14

"It won't be so bad." Garen Muln told Obi-Wan. "At least you're going on an adventure."

"And you'll be around food." Reeft added, hopefully.

"Who knows where each of us will end up?" Bant added. "The mission to come will be different for each of us."

The lost boy was directed where to sit. There was something extremely strange in the air and he couldn't describe it. The thing in the air was serving to make his stomach hurt more and his mouth was wet. He looked around with wide and confused eyes as to what was in the air. He could not see it, but it was everywhere. Shiko was sitting next to him and moving around a lot. He grabbed something shiny from the flat surface it was on and started poking the surface.

"Shiko!" The kind woman reprimanded.

"Sorry mommy." Shiko said sweetly and put the shiny thing down.

The kind woman smiled and continued to do whatever she was doing. Shiko watched her for a second and picked up a different shiny thing. It was round and curved on one end and straight on the other. Shiko started banging it on a round but flat surface in a strange pattern. The lost boy looked at his own. He picked it up and examined it.

"We waaaant fooooood…" Shiko drawled out and banged on his plate.

The lost boy tapped on the plate experimentally.

"Shiko! Behave!" The woman called out again.

"Okay mommy!" Shiko said just as sweetly as the first time.

The kind woman sighed. Shiko looked at the lost boy with a mischievous gleam in his eye. The lost boy held up his shiny object and lightly tapped it on the round flat surface. Shiko nodded.

"What is this?" The lost boy asked.

"It's a spoon!" Shiko said excitedly. "You eat with it."

The lost boy looked even more confused, but at least he knew what to call the object.

"Like this!" Shiko said and put the spoon in his mouth.

The lost boy copied him. He put the spoon in his mouth and kept it there. Shiko started laughing. Keta snuck a glance over at the two and shook her head with a large smile dominating her face. Tiku snorted. The lost boy looked at the end of the spoon that was sticking out of his mouth. Shiko started laughing harder.

"You're so funny!" He said delightedly.

The lost boy managed to smile with the spoon still in his mouth. Shiko picked up his spoon and kept it in his mouth. He then picked up another shiny object and put it behind his ear. The lost boy did the same. The two young boys looked at each other and then at the others. Keta looked at her parents (who had not noticed yet) and then back at her own silverware. She put her spoon in her mouth, her fork behind her ear, and then put her napkin on top of her head. The two boys put their own napkins on their heads. All three of them then looked expectantly at Tiku.

"I'm not a conformist," Tiku whispered to them. "You can't make me."

The three continued to stare at him and Tiku fidgeted. Keta wiggled her spoon in her mouth at him. Shiko rearranged the napkin on his head so it fell over his eyes. The lost boy smiled largely with the spoon in his mouth. The fork fell out of his heard and it fell to the table with a loud clang. He picked it back up and put it behind his ear. Tiku looked nervous.

"Oh fine!" He sighed.

Tiku put his spoon in his mouth, fork behind his ear, napkin on his head, and then put his fist into his empty glass. He held up his glassed-hand and waved it. Everyone at the table did the same.

"All right! Dinner's done!" Avlo's wife called out holding a steaming plate of something that the lost boy couldn't begin to describe.

She almost dropped the plate when she saw her children and the lost boy waving at her with their drinking glasses. The napkins she meticulously folded were on their heads and their eating utensils were in their mouths and behind their ears. She made a sort of high pitched shrieking noise and loudly set the plate on the table.

Avlo looked over at his family and burst out into peels of laughter. Soon his children were squirming in their seats as they tried to contain their own laughter. Tiku was the first to spit out his spoon and laugh with his father. Their mother glared at her husband and eldest son but soon Keta and Tiku were laughing as well.

The lost boy felt a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach. His chest started heaving and a weird sound came out of his mouth that he could not control. It didn't hurt it was just really strange. After awhile his mouth started to hurt but it was a good sensation. The lost boy liked it. Shiko's eyes were bright and shining with amusement. He liked his new friend a lot. He was funny.

