Chapter 1 - UNEDITED

PART I
Falling Star

Chapter 1

Cold wind was blowing, thrashing about the tails of the two horses that stepped wearily through the fall storm, scarlet leaves flashing past their noses. Nearby the water was choppy, a metal grey that offset the nearly pure white yet stormy sky. In the rolling grassy hills the sheep baa’d remorsefully, answering the calls of the mooing cows. Far above, despite the wind and clouds, a single star shown glittering in the sky, gazing out over the embattled Escavian coastline.

A dirt road cut through the landscape, a highway that linked one distant end of the Sapphire Coast of Escavia to Port Providence and back to far northern Fletch. It was a good road, well maintained and well crafted, a road that followed the undulating field and forest landscape that varied with the many bays. It was winding, but wide, so that two stage coaches could pass each other without fear of sideswiping each other. Not much could be said for any other poor fools who happened to be on the road at the time of such a possibly disastrous event, but one could only hope that they had the sense to get out of the way when they saw the escort riders coming.

Farmhouses, painted in various shades and in varying states of repair with their barns sitting squat beside them were everywhere, fat like roosting chickens in the sea grass. Beyond the fields was a pine forest that held the wilderness as well as a few cabins. Smoke writhed in grey silky patterns into the white overhead, where a bird chirped as it fought to stay on its course.

At this moment the two riders on their two sleek but wind bedraggled mounts made their way to a sign post set into the middle of the road. The two horses whinnied desperately, tossing their heads and fighting their bits.

“Damnit, quit it you stupid nag.” snapped the taller of the two riders, bending the reigns back to his left knee and making the chestnut mare turn in a circle. “Be quiet!”

“Hunter, she’s just scared.” said the rider on the shorter horse. He reached out, taking hold of the chestnut’s bridle and whispering nonsense. The horse’s eyes rolled white, then she seemed to steady, lowering her head and fighting less. “See? I know you’re frustrated brother, but don’t take it out on the horse. Sprite doesn‘t know or care that you got dumped.”

Hunter Chard nodded glumly in agreement and slumped over, appearing to stare at his mare’s ears.

“We’re gonna get it from Eva and Mattie. We’re supposed to be at home packing right now.” said Hunter grumpily.

“Aye, probably.” said the other rider. “But it was worth it wasn’t it? Our last little stab at vengeance?”

“And at love.” said Hunter, pushing back his hood so that the wind could play with his light brown hair. He was a tall, muscular sort of person at seventeen years old, strong from years of helping on the family farm and yet still smooth skinned. Hunter was handsome in a way that made girls call after him, even as he went for them. He was smart too, intelligent enough to be the best at social studies in their entire graduating class.

“Don’t be retarded Hunter, you’ll be after the first girl you set eyes on in Serenity. This isn’t the end of the damn world. I don’t know why you bother though. Girls are strange.” growled his companion.

“You just say that ‘cus you’re a weirdo freak who’s scared of them.” snapped Hunter. “Admit it Ki.”
“Fine, so they unnerve me, just a little.” sighed Ki, looking past his bay mare Griffin’s ears down the road. “They smell funny.”

“You’re not scared of Mattie and Eva.” pointed out Hunter.

“Yes, well obviously that’s because they’re our parents.” said Ki and he nudged Griffin past the sign post, steering expertly with just one hand. “They’re not strangers.”

From as far back as Ki could recall, this was how it had been; and he could recall much farther back then Hunter. While they often joked that Hunter’s memory was like a very selective sieve, they’d never made light of Ki’s, which, while also decidedly selective when it came to subjects such as arithmetic, was extremely accurate with everything Ki wanted to concentrate on. Ki would never call himself particularly smarter than Hunter, though it was definitely true that he recalled things Hunter didn’t, such as his very first Christmas.

Christmas on Rimer was not the often religious affair that it had been on Earth, the fabled world that humans had evolved on before relocation to their new world. Pronounced Rim-err by its original inhabitants the falla, Rimer was indeed a vast world and one that humans had occupied for approximately three hundred and twenty-seven years. The long centuries apart from the home world and exposed to the native falla had caused Rimarians to evolve their customs greatly. It was even whispered that soon English would be phased out of use, replaced by Rimarian original fallan.

Nobody was quite sure what had caused the early humans to revert to more traditional ways of life, but nonetheless they had. Cars, radio, internet and aeroplanes were mere myths now, replaced by resurrection of the age of the horse and cart. Instead of factories, people created and traded things in a cottage industry. This change in human lifestyle had also been a prompt for a change in culture. So for one year old Ki Chard, Christmas had not been a sparkly, shiny affair. It had been savoury, with the smell of pine logs and sea grass burning in the hearth, mixed with the subtle but interesting scents of turkey roasting slowly over the fire.

Ki recalled that turkey very well. Perhaps it was because he could smell better than anyone else he’d ever met, or because he was annoyed with always being kept in a crib, but he would never forget the journey down the rickety, precarious stairs, careful baby step by careful step. He’d learned to walk and talk and escape long before Hunter ever had. When Hunter had still been bawling for milk, Ki had been trying to work the catch on the ice box to see if there was any real food in there, because he’d been a very hungry little child. He’d also possessed teeth, which wasn’t something that had factored in Hunter’s favour.

