- - - - - - - - - The Water Watcher - - - - - - - - -
Chapter One - - - - - - - - - -Chagum POV:
I smelled the smoke instantly. It was the kind of smell you never forget. The smells of burning wood and flesh. Last, time I was long gone by the time it reached me, so the intensity had dulled quite a bit. Now, I was right near it and it hit full in the face. I woke and set up, my body trying to decide between coughing and throwing up. I settled for coughing for right now.
"Chagum! Chagum!" Balsa ran into my room and pulled me to my feet. "We must go, Chagum. Now."
"What's going on Balsa?"
Balsa looked at me sadly. Every since I'd made her my personal bodyguard, she had slowly gotten more carefree about showing her emotions to me. "I'm sorry, Chagum. There were assassins. Your parent's bodyguards couldn't protect them and by the time I got there, it was too late and the men were gone."
"What are you saying?"
"Your parents have been killed. You would have been too if I hadn't ran into the assassins on the way down here. Come on. We have to get you to a safe place."
I followed her, trying to keep from tripping over my robes. "Where are we going, Balsa?"
"I don't know yet. They've already found and ransacked Hunter's Cave. Tanda just came from there and that's how I knew they were here."
"So are we on the run again?"
"Shaman Torogai said that she knows a place where we may be safe. She said that you would be especially welcome there. It's in the mountains, about half a league from Hunter's Cave and is cut into the rock just like it. There's a girl there that I saved before I met you. She's not too fond of me, or of anyone really, but you grow to like her well enough. Eventually. Maybe."
I didn't know where we were going and I had just become an orphan, but there was time to worry about that later. Besides, trusted Balsa. I'd follow her to the end of the world if she told me to, because I know that she would always find a way.
Hero POV:
"Hero!" I heard a familiar voice call. "Hero! Where are you, you idiot girl?"
I sighed and stood reluctantly before walking towards the main room. "I'm coming, you grouchy old bag. What do you want this time? My brother is out today, but he'll be ba-… BALSA!"
For those of you who think that was a cry of joy, you'd be wrong. It was a cry of rage. I glared at the spearwielder and she only smiled gently. "Hey Hero."
"Ima kill you!" I unsheathed my knife and ran at her. I slashed and I kicked but she avoided my moves fluidly. "Stand still!"
Tanda laughed. "As if she's actually going to just stand still, Hero."
I was distracted from my foe for a moment by the Yakue man. "Tanda? You're still hanging out with this Oba-san? I thought you were the smart one?"
Balsa glared at me and since I was the same height she was, it didn't have as much effect. "Since when am I an Oba-san?"
"Hey! Who's the chibi?" I asked, completely distracted. I had a short attention span.
The chibi bristles and straightened up to his full height, which was still a foot shorter than me. "I'm not a chibi. You're just really tall. Who old are you, thirty?"
"Hey! You shut your mouth Chibi-tan. I'm only sixteen."
His eyes widened. "No way! I'm sixteen!"
Tanda laughed and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't fret about it, Chagum. Hero here is from Hanamadoki. The women there are taller than the men. That's mainly because the woman were bred a hundred years ago to be tall so that they could reach the fruits in the ridiculously tall trees that are native to that land and also to make their reach longer with their knives. See, in Hanamadoki, the men and women roles are switched. They're like penguins. The men take care of the children while the mother spends three months in the forest gathering fruit that they use as produce for their lively hood."
I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the culture lesson, Tanda, but I think you're boring the poor kid."
He shook his head and looked up at Tanda with bright eyes. "Oh, no. I find other cultures fascinating."
"I was trying to get a chance to take everyone inside so that I can finally eat! Throw me a bone kid!"
"Why would I throw a bone at you?"
I sighed and shook my head. "Who are you, Kid-Who-Is-Dumber-Than-My-Aniki?"
He seemed to ignore my last remark. "My name is Chagum. I'm the Crown Prince of…. Actually, I guess I'm the Emperor, now."
I could practically read the story in his sad eyes. "Ah… I get it. This is anther case of Balsa saving the kid after the parents have been slaughtered. Eh, Balsa?"
She hesitated, but nodded. "Must you put it so crudely?"
I sighed again and threw an arm around the kid's shoulders. "Come on in, Chibi-tan. We can eat and I'll tell you the story of how I met Balsa. I'm assuming that you all need a place to stay?"
I looked over at the shaman and she nodded. "If you would."
I shrugged. "What kind of 'Hero' would I be if I didn't help people in need? Before I tell you my story, I wanna hear yours."
I led the four of them inside and the first room we came to was the main room. It wasn't much. Just a couch, a chair and a fire pit. Next, we walked into the door on the left and found the kitchen/dinning room, which was really just a larger fire pit, four rugs (one on each side), and a pile of wood.
"I see that you were expecting us." Tanda said as he looked around.
Chibi looked back at him as I made the bowls of food. "What makes you think that, Tanda?" He asked.
Tada snorted with laughter. "The fact she cleaned. If she hadn't been expecting us, you wouldn't be able to move for all the mess."