Avlo's wife had her arms crossed and a stern look on her face but it soon melted away. For the first time in months her family was laughing together like they should be. She didn't know how they had unconsciously drifted apart or if anyone else had noticed. It had started a few weeks after Keta's mentor had started teaching her. Keta began to challenge whatever her father said and it caused a tension between the two. She had tried to keep them from fighting, but it only worked so well. Then there was Tiku. He was almost an adult and she was starting to sense that he longed to get out on his own. Avlo didn't know how to let go. Shiko was oblivious.

Now they were laughing again! A smile crept across her face. Her family was whole again; if just for this one time.

"All right, settle down." She scolded half-heartedly.

Her family eventually stopped laughing and she put her hands on her hips.

"Now, if you tell me the truth no one will get hurt." She said darkly.

Avlo beamed, knowing he didn't have to face his wife's wrath. His children looked uneasily at each other.

"Who started it?" Their mother asked.

Her eyes immediately looked to the eldest of her children. Tiku put up his hands and shook his head.

"Okay, I am a conformist." He admitted.

Her eyes then focused on her only daughter.

"I'm not that devious." She said.

Keta's mother raised an eyebrow and then settled on the most devious and daring of her children. Shiko was reaching for the meal she had set on the table with a fork, but his little arms were not long enough.

"Shiko?" She asked.

"Not meeee!" Shiko drawled out. "He did!"

Shiko pointed to the lost boy with his fork. The lost boy smelled the air quite profusely. He was trying to find out the strange sensation he was getting in his nose and mouth. The only thing he could figure out was that it was good sensation and his mouth was getting wet. He looked at the untouched large object on a larger plate and then back at his empty plate. He was utterly confused.

The matriarch of the family didn't know what to do with her new charge. Should she scold him half-heartedly like she did the rest of her family or should she praise him for finally bringing the family together? She doubted that the boy even knew if he had done something strange or out of the ordinary. He seemed so lost and confused. Sometimes she saw the boy get this blank stare. She didn't know why it frightened her so much. It was like nothing was there. Avlo told her that he found the boy on the hills near Galu. He had mistaken him for a hill person at first… The boy was lucky that Avlo had not done anything drastic. Avlo did not like the Hill People.

"Mom!" Tiku brought her back to reality.

She decided. She patted the boy on the head and smiled at him. There was no use scolding a guest. Besides, she didn't think she could speak sharply with the boy even if she wanted to. He tugged too much at her heart. She had a double motive as well. She would knock her children's preconceived notions down a notch. They wouldn't know what to do.

As she predicted all of her children (even Shiko) were looking at her with confused eyes. She took the napkin off the boy's head and set it in his lap.

"All right everyone, if you are quite finished, dinner is done." She said.

The three children gave each other uneasy looks. Even Avlo was a little suspicious but decided since for the first time he wasn't the cause of his wife's scheming it was a good thing. He shrugged and began to slice up the roast his wife had made for dinner. His wife went around putting various vegetables on their plates. She set a basket of rolls in the middle of the table. Shiko immediately grabbed one and put it on his plate. The lost boy, seeing Shiko take one, hesitantly took one. He put it on his own plate, but did nothing with it.

Avlo's wife put a heap of green and yellow boiled vegetables on the lost boy's plate and the lost boy looked up at her in confusion.

"Growing boys like you need all the vegetables you can get."

"Veg-tubbles?" The boy asked.

"That's right."

The lost boy looked over at Shiko while the mother went on to serve the meat. Shiko was making strange faces and gestures at his own vegetables. The lost boy was beyond confused but decided that Shiko must know what was going on and decided to follow his lead. He made weird faces at his vegetables as well.

The thing that was most bothering the boy was the strange sensations he felt in his mouth and his nose. He couldn't seem to get rid of them. What were they? Why didn't Shiko seem to know about them?

