It was early morning as Koh wandered around monsbaiya, he felt off balance without a sword on his hip. He hadn't spoken to his mother or any one for that matter, about his feelings. How do you express a change in yourself to people who haven't had similar experiences? Could he, had his father become someone else because of that place. Maybe that was the difference between him and the other hunters around here.
He had that edge, a monsters mind.
One thing was certain Koh couldn't survive with out it. Part of him had come to crave the fear and exhilaration than was the hallmark of real danger. It was his drug, and it might kill him.
Still that knowledge wouldn't stop him.
A few hours after sunrise Koh spotted Nico shaking a tin by the pond in the middle of town, he watched as she'd shake the tin and smile solar bright as people put coins into the slot. "What you up to"? She pivoted on the spot, her huge green eyes beaming.
"Fountain"! Koh's face betrayed his confusion so she repeated herself slowly.
"I'm collecting for a fountain, it'll spray water up in the air and be tiled and we can have music and picnics and it'll be like a landmark". She spoke with such force you felt disagreeing might be fatal. "How much you need"?
"Ten thousand to start. But I know we can do it" The 'we' accompanied a little rattle sound. "It sounds as if we have a long way to go" Koh said as he stuffed a wad of notes down the slot. "Won't be that far, here comes Ghosh"
"Yay." Koh sounded like a pony.
It took Ghosh all of two minuets to donate One Moni over Koh's contribution. Didn't matter he hadn't earned any of it himself. Koh left the two of them to talk 'culture' He'd always thought culture came from people not buildings, but what did he know.
He went home to prepare for the tower, his pulse already quickening. His mind fixed on his next attempt. With K-suke and Tyr ready and eager, the weight of his sword balancing his footsteps. He went to bid farewell to his mother.
"Wait a moment Koh; I'd like to talk to you." Wreath looked her son up and down.
"You are so like your father, you even walk the same way. And recently you even started to mope like he did." The bittersweet smile dancing across his mothers care worn face betrayed the years of loneliness she'd felt without Guy.
"Your father always worried he'd somehow lose himself. He felt that at times he fit in better in the tower than he did in Monsbaiya."
These words lay Koh's fears open to the world. He'd felt the same, a father he scarce remembered had lived those same moments.
"I'm going to give you the same advice I gave him."
"You're my son, and this is your home, the tower may have your spirit. But this place and the people who make it, they have your heart." The pita fruit sailed through
the air.
Koh caught it with a smile, "I'll be home in time for dinner."
He'd realised that he didn't have to be two different people; he had to be the best of both.
The tower door stood before him, it promised real danger and rich reward.
He took a deep breath, and roused the beast within.
From now on He'd walk in his father's footstep's. He wasn't going for the excitement or the gold.
He was going in just to have a reason to go home.
