Thock!
Breakfast, off the Azure Dragon Road . . .
The sound of a rock hitting a skull echoed around trees crowned with blue-green leaves, ock! ck! k! A few birds, unrecognizable except as ragged brown blobs, took flight, squawking. Keon-hee shaded her eyes against the sun as she watched them go, feeling that same little knot of homesickness in her middle that had plagued her since the day she'd woken up in Evidd's shop. Why couldn't these birds be gulls or terns, graceful as the curl of a wave and white as the stars, crying out to guide haenyeo lost at sea back home?
The darkling seas of Hangsang Bam flowed under a green and midnight sky, the phytoplankton in the waves glowing a deep pink under the light of the three mint-green moons. It was always warm in the darkling seas, always full of light and color without the need for a harsh sun. All her life, Keon-hee had known there was a massive heart beating beneath her sandals, within the giant tortoise who carried her home island on its back through violet water, whose hide was crusted with gems and precious metals. All her life, she had lived under trees that swayed as though underwater, slept on moss that was so deep she couldn't find the tortoiseshell underneath, worked and ate and played with plants and insects that produced rainbow starlight of their own, and breathed in the cleansing scents of flowers and salt and rain. All her life, she'd known nothing but gentleness and love. Love of family, of friends, of Namsaeng-i.
The special love that she'd found in the smile of her precious Eun-Jung.
But she wasn't allowed to talk about that. No one, Asher assured her, least of all him, cared about her home. No one cared that the hard, dead earth of Ephemeros could not love its people the way Namsaeng-i loved the haenyeo. No one seemed to notice how much their land smelled – not of flowers, but of death, and decay, and cold dirt. No one was going to help her get back home. No one cared that she was lost, that her family and friends were surely worried sick about her. These people, the natives, cared only for Ephemeros. They hated aliens like her. No pity. No sympathy. No assistance.
Then her stomach rumbled, reminding her why she and Asher had left the highway for the wilderness in the first place. Although Asher had agreed to let Sang-eo carry his canvas bag and all their other supplies, the only thing that Sang-eo could not keep was food, and they had eaten the last of their rations last night. Besides, Asher had complained that he was sick of fish, or else she'd have caught their breakfast lickety-split.
A footstep crunched behind her. "What did I tell you?" Asher asked. He brandished his sling and mimed shooting an imaginary target. "We don't need to beg our meals off farmwives." (A suggestion she'd thought common sense but that he couldn't sneer at any harder.) "No stinking fish, either. Sounds like I got us something good."
"I'll go check!" Excitedly, Keon-hee chased after the fading echoes, hugging Sang-eo close to her hip to keep him safe, pushing underbrush aside, and occasionally shaking pebbles out of her sandals. She'd known Asher would come through for them. He may have been cynical and hard to get close to, but he was great at just about anything. She never feared for herself, not when Asher was near.
Except . . .
Keon-hee found the rock, bloodied at one end. She bent close to the ground, following the droplets through the dirt.
She gazed down at their prey, a bead of sweat rolling down her temple.
"Hey," Asher called. He strode through the trees as though he owned them, causing panic to sing through Keon-hee's body like an electric shock. "Did you find me a rabbit for breakfast?"
Oh, Hananim, what was she going to say? She turned to him and tried to smile. The truth? Yeah! Honesty was the best policy, after all.
"Well," she said, hoping against hope he wasn't going to blow another gasket, "I found something. And it looks like a rabbit. But I don't think we can eat it."
Asher gave her the most Asher-ish grimace of disgust she'd seen yet, which bared the length of one of his fangs and screwed up his eyes so that he resembled a hungover pirate. Keon-hee repressed a giggle. He elbowed his way closer. Peered into the brush. Stopped dead.
Keon-hee imagined steam pouring out of his pointed ears.
It did look like a rabbit. Sprawled on the ground, covered in pale gray fur, two long and velvety ears limp and crooked in the sparse grass, eyes lashed in gray and pinched shut.
It also looked like a girl, taller than Keon-hee, dressed in pretty, full-sleeved, layered white robes and a pink sash tied into a huge bow, one lacquered red clog abandoned in the bushes, delicate hands curled like dying flowers, half her furry gray face coated in scarlet blood.
