Lucky Guess
2256 Words
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Staring through the window in the ship, Sayuri is sitting in a chair, drinking hot chocolate in a mug early in the morning. She watches how the sun is rising on this planet. It's less warm than the morning sun on earth. So, she has a coat around her. The steam from the chocolate is rising and she sniffs it, smelling its sweetness. She would often hide her sigh as Hyun massages her shoulders. He swallows, looking at the back of her neck, and touching her warm skin full bl**d that he craves. Only the two of them are in this room. There's only one bed where both of them slept.
“Can I ask you something?” he asks. He waits for a second but she doesn't answer. “I told you that I love you. Do you feel the same for me?” She sips her hot chocolate, staying quiet as before. It's as if Hyun doesn't exist. “As expected,” he chuckles. “you're just using me. I've never met a woman in my life who fooled and used me like this. It's not that I hate it but if it's someone I love, I'm glad to be used by her at least.” He whispers, “Could I at least have some reward?”
Massaging her shoulders a little harder, she slightly bends her neck backward and almost closed her eyes in pleasure. His nose is on her left shoulder, sniffing her skin until he slides to her neck under her ear.
“May I?” he whispers in her ear.
His breath tickles her. With a slight but obvious nod, she permits him. He bares his fangs and punctures her shoulder and sucks her bl**d. She breathes hard. The mug of hot chocolate slips from her hands, breaking on the floor, and spilling the chocolate. He could feel her quickening pulse from the bl**d. He lets go, trembling. The power he feels is immense, his mind in intense euphoria. Embracing her from behind, they kiss and share with her how her bl**d tastes through his lips.
Still on the same dry land in the middle of the swamp, Jasper, Hiroki, Icarus, and Philip are waiting. The sound of insects and croaking of the frogs are getting louder as dusk approaches. Philip is training, Icarus is chilling with Jasper on the back of the truck, and Hiroki is trying to get a signal with his radio. He looks problematic, walking everywhere to get some decent signal.
“Arghh!” he growls. “I can't get a signal!”
“Just chill, Hiroki,” says Jasper. “We'll be fine.”
“We must tell them that we're okay, at least. Prisha must be worried about me.” He holds a first, closing his eyes. “Don't worry, Prisha,” he mutters. “I'm okay. Don't worry about me.”
“She's probably too busy to worry about you.”
“What is that?!” he frowns at Jasper over his shoulder.
“I'm just saying, making human trinkets is her passion. She'll be occupied enough to forget about you considering, by now, hundreds of refugees are staying in the ship.” Then he smirks. “And she has Chao to replace you.”
“She will never do that!” he roars but Jasper laughs at him. Icarus chuckles a little.
“Don't worry, Hiroki,” Jasper continues to mess with him. “I'm sure Prisha won't cheat on you for a more reliable, smarter, more handsome, and manly human like Chao.”
Icarus couldn't help but burst out laughing, seeing how affected Hiroki is.
“You don't know her!” Hiroki argues.
“Oh, I think I do. I'm the strategist of our group, Hiroki. It's my job to know people. You saw how most of my predictions were right. Have you forgotten?”
Hiroki gasps a little, biting his nails and looking at the side. Worrying, he mutters, “Is she gonna-” Jasper and Icarus laugh even more. Hiroki realizes they're definitely just messing with him. “I hate you,” he growls, rolling his eyes, and continues to walk around to get a signal.
Then the goddess yawns, sitting up rubbing her eyes. “Oh!” Jasper reacts upon noticing. “Rise and shine, my lady!”
She scratches her muddy hair, moistens her lips with her tongue, and looks around. “Where am I?” she asks.
“In the swamp!” he announces, standing up and spreading his arms.
“I know that... but—” She groans, closing one eye as she touches her aching head. “I'm sober. Tch...”
“You're quite a heavy drinker, aren't ya?”
She squints her eyes, looking at his face, then to Icarus, Philip, and Hiroki from afar. “Who are you?”
“First off, who are you?”
“Nobody,” she answers, looking at the cooler beside her. She opens it and gets disappointed. “Do you got booze? I'm okay with anything.”
“Nah, you drank everything.” He frowns, looking away as he remembers it. “Well, anyway. You mentioned something about a selection for a bride.”
“I did?” she asks, trying to wipe off the dry mud on her forearms.
“Yeah, can you tell us about it?”
“Why would I tell you about that?” she questions. She stands up and stretches her back.
“We're curious.”
“All of you are men. Why would you be interested in being a bride?”
“No, you got it wrong,” he laughs. “We curious to see if who's gonna be the bride of the Warlord of Zhlozakia.”
“It's gonna be me.” She jumps off of the truck and Jasoer follows her. He looks at the sky and surroundings.
“They have already chosen you?”
Still looking around, she answers, “I'm gonna win it.”
“How?”
“Crushing whoever gets in my way.”
He steps back a little when she looks at him with fierce eyes. Then she just raises her eyebrows when she notices Philip, training. She walks to him and he stops, looking confused.
“Your form is wrong,” she comments. “Do it like this.”
He raises his eyebrows when she starts to show him how to kick. The air explodes although she didn't hit anything, followed by a whipping thundering sound that echoes throughout the swamp. Swamp grasses wave and the noise of insects and frogs cease.
