2 – The Weird Person
The next day I found myself on shopping duty, which I hate. Gary was stuck at home cleaning, which he hates. In other words, we were still in trouble. I, however, had a lot to think about, so the walk into the village with money in my pouch wasn't nearly as boring as it usually was.
I waved to the people I knew as I headed for the market. Some of them waved back. Some of them called out things for me to tell my parents, which I immediately forgot. One of them just gave me a dirty look and went back to fixing the awning above his store.
"Hello, Mr. Sandleton," I said, walking deliberately over to him, just to see what kind of reaction I could get. I wasn't disappointed. He jumped and nearly fell off his ladder.
"Lira!" he yelled, regaining his balance. "How dare you show up here again after the other day! You little hellion! My store is not for target practice! If I'd wanted it to be target practice, I'd have painted circles on it! Understand? I'll have a word with your parents about this!"
I smiled and nodded. "Yes, of course, Mr. Sandleton. It is lovely weather lately, isn't it? See you later!" I waved and walked away, listening to the fading sounds of his protests behind me.
"Don't you run away from me, young lady! I'll have reparations for this, I will! And tell your brother and his crazy friends that my roof is not a trampoline! Understand? Are you listening to me?" I giggled to myself. I'd already told my mother about the accident with the store, and didn't have many worries on that account. She didn't like Sandleton much anyway.
The village of Lemm was not very big, and it didn't take me long to reach the marketplace proper. Right at the start of the store-lined street I turned off into a small side alley. Just as I thought, there were three guys occupying it.
"Oh great, it's Lira," one of them said. Another one kicked him and turned to me. "What's up?" he said with forced politeness.
These are my brother's friends. Their names are Ron, Ben and Brad, but they call themselves Red, Blue and Black. Along with Gary, who just calls himself Gary though they keep pushing for Green, they're Lemm's wild crowd. So to speak. Personally, I can cause more damage in five minutes than they can in an entire week. For that matter, so can Gary, but he never uses magic around them. They're a sword-and-fist type crew.
"Just thought I'd tell you that Gary won't be down today. He's too busy to play with you."
Let me get something straight. I think these guys are morons. They run around, trying to act tough and intimidate people in a village with a big enough population to maybe fill a small pond. If it wasn't very deep. They're not very good at it, and mostly they just hang around and play fake gambling games. Still, it's not their incompetence that I hate them for, it's for the stupid way my brother acts when he's around them. This is why I had no qualms abut telling them he'd ditched them for a day.
"Oh?" Black snickered. "What'd you guys do this time?"
For morons, though, sometimes they can be depressingly on-target.
"Why, we learned a brand-new spell," I lied. "Want to see?" I raised a hand and pointed at Red. He ducked. I laughed and left the alley, glad to still be on top of the pecking order. Only then did I look at my shopping list. First thing seemed to be noodles. I wondered if I was supposed to take a hint.
Instead I took a walk. To the general store. Then the butcher, then the carpenter to check on the progress of a cabinet my father had ordered. Then the dress shop, the candle maker's, and the bakery. Finally, I headed for the fruit and vegetable stand. Their wares tended to go bad if I carried them around in the sun too long, so I did them last.
I was peering at a set of apples, the rest of my purchases levitating in the air behind me, when a voice spoke from just over my shoulder. "You should try the cucumbers, they're perfect this week."
Okay, I have to admit it, I jumped. Several of my packages slipped out of my control and hit the ground as I spun around with a fireball at the ready. The person behind me had the decency to look as surprised as I was.
"Lira, I assume? Lira Gabriev?" he asked. That should have been a warning sign right there. Everyone in the village called me Lira Inverse. I, however, wasn't looking for warning signs.
I was looking at the young man standing behind me. He looked to be about Red's age with short, maybe purple, maybe black hair, and he was dressed really weird. I know, I know, my mom dresses weird. Heck, I dress weird, but that doesn't mean I'm not in a position to recognize weird on other people.
This guy was wearing mostly black, including a full length cape, in stiflingly hot summer weather. The clasp had gems on it. He was also carrying a staff, with a shining red jewel at the top of it.
I couldn't take my eyes off that thing. After a minute I realized I still hadn't answered him, I was staring like a slack-jawed idiot, and that my fireball was dangerously close to burning my fingers.
