HALF: DEAD NOR ALIVE

Archie landed on top of the giant tree, and he looked down but saw nothing but flowers that were as tall as a tree. He was fascinated by the scenery but he came there not to sightseeing but to see the Adam.

Archie stealthily climbed down the tree while the wind witch observed his surroundings and gave him a third eye of the situation. He managed to land on the ground but it was just silence other than the sound of bugs and birds on the trees.

“This is making me nervous,” Archie mumbled under his breath as he looked around. “I don’t feel any presence of parasite around here. Where do you think they go?”

“I can’t feel anything as well, let me go and have a look,” The wind witch whispered into Archie’s ear and a gentle wind blew on his face.

Archie wandered around the big tree, he touched the grass and the flower, they all felt normal and the only difference was the size. He looked at the birds and saw they were ten times bigger than their original size, he was so confused by everything that was bigger than it should be.

While Archie was busy admiring the scenery, he felt a sudden presence right behind him and so he immediately turned around. He saw a man in a worn-out white shirt standing not far from him, he was surprised because he didn’t even sense the guy’s presence at all.

Before Archie could open his mouth, suddenly he could feel dozens of parasites staring at him from the trees. Something felt weird and Archie decided to take a few steps back but then he stepped on something and when he turned around, he saw a parasite was ready to gouge his eyes with its needle-like arm.

Archie dodged it and immediately tore the parasite in half then he threw the body away and immediately dozens of parasites appeared out of nowhere. He realized that it wasn’t because those parasites appeared so suddenly, but it was because of the flowers that made him hallucinate that he didn’t notice their presence.

“Welcome to my island,” The man said with his arms open while Archie was being attacked from all directions.

Archie didn’t have time to respond to the man because his life was depending on his strength.

“How strong, do you think you can handle all of them at once? Especially when all your senses are deceiving you?” The man said and then Archie suddenly couldn’t hear, feel, or see them again.

Archie looked around but they all disappeared again, and so he decided to run away from there because something was playing with his brain. But before he could leave the area, his body was being scratched and stabbed in all directions which annoyed him very much.

Archie swung his long claws around and he didn’t feel anything at all so he decided to spread his wings and flew up high from the forest.

“What’s happening down there?!” Archie asked as he looked at his body was covered with open wounds.

The wind witch appeared next to Archie. “I realized that the whole biome is being controlled and manipulated by him,” She said as she stared down. “Those flowers made you hallucinate and lost all your senses because of it. So, if you want to fight them, you have to get rid of those flowers first,”

“Are you sure? Do you think it’s because of the flowers?” Archie didn’t want to believe it immediately because he might be able to leave for the second time after the Adam knew he could fly.

“No, but it’s the only thing that came out from my mind,” The wind witch answered.

“It’s more than that I believe because how can a being like you who don’t even have a real physical body could be affected by it?” Archie said as he looked at her. “You went there yesterday, and it didn’t happen to you, so I believe the Adam was the one who did this, but I don’t know how he did it,” Archie explained as he kept staring down.

Archie could ask the wind witch to help him prove her theory by blowing and making havoc on the forest with her power, but the problem was she wasn’t allowed to interfere as well. She could only help by giving information and fighting the parasites other than the Adams.

“I can’t fight them like this, I need insurance for my own safety because those parasites are so smart that they could hit my weak spots,” Archie said as he looked at the island where he stayed the night last night. “I think it’s time for me to eat the dragon’s heart tissue because if the parasites alone were enough to threaten me, I don’t think I can fight him with just this,”

“It’s up to you, and if that’s what you want, I can protect you while you’re sleeping,” The wind witch replied.

“Yeah, I’m going to need your help for that,” Archie nodded his head in agreement. “Let’s leave then,”

Both Archie and the wind witch left the island.

Archie opened his backpack and grabbed the dragon’s heart tissue, he looked at it and hesitated to consume it. He looked at the wind witch and then he nodded his head and started chewing it, it tasted nothing and it was hard like a rubber that it made his jaw hurt from trying to chew it.

“Alright, I ate it,” Archie said as he felt the pieces of the tissue stuck on his throat and tried to push it down. “Now we are going to wait,” He looked at the wind witch.

“I will be here when you woke up,” The wind witch answered.

Archie stared at the sky and his body started to feel warm, the fever was kicking in so he immediately grabbed his backpack and used it as his pillow. It was just silence and his eyes started to feel heavy that he stopped trying to stay awake.

The wind witch stared at Archie falling asleep and then she looked at the island because she could feel the parasites roaming around the beach. When she planned on dealing with those parasites, she heard footsteps from the shore.

“I told him to not consume it yet, but he didn’t listen,” Eve said as she walked toward them.

The wind witch looked at Eve and she looked disappointed and worried at the same time. “He believes that it was the only option since he wasn’t confident with his current strength to fight him,” The wind witch explained.

“I know, I have been watching him from above,” Eve said as she sat down next to Archie with her wings folded on her back. “You can leave, you must be tired of using your human form. I will be taking care of Archie until he wakes up,”

“Eve, can I ask you something?” The wind witch asked as she looked at Eve with curiosity.

“Go ahead,” Eve said while she carefully lifted Archie’s head and put it on her lap.

“I have no idea about what’s really happening between you and the men that are chosen by them. I’m curious about how you feel about Archie,” The witch said.

“I feel comfortable and happy around him, he showed me the life that I have forgotten. He’s also depending on me in some aspect that makes me feel like I’m needed in his life, and that makes me really good about myself,” Eve answered as she gently stroke Archie’s hair because it gave her peace of mind.

“Are you not curious?” The witch suddenly asked a weird question that made Eve looked at her with a bit confused.

“Curious? About what?” Eve asked.

“Fate,” The wind witch answered. “Have you ever thought about it before that everything that happened was already planned? If that’s the case, don’t you think your fate has been written as well?”

“What makes you think that my fate has been written?” Eve asked back.

“I don’t know, maybe because I have been living all my life as a witch with no free will that I don’t even know if my life has any other purpose than this,” The wind witch answered as she stared blankly. “If you have no free will, then doesn’t that means they have planned everything and prevented you from doing things that might change the plan, and in this case your fate,”

Eve was a bit shocked because she didn’t realize that until the wind witch said that.

“I’m not saying that I hate it or complain about it because right now, I feel like I have a free will and I’m fine with what I have and what I’m doing,” The wind witch explained. “Don’t you think that you and Archie are really meant to be together that everything suddenly moved really quickly as if they had been waiting for this moment?”

Eve chuckled and then looked at the wind witch. “I never thought about that, but as you said earlier…”

“I’m fine with this even if that’s what they want,” Eve smiled as she looked at Archie.