She looks at Philip, saying, “Treat your leg like a whip so you don't need to waste energy.” He nods and tries it but didn't get it just yet. She notices his boots. “That's the God of Messenger's relic, right?”
“Yeah,” he answers. “how'd you know?”
“Common knowledge.” Then she turns around, pointing at Icarus. “You.” He's surprised, jolting a little bit. “You know Dimensional Touch. Who are you?”
“Wait a minute...,” Jasper giggles, putting himself in front of her. “He doesn't have that kind of power.”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” says Icarus.
“Ugh...,” Jasper complains. “I knew that, Icarus. You ruined me.”
“Oh... sorry,” he tilts his head as he gets off the truck.
“How did she know?” Hiroki asks Jasper.
“I don't know.” Then he asks her, “How did you know?”
“I just know,” she answers, staring at them.
“If we introduce ourselves first, would you mutually do?”
“Go ahead,” she says, raising a single eyebrow.
“I'm Jasper, this is Icarus, Philip, and this loser's Hiroki.”
“Hey!” Hiroki scolds him.
“What's your power?” she asks.
“I'm the God of Trickery.”
“So, you're Silva's son.”
Smirking like his face could tear, Jasper laughs and answers, “Yes! I am!”
“Your mother slaughtered thousands of innocent people, you know. And I'm planning to eliminate her once I'm done here. I could consider killing her son as p*****t for her sins. Not that I would, because I know she won't repent.”
“Exactly. You know her pretty well, huh?”
“I know everyone once they set foot on Mars. I know where you stand and how tainted is your soul, no matter how you try to conceal yourself.”
All of them feel like thousands of eyes are watching them in every direction while they're n***d. They get goosebumps for no reason, feeling the breeze no matter how weak it is. Only Jasper finds this exciting. His toes and fingers wriggle like worms and his face is messed up from his smirk.
“So, there's no use in introducing ourselves then?” he asks.
“Not at all. Now, I know your names.”
“In other words, you know our souls but not our names. I gotta say... I find you SO interesting.”
“Should I be flattered?”
“Well, it's up to you. What's your power?”
“I want you to guess. But if you guess wrong, I will have to kill all of you.”
“What?” Hiroki trembles. Icarus and Philip become wary.
“Calm down, guys,” says Jasper, not flinching. “Any other reason why you want to kill us?”
“All of you brought a goddess full of vengeance. Such vengeance will be disastrous for this planet.”
“Wow, I never thought you'd be so concerned.”
“I might be a drunk woman but I fulfill my duties, just like you, God of Trickery.”
Jasper grins, gritting his teeth because he couldn't contain his excitement. “But if I guess right, what's in it for us?”
“You live.”
“Tch!” he scoffs. “That's boring.”
She gets confused for a second and as well as his comrades.
Hiroki whispers, “What do you think you're saying?” But Jasper doesn't mind him and continues staring at the goddess's eyes without blinking.
“Then what do you want?” she asks.
“You will tell me everything you know about Valkyries and Jovians.” He chuckles lowly.
She swallows before smirking back to say, “No can do. I can't tell ya.”
“Are you afraid that you might lose? Just think about it. You didn't show us your power, we don't know much about Mars, you're still concealing yourself, and we don't even know if you're a goddess. We're at a disadvantage here.”
“No, ask something else.”
“I thought you'd be so interesting,” he says in disappointment. “I guess I was wrong.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Well then,” he says, sighing with an unamused face. “Take us with you to where that selection will happen.”
“Deal.”
“Immortality,” answers Jasper, not wasting time.
She widens her eyes, asking, “How did you-”
“I just know,” he smirks.
“Tell me, how did you know?!” she raises her voice a little bit.
“If I tell you, would you entertain something between my legs the way a woman can?”
“Yes.”
The other three wrinkle their nose because of Jasper's thirstiness and the straight answer of the goddess.
“Hehe,” he laughs, rubbing his palms together. “Well....” She pays attention, even holding her breath so she could hear him clearly. He answers, “Lucky guess.” He laughs and she frowns.
“You're lying,” she mutters.
“No, I'm not. You can sense if I'm lying or not, can't you?” She just clicks her tongue, hating to admit it. “So, you'll be ‘entertaining’ me.”
“Fine,” she scoffs, looking to the side, already pulling her shirt up.
They look away but then Jasper says, “But not now. Clean yourself first.”
She stops halfway from showing her chest. “We'll do it when we get to the village,” she says, walking to the truck, looking annoyed. She climbs on the back and sits frowning.
Icarus, Philip, and Hiroki are surprised by how well Jasper handled her. For a moment, they felt a grave danger but for him, it was just a breeze.
“Let's cook something,” he says, walking to the truck. “It's already evening. I'm hungry.”
Still discombobulated, they look at him. The whole swamp is also speechless. The frogs and insects didn't make a noise like they used to do a while ago. Questions flood in their minds. How could someone be this clever? Was it part of his trick just to satisfy himself? Was he bluffing about saying that it was out of luck that he managed to guess? Was he willing to bet on their lives without a second thought? If he didn't hesitate, then he must've known about her powers. But the goddess can spot a lie. But then, all of them know that he lies as naturally as he breathes.
They couldn't be confident of their guesses so they decide that they'll never know, saving their minds from bursting into pieces.
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- Writer
