The Gift of Volkeye (12 page)

“That’s none of your business,” she said, turning her nose in the air.

“Everything is my business when it has to do with my girl!”

At this, Bahzee finally let loose of her opinion, as she just couldn’t help it.

“Oh, Felix, get a clue! You’re an ugly…I’m sorry,
hideous
…self-absorbed, spoiled, little brat! I don’t like you! Even if you where the most beautiful thing on earth, I would still hate you after you threw a temper tantrum and kicked my cat, because I refused to kiss you! I despise you! Not now, nor will I ever be your girl! Now would you please let me be!”

Bahzee stood her ground, awaiting his next move.

Felix glared incredulously at his
soon-to-be-slapped
girlfriend.

“You don’t mean that. Take it back,” he ordered.

“I’m not taking back anything! This ends now.”

“Nothing is ending. Now apologize!”

“Felix, although your looks are much less than aesthetically pleasing, my dislike of you has nothing to do with that. It’s just that you’re the most vile, repugnant being on the face of the planet, and I loathe the fact that I’m even breathing the same air as you…murderer!”

Felix’s bottom lip quivered. He hadn’t heard anything past the words “vile” and “repugnant.”

Clearly she’s blind! How can this bitch—this little snotty whore—not realize how magnificent I am?

Felix thought that Bahzee must’ve had very bad eyesight indeed to not see what a prize she was passing up. It drove him crazy, and he reacted.

“You teasing, little peasant slut!”

He cocked his arm back and aimed for her face. The impact would be explosive, and if she was lucky he might only hit her once.

However, something unexpected occurred. His fist did impact something, but not her face. Felix was shocked to find that he hit nothing except an open palm that was firm as concrete. It held his fist in a powerful, unyielding grip and began crushing every bone within. Felix was screaming bloody murder.

He snatched his hand away from her and looked down to find his fingers were red and swollen, sitting in awkward positions. Bahzee then lunged for Felix, grabbing him by his hair and slinging him up against a tree.

Though never having thrown a punch in her life, she did so with speed, power, and grace. Her fist connected with Felix’s nose, and there was a loud crunch as his blood leapt about in disarray, landing upon the frost-covered surroundings. With another blow came an explosion of pain in Felix’s jaw. He wouldn’t be able to chew any food for some time.

Bahzee hit him again, and again, and again. Felix’s entire body was being tenderized like raw meat. Finally, with his face being a bloody mess, obviously having had enough, Bahzee stopped and stared at him.

“You really don’t remember me, do you Felix?” she cried furiously. “You don’t recall the little crippled girl, whose life you used to make a living hell? What about Nhad, do you remember him? Do you remember the bike you wanted and what happened that night after you found that you couldn’t have it? You killed my best friend, you bastard!”

Felix, exhausted and in pain from receiving the first beating he’d taken since
‘the black boy in the forest,’
was astonished at her claim. He had no idea that when he saw Bahzee shopping with her mother one day in Mune Ju that she was someone from his past. He recalled following them home that day, harbouring a terrible lust for Bahzee, for he’d never seen anything beautiful as she.

How can this be? She wasn’t gorgeous, was she? And she was deformed—confined to a
chair! …What in the blazes!



Meanwhile, Asha waited to do her part. At first, she’d been hopeful that Felix would become frustrated with Bahzee and just leave, pouting. At this age, he’d obviously be too embarrassed to ask his father to claim a woman for him, so Asha suspected that Felix would’ve kept the incident secret.

However, having his ass beaten while being pinned to a tree was something else entirely. Even if, by some miracle, Felix wanted to keep the incident a secret, his appearance would give him away, so Phyllamon would find out regardless…

...And the results will be catastrophic for Rhameeryla!
Asha thought, shivering with unease.

But what if Felix never made it home? At least Phyllamon would have no idea where to look for him, thus awarding t
hem time. She then made her nauseating decision.

I have to kill him!



As he slowly regained his breath, chest heaving, Felix tightly gripped the handful of dirt that he’d scooped up. He was still contemplating what Bahzee had said, mentally revisiting th
e bike incident.

I never received the pleasure of killing that stingy shit, but he
did die because of me!

There was great peace of mind that accompanied this thought, and although he was now missing some teeth this didn’t prevent him from displaying a wicked grin. Felix’s smile pierced Bahzee to the bone, and he spat a mouthful of blood in her face.

Bahzee sobbed, trembling with fury, as Felix leaned in, whispering.

“Yes, I killed him…just as I will your little boyfriend! You cannot possibly understand the type of pain I’m going to put him through. This will be worse than the boy with the hoverbike…much worse!”

Seized with horror of anything happening to Khyeryn, Bahzee let out a shrill cry that echoed throughout the forest. Her hand shot out, grasping his neck, and she ground her teeth together, scowling, as she attempted to crush the life from him.