"Um...yes?" I stammered, quickly shaking off the fireball and gathering up my fallen bags along with what remained of my dignity.
"I thought it must be," he continued, unfazed. I carefully re-levitated my things.
"Do I know you?" I asked finally.
"No," he said, and smiled. "Would you look at these turnips, they're practically rotten." He tsked loudly. "You must demand a discount." He held up a bundle of roots. I examined them politely.
"Yes, yes they are," I shook my head slightly. I was feeling a bit dizzy.
Probably too much sun.
I paid for the vegetables and started to walk away. After a moment I realized the young man was following me. No, walking with me and I hadn't even noticed him come up. "Um, um...thanks for the advice about the turnips," I said, stupidly.
"Not a problem," he replied. "I'm always ready to help a friend. Or the daughter of one."
I stared at him. "You know my mother?" That would explain the strange attire.
"Oh yes. How is she?"
"Fine. Just fine. Doesn't get around much anymore, I'm sure she'd love to see an old friend. We live in the big house up on the hill just outside of town."
"I see. Maybe I will stop by. How many children does Lina have now?"
"Just the two of us. My older brother Gary and I."
"I see," he said again. "And are you both...talented?"
"Talented?" I repeated.
"You know," he waved his free hand at my floating baggage.
"Oh! Magic! Yes. Yes we are, though I think I'm a bit better than Gary, you see..." I stumbled suddenly, tripping over an upturned cobblestone. The young man caught my arm to steady me.
"Are you feeling all right? You look a bit...tired."
"Ah, well, that is," I looked around and spotted a bench under some trees in the square. It had shade. "I think I'll sit down."
He helped me to sit, solicitously. "Better?"
I looked up, caught sight of that red jewel again, and the sunlight refracted straight into my eyes. I blinked and rubbed at them. "Yeah. Just a little too much sun."
"Perhaps I could help you home? Your parents might get worried."
"No, no, it's fine," I reassured him. "I'll be better in a minute. They won't care, they'll just assume that I'm...talking to someone."
He nodded sagely and leaned against a tree, watching me. "Well, that you are," he said, and ironically fell silent. I stared at the pattern the leaves made with the shadows. I don't know what caught my attention but I looked up just before he spoke again.
"Lira," he said conversationally. "Did you never wonder about your real mother?"
"What?" I said. I heard the words but they didn't mean anything.
"Lina...has a secret," he said, with a sort of half-smile. "You should ask her about it sometime."
"What secret?" I asked, frowning.
"Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret, now would it?" He winked. A moment later I looked up again and only the shadows of leaves and stray sunbeams looked back. I stared at the empty space for a minute, then shook my head violently. It stayed empty.
After another minute I picked up my bags and walked home.
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It wasn't until dinner that night that I remembered the encounter. I was eating as much as I possibly could, as fast as I could, lest it all disappear into certain other peoples' stomachs, and inevitably this led to me choking. I grabbed my cup and chugged down the water, then refilled it from the pitcher.
The flow of water from the spout looked an awful lot like the shadows of leaves.
"Mom!" I said suddenly. "I met a weird person in the village today."
"A weird person?" repeated my mother, like she didn't hear me the first time. Actually, she probably didn't, she'd been busy trying to steal my dad's noodles while he wasn't looking.
"Yes," I said, trying to ignore the fact that she'd dripped sauce all down her shirt. She always yells at me for that. "He showed up out of nowhere and followed me all over town."
"I thought I told you what to do to people like that," my mother squared off a target on the opposite wall. "Boom! Turns them right off."
"Not that kind of weird, mom," I sighed as I reached for another piece of chicken. "I mean he kept asking me questions. Well, first he just made suggestions on what vegetables to buy, but after a while he started asking about you. And about me, and even Gary. He said some strange things, like..." I trailed off, realizing for the first time how ridiculous it all sounded.
"Like what?" My mother waved a chicken leg at me. "Don't be too vague, dear, your father can't take it."
"Huh?" My father looked up, taking an interest in the conversation for the first time. I winced, mentally. I had just figured out several different ways that my next sentence could be insulting to the occupants of the room. I took a deep breath.
"He said that you had a secret, that you weren't my real mother and didn't I ever wonder about it?" I let it out in a rush and got ready to duck.