..::~*~::..
"I am sorry," the rabbit-girl said in a gentle accent, pressing the heel of her clawed hand to her head, "I . . . I can't remember anything."
All thought of breakfast had fled at the sight of the huge lump rising in their victim's hair, soft gray like clouds at dawn and elaborately coiffed with golden pins. Keon-hee stared down at her lap, guilt pressing her head low. She couldn't bring herself to look at Asher, though she could feel his discomfort like a dark, thundery cloud crackling against her back. She couldn't bring herself to look at the rabbit-girl, either, who just seemed sweetly confused and a little dazed.
Miss Rabbit sat in a puddle of her robes, one shapely gray leg showing. Her eyes, all pink iris and dilated red pupil, filled with tears. "I don't know my name. I don't know why I'm here or how I got here."
After a moment of thinking, and intensely uncomfortable silence on Keon-hee's part, Miss Rabbit's nose twitched. "Oh, wait! I remember the Nightmares. Did you save me from them? I fell. I must have hit my head."
Keon-hee couldn't stop the slightly hysterical giggle that exploded from her mouth.
"Hahaha! Hit your head! That's funny!" she babbled so loudly that every bird vacated the area, yelling at her.
Asher's brown fist swung out, catching her in the ear.
"Ouch!" she cried. He was right. This was no time to lose her cool. Miss Rabbit was looking back and forth between them with no small alarm. Keon-hee, with an Undi's help, had cleaned her up before she awoke, but she seemed terrified of Asher, who had done nothing to set her at ease. Earnestly, Keon-hee leaned closer to her to catch her attention. "Can you give us a hint of who you are? A clue?"
"No, I can't," Miss Rabbit said, wilting like a flower in too much heat, but then she sat up again, surprise written all over her face. She dug around under her sash with slender fingers. "Wait, there's something here."
She drew out—
"An Ephemeral Card!" Asher lunged across the space between them, ignoring how Miss Rabbit recoiled, narrowing his eyes as he studied the Card.
Curious, Keon-hee bent further forward. She'd never seen a golden Card like that, all shiny in the sunlight, like foil. The inverted, embossed E on the back rested upon two power dots.
"What else you got in there?" Asher asked gruffly, taking a sudden and real interest in their guest.
Obligingly, Miss Rabbit began pulling stuff out of her long sleeves in a greater quantity than could have fit, not unlike Sang-eo, who was an ichawon shark – a creature whose insides did not match its outside. Every haenyeo, as a child who could not yet walk, swam into the darkling seas to befriend one. Keon-hee and Sang-eo would stay paired their whole lives, sometimes above the sea and sometimes below it, always the best of friends.
Some of Miss Rabbit's things Keon-hee recognized, like a spiked dog collar, a used candle, a ball-peen hammer, a riding crop, and a pair of pliers, but Miss Rabbit also produced a whole bunch of other things Keon-hee didn't recognize, predominantly black leather and buckles. She gazed at the finished pile, bewildered and impressed.
"Wow!" she breathed. What on Namsaeng-i was all that for? Were they weapons? Or perhaps used in some mystical rite?
Asher, in one of his lightning-quick moves, scooped the whole lot from under Sang-eo's disappointed snout and flung it as hard as he could into the trees. Keon-hee watched the strange assortment of things winking in the sun as they sailed away. She blinked at her partner, confused by his obvious consternation, all red-face and heavy breathing.
"Well," Miss Rabbit demurely said, pressing her palm to her cheek, her eyes carefully trained elsewhere, "looks like I'm a girl who knows how to have a little fun, doesn't it?"
Asher, face ablaze, snorted, choked, and began coughing, and Keon-hee was seized by the distinct impression that she was missing out on something grown-up. Before she could ask, however, Asher straightened, scratched the back of his head as though trying to dislodge fleas, and gave a noisy sigh.
"Forget it," he said. "We're just wasting time."