"So I'm not the best housekeeper. Sue me."
"What you?"
"Never mind, Chibi-tan. Anyway, Tanda, it's not that I was expecting you in particular. Would I have bothered to clean if I knew it was you? No. All that Spirit told me was that I should expect visitors."
Balsa looked up from the bowl that I handed her. "Spirit? Who's Spirit?"
I shrugged. "Iunno. Some kind of water spirit I guess. Shows up at the door one rainy day, tells me her name is Spirit, then asks me if I can spare a bucket of water for her to live in. Of course, she was tiny then, so the bucket that she needed just had to keep getting bigger. I ended up having to dig a small pool in the bedroom for her."
Chibi jumped to his feet. "Can I see her?"
I was taken aback slightly, but shrugged. "Be my guest. She's quite the chatterbox, so don't get mad at me if she starts talking your ear off."
Shaman Torogai looked at me surprised as Chagum ran into my bedroom. "You can understand her?"
"Sure," I said, kind of curious as to what she was talking about. "Why wouldn't I be able to?"
She was quiet for a moment before following Chagum into the bedroom. I left a thoughtful Tanda and a curious Balsa in the kitchen as to follow them. I stopped in the doorway and watched at the chibi fell to his knees in front of Spirit. Spirit didn't look very odd, unless you count the complexion so pale that you can see her bright blue veins on her face and neck and also her webbed fingers and toes. Other than that, she could be any four-year-old human girl.
"Shaman Torogai," Chibi said quietly, without turning to look at her. "Is she…"
"Yes, Chagum. This is the latest Nyunga Ro Im. The one that you bore for so long."
"Wait," I started as I walked farther in the room. "You're the Guardian she keeps talking about?"
Chibi nodded. "I am."
I smirked and bent down to his ear. "She's got quite the crush on you, Chibi-tan."
He blushed and took a big step away from the pool. Spirit giggled and pushed herself on of the pool to sit leisurely on the edge. "I have been awaiting you, Chagum-sama," She said in that sickly sweet voice of hers.
"Why would you be awaiting this Chibi-tan? He's short for his age, even in my village's standards."
"Hey!"
Balsa chuckled as she walked in the room. "I had no idea you would be so sensitive about your height, Chagum."
He glared at the floor slightly and pouted. "Well, no had ever called me short before. I'm not that much shorter than the other boys my age."
Spirit interrupted. "Chagum-sama is the first Guardian to survive in over ten thousand years. It was the old custom, before the Eaters began to come after them, the Guardians would help the Princess to find a mate."
"A mate?" I asked her. Everyone looked over at me.
Spirit nodded. "That is why it always took one-hundred years for the next Princess to be born. A Princess must carry the egg for fifty years before it is given to a Guardian, so, if after fifty years of life, the Princess has still not chosen a mate, one is forced upon her by the other SeaSky Beings. Now that Chagum-sama is here, I will be able to choose my own mate."
"What is she saying?" Tanda asked.
I looked over at them. "What do you mean? Can't you hear her?"
"We can hear her," Shaman Torogai answered. "But all that we can understand is garbled gurgling."
"Then why can I understand her?"
Shaman Torogai looked away and started heading back for the kitchen. "Hmm… I don't know."
"Yes you do! You know!"
"Do not."
"Do so!"
"Do not!"
"Do so, do so, do so!"
She didn't answer because she was probably gorging herself on my food… again. Balsa and Tanda laughed quietly as they left. Chibi still remained poolside. I knelt down beside him and we were both quiet for a moment.
"Can you translate for me?" He asked. "I'd like to talk to her."
I just looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Just talk. She can probably understand you. I'll just translate what she says, I guess."
He nodded and started to speak. Granted I couldn't understand all of the Yogo words, especially with his thick accent, but it seemed to me that he was telling her a story. Much of what I had to translate from her was 'Oh! Really?' and 'And then what happened?'
He kept talking even after she'd fallen asleep on the ledge. When he was finally finished, I took Spirit up in my arms and laid her into the water so that she sunk to the bottom. If she stayed out of water for too long, she'd dry up.
"So," I started after ten minutes of silence. "What were you telling her? I could only get the gist."
He smiled nostalgically. "I was telling her the story of what I went through to see her born safely."
We were quiet again for a while before I finally made to stand. "Well! We better get to sleep. Right, Chibi-ta-…"
I was stopped by a tug on my sleeve. I looked down and saw the kid's head bowed and small dots of water suddenly appearing on the dirt floor. I sighed and sat back down before taking the kid in my arms and letting him cry on my shoulder.
"My parents… my home… my country… everything is going wrong…," He whispered through tears.
I pat his back awkwardly. "Do you want me to go get Tanda? Or even Balsa? I was never too good at handling other people's sudden displays of emotion."
He didn't say a word, but held me tighter. I sighed, but I understood. He didn't want the others to see him like this. It's different if a complete stranger sees you break down, but if the people that you're closest to see you break down, you can never really come back from that.