To my surprise, no flaming balls of death turned our furniture into ash. My mother sat there, her fork halfway to her mouth, and did nothing more threatening than set it down with a slightly-louder-than-usual clink. Then she looked at my father with one of those meaningful adult glances, which he completely failed to pick up on.
Instead, he laughed loudly. "That's silly, Lira. Of course you're our child. I was there, you know." He nodded sagely. "Right, Lina?"
My mother's eye twitched slightly. "Gourry, dear..." she started, then visibly restrained herself, turning to me instead. "What did this person look like?"
I gave a description as best I could. It was kind of patchy, as I couldn't actually remember all that well, but I tried. As I talked, a few things seemed to leap out of a red haze and collide in the back of my mind. He'd said he was a friend of my mother's, but he looked far too young to be her age. He'd never even told me his name, but I'd answered his questions as easily as if I'd been...hypnotized.
I would never have been so stupid if I was in my right mind.
I tried to explain this, but as my string of half-finished sentences and self corrections stammered to a halt, I realized my mother had stopped listening a long time before.
"Xellos," she said calmly, then stood up so fast her chair hit the floor behind her. "He's dead. This time, he's dead." She turned and stalked out of the room, letting the door slam shut behind her.
"Xellos?" I said, trying out the name in the dead silence that followed. My father turned back from staring at the door and looked at me. Suddenly his expression brightened as if he'd just got an idea, and fell just as quickly. Then he too stood up and left, a little more quietly.
I waited for a few minutes. Nothing exploded, so I reached over and dumped the rest of the noodles onto my plate, then glanced at Gary to see what he thought of all this. He continued to eat calmly, occasionally drinking from the glass next to him. When his plate was clean he set his fork down carefully and looked up at me.
"Well," he said. "That should give them enough of a head start. Shall we go see where they went?"
Gary and I reached the village from the side and crept in between two buildings. Immediately three figures greeted us. "Hey! Gary, I thought you weren't going to show up today." Blue glared at me as if I'd been deliberately lying to him. I ignored it.
"Have you seen our mom?" I asked.
"Yeah, she's down in the square, yelling at a tree or something." Blue snickered, and I saw Gary cringe in embarrassment.
"Uh, we'll just go...see what's up," he said and grabbed my hand, dragging me towards the square. The color trio followed.
We heard our mother long before we could see her. She was standing at almost the exact place I had been sitting, and yes, she was yelling at the tree.
"Xellos! You come out right now! I know you're around here somewhere. Come out! Do you hear me?" She kicked the tree explosively. People were starting to gather around, looking amused. My mother didn't notice. She was looking around, as if trying to see the invisible. Which, I guess, she was.
"Come out!" she yelled again. "You're not going to mess with this! You've messed with my friends, you've messed with my enemies, you've messed with my life, but you are not, I repeat, NOT going to mess with my family! Understand? If I ever see your perpetually irritating little visage around here again, I'll blow you into so many different dimensions you'll be hunting pieces for millennia! Do you understand?" With that final shriek, she wore down, leaning against the tree and panting. The crowd, figuring the show was over, began to disperse. Behind me, someone snickered.
"Your mom's finally lost it, eh, Lira?" Red commented. I turned on him.
"Shut up! Just shut up when you don't know what you're talking about!"
I know that made no sense, but I was busy being freaked out right then. Obviously, I'd had an encounter with one of my mother's old enemies, and it scared me. I really couldn't say why, but it did.
My father suddenly appeared from where he'd obviously been looking in a side street. He shook his head and shrugged. My mother started talking to him, but quietly, so we couldn't hear, though she kept waving her arms in expansive gestures. Finally, he nodded and gestured back up the hill towards our house. They began walking slowly back. I watched them go, lost in my own thoughts, until Gary touched my arm and made me jump.
"Lira? Shouldn't we um...book it?" he suggested.
I blinked. "Oh...crap!" I push the color trio out of the way and ran for the house, with Gary right behind me.
We were terribly out of breath by the time we got there, but we managed to beat our parents. By the time we saw them coming up the path, we were already in control of both our expressions and our oxygen intake. "So..." I said as they reached the front porch. "What was that all about?"
My father shrugged, patted me on the head, and went inside. My mother however, stopped as she passed me, and turned, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"Tomorrow," she said, staring hard at me. "I'm going to teach you the Dragon Slave. And if you see that man again, you're to hit him with everything you have."