Blood-Etched Trees

“Boys, yes.” Somehow, he began to relax around her. It was rare he could speak this freely about his own abilities. “I’m afraid I don’t have the sharpest vision there.” He frowned. “I can’t tell you much beyond shirts and pants. There’s a logo on the tallest one’s shirt. He’s wearing jeans, from what I can tell. The other two are in white shirt, black pants and grey shirt, blue shorts, respectively. They’re being more vulgar than I would expect, given their location.“

They were getting into physical details about minors. Honestly, he wasn’t interested in listening, but he didn’t have much choice.

Sasha watched with interest as Fleur showed off more of her powers. His focus was on the way her arms twisted, her elbows becoming just another joint in a series. Now he could see them, the rest of the bones which made up her body. She truly was a snake.

Back at home, he directed Królik towards his old laptop, having her walk along the ground and climb up the leg of the table – and he flinched as she fell to the ground. He hadn’t yet made his apartment Królik-friendly.

“I saw it,” said Sasha, frowning as he tried again. This time, Królik made it onto the table, and as he began to speak she began to boot his computer. “Through my eyes, just like anyone else.”

What Sasha had said was true, though. He didn’t think anything of having a few more eyes than the average person. Flies had a lot of eyes too, but nobody called them out for that – Why was she looking at him like that?

“Hmm?” He held out his hand to the fog, the corner of his lip twitching upwards. This was new. Did it have anything to do with snakes, or was it something else? Why was it cold? As his vision was obscured, it became difficult not to switch his main focus to Królik, who was now searching up snakes. No, snakes and weather, he decided. Weather snakes? He wasn’t getting any useful results.

“Ah, well…” He leaned back against the tree to gather himself in the fog. “I only have one eye in the area, and one of them has just gotten in its way.” The boy in question was sitting in front of one of the trees near the main entrance. Relaxed, he leaned back against its bark – and made contact with the signature there. Sasha snorted slightly. “It seems that one is actually gay. He’s only there because he’s infatuated with the taller boy there, whose name is Simon. Simon’s a rather physical young man, and so this boy has gotten the idea that maybe there’s something between them – hence why he’s very nervous listening to the others talk about girls – “

The boy jolted and looked around confusedly, shouting loudly enough to be quietly heard from where they were. “Wh-who’s there?” As the boy stammered and tried to explain himself, the three students were spooked enough to go inside.

Sasha blinked confusedly. “…Now you definitely can’t tell anybody about the eyes, not until I do a bit more testing. Do you think you could come down here for a moment? Maybe you could check something for me.”

“Really? They’re not exactly being quiet.” In fact he could hear them twice – once through the eye near the entrance, and once, more quietly, through his actual ears… although that could also be his imagination.

Fleur’s curiosity didn’t seem to be enough to make her help him. “You will?” It was a bit inconvenient, to be honest. He wasn’t sure why he’d spoken so much to her to begin with, it would only make his work more difficult… but now that he was in this far, he couldn’t exactly just leave. He didn’t need the school harassing him for his actions. “Well.” He closed his eyes to think. “I need what little money I have to keep myself from starving, and for similar reasons I need to keep my computer around…”

His computer, right. He had Królik refine her searches, and finally came up with a few things that tied snakes and weather or water together in mythology. The Uncegila of Native America, the Rainbow Serpent of Australia… the latter seemed more likely, though he wasn’t certain yet. For all he knew the fog and the fact she was a snake were completely unrelated.

“Well… hm. I don’t mean any harm, for one thing, and I’m good at finding information, for another. I suppose I could tell you things – you seem an interesting enough person to talk to anyways. Are you a rainbow serpent?”

Sasha shrugged. “I don’t have much to do, so I learn things.” Possession, hmm? She didn’t look very… possessed. Seemed like a permanent sort of thing.

“Ngalyod.” He repeated it, and then immediately searched it up – and spelled it wrong, for that matter, but google took care of that for him. “Why – “ And then he stopped. If he kept talking, she would . Did it matter? Had he dug his own grave by beginning the question?

Sasha found himself quite disturbed. He’d never had to take care of information leaks before. His organization made sure all leaks were disposed of. He wasn’t a killer. He didn’t know how to dispose of someone efficiently. He supposed, if worst came to worst, he had a pocketknife, and a strong arm – but that seemed like an awful shame, when this girl was willing to interact with him. That was a lot more than he’d gotten from the others.

“There’s not much I can do but talk. Or… show you my things, I suppose. I don’t have much, but – you might take an interest in it? Hmm.”