“Say, ‘ite’!”
she demanded.
Then I realized why I couldn’t say it; that was what
Mordon said when apologizing for knocking me over. Edward wanted me to
apologize for what I said earlier, but I couldn’t.
Divina sighed in my head
. “Too late now. Say,
‘igno koyota mir anta kiufes sumas’ slowly and firmly. Keep your voice low and
almost like you’re growling.”
That sounded much more appealing.
“Igno koyota mir anta---” Edward’s hand slapped over
my mouth and he pulled me away from Hiroku, who suddenly looked like he was
going to attack me. I loved it. Divina started outright laughing and Akia’s
face was pink.
“Moshi ite. Moshi ite,” Edward said, but no one paid
him any attention.
He growled and I felt as if it would be much safer in
Hiroku’s grasp than my mentor’s. I tried to pull Edward’s hand away so I could
breathe, but the more I tried, the harder it became. Divina said something to
him that I didn’t catch and he let me go. I gasped for air and Hiroku’s grin
returned, though it looked more strained than before.
Say, kada mido sagata kotaki muda aito setsai muda
genjiya yabe kiyo tabato,”
Divina said.
“Don’t say whatever Divina is telling you to say,”
Edward said before I could start.
I was conflicted. I could listen to Divina; the woman
who I was starving to get a kiss from, or listen to Edward; the man I was going
to live with and learn magic from. I opened my mouth to speak when Hiroku beat
me to it with something harsh and guttural.
Edward sighed.
“Now say it.”
I said it and Hiroku’s face turned red. I was really
enjoying myself.
Hiroku smoldered as his brain rushed to think passed
his anger, but Akia, frightened that her son would retaliate, said “Naoka
hanu.” Hiroku glanced from me to Edward before he turned and went inside.
“Moshi ite,” I said sincerely to Akia.
She smiled at me and said, “Gojenai. Bedo.” She
hugged Divina, and then me.
While the woman was undeniably beautiful, hugging her
was as platonic as hugging an older sister, not that I had an older sister to
compare it to. Then she went to Edward and they shared another long kiss. We
said our goodbyes and started down the street.
As soon as Akia shut the door, Edward patted Divina
on the back. “That was very good, Divina.”
She grinned and wrapped her arm around my waist.
Since she had done this several times already, I felt safe enough to put my arm
around her, so I did, cautiously. She didn’t object. She was very warm and fit
really well against my side. I knew touchy-feely women, but I didn’t think
Divina was like that.
“He did all the work. He did it well, too,” she
praised.
Edward nodded his agreement.
“Nice son you have, Edward,” I said sarcastically.
He frowned. “I really don’t know what got into him.
He never acts like that.”
“It was father jealousy,” Divina said. We both looked
at her and she smirked. “He misses you, Kiro, and when he discovered you were
with Dylan, here, he assumed Dylan was your son and you were spending far more
time with him than with your poor little Hiroku. What’d you expect would
happen? You’ve had enough kids to know how they act.”
“How many kids have you had, Edward?”
“Um… Some of them I don’t believe were mine, so I’m
not sure.”
“More like he lost count.”
“What was it that…” I stopped myself from insulting
Edward’s son at the last second. “Hiroku said to me?”
“Well, he asked you if you were a lawyer or something
because you were clearly not into physical work; your skin is too pale. You
said that you weren’t; that you were light skinned because of your mother and
then you asked where he got the artificial tan. Then he said you had a funny
accent and you said he had a funny outfit.”
“Did he?”
“Of course; it was his school uniform. Didn’t you see
it?” Divina asked.
I shook my head; I hadn’t noticed. I didn’t mention
that I noticed Akia’s outfit extensively. I may not have felt anything when she
hugged me, and Divina was more my type, but Akia was still an attractive woman.
Divina was a lot more my type.
“Okay, well, when Kiro told you to apologize, I told
you what to say twice. Why didn’t you say what I told you to?”
“I couldn’t. I knew what you wanted me to say because
that was what Mordon said when we crashed into each other. I couldn’t say it.”
