I tried to quickly analyze my sickle, to see if there was anything different about it. Didn't seem to be anything new, or, at least, not anything obvious, fortunately. 

I looked back up at the green dude, who was still looking down at the sickle.

"W-weird, huh?" I said, trying to play it off but not doing very well.

Green dude opened his mouth, seemingly with intent to speak, but instead just kinda held it there for a while, instead of actually speaking. He briefly peeked over at Sis, who was staring down at her fishing line, which was once again in the water. 

She turned to us after a moment, and, with a blank look on her face, pointed a quick finger guns at us, and turned away.

I had NO idea what to make of that. Whatsoever. What the heck. 

"Ah... Ahem." The green dude began. "ForgiveMeStranger......ButIHaveOneLast......Thing......IHadNearlyForgotten." He said, briefly glancing at my sickle. 

"Oh, uh, shoot. Again." I said.

"YourMagicIs......UnlikeAnyOtherIHave......SeenBefore......"

"O-oh. C-cool. " 

"Indeed......MostCurrious......" He said. He looked up, and off to the sky behind me as he finished saying that. 

Please don't ask any more than that please dont ask any more than that please dont ask any more than that-

Abruptly, the green dude began walking away, back towards Basenholm from whence he came. "We'llTalkAgainSometime......I'mSure......Stranger." He said as he walked.  

"Uh, yeah." I said as he walked, though I'm not sure he heard me. 

And, just like that, he was done. 

Man, that guy really likes to end conversations with vaguely threatening invitations to future interactions. At least, he's done that on the 2 occasions that I've talked to him. Which, granted, isn't that many, but, regardless it's kind of a weird thing to do. I can't say it isn't cool, though. He does it well. 

Well, I'm quite glad he didn't inquire any further about my magic, though the fact that he mentioned it at all was a little unnerving, in and of itself. Plus, as he left, I got the feeling that he had more to say. I guess I'll find out about that when 'sometime' rolls around. 

Regardless, I oughta thank Sis for her help. I'm pretty sure she's the reason that greenie left when he did. 

I looked over at Sis, who was reeling in another fish.

And I thought about that look on her face.

I mentioned this before, but the face she made was one I'd seen on a couple other occasions. Generally right after someone got done telling me something important to them, or something sad, or angry, or any burst of emotion, really. They would say their piece, or, at least, most of it, and then look up at my face and see, well, my face, and... They make that face.

Now, I like to think that despite some obvious limitations, I'm just as good at empathizing with others as anyone else. Well, sometimes, anyways. So long as I'm not, like, distracted. But, occasionally, despite however good I actually am in practice, it gets a little... Awkward, I guess. I mean, who wants to confide in a statue, y'know? That's the kind of face they make. 

Actually, I did know a couple people who did like the whole statue thing. Think it set them at ease, or something. Still pretty awkward, though, 'cus I had to, like, stare at them silently while they were talking about whatever. Very weird feeling.

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that things tend to get a little awkward around me when heavy emotion is involved, because I always seem like I don't really care. And, in truth, sometimes I kinda don't. Generally, after the first awkward encounter, that sort of thing gets avoided entirely, going forward. 

Anyways, focusing on the present, I wonder, would it be better if I just didn't bring anything up, and we just, like kept going, business as usual?  I'm not really sure how much weight I should be giving this situation. I mean, I don't really know what she's thinking right now, and, in the first place, I don't really know her all that well yet. I mean, we've chatted a good bit today, but there are some things that you only learn about a person with time, y'know? Probably. I don't really know if that's true, but it sounds smart, so-

"Man, what a weirdo." Sis said, very frankly, derailing my train of thought, and throwing a fish she'd caught back into the water. 

"Oh, uh, yeah. I guess." I said, taking a second to collect my thoughts once more. "Uh, you're talking about the green guy, right?"

"Yeah, though, I could say the same about you." She said, letting out a casual chuckle.

I chuckled along awkwardly, as I didn't really know what to say to that. 

. . .

I should probably say something.

"Uh, S-sorry." I said. A good default response, I think. You can get out of a lot of stuff just by saying 'sorry' when you can't think of anything else to say. 

"About what? Your face?" Sis said, kinda jokingly. 

"Uhhhhhh... Probably? "

She sighed, lightly, and looked over at me. "Don't be. I don't really care."

'I don't care' could mean a lot of things, but, given the look on her face, I think she meant it sincerely. Maybe. Probably. Hard to say.  

"To put it simply, you're gonna die soon. I'll think about crap like that after you die." She explained. 

"Uh..." I said, for the 3rd sentence in a row. In fairness, pretty hard to respond to that last thing. 

"Relative to me, of course."

"Right, yeah, yeah..."

She casted her line back into the river, and stared into the water once more.

"If you're gonna apologize for anything," She began. "Apologize for being a wuss."

Rude! "What's that s'possed to mean?"

"I mean that, whenever you're not stabbing people, you let them walk all over you." 

"Well... I don't really mind it when people walk all over me." I said.   

. . . "Probably could have worded that better."

"Yeah, I was thinking that too. Not my best work." 

"Yeah... Anyways, don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy to scream at the people you can't. I'm sure S feels similarly. That said, there will be times when we wont be there to back you up. You're gonna need to do something, when that happens." 

"... That's fair, I guess." I said.

Sis sighed.

"What'll happen if I don't?" I asked.

Sis paused for a moment, seemingly in thought about that.

"Dunno. But it'd probably be pretty irritating to watch."

"I see."  

. . .

Come to think of it, DYN2 told me something similar, didn't he? 

'Backbone', huh...

I couldn't help but think back to S and Catface. And how, perhaps, thing's might've gone just a little differently, if only...

Heh... Well, maybe not. 

. . .

I looked up at the clouds, and I thought about S, the mountains, and time gone by. 

And we sat there by the river for some time.