Although Bahzee didn’t notice right away, she suddenly looked down and noticed that Felix’s feet were dangling over three feet in the air! Never having tested her strength before outside of common exercise, she was stricken with awe at her gift. Then Felix caught her off guard.

“Cheating bitch!” He hurled the ball of dirt into Bahzee’s eyes.

She dropped him, and he quickly limped his way to a large nest of bushes.

Bahzee grimaced as she went to the ground, blind and in pain. She knew her mother would be on the way out the door at the sight of this.

“Mom, don’t let him leave, he’s going after Kh—”

The sound of the shots drowned out Bahzee and the engine on the hoverbike. Felix darted out of the shrubbery, followed by a mild explosion of fire and forest debris, which lingered only a moment. Asha, intent on killing him, only managed to take the tip of Felix’s nose off before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. However, she kept firing in hopes of hitting something vital.

...
Boom Boom Boom Boom
…
click, click, click
…

Dammit!

She was out of bullets and knew that she hadn’t hit anything. Angry at herself for grabbing the first pistol she saw (which unfortunately hadn’t been a laser-powered weapon), she ran to Bahzee, who was still recovering.

“Are you all right, Baz?”

The tears and dirt had left little globs of mud on Bahzee’s face. She was still dazed a bit, rubbing her eyes.

Asha shook her violently this time. “Are you alright?!”

“Yes, Mama, I’m fine,” she said, with a final wipe of her eyes.

Bahzee looked to the ground and found two of Felix’s teeth, suddenly recalling lifting him into the air without any strain! Then she knew. Bahzee had no clue what Zynathian had done to her body, but she was positive now that instead of just knocking Felix’s teeth out, she could’ve taken his entire head off!

“We have to go! Get packed now…we only have a few hours, at most!”

Asha got off her knees and started towards the house. Bahzee yelled after her.

“Mama, where are we going?”

“The Igloo!”

Asha ran inside.

The Igloo was several thousand miles southwest of Rhameeryla in an area that no soul ever ventured unless they happened to stumble upon it while passing through on a long journey. It was a great idea, but the only problem was that the weather was quite deadly.

Having no known population or businesses, none of the territory had ever been plotted on maps or even given names. In fact, there were few in existence (besides the Volkeyes and their extended family) that knew anything about the Igloo and its surroundings.

Bahzee got up and started inside.

But how will we get a message to the family, letting them know where we are?
she wondered.

Her blood ran cold. Bahzee then cursed the fact that they lived in the sky, but forgot that Rhameeryla had no communication lines, so she couldn’t call anyway. That was the whole point of the town being a secret.

Bahzee suddenly thought of Teshunua, exhaling in relief at the fact that he was not due back from his trip for several more days.

It’s possible that Phyllamon will miss him! …But heaven help those who are still here tonight!

“Mom, I’ll leave a letter on Teshunua’s mantelpiece, letting him know where we’re going. Then I’ll run and warn some of the others…the word will spread amongst them.”

Asha’s panicking voice echoed from her bedroom.

“Do it now!”

1

A
lthough Bahzee was intimidated about using the
‘L word,’
her feelings for Teshunua actually did run that deep. He was a sixteen-year-old black boy, very tall with short hair. He, in an unconscious reciprocation, felt the same for Bahzee, and he’d done so since the day he met her.

Teshunua was a virgin who’d never even had a crush on a girl before he laid eyes on Bahzee. He was fourteen then. Bahzee was twelve and still crippled.

One day, near four months after she and her mother arrived to Rhameeryla, Bahzee was wandering in the woods. She accidentally hovered her chair into a thick nest of red berry bushes, and one of her wheels got caught…

2

“Dammit to hell! Blast!” Bahzee groaned, hoping to be able to get enough power to launch herself out of the bushes. She squirmed about in her seat, becoming more and more frustrated as the heavy branches would not loosen their grip.

In tears now, Bahzee cried out.

“Heeeeeeeelp!”

Her voice echoed in and out of the crevices of the forest.

Bahzee slumped in her seat with despair and was suddenly struck with the horrid idea that her mother wouldn’t find her until long after nightfall, when the wolves or the forest trolls had already dined upon her body.

If those beasts don’t get me, the cold of the night will. By the time I’m found, I’ll be suffering from brain fever, pneumonia, or some god-awful, incurable disease!

As she went to cry for help once more, Bahzee heard a voice, carried by the wind.

“Where are you?” it said.

Bahzee hesitated a moment in hopes that she was not just hearing things out of desperation. Then she replied.

“I’m here…stuck in some bushes! Can you hear my engine?”

She gave the hoverchair a nice loud rev and waited for a reply from what she hoped was not her imagination.

“I hear it, I’m coming!”

