Tales From The Kronos

The three friends managed to find an inn to sleep in for the night. There, they shared everything that happened. Neige talked about the old sheriff, the traveler who works for the new sheriff, and the new sheriff herself, Silv. After telling their friend everything that happened, it was Silva's turn to tell her tale. She took a deep inspiration before talking, mentally preparing herself.

"When I woke up, I was far away from everything. It was pretty jarring to find myself surrounded by sand, alone. I walked in front of me, it was the only thing I could do, I had no idea where everything was, I even lost my watch in the process."

"You lost your watch?" Interrupted Neige, they could still go home as long as one of them had it, but if someone from this world found it, it could be really dangerous. The last thing they needed was for another person to travel to other worlds.

"Yeah, but I know who has it. It's this Silv! She stole it from me, and I heard her say she had the diary too!" Silva's words only convinced the other two friends even more, they needed to meet Silv as soon as possible, everything led to her. After the short pause, Silva continued her story "Then I arrived here, I heard people saying you went into a bar, and there I found you."

Neige was about to say something, but instead let out a yawn. The exhaustion finally caught up to them. The group agreed to think about Silv later, they were too tired for now.

The three of them went to bed and did their best to sleep despite the cold of the room.

~Neige...~

A voice echoed in the room, waking up the man. When Neige looked around, everything was dark, not like the night, but like emptiness. His friends weren't around when he looked for them, and quickly decided to go outside to find them.

The streets were empty, the moon was black, and the world lost all life. Neige searched around, but couldn't find anything.

~Neige...~ Said the voice again, but no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find the origin of it.

"Show yourself!" Neige yelled while holding his gun in his hand, ready for a fight. But instead, the voice answered calmly.

~I miss you Neige, it's been so long... I wish we could be reunited.~ As the voice spoke, he realized something. He heard this voice before, feminine, empty, cold but with a pinch of warmth. It was the same voice that attacked him and Kairo.

"Are you the anomaly? Show yourself! Give me back my friend!" His respiration was faster, his voice more desperate. The thought of what happened was enough to make him lose control, but the voice didn't answer with the same aggressiveness as him.

"I'm sorry... I can't. I wish I knew where you were."

"Where I am?" Neige was confused, did the voice not know where he was, or was it lying? And if it didn't know, then how could it speak to him? But it wasn't important now, all he needed to know was if his friend was safe "Where's Kairo? Answer!"

~Kairo? The one that was with you? I... Can't really tell... But I'm sure I can be a better friend than him.~

Neige wasn't sure what the anomaly meant, the anomaly's lack of interest in the person she almost killed enraged him. He didn't even know that voice, he knew she was only confusing him with her Neige, the one that died in her world.

"Stop acting like you know me. I have never met you."

~You're wrong!~ Said the voice, not so calmly ~No matter which world it is, we're always friends. That's what you told me. You may not remember it, but I'll remember it for you.~

Out of frustration, Neige shot a bullet toward the sky, hoping it would make the voice disappear. But sadly, it wasn't enough.

~Our path may split here, but I'll find you Neige. And take care of my belongings, I know you took them.~

Neige was confused for a moment, but he quickly realized that her belongings were probably the journal and the drawings he found in the church. Maybe they were important hints, but sadly he left them at the ship, making him unable to review them. Before Neige could ask anything else, snow suddenly fell out of nowhere along with strong winds. It was so much that it was hard to see, and after a moment, he lost consciousness.

Neige woke up and looked around, agitated. The room was dark like the night and his friends were sleeping. Everything was how it was supposed to be.

"It's just a nightmare, nothing more than that." He whispered to himself, still with a heavy respiration. Neige often had nightmares, but no matter how hard he tried, it always took a moment before calming himself. Knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep right away, he decided to go for a walk outside.

The cold of the night bothered him but not enough to stop him from roaming around the town for hours. He still couldn't tell if it was a dream or if it was real.

In the dark and empty street, a small light caught his attention, startling him a bit.

"What are ya doing alone on this pretty night?" He recognized the origin of the voice, it was the cowboy he met before, Gol'dner. Neige walked toward him, still tired from everything that happened that day.