"That smells good mom." Keta commented.

More words the lost boy didn't understand! He wasn't frustrated, he was confused. He didn't even know how to ask about the weird feelings he was getting because he couldn't describe them. He looked at his plate and the various things on it. He leaned closer to it and his eyes widened. The weird feelings in his nose were coming from it. He leaned even closer and inhaled sharply. There it was again! The boy was going to try again but a strange sound emitted from his stomach. The boy tensed and looked around wildly. Shiko snorted.

"Mommy, you better hurry. He's hungry." Shiko said with a laugh.

"Well then!" The woman said. "Let's get going!"

The family laughed but the boy was still confused. At last everyone was sitting down. Everyone folded their hands together and the lost boy did as well. They all closed their eyes and Avlo started saying some more weird words that the lost boy did not understand. The family opened their eyes and began to use their spoons and other silver utensils to put the stuff on the plate into their mouth.

The lost boy looked at Shiko who held a roll in his hand. Shiko took a large bite of the roll and began to move his jaw back and forth. The lost boy did the same. His eyes widened as the sensation in his mouth became intense. It… was! The texture! The… the! What was it? The boy was at a loss again, but he didn't care. This sensation was like nothing he had ever felt before and he liked it! He chewed the roll in frenzy and his natural reaction was to swallow it. The boy began to panic. He braced for an onslaught of pain, but none came. He tried to keep track of where the roll was, but he lost it. It was a pleasant sensation as well.

The boy looked for another roll, but all of them were gone. He was a little upset, but looked to see what Shiko was doing. The young child was picking up the other objects on his plate and putting them in his mouth. That's it! He could put everything on the plate into his mouth!

"Shiko!" The mother reprimanded. "Use your fork!"

The boy watched intently as Shiko used his 'fork'. He poked some of the objects on his plate with the fork and they stayed on it! The boy was amazed. Shiko then put the fork in his mouth. A few seconds later the fork was brought out alone. Shiko noticed that he had an audience so he opened his mouth and showed the boy the grinded contents of his vegetables. The lost boy was intrigued.

"SHIKO!" The mother shrieked.

"Sffory mmommy." Shiko said with his mouth full.

Shiko's mother shook her head and continued her discussion with Avlo. The boy wasn't really paying attention to them. If he was he would have realized they were talking about him. The boy, however, found Shiko much more interesting. He had to try what Shiko did with the fork. He clumsily picked up his fork with his fist. He looked at the prongs and counted them. Four! He then skewered one of the yellow vegetables with it. He lifted his fork and the vegetable came with it. It was amazing! Now came the hard part… The fork was not on the plate so therefore he could not swallow it, but the vegetable was on the fork, but it was also on the plate. He could eat the vegetable but not the fork. It was very confusing. The boy put the fork into his mouth and bit down on the vegetable. He then took the fork out of his mouth. The vegetable was not there! The boy rapidly chewed. The vegetable brought different sensations than the roll did. It wasn't a bad sensation, but different. He liked the roll's sensation better than the vegetable's.

"He's not eating much." Avlo commented quietly.

"It's not that, it's just he's eating slowly." Avlo's wife stated.

"Sera, what if we don't find his parents?" Avlo asked.

Sera chewed thoughtfully.

"No one would abandon their own child. They're looking for him; they have to be." Sera said.

"It's just-- Something's not right. Why doesn't he remember?" Avlo asked.

"Maybe he was in an accident." Sera suggested.

"And what if his parents are dead and he's all alone?"

Sera was moved by the amount of caring her husband was portraying. He was genuinely worried about the boy. She put a comforting hand on his arm.

"Then we'll find him a nice home." Sera answered.

"We have a nice home." Avlo suggested.

Sera shot her husband a look that said we'll talk about this later. Meanwhile, her two older children were engaged in a conversation about Prince Beju. No one seemed to know where he was. His ship had left earlier in the day but it had not come back and it was night now. People were starting to get worried.