Bahzee sighed with relief. After a moment or so, she her heard him getting closer. Then a voice spoke from behind.

“Got yourself in a little fix, huh?” it said, laughing.

“It’s not funny!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll have you out in second.”

Bahzee kept quiet and waited, wiping the tears from her eyes in the mean time, because she didn’t want to look like a big baby when she and her rescuer were finally face-to-face.

“There, got it.”

Bahzee sighed with relief as she felt her chair begin to glide away from the bushes. When she was about five feet out, she swung the chair around to greet him. When their eyes met, Bahzee immediately looked down in shame, for she hadn’t counted on being rescued by someone so easy on the eyes. Here she was an ugly cripple, who just had to be rescued by him! How embarrassing!

“Thank you, kind sir…I have to get going,” she said shamefully.

“No, wait…you’re new? I haven’t seen you around.”

“Yes. My mother and I have only been here a few months,” she replied, trying to avoid eye contact.

However, this didn’t work. The boy walked right up to her and leaned over, meeting eyes with his new neighbour.

“My name’s Teshunua. The ‘nuh’ at the end isn’t spelled like it sounds. It’s N-U-A, but people always screw it up trying to pronounce all the letters!” He laughed. “I don’t have a last name, because my father hated his family and got rid of it.”

Bahzee extended her hooked, claw-like hand as much as her crippled body would allow her to. Teshunua reached out to her. They shook.

“Bahzee Sunkharei.”

“Pleased to meet you, Baz. Is it okay if I call you that?”

“Sure. My mommy does it too…I kinda’ like it,” Bahzee said, finally managing to smile.

There was an awkward silence for a moment, and then Teshunua said something completely unexpected.

“You have beautiful eyes…”

Bahzee was too shocked to even thank him. She just gazed at him, searching for dishonesty.

Teshunua continued.

“…like the colour of the ocean. I love water. That’s what’s most fun about exploring—the lakes, rivers, and oceans that I find. I swear, I can sit and stare at them for hours. You should look people in the eye more often when you talk, Bahzee. It would be a shame for anyone to miss out on such beauty.”

Bahzee kept quiet for some time, expecting him to burst out in laughter, like most boys would have, for she just knew that he couldn’t be serious. With each moment that passed, she felt more stupid for not responding.

And why was he still holding her hand?

It was strange for her, due to the fact that she had never had such close physical contact with anyone besides her mother or Nhad. She was quite used to kisses and hugs from them.

This
, however, was different, and though it was much more formal than a hug or kiss, it still exuded sincerity and affection that Bahzee wasn’t used to coming from a stranger. Teshunua was just very direct in his nature. However, from Bahzee’s reaction to what he’d said, he immediately learned to be reserved with the things that came out of his mouth around her, especially when she seemed to be so…

…insecure?

Teshunua was perplexed, having no idea why she was that way. Crippled or not, he didn’t think that he had ever before seen a girl so pretty.

“Thank you,” Bahzee finally replied, face reddening. Teshunua let go of her hand.

“So why do you have wheels, Bahzee?”

“What?” she asked, confused, but still blushing.

“Your chair…it hovers, so why do you need wheels?” he said, changing the subject, but sounding as unnatural and corny as a third grader with a crush on a teacher.

“I like to use the wheels, because I would constantly be knocking things over in the house if I didn’t.”

“Oh,” he said, tapping his foot on the cold earth, trying to think of something else to say. “So would you like to see where I live?” He hoped that Bahzee felt comfortable enough for that.

“Yes…” She hesitated. “There’s not going to be anyone there besides your parents, is there?”

“There won’t be anyone there at all...I live by myself.”

“How is that possible? You’re only, what...a year or two older than me, at most? How do you live by yourself?”

“It’s a long story. Anyway, why don’t you want people to be there?”

“Who in their right mind would want to look at something so depressing, silly? I’m crippled!” she spat irritably.

“Oh…you’re crippled? That’s funny, I didn’t even notice,” Teshunua said, regaining his confidence.

Bahzee sunk in her chair and blushed again.

3

Teshunua’s home, one in ninety cottages, out of which several were unoccupied, was quite eccentric. First off, it rested on top of a hill while the rest of Rhameeryla lay fifty feet beneath it. The construction of all the town’s homes was unique, of course, but his was much larger and aesthetically pleasing than the others.

It was made of gigantic bricks, which went from a warm gray to a rusty red in colour, glazed over to give them a shiny, non-scratch surface. There was a large fireplace on the wall in the main room, which was lavishly decorated, bordered with a white marble mantelpiece. To the left of the fireplace was a huge wall, made entirely of thick, stormproof glass, giving a marvelous view of Rhameeryla and its surroundings.

Bahzee gazed in awe while observing.