"Just felt like I could use a walk." The man looked at Neige from head to toe before asking with a soft tone.

"It's your friend? You're worried about her?" Neige gestured a no with his head and proceeded to explain.

"I found her, but she... Lost something. And the only person that knows where it is, well it's the sheriff. Is there a way we could meet her?"

The cowboy scratched his beard, thinking about something. For some reason, he seemed like he was hesitating on saying something, but decided to say it anyway.

"She's as elusive as a snake in tall grass, she barely shows herself. But even despite her calm and ordered demeanor, she's still as young as the night. She likes to play a lot, always dueling the best player in a game of poker."

"Poker?" Said Neige, a bit disappointed. Was he going to play poker to find her? He didn't even know the rules of poker, it would be a hard task to beat her.

"Yep. Every Sunday there's a tournament at the bar, might be worth checking if she's here, but even if she is, she's going to be discreet."

He now knew where and how to find her, once he met her, he'd get the watch and diary back. They would then need to find a way to make her leave her place as the sheriff and make Coop take his place again. It wouldn't be easy, since he still didn't know how to do it.

"And where's Coop? I didn't see him after the duel between you two."

"Him? Don't worry about him, if all his brain was made of dynamite, there wouldn't be enough to blow his nose. He's going to try again and give up like always. His greed is as big as his courage is small."

That wasn't really helping Neige, how could he make a coward like him take his place? Neige was even wondering if they needed to. It seemed like the man in front of him was doing a good job, and people liked him. Silv on the other hand probably wasn't the right person to be the sheriff, she just stole a diary and a watch, not someone they could trust. And how did she get the journal of their leader anyway? Neige had so many questions and doubts but his body was too tired to find an answer to anything.

"Thanks, I think I'll go to sleep now. I feel like tomorrow's going to be a long day."

"Sure, take care of you, cowboy."

They both parted ways and Neige went to sleep, but even despite his exhaustion, it was hard for him to finally fall back to sleep.

"Play poker? This is your plan?" Asked Sepide, after Neige summarized his discussion with the cowboy. She wasn't sure that it was a good idea, and looked at Silva to seek approbation. Instead, she just saw her friend drawing something on a paper.

"Don't you think it's weird Silva? We need to be discreet, nobody should notice us." Silva got her nose out of her drawing and looked at the direction of the voice. She didn't seem to agree or disagree, she actually seemed focused on something else.

"I think it's okay, it's better than doing nothing. I guess it can still be interesting."

"Interesting?" Sepide said, offended "We are here because we need to fix anomalies in the universe and make sure this world won't collapse on itself! Why would it need to be interesting?"

Silva answered nothing and continued her drawing. Even Neige was worried at this point. Silva always was pretty bad at reading the atmosphere, she was the kind of person to say hurtful things on accident, but she wouldn't ignore them like that. The man slowly approached his friend and took her drawing from her hand.

"Hey, give it back!" Silva finally talked after isolating herself in her silence. Neige got used to approaching her without being noticed even despite her good hearing. It was something that made him quite proud.

"Come on, share with us what you were so focused on." Neige was more worried than curious, but he knew it was for the good of her friend. On the drawing was a weird figure, it was the silhouette of a girl maybe? Sepide took a look at it too, but didn't seem to recognize anything either. Silva almost tore the drawing while taking it back and putting it in her pocket.

"You never learned to respect a woman's intimacy?" She said, visibly annoyed. "Come on, don't we have a card tournament to prepare for?" After scolding them, Silva left the room in a hurry.

"She's pretty mad today, she must be on her period." Neige knew his joke wasn't funny and just tried to relieve the tense atmosphere in the room. Sadly for him, Sepide looked at him with big eyes like she didn't understand a word of what he just said. Neige stared back at her, a bit disappointed "Kairo would have said something..." Neige let those words in the air before leaving, clearly annoyed that Sepide took the place of his old friend.

Sepide stood alone in the room for a few minutes, wondering to herself

"Period? Like the thing at the end of sentences?"