#jotiri

”You can’t see them, they’re too small.” He doesn’t believe anything that small can do anything. And just kept on munching on his bird. Unfathomably disgusting. No wonder his breath stank like the end of days. All the kini probably died in their thirties. Marsohu was fast approaching the end of his life. ”How old are you?” He’s young. ”I mean how many years. I’m 18.” He doesn’t understand what a ”year” is. ”Well, umm… If you were born two years ago, you’d be two years old. When were you born?” He doesn’t know. He was born when he was born. Wow. His mother had a head full of air. Maybe she had caught a brain disease from uncooked meat. ”What about Joyjaa?” He’s an adult. ”So… 18?” Adult. Try and make sense of that. Joyjaa was so not 18, maybe 26. Marsohu looked a little younger than his cousin, around 22 or so. I would probably have to ask Joyjaa, maybe I could get an actual answer out of him. And out loud. Telepathy still felt odd, and if I didn’t know to expect it, it was difficult to tell what where my own thought and what was being sent from the outside. The bird’s bones cracked in Marsohu’s mouth. I couldn’t suppress the shudder. He noticed, but thought it meant I wanted his leftovers. ”No thanks!” I squeeked and instantly leaned backwards from the bloody bundle being shoved into my face. ”Frankly, I can’t wrap my head around how you aren’t all dead with your diet”, I muttered in English. Marsohu’s ears swiveled towards me, he liked English more than Tagor. I guess he heard it more often. Or I mean, of course he heard it more often, these days even I only used English when I didn’t know the Tagor word. Sometimes simply because Marsohu liked it. Those times he paid more attention to me than usually. He avoided looking me in the eye, but then again, that is a sign of aggression in the animal kingdom. He used to look me directly in the eyes the first times we met. Back then he hadn’t liked me even though he had been curious. He’d been trying to scare me. I wonder if he had been confused when I had stared right back? What else did they do the opposite way to humans? ”Hey, Marsohu, what kind of houses do you live in?” They don’t have houses. ”So, you live in…. nests, dig a small hole in the ground?” Yes. But closer to the mountains there’s an old village , abandoned, with houses. ”A village? Did humans used to live here?” Humans have never lived in the forest. Kinis built it, a long time ago. Some of the houses still stand. ”Why was it abandoned?” He doesn’t know. Well of course. He barely knows anything. Maybe the kinis had tried to copy humans, try out their lifestyle, but it hadn’t suited them. Marsohu would like to show me the village, but it’s not a good idea. Humans aren’t welcome in the forest. ”But I’m already in the forest”, I pointed out. Well, I was metre in the forest, but that still counted. The border was unconditional. Not even Ritidia was allowed a toe over the line. And even that is too much. I had only gotten so far because I had proven myself to be submissive and respectful, I was absolutely harmless. ”Absolutely?!” I protested. Yeah, it was true that I was weak, slow, light, small, ignorant and without a spark of magic, but he didn’t need to put it like that! ”I do have some authority! I am a princess after all!” The only one around here gives a damn about the ”authority” of humans is Joyjaa, who doesn’t respect it all. Jotiri was peeking in b etween the trees with a concerned look. He believed me one I said everything was fine, but almost looked disappointed about it. He really had a bone to pick with the kinis, and all they did was live in the vicinity of his family, who by the way had moved there only three years ago. It was embarrassing that I was never let anywhere alone. Marsohu had long since showed he much preferred me alive, and didn’t even twitch his ear at Jotiri’s direction. That if anything proved that he didn’t consider Jotiri a threat. I had been to the forest dozens of times, and had yet to witness a single scuffle. If you asked me, I’d say the stories about the superiority of kinis were mostly tall tales, and the humans had just grown up believing them without scrutiny. ”Would you beat Jotiri in a fight?” Yes. He hadn’t hesitated a millisecond. ”I don’t know… He’s pretty good.” Famfara was demonstrably even better, but even she did her best to look humble and non-threatening around the kinis. ”He might put up a surprisingly good fight.” The border is unconditional. ”Well give him a special permission this once, like me.” The border is unconditional. ”You bore!” I stuck out my tongue at him, but the message missed him completely. ”How can it be unconditional if I’m here?” The border is only for humans and kinis. I’m something else. ”I was human the last time I looked in a mirror.” Marsohu looked at me for a long time with an appraising look. He avoided my eyes, of course. I liked his eyes, they were such a brilliant color and since they were so big, you could see it so clearly. But I didn’t want to offend him, so I kept my thoughts to myself. He barked a laugh. ”What?” Without answering he changed to his hyena form and started climbing up the nearest tree, wanting me to follow. I was never the climbing type, and the thick, branchless trunk of this tree made it really difficult. I went slower than a snail, and finally he got tired of watching me suffer and offered a hand. The human hand extending from the arm of a hyena looked just bizarre. He lifted me up to the first branch, after which things got way easier. I steadfastly kept my eyes upwards, refusing to even think about coming down before it was time. We climbed and climbed, almost to the top. The tree was incredibly tall, standing at least two metres taller than all the others around. The view was amazing. Harvest season was nearly there so all the fields flashed golden in the wind, behind the snow capped mountains starts were already forming, and far, far in the distance, the sea burned bright as fire in the sunset. I hadn’t even noticed it was getting that late. All the colours were just breathtaking, the black sky blending into indigo, the sun dyeing the clouds a deep purple, above the ocean pink and orange. I’m not like a human. ”On what grounds?” A human builds. Doesn’t see the sun, doesn’t see the ocean. Marsohu gestured towards the town, on my left, with his muzzle. I tried to see it, but from this far away I could only see a colorful spot. ”We need a home, too”, I reminded. ”Humans can’t survive in a simple cave, eating raw meat.” Again he looked at me long. Maybe like a human after all. ”There’s nothing wrong about that”, I argued, but Marsohu could be stupidly stubborn and selfish. He simply would not understand that his lifestyle wasn’t for everyone. I looked at the ocean again. You couldn’t see it from the town because there was a slight upwards slope all along the coastline. There were no beaches in Tagor, only cliffs. I wasn’t a beach type of person, but it would have been nice to go watch the sunset sometime. Tir was pretty far from the coast, but I was sure I could take two days off sometime in the future. I would probably need to leave early in the afternoon to make it in time. My work wasn’t viewed as important, anyway, unfortunately no one would care. Not even the kini, I suspected. I was just a novelty for Marsohu and Joyjaa. I turned to say something to him, I wasn’t even sure what, but he had changed back to human and was watching me with a gentle look. I smiled weakly and turned back. We stayed quiet until the sun sunk behind the ocean and Jotiri started calling for me. Time to go. Had been for hours. ”Coming!” My descent was, if possible, even slower than my climbing. I didn’t dare to take a proper look so it took ages to feel around for proper footing. Marsohu laughed at my pathetic display while skipping with ease from brach to branch, and thought I was a positively sorry sight, even more pitiful than his youngest sister. I was so pissed at him I didn’t even ask why he used his human form so rarely on the ground – evidently his ”problems with balance” were utter horse shit. After what felt like an hour I made it to the lowest branch. I considered jumping down, but despite being the lowest, it was still at least four metres up. I couldn’t get a proper grip on the trunk, so sliding down it was out of the question. I didn’t see any other options, though. Marsohu of course smirked at me from the ground. He just loved humiliating me. Jump, he’ll catch. ”For sure?” He nodded and lifted his arms. I dropped down to dangle from the branch, again made sure that he would be there because I would have to punch him if he was messing with me. I let go.