"No Cass. I didn't start it. They insulted me and then they started hitting me." Hiro said drily.
"Well thank goodness Naiee showed up. You've got a black eye." Cass replied sternly. She opened a box and started pulling tableware out of it.
"Naiee just ended up getting beat up more than me. He was practically a distraction until his brother showed up." Hiro muttered.
"His brother? He has a brother?" Cass questioned.
"His brother is dead. It was his spirit." Hiro explained.
"I remember Naiee's father mentioning that he used to have two sons." Cass snickered. "But there's no such thing as ghosts or spirits coming to the real world."
"I saw him with my own eyes Aunt Cass!" Hiro exclaimed.
"You were probably just seeing things since those bullies beat you up quite a bit." Cass sighed. "Or maybe it was just a trick of the light."
"Then why did the bullies leave?" Hiro turned to look at his aunt.
"They probably got bored. It doesn't sound, or look, like you put up much of a fight." She pursed her lips.
"I can't believe this. Why don't you believe me?" Hiro threw his hands in the air dramatically.
"Because it's ridiculous!" Cass yelled. "I've had enough of this. Why don't you go see of Naiee is doing. Those punk kids knocked him unconscious, right?"
"He passed out from aquaphobia, actually." Hiro muttered.
"Don't you back talk me mister!"
"You asked if the bullies knocked him unconscious! I just answered!"
"Well you could have answered me politely."
Hiro got up, fuming. He stormed out the door, muttering profanities. He glanced upwards, towards Naiee's house.
Aunt Cass opened the door. "The storm is going to get major soon. Be home in five minutes max. Naiee's father said that the whole village stays indoors for this kind of storm."
"Fine Aunt Cass." Hiro rolled his eyes to pretend he couldn't care less about the storm, but he couldn't help but glance upwards. The sky was coated in a gray, nearly black, blanket of clouds, and the wind blew crazily.
Once Cass had disappeared back into the house, Hiro returned his gaze to Naiee's yard.
He could just about see the tip of Naiee's blonde head. He dashed across the bridge that led to his house.
There was one more platform made from stacked rocks (like almost all the other platforms in the village) that Hiro hadn't noticed. It was covered in soft looking green grass, and one weeping willow stood in the upper left hand corner. It's leaves were a crisp golden-brown, and they hung off long, drooping branches that seemed to stand guard over two tombstones. One was tall with a rose on it, the other was shorter and simpler.
Naiee had taken a knee in between them, his head bowed.
How had Hiro not noticed this before?
"Uh...Hey, Naiee. How are you?" Hiro called timidly.
Naiee raised his head and glanced over his shoulder. He smiled a little.
"Hey Hiro. I'm okay. Come on up." He said kindly.
Hiro awkwardly started walking across the bridge. An especially strong gust of wind came out of nowhere, and rocked the bridge, Hiro seized the rope railing for the rest of the walk and sat down beside Naiee.
"Are you okay?" Naiee asked. He shifted into a sitting position.
"Yeah. Your Healer is awesome." Hiro replied.
"He is, isn't he?"
"Although when he chewed up those leaves and spit them on my cut, it was a bit awkward." Hiro laughed a little.
"Yeah." Naiee laughed. "I've been whittling a masher, or beater, of some sort for him to use as an alternative to his mouth. This spit is kinda gross. But hey, it works."
"So...umm...I hate to re-hash old wounds...or however that phrase goes." Hiro stammered. "I don't want to bring up any unpleasant feelings or memories, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to…"
Naiee nodded for him to go on.
"The leader guy-"
"Icksar."
"Seriously? That's his name?"
"Uh-huh. I almost felt sorry for him when he introduced himself after he beat me up." Naiee smiled humorously at the thought of him pitying the bully.
"No wonder he's so cross!" Hiro laughed.
"I heard that his parents had a competition with another pregnant couple to see who could give their kid the weirdest name." Naiee giggled.
