He raised the hatchet and chopped a bamboo in two halves.
 
He took the bamboo and carried it on the front of the house. Ciara appeared on the doorway, holding her belly, she braced herself against the doorway. Nolan held her, supporting her as she walks to the rocking chair in front of the house. It was pointing the bamboo forest, not far from the chair was the river.
 
“Thank you,” she slowly slumps down on the chair. “My body is rather fragile, I’m trying my best here holding down my power to human levels.”
 
Nolan looked away, he was about to pat her back, but then went against it. He ambled to the bamboo pile, took the hatchet, and started cutting up the bamboos. The two was silent, among the only sound, the bamboo being chopped. Ciara rubbed her right hand on the handle of the chair, her eyes staring at the quaint village. After the river, there is irrigation that connects the river to the rice paddies.
 
“If this is your way of making me feel uneasy, then you are succeeding,” Ciara said. “What can I do? I lost control and you didn’t exactly resist. You must think that I’ve planned this. Did you really think that I was a celibate? Or did you forget that I am a woman?”
 
Nolan kept his silence. He steadily chopped the yellow bamboo and set them aside for the fireplace.
 
Ciara, who heard no reply, only shook her head, rubbing her belly.
 
Nolan, who was done placing yellow bamboo, took a stand near Ciara. He looked at her belly and clenched his jaw. He rubbed his head and glared at Ciara for a second.
 
“You are unfair.”
 
“I am? Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you want to kill me, not impregnate me.”
 
“I didn’t mean to.”
 
“Oh really?” She said. “The choking, the pulling of hair, the spanking? You didn’t mean that?”
 
“You were the one who started it!”
 
“Then resist harder! “
 
“You did this on purpose!”
 
“I didn’t! And I won’t refuse you!”
 
She glared at Nolan, fist clenched, and jaws tightened. “I only did it because I want to. I know that we have a problem, and I know that you are only doing all of this because of this belly. You would take responsibility, and I know you will.”
 
“You!”
 
“Then what do you think should I do?” She sneered. “I walked through the roads of the shadow of death. There I was, all alone with the man I love, and he didn’t resist. Do you think I could resist? That I would lose the chance?”
 
Her chest was heaving up and down. Nolan crossed his arms, shaking his head, looking up, “I can’t believe you. Is this how you solve things? If yes, then, congratulations, you succeed!”
 
“I wasn’t the one who didn’t want to pull out, and I wasn’t the person who wanted to continue till morning! You hate me, but you want to make love with me! Make up your mind!”
 
He pointed at her, “I refuse! No, you make up your mind. You wanted to die so much and now you are happily caressing your belly!”
 
“I changed my mind!”
 
“That easily?” He snorted. “Good for you!”
 
“I don’t have no right to die until I give birth to this child. Nolan, I know that you hate me for what I did, we’ve been betraying each other, tried killing each other, and have been through many years of oddness. Do you think I find joy in killing? I didn’t mean to kill that boy, I didn’t mean it. Please, don’t let me kill this one too, I beg of you. I don’t want to be a murderer of children. I don’t want to.”
 
Her body shook, and her chin was shaking. She was clenching her fist, she was staring with a sour look, and she couldn’t look Nolan in the eye. Nolan exhaled cold air, he punched the air, and said, “Damn it!”
 
He turned and grab the side of his head, “It’s always this way! You always find a way to worm your way out of the things that you have done! How many times I have forgiven you for the things that you have done! How many times did I make a fool of myself just for you! But I can’t find a reason to refuse you and I hate it!”
 
Ciara didn’t reply. Nolan clicked his tongue and sat cross-legged near Ciara. “Such toxicity, what a joke, why am I always stuck with you? If this was only before all of this happened, I would have been a happy man.”
 
“Would you?” Ciara asked. “If we didn’t fight, if you didn’t want to die that day, and if I didn’t murder your son. Would things be different?”
 
“Yes. I could have forgiven you for killing me that day, throwing my soul to the gateway. It allowed me to meet the Elior’s, and I was happy. I really was. But now, I’m stuck with you again, and I don’t know what to feel.”
 
“You didn’t speak for a month.”
 
“I was thinking.”
 
“For a month?”
 
“Yes. Leave me alone, I hate you.”
 
“I know,” Ciara said bitterly. “You’re only here for the child, I know that I’ve done things that are not right. But if you just let me make up.”
 
“Ciara,” he stopped her and looked at her sternly. “You’re a thousand years too late.”
 
“Please don’t abandon us, I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t have anyone. You are the only one in the multiples worlds that knows who I am. I’d rather be killed by you than lost you again. I rather die than have you abandon me after so long. Please don’t leave us alone.”
 
She emphasized on the child and her. Ciara was doing her best to keep Nolan’s leash. Nolan knows what she was doing and he could leave for the road. Yet he allowed Ciara to put a leash on him, and he was at fault. He made a mistake and he did it because of grief. Fury would rise inside of him, but the sight of her belly made Nolan weak.