Chapter XII: Admission?
Once Stefi had finally made the dizzying climb up the rope ladder and through the hole that passed for a front door, she collapsed onto the wooden floor of the tree house. She didn’t dare to look down again.
“Why a tree?” Her body surged with adrenaline and vertigo as they mixed together to make a nauseating cocktail.
“For one, it’s cool,” Reilos said as he lit a lamp. “Every kid dreams of something like this, eh?” He grinned. “Plus it’s well hidden and no one would think to look up.”
“Uh-huh,” Stefi said and shuffled backwards against a wall. She lifted both ferrets from her shoulder and shakily attached their harnesses and leads. If they wandered near the ladder hole and fell… she couldn’t bear to think about it.
Don’t you trust us? Maya asked.
“I just don’t trust your wandering urges,” she said, her voice unsteady. She looked up to find Sohei standing before her, clutching a steaming mug in both hands.
“I know you must feel freaked out. I was the same when the boys insisted on living up here. Actually, it still scares me when it shakes in a strong wind.”
“Shakes?” Stefi said nervously.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. But it’s not windy today, and I brought you something.” She handed the mug to Stefi.
“What is it?”
“A human drink we quite like, something called hot chocolate. We don’t get it very often, but you’re our guest and we need to make up for attacking you. It’ll make you feel better.”
“Chocolate? I’ve hardly ever had this!” Stefi said and sniffed the warm, comforting aroma. “It’s so expensive! Sometimes I might have it on my birthday but…” Humans still hadn’t figured out how to grow cocoa easily, and as such chocolate was a hard to obtain luxury. The secret to its bountiful cultivation had been lost long ago with the island of Minhera.
“Chocolate?” Ifaut squeaked and bolted upright, stumbling forward onto her hands and knees.
“Now, there’s plenty to go around.” Reilos laughed and set about pouring mugs from a pot warming on a small brazier.
Sohei dispensed them but hesitated when she came to Cédes and Rhaka. “Miss Cédes? Would you like some?” she asked timidly, still upset over her and her friends’ earlier actions.
“No, thank you,” Cédes said. “I do enjoy it but I shall have strange dreams all night if I drink it.”
“And Mister Dog?” she asked Rhaka.
“No. Unfortunately the compounds of that substance are toxic to Otsukuné. On one occasion I sampled it and it wreaked havoc with my digestive sys-”
“Enough, Dad!” Sansonis cut in. He remembered the night all too well when Rhaka and several other Otsukuné had raided the nearby town of Falhafen for human foods. The result of the chocolate on the Otsukuné had been unpleasant to say the least.
Sansonis stared at Ifaut in bewilderment as she scurried to his side and slurped her drink, sounding remarkably like someone walking through deep mud in heavy boots. Afterwards, covered in a sticky brown mess, she looked like she’d done just that. He only wished she wouldn’t keep licking her fingers.
“More…” she said dreamily and held out her empty mug to Sohei.
Sohei complied, barely able to keep a straight face as Ifaut noisily gulped her second helping. “She looks really princess-like.”
“Sarcasm!” Cédes piped up, uncharacteristically outspoken.
“Huh?”
Stefi answered. “I had to explain sarcasm to Cédes and now she always points it out.”
“Wow. That’s just great,” Sohei said.
“Not… sarcasm?” Cédes tilted her head sideways as she thought.
“Well, I guess you can take that however you like,” Sohei said. “Now, anyone want more to drink?”
“Me!” Ifaut shouted. Her eyes were unfocused and she smiled giddily at something only she could see.
“Perhaps,” Rhaka added, “I should have mentioned that while that substance is toxic to myself, it can also have an intoxicating effect on some Furosans.”
“Who’s a clever, clever fog-dace,” Ifaut slurred as she swayed rhythmically from side to side. “Such a nimble fat-Keet… nimbly… fimbly… kimbly…”
Sansonis wrested the mug from her hands, prying off her stubbornly clamped fingers with much effort. “You’ve had enough,” he said and handed the mug to Sohei. She looked worried.
“No!” Ifaut protested. “There something I needs to tell you. Too nervous to say without chocolate…”
“You mean you knew it’d do this to you?”
“Undootably.” She warbled and sucked her fingers.
Sansonis sighed. Ifaut had always seemed so confident before. He wondered what it was she couldn’t muster the courage to say without chocolate.
Smiling from behind a mask of chocolate and stupor, Ifaut leaned forward and closed her eyes. “You has some chocolate on your face, silly boy… Let me…”
Her body went limp and she fell forward, her face missing its mark as she collapsed across Sansonis’s legs. “Amanein… siduree…” she said in her sleep.
