In Huck's Hands

Chapter 13: Umami Flavored Durik-Shit!

I couldn't help but plunge into an exhaustive slumber as we took flight into the clear Buriti atmosphere. The dark crocodile leather cockpit seat was magnificent compared to all this cessation and adversity I had confronted among the dunes...I felt my eyelids fluttering close as the safety of the plane quelled my warring sentiments.

My eyes cracked apart instantly in some sort of daydream sweet-smelling figs and seasoned hyena flesh oozed into my nostrils, erasing the thoughts of the caravan and its deafening trial. I glimpsed Kash enter from a side gate of our family's summer palace's floating garden. My face was displaying my usual post-pubescent grimace yet I couldn't help but feel intense sorrow welling inside me from the resurgence of this buried memory.

"Duck!" I dived stupidly to the dirt at her spontaneous outburst. I sensed my face smack painfully into the side of a potted planted 'seamlessly' integrated into the phony sky garden. I was able to peek my eyes out slightly over a small Bloomrose bush before seeing my sister laughing smugly at my disarray...She had taken up calling me some creature the Svets called synonymously as a word for safety, yet I was the fool.

"Why must you always do that!?" I stood accidentally brushing squishy pigments the hue of excrement deeper into my crimson-colored pleated pants. " I do not know what a duck is...NOR do I care at this point!" My voice was considerably lighter when I was 17, I scratched itchily at the ludicrous moldavite-green princely turban hair-pinned on my now contaminated noggin.

"You're such a crybaby...do you not even care im home for the summer?" She had an artificial regard of dismay as she made her way to me joyfully. "I have spent all academy year conversing to Svet albinos and vapid clinging cousins..." She glanced up at me with her large red eyes glutted with delight. I allowed myself to hug her awkwardly before pushing her off me.

"Now that you're not compelling pleasantries on me--are you...by yourself?" Endeavoring to keep my tone chilly with my cracky teenage voice proved problematic. My hand located its course to a Bloomrose, the thorns felt like minuscule grabbing anchors as I passed my ashy finger on its base.

"No Dennis' flight got stalled along with Kyler, something about north currents and all." She plucked the Bloomrose I was messing with to my chagrin...Kash loved to aggravate me. "Unless you're talking about anyone else?" Her eyes flickered with sadism only a sibling can invoke.

"Why do you try my tolerance? I will simply tell father of your 'extracurricular' activiti--" Kash shoved the bitter Bloomrose past my foolishly gaping lips mid-sentence. I recoiled, spitting and hacking as pollen ensconced in my nasal cavity wretchedly. Petals spewed in all directions as I doubled over.

"Fuck you, Kash!" I sputtered, snot trickling from my flaring nostrils as she wailed with laughter. I must have resembled some exotic Doigan love-mate as I regurgitated a brightly colored sludge for her amusement.

"Oh come off it! You should see your ugly face!" She managed between guffaws. I wiped strings of mucus from my lips, which only heightened her teary-eyed delight. If public humiliation was her intent, I had enough of this 'bonding' moment...

Kash's sputtering laughs echoed through the cavernous garden. Wiping a final tear, she drew a long breath to calm herself. "Oh Ducky, you make this dreary place bearable." She sighed and brushed pollen dust off her dress before dropping back onto the stone bench. Her impish smile withered as she stared ahead through an archway, torches now flickering alight with the twilight. The sky was a gorgeous purple hue, faltering from its eternal blue day.

I bristled slightly. Just like that, her mood turned—the giddiness of moments before vanishing into clouds of introspection. I sat cautiously beside her again among the soft cascade of roses and foreign trees." You know father only sees us as—" she began anew in solemn tones.