Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Moving

The small girl lays in her bed for a just a moment, rubbing her bleary eyes and forcing herself out of bed. She picks up her small bag and her pile of folded clothes and walks down the stairs.

“Good morning Kumiho.” Oswin’s tender voice calls out to her.

“Morning.” She places her things in front of the living room door and Oswin quickly gets up from the rocking chair with the purple cube in hand, quickly scooping everything up and throwing them into the small orb before it all condenses back into a small cube.

“You know you don’t have to go?” Oswin follows the red fox into the kitchen.

“I don’t have to go. But I will nonetheless.” She digs through the cabinet for a moment and pulls out a few ingredients; then opening a small cabinet at her feet, a small chill emanating from the cabinet as she opens it. The cabinet’s insides are filled with fluffy fur and frosty slabs of meat, a blue beating heart at the very back. Kumiho pulls one slab of meat out of the cabinet and plops it on a pan.

Oswin walks behind Kumiho and speaks softly, “You might need this.” He hands her a small metal cylinder, Kumiho hears the liquid sloshing within its metal interior as she shakes it, “This too.” He throws a small black box with a funnel at the top and an open tube at the side into her hand.

“I thought kids weren’t allowed to use these?” She softly muses, popping off the top of the cylinder and revealing a sloped spout that leads into a wooden cork lodged into the entrance to the inside of the cylinder.

“Well you aren’t like the other kids, but do you know how to use it?”

She nods, opening the silver box in the kitchen and revealing a neat stack of logs within. Her hands go to pop off the cork from the metal cylinder, her hands failing to pop it off until her body glows in veil of red and she pops off the cork with a satisfying pop. A foul aroma permeates from the opening, she carefully pours the pungent liquid into the funnel of the black box and aims the black tube at the logs. An almost imperceptible crackle is heard and without another moment of wait, a strong heat is felt from the black box and a stream of fire sprays out from the tube, engulfing the logs in flames.

“Nice.” The black-haired man says jovially, lightly high fiving the small girl without much power for once.

He sits down at the kitchen table and pulls out a small notebook, peacefully humming to himself while writing in the book with his black quill. Kumiho places the frozen slab of chicken on a pan and slowly sears it while occasionally seasoning it with different herbs, powders, and sauces. The other children one by one walk down the steps drowsily and join Oswin at the table, Kumiho just finishing the small meal as Sune enters the kitchen. The rest of the morning is a peaceful one, filled with playful banter and questions on what their journey to the North might mean and include.

Once everyone is finished with their meals Kumiho cleans up and they all get ready to leave their newfound home, all of them going straight out the door and down the winding dirt roads towards a small wooden building just outside the town. The building has a thatch roof, and wooden carts are neatly parked in front of it. A barn is connected to the right side of the building, loud hisses and chirps echoing out from its interior. Oswin walks up to the front door and knocks lightly; a muffled old voice yells through the door.

“Come in!”

The group enters the wooden building and are greeted by a frail old man sitting behind a desk with stacks of papers in front of him, “What’chu want?” He asks without looking up from the paper in front of him.

Oswin walks up and throws a heavy cloth bag right on the paper the man is so enamored with, glistening silver coins spilling out over the paper, “We want to go up north, as close as we can get to the ‘problem’ areas.”

The man scoops up the coins and gently places them back into the bag, “JACK! Get out here you lazy bum!” The man yells, his hand affectionately stroking the bag of coins.

A young ginger man with a patchy beard rushes out, his hands still pulling up his unbelted brown pants, “Yes boss?” He smiles placatingly while tightening his belt around his waist.

The old man sneers at the younger one, “I got a big job for you.”

Jack’s brown eyes sparkle, “An actual job?! For me!?” He runs up to his boss’ desk, “You actually mean it?”

“Yes Jack. This is your chance to get a raise if you do it well. Ask him for the details and if you do well I’ll even give you a silver.”

“A whole silver?!” Jack’s brown eyes brighten even more, the ginger running to Oswin excitedly, “Hello!” He shakes Oswin’s hand vigorously, “Name’s John, but everyone calls me Jack. Glad to make your acquaintance!” The man speaks with haste, “But anyways what's the job that got ole grumpy Todd all excited?”

“My names not Todd you bum. And why don’t you spare a look at the company of our client.” The old man cuts in angrily.

“What do you...” The words die in his mouth as he notices the four fox eared children, “You kids don’t happen to take offense to me saying Todd...?” He asks cautiously.

“I don’t mind, do you guys?” Sune speaks first and breaks some of the man's tension immediately with her soft voice.

“I don’t care much. Since we do the same thing all the time.” He jokingly adds in the Eastern language, Sune giving him a glare and Hollie lightly chuckling. Jack tilts his head at Fang’s strange words but becomes noticeably less tense hearing the children’s light laughter.

“Now that that’s out of the way, we wanted to go up north mister John. As close as you’ll take us to the ‘situation’ going on up there.”

“Oh...” His excited smile falls, “Wait a minute.” He turns to the old man rubbing his cheek on a silver coin while cooing at it, “That's why you’re putting me on this mission!” He points at the old man angrily, “You’re hoping some bandits will attack the cart and kill me!” He accuses adamantly, getting up in the older man’s face.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Tsk.” He clicks his tongue in annoyance.

“You’re actually trying to kill me!” Jack says flabbergasted.

“No...” He pauses for a long moment in thought, “Just think about it kid, the more dangerous job, the better the pay. It’s scientifically proven. I’m not trying to kill you, just trying to give you an opportunity, and opportunity happens to be dangerous.”

“That does make a lot of sense, but you’re also a foxlike bastard so I’m sure that’s an excuse.” He spits venomously, “And no offense to the little clients.” He turns apologetically to the children.

