-Break-
Φ Standing outside of Yamal’s house, I take a second to look at it. The house is rather nicely built, but to be honest I haven’t seen a bad house at all in Jedidiah. They are all fairly big, and all of the bigger ones I have seen always have more people living in them, it seems house size is equally distributed with family size.
This country is really well run, but I could say the same about Maples Village of Aplos and even Skydust, I guess small communities are just a lot easier to run.
Walking towards Yamal's door with the bag of goodies, I knock and stand there awkwardly for a moment as I hear Yamal’s footsteps bring him closer to the door. The moment he opens the door, I say, “Sorry about yesterday,” while holding up the bags of goodies.
Giving me a death stare, Yamal says with a lazy voice, “Come on in bastard.”
I expected him to be angrier, it seems this is going well!
Following him into his house, I see his daughter Raqiue walk up to him and ask with a bright smile, “Baba who is this, is he your friend!?”
Without emotion, he says, “No he isn’t. Now go get his shoes for him.”
“OK!”
Running up to me, she says, “Let me help you!”
“Don’t worry, I can handle this myself.”
As I take off my shoes, I say, “Your hair is sort of messy, would you like me to do it for you?”
Raqiue with her fuzzy hair says, “I left it like this on purpose, I thought I might be able to get Baba to do it for me today.” As she talks she fiddles with her finger as if she is some protagonist trying to confess her love.
Yamal says, with a cold tone, “Don’t be a child, I know you can do it yourself so just go get on with it.”
With all her shyness being exchanged with raw energy, she turns around and says, “Of course Baba!”
After I take off my shoes, I follow both of them into what looks like a kitchen. While inside, I take another look around and I note that the house is spacious, I guess these houses don’t only look good from the outside, but also great from the inside.
“There are excess dishes go wash them.”
Joyfully, Raqiue says, “Yes Baba!”
Looking over at the dishes it is only one or two plates, but looking at this also leads me to notice that this house is incredibly clean. Though it reeks of alcohol.
Walking over to a table, Yamal says, “Sit your ass down, boy.”
“R-Right.”
Sitting down in front of Yamal with the sound of Raqiue washing dishes and humming, he says with a furious glare, “You do know what you did to me yesterday?”
Slamming my head into the table, I say, “I am so sorry!”
“Do you even know the embarrassment I faced by being tied up naked out in the open!”
“In the bag, I returned your clothes washed and dried.”
“But you know what bothers me even more than that, the fact that the man who beat me up is now the guest of our king and is wearing rather fancy clothes!”
As his voice starts to get louder he snaps his fingers and moments later Raqiue runs to his side and gives him a bottle of liquor. Chugging it down he starts to cry and says, “This isn’t fair at all, I deserve compensation for my abuse.”
While he continues to cry Raqiue places tissues right beside him as she goes back to what she was doing.
“But didn’t all the others I beat up accept the king's apology and move on.”
“I AM AN OLD MAN, the damage I take from such things can’t be compared to such children.”
“Well, it seems the king thought so too, so here is your compensation,” I say holding up the bag of goodies.
As he opens it a blinding golden light emanates from the bag, which causes Yamal to smile.
How much did Ahmed give him!?
Closing the bag, the light leaves as Yamal says with a merry face, “Is there anything else for me?”
Is he really asking for something else, after receiving all that? “Well, brother asked me to tell you something.”
“Then go ahead and spit it out already.”
“He said, “Behave Yamal I felt the chains reacting yesterday.””
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Looking at Yamal’s face it starts to look lifeless, but moments later he says, “I see.”
Trying to change the awkward mood in the room, I say, “Sorry if what I said upset you, to be honest, I don’t know what he meant by that but if you understand it, I guess there is no problem.”
Opening the bag he takes a small bit of gold and places it at his side then says, “Alright time to gamble, get your ass moving you’re coming with me.”
Shaking my head from side to side I say, “I don’t know the first thing about gambling.”
“Don’t worry you're only coming so that people will let down their guard, Now get on your feet and follow me.”
As we walk to the door, Raqiue says, “Baba.”
Devoid of any emotion, Yamal says, “What is it?”
“Would you be able to take me to see tonight’s story?”
“Why would I do that, aren’t you capable of going yourself?”
Fidgeting, she says, “I just thought it would be fun to watch it together.”
“Ok then, I will as long as you can guess the story that will be told today.”
“But there is an 0.0099009901% chance of me getting it correct.”
Turning to her I say, “You can break down factions to percentages at such a young age, how wonderful.”
As she smiles back at me, Yamal says, “Looks like someone’s becoming a smart ass.”
“Sorry, Baba.”
Annoyed, Yamal says, “Don’t apologize it's annoying.”
“Sorry, Baba.”
Letting out a sigh, Yamal says in an irritated voice, “Well whatever, but my conditions won’t change so you better pray to god that you get it right.”
“OK!”
“Now repeat the rules to me.”
With glee, she says, “Don’t play with fire, don’t let anyone in, and don’t touch the bottles. And if in trouble run first ask questions later!”
“Good now, let’s go.”
As we walk out the door Raqiue says, “Bye Baba!”
