Adrienne couldn't decide whether it was a nightmare or real life sneaking up to her forced slumber. All she could remember was swimming in the river in the middle of the night, before something hard — a boulder? — sent her to unconsciousness. After that every thing was pitch black, until a low red flame hit the corner of her closed eye and she began to rise from slumber. 

Though her eyes were still adjusting to the light, she could see that beside her was Renee. Judging by the strong smell of menthol and coconut oil, she was making an herbal cure. When she turned her head toward the window, she saw Guelio and Juvena in a serious discussion, now and again pointing at her. She could not see any of the others so she rose up to sit down. While doing so, she could feel a piercing, splitting pain on the left side of her head. It was so bad that she let out a loud groan of pain

When Renee saw this, she urged: "No. No. Adrienne. Please do not!" 

Juvena and Guelio immediately ran towards Adrienne and helped her lie down again, while Renee applied the herbal liniment on the affected area. Adrienne felt the ointment burn on her skin, before the distension she could feel on her face slowly fade. They then elevated her head with one more pillow, to allow her to breathe easier, Renee said. After that, Juvena and Guelio stepped outside to leave the erstwhile herbolario, with her patient. The cold midsummer night breeze enveloped the two as they climbed down the nipa hut and onto the soil. 

After the incident had happened, Juvena brought all of them to a safe place across the river, near the shoreline, even carrying the unconscious Adrienne on her shoulders.

She brought them to her nondescript hut near the shoreline, where she was entirely isolated from civilization, save from the occasional coconut harvester and lost traveler. Juvena worried that Adrienne might drown herself with the water in her lungs, but luckily when Renee diagnosed her, she said that she was still breathing, meaning nothing constricted her breathing. Luckily, this meant that she would wake up on her own, and she needed to do was recuperate from crashing into a river boulder.

Juvena was anxious about the situation, but luckily conversation with Guelio and Rodrigo, her friends from the past, as well as Sanchez' trivial yet amusing insights stopped her from turning into a crackpot mess. The topics of discussion ranged from Guelio's "How can you swim that fast in that amount of time?" to Sanchez' "Is that a Colt Peacemaker? How did you even get those?"  The discussion was all about present things, what was relevant to events that had just happened. None of them were about catching up, about the past they abruptly left behind.

Juvena's line of thought was interrupted when Guelio spoke quietly, quieter than the waves. "It's been a long time, wasn't it?"

"What? Oh sorry, Guelio."

She paused. She hasn't said that name in a while. It felt distant.

"It has been a long time."

So long, in fact, that she hardly knew who she was talking to. She didn't know her friend — her best friend — anymore, no more than she knew a random stranger on the street.

Silence reigned as the water gushed onto the shoreline, and as the wind blew toward the mountainside. The moon was waning, while the stars twinkled brightly, watching them from a million miles away. The both of them stood there. Their emotions blazing, but with the words failing to come out from their mouths.

Juvena faltered for a moment, before speaking up again: "I still have your bracelet."

Guelio looked at her, like what she said was a surprise. In fact, it wasn't. Back when they were kids, Juvena would always pull a prank by stealing some of Guelio's valuables, like a locket with her mom and dad's signature or his silver bracelet, while he wasn't looking. Due to the unforeseen circumstances, he wasn't able to get the bracelet back from her, and it has haunted both of the them — Guelio with fear, Juvena with poignancy and regret — ever since. 

In fact, the entire thing was sad for both of them. They were, apart from Guelio and Rodrigo, the best of friends. When they were together, they were inseparable. Drawing, reading, philosophizing, debating were their main hobbies, and Guelio felt complete whenever she had her around. The same went for Juvena, who for so long was without a friend she could confide all her thoughts and secrets to. 

They were torn asunder, and now they're back together. But it feels more empty than both had hoped.

"Oh, you do?"

At that moment Guelio's face lightened up, with a small smile plastered on his face. Seeing Guelio's familiar dimples appear on his face, Juvena, too, shot a little smirk, before replying back.

"Yeah. It's a little rusty, bloodied and losing a few chains, but it's in the same condition as a decade ago."

"Just like you?", Guelio joked, before laughing.

Juvena sighed, before laughing and replying: "Bloodied? Yes. Losing a few chains? Well, I've been freed from years of pain since I left this country anyway. But never rusty, Guelio. I can still beat your ass."

"Say that to my face Shokobutsu! I've mastered the craft of fencing and shooting in Spain while studying for a batsilyer, and I've gotten into a couple of bar fights. Don't think I can't handle your tenacity, hermana."

"Say that to my face Anagolay! I've been able to travel the entirety of Europe anyway. And even if I didn't study, at least I was able to get a social life. What have you been up to? Did you get laid with a book again?"

They both erupted in laughter, slapping each other lightly as the roars of their joy resounded on the silent shore. When the laughter died down, they both looked at each other again without anymore hesitation. Hazel and azure eyes staring back at each other, the deep pools of a forlorn past suddenly coming back to the present reality. Within these pools, a soul of a messenger whose bloodline has forsaken her reunites with a soul in revolution trying to manifest itself onto the broken world. Souls, so fractured, yet still a reflection of an innocent past, tied together by red string and the heart burning to find what has been deprived of for so long. Each other. 

Because they were more than childhood friends, more than pen pals, and more than what the universes can see. They are disciples of Plato, if not in Form, but in amour. Their souls are no more than just one. 

"Are you trying to make this moment both poetic and philosophical, Guelio? Because as much as I would like you to discuss about it, this would take hours, and you know, my sister is inside with a head sprain."

"And, you've ruined the moment. Gracias, Binibini."

Guelio replied before chuckling. They both turned back toward the hut, walking slowly as if to savor the cool midsummer night air that is a comfort after a day of the sun shining and burning their necks. Before they reached the ladder, however, Juvena held Guelio's hand.

"I've missed you, Elyong."

Guelio didn't speak for a moment, he was dumbstruck. But eventually he said: "You, too, Juvena. You too."

Both of them held back their tears, as they reunited, after the longest time.

"Thank God, you're back." "We're one again."