Divided Attention

Chapter 7: Poison and Mysteries

Navigating the Nenen Village was confusing.

We kept getting lost, then we would get back on track, only to get lost again. Good thing that the nenens didn't really care about us sneaking around their village, because we probably would've been caught ages ago by them. We would step on dead twigs and crunch on grass, occasionally tripping on large branches. There was a lot more debris behind the houses than there was on the main roads.

Eventually, we were able to get to the other side of the village by darting over there. The guards would come around every once in a while, making us hide behind a house. When they passed, we would try to go behind more houses to hide us. The problem was that some of the houses were simply solitary, and we would have to dart a fairly long ways. Sometime we would have to go one at a time because of the constant patrols of said guards.

The guards looked absolutely emotionless as well as tough. Even in the darkness that was this terrain, their silver armor gleamed brightly. Sometimes I got a light glare from them, blinding me for a scary moment. Then it passed, and the last of the group would pass by. When they stomped on the ground, they would leave an impression on the ground that simply seemed to mold back into place. They held spears in one hand and shield in the other with a back up sword on their side. They were the kind of people that I didn't want to get in a fight with.

At one point in time, we came across a skeleton behind a house. It still had clothes on, and it looked like it was possibly a thief. Either way, it had a sword next to it and a broken shield on the other side. It grinned at me, as if trying to say that I could go on, which I found weird for a skeleton. I picked up the sword, giving it a few slashes in the air. It wasn't exactly balanced for me; in fact, it was a little heavy. I was still able to fight with it though, so I tucked it in my belt that the pirates had given me. Kitty nodded at me, and Maki glared at her.

Maki seemed to be more cautious around Kitty since we had made that deal. Though he didn't exactly like that we were going along with this, he was still following us. He could have easily flown away or broken our cover, but he didn't. He just stalked along like a weird and large cat with scales, horns and wings. It made me think about my relationship with Maki.

Ever since I was a baby, I had always been with Maki. From what I understood, Maki was given to me in an egg by a family of driglens, the people who bred dragons. They were good friends with my family and every once and a while came to Aquatin City to visit us. For that short period of time, there would be a relief as they helped us with finances. They had a lot more money than us from selling dragon eggs, but they still gave a rare dragon egg to us. That egg just happened to be Maki, a dragon that could both fly and be underwater. There weren't many dragons that could do that. When I got it, I would stay with the egg at all times, even when I was learning the basics of farming. He hatched, and I got to name him. He would have gone to my twin brothers, but they already had pets that had been with them longer than mine, and I was also the one who took care of Maki.

Maki would stay with me at all times. We would sleep together, and he would keep me warm when there wasn't much warm water at the time. We both learned words together, speaking English and speaking in a telepathic way. As we practiced together, we both got smarter, and eventually became the smartest in the family. I wanted to go to school, but my father wouldn't let me because we needed every kind of help available. Everyone would work to try and get the money that we needed for the family, and Maki helped out too. It was amazing how close we had bonded.

I was thinking about all of that as we snuck around. Even with him not wanting to do all of this, he was still loyal enough to go along with my wishes. I guess he also understood that we needed Kitty if we were to support our family. Through these times of sneaking and going into situations that were absolutely terrifying, I was happy that I had him to support me and occasionally giving me laughs. He was always the jokester in tough times, making the whole family laugh as much as he could, even if our only meal was a small portion of meat and a couple leaves.