Three Hounds

Chapter Two: Prosperity to Decay (Acts 4-6)

Act IV
     
    
 

     On the other side we come out, only to look down and see Matthew with his eyes completely shut, as tight as he can manage. "Open your eyes, Matthew." I tell him, and he does so very slowly. The sight he sees is one I've been greeted with many times before; a land that's a jarring opposite to mine: beautiful trees with lush green leaves, some others pink with sakura; and next to the lots of trees, accompanying them at the bottom, are bushes grown full with blueberries and strawberries, and figs and plums, all of them delicious; and many, many more plants mature with healthy vegetables and fruits.
     "Whoa..." Matthew whispers to himself, his mouth hanging open in astonishment at the sight that graced his eyes. "Your sister lives here?" He walks over to one of the nearby bushes that bore fruit, and reached his hands to pluck a strawberry from it.
     "No!" I yell at him, and he flinches. "If you wish to eat from my sister's garden, you are to ask her for permission, not just grab and take as you please! Show respect to the land you walk on." I finish scolding him, waiting for his response. His eyes dart to his feet—likely in embarrassment, I'm sure—and he backs away from the fruit, then walks back to my side.
     "Sorry..."
     I sigh. "It's fine, you're just a child, but think before you act. And don't eat anything here unless my sister says so."
  
  
  
     After a few quiet minutes of wandering through The Orchard, Matthew and I hear a faint humming in the distance, one so silky and angelic that it would put even the most restless of minds at ease. Life is, indeed, blessed with every beauty known and unknown in all realities, across all worlds in all galaxies, and across space and time in the infinite cosmos. She does not boast or brag about her beauty, but remains humble and soft-spoken and loving to every creature that she has breathed life into.
    As we approach her humming, we hear Life beginning to sing the lyrics of whatever song that's landed itself in her mind:
  

"When the shadows of this life have gone,
I'll fly away
Like a bird from these prison walls I'll fly,
I'll fly away"
  

     I remain quiet, both outwardly and in mind... Oh, Life... Melancholy plagues your heart once again, doesn't it? After I'm done with Matthew, I'll have to talk with her. "Life!" I call out to her. "Where are you?!"
     The voice of my sister called back. "Over here! You'll hafta come to me; I'm workin' right now! Important work!"
     And so I lead the way towards her voice, and past a few shrubs and trees, there she sits, tending to the soil in front of her. I see Matthew stand on the tips of his toes to try and peak at what's in the soil, then I look as well: She's cupping her hands and pushing earth into a small pile, then she shapes it into the form of a human infant and finally clasps a palm over the whole thing slowly and carefully to establish its form. Next to her lays a small pouch, she reaches in and out of it pulls a seed (about the size of a mustard seed, maybe larger), and places it into the chest of the soil infant. Next she plucks a strawberry from a nearby shrub and chews it until it becomes a smooth juice with the help of her saliva (which contains a special power to nearly completely dissolve whatever mixes with it), then spits it out onto the heart of the soil infant. Life looks at me, then at Matthew and smiles, then takes a pomegranate and breaks it open in two, and squeezes the seeds onto the soil infant. She then buries all of it under special soil, and leaves it. "And that's it!" She gets up and finally greets us properly.
     I let go of Matthew's hand and go to hug her. "It's good to see you, Life... It's been far too long." I embrace her tighter to try to preserve some of her warmth on my fur, even if just for a little while. I sigh.
     Life lets out a hearty laugh. "Don't worry about it! We've both been busy, it's none'a our faults." She squeezes me back, the feeling akin to that of a blanket left out in the sun being wrapped around me. She takes notice of Matthew looking onward at us, his eyes apparently lit up in curiosity, and grins sweetly at him. Life lets go of me and approaches him happily. "And who's this little one, hm?" She lowers herself to his level.
     Matthew looked taken aback by my sister's beauty, so much so that he didn't immediately respond to her, and no one could blame him if they saw her as well. Her figure is healthy and not terribly skinny or even slightly fat, and she's just as tall as me; her fur practically glows with how healthy it is, and how fluffy it is, and it wasn't too long or short either, just perfect at medium length; even her eyes, which glows like refined amethyst, could put any ordinary man under a spell. Generally, her features are much softer than mine, and far more welcoming at that. Even Life's hair, which is messy according to her, found a way to make its unruly form perfect and gorgeous. About three seconds have passed, and still Matthew is speechless to Life. "Yoo-hoooo? The lights still on in there, boy?" She waves her hand past his face.
     "Uh, y-y-yeah. Sorry." He scratches his hair nervously.
     Life still smiles at him, her tail still wags happily. "What's yer name, kid?"
     "I-It's, uh, Matthew. My na-nuh-name is Matthew, ma'am... Miss... Whatever...?" His stutter ticks up a notch or two when talking to her. He'll get used to her though, like he did with me.
     "Well, Matthew, you hungry at all?" She tilts her head, possibly trying to get a giggle out of him.
     "Uh, y-yeah, but, she told me to ask you for permission first before eating anything," he points straight at me when he speaks, "so... May I h-have an apple or so-something, please?"
     Life giggles and looks at me. "Sorry, she takes stuff like that too seriously. Anytime you're here, you go right ahead and take yourself some food, I don't mind none." She stands up and takes an apple from her basket, which sat nearby during her ritual, then hands it over to Matthew while keeping her friendly expression. Matthew thanks her and takes a bite out of the apple, a bite that was much more than he could handle. After he swallows the large bite, he looks at Life and asks her: "Are you t-two really sisters? You don't look anything alike." He steps back to have a fuller view of us, to compare and contrast us.
     I look at Life and nod at her, letting her handle the answer. "Yessir, we are! This one," she puts a hand on my shoulder and starts rocking me back and forth, "she might look scary and act strange, but at her core she's a big ol' softie! Trust me, I've known her for trillions of years." She ruffles the fur on top of my head, then I shoo her hand away and fix my hair. "Say, you wanna hear a story, kid?" She asks, but doesn't wait even three seconds for Matthew's response. "Waayyyyy back, just a few years after our 'birth', I reckon you could call it, Death comes to me with a baby in her arms. It was the very first child soul she'd ever had to take care of; poor thing, both the baby and my sister. Heck, when she came to me, the baby was hollerin' and wailin', and... she was shaking. Gosh... Death was scared to bits! She didn't know what to do. I don't blame her, still don't.
     "But, anyway, me being the one who created the baby in the first place, I already knew how to take care of it. So I did, and got the baby to fall asleep, and she took it... Ha! Death was scared of babies for the longest time afterward, haha!" She looks back at me and laughs, then ruffles my hair again. I don't bother fixing it this time, hm...! She's not the best at making any story particular exciting, but I still enjoy hearing them from her; she has a good voice that can make any story sound beautiful.
     "You were actually scared of babies?" Matthew asks me while smiling to himself.
     "Yes," I answer, "I was, and still am to a degree." I walk past Matthew and Life and start my trek towards my favorite location in The Orchard. The Fountain of Youth, as I like to call it. Life recognizes my goal immediately and begins walking alongside me, and clueless Matthew follows too.