I hadn’t unpacked anything. The dorm room was only made for one person so there was no closet space for the things I had brought. It didn’t matter though. I was still debating asking Aubyn if we could move into a double dorm or if he’d be okay with me requesting a single dorm for myself. I didn’t want to be away from him, but I didn’t want to let myself become overly dependent on him either. With that in mind, I’d been living out of my suitcase.

I took out a long-sleeved shirt, joggers, and a coat Sang had bought me that I’d worn on the airship. I hadn’t been out since entering Karys but every now and again, I’d open the window by the bed for some fresh air. Whether it was morning or night, the air was always nice and cool but if I didn’t want to reverse all the progress I’d made getting better, I needed to stay warm.

“Haida-soh, help!” Coen suddenly yelled. “I can’t find a grey shirt.”

“A grey one?” I knelt next to Coen’s open suitcase. “Does it have to be a grey one?”

Coen nodded. “I want to wear a grey shirt like Haida-soh.”

“Uh…” I’d ruffled through his clothes and found nothing but grey pants. He had been wearing a grey shirt the day before, but I couldn’t pull it out of the laundry and have him wear it again. “How about I change the colour of my shirt so we can match?”

Coen nodded and took out a shirt he wanted to wear. “Can we wear pink?”

I looked in my suitcase. Most of my clothes were gifted since I’d get overwhelmed shopping for myself. So, there were some things I might own that I wasn’t aware of. I found a pink shirt and showed it to Coen. His and mine weren’t the same shade but he didn’t mind.

I felt so much better already knowing I was getting to go outside. I’d first wanted to wait to go for a walk with Aubyn, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to go sooner. I wanted to go walking down the street even if I had no destination. I found the thought funny. I’d spent so much of my time over the past few years wandering the streets with nowhere to go and wanting to find a home, but now I felt so cooped up in Aubyn’s dorm that I wanted to wander around.

“Ready?” I’d asked Coen who had run off to the kitchen to pack a bottle of water in his backpack. He already knew the things he needed every time he was to go out and always demanded he did it himself. He was quite the independent little man sometimes.

“Ready.” We left the dorm. “I want to press the button,” he’d said as we got on the elevator.

Coen pushed the correct button for the ground floor and we rode the elevator down. When we got off, I spotted Milan’s blonde curls by the entrance. I snickered as we neared him. It was as if we had been reading each other’s minds. Milan was wearing a pink shirt.

“Did you two plan this?” he asked.

“I couldn’t exactly say no to Coen, but it looked like you wanted to join in without knowing.”

“At least now that we’re all dressed alike, we won’t easily lose each other. Let’s go. I'm starving.” Milan led the way out of the building and down the street. “You’re strong enough for a good walk, right?” he’d asked.

“Yeah.” I’d offered my hand for Coen to hold and he did so quietly.

I breathed in the fresh air. It felt just like it had when I’d first exited the space portal. Alive. It must be the spiritual essence of the planet that Sang had mentioned before. He’d said once that it was everywhere on Karys and that vacuras fed off it. Regardless, it felt great to be outside and moving around again instead of constantly horizontal, studying, or bored. I didn’t even mind that I was still a bit sore.

We passed many tall buildings and trees. I couldn’t understand how the trees could be so huge. They made me feel small even though I was taller than the average human male from my country. The trees lined the sidewalk and were much more than I was used to seeing around on Earth. Cities didn’t have as much nature around them. They were concrete jungles. But on Karys, plants of all sorts seemed to be everywhere. I was almost sure the tree by the corporate housing entrance had fruits that looked like red mangoes on it.

“You look like a child in a candy store,” Milan said.

“Don’t tease. You’ve had three years to get used to this. I just got here.”

“I was amazed too. This was the first country I got to explore freely.”

I was about to say something, but I held my tongue. Sometimes I forgot how strangely Milan had grown up. “It’s beautiful. I kept thinking this was weird, but for mid-afternoon in the middle of summer, it’s freezing.”

“I wouldn’t say Karys has summer like Earth does. More like spring, autumn and winter. We’re in late spring now. We came back here after the peak in the hot season so it’s only going to get colder from here. Days feel short and afternoons start to look like twilight during the colder season. It’s really pretty.”

It was no wonder Sang said that the sun on Earth was too harsh. If this cool air was late spring, then I didn’t have much hope for heat in the middle of spring. Earth’s spring and summer could be brutal in comparison especially since in some places, the hotter seasons lasted over half the year. I wouldn’t complain about Karys’ weather though. As much as my body couldn’t bear the cold, I preferred it over a kind of heat so bad I felt as if I was going to pass out every time I went outside.

The buildings had started to change as we left the busier part of the city behind. But that didn’t mean there were fewer people on the sidewalk, just fewer vehicles on the street. Because of that, I picked up Coen so he wouldn’t have to worry about bumping into anyone and prayed that he wouldn’t insist on walking. I had a weak spot for this child.