"Huh?" Keon-hee always felt two steps behind. "But, Asher—"
Miss Rabbit, slipping her Ephemeral Card back into her sash, suddenly winced. "Ah – wait!" she gasped. Her ears flicked as though straining to hear a sound the rest of them couldn't. "I'm getting . . . a faint image . . . golden light? A memory of something bathed in golden light!"
Keon-hee could have sworn she saw Asher's pointed ear grow ten times in size. She knew what that meant. There was something Asher wanted very much, something that had to do with golden light.
"Do you think she's an alien like us?" she asked him, whispering behind her hand.
He rolled his eyes. "Of course she is. You don't see regular rabbits walking around on two legs, do you? That Card of hers suggests she's a Card Master, too." He raised his voice. "Come along then, Bunny-lady. Let's go find that mysterious golden light of yours."
Keon-hee smiled. Success. All he'd needed was an opening to allow himself to be nice. She offered her hand to Miss Rabbit, still sitting on the ground.
"My name is Keon-hee. He's Asher. We'll be happy to help you."
"Thank you, Miss Keon," Miss Rabbit said shyly, thinking, like most natives, that Keon-hee's name consisted of a given and a surname. She accepted Keon-hee's hand and stood, brushing dirt off her robes, folding the edges over her legs to make a sort of sheath dress. Keon-hee then helped her hop over to the clog that had fallen off her bare gray foot. Her toenails, like her claws, were painted a flowery shade of pink.
Predictably, Asher was already walking toward the Azure Dragon Road. If they didn't hurry, he might leave them behind. Keon-hee jogged after him while Miss Rabbit walked at a more sedate pace, her hands folded primly, her wooden clogs scraping through gravel.
Keon-hee caught up to him. "Hey, Asher, just give her those ginkgo pills you have!"
"No way! Those things cost me a fortune. Her memory will return. Just give it time."
"Boo." Keon-hee pouted into her fist. He never liked her ideas. She'd thought it was a good one, and an easy solution to boot. Asher took ginkgo pills because they were supposed to improve concentration, thus enabling him to completely control every Ephemeral Card he used in battle, but Keon-hee had read the label after fishing the bottle out of a thieving Sang-eo and knew that they could improve memory recall, too. Oh, well. He must have something else in mind.
Asher glanced over his shoulder, and Miss Rabbit, looking like a cornered cottontail, eased her ears back defensively. All he said, however, was, "Is this the right road?"
She brightened at once. "Yes, yes! I remember that sign!"
Keon-hee squinted through the leaves of a bush to a metal pole, crooked and rusty. Two wooden arms pointed in two directions. One proclaimed the village of Jeoll was five ml, or mails, west, and the slightly larger town of Pochee eighteen ml northwest.
When Keon-hee and Asher looked at her for confirmation, Miss Rabbit pointed at the sign for Pochee Town.
Keon-hee then exchanged a glance with Asher. Should they go? Or not? Helping Miss Rabbit could turn out to be a significant detour, after all. At the moment, Asher was headed for the northern city of Nipuru, to speak with someone there about . . . something . . . that he hadn't shared with her, but she didn't mind. How Keon-hee figured it, the best chance she had of finding her way home again was to travel as much as possible. Sitting still never solved anything.
Asher ran a hand through his spiky, dark red hair, though it fell right back over his right eye when he let go, and then shrugged his willingness to follow the lead. It didn't look all that dangerous or suspicious, just a dirt trail leading off into the peaceful, leafy shade of a summer day. Keon-hee sniffed, and she listened. Nothing but earthy smells and chattering birds. She nodded her willingness to go along.
Together, they led the way off the Azure Dragon Road and onto the less-traveled Pochee Road, Miss Rabbit shuffling along in their wake.
A/N: Not sure that I have a lot to say this time around. I had fun creating my Miss Rabbit (I superimposed her over the original character that appeared because . . . well, In Dream World gave us too many humans and not enough really alien critters!) and also fleshing out Keon-hee's character (she and Asher, or rather, Hanee and Drake, are very flat and cliched in the original).
Reviewer Thanks! Darwin (six times!), and St4r Hunter. It was so much fun seeing all those come in! Thanks, frens!
If you got this far, please leave a review on your way out! Love ya!
Anne