CHAPTER 2

A HOUSE ON THE HILLS

"My husband is tinkering with his junk out in the backyard." (Yui – The Valley Where the Wind is born)

"Music is a mysterious thing... Sometimes, it makes people remember things that they do not expect.
Many thoughts, feelings, and memories... things almost forgotten...Regardless of whether the listener desires to remember them or not..." (Citan – Faraway Promise)

Mountain Path that links between Lahan and the Uzuki family house is not too overlong, only an hour of walk. Its prairies and meadows house faunas like two-tailed Jackal wolves and the carnivorous Hob-Gobs, where they sometimes appear grazing for food. If someone's got lucky, he can find either two of them fight, in which the loser will be the eaten one. For Hob-Gobs, the villagers sometimes bring it home after they scalp them for scrumptious dinner like jerky or steak, since its meat's taste comparable to bearcows.

The Uzuki house acts as Fei's informal school a lot; other than playing and feed the birds with Midori during the evening of his visits, at the afternoon he learns and discusses many subjects that build up his interests with Citan. In the house's third floor library, the mentor and student dialogue topic ranges from politics, economy, basic engineering, medical procedures, history, psychology, even military science like battle tactics (In which Citan preach him while playing cards or chess). Not only he was an intellectual, the doctor also holds excellent fighting skills, where he repeatedly challenges the 18-year-old martial artist to hone his abilities and mentality at 1-on-1 duel simulations where they block each other's attacks every so often, and even exchanging fatal blows.

It seems like Fei gets propitious this evening, as he only needs to beat down a Jackal when he reaches at the pathway right in front of Citan's house. Daffodils and roses greet him as he strolls across the front yard. Depictions of orange, brick walled house on the hills that he saw several times in some cultural literatures and TV becomes reality just in front of his eye, blends with elements of nature and creating architectural harmony of its own value. Various kinds of plants and flowers ingrained on the not very capacious soil, garnished with the grass that grows naturally beneath them, and lightened with the sunset shine. Sounds of cackles from the hens and bird chirps meld with, creating very tranquilizing sensation to rest and relax. Fei knows this amazing arrangement is the result of Yui's everyday hard work, and it made him a bit confused to judge, whether Yui is a great cook, or an astounding gardener.

After passing three low staircases, Fei knocks the house's front door fine crafted from cedar timber. A gentle voice welcomes him, "Come in." It is Midori's, Citan's 5 years old daughter.

Fei opens the door, and finds her in dulcet dress, standing just a few steps from him, "Oh, it's you Fei."

Spoke Midori in soft vocal sound.

"Who did come, Midori?" Another voice asked. It is Yui's.

"It's Fei, mother." Midori's tone expression echoes slightly peculiar. She is happy, but at the same time it amalgams with sweeping hollowness.

"Ah, welcome Fei." Yui walks from the kitchen to see him "Midori dear, you can return to your room now." She nods, "Yes, mother."

As Midori paces onto the stairs, Fei asks her, "Hey, what about feeding the birds at the backyard this evening?"

She ripostes, "Alright." Then, she strides to her room at the second floor.

Yui turns to Fei and queries him kindly, "So, what brings you here, Fei? You look ease today. It appears that the wedding preparation runs smoothly."

Her appearance is different from Alice's or other women from the village. If Alice is slender and looks to be midsized, Yui only has a few centimeters difference from Fei, along with more well-built body because of her everyday house work. Her white-brownish skin with angular features and brown grayish hair indicates that her appeal amalgamated from Kislevian and Aquvy islanders. This doesn't really matter in Lahan though, as mixed descent is common in Ignis continent. Her brown eyes shine a warm character, and along with her calm and kind demeanor to the people makes her an ideal type of woman and mother in her 28 years of age. Midori also shares her favorable behavior, though they still have some differences; Midori is a toilsome speaker, only responds with short sentences and often silent, and she has a difficult time to converse with his father.

"Yes, It goes smoothly as we planned." Said Fei, He nods shortly, "Yui, where's doc? I want to borrow a camera from him. Alice asked me to do so."

She tries to answer him back friendly, but at the same time she looks provoked, "My husband is tinkering with his junk in the backyard workshop. It seems like he doesn't want to stop until it can be operated or breaks out."

"Workshop?" Fei amazement blends with droll. The Uzukis, have a workshop? They don't even have any vehicle!

"Oh, sorry… warehouse, to be exact." Yui amended, as she sees Fei's inquisitive face, "He insisted to call it a workshop since he brought that vessel. He really wants to function it, I think."

Fei grins with a large trout. It is one of Citan's distinctive traits; his virtuosity often makes him obsessed, but he can keep it inside his logical circle with idiosyncratic hilarity and some difficulty to abide. "Okay, I'm going, then." Fei said.

From the back door in the kitchen, Fei goes to a spacious room walled with multi-layered brick. There's a plank nailed above the door that can be read, "UZUKI'S WORKSHOP" he makes his way in and finds a dark tool room. There is a beam of light on the ventilation above a door on the left corner, and as Fei checks it out, an explosion equivalent to a small liquid petroleum gas tube ensues, "BOOMM!" He asks himself in the dark, "What the hell is that?" He opens the door, and notices a man in doubled-lens glasses and jet black hair stringed on his left shoulder, standstill beside scraps of metal shaped like a spider and holds a wrench, "Wow, so dense." He looks astounded. Brightened by a 100 watts fluorescent lamp, the man's silhouette integrates with his militaristic stance bravura. He is tall, nearly two sharls (1 sharl = 0.97 meters) as well as 5 centimeter loftier than Fei, and slender, but muscular body like an Ignis war veteran. Contrary to his warehouse view, he wears one of his favorite outfits: an olive green militia jacket with collars sewed like a traditional oriental shirt, changsham, over a sleeveless chemise and white light jeans similar to Fei's khaki trouser. He also garbs a pink sash belt, tie in only a single loop to latch his lengthy jacket and let the ends loose. Opposed to his peaceful temperament, the head of the Uzuki family is a war trouper; his eye shows that he had watched many lives lost in the battlefield, and the contour of his face gives the impression of losing most people he loved.

