For the sake of clarity, I refer to the original FB character as Haru, and the new one as Hatsuharu. Hiro and Rin make their first appearances as obnoxious little kids. The little tiger Khisa appears as well, but she isn't being obnoxious.
Disclaimer: FB isn't mine, and nor is anything else you recognize.
Chapter 27
As if on cue from Hatsuharu's question, the cow made his first appearance.
The scene began when Shehure's mother, wearing a worried expression, entered the family's living room.
"Shehure, have you found Haru yet? He might be lost again. It's so cold outside…and there's only a few hours before the Dzuni banquet. He'll get into trouble with Asheno if he doesn't appear."
"No, not yet, Mom. I'll check the backyard." The sixteen-year-old put on his heavy overcoat and stepped outside.
Haku was amused to learn that the cow was also named Hatsuharu ("Haru" for short), and that he had no sense of direction, either. Haru, the younger brother of Shehure, had been born when the dog was eleven. Shehure and Haru were the opposite of Ahame and Huki—they enjoyed a close relationship, and lived well with their parents.
Striding quickly to the expansive backyard, Shehure mulled over Haru's increasingly irritable behavior. The cow as a general rule was on the quite side, but Haru now answered questions only very reluctantly and never volunteered anything on his own. He seemed withdrawn and angry.
After vainly checking a gardening shed, it occurred to Shehure that Haru might've run across Asheno when he was in a sadistic mood. "That would make anyone depressed and moody," Shehure mumbled to himself. If Haru stayed out in this cold too long…the dog's ears were beginning to sting. Winter had arrived. The first snowstorms lurked behind the mountains. He lifted his nose to sniff the air. Ah, finally, a strong trace of Haru's scent. It led him to a small, gaudily decorated fountain, where his errant younger brother sat staring at the ground and shivering.
"Haru…" Shehure bent over the white mop of hair. Haru's hair would always remain impervious to taming by any hair-related implement. "Come on, let's go home. It's too cold, and Mom's worried about you." He took Haru's unresisting hand, but the boy continued to focus on the ground.
"Mom, Haru's back!" called Shehure when they finally reached their house. He quickly shut the door against the bitter cold as soon as he pulled Haru inside.
"Haru, thank goodness! Are you all right? Haru?" His mother knelt before him.
Without warning Haru lashed out at the comforting hand she raised. "Leave me alone!" he yelled. Because of the cow spirit, Haru's screams tended to have a queer resonating quality, like a moo.
"Haru!" Shehure tried to restrain him. Haru began flailing wildly.
"I'm not stupid! I'm not!" he yelled, fighting Shehure, who managed to grip the boy through the barrage of flying fists. "I may be the ox, but I'm not slow!" The fury subsided as suddenly as it began. Haru's muscles fell limp and he leaned into Shehure, crying. Their mother stood looking dumbfounded at the pair. That wintry afternoon, "Black Haru" was born.
The Dzuni banquet room loomed into view once again, its chairs empty.
"You pay attention close now."
The voice grated on Haku's nerves. The ghost had been silent while the visions dominated every aspect of Haku's life. The eerie emptiness of the banquet hall didn't help, either.
"Faran-Zhuku. I'd almost forgotten you were there," laughed Haku tersely.
"Of course I here."
"Don't you have any sense of humor?"
"Hard to laugh when trapped by a curse for five hundred years. I get humor back later when Dzuni set right again. And you laugh because you were nervous, not joking."
"Eh, can't argue against that."
"Now shut up and listen. This year, this banquet you seeing now, all members of final cursed generation will be here. I point each out to you. Make sure you remember every one and keep straight."
"I'll try."
"Not try. You do it. You must."
"All right, I'll memorize each and every one. Does that satisfy you?" snapped Haku.
"Yes. And you have no right yell at me."
"That little Haru in the last vision, what was wrong—"
"You know in good time."
"But this is a sudden change—"
"You not complain before."
"I did complain before!"
The ghost appeared on top of the blackwood table's gleaming surface. It had just been polished in anticipation of the upcoming feast. Faran-Zhuku's fur nearly matched the darkness of the wood. Teenager and wolf engaged in a staring contest for a pregnant five minutes.
At the end, Haku could've sworn the wolf smirked at him.
"Those who try stop mountains from shifting are greatest fools." Faran-Zhuku vanished in a hazy gray evaporation, his glowing red eyes remaining visible until the last wispy tendrils of smoke disappered. Very well, thought Haku. He understood the point the wolf made. The ancient proverb was the same one an older Shehure had been fond of saying in Haku's earlier visions. Shehure's philosophy of life operated by the message of that proverb: take life as it happens to you. No use in resisting what you couldn't change. Haku would just have to accept the wayward chronology of the visions and be patient until the end.
"Oh, fine," sighed Haku. The sound of the great doors opening brought his thinking back to the present situation. Asheno walked in, wearing the god's royal blue hekasho and still laboring to breathe under the suffocatingly heavy material. The Dzuni followed in procession behind him.
"Assume you no need explanation for HIM," sniffed Faran-Zhuku, meaning Asheno. "That dráscu nine year old here." The obsolete word, obviously a curse, fascinated Haku. It sounded Zi Áldan.