Those two words roused the attentions of the four other Furosans and drew their focus towards their ridiculous looking princess. Even Leuma looked up from where he was feeding Sentinel. Sohei let out a gasp while Cédes and Reilos simply laughed.
“What? What did she say?” Stefi said. “Tell me! It’s not fair. I can’t understand her!”
Sansonis looked about in shock at the sudden attention. It was then he noticed a smile of realization dawning on Stefi’s face.
“Did she say what I think she said?” Stefi asked coyly.
“Yes,” Cédes said, and her red eyes seemed to sparkle mischievously in the firelight. “She either told Sansonis that she wants to scratch his face, or, you know…” She began to blush. “And on account of having done the former already…” She left the sentence hanging teasingly in the air.
“I knew it!” Stefi’s triumphant shout sent Sentinel flapping about the tree house with a frightened squawk.
“Knew what?” Sansonis asked. He tried desperately to decipher the myriad facial expressions that surrounded him. But there were just too many.
Stefi sighed. “You’re dense, Sansonis. The silly girl likes you!”
“Of course she does. I’m her kamae and I suppose I’ve saved her, what, three times already?”
“True, but I think it’s more than that.” She winked.
“That’s what you two were talking about before?”
“Yeah. It’s sort of my fault she drank all that chocolate too. I think I might have encouraged her to just tell you how she felt.”
Sansonis didn’t know what to say or think. Instead he glanced down at the sleeping Ifaut. As she rose and fell gently in time with her breathing, Sansonis, his heart aching with a new-found emotion, ran his fingers through her soft hair. What was it about him that this strange girl found so appealing? He was nothing remarkable, really; just a much-maligned Kalkic human who had been raised by even more hated Otsukuné. But somehow there was something more comforting about Furosans and Otsukuné than humans. All the races had the same capacity for love and hatred. Only the humans were so irrational when it came to what they believed in. At least with the other two he knew where he stood. And even though he’d only met the Furosan a few days ago, he felt like he’d known her for years.
“You like her too, don’t you?” Stefi said quietly as she spied tears welling in Sansonis’s eyes.
He nodded in reply, unable to say anything through the choking sensation that seized his throat. Once it finally cleared, he managed to speak again. “I only wish she had as much faith in herself as she does in me.”
“Hey, Reilos, how about a story?” Stefi asked later once evening had fully given way to night. Ifaut still lay snoring across Sansonis’s legs, and after everyone had eaten, Stefi was in the mood for listening.
“Well, what do you want to hear a
bout?” Reilos asked as he lolled lazily in a hammock. “There’s nothing I know that Lady Cédes couldn’t also tell you. But I suppose I wouldn’t use big words like her, which is exactly why you asked me, eh?” He grinned mischievously and winked at Stefi.
“Not really,” she said and returned the smile. “You’re more traveled than Cédes, seen more things, I mean experienced more things.” She patted Cédes’s shoulder apologetically.
“Hmm.” Reilos hummed thoughtfully and swung his legs over the sides of the hammock.
“How about Arolha Se-Baht?” Sohei suggested. Leuma nodded his agreement.
“Only if Lady Cédes doesn’t mind my shocking telling of it!”
“I will not,” she said. “History was never my strong point. Do you know how hard it is to memorize dates when you cannot see? I must have annoyed my tutors to no end! Please, you had better tell us.”
“If you insist!” He rearranged himself until he was comfortable in his hammock, while Sohei fed the brazier a few more twigs. The flickering flames bathed the tree house in a warm light.
And yet Sansonis only hoped the brazier wouldn’t set fire to the house. Here they were, high above the ground and surrounded by firewood. And if all Furosans were as clumsy as Ifaut…
“All right,” Reilos began, putting on an authoritative narrating voice, “far to the east lies the lost island of Arolha Se-Baht. Legend has it that it sits in a place of eternal twilight on the edge of the world, positively brimming with Furosa. It’s a strange place, where they say time stands still or can even run backwards.”
“They?” Stefi echoed.
“C’mon, every good story has ‘them’. You know, the strangers who first told of them, the ones who tell the stories through the generations. They,” he said. “But the best part? Anyone who reaches Arolha Se-Baht can make their dearest dreams a reality. And there a Fieretsi like you, Stefi, can easily talk to Feregana Herself.”
Stefi started. “Wait... How did...?”
“Cédes clued us in when you and Ifaut were having your little girly talk before.”
Stefi turned to Cédes. “Did you know about this place?”