Edward laughed. “Good thing, too. It would have been
unfortunate if you had; even Akia wanted you to put him in his place,” he said.
I was glad I made the right decision. “It’s funny that you two almost got into
a physical fight because he wanted my attention and you wanted Divina’s.”
It wasn’t that funny.
“After you refused to apologize to him, you told him
that your mother told you never to apologize to a---”
“You don’t need to clarify that, Divina,” Edward
warned.
“I want to know,” I argued.
“Kiro’s right, sweetie. It was a little too
malicious. I thought I did a little too much, there. Then he told you that he
didn’t expect anything more from a mother’s boy who was home-schooled. You said
you weren’t home-schooled by your mother; you were home-schooled by Kiro and
that Kiro taught you so much magic that you could blow up his ridiculously
small brain without even trying. You emphasized his ridiculously small brain,
but most effective was that the word you called Kiro was one used for very
close family relations. I’m very impressed that you were able to repeat all
that.”
“You both did very well. So well that I’ll need to
visit them later and apologize. I really had hoped you two would get along.”
“I wanted to,” I said.
“I know. He insulted you and you had to retaliate. It
was not your fault. If anything, it’s mine. I really should visit him more.”
We turned the corner and I saw a large iron gate at
the end of the street, which divided the neighborhood and city. The buildings
in the city were very different from the houses; they were all tall, made with
strong-looking wood and rock skirting, and had huge wooden doors that opened
inward.
Most of the buildings were stores and people were
already putting things out on display to make their shops more attractive. This
was nothing like the Mijii outdoor markets, where cheap, interesting
merchandise was presented from tightly packed stalls.
Within ten minutes, we had reached a different
section of town, where shops were smaller and closer together, and selected
samples of merchandise were artfully displayed in windows and in front of
stores. There was everything from book stores to magic shops. We passed the
most fascinating candy store I’d ever seen with amazing sweets, from little
candy animals that walked, hopped, and flew, to suckers that changed color. A
young girl walked out with a cup of bright purple ice-cream that changed to
dark green as she licked it.
It wasn’t long before people began their morning
shopping and when they did, the shops reached out for them. The streets were
suddenly crowded and shop employees were showing off their products. People
wore everything from t-shirts to tunics (like Edward wore). There were some
that very much resembled business suits and even some ancient Greek and Roman
style dresses. Some people, not to my surprise, wore outfits that were similar
to kimonos.
New smells assaulted me at every step, from smoky
aromas of cooking meat, to sweet fragrances of fruits, to complicated perfumes
of incense. Sounds were overwhelming as well; sounds of people talking, stores
advertising, music playing, as well as the occasional odd sounds lost in the
crowd. Everything was so colorful.
One man passed me with a little glass ball of what
looked like dark clouds. Lightning lit it from the inside. Edward laughed at my
wonder. “A child’s toy. All the really interesting objects are inside.”
I looked around to see if anyone was reacting to the
English, but no one noticed. I tried to hang back to watch, but Edward and
Divina kept a brisk pace. I passed a little girl holding a tiny representation
of a dragon. I didn’t get a good look at it and thought it was just a little
statue- until a stream of fire erupted from its mouth and almost fried the
young boy beside her.
There was a group of boys about eight years old, all
in uniform that included black dress pants, tan, long-sleeved dress shirts, and
black vests. They were carrying books and avoiding eye contact with everyone as
a very strict-looking woman hurried them on. The majority of the shoppers were
women who were in a hurry. Most of the scarce children were excited about
everything. The few men were never alone; they were either chaperoning children
or their wives, which usually meant carrying the bags and boxes.
I got so distracted that I almost ran into a poor old
man who was two feet shorter than me with a head of long white hair. I quickly
regained my balance and my blood froze; I was at an intersection and Divina and
Edward were nowhere in sight.
After looking around for a minute, the streets became
even more crowded and I was in the way of busy people. I continued straight,
almost at a run, but I didn’t find them. I was lost on an alien world and I
couldn’t speak the inhabitants’ language. Trying to act normal only made me
stress until I was hyperventilating. I had a two in three chance of getting
further and further from Edward and Divina. Even if they realized I was
missing, they wouldn’t know where to find me, and if I wasn’t going the right
way, I was making it harder.
