So the next morning, they began packing what they needed for the trip. Juno grabbed bandages and a bottle of something to clean wounds, Jackie’s medicines, and everything they would need to ensure nobody would become ill or get an infected wound, which reminded them to check on Kimi.
Kimi was doing fine. She could stand, but she was a bit wobbly and would stumble when she walked.
Jackie gave her mommy a kiss on the cheek, and Maxine was sure to do the same, and then they hopped into big carriages pulled by even bigger black dogs.
“They’re bear dogs. They’re really strong, and were bred to hunt, kill, and bring bears to their owners. They make good guard and carriage dogs, and it’s illegal to send them out to hunt bears on their own now. The bears almost died out!” Jackie explained to Kimi, after seeing her mild confusion.
“You… use dogs here?”
“Yeah! See, horses are great, perfect for flat land! But when it comes to mountains and rough terrain, they suck. We use bear dogs for the tundra and forests, and elk for mountains. Plus, it only takes two dogs to pull a carriage, and it takes five horses to pull the same weight!”
“Oh. In Ioski we use ostriches, they’re fast, powerful birds.”
“Birds?! How many?! Do you fly everywhere? That must be so cool!”
“Um… no? Ostriches are flightless. And they’re big. Takes about four to carry a carriage.”
“Flightless! Birds that don’t fly! That’s so strange!”
“Where I’m from, the dogs aren’t so fluffy. If I recall, they’re bred from dingoes.”
“What are those?”
“Dingoes are yellowy, come up to my thigh, with pointy ears and long faces. Rather cute, we had a tame one, a puppy. I felt bad for it though. Probably missed her mama. Maybe she never met her mama. I would have freed it, but it probably would have starved out there.”
“Oh. That must suck for the little baby.”
Once sundown came, they hopped out of the carriages. Maxine had been working with Juno in their carriage, Karo and Jem had been chatting in theirs. Jackie and Kimi had talked all day about each’s own home while the other listened and compared it to theirs. Kimi noticed how cute its features were, how they would butt into what she was saying with a “Really!? That’s so strange!” before catching theirself and apologizing.
“They’re so pretty...” she muttered to herself. “Oh,” she realised.
“You alright Kimi? You’re really red,” Jem mentioned.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine.”
“Alright. We’re gonna get dinner ready.”
Maxine smiled when she saw the two kids. “I used to do this all the time! Back when I was little, my dad and I lived out in the forest like this. We went out into town for a festival, and that’s when I met your mom! I was a stuttering, blushy mess.”
“You lived in the forest?” Jem said.
“Yeah! My dad was a lumberjack. He’d chop wood, replant the tree, and we’d sell the lumber as firewood. Soph kept coming back to the shop, which was weird because she didn’t need firewood, and then it hit me that she had a crush on me, and didn’t know how to deal with it. So she just… kept buying wood.”
“You wouldn’t have figured that out without grandpa!”
“I wouldn’t have. I was all like, ‘I wonder why she keeps coming back and getting more wood.’ Your grandfather told me, ‘She likes you, doofus. Not sure why, you’re about as dense as a rock, maybe that’s the reason. Go ask her on a date or somethin’,’ and so I did.” she said, grinning all the while, making silly voices to mock her father and herself.
Jackie smiled, and so did Jem and Karo, and Maxine and Kimi and Juno.
“Dinner’s ready!” Juno said, in his playful, gruff voice.
He poured bowls of soup out. Thick, chewy noodles sat at the bottom of a cloudy broth, and several vegetables floated atop the broth.
The group each grabbed their own utensils and began eating.
“What are those?” Jackie asked.
“They’re called chopsticks. You use them to grab food, like this.” Kimi pulled the noodles from the bottom of the bowl out and into her mouth, chewing quickly so she could finish talking. “Why’s your spoon so shallow?”
“This is a normal spoon!”
“Ioskian spoons are deeper, so you can drink more broth.”
“Why aren’t you using one now?”
“Karo keeps chopsticks and his favourite cup on him, not spoons.” Kimi tipped the bowl and drank the broth quickly, then pushed the noodles into her mouth.
“Oh my Korowa! How’d you eat so fast like that?”
“Karo taught me. He knew I had things to do early in the morning so he taught me how to eat an entire bowl of soup in two minutes. He won’t let me skip any meal, which is what I used to do. I just wouldn’t eat for a day or two and then I’d be so hungry I could hardly stand.”
“You shouldn’t do that!” Juno butted in, “You could get seriously sick! You could literally die!”
“Karo told me that already. And I don’t anymore. I mean, I’m trying my best to not do that anymore.”
The four adults stared directly into her. Their stares conveyed such a message it was wholly clear, “We are not letting you do that anymore. Ever.”
“Kimi, you are going to be the death of me. You make me so nervous,” Jem said with exasperation.
“I’m sorry…”
“No need for sorries,” Jem replied.
Karo yawned. “We should head to bed now.”
“We should be at the border between Juniko and Kamora by sunrise. From there it’s one more day to the Gelpie territory, and three hours to Ulet’s home.
They clambered into their carriages, and slept through the night soundly.
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