Cédes shook her head. “No. Well, barely. Like I’ve said before, history was-”
“-never your strong point. Yeah, yeah, I get it already.” She didn’t mean to come across so harshly, but here perhaps was her ultimate destination. After all, Cédes had said she needed to talk to Feregana to prevent this coming disturbance. So what better place than Reilos’s island?
“Allow me to finish,” Cédes said calmly. “Yes, it is not my strong point, but religion, spirituality, glimpses of the future... those things are. After all, have you not already heard Feregana’s voice?”
Stefi nodded.
“With your natural talent and my future training we may be able to talk to her without embarking on such a perilous journey to the supposed edge of the world. That is why I said nothing of this place sooner. You must trust what I do know, and that is that we need to reach Valraines first, for there I have seen that we shall find ourselves a very useful ally.”
“But a useful ally in a place of boats and ships? Don’t you think that means-”
“I have not seen that much. I do not even know her or his face. Now, Mister Reilos,” she said with a heavy tone that suggested Stefi should be quiet and listen, “I would hear the rest of your story.”
Reilos cleared his throat and continued. “As I was saying, Arolha Se-Baht is a place where a Fieretsi can easily talk to Feregana. I know that some have sought that place, but each for different reasons. Every Fieretsi has their own purpose in life, but I’d bet all the chocolate in Sol-Acrima that most actually had nothing to do with the place.”
“Do you know what their purposes were, Cédes?” Stefi asked.
“That information would fall into the realm of history.”
Stefi sighed and rolled her eyes. “Of course it would.”
“But perhaps Reilos may enlighten us?”
“Nope, I’m just as clueless as you are, Lady Cédes,” he said with a cheeky grin.
“Clueless, yes,” Cédes agreed, “but even though I am blind I am still able to identify fellow Furosans.” She smiled.
“You got me there,” Reilos said with a shrug.
“If that’s where some others have gone, and I need to talk to Feregana to save her and the ferrets,” Stefi said, “does that mean it could be my destination too? Maybe if I can talk to Feregana there we can stop this disturbance or whatever is happening. What do you think, Cédes?”
“First we must pursue our goal of this person in Valraines. Then we shall take the adventure that comes our way.”
“As good a plan as any,” Sansonis said. “Not that I have anywhere else to go. You’re the leader so wherever you go, I go.” He thought for a moment and ran his hand through his hair. “Great. Now I sound like Ifaut…”
At the sound of his voice Ifaut stirred on his lap, warbling something incomprehensible while drooling a steady stream that spread in a dark patch across his jeans. He longed to stretch his legs out but that would mean rousing the sleeping Furosan. And if he didn’t he feared the numbness in his legs would grow permanent.
“Okay,” Stefi continued and turned back to Reilos. “How do you get there, anyway?”
“Go east,” he said simply.
“East? From where? Isn’t everywhere east from somewhere?”
“Go east from Eastern Feregana, at any rate. And stop right before you fall off the edge of the world. That’s all I know.”
“Do you know, Rhaka?” she asked the Otsukuné.
“No, nor have I heard of this place until just now. I am intrigued and will help in finding it if you so wish, but alas, I have no idea where it is.”
Just then Maya spoke to her. Why not ask us? We might know a thing or two.
“What? You know where it is?”
Of course! We’re ferrets, remember? We’re basically made from that Furosa stuff, so we can feel it. Or something else that’s very strong and full of Furosa far to the east. And we can sometimes hear what the world’s saying. Who do you think told us to find the Furosans in the first place?
“Great!” Stefi said a little too loudly, drawing curious stares. “What way do we go?” She placed Maya on the floor. The little ferret cocked his head thoughtfully for a moment as if listening to something far away, then began weaving about in a strange figure-eight pattern about the floor.
“What’s he doing?” Reilos asked and leaned forward for a better look.
“Showing us the way.”
After a moment, Maya stopped, his nose pointing eastwards. That way.
“How can you tell, though?”
You doubt me? he said haughtily. Let me put it this way. You know how we ferrets like to wander off and get lost?
“Yes.”
That’s because we’re following some great call, and it always comes from the east. So of course I know that’s the way.
“Is he right, Gem?” she asked the other ferret. But Gemmie was sound asleep. “Now we have a compass, or compasses. Once we hit Valraines and meet Cédes’s person, we head east.”
“Should we find that to be a necessary course,” Cédes put it.
“Agreed,” Stefi said. Then, “Have any of you three ever been out that way before? East, I mean,” she asked the three Blue Tails.