I’d smelled the food before the people came into view. In an open building with partitions to separate each booth, there were several kiosks with signs and menus of food I couldn’t even read. Some had counters where some people sat down to eat. Everything wasn’t down a litter-decorated alley like I had expected it to be.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” I’d said.

“It’s called a street food market,” Milan had said in a patronizing way.

I ignored his tone, too busy taking in the smells from all the different kiosks that were calling me in every direction. “Where do we go first?”

“I want xeo. You wanna taste it?” Milan asked.

I looked at Coen who was just as fascinated by his surroundings. “What do you think?” I asked him. Coen nodded.

I followed Milan through the crowd of people and three kiosks down to one where the woman finishing up with a customer immediately called out to him. Once the customer she was dealing with walked away, she immediately engaged in excited chatter with Milan as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in ages and needed to catch up urgently.

I tuned out of their conversation to pay attention to the food that was being served. The men behind the kiosk prepped and filled the dough and then slid it on a tray into a large stone oven, taking out the tray first that had been inside.

“Is that what we’re going to eat?” Coen asked.

“I guess so.”

I’d sat down on one of the empty seats at the counter, leaving Milan to make our orders. I tried to put Coen down on the seat next to me, but he only clung to me tightly. As much as I loved it whenever he wanted to be near me, I knew it was only because there were a lot of people around.

People were staring at us. I’d noticed it the second we left the corporate housing, but I had ignored it. I must not look like a vacura, was what I thought. But now that I was sitting still, it was hard to keep ignoring the stares and numerous subtle glances in our direction.

“Is it just me,” I’d asked when Milan had finished his conversation, “or are people staring?”.

“They are. It’s nothing bad, just out of curiosity. They can tell you’re human or at least not one of them. Just like you can tell they’re vacura. There aren’t many humans around this place. Actually, there are hardly any humans in the country so some of these people are probably seeing a human for the first time.”

“Right,” I said. Their auras were nearly overwhelming with their eyes lingering in my direction. I reflexively tightened my hold on Coen.

“Relax,” Milan said, taking a seat next to me.

We were served two plates with a xeo on each that was cut in half, and a short stack of napkins that didn’t quite look or feel like the napkins I was used to. It made sense not to get three because Coen was not going to eat the whole thing. Something that looked like white, melted cheese oozed out of the xeo on Milan’s plate. On mine, I couldn’t tell what the contents were, but I copied Milan by picking up half and biting into it. The crust was extremely flaky and crunchy, and the inside was like a bomb of strong flavours.

“What am I eating?” I asked, hoping that I’d like the response.

“Veggies.”

“But it’s so good.” I hated vegetables.

“I told you it would be.”

Coen tapped my hand. “Please can I have some?”

“Be careful,” I warned, “It’s hot”.

I made sure he didn’t burn himself or make too much of a mess as he ate, though the flakiness of the crust made it almost impossible to eat tidily. When Coen asked for his water, I took it out of his backpack. It only took a few seconds to do that, but by the time I looked at him again, the lower half of his face was covered in the crust from the xeo.

“Good grief,” I muttered, attempting to clean him up.

“Pfft! You’re such a parent,” Milan said mid-laughter.

“Whatever. I want to taste yours.”

Milan gave me half of his and I gave him half of mine. It wasn’t cheese on the inside, but it tasted like creamy goat cheese with a bit of a tang and sweetness. It was so good that I got one of every flavour to go. I had to try them all and the stall attendants were so happy that I liked the food that they neatly wrapped up each xeo for me and told Milan to tell me to come back any time.

That got me looking forward to the next kiosk. I was open to taste-testing all the food everyone had to offer the whole way down the line to satisfy my returning appetite. We went from stall to stall trying out different kinds of food led by my curiosity and the cravings of Coen and Milan. We’d bought and accumulated more food than planned, but we only had two hands and a child-sized backpack. We found a place to sit and eat and I took a chance on sugar-covered, skewered balls of sticky fruit called marinba. It was Coen’s idea to get it.

I was constantly wiping at Coen’s mouth. The food we had gotten couldn’t easily be eaten neatly, but it was worse in the hands of a four-year-old.

“Head up. Knights incoming.”

“Who?” I’d looked up and around us for familiar faces and was about to ask ‘Who?’ again when I spotted them. I couldn’t miss two handsome men in knightly uniforms coming our way. Neither could I stop the huge smile that came across my face.

Sang greeted Milan with a ruffling of his hair and Milan wrapped his arms around the taller man’s waist tightly.

“Papa!” Coen called excitedly once he noticed his father approaching us. He wiggled away from me and dove into his father’s arms.

Aubyn greeted us with a smile that matched my own. He leaned down to kiss Coen’s cheek and pick him up. “Your face is a mess, Coen.”

“Is food,” Coen explained, pointing to our stash.

Aubyn came and sat beside me, holding Coen in his lap so he could properly clean his face. “You are feeling that much better?” Aubyn asked me.

“I am now,” I’d told him cheesily.