Putting his hand up as he walks away, he waves to her not even looking at her.
“Are you sure it is ok to just leave her alone here?”
“She is 5 years old, basically an adult, she can take care of herself. But now let’s talk about something interesting, why are you here.”
“It is actually nothing important, I think it would be more interesting for you to tell me about yourself.”
Suddenly an aura of arrogance fills the air as Yamal starts joyfully talking zealously about himself. “You see when I was born into a crappy small village without a name, so instead of rotting there like an idiot I went out to Cordum and because a hunter!”
As he continues to go on for what seems like a never-ending story, I say, “CRAP!”
“What’s the issue?”
“It seems I left something back at your house.”
“Well then go grab it quickly.”
Turning around, I run back to his house at full speed, “To think I forgot those nice shoes I was given.” The closer I get to the house the more I smell something strange, “Fire?”
Using my legacy on my legs, I dash towards the house and open the door then I run into their kitchen to see Raqiue messing with something on the floor.
As she turns and faces me a fire ignites, so I lunge forward and create ice to protect us both as an explosion goes off.
Recovering from the blow with Raqiue in my arms, I hear her say, “That was fun let’s do it again!”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I got bored so I thought I would try a science experiment. My teacher gave me some equipment from school!”
“He should be fired!”
“I know what I am doing!”
“Didn’t your dad tell you not to play with fire?”
With a face of innocent confusion, she says, “Why would I listen to that!?”
Is this just how kids are, “Capti I am sorry.”
“Let’s do it again!”
“No, we won't be doing any such thing your going to sit here and behave.”
“Pouting she says, “But I get so bored and lonely! If only I could come with you and Baba.”
“Not a chance.”
Pouting even more she says, “Please!”
“Don’t give me that face.”
Getting as cute as can possibly be she says, “Please, I promise to be good.”
“Ok.”
“YAY!”
“I couldn’t fight the cuteness.”
“I need a disguise.”
Scratching my chin, I say, “Well let’s go get you sorted out.”
Running back over to Yamal standing outside the casino, Raqiue says, “Won’t dad see through this bad disguise?”
“Trust me he won’t.”
“Walking over to Yamal he says, “What you got there!?”
“Oh, it's my teddy.”
Letting out a laugh, Yamal says, “What kind of adult has a teddy!”
As he laughs at me Raqiue says, “He really didn’t notice.”
“With the way he has been drinking, I would be surprised if he could even tell up from down right now.”
Walking in Yamal says, “What’s taking you so long hurry up.”
“I’m coming!”
-Break-
Φ “Cyrus over there is Khalid's shop. It is over 1200 years old.”
“That’s n-n-n-not that long.”
“I agree, but by human standards, it is one of the oldest shops in their history.”
“The human n-n-n-ations are strange.”
“They sure are, but for someone like you who has been travelling around a lot it probably feels familiar.”
This is my chance to impressive Pari, “E-E-Exactly, I can deal with all the human customs.”
Walking up to Khalid’s shop full of confidence, I say, “Can I please have three of those meat skewers.” No stutters, I am doing good!
Suddenly Khalid has a rather angry look on his face, and says, “Get out of my face!”
In that instant, all of my confidence fades and I start to shake out of fright.
Walking up behind me my sister grabs my head and repositions it, “Cyrus raising your chin when asking for something here is seen as a sign of disrespect.”
Facing him, Pari says, “Sorry Khalid, can I please have three of those.”
“No issue Pari.”
After my sister finishes her transaction, I sit down on a bench with her and wallow in my failure.
“It is ok Cyrus; you shouldn’t push yourself above your limits just for me.”
“I-I-I just wanted to help.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t need it in the slightest from you.”
“But how are you so well versed in this, what have you even been doing all these years?”
“Well, I have gone to and from many different places, until are amazing king brought me here. He really saved my life,” my sister says with a smile.
Frowning even more, I hear something coming towards my sister, so I stretch my hand out to catch the object. “It’s a ball.”
“Looks like it was kicked over from the game they were having.”
“T-T-They should be more careful.”
“Don’t worry Cyrus it is not like it will hurt me.”
“But s-s-s-s-ister you're really weak, when I was a child you lost to me in arm wrestling all the time.”
“I guess, I did.”
“Sorry Pari,” A kid says as he runs up to us.
“Don’t worry about it, I was in no danger.”
“Who is this man?”
“Oh, he is my younger brother.”
“So, he is another dragon?”
“Exactly.”
“Then would you two like to join over arm wrestling tournament?”
“Sounds like fun, let’s go, Cyrus.”
Following my sister, I see her sit down on a chair facing a rather muscular man, who says, “I won’t go easy on you lady Pari.”
“Same here,” My sister says as she takes off some jewellery on her fingers.
“Sister be careful, he looks strong.”
As the both of them get into their starting positions I being to panic, will she be ok?
“3, 2, 1, BEGIN!”
In an instant, my sister smashes his hand straight down through the table.
“WINNER, Paribanou!”
As cheers fill the area with people running over to my sister, I notice how happy she looks. I don’t remember her ever being this happy around me.