1Chapter 8
Kita tossed and turned in her sleep, she couldn't get comfortable, her mind would not rest. She was caught in the middle of a dream, she felt panicked, but not scared. She ran through the trees, cursing at the branches that snagged at her arms and dress. She the rod in her hand at the branches, but her swatting was futile, the branches still clawed at her. However, she kept running, but towards, she wasn't exactly sure, but she knew, she felt like it was urgent that she got there, and fast.
Please wait for me, please just hang on, she thought to herself as she ran, but still, Kita was unsure as to who or what she was pleading to. The muscles in her legs ached and she cursed all the subways and taxis of the city. Suddenly, Kita felt as though something had grabbed her ankle, and as she fell, she saw the tree root she had tripped over. She slid across the ground as she fell, dragging dead leaves and broken branches across her face and through her hair.
She lay there for a moment, ready to scream, ready to cry, ready to just give in, throw her hands up in the air and just lie there forever. However, something strong pulled at her heart, and she urged herself to her feet.
"Who are you, what do you want from me? Why won't you just leave me alone?" Kita yelled to the forest around her. No one from the forest answered Kita's cries.
Kita sat bolt upright in bed as she heard Meilin outside banging on the door with all her might. Does that girl never quit, Kita thought to herself as the door shook with each blow. Please don't kick it, please don't kick it, was all that Kita could think as the door continued to rattle in its frame as Meilin's fist came down again on the wood.
"If you break that door again, so help me, Meilin." Kita yelled.
Meilin stopped and rattled the door handle. Kita smiled and was glad that she had remembered to lock it before she went to sleep.
"Kita, unlock it please, I promise I won't break the door if you just unlock it."
"And what if I don't unlock it?" Kita yelled back.
"I'll break it again."
Kita jumped up from her bed, throwing the blankets on the floor behind her, and dashed to the door and unlocked it. She glared at Meilin as she opened the door a crack, and prepared to slam it in the other girl's face should she decide to let herself in. However, much to Kita's surprise, Meilin just stood there.
"What do you want?"
Meilin turned and walked halfway down the hall, planning on making Kita follow her for an answer. However, she decided differently and turned around quickly a couple of steps from the stairs. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes, I figured I would give you an early warning today." Then, she turned back around and bounced down the stairs.
Kita paused for a minute before closing the door. She thought about what Elda had said about befriending Meilin, or at least, she had assumed Elda had been talking about Meilin. She closed the door softly and sat on her bed, her luggage with her clothes in it spread out on the floor in front of her. She had still been too tired to unpack all of her things, or at least, that was what she told herself. Kita let her thoughts diverge from Meilin and breakfast to her dream, where had she been running, and to who or what had she been pleading to hold on.
"Dreams are dreams, I guess," she tried to convince herself. "They aren't real after all, only figments of my overactive imagination, yeah, that much be it." Feeling a little bit more confident in what she had told herself, Kita dressed quickly for breakfast and dashed down the stairs.
Zima and Meilin were carrying breakfast to the table when Kita made it into the dining room. Miss Li followed them, carrying her teapot and her glass. Kita smiled to herself as she thought of the woman turning into a tea leaf from all the tea she drank. She would probably brew herself, Kita thought. She bit down on her lip to stifle her giggle and her smile and sat down with Meilin and Funaho. Zima excused himself, saying he had already had a bite to eat, and headed to the south end of the manor.
Miss Li sipped her tea slowly, as she was custom to doing, and watched the girls eat over the top of her glass. She looked outside and sighed dramatically. "What a beautiful day it is outside, I'm sure a stroll through the forest would be lovely, but poor me, in my old age I am unable to make such a walk."
Meilin took the overly dramatic hint and perked up. "Yeah, it does look nice outside, maybe we should go out camping for a couple of days, Kita."
Kita studied Meilin carefully, trying to see any sort of evil scheme in what she suggested. Not finding any sort of trickery in Meilin's big brown eyes, Kita sighed and nodded slowly, sure, she would go, even though she had never been in a forest before, let alone camped out in one.
Meilin clapped her hands and smiled. "I knew you would agree, and if you didn't well, I would just have to kick you." Meilin laughed at herself, and Kita noticed that even Funaho was having a hard time hiding her smile behind her glass. Kita didn't think it was that funny.
After breakfast, Kita cornered Meilin in her room and interrogated her about what the big idea was putting her on that spot like that.
Meilin sighed and motioned for Kita to sit on her bed. Reluctantly, Kita sat and looked around the room for the first time. It was simple, pained in the same beige as the kimono she had been given the day before. An intense red canopy over the bed was the only outburst of color in the room. Kita wondered how Meilin could be comfortable in a room like that, it seemed to have no life in it.
"Elda told me that we would go far away." Meilin said, keeping her eyes away from Kita. She pretended to occupy herself with the buns in her hair as she spoke. "She said we would go far far away, and you and I would be the only familiar faces, well at first at least. I thought more and more about it, and I don't really know you, and I know you don't really like me, but I think we need to change that, at least a little. What good is it knowing that the only friendly face is actually an unfriendly one?"
"Where do you think we'll go?" Kita asked, trying to humble herself before Meilin. It took her a lot of effort, but she sounded friendly, and she sounded sincere. Secretly, a part of her hoped it would get easier.
"I don't know where we'll go, or how long we'll be gone, but she said to keep you near and dear, because that will decide if we make it out to see each other on the other side." Meilin turned to Kita and didn't try to avoid the city girl's eyes. "I'll help you pack, come on, let's go to your room."
Kita rose and followed Meilin to her own room. She felt relieved that Meilin had been told some of the same things, and she believed that perhaps they could start to understand each other, or maybe become friends. This is either the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as they say, or it could merely be an uneasy understanding of each other's situation, Kita thought to herself.
