Chapter Seven

To Remember Me By

"A night time tour?" I asked, following Amane through the twisting knot of trees, "are you sure that's safe?" He was taking a different route to the castle, he called it "the back way" and it seemed to take forever, not that I minded much.

The forest itself was nearly unrecognizable. Alive and bursting with flowers, their buds closed up tightly in the sun's absence, it sent a twinge through my heart knowing that I would never see them open. There were the soft cries of nocturnal animals in the trees, a deep hooting noise startled me, and Amane laughed.

"That's just an owl, Yashiro-san," his hand sought mine in the darkness, and I let him entwine his fingers with mine, his hand warm against my chilled skin, "I'll protect you from the scary birds, don't worry." he grinned, "aren't birds the enemies of fish?"

"Careful Landboy, us merfolk can call sharks,"

"Can you really?" his eyes widened in genuine surprise.

"Nope."

"Alright, I earned that one," he chuckled and released my hand to boost me up over a stump crawling with what Amane called poison ivy. He pointed out little creatures, that scuttled away from us up in the trees. Visible only by their wide glowing eyes, until the lamp was turned on them. Birds large and small, and tiny chattering monkeys stopped to watch us go by. I felt like I had stepped into a world inside of a faerie tale. I asked him question after question, and he answered each one patiently. I felt so comfortable around him, it was like we were long lost friends.

At last, I stopped, listening. I could hear the faint trickling of water, a sound that was usually comforting to me, but this time something was wrong, something was really, really bad.

"We're at the Koi pond," he said, smiling jubilantly at me, "have you ever seen a koi fish?, Yashiro-san?" he already knew the answer to the question, but I shook my head anyways. Given the way I was feeling, I wasn't sure I WANTED to see koi. The malevolent energy rolling off the pond was staggering, my knees felt weak, like they were about to buckle. Amane pulled me towards it, cheerfully unaware of my hesitancy. He led me to the edge of the pond, and knelt down next to the water. I shuddered as I watched him dip in his finger tips. "They're friendly, see?"

I took another faltering step forward. The koi were fat and sparkling, orange, and black, and pearly white, their whiskers flowing like ribbons behind them, beautiful in their simple, streaming elegance. They brushed against his fingertips, their mouths open and sucking, like newborns searching for milk. It sounds silly, but I swear I could feel them watching me, their oil black eyes tracking my movement from under the water. Evil radiated like poison gas from the pond. I stood stalk still, feet rooted to the ground. Amane frowned at my expression, straightening back up.

"What is it, Yashiro-san?"

"This place is rotten," I said, "the rot goes deep, deep down." I shuddered and took a faltering step backwards. "I think we should get away from here."

Amane's frown deepened, but he nodded, offering me his arm because I was shaking so hard. He led me away without looking back, nothing but the tension of his shoulders giving his anxiety away.

XxXxXx

We wound along the outer gate, until we came to a sturdy looking portion of the fence, indistinguishable from the rest of the fencing around it, but when he hooked his fingers through the bars and pushed, it swung open with a small groan, a gate in it's own right. He grinned at me when I showed the appropriate amount of awe at this.

"My mother has little secrets hidden all over this castle," he said, "I'm still finding new ones. He held the gate open and ushered me inside, closing it softly behind me. "This is the back way, I don't want another line of questioning from my brother," he shuddered, "you put me in a pretty bad spot last night, you know?" He looked up at me through the thick fringe of his lashes, "you're lucky I'm a pretty good talker, or else I might not be out here tonight at all," he faltered a little, "as a matter of fact, I'm surprised I got off so easy this time."

"I'm sorry,"

"You couldn't help it," he held out his hand and I took it, "watch your step, we're heading into the graveyard."

"The graveyard?!" my eyes flew open, "I-I'm not comfortable around...graveyards," though in truth I had never seen a human grave, I huddled closer to him in the circle of lamplight and he laughed, threading his arm through mine.

"I didn't know the merfolk were so superstitious," he said, "first you're afraid of koi, and now the graveyard." he scuffed the dirt with his shoe irreverently, "almost all of the people buried here have been dust for centuries," he said, "there's only two from the last century," he hooked a left and I followed him, watching the unbroken earth, the grave markers long rotted from the weather and rendered unreadable, scattered about like spilled matchsticks. We skirted around over grown mausoleums, crawling with ivy and buzzing with flies, past stone statues cleaved in two as if by a giant axe. My neck felt like it was on a swivel, trying to take it all in.

"Here," he said, stopping in front of two graves, their stones were polished white marble, clearly well tended, freshly cut flowers had been placed on the grave a relatively short time ago, the blossoms were bruised but not withered. They were a beautiful contrast to the rest of the graveyard.

"Who was buried here?" I asked.

"My mother and father," he said with a wistful smile. He lingered there for a moment, head bowed in either respect, or prayer, then he grabbed my hand,

"Come on, we're almost to the old barn,"

XxXxXx

'The Old Barn' was almost in ruins, a fallen beam split the main area in half, and the roof was crumbling inwards. He found a spot to sit in the mouldy straw, and beckoned me over. I sat next to him, the saw dust that lay in dusty piles on the floor was dry and scratchy, it crackled as I sat down.

