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lol. lot happened in a short time… whew!!! Just fyi… fire sword breaking through a door, armored man comes through…. Abirami is going to be on high alert! …. meaning watch out! 😉

 

Grinning from ear to ear, dragging Ku by the hand, ignoring her constant whining and pushback, I led the group into the auditorium with it’s elegant tables and chairs.

“Hi! I hope I didn’t take anyone’s seat. Do any of you know where the waiter is? I’m thirsty.”

I did a double-take. For a second, the boy had looked like Setti…. if Setti were a, what’d they call themselves? Hue-mans? If Setti were a Hue-man, having no wings… and dirty red hair instead of cyan feathers… I imagined the boy in front of me would look just like him.

Something stirred within me, even though I knew he wasn’t Setti… I wanted to go talk to him.

Jade was stretching on the stage, half-hidden by the curtain, by she made eye-contact with me, and I gave her a short head-bob and a look. She seemed confused, but then her eyes glazed over in understanding as I began walking over to the newcomer.

Val reached him first and offered him some water. I stood back some ways, unsure if I should insert myself into their conversation, especially with Ku becoming more and more incensed at my ploys.

“Why’d you drag me in here? I’m not interested in eating or sitting. I want to get out of here, or have you forgotten our mission? We need you to find that Tannink’esh.”

“Ku, if you haven’t noticed yet, we are in a completely different world from Kaphar. There may not be any Tannink’esh’s here. Just… just hold on, okay?”

Ku pouted. “I’m going back to talk to my friend.”

“Uh, um. Fine. Just… stay in the room, okay? I still have a surprise for you.”

She scoffed, tossed one hand in the air and walked away.

Walking up to the side of the table where the boy and Val was talking, I overheard a little of their conversation.

“CF, you’re not where you think you are. You are in a completely different world. I wish I was joking, but that’s the truth.”

The boy, I assumed was named CF, sighed. “So, I’m in a different world?” Even the slight smolder in his eye reminded me of Setti. I wondered if he had a mischievous side, like Setti, too.

Val nodded. I hesitated getting any closer… not sure Val really liked me all that much… but it wasn’t like me to let that stop me…

“But I’m still not telling you my name.”

So CF wasn’t really his name. Why had Val called him CF then?

“That’s up to you,” said Val with a shrug.

“I like your hair,” CF said. I missed my chance to step in. “Most girls I know have one half of their hair chopped short. Actually, all the girls have their hair like that.”

He continued on, but I was curious. He said all the girls where he was from had half their hair chopped short. Did they wear their hair like Ku?

I stepped forward. “Hi, I’m Abirami. I’m from the world of Kaphar. Really, do all the girls from where you are from have Mohawks?

“Um…” CF looked me up and down, as if I was some strange creature.

I looked down and sighed. Of course, I had been in a rush and had left my garb behind the stage. Of course the kid would look at me crazy if a man in nothing but his gaaban (boxers) walked up to him out of the blue. If his world was anything like the other people here, they knew nothing of Aygiff’s.

CF seemed to fixate on my ears for a moment. “Um… not Mohawks. Just half their head is bald. Are you a bouncer, or something? And,” he chuckled, pointing to the side of my face. “Nice make-up.”

“Make-up?” I asked. I hadn’t made anything up, nor had I made anything. So what did he mean make-up?

“Your ears,” he said with a smile, reaching up like he wanted to touch them.

Make-up? My ears? By make up, did he mean fake?

“These aren’t fake,” I said, leaning down. “They’re my real ears.”

CF laughed. “Okay, dude.” But he reached out and touched them, pulling them hard enough for me to pull my head away.

Val backed me up. “He’s really from a different world. I’ve seen him disappear.”

CF laughed. “You mean magic?”

“It’s essence,” I said. “What’s… mah jick?”

CF looked at me with doubt seeping through every pore. “Right.”

Suddenly, a burst of flame broke through the door of the room with a loud bang. Splinters flew in all directions, and a tall man covered in iron walked through the door.

Was it a metal golem? No… I could see movement and fabric. Someone was inside the golem-like apparatus, controlling it. His eyes shone through his nearly completely closed helmet. Still, anyone who didn’t have the were-with-all to use a door knob was probably not friendly.

The behemoth, though not even close to a loxor’s height, flashed his sword around like he was brandying his pride, then sheathed it with a flourish and walked right into Kit and kept moving.

Perhaps not murderous, but certainly a fiend looking for a fight.

My ears bent toward my head, and I took a few steps so CF and Val was behind me, the new intruder in front of me.

I felt Val place a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sure you can let Kit handle this,” she whispered.

I looked back, looked at her hand, then stared into her eyes.

She let go.

Stepping into the aisle, I jumped and transformed into an aemirok. Even if the intruder was tall, my flying wolf form towered over him like a mother wolf hovering over her pups.

I heard chairs clatter behind me and CF cry out in surprise with a bit of excitement in his voice.

 

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