chxxpers

“Many of the people here have not seen a Rito—at least not since The Calamity. They may stare, but it is curiosity, not malice,” Olin warned him.

Kass accepted the scarf which Olin handed him to keep the cool wind at bay. As Olin slid the door open, Kass blinked against the comparatively harsh light. Bracing himself, he took a deep breath and followed Olin out into the frightening wideness of the world, through the herbs and vegetables in the patch of garden in front of his house, and down the path through the village.

Olin had been right; the villagers did look at him for just a little too long. Children stared openly, though their parents whispered at them that it was poor manners to do so, and all the while, the adults sneaked furtive glances at him. Kass fixed his eyes straight ahead, trying to ignore the stares he felt as he followed as closely to his teacher as he dared.

When they arrived at the shop, Olin approached the young woman at the counter and Kass stood stupidly between the tables of produce, unsure of what he should be doing. At the market in the fishing village, he and his mother would look at the fish and the fruit, so he stared intently at the goat butter, never handling anything as he had been taught, and trying hard not to remember his mother in public.

At the touch of a sticky hand up on his wing, he started and turned to see a small, white-haired girl with sparkling brown eyes, smiling at him.

“You’re it,” she giggled.

Kass didn’t know what that meant and backed into a table in horror. A basket of purple innards rocked off the table and spilled to the floor with a terrible organic squelch. The sound startled Kass—sounded too like other terrible sounds he tried not to remember—and he threw himself beneath the table, covering his head with his wings and curling into a ball.

A terrible noise filled Kass’s ears. He didn’t realize that it was he who was screeching and crying until he found Olin sitting beside him on the ground, the shop empty around them. He stopped and tried to catch his breath as soon as he realized what had happened and looked up to see Olin’s remorseful face.

“I’m sorry. I pushed you too soon,” said Olin.

Kass just wiped the tears from his face. When Olin held out his arm Kass reached out to his teacher, and let Olin lift him from under the table and carry him back to the cottage. His head upon Olin’s shoulder, he was too exhausted to do more than wonder if he was too old to be carried—certainly his father would have said he was. He couldn’t halt the tears that welled up when he thought of his father.

While he wept Olin held him close and stroked his head, saying nothing as Kass pressed his face into his shoulder. When Kass had finally cried himself to exhaustion, Olin laid him down in his hammock and tucked his blanket around him.