Sniffing and looking about to see if any irritating female parents were about, Ki had made his way past the decorated pine tree and, quite ignoring the stockings that dangled over his head that would of tempted any other boy, he’d stood at the edge of the hearth and looked at the turkey for a long time. He was too short to reach it. He’d grumbled self consciously, snuffling a little in disdain at his own shortness, then he’d plopped down on his rear end to stare at the turkey. If he looked at it long enough, the infant Ki was sure that he’d figure out a way to retrieve it.

What really made the memory sharp for Ki was how loudly and annoyingly Mattie had screamed when she saw him standing quite unharmed in the glowing ruby coals, beneath the turkey, his socks on fire. She’d dropped the pail of eggs she’d been carrying immediately, her hand moving to cover her mouth in horror. Ki glanced back at the turkey and then back at Mattie. Deciding she was probably angry because his socks were going up in flames, he’d stepped out of the fire, having not felt any heat or pain in the slightest.

The next few hours had been very aggravating, what with the two police officers poking over him with confused looks on their faces and his two guardians exclaiming that it was a Christmas miracle that he hadn’t been burned. As far as Ki was concerned, this was all rather stupid and tedious, so after tolerating the annoying chatter for at least an hour, he’d asked curiously about whether or not he could have some turkey, please. His stomach was growling.

So Ki had established himself at a young age as the weird kid in Seamist.

Not too many years later, he’d found himself participating in what would become his version of hell. The first day of grade one had had Hunter excited for months, but Ki, always the mistrustful one, had opted to skip it altogether. In fact, he would of skipped the entire school experience entirely if it hadn’t been required by Escavian law that he attend. He’d been planning the entire day for almost as long as Hunter had been looking forwards to it, so long that before the sun had even risen Ki had scooted down the stairs, past his unsuspecting caregivers and out the door. He’d almost succeeded in hijacking the family horse Snip (a plan only truly thwarted by his meagre height and by how Snip rather refused to step any closer to the side of his stall) when he’d been caught by his shrewd mother Eva.

“Ki Chard, get back inside the house and put on your new school clothes I made you this instance.” snarled the formidable mom.

Ki had gaped up at her for a moment, considering his options, then, cursing his height in his almost daily tradition of feeling deepest disdain for himself, he’d obeyed. He’d considered rolling in a fresh cow pie on the way to school, but had decided not to on the idea that if he did, Eva would surely force him to wash the outfit. Feeling ridiculous in his blue sweater and short little pants with his fleece lined jacket, Ki had stepped outside in his uncomfortable new shoes next to his ecstatic brother.

“Hey Ki you think we’ll meet any girls today?” Hunter had chirped.

“Oh. I don’t know.” said Ki, surprised that Hunter found that particular subject interesting. Ki was only interested in Hunter. His brother. His best friend. His family. He didn’t care about meeting anyone his age, or indeed, in meeting anyone at all. Ki didn’t particularly like people very much and considered it a good day when he didn’t have to talk to anyone new. But he was also smart enough to know that Eva and Mattie were aware of how anti-social he was and that their ulterior motive in sending him to school was that he develop some people skills.

Their mothers had handed them their lunches in their tartan bags, then they’d started walking the long walk to the capital of Escavia, Seamist. It wasn’t really very far, but things seemed quite a bit more distant when one had legs as short as Ki’s. When they’d finally reached the red brick school building Ki had been exhausted and quite ready for a nap; providing he could find a tree or something to hide in where nobody could bother him, except for perhaps Hunter who was fairly good at tree climbing. (Though perhaps only because Ki had sort of forced him to learn by demanding they pretend to be bandits waiting to ambush the unsuspecting farm mothers on several accounts.)

At the school though they hadn’t been given any time to rest, because according to Hunter it was a cold day, so into the school building they had gone, to wind their way through rank after rank of strangers who Ki had almost instantaneously detested. Hunter, as trusty as any bloodhound, had found their first grade classroom door and in they had went to a room where twenty other children had stared at Ki immediately.

Ki’s recollection of this day was so clear, because it was also the day that he’d realized that he was different and that there were no other kids like him in the entire room, or even the entire school. While Hunter had rushed to say hello to everyone, he’d stopped dead, because somehow, he’d been hoping despite himself that there would be somebody in this crowd who looked like him.

His shortness was not what made him unusual; Ki realized this immediately. No, it was his eyes and hair that did. Every other kid in the room had perfectly normal coloured hair and eyes. There were brown, blue, hazel, grey and even green eyes, but none were Ki’s eye colour. He saw kids with hair of black, brown, blonde and red (a colour he detested for some reason) but nobody was like him. Suddenly, pale little Ki felt extremely strange, because he knew for a fact that his eyes were the colour of pure golden amber and that his short bristly hair was black with small light tips, like a grey tabby cat’s fur. Next to his classmates, he was to the greatest extreme of the expression the odd man out.