Anyone familiar with Teshunua’s relationship with his ‘uncle’ (as he called him) would have known that all these luxuries were exemplary of Zynathian’s fondness of Teshunua. The other cottages were sturdy and efficient, but definitely not plush like this.

Every room contained knickknacks and sentimental treasures that Teshunua acquired on his travels. There were bones of many strange creatures, which he had placed on stands like sculptures. He had grains of sand, earth, and rocks in clear glass cylinders, lining the windowsills. Also, the walls in his bedroom were covered in photographs. Bahzee thought that there may have been hundreds of images, for there wasn’t a clear spot.

“You like the pictures?”

“Very much…did you take these?”

Artistic people intrigued Bahzee, especially since she, herself, didn’t have one creative bone in her body.

“I take them on my voyages. I’ve been traveling periodically for a couple of years now. My father’s death was tragic, but also liberating in a strange sense. Having no one to take care of me, I began wandering and learned to survive on my own. That’s how I came to love exploration.”

He paused, noticing the way her head leaned oddly off to the left, appearing to be too heavy for a weak neck…but still, it was a
beautiful
lean. Bahzee’s slouching head gave an unobstructed view of a long neck and an unblemished face that, in his eyes, shed the same radiance as an oil painting. With each moment that passed, Teshunua began to feel that everything about her was beautiful—even her insecurity.

“My mom is an artist, too.”

“Really? …I would love to meet her!”

“Any time, Tesh,” Bahzee said, quite pleased that he wanted to meet her mother.

‘Tesh’…I like that! We must be friends now!

“I can’t wait…she’s not shy, is she?” he said holding up a small round object.

“Is that a camera? No way! I’ve never seen one that small! What’s its range?”

Teshunua handed her the camera, and Bahzee rolled out to the wall window in the main room. As she held the camera to her eye, it did a retinal scan and automatically adjusted to her vision. She then aimed it at the farthest thing in the distance, which was Mune Ju Mountain.

It zoomed out so quickly that for a moment Bahzee had no clue what she was looking at, and then she realized that she could see no longer see the surrounding sky, but cracks and crevices in the mountain rock! Not a detail was amiss. In fact, the view was so clear that, in certain pockets, she could even see gusts of wind throw the snow violently back and forth in the fashion of miniature blizzards.

“You like it? My uncle designed it for me. It has a voice chip, video mode, and can send images or things I’ve filmed over insane distances. I took me a year to master all of its features!” He laughed. “My home is done by Uncle’s hand as well…”

Bahzee wheeled around, looking quite puzzled as Teshunua went on.

“…this entire town is his. Oh, and you haven’t met my pet, Jix, yet! Uncle genetically engineered him, so that I’d have some company on my travels!”

“I’ve never heard of anyone with such talent! Who is your uncle?”

4

“Aaaaahhh, son of a bitch! You broke my nose!” A tall blond boy yowled, leaning on a tree to keep his balance. Blood ran over his mouth and down his chin, spattering the grass beneath him. His eyes watered heavily and began to tear as he slumped to the earth.

Five feet away from this nearly unconscious boy, a whirlwind of kicks and punches were thrown. A tall, dark skinned male was rolling around in the grass, brawling with thieves, who’d just tried to take something extremely precious from him.

“Give back my camera!”

He was a vagrant, who’d lost his father to violence, two years previous. The boy made his way in the world by selling prints made from an old solar activated camera that his father had bought for him at the Mune Ju flee market. Not quite having gotten over his father’s death, he was furious that these four bullying thieves were trying to take this familial memorabilia.

His father was a boxer and had taught him how to handle himself, so therefore he was extremely rough around the edges when pushed too far. He would beat these thieving brats within an inch of their lives if necessary…and God forbid his camera should actually be broken when he retrieved it!

“We wanna’ borrow it, stingy!” said a
pale, skinny boy with pimples and
a unibrow.

“It’s not yours!”

The homeless wanderer got one of the thieves on their back, stood up and then brought his boot down on the boy’s face. There was a loud crunch as the heel obliterated the robber’s mouth. The boy rolled over on his side and spewed what seemed to be a pint of blood. The long blades of grass glowed scarlet underneath the setting sun.

Tiny chunks of gum remained on the bottom of the homeless boy’s boot as he turned to face the remaining two. One of them sat the camera in the grass so gently that it was clear he didn’t want to fight. However, he still turned around with his fists raised.

“Why? Are you stupid? I swear on my father’s name, I’ll kill you if it’s necessary! Walk away from this while you still can!”

The third robber appeared to be considering the wanderer’s offer, but his thoughts were interrupted.

“If you don’t ‘man up’ right now, I’ll tell my father that you chickened and ran!” the boy with the unibrow spat.

The weakling obeyed the command of his superior. He started in with his fists clenched, and the vagrant shook his head with disgust.

Oh well, I warned you!
he thought.