"Oh my gosh, really?" Hiro laughed. "Did they win?"
"Um...DUH! Although the other pregnant couple still had a crazy name." Naiee smirked.
"What?"
"Luena. For a boy."
Hiro fell over laughing. "That's horrible!"
"Yeah, but it turned out the baby was actually a girl, the husband had read the stars wrong, so it was okay."
"Is Luena nice?"
Lightning suddenly forked across the sky, illuminating the clouds. An enormous clap of thunder boomed a mere second afterward.
"Sheesh." Naiee said. He glared at the sky as rain slowly began to fall from the thick clouds. He turned back to Hiro. "Yeah. She is really nice. She also made up this game she calls 'basketball' that's really fun. I'll have to introduce you to her sometime."
Hiro smiled. He was briefly reminded of GoGo, since she and Luena both sounded like tom boys.
Naiee sighed. "Anyway, you said you wanted to ask me something?"
Hiro snapped his fingers. "Right!"
Naiie turned to look at him, smiling gently.
The question evaporated off Hiro's tongue. Naiee was in semi-good mood, and Hiro didn't feel like ruining it by asking about his brother.
"How old are you?" He asked.
"I am twelve, although everyone says I act like I'm still ten." Naiee answered. "What about you?"
"Fourteen year old genius, at your service." Hiro got up and mock bowed.
"Oh, shut up." Naiee play shoved Hiro's ankle.
Suddenly, a dark form came into view on the ocean. It was bulleting towards them.
"What in the world?" Hiro muttered under his breath.
"What? What is it?" Naiee asked. He got to his feet.
Hiro pointed to the horizon, at the blur of brown streaking across the water.
Naiee's eyes widened.
"It's a boat." He realized. 'And something is helping it go that fast."
Hiro squinted. He could make out the form of the boat. Large white sails were billowing in the tornado worthy wind. The small forms of people simply sat idly on the boat, as if they didn't care that they were rocketing towards land in the middle of a major storm.
"They may be going fast because of the wind." Hiro suggested.
"Hey fourteen year old genius, that's impossible. Plus, no one can survive being on the water in this storm for more than a couple minutes." Naiee said casually, although his expression was dark. His emerald green eyes had gained a haunted, empty look.
You got your mother killed because you couldn't pull her into a boat. Hiro recalled Icksar saying. He had figured Naiee's mother drowned after Icksar said that, but, perhaps it had been during this storm?
Suddenly, a fork of blindingly white lightning bolted from the sky and struck the water in front of the speeding boat.
The boat continued as though nothing had happened.
"What in the world?" Naiee exclaimed. "The lightning of this storm turned a boat Father left in the water to ashes in seconds! How in the name of Naia is that boat still there?"
"Well, it looks like-" Hiro froze, noticing something peculiar about the back of the boat. As it zipped across the water at an impossible speed, there was no wake. Not a drop of white water protruded from the rear of the boat.
"It's not actually on the water. There's no wake, look!" Hiro exclaimed.
"So it's flying?" Naiee looked at Hiro strangely.
"I guess so! How could it be going that fast with no wake?" Hiro yelled.
A fork of lightning behind the boat illuminated Naiee's face. He was scowling at the ground.
"The boat is going to come to shore any second now." He finally said. "We have to be there to get a closer look."
"Okay, but how are going to get there in time?" Hiro asked. He could see the outline of the facial features of the boat's passengers. They were close.
"Follow me." Naiee said. He turned to face the left, where the beach was, and jumped.
"NAIEE!" Hiro cried. There was no way could he have gotten through that fall unharmed.
"Shhh!" Naiee's voice hissed. "I'm fine!"
Hiro peered over the edge and saw Naiee clutching a tendril of a snaky black vine.
"Come on! Just grab the Inkdrop Weed and climb down!" Naiee barked. He shimmied down the vine and leapt off, onto the rain-soaked beach. He scrambled behind a rock and peered over, watching the boat.
