Chapter 2: Friend or Foe?
Sago's POV
We just left to find the owner of the jacket. We split up into three teams. Kutal is to go with Mushra and search the west side of town. Binka and I are to look in the east and as for the kittens… they left for something in the center of town. Apparently, there is something fun happening there. We'll probably have to go check there in case the kittens don't do it. After a few hours of searching, I returned with Binka to the center of town where there was a big commotion like the kittens said. We stood there, taking a breather as we see the kittens playing.
Naomi's POV
Alright, I have some good news and some bad news. First of all, the good news.
I'm alive.
Humans and Enterrans are now allies with each other and live in a peaceful coexistence.
I don't have stay in this nasty, worm-eaten, stinky blanket I used as a pitiful disguise.
I can get easy cash by doing tricks in the street with my skills.
Now the bad news.
I have no idea where Yakumo is.
None of my partners have left a hint or anything about there existence yet.
I feel like I forgot something that was really important… I mean, that can be really annoying, right?
I might have gone insane… because I'm talking to myself and continue to do this right now when I know I should stop.
Anyway, I'm sitting on top of a crate and I'm lifting some kittens, I think they're Enterrans. At first, they were scared, thinking that I was going to kill them from inside the bubble. But soon afterward, they are laughing happily as they spin and twist inside it. As I do this I notice two people appear from outside the crowd. One is a young girl with brown hair tied into a bun by a red bag thingy. She has a pink tube top with army green pants and boots. She has a bracelet on her wrist. She reminds me of Yakumo but she seems like the tough version of her. Next to her is a guy… I think. I mean, I can barely tell since that blue cape and helmet cover him up. Well, I can tell that he's a big fan of blue like me from his clothing and, well, everything! On his helmet is a triangle with three blue gems at each of its corners. He has a composed face that seems slim and angular but a little feminine, which is causing big distress for me in finding out his/her gender. The strangest thing about him, though, was that he felt… strange to me. I felt something familiar inside of him but I didn't know what. While I was busy entertaining, I accidentally begin to listen in on them.
"We've searched this whole town but we've had no luck" Says the girl.
"Well, maybe the others have found the owner." Says the guy. Thank god! I was afraid I wasn't straight since I thought this person was cute… wait a minute. What did I just say? I feel myself go red. I sigh, confused with myself, as I lower each of the kittens down to the ground.
"This would be a lot easier if Yakumo was still alive…" the girl says.
'Yakumo!' I think as I lose concentration on one of the bubbles. The male kittens had reached the ground by the time I did but the female one was really high in the air. Her bubble pops and she screams as she begins to fall. Luckily, I catch her in another bubble before anyone can hear her scream and lower her gently to the ground.
"Sorry. I got distracted for a second." I say as the kitten lands on the ground. She turns to me and smiles.
"No, it's okay. It was fun, until the falling part." She says jokingly. I smile and turn to the two outside the crowd. They're still standing there so I turn to the kitten.
"Well, can you help me? I keep hearing about a girl named Yakumo here. Do you know who she is?" I ask her. She smiles immediately as I say her name.
"Yakumo! Oh, she's one of the most amazing people in the world!" she exclaims happily. And so, she begins to tell me of all of the great things that Yakumo has done. As she describes how she looks, I can picture her.
'Wow, it seems she grew up beautifully… just like her mom.' I think as I get a little sad. I get even sadder when she mentions the fact that Yakumo is dead now.
"Wow. She seems like a great person. Well, thank you. I have to go now… oh wait! I almost forgot. Have you seen a blue jacket? Kinda oldish looking, with a pattern stitched into the back, has a cheetah tag on the inside?"
"Oh, so it's you!" she exclaims. I'm confused as she drags me out of the crowd towards the two people I had eavesdropped a few seconds ago. They turn as the kitten approaches them as her brothers stand right behind me.
"Sago! Binka! Guess what? I found the owner of the jacket." She says as she points to me. I, being the shy type, drop my head as they turn to look at me.
"So you lost the jacket?" the girl I presume is Binka asks. I nod as I raise my head up.
"Y-yes. It was blue, has a design on the back and it may look old. Have you seen it?" I ask avoiding looking at their eyes but rather the surroundings behind them.
"Yup, that's it. Binka, give her the jacket." The guy, Sago, says as he faces his friend. She looks at him confusingly.
"What are you talking about? I didn't have it." She says as she places her hands at her hips. He raises his hands to show he has nothing.
"Well, I don't either. Who could have it?"
"All I remember was that Mushra had it… uh oh." She says as she gets a worried look. Suddenly, we hear shouting and turn to see a young boy, sorta like a midget, with purplish red hair with an orange and black armor. He had two purple stones in the armor and a golden headband. He came to us and in his hands was a small bag filled with something… I suddenly felt something wrong when I hear metal clinking inside of it. Binka approaches him as he jumps off his disc and makes a goofy grin. But that soon fades away as she glares angrily at him.
