XIII

Lelaka stretched her arms over her head, curling her hands into tight fists. Putting her arms down, she grabbed her staff. With smooth, well-practiced movements, she placed herself in a solid stance, pointing her staff forward. "You ready for this?" she asked.

The tree in front of her didn't respond.

"You didn't say no," Lelaka replied, grinning. She jolted her leg straight, propelling her forward as she whacked her staff against the tree. Wood hit wood with a large cracking sound. Lelaka didn't hesitate, whipping around the tree to hit it from behind. She struck it so hard she saw it tremble. She brought her guard up, then parried its imaginary attack with a downward strike. She brought her staff up high, about to deliver the finishing blow—

"Hey, Lela!"

Lelaka sighed loudly in annoyance, dropping the staff. "Yeah, Shizi?" she called.

"C'mon over here," her younger sister called back. "I think you're gonna like this!"

With another sigh, she walked inside. "What is it?"

Shizi grinned. At first sight, she looked next to nothing like Lelaka. Her armor had more orange and yellow, while Lelaka was primarily red and gold. Shizi also had bright, blue eyes, which Lelaka sometimes envied with her yellow-lime eyes. But whenever she smiled, Shizi shared her sister's exact mischievous smirk, and she held the same sure-footed stance.

"Look at this cutie over here," said Shizi, holding out her hands. In them lay a tiny furred creature—it must have been an infant. Its big, round eyes blinked sleepily at the girls. Opening its impossibly tiny mouth, it yawned, pink tongue poking out.

"Aww," Lelaka whispered. "Where'd you find it?"

"I can't find its mom anywhere," Shizi said, sighing. "I just found it in some tall grass in the yard—almost stepped on it." She winced at the thought. "So what do we do, do we just adopt it or something?"

Lelaka put a hand to her mask, rubbing its crest in thought. "Geez, uh… I guess? I mean, if we can't find the mother. Do you think it's old enough to have solid food?"

Almost as if in reply, the furry thing made a high-pitched mewl that sounded remarkably close to a baby's cry.

Lelaka's heart melted. "Yeah. This little guy's a keeper."

"I'm amazed," Agir said, holding the completed mask in front of him. "It's absolutely beautiful—Pelina will love this! I can't thank you enough, Master Ekimu."

"Forget the formalities," Ekimu said with a smile. "I'm a mask maker, not a king—just call me Ekimu. And think nothing of it. This mask was a fun one."

Agir nodded. "Still, I can't imagine how long it must have taken to make this. Man, I want to show her this right now…"

"Do whatever your heart calls you to do—if you want to show her now, go ahead." Ekimu dared a rascally smile. "Just don't get too carried away."

The villager shuffled uncomfortably, and Ekimu instantly regretted his sentence. "Yeah," Agir said slowly, trying to fill the dead air. "I mean I, I was planning to… never mind. Right. Anyway, I'd better get going. My client's armor isn't going to shine itself." Standing up, he began to walk away.

"Of course, of course," Ekimu replied, waving in what he hoped looked casually dismissive. "I hope she enjoys it!"

"Yep," Agir called, looking back for a second.

As soon as the villager had walked out of sight, Ekimu sighed, his arms slumping down. He really shouldn't have said that. Come to think of it, he shouldn't have shouted at Makuta, either. This day just wasn't going his way.

"Makuta?" he called.

Other than his replying echo, the forge was silent as a willow.

Ekimu only liked it quiet while he was reading—and even then, he enjoyed reading to himself aloud. But now wasn't the time for books, and even if he wanted to read right now, this place was disturbingly quiet.

"I'm sorry, Makuta," Ekimu said to the silence. "I shouldn't have done that—I was stressed, and lost my temper. It's my fault, not yours." He paused. "All the same, that doesn't mean you have to"—he searched for a word—"to abandon me."

The forge echoed the word abandon.