Citan turns to Fei's position and stare, while fixing his glasses. His tone was deep and warm as he speaks, "Ah, it's you, Fei. Don't worry about it, it's only a compression detonation from the marking engine because I tried to start it with the ignition uninstalled. It happens all the time, though. Ha ha ha… ehem, how do you think?"

Fei gapes the crab the doctor meant. It was painted in "sand yellow" color, and polished with "flint-kote" finishing to cover abrasions that often attacks its frame on the desert. There are six legs as its prop, with six sharls length and two additional arms at its front for holding loads, while each of it has three sharp claws on its end for better ground stability. Fei also finds a simple, low altitude self-propelling module, 9 sharls on every blade, and self-defense unit with only a 5.56 caliber machine gun attached behind the cockpit. Its Av flag wraps on the lower part of the bodywork.

"Medium size Land Crab? I thought we could only find these in Av."

"Yep, Emissary Class, to be certain." Said Citan in felicity, "It looks like the military left it behind wrecked. I discovered it still emitting steam in the forest five days ago. It took four men and two bearcows to pull it on a wheat cart here."

Fei raises his notion, while fearing something bad will happen at the same time, "You're not saying you stole it, are you doc?"

"Of course not. Perhaps you can say that I was providential, as the soldiers didn't look for it again. The main generator is still intact, but I need to overhaul its marking engine that overheated and has a compression leak, while clearing up the internal wiring because there were many chopped cables. Inappropriately, most of its fast-moving components are third-class quality, which only last for short time and I must give an errand to one of the villagers to buy the replacements at Dazil. Its leg impelling system is fine, so I only need to adjust the knee joints' clearance to smooth its movements. Well, in any case it's better than Lahan's old pickups."

Fei examines it meticulously; he imagines how the villagers and the Chief in this monster to Av, or Timothy and Alice use it as their wedding ride. He carefully says, "Maybe yes, but I think it's better not to make it into the village's area."

Citan clenches his breath, tries to accept the fact that his project can aggravate the inhabitants, "You are right. They will have a displeasing time to accept it as one of their transportation. For me, at least I can save my expenses to send Midori to the Nisan monastery school."

Fei holds himself from defying the topic, as he asks, "Doc, Alice said she wanted to borrow your documentation tools for her wedding tomorrow."

"I see. I get it then. I have something that may spur your interest as well. Let's go to the tool room."

They move to the previous dark storeroom. Citan turns on the light and takes something in a pine cabinet at the right corner. Fei pauses, as the doctor turns back with an analog SLR camera with black color and a wooden box conflated with copper and a small screw. "I need to set up the strap and the case first. Why do not you try to operate this box, Fei? I found it half-buried in an abandoned excavation site near the forest and I suppose the internal parts are still unharmed."

Fei opens the box desultorily. He feels a small pressure from a tiny spring within, as an angel statue rises from its lying position in the central hole of the box. "Wind the screw." Said Citan. Fei does it obediently, rotating the screw clockwise delicately with his fingers. Its angel statue begins to revolve, and bizarre, yet heart-touching and familiar melody, can be heard. Fei senses it is like the shroud concealing his memories opened, and a stream of light tries to gust in. However, a solid wall blocked the light, and all he can see in his head is the shade of the wall.

Citan attempts to break the silence as he walks toward Fei, "I never thought it still works well."

"I assume I've heard it somewhere years ago… It felt so weird, yet warm and throbbing." Fei voices a bit hesitation, "What kind of item is this, doc?"

Citan fixes his glasses, and explains, "It is some kind of audio device, usually called a music box. Eons ago, people appreciated music in many forms. The most common media were the discs and phonograph we have seen today. Nevertheless, they believed it would be more sentimental if they stored the score in form of music boxes like this. Sometimes they feel joyful; on the other hand they feel sad as they listen to it."

He pauses for a few seconds, and implies, "Music is a mysterious thing... Sometimes, it makes people remember things that they do not expect. Many thoughts, feelings, and memories... things almost forgotten...Regardless of whether the listener desires to remember them or not..."

The music stops, and the angel statue return to its place.

The room becomes quiet.

"By the way, dinner will be ready soon. Would you like to join us?" asked Citan, "I need to finish the repair and clean up. You probably want to accompany Midori, if you don't mind."

Fei nods. He returns the box to his mentor, "Would I ever, doc! Exactly what I hope you will say! But what about the camera? Timothy wants me to come to his house at 9."

"You can take it after dinner. You better go ahead."

Fei returns to the house, while the doctor returns the music box back on the shelf. However, just before he can place it, the box begins to shake for a bit, as the angel statue breaks inside, "Eh?" he dazed, and opens the box again. The spring ejects from inside, and the porcelain of the statue scatters on the floor, "is this an omen?" he murmured, "what will happen next?".

In the meantime, Fei calls Midori from her room to feed the birds on the yard. The evening sun shines as finch and kingfisher birds twitters happily, while they eat the corns and beans from her. She smiles as if she understands what the pigmy aves tell her. Fei also smiles, and so cheerful as the night shows its wonderful view.