"Where's the jacket, Mushra?" she says threw clenched teeth. He begins to smile again, though fear is evident in his eyes.
"Well, we searched the entire town and we couldn't find anybody. So …I went to the nearby merchant and I sold it to him for a ton of cash. Now I can gamble for hours! Maybe I'll be able to get more cash! Isn't that great?!" he says excitedly.
"YOU IDIOT! WE FOUND THE OWNER!!" yells Binka as Sago rubs his temples. I knew I was getting a bad feeling for some reason. Hmm… I think I have an idea.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO-"
"So how much did you get for it?" I ask, interrupting Binka for a few seconds. He looks at me questioningly.
"Well, stranger, I got about thirty gold pieces." He responds.
"Can you raise the bag so we can see how fat it is?" I ask as everyone stares at me in confusion.
"Uh, sure." He says as he raises it. Suddenly, he's knocked to the ground as I swiftly grab it from him.
"Hey, that's my cash!!" he yells.
"Sorry! I need this! Bye!!" I yell as I run and disappear into the crowd.
Sago's POV
As I waited with Binka for the others to come, Este approached us with a girl right behind her. I side-glanced her, not really paying attention, before I started gawking at her. She looked very tiny, although she was around my height, as she was pulled. She wore a tight blue shirt and old blue jeans with white and blue shoes. It seems that her favorite color is blue, like me. She had tan skin, though around her face she seemed a bit pale, like she hadn't gotten enough sun in her. She had straight black hair tied in a messy low ponytail. She stood there timidly as Este said that this was the missing jacket owner. I was happy to return her jacket to her but Binka and I didn't have it. We were questioning where it could be when Mushra came with a bag of money in his hands. Mushra had done the first thing I would have done if we weren't searching for the owner. Binka was beginning to yell her head off at Mushra when the girl interrupted. I watched as the girl asked Mushra to show him the money, and stupidly he did so, giving the girl a chance to grab it. Mushra fell down in surprise as she yanked the bag from his hand and ran off into the crowd. I got to hand it to her; she's good. She had to be either a thief or a ninja to pull that off since she's human. Mushra got up and began to get ready to run when I grabbed his shoulder.
"Come on, Mushra. Let it go. It was her jacket anyway." I say as he glares after her.
"Yeah, Mushra. You do owe her since I had told you not to sell it yet." Binka says.
"But that's not the only problem! In that bag had your money as well!!" he yells as he begins to run. We hesitate when we suddenly join him.
"Why did you put our money in there?!" Binka yells as we catch up with him.
"Well, I've been gambling a bit recently so…"
"Gyah! When this is over, I'm going to kill you, Mushra!!" Binka yells as we run in the path she went.
Naomi's POV
After running for a bit, I actually found the stand that that midget had sold it to. It was tied up against a wall of a big, ugly, stinky, wrinkly elephant Enterran. I slowly approached the stand as the elephant's small eyes swiveled towards me.
"What do you want, human?" he says gruffly. I point at my jacket.
"I would like to purchase that please." I say, trying to create a nice impression with him. Unfortunately, he seems to get agitated.
"No deal kid. I just ripped off a kid for this and now I'm going to sell this to the highest bidder. This is rare material and I'm not going to be stupid enough to give it to you."
"But I have cash." I say as I raise the bag. He glares at me now as he tries to intimidate me by making himself look bigger.
"I said no! Now get out of here!" he yells. I look down at the ground as I realize that I'm left with one choice.
"I'm sorry then."
"Wha-" he begins when I lift my head. I can feel my power flow through me as I swiftly swipe my hand ahead of me. A shiny blue needle flies out as it hits his neck and he collapses. I reach over and grab my jacket, relieved to not have overdone it.
"What did you do to him?!" somebody yells. I turn to see that the midget returned with his friends. Apparently, they had seen what I had done. I feel myself go pale as I notice that everyone was staring at me. Then, I run away just as I knock a stand over to delay them.
Sago's POV
I never expected to see what just happened. As we began to catch up with the girl, I could see that she was talking with Grendal, the sleaziest, most disgusting, short tempered Enterran that ever lived. She seemed to be bargaining with him but it seems she failed as he began to get angry. She looked liked she had given up as she stared at the ground, giving us a chance to catch her before she can escape with our money. But then, the strangest thing happened. Her eyes glowed blue as she looked fiercely at Grendal. He actually got scared as he tried to back away but something flew out of her hands. He stiffens and then falls to the ground. We stop in our tracks, stunned to see a human capable of doing this without making contact. A few seconds, Mushra was the first to recover.
"What did you do to him?!" he yells. She turns to us in surprise, like she had zoned out. She keeps turning as she notices everyone else in the market place. She turns even paler before she runs off. Mushra was about to catch her when Grendal, still lying on the ground, suddenly cuts the cheese… straight towards Mushra. He stops in mid-step, takes a few sniffs, and then collapses. We hold our breath as we drag him away from the fart of doom. After a few minutes of fanning him, he gets up just as Kutal appears around the corner.