“They always say ‘no offense’ after saying something blatantly offensive.” Fang complains to the other kids, all of them nodding in agreement.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that!” The ginger pleads.

“Fine then, John. I’ll give the job to someone more eager for a free silver.” He sneers condescendingly, “SEOL—!”

“Woah woah! Calm down there boss.” Jack covers the old man’s wide-open mouth, “I never said anything like that, I’ll take the job.” His placating smile morphs into a sneer as he mockingly adds, “AND, I’ll come back alive.” His jab being met with an unhappy frown by Todd, Jack turning back to his generous clients, “Sorry about that little argument. Come outside and we can talk about more of the details without interruption.”

As the group leaves the building the old man’s grumpy voice yells out one last time, “Don’t mess this up Jack.”

“Yeah Yeah.” Jack waves to the man without looking back. The group makes it outside and stand in a small circle, Jack speaking first, “Uh, ahem. You said you wanted to go over to the thing happening up north, right?”

“That’s correct.” Oswin responds with a kind smile, “It’s okay if you don’t want to take such a dangerous job, we can always get another driver.”

“No I’ll take it, I need the money. I just wanted to know how far up you’re planning to go, because I’m only willing to go as far as Chiveren.”

“Hmmm... Chiveren should be fine. I was hoping you could get us closer but I’m sure a local can bring us the rest of the way.”

“Alright great, and when do you want to leave?”

“Right now, if you can get set up fast enough.”

“Give me twenty—no, ten. I can get ready in ten minutes.” The young man excitedly runs off to the hiss filled barn and disappears inside. The man coming out a few minutes later with a bright red frilled lizard, a leather harness traveling all around its body as it obediently allows itself to be led to one of the many wooden carts.

“Wow...” Sune says dreamily, “I’ve never seen a calcare so brightly colored before!” She gushes over the frilled lizard, the calcare closing its eyes in contentment at Sune’s light scratches on its neck.

“I heard Easterners were good with animals, but this is ridiculous!” Jack says while connecting the calcare’s harness to the cart, “It took me months to get even the gentle Calcy to like me!” He lightheartedly complains.

“You named the calcare, Calcy...?” Sune stops scratching Calcy’s chin for a moment and the lizard responds by quietly hissing and flaring her large frills until Sune continues scratching her again.

“I didn’t name her. All of them are raised and named by that old fart’s daughter, Sarah, who unlike him is actually a sweetheart. And she’s also the reason why he hates me so much.”

“Why would she cause you two to dislike each other?” Sune questions.

“Because me and Sarah are going to travel to the capital and get married during the week of joined celestials.”

“Great for you!” Sune grins cordially.

“Thank you, I just wish her dad was as understanding...” Jack finishes hooking up Calcy to the cart in a record time of five minutes and yells out to the rest of the group, “Hey! I’m finished up. You can get on whenever you’re ready.”

The small group push past the simple leather curtain at the back of the cart and jump into its small cabin. Two long strips of wooden seats with cushions line both sides of the cart, a small line of grooves in the raised base of the strips. A curious Fang grabs one of the grooves and reveals a small cavity filled with random camping and cooking items stored right beneath the long strips of seating.

“Is everyone ready? It's going to be a decently long trip, and we’ll have to stop at a few places to collect more supplies and food.” Jack calls out to the group who are all getting settled in the back of the cart.

“We’re ready.” Oswin responds as he sits next to Fang, the three girls sit together on the other side of the cart.

A soft slap is heard, and the cart begins moving down the road. The strong calcare drags the cart down the road with little to no trouble, any branch in its way quickly flattened under its large, clawed feet.

“I can’t believe we’re really leaving.” Sune’s voice is soft, her eyes watching the small town grow smaller and smaller, the endless hilly meadows slowly replaced with a thick green forest.

“It does feel a little weird to leave after so long.” Fang adds.

“Do you regret leaving?” Oswin asks lightly.

“No, I don’t really think I’ve had a chance to actually regret it yet though.” Fang answers.

Kumiho stares out the front of the cart, silently watching. Hollie’s eyes continue to struggle to stay open as the trip continues, her eyes finally shut and her body falls to the side, her head lightly falling on Kumiho’s shoulder. The red-haired girl glances at her sleeping companion who turned her shoulder into a pillow, but goes back to staring out the front of the cart without saying a word.

As the sun gets closer and closer to setting Jack eventually stops the cart in an empty field surrounded by towering trees and begins setting up camp. Oswin offers to help Jack set up the camp and Fang and Sune silently wander off to look around.

“Woah! Guys come look at this!” Fang and Sune come running out of the trees and into the field to collect Kumiho and Hollie who stayed back at camp.

“What is it?” Kumiho asks while stuffing some unfurled sleeping bags into an open tent.

“We found something really cool Kumi! You’ll love it, come see!” Sune wraps her arms around Kumiho’s arm and drags her towards the awaiting Fang and Hollie, the group entering the forest together, the sun beginning to set overhead.

The four kits travel through the thick forest for a short time and finally stumble out and into a field of red flowers with a small pond in the center, a thin river snakes out from the pond and travels deeper into the forest. The setting sun is just barely visible through the lines of trees, its orange light shining down on the small field and causing the pond to glisten with orange shimmers, the pond’s water is filled with blooming pink lotuses that gently sway in the water, and surrounding the small pond is a field of bright red poppies.

“Isn’t it pretty?” Sune asks to none of the children in particular, their continued silence a better answer to her question than words ever could. And so they continue to just sit in the field of poppies, watching as the last vestiges of the sun set behind the trees. The children sit in the darkness for some time; quietly watching as glowing fireflies begin filling the field with their vibrant colors, and they each begin to stand and walk out of the field and back to camp, the scene giving them some much-needed respite to collect their thoughts.