After a lot of thought, I found a narrow alleyway
between two shops, sat down against one of the walls, and watched for Edward or
Divina. About twenty minutes later, I was really starting to panic. It’s one
thing to be lost in a strange place where I don’t know the language, it’s
another when people will do experiments on me for not knowing the language.
Edward never actually told me what sago would do if they discovered I wasn’t
from Duran, but I could only assume it would make the Salem witch trials seem
like child’s play.
A very light hissing made me jump. I looked all
around me before I had the sense to look down. Sitting there was an animal a
person couldn’t fear. It resembled a sugar glider with smaller ears and more of
a feline face. The fur was long and dark brown. It turned its tiny head on its side
and reached a front paw toward me. The paws consisted of four tiny, webbed
fingers with tiny claws.
“Hey, there,” I cooed. It slowly turned its head on
its other side before skittering forward. Its sides bent almost like a
reptile’s when walking. The tail was twice as long as the rest of the body and
was very bushy. From back to ground it was only about six inches tall. “Are you
going to eat me?” I asked gently. It stopped at my crossed legs and I reached
out my hand. It lifted its front paws and braced them against my palm. After a
few seconds of sniffing me, it opened its mouth wide to reveal many razor
teeth.
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t my smartest move.
I didn’t take my hand back because I didn’t want it
to freak out and attack. To my surprise, the little creature stuck out its tiny
tongue in an unmistakable yawn before closing its mouth and hopping up onto my
hand. It hardly weighed anything. We just stared at each other for a few
moments before it took a few hesitant steps up my arm. Then it froze and looked
back at my face as if to see that that was okay. After a few seconds, it
hurried up my arm to perch on my left shoulder. Its claws were sharp, but they
didn’t hurt because the creature was so light. It reached out slowly and placed
its paw on my cheek.
“Hi,” I said.
It made a sound somewhere between hissing and
breathing and then to my shock, it opened its mouth and licked its lips. “Hi,”
it repeated. Its voice was small and high-pitched, almost like a bark. My eyes
grew wide and its large eyes widened, too.
I opened my mouth to say something else, but then
realized that I shouldn’t teach it any English that it could repeat to people.
Humans had parrots, so I figured a talking squirrel-kitten wasn’t that big a
deal. It then removed its hand and its bushy tail wrapped around my neck. I
made a mental note to never tick the little creature off.
“I guess you’re going to wait here with me for a
while.” It seemed to understand because it settled its head down on my
shoulder. “I’m going to give you a name, okay? Are you a boy or girl?” It
didn’t answer, and I didn’t want to look. “I’ll just call you a girl. What’s a
good Duranian name? Well, I once had a Japanese kid in my class named Shinobu,
so it’s got to be fairly realistic here. So, I’ll name you Shinobu… Unless you
tell me otherwise.” She glanced up at me with her eyes, but didn’t lift her
head or say anything. “Okay, Shinobu it is.” She closed her eyes and I leaned
my head back.
“What a surprise to see you here. Your head is
looking better.”
Startled, I jerked to my feet to see a man standing
in the alley entrance. Shinobu looked up for a few seconds before concluding
that she couldn’t care less, and laid her head back down. It took a few seconds
to recognize the man as Nano. The features that were so menacing in the creepy
house were open and friendly in the light of day. He was smiling, and it seemed
genuine enough.
The guy looked a few years older than me, a few
inches taller than me, and a few pounds heavier than me. His hair was dark brown
with light gold highlights and his eyes matched exactly; deep brown with gold
flakes. He wore a cream colored tunic with maroon slacks and black boots. What
drew my attention was the odd, bright, off-orange purse with a strap wrapped
snuggly around his thin waist.
“You’re Nano,” I said, dragging my eyes from the
shrill orange.
“Yes, I am. And you’re Dylan.”
“How do you know who I am?”