Echo grimaced for a moment at that answer, looking down at the ground, focusing her eyes on the rather dull-looking grass. Her hands were slightly shaking. Echo kicked a nearby rock, watching it tumble away into the dull grass. The slightly distressed emotion on her face lingered until she spoke again, her tone flat. 

"No... no reason... It's... nothin'..." 
 

"That's... definitely sarcasm..." 

Echo scratched at the inside of her elbows. 

"N-no, no I don't." 

 

Echo looked away, noticing how easy it would be to stab the other and hating herself for noticing it. Her hands started to tremble harder. She gripped onto her forearms. 

Time could probably notice that she looked a bit pale, like when she was poisoned. She most definitely needed sleep, the bag under her visble eye dark, as well as her eye white red in irritation, probably from rubbing her eyes too much to keep herself awake. 

"Noth... I'm not... I'm not nervous! Just..." 

Echo shook her head, looking down at her arms. Tears had formed in her eye. 

"...Just..." 

Echo suddenly bolted forward onto her feet, a polished blade stopping close to Time's chest. Echo had closed her eyes, her face crumpled in torment. Her hand holding the summoned knife shook violently, just like how her voice did when she spoke. Echo sounded real close to breaking down into anguished sobs. 

"...Just go... go away! Go away before... please... Please go away!" 

There was both pleading and warning in her tone. Echo truly didn't want to hurt Time. She said she would care about him, right? Hurting him was not part that. Echo just wanted a friend, just one friend. Maybe Time didn't think of her in the same light, maybe it was asking for too much. But Echo had committed to establishing a friendship, and stupidly she had gotten her hopes up. 

Just a small thing was too much to even imagine, wasn't it? Friendship? 

"...She..." Echo wasn't able to choke out any other words than that. "She..." 

Echo didn't say anything for a few heartbeats, her body still. 

Her hand stopped shaking, her hair darkened into a black and white ombre. There was a slight turn of her body, looking behind her for Time as she spoke. Her visble eye looked identical to the concealed eye, minus the horrible scratches and scarring. 

"Wouldn't broad daylight be much more interesting time? The risk, my impatience, the plan... it all adds up for a more wonderful experience, doesn't it? Or are you boring?" 

The voice wasn't timid or soft like Echo's. It sounded stronger, almost harsh. It's pitch was a bit higher than Echo's, but it seemed to almost sound like a constant sing-song as it dropped and raised with each word. She moved her hands as she talked. 

"Gods, I hate people like you. Ya take the fun out of the scene with your stupid magic. What a buzz kill! This is where you're suppose to totally be surprised, ya know?!" 

"Huuuuh? Man, if Echo didn't fight so much against me then I would have been so much more of a surprise! It would have been so much cooler! Oh well," Octave shrugged, fully facing Time. "Cool book. I wonder how long it'll protect you from being ripped into tiny shreds of meat? Hm?" 

Octave wasn't making a move. Instead, she was watching Time, trying to get some kind of reaction or emotion from him. She smiled, but it wasn't the polite, awkward, and shy type of smile Echo had. Arrogant would have been an understatement, and it looked more than annoying. 

"Introductions? Man, dude, you really are bad at reading the air. Fine. I'll tell you my name, but it won't matter later, haha! It's Octave!" 

Octave threw the knife and another one, aiming at Time's head and neck. The two knives were both aimed to kill. 

Octave was pretty fast on her feet, dodging and spinning while complaining. 

"You aren't suppose to fight back!" Octave stomped her foot on the ground, black crystal spikes shooting up and tearing through the dirt, heading towards Time's direction. 

"My, my, how creative." 

Octave moved out of the way, watching the grass and earth to see if it would continue trying to latch onto her. 

Octave heard it coming and dodged the wind, but accidentally let the ground attach itself to her foot. Octave tried kicking her foot away from it. 

Octave in response brought a hand up, creating a shield of some type of dark energy to reflect the sphere or to at least weaken it. The grass and earth that was connected to Octave was starting to turn into a more grey colouring, like Octave was leeching life energy from where she stood and was stuck, but the earth most definitely had a good hold on her. 

"You're totally annoying. Ugh, how did Echo put up with you? Total. Buzzkill." 

More like Octave was being annoying rather than Time. 

The shield broke apart and Octave twisted her body to dodge the sphere, suddenly disappeared. 

She reappeared right in front of Time, seeming a but out of breath. She glared straight into his eyes. 

"You're tricky, aren't you. What kind of magic is in there?" 

Octave tried to grab the book from Time.