"Mushra! There you are. I thought… what happened here?" he asks as he looks around at the green-faced Mushra.
"It's a-blurgh! …long story…" Mushra manages to stay as he tries to keep his guts from spilling. He gets up and he walks off, swerving a lot in each step.
"Come on… we're going to lose her if we don't hurry…" he says, sounding rather drunk as he goes around the corner.
"Huh? Lose who?" Kutal asks.
"I'll explain along the way." Binka says as we begin to follow Mushra.
A Few Hours Later…
We stop and rest against a wall as we look for the girl. We were able to keep up with her but she soon eluded us. Mushra was looking around angrily for any sign.
"I think… we should… stop now, Mushra." Kutal says between gasps.
"No way… we'll find her…" he responds.
"Come on, Mushra! It's your fault that the money is gone. We should just let her keep it." Binka says as he begins to pout. Suddenly, he gets angry as he looks at something down the street.
"There she is!" he says as he points at a cart. We look to see that the cart is filled with flowers of different varieties and a hunched over person with a familiar looking cloak covering her head. He rushes over to her and yanks her hood off.
"Finally, I-" he begins when he notices that it's actually just a beggar women. From under her cloak, appear two small kids, staring at Mushra with slight fear. He turns slightly red as he lets go of the shocked woman.
"Oops, uh, sorry." He says, giving them a sheepish grin with his hand behind his head. The woman, still slightly stunned, slowly nods her head.
"I'm sorry. Please excuse my friend's bad behavior. He just mistook you for somebody else." Binka says as she slightly begins to crush Mushra from behind her.
"Would that person happen to be a young girl in blue?" she asks. We stare at her stunned as Mushra breaks free of Binka's grip.
"Yes! Did you happen to see where she went?" he asks excitedly.
"No, I'm afraid not." She replies, as we all sigh in disappointment.
"But she was very kind to me. She gave me her cloak and an unusually large amount of gold. All she asked in return was a flower." She says as she shows the bag of cash.
"Hey, that's-"
"Well, thanks for your help. Good bye." I say as we all cover Mushra's mouth and walk away. After they were far away from the woman, we let go of his mouth. He glared at us angrily.
"Hey, what's the big deal?! That was my money she had!" he says.
"Mushra, would you really take money from her after seeing her condition?" I ask. His face relaxes a little as he realizes it.
"No… Dammit! When I see that girl again, she's going to pay!" he says, returning back to his anger at her.
"But why would she want a flower?" Binka asks.
"Maybe she's going to Yakumo's grave." We all turn to Este, who was silent the entire way.
"What do you mean?" Kutal asks her.
"Well, earlier, when I was with her, she had asked about Yakumo." She replies.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?!" Mushra yells at her. She flinches.
"y-you were all b-busy, s-so I-I…" she stutters as she begins to cry. Binka turns, death apparent in her eyes.
"MUSHRA!!" she says as she takes out her bazooka. He begins to cower as he backs away.
"N-now, now, Binka. We don't need to go extreme… it was just an accident… AAAAHHHH!!" he says as he begins to run.
BOOM!!
We finally get there after Binka was done killing Mushra and hid a few feet away from her grave. After a few minutes, the girl appears. But for some reason, she seems a little paler since I last saw her. She walks over to Yakumo's grave and kneels.
"It's been a while, Yakumo." Our jaws drop as she smiles sadly at her grave.
Naomi's POV
"It's been a while, Yakumo." I say as I smile sadly at her.
"I knew you would accomplish you mission. I felt it in my heart. But I never thought that it would kill you." I feel my throat hurt from the sadness but I keep it in and continue to speak.
"I remembered when I first saw you. You were so young and so innocent, so pure. I guess these qualities did help. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you, but my capsule was set for a later time. Here." I reach over at something next to me and show a lily.
"I got this for you." I say as I reach forward to place it on her grave. Suddenly, I flinch and drop it as I grab my side from a searing pain. I look to see my jacket turn slightly red.
"Now I remember what I forgot. Please forgive me. I would have come in a better condition but I've yet to find the time to check myself. You see, I was looking for my jacket when I find out that some hot-tempered, grape-headed, Neanderthal midget-"
"Hey, who you calling a midget?!" the midget says as he pops up from behind a tombstone.
"Mushra!!" more people yell as I get up quickly but grab my side due to the rush. Binka reaches forward to stop me as I back away from them.
"Please don't go! We just want to talk to you… well, most of us." she says as she slowly approaches. I feel myself grimace as I back away more.
"You want to talk? Ha! That's a laugh. But I'm afraid I have no time for such things. Not after everything that's ever happened." I say. Then, I turn quickly and rush towards the forest.
"Wait!" they yell as they follow me. A few seconds pass when suddenly, I collapse. I grab my side as I gasp from the pain that rushes through me when I fall. I look at my injury for once and realize that the injury was more fatal than I realized. Everything begins to darken as I see the shadows of the people surround. The last thing I see before I black out is seeing them reach for me.