“That side of the ravine looked safer to climb down.” One of the men said after a long moment. “If we startled you, then we apologize.” Curious despite being nervous, and feeling safer now that I was clinging to Koh and his arms were around me, and with Shi between us and the people, I peeked up a little. The third person was a girl, and she was walking slowly over to the two men. Shi and Koh were studying them as well.
“We`ll leave as soon as you tell us if you`ve seen that insubstantial demon.” One of the men said. I didn`t like the way that he said that. Like…like it was an order. I had heard orders from Mother before, and Koh, but that wasn`t the same. This person`s orders seemed scary, like he might hurt us if we didn`t listen. Trusting Shi and Koh, I let them watch him and I looked away from him to the girl, who was looking at me. She looked nothing like mother had. She was thinner, and was wearing odd clothes. She was wearing blue pants with no skirt over them! No skirt….? Why….? She was clearly a girl, a woman, but not wearing a skirt! Even in all the books I`d read the girls wore skirts!
Koh and Shi didn`t like the man`s tone either. “I haven`t seen an insubstantial demon.” Shi said calmly, not sounding annoyed even though I`d thought he was. He wasn`t lying. He knew that Koh had been insubstantial, but he hadn`t actually seen him when he was insubstantial. Mother hadn`t lied either. Lying was bad. But Shi wasn`t lying, so that was a good thing.
The two men looked at each other. “It was last seen in this area.” The one without the scar said. Shi shrugged. “Be that as it may, my family is well able to protect themselves, should there be danger.” Shi`s family? Shi`s family was…Koh, right? Because they were brothers…My family had been mother because she was my mother. But…but then…what were Shi and Koh to me? What was our connection…? I knew Koh and I had a connection, but I had never heard the name… Shi. I looked up, and Shi was glancing back. “Kohriko is my family, little one, but now so are you.” He had guessed what I was thinking. I nodded a teeny drop to show I`d heard, and Shi turned his attention back to the people.
We were family. That was the connection, though with Koh…maybe that wasn`t all. It felt like `family` was too little a word to explain my connection to Koh, since I didn`t true-dream but had dreams with him in them. Still though, I held onto that idea tight. Family was a connection, and I would never be alone if I had family. Especially if it was family who were demons.
“Is this really your property?” the girl asked. “You are all wearing old dirty clothing like you`ve been camping out for a long time. Why would you be camping out here if this is your property?” She sounded suspicious. I knew that emotion, because I`d heard it in mother`s voice a couple times when she`d told me about someone being a little nice to her, and she was suspicious as to why, since sometimes people started out that way then turned mean. I glanced down at my clothes. They really did look dirty and old. Since the house had turned old, these were the only clothes that I had…
“It`s really our property.” Shi replied, still calm. The girl frowned. “You better not be lying. I can check the town records. We only didn`t before because we expected to be able to find a house and ask permission.” The cottage…inadvertently, my arms tightened around Koh a little. His tightened in response. Even if it was ruined and old now, I didn`t want strangers there. Strangers, like mother had warned, might be mean.
“In fact…” the girl said. “Come back to town with us while I check. At least you little girl. Are you really here because you want to be?” …Little girl? Me? But…why….why would I go with them?! It was completely silent and I looked up to see that both Shi and Koh had completely unreadable expressions. I didn`t trust these people, or know these people. They might be bad people! They might hurt me, like mother had always warned. I didn`t want to go with them! Why would the girl even think that I might?!
Koh didn`t want me to leave either, so he picked me up then, so I could hide my face against his neck and cling tight. “That`s going too far.” Shi said, voice cold. “We`ve told you that you are on our property, and not only do you not apologize for trespassing, you also insinuate that it isn`t ours and that we`re kidnappers as well?”
“You have to admit it seems suspicious.” One of the men said. “If it is your property, why has no one in town seen you? And why are you wearing old clothes if you own this much land?” But the second man said “No, he`s right. Rayanne, Micah, we`ve been rude. In apology, we`ll leave for today. We`ll be staying at the hotel in town for a few days. If you see that insubstantial demon, please let us know. Just ask at the desk for Michael Derrick.”
I heard movement, but I didn’t look up. I was done with people. Too many people. They were strange people, and I didn`t like them. It was a few minutes later that I heard Shi take a deep breath. “Kohriko,” he said. “I don`t trust them, so I`m going to follow them into town, to make sure that`s where they are going. Will you wait at the cottage?” I looked up at that, Koh tilted his head, town? Cottage? And Shi half nodded his head, voice gentle again. “I`m sorry, Little One. I know the cottage has sad memories for you. But they did not manage to find the cottage even though they found the ravine, so it should be completely safe.” If they couldn`t find us, that seemed like a good thing. But how did Shi know that they hadn`t found the cottage?
Koh seemed reluctant too, but he didn`t like either that they had found us. He looked down at me. Safe... he offered. I trusted Shi to know where was safe, even though I still wasn`t sure why he knew it was, so I nodded. “Let`s go to the cottage.” I agreed. Koh nodded, reluctantly, and I held on tight while he and Shi jumped out of the ravine easily. Shi immediately took off in one direction, and Koh went the other way.
When we were at the cottage, he put me gently on my feet, and we stayed outside and sat near the blueberry bramble. I leaned against him, and he kept an arm around me. “Why were they looking for you, Koh?” I asked. Just because they had summoned him? Koh didn`t answer, and only smoothed my hair. We hadn`t even been awake all that long, but I was sleepy, and I was safe because Koh was here, so I fell asleep.
In my dream, Koh was pacing, and mad at the people who had found us earlier. “It`s lucky for them,” he growled, “that Shi was there.” Seeing me, he immediately came over and put his arms around me, hugging me in the dream like he`d been doing when I`d fallen asleep. “Don`t worry, Jaylin,” he said quietly. And it was the first time I remembered him saying my name. “Shi is here, and I`m here, so you`ll be safe.”
I nodded and hugged him back. “I trust you, Koh.” I replied. “And I trust Shi now too.” Koh smoothed my hair gently. “Good.” He said. Even though it was a dream, we cuddled quietly for a little while. Then Koh asked, “Are you still upset I changed you into a demon?” I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. “No,” I told him. “I…I think it`s all right.” I had had time to get used to it by now. “And…and I`m very happy I`m not alone anymore.” I told him. Koh`s eyes were gentle, and he actually smiled at me. I had never seen him smile when we were awake. I liked his smile.
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