At this Sohei let out a gentle laugh, clear and delicate. “Haven’t you noticed my skin’s darker than everyone else’s? It means I’m from over there,” she said and jerked her thumb in the same direction Maya had just faced.
Before Stefi could reply, Cédes did for her. “Yes, I saw that you were Arigan,” she said then added proudly, “See? I used sarcasm!”
“Very good, Cédes,” Stefi said, trying to contain her laughter at Cédes’s childlike enthusiasm for this new conversational tool. Cédes smiled contentedly to herself and, leaning back, folded her arms. She looked almost smug.
“Lad
y Cédes, you already know where I’m from, so don’t cheat!”
“Hence the sarcasm.”
Stefi sighed. She almost regretted teaching Cédes sarcasm. But she displayed an obvious joy in pointing it out and impressing her new human friend, so perhaps it wasn’t that bad after all. It was then she realized that just as Cédes had much to teach her, so did she have much to teach Cédes.
“Anyway,” Sohei said, drawing out the word lazily as she spoke, “I don’t much remember anything of it so I won’t be any help there. I came here when I was little. Well, littler than I am now,” she added, conscious of her small stature.
“Leuma?” Stefi asked. The Furosan sat on the floor, head hanging sleepily as a dozing Sentinel perched on his shoulder.
“Nope. Can’t say I’ve been overseas either,” he said without lifting his head. “I’d like to go, but I don’t think Sentinel would handle going on a boat all that well.”
“And while I know stories,” Reilos added, “that’s about all.” He yawned.
Sohei noticed this and said, “It’s getting late. Perhaps we should call it a day?”
Reilos nodded. “There are plenty of hammocks for you to sleep in, and we’ve got a nest if you want to use that.” He gestured towards a mound of colorful blankets in the corner. Their folds looked almost like gentle, rolling hills.
Stefi and her ferrets chose the blankets, mainly because she didn’t feel like being any higher than she already was. Sansonis managed to carry Ifaut, although his legs had already fallen asleep, and placed her gently in one of the many hammocks that hung from the rafters. He found another one for himself nearby. Rhaka stayed where he was on the floor, insisting that it was comfortable enough, while Cédes decided to join Stefi.
“Am I learning well?” Cédes whispered once everyone but she and Stefi had fallen asleep.
“Yes, you are,” Stefi said.
“Good. I appreciate your help. We have much to learn from one another,” she said. She rolled closer to Stefi and put an arm around her before quickly falling asleep.
Stefi couldn’t help but feel just a little uncomfortable and winced despite Cédes’s soft touch. Judging by Ifaut’s affection towards Sansonis she realized that maybe such open affection was simply normal Furosan behavior. Not that Ifaut would be considered “normal” by any human standards. Still, this wasn’t something readily done between human friends, at least. It felt strange, yet also comforting, like hugging a relative not seen in years. Cédes was right. There was still so much to learn.
Everyone awoke early the next morning and, after a breakfast of slightly burnt toast prepared by Sohei and Reilos, readied themselves for departure.
“Before you go,” Reilos said, “we want you to have something.” The other two nodded at him and he scooped up a handful of gold coins. “These are from all of us, to say sorry and good luck.” He divided the coins, a respectable amount, amongst the Fieretka. When he reached Cédes he took her hand and gently placed a few into her palm. She refused them.
“No, do not worry. Your hospitality and story-telling are enough,” she said.
“And I guess Rhaka doesn’t want any either?”
The Otsukuné shook his head, a gesture he’d picked up from the humans and Furosans.
Reilos continued, “You know, I hate long goodbyes, so let me just say it now. Goodbye.” He grinned for a moment before muttering to himself, “Oh, what the firik…” He stepped forward and seized a surprised Stefi in an over-exuberant hug. All she could do was laugh.
“Thanks for everything,” she said and drew breath with some difficulty. “I’ll tell you all about Arolha Se-Baht when we get back.”
“Should we even go there,” Cédes cut in.
“I look forward to it.” He released her and rejoined his friends.
“I hope everything goes well,” Sohei said brightly. “Keep an eye out for my family if you get to the east.”
“What do you mean?” Stefi asked.
“Oh, I forgot to mention. My family’s still over there in Ariga. I think. They left me here in Mafouras where it was safer but I guess they just forgot to come back for me!” she said with a laugh, lightly masking her true feelings. In truth, she had long since given up hope of them returning for her. If they were still alive.
Leuma offered a lazy wave of farewell, more occupied with Sentinel than the departing Fieretka.
“And remember,” Reilos called as they climbed down the ladder, “if you need anything, anytime, just call. The Blue Tails will be there!”