Suddenly, a soft white glow appeared, highlighting the creature's dead body and illuminating the soft yellow sand below.
The light grew brighter and brighter, fighting against the endless darkness that encapsulated the sky, until Free had to close his eyes completely.
Finally, white colored particles, made of the beast, ascended into the sky, like millions of fireflies flying upward into the air.
The particles drifted up, spiraling into the night sky in a double-helix shape, and, bit by bit, they faded away while approaching the moon.
A couple of seconds later, the creature's corpse was completely gone, only leaving behind a small light orb in its place and plunging the desert back into the darkness.
Slowly, Free backed away from the two girls, stepping farther away from the village, while his gaze remained on the blonde-haired girl.
Eva... no, Evangel...who was she?
When Free had been placed in the orphanage at the age of ten, he hadn't attempted to make any social interactions, as all his attention had been placed on the outside world.
That was until...he thought he had found someone with a similar interest.
Someone with whom he could share the joys of exploration. Someone he could talk with and confide in whenever he found something interesting.
***
Sighing, Free leaned against the wall of the orphanage common room and discreetly pulled out his notebook.
Flipping through the countless scribbled pages, he found a blank one and immediately began jotting down the day's discoveries, drawing a map to document the areas he had visited.
"Is that...our town?"
Immediatly, the ten-year-old Free's arms leaped forward to cover his notebook from view as he stumbled back against the wall.
Slowly looking back up, Free was immediatly met with the two inquisitive light-blue eyes and an open mouth.
Free immediatly recognized her.
How could he not?
The girl who seemed to be friends with everyone...Evangel.
Waving her hands, the girl silently took two steps back and said with her cheeks flushing a light red.
"Oh no, I didn't mean to surprise you...that drawing just kind of looked like the desert around our town..."
Glancing at the illustration in his notebook, which was simply a bunch of dunes drawn to scale to resemble the area he had explored, Free paused before confusedly answering.
"You recognize this?"
The girl's light-blue eyes immediatly expanded, as she smiled and confidently responded.
"Those are the...dunes to the east of the village, right? Sliding down those dunes during the day is the best!"
Loosening his grip on the notebook, Free paused before confusedly questioning.
"Y-you went outside the village?"
Village elders and teachers strictly disallowed any child from leaving the village, so to see the girl admit to breaking the rules so brazenly surprised even Free.
Realizing what she had just said, Evangel leaned forward and placed a single finger over her tightly sealed lips while nervously glancing around at the other children.
Her eyes trembled as she managed to mutter out in between breaths, tears almost falling down from her eyes.
"D-don't say anything."
Seeing Evangel trembling, to the point of collapse, Free immediatly thrust forward his notebook and opened to a random page before hurriedly saying, losing his composure.
"L-look, I do it too! Now, I can't tell on you!"
"a-ah"
Letting out a sigh of relief, Evangel sat down, leaning against the wall next to Free, and silently looked at the ground.
However, in the next second, her head suddenly flicked to the right as she stared at Free's face and yelled, too excited to contain her voice.
"Wait!? You also go outside the vill-"
Reaching his hand left, Free placed his palm horizontally over her mouth, stopping her mid-sentence.
Looking at her like a madman with his eyes narrowed, Free angrily whispered.
"What are you doing!?"
Immediatly, all eyes in the room were on them, but not for the reason Free thought.
The other children were not staring at the two of them because of Evangel's loudness, but because of the fact that...they were together.
"What are they doing...?"
"Why is Evangel with him...?
However, Evangel didn't respond, even when faced with Free's furious expression.
Instead, her lips stretched apart, revealing her teeth, as she smiled and tilted her head right, looking up at Free.
"Tell me-! No, show me everything you've seen! What is the outside like!?"
Surprised at her sudden excitement, Free scooted right away from her; however, she followed while repeating like a machine.
"Show me! Show me!"
Noticing even more gazes and whispers around them, Free desperately glanced around before eventually saying.
"Here! If I show you the notebook, will you shut up!?"
Despite Free's clearly rude words, Evangel only got more excited, as her light-blue pupils rose to the top of her eyelids while she leaned down.
As her curly blonde hair brushed against Free's shoulders, he sighed and opened the notebook, starting from the first page.
"The dunes in this area are softer and sometimes red. Once I even found a massive bone here, so my theory is..."
...
...
...
*Ring~ring*
*Ring~ring*
As the bell rang, signifying the end of lunch, Free immediatly slammed shut his notebook and stood up.
At first, he had just planned to share one page, but somehow he had gotten dragged into explaining everything!
Every time he attempted to move, she would just follow him and scream, "Show me! Show me!"
Not wanting any attention on him, especially because he was planning on sneaking out of the orphanage tonight to go into the desert, Free sighed and accepted his fate.
However, as Free took a step forward, he felt a sudden tap on his shoulder.
"Tomorrow, you have to show me even more!"
Before he could respond, Evangel skipped away, rejoining the crowd of children in the common room, immediatly bombarded by questions.
"What was that, Evangel?"
"Were you helping him?"
However, ignoring all the voices around her, she suddenly flicked her head to the right, her blonde hair flying through the air, and made eye contact with him.
Raising her hand, she covered her own mouth with her palm horizontally, imitating Free's action from earlier.
Looks like I don't have to make sure she keeps the secret...
For some reason, as Free left the orphanage that night and sprinted into the desert, he felt this urge...to find something interesting.
Am I trying to impress her or explore!?