He doesn’t like that either and he’s at a loss about how to fix it. Azure doesn’t speak a single word to him, he only knows they're leaving when Azure hugs the two sisters goodbye and walks out the door. They give him an unwanted sympathetic look as he dashes for his bag before he’s left behind.
He catches up to Azure on the train platform and the other male barely spares him a glance, staring studiously at the display for arriving trains. It’s strange, he had thought standing up for himself would make him feel more confident as if they were on an even playing field now. Instead, he just feels regret for making himself hated by the only person he’s got. Maybe Azure was right, repressing his feelings does make everything worse when they eventually break free.
It’s a silent three hours on the train to their destination. He’s never been the best at starting conversations and now doesn’t seem like the time to learn.
They get off at a stop in what looks like the middle of nowhere, the last station on the line. There are tracks continuing past the station, but instead of moving forward, the train reverses, going back the way it came.
The train stop is abandoned, a single ticket machine and nothing else except vines reclaiming the small stop. Ocher glances around at the trees and overgrown grass surrounding them while Azure stomps off, carefully sticking to the path where the grass has already been flattened. Without any other choice, he follows.
The further they get from the train stop, the more ill at ease he starts to feel. Something about this place gives him goosebumps, almost like he’s an intruder and unwanted here. He doesn’t believe in negative energy, but this place feels overwhelmingly unwelcoming and every little noise makes him flinch.
They walk past more trampled grass and his instincts tell him that they're far too exposed in this location. They could be surrounded in seconds without any chance of escape. Still, Azure continues on, following some path only he can see into a denser forest.
Even in the forest, he still feels exposed. There are trees, but all with withering branches that don’t provide much cover, and it’s far too quiet, not even the rustle of animals on the ground or the sound of birds chirping. Silent except for their own footsteps crushing leaves underfoot. It’s unsettling.
The forest eventually opens into what looks to be the ruins of an older town. He can still make out vague remnants of uniquely curling architecture, although a majority of the buildings have been destroyed and already nature is reclaiming its land. He wonders if this is what Irisa’s hometown will eventually become.
Azure stops in the middle of a wide grassy area surrounded by cracked stone benches. He smiles a little, “Everyone used to bring pillows to sit on because the adults never thought it was worth upgrading perfectly good seats.”
Ocher looks around the derelict town, there are no bodies, but this looks like a place where people come to die. The literal end of the line.
At that thought, he begins to panic a little. He’s not under the impression that anyone would miss him, but this still looks like the perfect place to dump a body. A decrepit town miles past the last train stop, no one would find him here.
Instinctively, Ocher moves into a defensive position. If he’s going to die here, it won’t be without a fight. “Where are we, Azure?”
“My old town where I was born, Ustrina,” he answers shortly.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anything here.”
“That’s because it’s dangerous and its been declared off limits, perfect for degenerates. Maybe you’ll find the place you belong here with the other cast offs.”
Ocher looks to him with narrowed eyes, there’s a faint curl of regret at being pushed away and that it’s come to this. He shoves it aside in place of anger. ”I’m the degenerate? You’re the one who dragged us to this dead town when you have a perfectly good home.”
“Maybe I knew you’d follow and this was the perfect place for me to leave you since you tried to kill me last night,” he answers nonchalantly, pushing Ocher aside.
So, they had similar thoughts then.
Ocher grabs Azure’s arm and yanks him back, “I didn’t try to kill you! You had no right to knock me out like that!”
“Is this your way of pleading for your life?” Azure shakes him off and gives him a hard shove backwards. “Then keep yourself under control! We should have been here yesterday, but you wanted to start a fight with some guy who doesn’t even matter! Should I have let you beat him to death? Because it didn’t look like you were gonna let him go anytime soon!”
“I wouldn’t have killed him! He shouldn’t have said that!”
“Oh come on,” Azure rolls his eyes. “Like no one’s ever talked about you before. You’re such a sulky ass, I can’t imagine why you were so alone.”
He flushes red, “And now I don’t have to let anyone talk about me like that.”
“There’s a time and a place.”
“It was fine, he wasn’t going to do anything. He barely even put up a fight.”
“That’s because you’re a trained soldier, Ocher. He was a sea worker. It was an unfair fight from the beginning and you knew it.”
“Then maybe he should have kept his mouth shut and maybe you shouldn’t have treated him like shit because we all know that his problem with me is you.”
Azure opens his mouth to respond then pauses, his body slowly tensing as he glances past him. At the same moment, Ocher hears the crack of a branch nearby, alerting him that they’re not alone. He slowly turns, putting his back to Azure’s and sees the group of people slowly advancing towards them with a variety of makeshift weapons.
They all look malnourished, but still ready for a fight. Without letting them out of sight, Ocher tilts his head towards Azure, “These aren’t the remaining members of your family, right?”
“No, they’re degenerates, just like you.”
“Maybe we should leave?”
Azure shakes his head, “No, I need something from here and they can’t make me leave. They’re technically the trespassers.”
“Azure, I think to them we’re the trespassers. They live here.”
“Don’t care, Ocher. We’ll kill them if we have to.”
“And if they’re trying to live in peace?”
“Then that’s fine, they let us go through and we won’t have a problem.”
They stop as one about ten feet away, ringing them in, as one boy who still looks to be in his teens steps forward, “This place is off limits.”
“That’s fine,” Azure calls back. “We just need to retrieve something and we’ll be on our way.”
“There’s nothing for you here, everything here belongs to us and we’re not sharing.”
Azure sighs, “Considering this place is off limits and you just decided to take over, you have no idea what’s here. This isn’t a compromise.”
“Azure, don’t aggravate them,” Ocher whispers angrily. “We’re outnumbered.” Basic defense strategy, don’t antagonize when your chances of losing are high.
“Are you that useless?”
“No, but there’s like twenty of them.”