"It's all a tactic!" Keta exclaimed. "He's probably trying to impersonate being kidnapped to gain sympathy."

"Or he could be taking a vacation." Tiku pointed out. "He is a prince after all about to lose his throne. The stress must be getting to him."

"Don't tell me you're defending him!"

"I'm not!" Tiku reassured. "I just don't think you should jump to conclusions. You have to look at this from all sides."

Keta let out an aggravated sigh.

"Just pick a side already! This is getting so irritating."

Tiku was silent for a moment and collected his thoughts. He took a deep breath.

"Keta, this vote may be the single most important event in our history for many years. This election is going to affect all of our lives for years to come. Our whole society is being changed in a couple of days. This might be the most important decision of my life. What if I make the wrong choice?"

"Wrong choice? Come on Tiku, how many people do you think will be voting? Thousands? Tens of Thousands? It's just one vote. It's not even going to make a difference." Keta said.

Tiku's face became livid and he stood up from the table. His chair scooted back noisily and all heads turned towards him.

"Do you have to spout Kiban's words everywhere you go? I'm sick of listening to him! I want to hear what my sister thinks!" Tiku snarled.

All conversation stopped. Sera put a hand on her forehead and fought the urge to cry. Her family was coming apart at the seams. Now even her children were fighting. Tiku usually didn't snap at anyone, especially not Keta. He had always watched out for Keta and defended her when she was insulted—And Keta loved Tiku. She would never have said anything to offend him; not three months ago anyway. Sera took a deep breath.

The lost boy's head snapped up. Something was not right. He couldn't describe it. It wasn't pain or fear he was feeling. It was something bad. He looked at Keta and Tiku and felt the badness coming from around them. The feeling swirled around and inside of him and he did not like it. It made him shiver. Something was terribly wrong!

The lost boy's throat started to become thick again. Why? Why was this happening? Where did the wrongness come from? His nose started to tingle and his eyes stung. He looked at his shaking hands. He began to breathe erratically and the attention slowly diverted to him. His eyes were wet and they were falling.

"Mommy!" Shiko cried out.

Sera looked up sharply and saw the lost boy crying. Her heart ached even more. The boy must have been sensitive and her children's fighting set off his emotions. Sera immediately went to the suffering child. He looked up at her with watery eyes and his confused face. Why was he so confused? He was crying and he didn't even know why. She ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead.

"It's all right." She murmured.

Keta's and Tiku's anger evaporated into the atmosphere. They looked at the ground in shame. Keta put her elbow on the table and held her forehead.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled.

Tiku shook his head, but he sat back down.

"It's okay," He muttered. "It doesn't matter."

Keta blanched. Her brother was now hiding his feelings. She hated when he did that. He was so hard to reach sometimes.

"No, Tiku, I really am." Keta said earnestly.

"Don't worry about it." Tiku said.

"But—"

"Forget it."

Keta inwardly sighed. The boy was starting to settle down now. She felt ashamed of herself. She shouldn't have said what she said. It wasn't only the boy who was upset; her mother and Shiko looked sad as well. Her father was unreadable. He looked deep in thought. The lost boy wiped at his eyes and clumsily picked up his spoon. He tried to scoop his meat but it wasn't working so well. Her mother helped him. She cut the pieces into smaller pieces and told him to use his fork. The boy's brow furrowed as he watched Sera. He decided to use his spoon and he seemed happy with it. Sera smiled and went back to her seat.

"Can you pass the salt?" Tiku asked Keta.

The boy looked up from his plate and saw Keta pass Tiku the salt. Suddenly the wrong feeling was gone and he smiled.

A/N: How many times can I thank you guys? The compliments are just too much! Beju was unbelievably fun to write, perhaps I shall include him a lot in my story… So, less than three months! Only a month and three days! Yay! Hopefully the next one will be soon.