INTERIOR: PRISON INSIDE THE GIRL’S UNDERGROUND BASE.

  PRESENT: THE BOY - THE GIRL

  TIME: PRESENTLY INDETERMINATE

  “WHY AREN’T YOU ROTTING!?” The girl screamed, her freckled face red and exasperated. Decidedly unhappy.

  “i do not know.” The boy is the same as ever.

  “I STOPPED FEEDING YOU, LIKE, SIX MONTHS AGO! HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!”

  “i believe you have asked me this before.”

  “Not only that, but I looked EVERYWHERE- I used ALL my connections, the most I could find was that someone like you might’ve existed at some point in some random river vilge! I-It’s like you didn’t even exist ‘til the day we met!”

  “potentially not wrong.”

  “And there’s that, too! What does that even MEAN!?”

  “i do not know.” The boy repeated.

  “UUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH...” The girl tilted her had back and let out a loud, childish groan, which sted for well over a minute.

  The boy was impressed by her ability to go on without stopping for a breath. He noted this.

  “....HHHHHHHHHHH-“ Very suddenly, her head shot back down, and she stared the boy down with her grass-green eyes. “- Is the sound that summed up my feelings about this LAST month!”

  “i see.”

  “BUT! I REALIZED SOMETHING! Now I’m happy- Yes, HAPPY about this news! Y’know why, Bug?!” She leaned in towards him from the other side of the bars.

  “i do not.”

  She pointed at him, very pointedly. “Because if nobody knows you here!” She pointed her finger upward. “That can only mean one thing!”

  “really.”

  Once more, the pointing. “YOU’RE from the outside! You’re an Outworlder! Somehow, you made it through the Storm and Winds! You know what THAT means, my dear Bug?!”

  “i do not, hat.” The boy gnced briefly at the navy-blue lidded ballcap that rested atop her slightly reddish-brown hair.

  “If there’s anyone who'll be able to help me get outta here, it’s you!” The girl beamed a brilliant smile, and her wide eyes glimmered with hope. It was unlike any face he’d ever seen her make before.

  The boy titled his head. “are you trapped here?”

  “We all are! Everyone on this windy hunk of cy! Most don’t even care, think our cage is plenty big, that they’ve got enough to worry about as it is- A lot of people don’t even believe the Outworld exists! But I know! I know it’s real!” The pointing only intensified as the conversation went on. "And one day, I'm gonna make it there!"

  Untilt. The boy blinked once before speaking again. Very thoughtfully. “i do not know anything about that.”

  “I figured! If I’d thought otherwise, I’d be torturing you right now.” She nodded to herself. "They wouldn’t make it that easy. But I will not lose! I do not! Ever! And neither will you, because from now on, YOU’RE gonna help me!”

  “i am?” Head tilt.

  “YES! See, Bug, nobody else wants you! Nobody else even knows you exist! And despite everything I’ve done to you, you’re still here! Even though that should be literally impossible! And do you know WHY that is?”

  “i do not.” The boy rarely knows why anything is.

  “Well I do! It was FATE, Bug!” She triumphantly decred, her fist shooting up in the air. “I was meant to meet you under the tree that night! You were meant to be captured by me! You and I are bound by unseen forces, we’re destined to be together!”

  Blink. “i do not know anything about that. but i would like to. and about the wind and everything else.” He stared at her face, and into her eager and confident eyes. All sights were good. But her especially. “and you, hat.”

  “Of course! You were fated to help me, you never had a choice!”

  “okay. what should i do?”

  “FIRST! Get the HECK out of that cage!” The girl swiftly produced a key from her pocket, turned it in the lock, and practically threw the cell door wide open “Congratutions, Bug! You’ve been promoted from walking corpse to…” She squinted, and tilted her head. “…Acquaintance...? No…” Tilt to the other side. “Friend? Party member..? No, he’s still just a bug…” Tilt. “…Part-“

  Head resumes middle position, and face lights up again.

  “PARTNER! We’re partners now, Bug!”

  The boy nodded, and stepped out of his cell. For the first time in well over 200 days, the boy was free of that tiny dirt cell.

  The sensation wasn’t particurly different.