Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
A Hidden Strength

I continued to run a soft cloth over Akuma’s leather armor. We had fixed the boat by tying it with seaweed, hoping to the gods to keep the seas steady. I wondered how it Akuma’s armor become so mangled. Better yet, I wondered how I had not yet noticed how it had slowly grown from the nice shiny black surface with smooth edges it had once been, to the sun-bleached, hole-ridden, torn and tattered layer which I now tirelessly dried the water from to stop the material from transforming into a far worse condition. I looked up at Akuma, who seemed to be thinking the same thing, wearing a disgusted look on his face as he stared down at the poor armor.

“Sheesh,” he said, “I can’t believe I didn’t notice how bad my ‘beautiful’ armor has gotten.”

I nodded, remembering the day we first left the island. It seemed so long ago. I was just a child, so unfit to rule. I laughed out loud. Akuma looked over at me, a confused look on his face. “You okay?” he asked through his suspicion.

I nodded. There was a pause before I decided to continue. “I was just thinking. I’m pretty sure it’s almost dry,” I said gesturing towards the leather.

He seemed confused for a moment as though he had forgotten what he had been doing. “Oh. Yeah. Probably,” he said, looking down at the mangled cloth he held. “You know, I’m pretty sure this doesn’t actually do much besides being extremely uncomfortable. I mean, I don’t think there’s going to be a time where I’m like, ‘oh man, I really wish I were wearing that crunchy, old, sun-bleached armor right now,’ so far, I’ve really only though ‘oh man, I wish I didn’t have to wear this itchy, uncomfortable, stupid-looking, really old armor,’” he said in a silly voice.

I laughed. “You could need it. Maktu isn’t really one for giving away random stuff,” I said warily looking down at the faded material.

“True, but what has it really accomplished so far?” he asked smugly.

I thought for a moment, needing a reason to prove him wrong to wipe his smug smile off of his face. “It might have saved your life from something. We don’t know. It could have magical properties,” I answered.

“Like what?” he asked, his smugness growing. I couldn’t think of anything. He sat there, watching me attempt to come up with a reason to keep the worthless armor. “Face it Afi,” he said, not allowing me any more time to think. “It’s a burden.”

I groaned. “Fine,” I said, gagging at the look of pure satisfaction on his face. “But does that mean we spent all night drying the stupid things for nothing?” I asked, fear and anger growing through my veins.

He thought for a moment, looking down at the armor with worry, and then back at me with fear. He nodded, avoiding eye contact.

I felt a flame rush to my eyes, turning them a burning red. The fear in his eyes grew. I yelled and ran towards him. Stopping myself, I paused before him and punched his shoulder the lightest I could at the time. I watched him fly off the boat, landing in the water. He surfaced. “Oh my gods,” he said, swimming towards the boat. “Maniac,” he said, hauling onto the boat. I gasped, choking back my laughter. I snorted, falling to the ground, trying to stop the uncontrollable giggles which flooded through my body. He managed to keep a stern face before exploded in laughter himself. After a moment, the laughter ceased. Neither of us spoke, we just stared, smiling.

“I’m sorry,” I said eventually. “But in my defense, I did just spend like three hours pointlessly drying leather armor that you no longer want.”

He laughed. “I know. I had it coming. I just have no idea how you were able to make your eyeballs burst into flames. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” he said.

I shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea,” I answered truthfully. “But I could feel it happen. Like I knew that my eyes changed.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I bet you did. Alright, but how in the world were you able to punch me so hard I flew off the boat. I mean, we’re the same size. I’m even a little bigger, also, I’m pretty sure you permanently bruised my arm,” he said.

I shook my head. “I got no idea. Maybe I also get super strength!” I said, excitedly.

He laughed. “Maybe,” he said thoughtfully.