“Ori!”
Unen’s voice briefly distracted the two masked men standing counter to Ori. Without a moment’s delay, Ori pulled something emitting a faint light from his pocket. He held it to his lips, and an alarmingly shrill sound echoed through the streets.
Ori blew on the silver whistle again, and thundering footsteps simultaneously ran to him from behind.
“Unen?! Is that you, Unen?! Where are you, Unen?!” Irena’s bloodcurdling shouts accompanied the noise.
The two masked men loudly cursed, turned around, and ran away at full speed.
Ori sighed and sheathed his sword once he confirmed the men were out of sight.
“Unen! You scared me to death because you suddenly up and vanished! What in the blazes happened?! And why are you here?” Irena ran over to them panting, looked from Unen to Ori, and then rained a tirade of questions on them.
In the meantime, Turek rushed down the byroad from a side alleyway and asked the same, “What happened?!” with a blue face.
Unen slowly rose to her feet, taking care to hide the dull pain screaming from all over her body. “My mouth was suddenly covered from behind and I was dragged away.”
“What?!”
Irena and Turek’s expressions instantly changed color. They hadn’t realized Unen was kidnapped after all.
“Ori saved me after they shoved me in this bag and carried me here. Right?” Unen looked up at the man beside her.
“Yeah,” he responded with indifference.
“Uh? What? Did you follow us here?” Irena pressed with a cocked eyebrow.
Ori gruffly responded with, “I just happened to be passing by.”
“HUUUUHH?!” Irena and Turek yelled in unison, their eyes bulging at the ridiculousness of his statement.
“You just happened to pass by? When we’re in such a huge city?!” Irena demanded.
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t it more like…you were acting on someone’s orders...?” she asked.
“It’s a coincidence.”
Faced with Ori’s perfect poker face, Irena and Turek grudgingly held their tongue as they kept their skeptical gaze trained on him. A laugh unconsciously slipped from Unen.
Once she started laughing, the wave of relief shook her with more and more laughter. Before long, she was doubled over holding her sides laughing hysterically.
“…You okay?”
She heard Ori’s worried voice, but she couldn’t reply through her laughing fit.
Even after wringing all the air out of her lungs, Unen still couldn’t stop the shaking in her stomach. Not even after her throat was whistling, dried out by the continual guttural sounds, did it stop from sucking air back down to laugh some more. Hearing the cachinnation as if it belonged to someone else, Unen’s chest swelled and deflated like a pair of bellows tied to a waterwheel. Over and over again, her body was wracked with laughter, without ceasing.
Irena’s boot appeared in Unen’s view of the ground. Pulling Unen to her chest, Irena wrapped her arms around her and patted her back.
“You must’ve been so scared. But it’s okay now. You’re okay now.”
Irena’s gentle voice fell on Unen, and with it, a sudden understanding.
Ah, so that’s it. I was scared. I was really, really scared.
When her sight and mobility had been stolen from her, and she had been on the verge of being carried off to who knows where, some part of her believed that she’d never be able to return ever again. Unen struggled so hard because she was desperately, frantically, fighting against that dreadful fate, not just because she hoped someone would help her.
Irena’s body warmth slowly melted away the tension in Unen’s muscles. The traces of fear that drove her to insane laughter withdrew at last.
“I’m sorry for putting you in such a scary position,” Ori muttered in a pained voice, after confirming Unen had calmed down.
Unen carefully scrutinized his face for an entire minute before she shook her head. “Don’t be. I’m really grateful you saved me.”
Ori winced as if he’d been smacked in the gut with something unexpected. Then, furrowing his brow, he averted his gaze away from her.