The other kids had looked at him and just as he realized he was strange, so had they. It was like he was a new calf and they were collectively mentally branding him with the word ‘freak.’ Yet, even as Ki was deciding that he was going to attempt to convince Eva to home school him (seeing as she appeared to think school was nessacary) something else happened. As their classmates were deciding Ki was worthy of their despise, Hunter was looking between Ki and them, realizing the difference. Before anyone could do anything to physically state the dislike everyone in the room was feeling, Hunter stepped between Ki and his classmates and thus the world. He stood there, with Ki on one side and their classmates on the other, a wall.

“Hi, I’m Hunter Chard.” said Hunter. “This is my brother Ki.”

“He’s weird.” said a little girl.

“So are you.” snapped Hunter. “If anyone’s mean to Ki I’ll punch their nose off their face.”

Hunter had looked back at Ki then and smiled. “See Ki? School’s okay.”

“Maybe.” said Ki, shocked by the display of loyalty. “Perhaps.”

“Yeah! See, Ki’s nice. Aren’t you Ki?” Hunter had said and he had become a bridge between Ki and the world then. If Hunter was there, Ki didn’t feel quite so nervous and other people weren’t so mean. That was why, more than being brothers, they were best friends. Through school, they had had a few friends and on Hunter’s part a few girl friends. But now, tomorrow life was changing, because tomorrow they were going to be university students. Ki could only dread what the experience would be like socially as he led the way down the coast road.

The wind had died down a little and the sun Sanova fallen as he turned his horse down the sloping, rutted driveway that led down to the Chard’s little farm, which sat on a small four acre plot of land on the side of the road closest to the dark sea, which looked like anything but a sapphire as the waves splashed treacherously about. In the pasture Ki could see the old gelding Snip grazing, unbothered by the salty wind torrents that peppered his hide. The chickens were gone from the yard and the family Shetland sheepdog Trouble was nowhere to be seen, though Ki could hear him barking from inside the yellow house.

Ki rode past the warmly lit single paned windows and the welcoming veranda to the barn, dismounting and sliding open the wide doors to lead his bay inside the warm building, Hunter following. Chickens clucked at them from their coop in the corner, while the cow mooed her usual greeting. Ki clipped his horse into the crossties and set about unsaddling her while Hunter went to open the stalls, filling the mangers inside them with oats. They groomed their horses, then put them in the stalls, making sure they were comfortable before going about their other duties. Ki left Hunter to feeding the chickens and milking the cow while he jogged to the field.

“Snip! Snip! Snippers! Come here boy, come here!” yelled Ki, deviously hiding a chunk of carrot in his hand as he strode carefully through the dark grass of the pasture towards the sorrel gelding. Snip lifted his head, considering the notion of whether or not the carrot Ki was obviously hiding was worth leaving his patch of grass, then lowered it again, apparently deciding it wasn’t. Ki rolled his eyes and held out the carrot in earnest, calling once again, but the horse ignored him.

“Oh come on Snip.” grumbled Ki, stumping over to the horse. Or at least he tried. The horse threw up his head again, then trotted off a few paces. Ki growled under his breath and followed, holding out the carrot in the flat of his palm. The gelding pricked up its ears, then finally stepped towards Ki, taking the treat delicately from his hand. Sneakily Ki reached up and snatched the horse’s forelock, then he pulled on it. Snip, probably wondering if Ki had any other carrots as he often did, followed Ki willingly out of the field and into the barn, where Hunter was finishing up. With an old blanket Ki rubbed the gelding’s fur dry, then he brushed him and stabled him while Hunter went inside. Ki checked the other two horses fretfully, fearing that he might of missed something when he was examining them earlier, then stepped back outside, sliding the barn door shut and locking it.

As he turned around, his gaze fell on the star, whose light sparkled on the black night waters from just overhead. Ki frowned, because he thought it rather odd that to see star in front of some cloud cover, but shrugged it off. It was just a stupid ball of gas, perhaps it was just brighter tonight for some reason and was shining through the cloud.

He stepped onto the veranda and pulled off his grubby paddock boots, then he opened the door to the wood, fire, and wool smell of the house. Hunter was sitting at the kitchen table, helping wash leaves of lettuce in a basin while Eva and Mattie were both cutting vegetables, which for Ki, was never a good sign. He froze for a moment, sniffing and smelling the ingredients which spelled the word ‘salad’ in his brain. There was no meal Ki hated more than it, but because it was summer and lettuce was thus horribly plentiful, they had been eating it quite often as of late.

“Hello Ki dear, go and change for supper, will you?” said Eva without glancing at him. Ki muddled over her tone of voice, deciding that she didn’t know about the egging of their now ex-principal’s house in town. Yet. Hopefully she wouldn’t find out until he and Hunter were well out the door tomorrow and off to Serenity. Not one to outwardly show signs of guilt, he walked up the creaky stairs to the attic loft where he and Hunter lived, stepping through the door into a white washed room with a slanted ceiling.

