The first snow had arrived and drifted down from the darkened cloudy sky.
Tsugi and Lugo were panting exhaustively from practicing their magic. Just a few hours of magic class wore them out more than any physical training they had ever done before. Tsugi’s healing was getting much better and he was able to heal some of the bigger wounds before running out of energy. Lugo was able to make doors across town, making it easier for them to travel back and forth. Although, Jenene seems to have regretted teaching them as it turned them lazy. She palmed her forehead and shook her head when Lugo used it to grab a stick off the ground that was right by his own foot.
“Alright, go home darlins.” She waved a hand into the air. “Oh and Tsugi.” Tsugi turned back to look at her. “I will be introducing you to your instructor tomorrow. She will be working with you on your healing powers.”
Tsugi nodded his head and turned back, following Lugo out of the orphanage.
“I heard that there’s a winter festival in town. Did you want to go?” Lugo looked down at Tsugi.
“Uh…I don’t know. I still have to take Ruzo out to exercise and clean the house…”
“Those are lame excuses.” Lugo rolled his eyes. “Ruzo can go with us and you said Aeris cleans at night anyways. I bet you’ve never even been to a festival seeing as you don’t even know how to have fun. You don’t have a choice, you’re going with me.” Lugo smiled and continued down the road happily.
“Ugh…” Tsugi frowned and rolled his eyes, slumping his shoulders in vexation. “I knew I shouldn’t have allowed you to live with me.” He muttered.
After getting ready and dressed warmly, they both left the house and walked into town with Ruzo in tow. The sun hadn't quite set yet, but the villagers were hanging up colored paper lanterns all throughout the city; musicians had already settled in the middle of the town square and making that awful yet pleasant noise as they tune their instruments; children filled the streets with laughter and joyful screams as they ran through the streets with candy and paper snowflakes.
Tsugi looked next to him, but Lugo had disappeared. He glanced around him and found Lugo purchasing two pieces of snowflake candy made from the harvested sugar from sugar cane. Lugo came running back and shoved one in Tsugi’s face. “Here.” Tsugi hesitated but took it from him. In a most dramatic manner, as if to tell Tsugi that it’s something he can eat, Lugo excitedly bit into the crunchy snowflake as it melted in his mouth. “Mmm! It’s delicious!”
Tsugi raised a brow at his candid behavior and bit into it, feeling the crunch as it melted in his mouth, and stuck to his teeth. “Mmm.” Tsugi pressed against his cheeks when the sugar caused a painful release of his saliva glands that pooled into his mouth. The flavor was enticing and addicting. How had he not known that such a sweet and delicious thing existed?
“Hey, we’re looking for more kids to join us. Did you two want to play?” An older girl around Lugo’s age came over and stood in front of them holding her hands behind her back as she rocked back and forth on her feet.
“What are you playing?” Lugo quickly gobbled up the rest of his candy.
“Seek-and-hide.” She smiled innocently.
“What’s that?” Tsugi finished the last of his candy and looked at her puzzledly.
“You two know how to play hide-and-seek right?”
They both nodded.
“Well, it’s the opposite. One person hides, and when you find them, you hide with them, until there’s only one person left.”
“Sure! We’ll join! I’m Lugo and this is Tsugi.” Lugo bowed politely.
“Great! I’m Saiyo. Come on, we're about to start.” She took off into the middle of the town square where the rest of the children were.
“You go ahead, Lugo. I’ll just stay over here with Ruzo and watch.” Tsugi gave him a wry smile as he tried to sneak away with Ruzo.
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“No! You’re playing with me. Come on!”
“What about Ruzo? I can’t just leave him and he can’t play with us. It’ll be cheating.”
“He can stay here while we play. He’s well trained anyways, he’ll wait for us. You need to learn to relax and be a kid. Yamo told you to stop being so uptight. Come on.” Lugo grabbed Tsugi by the arm and led him toward the other children.
“Okay, rules!” An older gentleman called out and all the children quieted. “You cannot hide anywhere dangerous, can’t go inside anyone’s homes, must be within the boundaries that have been lit with lanterns, and it cannot be anywhere high. Any questions? Okay. The littlest one gets to hide first, I will give them this red cloth to tie around their hand, so you’ll know if you found the right one or not. Everyone else inside the tent!” He pointed to a giant tent that had been set up and they all gathered into it.