"I should have brought a picnic blanket or something," said Amane, "I didn't want to draw too much attention. Are you cold?" he went to take off his jacket, but I shook my head,

"No, I'm fine, thank you." he smiled in response, dropping his hands and folding them in his lap. He fidgeted with his fingers, looking embarrassed.

"Tell me what your home is like?" he asked, after a long, awkward moment of us just staring at each other in the flickering firelight.

"My home?" I chewed the inside of my cheek, "it's nothing too terribly interesting I...I'm terribly bored at home, I'm much more interested in this place." it felt strange to say things like this out loud, almost blasphemous, but thrilling all the same. Amane only shook his head.

"I propose an exchange, then,"

"An exchange?"

"A story exchange," he laced his fingers together under his chin "you're interested in the land, and I'm interested in the sea, so we trade stories. Deal?"

"Alright…"

"Do you want to go first?"

"I can't think of anything to ask…"

"Alright," he grinned, "I'll go," he tapped his chin, thinking, "How old are you?"

"That's not a question about my home,"

"Answer it anyway,"

"I'm seventeen,"

"Oh," he blinked, surprised, "so mermaids age like humans then, I thought you were immortal."

"Immortal?" I laughed, "wherever did you hear that?"

"From story books," he looked away from me, scratching the back of his neck, "anyway, it's your turn,"

"How old are you?" I asked, stretching my legs out in front of me. He grinned, his eyes almost glowed in the lamplight.

"I'm sixteen, you're a year older than me," his grin widened, "I've always liked older women,"

"Stop that," I nudged him with my foot, "it's not funny,"

"Do you use sand dollars as currency?"

"Sand dollars? We use bits of coral, pearls, and beads," I said, "but mostly we barter. What's a sand dollar?"

"Do you want that to count as your question?" he asked, dropping his hand into his chin.

"No I-" I paused, Amane's eyes had suddenly gone wide, he raised a finger to his lips, cocking his head to the side to listen. I held my breath, ears straining.

There were footsteps heading toward the barn, crunching through the dry reed grass.

Without a word, Amane extinguished the light, he shuffled behind a rotting hay bale, and beckoned me over. I crouched next to him, listening to the steadily approaching footsteps. Amane moved a bit closer to me, and I could hear his ragged, frightened breathing. I grabbed his hand, to steady him. His eyes met mine, and I gave him what I hoped was a comforting smile, he responded with a short nod, and then to my surprise he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest. I could feel his stuttering pulse hammering against my back. The scent of pine, mingling with woodsmoke and some sort of human soap weren't enough to cover up the fear scent that clung to him. He flinched as the barn door slid open on it's old rusted hinges. The only reason I noticed that Amane had stopped breathing is because I stopped breathing myself. We hid behind the bale, trembling and silent. Guppies hiding from a shark.

"A-ma-ne~?" Tsukasa's sing-song voice echoed off the barn walls, dripping venom. Amane flinched, and I could feel cold sweat beginning to drip down my hair line. I didn't know why Amane was so scared, but it was contagious. Tsukasa waited for a long time, the bobbing light of his lamp swinging back and forth. But he didn't enter the barn, he just stood in the doorway, swaying. At last, he shut the door, and we heard his footsteps crackling away back towards the castle.

We stayed frozen in place, our hearts beating in perfect, panicked sync.

"Okay," he whispered, his breath fanning across the back of my neck, leaving a path of goosebumps in it's wake, "okay, I think we're safe." he let me go, and I scuttled away from him like a startled hermit crab. "That was a close one, huh Yashiro?" the dropped honorific did not go unnoticed, but I chose not to comment on it. Too occupied with the confusion of feelings boiling in my chest. He produced the pack of matches from his pocket and fumbled for the overturned lantern, he lit the match and attempted to light it, cursing as he singed his fingers, his hands were shaking so hard that he kept accidentally putting it out. I reached into the pouch around my neck and brought out the small, faintly glowing starfish.

"Here," I held it out to him, it was hard and dry on the surface, long dead, but treated to retain it's bioluminescence, "it's not as bright as a lantern, but you don't have to light it." I placed it in the palm of his outstretched hand, and folded his fingers over it, obscuring it's soft green light.

"Thank you, Yashiro," he said, sounding almost breathless, before I had time to respond, he had slipped a chain over his head and was holding it out to me. A single pearl, probably the largest I had ever seen, dangled from it, "Here,"

"I can't accept something like that!" I said, back home, a pearl like that could feed a whole family for about a year. Amane only shook his head, and placed the chain in my hand.

"I want you to have it," his smile was a little sad, "you know, to remember me by, if we can't see each other again."

"You mean when the island floats away?" I asked. He nodded, refusing to look at me.

"You'll accept it wont you?"

"Yes," I said, "Thank you, Amane."