Terrible old sketches drawn by childish hands littered the walls, pinned to them by nails back when Ki had thought himself an artist. On Hunter’s end of the room clothing was scattered haphazardly all across the bed and the floor, while Ki’s side was neat and tidy. There was only one window in the room and it was on Hunter’s end, but Ki didn’t care. Not having a window made him feel safer, though it was certainly inconvenient when he wanted to get out onto the roof at night to think and he had to crawl over Hunter. He sat down on his worn out old patchwork quilted bed, which was rather lumpy seeing as the straw in the mattress hadn’t been changed in a while and started stripping off his grubby clothing.

Ki didn’t have to worry about hitting his head on the ceiling; he was much too short. While Hunter had grown taller and taller as if hoping to spear the heavens someday with his head, Ki’s growth had been almost minuscule. Most of the freshman high school girls he’d seen were taller than he was; heck, some of the elementary schoolers were. Ki pulled on a clean pair of pants and socks, then looked in his and Hunter’s mirror, standing back to get a full view of himself.

Age had not improved him much as it had for Hunter. While most of the short folk Ki had met were stout and muscular, he was thin, so scrawny that he could almost count all his ribs. Despite the long hours he spent working in the summer light, his skin was very pale, his hair lacklustre and glossless. K’s body did not say the truth that he was a hard worker, nor that he was a faster runner than Hunter was. There was barely any muscle at all on Ki’s bones, something he was distinctly aware of. The light tips of his hair had become more prominent lately and it was getting harder and harder to believe that he’d ever had pure black hair as he’d had as an infant. His face was angular, bony and looked tired, or sick even. Ki had never looked very well in his entire life, so this did not worry him much.

Ki yanked on a sweater and walked back down stairs, glaring at Trouble the dog who had opted to bark at him. Supper was just about ready and despite having run around all day saying good bye to Seamist, he suddenly didn’t feel hungry anymore as he took in the large and quite sinister looking bowl of salad. Before he could stand up again, Eva placed a plate and a fork in front of him, tapping him on the cheek to make him stop glaring at the salad.

“Hey uh, mom, you don’t mind if I eat something else do you?” asked Ki, kicking his chair lightly back and attempting to stand. He was pretty sure there would be at least a few eggs laying around that had escaped his and Hunter’s purge that morning when they’d been looking for supplies. Eva casually shoved him back into his chair, a motion she was quite practiced at.

“No, you’ll eat what’s put before you.” ordered Eva, queen of the farm. Ki glanced at Hunter, who shrugged and tried to look pitying. This did nothing to help Ki’s growing dread. The salad didn’t smell like food to Ki, just like leaves. The sight of it did not make him hungry, or want it. In fact, it made his poor stomach cringe, because it knew as Ki knew that tonight it would be in for yet another bout of digestive torture. Ki tried not to make a grossed out face like he would of when he was a kid as Mattie mixed in the salad dressing, then portioned out the leafy culinary hell.

Ki stared at the evil green collection of iceberg and romaine leaves, sniffed the tomato chunks tentatively, then glanced at the salt container.

Damn. It was almost completely empty.

From as far back or even farther than Ki’s greatest memory could recall, vegetables had made him feel sick. So sick in fact, that he’d endeavoured from a young age to learn the fine art of making himself puke. He could only eat a certain amount of veggies before his stomach would start to hurt, then he’d find himself coiling in silent agony as his stomach rebelled. Ki had told his guardians over and over that he thought himself allergic to vegetables, but they’d scoffed and grounded him so many times that he just didn’t bother anymore. After all, didn’t all kids say that sort of thing?

“Eat your supper.” ordered Eva in reminder.

“Can I get some water first?” asked Ki sweetly. Eva sighed and nodded, so Ki got up, grabbing a mug from the cupboard, but pretending not to find it immediately as he shielded his frantic search for the box of sea salt. Finding it at last, he gave a sigh of relief and dumped a layer of it into his mug, then put it back, taking water from the pitcher on the counter to fill his mug. He returned to the table, trusting in the notion that by the time he was done ingesting the loathed salad the salt in the bottom of the mug would of completely dissolved. Then the trick would be drinking it as fast as he could then rushing to the outhouse without anyone noticing. There was only one way to keep himself from feeling sick and that was preventing it from happening by removing the cause.

Ki very carefully lifted a forkful of salad to his mouth and ate it. The scrutiny of his foster mother and aunt relaxed then, perhaps because they weren’t really aware of how desperately Ki was shoving the stuff down his throat, chewing it only because it would make it easier to get back up later.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, a knock that made Hunter and Ki pause, their eyes flicking to meet each other, then back at the door.

“Who is it? Come in!” called Mattie. “We’re having supper, but you can have some too if you’d like!”

A bald man in a red coat entered, frowning vibrantly. Hunter and Ki tried not to cower, because they knew why he was there. Apparently Eva and Mattie suddenly did too, because they glared at them, pinning them with their evil mother stares. Ki shifted uncomfortably and sniffed his saline water, pretending to sip it. The salt was taking a rather long time to dissolve, a fact that made his poor stomach writhe with fear.

