True Colors

15. Creature Village

Kira inhaled sharply and stretched upwards as she waited for Jake  to arrive. She replayed the events of the night before, and finally, her mind landed on Arken stepping through the door for the second time. 

"Are you alright? Hurt?" That's what he had asked when his frantic eyes spotted her.

He never told her what happened, only persuaded her to get back to resting and said he would take care of whatever transpired outside. Silver was no help either. 

Now, Kira stood outside in the morning chill wearing her light brown jacket. Her hands tightened around the straps of her backpack when she saw Jake. She felt her shoulders relaxing as her feet took on a life for themselves and pulled her forward to meet his. 

They shared a smile and started toward the school. A sneeze broke the unusual silence. Kira kept her gaze forward, feeling a little embarrassed. She could feel Jake staring at her, as if he were trying to look through her bangs at her eyes. He thought it was strange that she hadn't started talking. 

"Are you sick?" He hoped she would fill his ears with the sound of her voice like she usually did. She only turned away a little bit, and then back, and made a pathetic noise with her throat. When it ended in a defeated exhale, he stopped walking and turned her to face him. "Your nose is red. The weather must be getting to you." He brought a tissue bag out of his pocket and handed her one.  

She accepted it gratefully and smiled. She didn't want him to hear her sick voice. But Jake thought differently. They resume their walking and Jake only imagined the sound of Kira speaking now, telling him about anything she could think of. Now that he thought about it, he'd never really fully listened to her ramblings. But now that they were gone, he missed the rhythmic melody of his friend's storytelling. Jake sighed as the two climbed their ways up to the main entrance. 

~

In his third class, Jake couldn't stay awake. He had been restless the night before and now, he knew his friend was ok. His dad said bye to the family and rushed away, saying he need to check on something and apologizing for leaving so quickly. A final 'happy birthday, you two!' And a kiss on the forehead each, before getting into his car and driving off into the night. 

'It must have been Kira who convinced him to come'  Jake rested his head on his hand 

"Jake, stop dreaming and pay attention" Jake met the stern eyes of his History professor and sat up straight immediately. 

"Yes sir." 'Why did I say that? Dad hasn't told me to say that for years...' he shook himself out of his thoughts once again and watched the computer pointer move across the board, accompanied by Mr. Thompson talking about whatever he was doing. 

~

At lunch, Jake gets some spicy wings for Kira to help with her sinuses. "Here you go" he slides her the food as she sits down. She blinks at him, and takes one. Her attempts to smell it are in vain. "Go on" Jake watches Kira intently. He didn't know how she would react to something spicy, and wondered if she would be able to handle it. 

Kira takes a bite and decides she likes it. She finishes eating the wing and Jake puts a couple tissues in front of her. 

"You're going to need them." He grins and then immediately stops because he thinks it looks stupid when he smiles like that. (He tried it in the mirror once and didn't like what he saw.) 

~

Lunch ends and Kira was speaking again, no longer worried about how she sounded. Jake smiled slightly, hiding it with his hand when she burst into a story about something in the school library. 

She paused and he took the opportunity to ask her about a few things. Like if she had convinced his dad to come over, or if anything strange happened the night prior. He silently beat himself up when she relayed him the information about the strange noises coming from her window, and how Silver told her to run, and Arken coming through the door and not telling her what happened. 'I should have been there to protect you...'  he thought to himself. 

"Are you alright?" Kira glanced at him, the concern prominent on her face. 

"Yeah, I'm just thinking. Do you think someone could be looki- OW" 

Jade had been silently reading beside them, and jammed her elbow into her brother's side. She knew what he was about to suggest, and figured that if their father hadn't told her, that he shouldn't be planting ideas into Kira's head. 

Kira watched them, almost realizing what Jake might have said. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. She opened her mouth to speak but the bell rang, signaling it was time to start moving to their next periods. They got up and Jade walked ahead of them. 

"Hey, do you know what you're doing in your classes today?" Jake asked quietly. 

"Yeah, I'm caught up in all four. Why?" Kira matched his energy.

"Alright, so listen," he walked slower. "I know you're not going to like this but just consider it. What if we left, called up that Crystal girl, and go into the creature towns."

"Left..? You wanna skip class?" Kira stopped and waited until she couldn't see Jade in the crowd of students. She then took hold of Jake's wrist and booked it toward the nearest exit. They found themselves outside of the East wing. The two trotted down the steps and jogged through the thin strip of trees. Beyond the shrubbery, on their left side there was an assortment of sport fields.  Tennis, soccer, baseball. Kira had never been out on this side. Adjacent to the sport fields, there was open, grassy land. 

~

"Shouldn't you two be in class?" The teenagers were about to answer when Crystal shook her head. "Never mind, I don't wanna know. But I could get in trouble for this, so be on your best behaviors."

Two hours passed. She parked the car in a small clearing embedded into a wooded area. They got out and the teens looked around. No city, not even a hidden library.

"We're going to have to walk a bit." The two nodded and followed her to a narrow path that cut through the trees. 

After a little while, they find themselves at the edge of a village. The trees cleared away to reveal buildings of varying sizes. Kira took in the the scene. People strolling along, doing their daily tasks, small animals scuttling about, and the scent of fresh bread... and something else. What was that? It felt familiar but so distant. She looked at Jake, who was gazing around at the shops, looking hopeful. She inched her face closer to his sleeve and took a whiff. Yeah, that's it. Jake kinda smelled like the village. His father even more so. 

Jake realized what Kira was doing, "Yup," he confirmed, "that is the scent of creatures. You have the same scent, which is why it was so shocking that you didn't know what they were."

"That's great..." Kira sniffed her arm in a wonder that vanished as quickly as it had come. She pursed her lips in confusion and put her arm down. 

"Yeah... you're not gonna smell it on yourself. It's just kinda something you're taught and supposed to recognize." 

"Alright kids, you wanna go to the library? It's just up here." 

"I had other plans... but yeah, let's go." Jake didn't want to take advantage. And besides, who knew what this lady was like? She could be like... his sister. Jake grimaced and shook the thought out of his head.

They walked in and Kira was mesmerized by all the books. The shelves were curved and everything lead to the center of the interior. She looked up as they made their way there. Her eyes widened and she breathed in, almost gasping in awe. A high, dome skylight ceiling, and a giant tree growing in the center, reaching into the open space. 

"Kira? Is that you? A woman's soft voice streamed through the quiet room.