==>Mari: Daydream about the past
You begrudgingly fly up to your little house, not wanting to think about what lied ahead. You haven't heard from or seen Molj in a while, and you wish you accepted his offer of letting you go along on this adventure. You sigh as you sit down. Yeah, you're worried about him, but he loves his adventures. You just hope he's okay.
You smile as you remember the first time you met.
You were a small little butterfly-person. Your parents both took good care of you and you went to school. When it was your first day of fourth grade, you walked into your classroom and were surprised at seeing a new face. He was introduced as Molj, a moth-person that migrated here. You smile at him as he takes a seat close to you, and he smiles brightly back.
During recess, the two of you introduced yourselves to each other and he started talking about adventures with you. The two of you decided to make an adventuring game during your recesses, and in the ones to come you'd get scolded by the teachers, some classmates mocking you, and some even wanting to join.
The ones that mocked the two of you were bullies that Molj often dealt with. They didn't like how he was a moth, since most of the school was compromised of butterflies. They joked about how he was supposed to be nocturnal, but Molj usually never minded.
You remember when Molj first brought his bone helmet and let you try it on. You remember that you always sat next to each other in class and lunch. But neither of you invited the other to their house. You usually found time to play at school or afterwords at a park.
One day, a few years later, you made the mistake of telling your parents about your best friend, Molj, and how he was a moth.
"He's a what!?" you mother exclaimed. You look down at the table.
"A moth ..." you whisper, confused. Why was she angry?
"Honey, calm down," you hear your father say.
"How can I be calm!? My daughter is friends with one of those things! Those things that look like butterflies but aren't! They deceive you!"
"But he's a good moth ..." you try to explain.
"No moth is good!! I forbid you to see him or talk to him ever again! This might make us move!!"
You watch in the corner of your eye as your dad shakes his head. You close your eyes and want to say something to her, but you don't.
You walk to your room that night and your dad comes in after a while.
"Hun, I know your mom might be a little harsh, but she is just looking out for you."
"Why does she not like moths? Molj is a really good person ..."
"She ... had troubles with them when she was your age. She never liked them since."
You just sat in silence and nodded after a while. You hear your dad walk out from the room and you start to cry.
The next day at lunch, you tell Molj about it. He looked distraught and asks you why. You tell him what your dad said, and he just sighs and looks down.
"I know she had bad experiences, but that doesn't mean she can just ban you from seeing a friend!" he says.
"I know, but she probably won't change her mind," you say, tears in your eyes.
The two of you were silent after that. Now that you were older you didn't have recess, so there wasn't much to talk about or do after that. You sigh as you walk to your next class.
That weekend, you hear a knock on the door after breakfast. Your mother gets up to answer it and you hear her scream and the door bang closed.
"No! Go away!! Filthy moths!!!"
"Mother, what is it?" you ask. You hear a knock on the door again, more assertive this time.
"No, don't open that door!!!!" she yells at you, but you do anyway. "You bad child!!!!!" You don't pay any attention to her as you stare at the boy and his mom in front of you, your eyes almost welling with tears.
"Ma'am, may I have a word with you? Did you tell your daughter that she couldn't play with my son anymore?" Molj's mom asks.
"So what if I did!!!!! You moths are horrible!!!!!"
"Mother!" you say, though neither Molj, nor his mom really seemed to be phased by it.
"Mari's mom? I'm sorry to disturb you today, but I don't want to lose my best friend over race differences," Molj says in the most polite way I've ever seen him, and he bows. I looked at my mom, her eyes were wide. "I really like adventuring with Mari and I'd really miss that if I never got the chance to play with her again."
Your mom backed away from him mumbling things about "deceit and lies," "moths," "none can be like this," "he must be acting," and "how is he so polite."
My dad walked in a while after that and introduced himself and talked with Molj's mom for a while. Molj and I just stood there and smiled warily at each other.
"You'd miss me, huh?" you whisper and he laughed a little.
"Yeah, I'd miss you a lot." You smile wider at him. You hear your mother protest to your dad as he drags her in.
"Honey, she's a nice person. You just assume things before you get to know them."
"No, she's just acting!! Just like her son!!!"
"Man, your mom must have had a traumatizing experience if she's like this," Molj noted.
"Yeah ..." is all you can say.
"Ma'am, I'd like for you to know that neither my son nor I am like any other moths you have met. I would never lie to you or your family and neither would my son," you see Molj smiling wide when she says that and you stifle a laugh. "We are good people."
Your mom must have calmed down some after a while, because it took her a very long time to respond. You were getting impatient when you heard her say,
"If you're telling the truth ... I guess they can continue being friends, and if my husband says you're a good person, then you must be. I'm very sorry of the way I acted." You perk up and are very glad she was able to come to her senses. As a token of apology, they both ate supper with you that night and you and Molj played until it got too dark. That was probably the best day of your life.
The two of you have been inseparable ever since. Though he had gone back to his nocturnal ways (he always says he feels much better after doing so), and you have incorporated them into your schedule as well, and you really can't tell a difference.
Now it was much later, and you and Molj are fresh out of high school. You still had many adventures and loved to go on them, though now they are real ones instead of made-up ones. The two of you are roommates and you actually get a lot of money from these adventures, especially when there's bounty involved. You normally work together, but you had gotten sick - though you are now over it - the day before he was about to take off.
You remember you asked him once, "What are you going to do after school?"
He answered, "Adventuring, duh! We can make a job out of it!!" and he handed you bounty papers he had been researching, among other things.
And you did, and you'll never regret it. And you bet you will never be the same again.
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