After several minutes they released each group by age. Soon it was Tsugi’s turn. He commanded Ruzo to stay in the tent, where he promptly planted his bottom in obedience. Tsugi was unsure of how to play the game but he left anyway and looked on as the other children moved to search the fountain, behind boxes and around corners. Tsugi walked around and searched everywhere he could think of.
He went down a dark alley and he heard a little kid crying in the dark corner. “Hey…are you okay?” Tsugi approached her, but she just kept sniffling and crying. “Are you okay?” Tsugi repeated and reached a hand to her.
-”Don’t touch her!” A loud whisper echoed in his ear, but the anonymous warning came too late. Tsugi’s hand had already made contact with the girl. “Are you okay?” He repeated.
“Yeah, I’m just…so hungry.”
“It’s okay. I can get you something to eat.” Tsugi knelt by her side. “What would you like to eat?”
“YOU!” She whipped her head around and lunged at Tsugi. Her eyes were wide and completely black with red slits like a snake. Her skin turned scaly and her tongue slithered out, splitting into two long wormy ones. Her claws dug into Tsugi’s shoulder, and her legs turned into a scaly tail.
She lowered her head and her jaw unhooked itself, opening her mouth wide in an attempt to swallow Tsugi whole. He began pulling out the daggers, but two more arms popped out of her sides and pinned his hands to the ground. Her tail wrapped itself around Tsugi and squeezed him tighter and tighter.
Her stringy saliva dripped onto Tsugi’s face with millions of tiny sharp teeth lining her mouth. He couldn’t breathe. With every exhale she squeezed tighter, not allowing any more air to enter his straining lungs. The vein pulsed in his neck and he felt like his head was about to explode from the pressure. His vision started to turn darker and darker. She suddenly released Tsugi and he could finally breathe. He turned over, coughing and gasping for air.
“Are you okay?” Lugo ran over. He had thrown a wooden box into the creature, knocking the creature further down the dark alley.
She quickly got back up and hissed angrily before slithering down a different alley to escape.
“Hurry! It’ll try to eat the other kids!” Tsugi screamed and they both ran after her, but she had already disappeared. With so many different paths, they weren’t sure which way she had gone. Tsugi looked at the floor and walls trying to detect anything. He could see a little of the wet saliva on the floor. “This way!” They darted down the dark alley, turning around corners and searching everywhere they could.
“Over there!” Lugo yelled as she slithered down another alley. Tsugi drew his daggers and threw one, pinning her tail to the wall, causing her to whip around and hiss angrily at them. Lugo picked up a stick from the alley and swung it at the creature, but with its four arms, it was able to block him easily. Tsugi threw his other dagger and it went right into the creature's chest, angering her. She let out a hissing scream and yanked out the dagger, throwing it back at Tsugi, as green blood oozed out of her wound.
Tsugi re-summoned the daggers into his hands and he connected them. He swung it at the creature's neck, severing it and sending it flying through the air as it drew splatters of green blood through the dark alley. Her body dropped to the floor and wriggled violently. The tail whipped Lugo in the butt, hard enough to send him flying face first into the nearby wall.
“OW!” Lugo got up and rubbed his swollen cheeks, both his face and butt-cheeks that is. The body eventually stopped convulsing. Tsugi and Lugo carefully approached it and stared at it. “How did this thing get in here?”
“I don’t know, but when I first saw it, it was in the form of a little girl.” Tsugi and Lugo looked back and forth at each other and at the body on the floor. “We should get rid of it before anyone finds it and a panic occurs.”
“Yeah.” Lugo said, rubbing his face and butt.
Lugo made a door to the outside and they dumped the body in the nearby woods before returning to the town square.
“Well, you’re getting better at this door thing.” Tsugi’s complement brought a proud smile to Lugo’s face.
“Where were you two, we were waiting for forever!” Saiyo had her hands on her hips and tapped her feet impatiently.
“Sorry.” Lugo scratched his head. “We couldn’t find you guys and then we got lost.”
“What happened to your face?”
“Oh! Uh, I tripped and fell face first into the wall.” He chuckled nervously.
“Well, then since both of you couldn’t find us, either you two go hide together or decide who will hide.”
“I’ll hide.” Tsugi volunteered.
“We can both hide.” Lugo wrapped his arm around Tsugi’s shoulders.
“No, I can hide by myself.” Tsugi hisses under his breath, just loud enough so that Lugo can hear.
Lugo leaned in to whisper, “what if there’s more? It’s safer to go in pairs than to be alone.”
“Fine, we’ll hide together.” Tsugi hung his head in defeat.