The familiar police officer sighed. “I’m sorry. They egged Mr. Freidhold’s house.”

“No we didn’t.” blurted Hunter, much too fast to be honest. Ki shovelled the salad faster into his mouth, thinking a trip to the outhouse would be an excellent excuse to escape.

“He saw you two.” said the officer. “So did his next door neighbour, Mr. Rogers. I’m sorry Eva, Mattie. I know there really isn’t anything you boys can do to make it up to him, but just try to be a little remorseful huh? That was a waste of food.”

“Well high school was a waste of time, so there you go.” muttered Ki, swallowing the last of the salad, then reaching for his mug. Eva and Mattie both sighed at his words and the officer shook his head. Ki had hated his high school teachers, at least the academic ones, because they’d treated him like an idiot once they’d figured out he couldn’t learn. They said he had a learning disability, yet Ki could outride anyone on a good horse and could play chess.

He had been the star rider of his high school polo team, a position that had gotten him into university. Ki’s dream was to work with horses, first by playing polo professionally, then by training horses later on. He’d build a reputation while he was young, then live off it later as an old man. The plan was flawless. Instead of spending time with people he disliked, he could spend all day with his horses.

“Boys, I just want to make you two understand.” said the officer pressingly, laying a hand on Ki’s shoulder. He froze. There was nothing in the world he loathed more than being touched. Nothing. He’d hug Eva, when she told him too, but even Hunter was careful to avoid his bubble of personal space. Ki eyed the officer with extreme distaste as he continued. “In Serenity you can’t go about doing dumb stuff like this. You’ve got to behave, or they’ll throw you out of university. It’s as simple as that.”

Boy. Ki hated the way the man said the word. It almost sounded insulting.

“Well sir, we’ll be too busy. It really won’t happen again, this was our last stunt.” said Hunter as Ki’s belly squirmed unpleasantly. “We promise, right Ki?”

“Yeah.” said Ki dispassionately, staring at his mug. “Never again.”

The officer sighed rather disbelievingly. “Well, we’ll just have to hope you’ll keep your word then. I’ve already apologized for you, since I know you won’t bother seeing as how much you don’t like the guy. Anyway, I really came by to wish you two good luck.”

“Thanks sir!” said Hunter, always sincere. “We’ll do our best!”

“Aye.” agreed Ki, inching his hand towards his mug until he was gripping it. He lifted his hand, pretending to shake a bit while really he was giving the salted liquid a good luck swirl. Time to expel his stomach’s hateful contents. “Thanks sir.”

“Yep, well, I’m needed back at the station, so you two have a good year.” said the officer and he left. The second he was gone Ki chugged back the salty water, nearly retching right on the taste, then popped up out of his seat like a jack-in-the-box.

“I’m going to the outhouse.” he announced and before anyone could stop him, he was flinging open the door and sprinting to salvation, even as his stomach heaved terrifically. He slammed the door shut behind him and tried not to think about what he was doing as he shoved two careful fingers down his throat. His body’s reaction to this was instantaneous and a second later he was feeling considerably better. He stepped back outside and over to the well, splashing his face to get rid of the smell, then staggering back up to the house. Hunter stared at him as he slumped back into his chair.

“Well anyway, make good supper.” praised Hunter, standing and kissing his mom on the cheek. Eva stared at Ki as he stood up again, splay legged and wavering. “Come on Ki, we should pack.”

“Yeah. Yeah make good supper.” agreed Ki, weaving after Hunter as the two women blinked at his odd behaviour. As soon as they were upstairs, Ki was prying up the floorboards under the rug, then pulling out a paper bag filled with dried fish. Hunter watched him as he ate the pieces as fast as possible, then hid the bag back under the floor.

“You were sick again, weren’t you?” said Hunter worriedly.

“I’m fine. I feel much better now.” lied Ki, pulling out his saddle bags.

“I’m sorry brother. I wish we knew why you always get sick when you eat that sort of thing.” said Hunter, hesitantly following Ki’s lead and packing too. “It seems so unfair.”

“It’s fine.” said Ki, who was used to it. “Don’t worry about me Hunter.”

“Still… it doesn’t seem right at all. Nobody else gets sick from eating veggies.” said Hunter.

“Maybe I’m a rare mutation.” said Ki dryly, carefully folding his things and checking the weight of the bags as he packed them. They had to be equal. “Anyway, I won’t have to deal with it anymore. There shouldn’t be meals of just salad at SIRU. That would be stupid.”

“Yeah, hopefully not.” said Hunter, but he sounded disbelieving.

Long after Hunter had fallen asleep, Ki was still awake. Ignoring what Eva would say if she caught him outside without a jacket at this time of year, he walked to Hunter’s bed, crawling stealthily over him, then reaching for the window, which he pushed carefully open. Pulling himself onto the window ledge, he turned so that he could grab the eaves of the roof and quietly climbed onto the familiar roof.

