Chapter 4: Counting
In the evening, Turtle comes back carrying a large, closed box in his hands. He drops it on my desk with a thud.
"What's in the box?" I ask Turtle.
Turtle opens up the box with a smile, and if I didn't know better, I would be expecting to be greeted with the sight of precious jewels and ancient relics in the box. Instead, I see through a peek out of my bandana that it's just a bunch of random rocks, leaves, and sticks. I close the box, pick it up, and shake it, and it feels and sounds exactly what a box of ingredients should feel and sound like.
"Has anyone seen what's inside?" I ask him.
"No," said Turtle. "Sunny really wanted to, though. I could tell she was fighting the urge to just snap it out of my hands," he said.
"Sunny? I thought I settled Sunny's curiosity when we last talked," I said.
"You talked with Sunny about this? But I thought we were supposed to attract as little attention to this as possible," questioned Turtle.
"It is," I responded. "But she was looking for you, because you forgot to tell someone you were going to the rainforest and they had a whole search party looking for you, so I had no choice."
"Oh…my bad," said Turtle, with a guilty look on his face.
"It's OK. Just don't make a silly mistake like that again," I told him.
"I'll try my best," Turtle assures me. "Also, I don't know if this was a good idea, but I reserved a little private area for us a little ways into the forest. I feel like we need to have some sort of secret headquarters for everyone to believe we're running a business."
"I was literally just going to ask you where we should set up shop, but it looks like you've already got that covered," I said with a smile. "Last thing - did you get a bucket of water?"
"It's already at HQ," Turtle proudly replied.
"Turtle, you are amazing," I told him. "You keep this up, you may become my fifth-favorite dragon."
"Fifth? Who are the other five?"
I sigh, exasperated by Turtle's stupidity.
"Sunny, Clay, Glory, and Tsunami, in that order," I tell him. Turtle doesn't even mention that I only named four dragons. Whether it's because he realized his mistake or he can't count, I'm not sure.
"Meh. That's reasonable since you've lived them your entire life and have really known me for only a day. I just thought you would start listing out random dragons like Anemone or something," Turtle said. "Saying that you liked Anemone more than me would have been really annoying."
"Speaking of Anemone - who I like more than you, just to clarify - I've had a question about her that I was hoping you could answer," I told Turtle.
"I don't know anything about Anemone, not even her birthday, but no harm in asking," said Turtle.
"How can you and Anemone both be animuses?" I asked.
There's a little pause before Turtle's answer comes in. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask that," he said.
"So you know something?" I said.
"I think so," Turtle said. "Honestly, I've asked that very same question myself. I keep trying to answer it. And I keep vaguely remembering some thought I had during the animus test. It was…a wish that Anemone could be an animus, so that it wouldn't be me. I guess I didn't want to be an animus, couldn't handle the pressure, too scared of responsibility. Something like that, probably. Makes you wonder what other wishes I've made come true," he finished.
I waited for a second before answering, to make sure I didn't interrupt Turtle's dramatic soliloquy.
"It can't be that bad. As long as you don't have violent sociopathic thoughts in your head, I bet you're fine," I said.
"Can't be sure, though," Turtle said. "Can't be sure."
Late at night, when the library is closed and Turtle along with everyone else is long gone, I finally allow myself to laugh at Turtle's counting mistake. I take my bandana off, and I can finally see with no one around to question me. I'm picking through the massive shelves of my library, searching for an old scroll to read, softly chuckling to myself, when I hear a knock at my desk.
I quickly throw my bandana on, thankful that I'm in a section where the visitor can't see me, and walk towards the sound of another impatient knock.
"The library is closed at this time, please leave," I monotonously mutter.
"Starflight, you can't be greeting guests in that tone of voice!" Tsunami's voice scolds me.
"Tsunami! I'm sorry, I didn't know that was you. I never would have greeted a princess like that. My sincerest apologies," I sarcastically respond. "What would Your Highness like to discuss tonight?"
"Her Highness would like to discuss why Turtle was out in the rainforest today and why I spent the whole morning looking for him," Tsunami answers.
"Well, I'll tell you the same thing I told Sunny. It's a secret," I tell her, hoping that she'll back off.
"If you don't tell me, I'm taking away your lair."
This catches me off guard. "What?" I ask her. "What lair?"
"Lair, area, headquarters, whatever you want to call it. I imagine that Turtle told you that I am the one letting him use that space for your secret project. And if you are requesting space in the rainforest for a project, then this had better not be another one of your ridiculous invention ideas. This had better be important. So tell me - what are you working on?" she asked me.
Wow, Tsunami's smarter than I gave her credit for. Granting Turtle's land request to pry secret information out of me. Well, guess I have no choice but to tell her.
"Fine. I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone else, OK?" I compromise.
"I was never going to tell anyone else. I just want in on the secret," Tsunami confesses.
"We're making a healing medicine," I say.
"You're making medicine? Well, what's so special about this medicine?"
"It heals everything."
"Everything? What do you mean, everything?"
"Everything. All the injuries you have, no matter how severe they are, gone."
"What?!" I can almost see Tsunami's shocked expression just from the surprise conveyed in that one word. "You're kidding."
"I'm not. Turtle was out yesterday getting ingredients," I tell her.
"What ingredients?" she asks. "What's the recipe? How did you even find out about this?"
"I'm sorry, Tsunami, but I can't tell you that," I informed her.
"Why not?" she asks. "Do you not trust me?"
"No, I trust you completely," I told her. "It's that if I tell you, then I have to tell Clay and Glory and Sunny, and then inevitably one of them will tell someone else and then the recipe is going to fall into the wrong hands. Not sure how we'd tell Glory that information, considering she's busy being queen in the Rainwing Kingdom, but if she knew that we knew something she didn't, she would torture us until we told her. So, best not to tell."
"Why is it so bad to tell?" Tsunami rightfully asks. "It's only a recipe."
"See, here's the thing," I say. The ingredients in this recipe are in very limited supply. Me and Turtle don't even know if there's enough in the rainforest to make a second batch. But in case there is, we shouldn't let someone else make the second batch. They might waste it all on stupid injuries like little everyday cuts and scrapes. If we have the batches, we can use it in the best way possible and save more lives."
"That makes sense," says Tsunami after thinking it over for a few seconds.
"But if we want to make sure that we have both the batches, then we have to tell no one about the recipe. No one. I'm sorry, but that's how it has to be," I say, making it sound like I actually want to tell her the recipe.
"It's OK," she tells me. "I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't another stupid idea of yours."
"Tsunami, I never have stupid ideas," I joke.
I hear a laugh from her, followed by a yawn.
"Can your medicine heal sleepiness?" asks Tsunami.
"I don't know. We'll have to see," I say.
I hear another yawn. "Night, Starflight," she says.
"Night, Tsunami," I say back.
I hear the beat of wings start up, then slowly fade away. Finally, I begin to relax. I want to read, but all of sudden I feel really tired. Probably because of Tsunami's yawns, I'd guess.
I sleep comfortably knowing that I won't have to worry about Tsunami for a while. Probably. Unless she keeps pestering me about the medicine. That'd be annoying, but then again, so is Tsunami. I just hope that she will do me this one small favor by ignoring me and letting me worry about my life in peace.
