~Io~
I walked over to where Asuka was standing still an animal. I knew she was hiding something. Seth was still with Kovu, it was easy to see that they had become attached to each other.
If Kovu hangs around Seth much more, I thought, He'll have smoke swirling around his feet too!
"Hey, Asuka, can you come here?" I asked calmly.
"Coming!" I heard in response. We walked down a path for a couple minutes untill the others were out of earshot.
"If you plan on fixing your problem, you may want to get that story off your chest," I said.
"W-What story? What are you talking about?"
"I KNOW your keeping something from us. I just wanted you to know, you can tell me anything. I won't tell anybody. Please, I don't want to see you like this. If you tell me, it may help your condition," I said, not really persuading her, but implying that she needed to spill it if she wanted to get better.
"U-um, uh..." she thought for a long while.
"You'd probably rather tell Ariel or another one of your closer friends, but know that I'm here for you, every little bit helps. I've lived for years, for cebturies, I delt with this before. I helped Seth through his as best as I could. The more he told me the better he got. Gradually, he could morph trivial things such as a leg or a tail. Talking helps, a lot, so whether it's me, Ariel, or all of us, we are here for you. We won't judge you. I may seem like that kind of person, the type to judge, but like I said, centuries of expierence really helps. You learn that everybody has an explaination. I won't judge you, I swear," I sounded like a mom, "Sorry about the speech, I just want to help."
She sat there staring at me with an unreadable expression on her face.
~Seth~
I exhaled all of the smoke from my lungs. My habit of smoking was getting worse.
"Kovu, don't you EVER smoke!" I said to my friend. I had grown somewhat protective of him since I met him three weeks ago.
"How come you do?" he asked.
"I have my reasons, mainly to keep away the annoying little mongooses that I tend to run into. But it seems I have failed!" I told him jokingly, prefering to keep the real reasons hiden, even Io didn't know. I thought of Azera. I thought of all those creatures whose lives I'd taken. I'd do whatever it took to surpress the evil that dwelled inside me. I would not take another life just for pleaser.
"Where's Asuka and Io?" Kasumi said walking over. "Hey, that doesn't smell like normal cigarette smoke. What is it?"
"Oh, you know, mongoose repelent," I said and smiled at Kovu.
"Okay... Please tell me that's a joke."
"Yeah, it is," Kovu and I said together.
"Kay, but where are the other two?" she asked.
"I don't really know, but the'll be back soon. Give them time," I said.