I wonder where the wolf picked it up, idly wondered Haku. "What does 'dráscu' mean, Faran-Zhuku?"
"You too young. Pay attention!" yelled Faran-Zhuku, the extra volume causing a deep echo inside Haku's head. "Look at rest of Dzuni now. Start with Shoma Huki. He six, like Lhadoman who banned from banquet." The ivory-skinned youngster stood soullessly behind his seat, shivering detectably when Asheno touched his shoulder. He seemed every bit as miserable and pained as when Asheno locked him in the room, and when Mileshi Lhoru first made his acquaintance.
Faran-Zhuku continued in the order of seating, going clockwise from Asheno and Huki. "Boy you just see, Shoma Hatsuharu the cow. He five." Haku recognized the miniature version of his Hatsuharu's beautiful wine red hekasho. The cow glared sideways at Huki.
"Oh, not another one who hates Huki," moaned Haku. Merely cohabiting the same house as Asheno was difficult enough, without animosity from others.
Ahame sat in the next seat, resplendent in a bright red hekasho adorned with gold trimming that accented his eyes. His silver hair now reached below his shoulders.
"Ahame, Shehure, and Hathori all sixteen and in high school." Both Ahame and Hatharu were preoccupied with placating a fussy toddler new to the banquet. Due to the late hour, crankiness and sleepiness had overtaken the child. His light brown hair stuck out at all angles, and his hekasho hung loosely and lopsided. He had a wide face, with sharply rounded eyes matching his hair color.
"NO! Hiro sleep!" bawled the boy.
"Please be quiet," begged Hatharu in a frantic whisper, "just go to sleep."
"My, he's a precocious one," quipped Ahame.
"And that Shoma Hiro. He the sheep, and is a year old. You know Hatharu the bird from before. And also Shoma Rhishu, monkey." Rhishu perched nervously on his seat, almost directly across the table from Asheno. Strangely, Rhishu wore a rose pink robe made in the style for women. He even had a matching bow in his caramel brown hair.
"Why is Rhishu wearing women's clothes?" wondered Haku. Ten seemed a little early for intentional cross-dressing. Haku wasn't the only one who noticed the feminine outfit. A miniature, female version of Lhurone primly said to Rhishu, "You're supposed to wear boys' clothes."
"Rin!" reprimanded Hathori, leaning towards the insolent girl. "Apologize to Rhishu now."
"I'm sorry, Rhishu," recited Rin remorselessly. Hathori frowned and raised an eyebrow.
"Shoma Rhinanon, called Rin, the horse. She four."
"And difficult." Personally, Haku could tell Rin would be a hard case when she got older, especially if her predecessor was anything to judge by.
"Well, yes."
Hathori then turned his attention to yet another young child, this time Nharu the rabbit, whom Haku remembered from the early visions. Nharu, an energetic five-year-old, still behaved as though he had a spring tightly wound inside his body. He was the only truly cheery individual at the gathering, joyfully bouncing up and down in his seat.
"Nharu, sit still when Asheno begins speaking," reminded Hathori.
"Oukay, "Arei!" Nharu responded jubilantly, his Gogothan accent rendering his speech nearly unintelligible to Haku's ears.
Shehure was not spared the fate of babysitting younger Dzuni. Between him and Nharu sat a girl not much older than Hiro. Her hair was yellowish-orange, with darker streaks interspersed throughout.
"Shoma Khisa, nothing to do with mother Lhadoman, two year. The tiger." Khisa, in a deep sleep, kept threatening to slide out of her too-spacious chair. In an effort to make her stationary, Shehure had tied the loose ends of her robe's belt to her chair's arms.
"Last, Khagura the pig, eight." Khagura sat next to Asheno, noticeably tense. Really, she couldn't be blamed for not wanting to sit next to the increasingly insane family head.
Asheno finally rose to deliver the tired ceremonial opening speech, and the noise level quickly subsided to a respectful silence. Even Hiro stopped wailing momentarily.
"I welcome you, the Dzuni, to the annual New Year's feast. Happily, all thirteen of us are present." Possibly this would be the only time Haku would actually hear Asheno speak two rational sentences together. "This year marks the sheep's first Dzuni banquet. May the sheep flourish, and let us honor the memory of Mihoshi, whom Hiro succeeded, who passed away immediately after the past banquet." Mihoshi, the one who had beseeched Shehure to find a cure for the curse at Lhadoman's birth.
"Haku, keep track of these Dzuni and remember relative age."
"Let us eat, and may we have a fortuitous New Year," concluded Asheno, seating himself gratefully.
"After this I go back to time of Lhoru. When she live in Shehure's house, you recall?"
"Yes," said Haku, then adding under his breath, "miraculously."
"Stop that. You know you capable. I going to finish telling you how old curse get broken."
"I presume you're going to tell the tale in just as roundabout a way as you've been doing up to now?"
"Don't be snotty with me, boy. Like I say before it is very important you know everything."
"All right." Once again, Haku acquiesced.
"I warn you now. When I start I not going to stop until when old curse end. It will be hard."
"It's always been hard."
"It get worse from here."
With that ominous pronouncement, the banquet hall dissolved into blackness before Haku's eyes.