Hiro took a deep breath, and leapt off the ground.
He grabbed the black vine, which was surprisingly dry, and slowly climbed down. He ran to the same rock as Naiee, and crouched behind it.
The boat halted in front of the beach mere seconds after Hiro had hid himself, and he realized it really was flying. The boat had no contact with the water what so ever.
"That's insane." Hiro whispered to Naiee. "How do you think they're doing it?"
Naiee offered no response.
"Hey, you okay?" Hiro turned to look at his friend. Naiee was staring, wide eyed, with his mouth agape at the top of the ship.
Hiro slowly traced Naiee's gaze to see where he was staring. Then he saw it.
It took all of Hiro's willpower not to scream like a frightened Wasabi.
Harpies rested atop the masts of the ship, surveying the beach with their ugly, yellow eyed gaze. They all wore soaking, baggy gray dresses, with feathers the color of their hair on their wings. The largest one had crazy blonde hair and yellow feathers protruding from her arms. She was the only blonde that Hiro could see. She must have some significance among the other twenty or so harpies.
"No way." Hiro squeaked.
The harpies were keeping the boat aloft with their wings!
The harpies flapped their wings slower, and slower, until the boat touched down to the beach. A board was extended from the front, and a man walked down, onto the beach.
He looked about twenty or so, with curly black hair and the stubble of a beard. He had violent gray eyes, and he wore a simple white tunic and brown pants. He was barefoot.
Hiro watched him nervously.
He breathed in casually, and looked around.
"My friends!" The man suddenly shouted, pivoting on one foot to face the boat. "We have arrived at the the new feeding grounds. A hiding place for our feathered females has been located in that mountain." The man pointed to the tallest mountain. "I believe we already have a crew selected for the mission of...attending, our beautiful ladies."
Six of the harpies swooped down and seized six of the passengers in their talons. They all had sad, hopeless faces. Three women, and two men, and one young girl, who looked about nine.
"ELIKADURA!" The blonde harpy exclaimed. She swooped down and sized up the man. "THIS HAD BETTER BE FASTER THAN THE PREVIOUS FEEDING GROUND! I WILL NOT HESITATE TO SET MY HARPIES ON YOUR CREW IF YOU ARE SLOW!"
"Of course, Erdi. It will not take nearly as long as the previous stop. And please, call me Elik." The man, Elik, said.
The harpy the man had called Erdi scowled, and she flew up to the mast. She cawed loudly to the other harpies, and they flew towards the mountain Elik had pointed out.
"Now, everyone, get into costume." Elik exclaimed, and with that, he waltzed back up to the boat.
Naiee tugged Hiro's sleeve and jerked his head to the left. Hiro nodded, and they snuck towards the path exiting the beach. They dashed up, Hiro checking behind himself to make sure they weren't being watched. The crew of the ship were busy at work, or something like that. They ripped their clothes, dirtied their hair with sand after rolling in the water, and other things to make them look ragged. The younger ones climbed the masts and pulled out knives. They sliced ropes at random, then they jumped down, dragging their blades through the sails. The bigger men punched random parts of the boat, leaving dents in the wood.
What on earth were they doing? Hiro shook his head followed Naiee up to his yard.
"We'll talk about this tomorrow. It's late, and Cass wanted me home twenty five minutes ago." Hiro suggested.
"That man's name. The one in charge. His name is Elikadura." Naiee replied.
"Yeah, so? I'm more concerned about the HARPIES!" Hiro said.
"Hiro." Naiee looked up and stared Hiro in the eye. "Elikadura means 'Feeder'."
Naiee turned and left, walking across the bridge and into his house.
Hiro stood there, confounded. Feeder? What did that even mean?
Still puzzling over Naiee's words, Hiro opened the door to his house. A sputtering, red-faced, furious, Aunt Cass stood in the doorway.
Hiro smiled weakly.
Without a word, Aunt Cass seized Hiro's ear and yanked him inside.