Please Don't Refuse

Nala wakes up from sleep with a sweaty body. She massages her forehead while Nala still smells the chocolate again, Nala pulls the end of her blanket for her to stick to her nose. She inhaled deeply as if that was his focus in breathing.

"Enjoying something, eh?" Nala freezes as if she's down to doing something that's right, but Nala won't admit it.

Nala's cheek catches fire when Daniel catches her kissing the blanket unnaturally. Nala immediately let go as if nothing had happened.

"He didn't do anything with Nala?" asked Daniel who Nala understood who he meant.

Nala shook her head, she grabbed her blanket. Nala suddenly worries about what happens after she loses consciousness. "Where's Raymond, Daniel?"

Daniel looked at Nala with his eyes squinting. He was on one part of his leg with both hands folded in front of his chest. "For a while, I locked him in a warehouse. Nala, obviously he's not human. He could have been planning evil, right. We don't know what the purpose is to come here."

"I know. But somehow I believe he won't do anything bad." Nala got up to walk to the doorway.

"Still, you just met him not even three hours, and immediately trusted the stranger. I can't call it a man, with those black wings. Just feeling confident can't be the benchmark and feel safe, Nala. He's the man who suddenly went into your room, I wanted to call the police, but Dad forbade."

"Daniel, if Raymond does want to do evil. She can do it when Nala walks into the room and closes the door right away. But he didn't," Nala says reassuring Daniel. "And I believe because my heart and mind say it that way. That he's not a bad guy."

Daniel took a heavy breath. "I don't feel that way." While pointing his finger with a wound plaster. Daniel said, "Look, Nala. The fur is very sharp when I try to touch it."

Nala was flabbergasted, she shook a small one and slipped her hair behind her ears. "No, the fur is very fine. I touched that feather that fell to the floor."

"No way. I did it too." Nala knows her sister isn't lying but the fur is really smooth until Nala wants to touch her directly.

"Later, Daniel. I want to see Raymond first."

"Like Father and Mother, you're too quick to believe," murmurs Daniel. "The man was not forbidden to cry, but he continued to cry loudly because of that I locked him in the barn. If anything happens, Nala immediately screams."

Nala nodded before she came out of her room, Daniel again speaking. "Mom and Dad are going to buy him something he can wear."

Nala's chest is warming up.

***

Nala knocks on the barn door, and she doesn't think Daniel didn't lock it. Only the dim yellow light of the old light bulb, quite illuminating where Raymond is.

There, in the corner of the room that wasn't in the stuff, Raymond was curled up hugging his knees. He has now worn one of Daniel's oversized T-shirts. Raymond is slightly taller than Nala and shorter than Daniel.

Nala inevitably feels sorry for him. Not knowing how old Raymond is, he may have a bit of a 'nuisance'. There was nothing in Nala's mind to expel her from the beginning when she saw Raymond.

Nala crouched next to Raymond, she didn't say anything. Raymond likes to know Nala's presence, he looks up and looks up at Nala.

"Nala?" he called.

As Nala meets Raymond's different beads, Nala falls silent. Raymond's golden left eye shines in a dimly lit room. Glowing on the surface next to his cheeks with a soft golden glow. Raymond's stare was full of questions painted on his face, as the thick eyebrows sank behind his wild hair bangs.

He's not human, it's all inhumane. Including his inhumane face, Nala's cheeks felt burned until she had to turn her eyes. Nala rubbed her nose and asked, "Why did you get in my room?"

Raymond's long fingers danced to draw an imaginary shape on the dusty floor. "In Ray's place before. Ray's not wanted. They call Ray a crippled elf, then Nala asks for a plea, and Ray is sent here or they dump Ray. Ray doesn't know," he said, as his voice grew louder.

Nala's eyelids flicker with a wrinkled forehead. She looked back at Raymond, his glowing eyes had been wet with a flushed nose. "What do you mean by a deformed elf? That's a bad word."

"I don't know Nala," he says desperately, drowning his face in the folds of his hand.

Nala's eyes immediately widen when she realizes. "Elf? Is that an elf?"

"The elf is Ray and everyone who lives in the middle world," he says muffled.

The middle world? Nala doesn't understand at all. Perhaps, although explained Nala still does not understand.

"How old are you?"

"It's only been fifty years, Nala. I was very young."

Nala chokes on her saliva, she drops her long hair bangs behind her ears. She cringed. Fifty years old, he calls new and very young?

Nala did not respond with words she instead asked something else. "Raymond, can your wings make you fly?"

Raymond hasn't even answered it yet but Nala is hit by the smell of thick chocolate again, this time stronger than before. As she wraps around Nala tightly, Nala even has to remind herself to breathe.

"You mentioned Ray's name, Nala?" he asked enthusiastically with sparkling eyes and raised thick eyebrows.

"Yes, so can your wings make you fly?" asked Nala, sliding a little bit of her body away from Raymond.

Raymond's smile faded, he shook his head quietly. "No, it's just decoration. Only Ray is like this. If Ray is a complete elf Ray can use it to fly but this is not, because it is not strong to lift Ray's body."

Nala licks her dry lips and breathes deeply as she knows the scent is fading slowly.

Nala pulls out her conversation when she finds out Raymond doesn't like it. "I was wondering, did you come indeed to look after me?"

Raymond shifts his body to face Nala. Stare right into Nala's bead without blinking. "That's right, Nala. You have me. Although this is a consequence of Ray having half-human blood. But Ray's happy because it's Nala," he said.

Ray groped his chest, then continued. "Here is a sign of ownership that already existed when Ray was born. Since Ray is half-human, Ray's owner can have Ray and do whatever he wants but Ray can't have one."

Raymond's golden eyes fade, only dark eyeballs can be seen by Nala. Nala doesn't understand what 'having' means and that sign, all new to Nala. Raymond remains a stranger, who hasn't even had a day at his house.

"What if I don't want to have you and I reject you?" asked Nala seriously.

Raymond was stated, his head shook a little and then the corner of his lips came down. "Ray's going to die."

Thank you for reading..