mother, but without the blood and maternal need. The love of a hobby, but on a whole new scale. “Ran-Ch...Ranch.” His thoughts were distracted as Mido spoke the word. Correct. good job.

Mido has been slowly adapting its speech much like Kech has, interesting as he is the next closest to Neo. It seems his theory has been true, the closer his relationship with the beast, as well as its exposure to him, the more intelligent they become. This was written somewhere, an ancient case of Enlightenment where bonds can create an unexplainable effect of intelligence as well as the ability to speak via some strange means, also unexplainable. A week would pass, and he would be capable of forming sentences at the ability of a small child. Not as quick of a learner as Kech was, but in saying that he developed the ability initially much faster then she did so its to be expected. After all Kech is his longest Ally and has spent almost all of her time with him since they met over 4 years ago now. oh that 4 years has gone by so oddly. Not just with their relationship, but him in general. His memories were all fake, recreated. His roommates became an underworld gang and all world famous tradesmen. The world, well that’s all gone to shit. And now his animals were talking...Well, lets take it forward another week. Fluency. He was now an english speaking citizen of the Epsilon Republic. Damn, this is cool, but i’m starting to get sick of writing up 1000 words just to make them talk. Very very sick of it, yet its cool. Hmm, what else can I do for the rest of my word count. Maybe I could just Hum for the remainder, but that wouldn’t be cool, oh wait, I used it up, what a shame.

word count: 1013
needed: 1000