Around him the slopes of the sea side farms were quiet and black, seeming almost to meld into the perfectly obsidian sky, where billions of stars were shattered, like a clear glass bowl had been dropped there. They were reflected in the ocean and Ki could hear its hushed scraping on the gravel shore. For a time he laid back on the roof, simply gazing at the stars, then he looked as he always did towards the southwest. He had never been quite sure why he liked looking in that direction. There wasn’t anything nice to look at there, unless one counted the sky over the Sapphire Sea. For a long time he sat there, thinking of nothing at all and simply looking, until he saw a meteor flash off towards Serenity in the north.

Everyone said that when you saw a shooting star, you were supposed to wish for something. Ki smiled and looked at the barn, then back at the sea. When he was a kid he would of wished to meet his parents, but he was older now and despite being an orphan, he wasn’t interested in them anymore. He never really had been. Typically, orphans were supposed to yearn for their parents, but Ki was happy with Eva, Mattie and Hunter. He neither needed nor cared about the faceless people who had spawned him.

“I wish people would leave me alone.” whispered Ki. That was what he really wanted. He wanted to be alone, forever away from the strange looks and stares, with horses. Horses stared yes, but it didn’t bother him as much. Most of the time when horses stared, it was because they figured you had a sweet for them in your pocket. If he could spend the rest of his life with just a few horses then he’d be the happiest man on Rimer.

But as he climbed back into the loft through the window, he also knew that he was stupid if he thought that that would actually happen. Typically, nothing had ever really gone the way he’d wanted it to, so he didn’t suspect it would now. That just didn’t happen to anyone. He laid down in his bed, pulling the blanket over his head and dreamed strangely, of cats.
*

Prologue

“No race is to be more pitied than the drakoon.”
International Secretary of State Kay Calm


Prologue
Hunter Frederick Chard wasn’t born silently. He screamed when he abruptly noticed that he was no longer in the safety of his mother’s womb. Hunter F. Chard yowled so loudly that he scared daylights out of the neighbor’s hunting tabby cat Bird. The tiny, red, ugly thing that would become something of great import in the future did not look like much now. His eyes were squeezed shut and his toothless mouth wide as he wailed at the top of his apparently very well developed lungs. The midwife didn’t even have to whack his bottom to get him to breath like she normally did.

While he was in a royally foul temper from being to forced to leave the place he so loved, his mother was overjoyed. Finally her extreme agony would be over and she could stop looking like she’d swallowed a watermelon. Elated the mother sunk back into her pillows, relief washing through her. It was over. The long hell of pregnancy was over at last and she was never going to revisit the experience if she could help it.

“What is it Evangeline? Is it a boy or a girl?” she panted.

Eva, the mother’s scrawny, older and unfertile sister wasn’t in the best of moods. Her entire life she’d wanted to have a little son or daughter, to teach all about the world and how things worked. She’d wanted it since she was four. Yet she had been cursed with being unfertile, while her sister had gotten drunk one night and the squalling pink thing in the midwife’s strong arms was the result. Her sister Matilda had never wanted children, yet here she was with a tiny baby boy.

“Boy.” she grunted.

“Then he’ll be named Hunter. Hunter Frederick Chard.” said Mattie, still panting. “Frederick after his father.”

Eva scowled. Mattie didn’t even know for certain that ‘Fred’ was the name of the guy. She was guessing only on the basis that he had been the man she had spent the most time with that night before her memory of that night faded out from too much ale and vodka consumption. Eva didn’t actually have any idea why her sister had picked ‘Hunter’ as the boy’s first name. They certainly didn’t know anyone with that name.

The smiling midwife put the child in Mattie’s arms while exclaiming over how Hunter was such a brilliant name for him. Eva couldn’t see how, as Hunter was currently making enough noise to wake a deaf man. A hunter should be silent. She would have named him something much, much different. If Hunter had been female he would have been called Jessica Marina Chard, a name Eva far preferred to the one he was now stuck with.

“Isn’t he just gorgeous?” asked Mattie, gazing down adoringly down at Hunter, who had finally had to stop for a breather from crying and was now staring at his mother, perhaps wondering who or what the heck this woman was. Eva thought that her sister’s statement was a matter of personal opinion. His blue eyes were the smoky colour of a baby kitten’s and a light frosting of peach fuzz covered his rather over sized bald skull, but he was also wrinkly, scrawny and red. Hunter perhaps then decided that he wanted to start making noise again and promptly started bawling his head off some more.

“I guess.” said Eva, her mouth a thin line. It should be her there now, lying in the bed, exhausted and in pain, holding a baby. She felt as if she had been slighted by fate and the goddess Spiira, who supposedly governed this sort of thing.

“Oh Eva, you can’t still be unhappy about not being able to have a baby! We can raise him together; we can both be his parents!” said Mattie, looking at her worriedly.

“I guess.” she said again stiffly. But she didn’t want to mar the day for her sister so she took a step closer.

