HOPE AND LOVE
by Shelly

CHAPTER THREE


	During the rest of their travels that day, Mushra was definitely not 
himself. Even when Kutal fixed them a dinner fit for a king, he refused 
to eat anything, and he was usually the first one in line. Instead he 
sat alone away from the fire with his back turned to them so they 
wouldn’t see the sorrow that lined his face.
	
	Yakumo saw this and walked over to sit beside him with a plate of food 
in her hands. “Mushra, please eat something. It hurts me to see you 
like this.”
	
	He had his legs drawn up to his chest and his arms draped across his 
knees which he had his chin propped up on. “I don’t see why it should 
hurt you,” he replied. “I’m the one who’s hurting.”
	
	She smiled gently. “I know. I saw how much it hurt for you to let her 
go. But things happen for a reason, and maybe it was best that she 
didn’t come with us.”
	
	“But I didn’t want her to go!” he cried, picking up a rock and 
throwing it into the woods. “I wanted her to come with us!”
	
	“Then why didn’t you go after her?” she asked, unperturbed by his 
outburst. 
	
	He sighed dejectedly and lowered his head even more. “I didn’t want 
her to cause problems for you. She and I were a lot alike, but in other 
ways different.”
	
	“How so?” she questioned.
	
	“Well, when we’re both in our hyper forms, we both liked to fight like 
we did earlier today. But in our normal forms, she’s a lot more 
generous and understanding of others, which worked to my benefit when we first 
met.”
	
	“Why don’t you tell me of how you both met, Mushra? I would really 
like to hear it,” she added.
	
	He sighed again as he could never refuse her anything when she turned 
those big blue eyes on him. “Oh, all right,” he gave in.
	
	“I don’t really remember what I had been fighting about, but I do 
remember that I was outnumbered and I got pretty beat up because of it. The 
Enterrans I had fought were tough and took a lot out of me, and it was 
all I could do to walk towards a village I had seen through the trees. 
That village was the same one we just left.
	
	“But I never quite made it as I collapsed to the ground and passed 
out. When I awoke, I was in a bed in a strange room. I was alone and very 
weak. It was all I could do to raise my head up.
	
	“Then I saw her walk into the room, and she looked different than she 
did today. What you saw was her hyper form. She was about the same size 
as me with the same color hair as she had today. She gave me some water 
and food, which was mostly broth as I was too weak to eat. As my health 
improved, I became a little more difficult as I didn’t like being kept 
cooped up inside, but she ignored my protests and just smiled. It was 
her smile that weakened my heart as it lit up her whole face, and she 
always seemed to be happy.
	
	“At least I thought she was. When I was strong enough to walk, I heard 
her one night crying by herself. I hated hearing her cry, and I wanted 
to do something to help her, but I didn’t know what to do. Apparently I 
made some kind of noise as she saw me and tried to pretend like nothing 
was wrong, but I had already seen enough to know better. 
	
	“I confronted her about it, and she finally told me that she had lost 
her parents on that particular night years ago, and every year it was 
the same. She would come up here and cry all alone, with no one to hear 
her until I came. She was touched that I had cared enough to stay, and 
we ended up talking all night about ourselves.
	
	“We were like little kids then, always playing pranks on one another 
and getting into fights. The village began to feel like home to me and I 
stayed there for as long as they would have me. Then it was attacked by 
bandits, and I helped defeat them along with Sasuna. It was then we 
first saw each other in our hyper forms. I had no idea that she was 
capable of transforming, and neither did she judging from the look on her 
face.”
	
	“You must’ve been spellbound,” Yakumo said when he had become quiet 
and adopted a dreamy smile on his face. “She’s quite beautiful.”
	
	Mushra came back to himself with a bit of a blush coloring his cheeks. 
“I was. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and we stood 
there for a while staring at each other before she walked over to me 
and took off my helmet. I guess she was confused and wanted to see if it 
was really me under there.
	
	“For some reason things changed between us after that. We started 
acting careful around each other, like she was nervous or something. I was 
confused as to why she was doing that, but I wasn’t about to embarrass 
myself and ask her what was wrong.”
	
	“She saw you as someone more than just a friend,” Yakumo supplied.
	
	He glanced at her then turned his gaze back to the trees. “Yeah, I 
guess that explains it. I was feeling the same way about her, especially 
after I saw her going through some type of training exercises and I 
decided to join her. We fought together for a while, both of us eventually 
going into our hyper forms to make the fight more interesting, only we 
were without our armor since it wasn’t a serious fight. We got tangled 
with each other and ended up down on the ground...and that’s when we 
kissed.”
	
	“Oh, how romantic!” she cried.
	
	He looked at her sideways. “Whatever you say. Things almost got out of 
control, and that’s when I lost control of myself. All of a sudden I 
didn’t know what to do or say, and I walked away from her. All my life I 
had been in control of my emotions, and in one instant I lost it. 
	
	“It happened one more time after that, and by then I was so confused I 
didn’t know what to think. So I left the village altogether and never 
came back.”
	
	“You left her?” she asked, surprised. “Mushra, what was so wrong with 
it that you felt you had to leave?”
	
	“Like I said, I don’t like not being in control of my emotions. Take 
today for example. Seeing her again made me weak in the knees and 
reduced me into feeling like a little kid again. I wanted to be with her 
because she was the only one to ever show me kindness before you came, and 
I enjoy being around her. But I know that you and she would never get 
along, especially after what has happened as it seems she has become 
bitter towards life.” He sighed heavily. “Why does love have to be so 
difficult?”
	
	“Mushra, I can’t believe you actually admitted you love her!” she 
exclaimed.
	
	“Did I say that?” he asked as he grinned and folded his hands behind 
his head. “No way! You must be hearing things!”
	
	“I heard you,” she fired back. “You do love her! And I’m sure she 
loves you. Oh, I’m so happy for you both!” she cried. “We’ve got to find 
her and bring you two back together!”
	
	“Yakumo, wait!” he cried as he watched her run back to the others. 
“Oh, brother,” he groaned as he buried his face in his hand. “What have I 
gotten myself into?”

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Thanks for reading!