“He has your nose.” she lied; she actually couldn’t tell either way. To her all babies had noses with the same sort of button shape.

Her sister’s tired face broke into a smile. “He has my eyes too, see?” she said, pointing them out.

“He’s very nice.” said Eva.

Hunter stopped crying, having finally tired himself out. The midwife came back with a soft blanket and wrapped him in it.

“I should go tell the family I guess.” said Eva, watching as her sister slowly started to doze off.

“Yes… that would be… nice.” said her sister, closing her eyes and smiling.

“See you later.” said Eva, glad to be leaving. In the stable she went and took her sorrel gelding Snip from his stall and saddled him swiftly. She swung onto his back and rode him out into the sunny day outside.

For a while she just let him walk along the road, then she kicked him hard and made him gallop. It was a long time before she let him slow and she felt a tear trickle down her face. It should have been her! She clung to Snip’s neck and let it all out, sobbing into the gelding’s flaxen mane. He snorted, eyeing her nervously and wondering what possibly could be wrong. He picked up his feet into a trot and when she didn’t do anything he gave a kick of his heels and broke into a run again.

The lurid sunshine seemed over bright in her eyes as she let her horse take her swiftly down the busy sea side Escavian road. Farmers and people and carts shouted after her but she didn’t answer, clinging as she was to her horse in her sorrow. A police officer called to her and when she didn’t stop he put his heels to his black police mount and took chase after her. The green leaves of the trees on either side of the road rustled as Snip thundered beneath their leafy bows, kicking up clods of hard packed dirt.

Beneath the trees the officer caught Snip’s bridal, slowing his horse as he got a firm grip. Snip tossed his head but obeyed and the officer steered them off the road. Eva blinked at him, shocked to find herself being pulled over for speeding.

“Miss, are you aware that you were galloping in a trot-only strip of road?” he demanded, the words obviously practiced.

“S-sorry officer. I f-forgot to r-reign in m-my h-horse when he b-bolted.” she sobbed.

“Are you alright?” the officer asked, abruptly concerned.

“I d-don’t really know.” she admitted, staring at Snip’s ears.

“Why don’t you come with me to the station and calm down.” suggested the officer. “When you aren’t in full control of your mount you are endangering both you and others around you.” he recited.

“I’m sorry.” she said again in a small voice.

“I’m sure whatever it is that has you upset isn’t quite as bad as you think it is.” said the officer as he led her along.

“No. It is.” she said, slumping in her saddle. “My sister just had a baby.”

The officer blinked. “And that is bad how?”

“She didn’t want one and I did!” she snapped. “How come she gets the baby? I’m the one who wanted one!”

The policeman didn’t say a word as she raged and ranted. When they got to the police station in Seamist he helped her dismount and gave Snip to a groom to take care of before ushering her inside the building. He made sure she had a hot cup of tea and a quilt before he left back on duty. She had long stopped ranting and sat there stonily, watching the pair of off-duty German Shepherd police dogs who were sleeping on the empty hearth.

She wasn’t sure how long she did nothing. Eva examined the room, which was painted in a calming cream. Paintings of famous police officers, horses and dogs adorned the walls, as well as a large painting of a fierce looking female falcolf behind the clerk’s desk. The falcolf had greeny-blue eyes and a hassled expression. She was standing in the grounds of the International Parliament Buildings in Serenity. The clerk’s dented and well loved desk was a made of a burnished dark wood and a vase of flowers took up the only space not crowded by quills, paper, ink and books. The clerk was a balding man who was asleep with a loaded crossbow across his lap and a trickle of drool coming from his lip.

The hearth was covered almost completely by the two dogs who lay on a rug made out of braided fabric in the patriotic colours of red, white, black and green. The Escavian coat of arms graced the mantle. One of the police dogs lifted his head and curled his lip in a growl as a man entered the station. The clerk awoke with a cough and blinked at the stranger and at Eva.

“Eh when did you get here?” he asked her.

“Couple of hours ago.” she told him.

“Really? I must work on my alertness. Easy Sarge.” he said. The big growling German shepherd quieted, though he didn’t lay back down. His companion was sitting up now and her eyes were following the stranger’s every move.

“Sarge! Major! Sit!” barked the clerk as he put down his crossbow and stood.

“Sir, are you alright?” he asked the newcomer. Eva turned her gaze on the man and for the first time she really looked at him. The man wore a ragged cloak and beneath it she could see the glint of armour. There was so much blood matted in his hair that she couldn’t tell what colour it had originally been. A smear of crimson covered his right cheek and his nose looked broken. The man took a hesitant step further into the room and with a shock Eva realized that he had a rather bad limp.

Blood stained his torn cloak so badly she couldn’t tell its original colour and the man was holding something wrapped in dark blue linen. The man wore a cloth around his ears that had once been white but was now brownish red with dried blood. His left wrist was wrapped in more crimson clotted fabric and he looked like he had been wounded badly in the ribs by the way he moved. Something long and suspicious with navy blue fletching was protruding from his back. The strange man turned his head towards the officer and Eva got the impression that he was mortally tired, ranging on fatally.

“I rescued this infant from a dragon that had killed its mother.” stated the man slowly and carefully. His voice had an odd accent to it. “I am dying. Take him now.”

“Dragon? Dying?” squeaked the clerk. The strange man seemed to regard the clerk disgustedly for a moment then limped towards Eva, his feet clunking oddly against the wood. His injured leg’s foot left scarlet prints on the floor.

The two police dogs were barely able to stand still as they watched the injured man close in on Eva. A growl erupted from Sarge’s throat and Major’s hackles went up. The man ignored them and stopped before Eva, who stared at him nervously.

“Here.” said the man, his voice barely a whisper. “You take him. He’s yours now.”

Before she could protest the man had placed the bundle in her arms. “Guard him well.” said the man, turning to go. But he stopped, cocking his head towards the dusty window. “Farewell.” Then with remarkable speed he left the building, dragging his limb after him. Eva and the clerk ran after him to the door and looked around for him, but he had vanished.

“Weird bloke. He needs a hospital.” said the clerk, his face white.

“He said he fought a dragon.” said Eva breathlessly, still a little shocked and still holding the bundle.

“I’ve never heard a dragon on the Sapphire coast. He looks more like he fought an army!” gulped the clerk. Then he looked at her. “So what’s in the bundle?”

Eva looked at the bundle for the first time and with a shock realized that in it was a sleeping baby. A tiny boy was huddled in the blue cloth, his face absolutely perfect and a far nicer sight than her sister’s Hunter. The boy had a small, perfect nose and mouth. He already had vague eyebrows and short hair, which looked to be black. A tiny smear of dark crimson was streaked across his cheeks and around his neck was a silver chain. He looked a bit older than Hunter, judging by how his head didn’t look as big as Hunter’s in comparison to his body.

She gazed down at him and wondered if this is what her sister must of thought when she had first seen her son.

“Well, what are you going to call him?” asked the clerk, breaking her out of her reverie.

“Huh?”

“The bloke gave him to you so he’s yours unless of course you’d rather give him to the orphanage.” said the clerk.

“Of course not!” said Eva, astounded that the man could even suggest such a thing. “I’ll raise him!”

“Good, so what’s his name?” asked the clerk, sitting down and grabbing a ledger and a quill.

“Um, give me a moment!” she said. She thought for quite a long time while the clerk and the two police dogs stared at her.

“Ki. I’ll name him that.” she decided.

“Awfully short name.” said the clerk, raising an eyebrow.

“Ki Chard.” she said stubbornly. “It’s spelled K-i. As in Kyle but without the ‘l‘ sound.”

“And how do you spell your surname? S-h-a-r-d? Like a crystal?” asked the man.

“No, but close; C-h-a-r-d. Pronunciation was right.” she said, amazed and shocked at the fact that she was adopting a child on whim.

“No middle name?” asked the man.

“No, he’s too special to have a middle name.” she proclaimed.

“You do know that we will have to investigate?” asked the man.

“Yes.” she’d expected as much, but somehow she doubted that they’d ever find out the truth of what had happened. “It is rather questionable, isn’t it?”

“And your name?” asked the man promptly.

“Evangeline Wila Chard.” she supplied.

“Thank you miss. And where do you live?” asked the clerk. She gave him the information and then she begged leave to go.

The stable groom saddled Snip for her and she mounted up and had already rode halfway back home before she’d realized that she’d forgotten to notify their relatives of Hunter’s existence. She’d been a wreck when she’d left and had completely forgotten. But it was too late to go back and she had Ki so she rode on.

She needn’t of worried. When she entered the house with Ki still sleeping in her arms she could hear the dulcet tones of her mother, father, brother and stepsister appraising Matilda’s new baby upstairs. She had wanted to show Ki to just her sister today, but now she had no choice. Grumbling to the little orphan in her arms she strode up the stairs and into her sister’s bedroom.

“Eva!” said her mother sternly as way of greeting. “Where have you been?!”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come and tell you guys like I was supposed to but something happened.” she said bracingly, glad her cloak concealed Ki. She told them the entire story, even the embarrassing parts at the start. Her father and Matilda were the first to say anything.

“Well, it looks like instead of one new grandson I get two!” he said, laughing jovially and then demanding that she show him Ki.

“I’m so happy for you Eva!” said Matilda. “Now Hunter has a brother!”

“Indeed.” said their mother, sniffing disdainfully.

“You named him Ki?” asked her brother Cen. “Why that?”

“I’m not sure. It just fits.” said Eva proudly while her father held Ki and introduced him to Hunter who eyed the other infant with huge innocent eyes. Ki opened his eyes for the first time then. His eyes were not blue, nor were they brown. They looked amber.

“Strange blinkers he’s got eh?” asked her happy father, who now had not one, but two children added to his harem.

“He and Hunter will be quite the pair when they’re older.” said Matilda, smiling as she watched the two babies looking at each other.

(c) Rosanna P. Brost
Do NOT copy, reuse, alter or redistribute.