Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 53: Like a Man

"H-here you are!" A familiar voice called.

Eory turned around. His face lit up at Maruka's grinning face. He was glad someone other than Pollyanna still liked him. "Maruka! Is everyone okay? Nobody... Died, right?"

Maruka shook his head. "Their shift is over, and they all survived. The other recruits are taking o-over for them."

Maruka looked Eory up and down. "That stance is a-all wrong, Eory. Don't you remember what Them taught you?"

"Taylor was learning from him... She's gone now." Eory replied—surprised by how remorseful he felt about it.

Maruka approached him with a happy stride until he was just inches away from him. "Consistency i-is really important when you shoot," Maruka explained. "You need to find your body's preferred stance and use that stance e-each time."

Maruka demonstrated all the different stances to take when shooting. Eory copied the stances. It took him cycling through them several times, but he eventually recognized the stance that felt the most comfortable to him, and it was the squared stance.

Next, Maruka showed him the correct grip he should have on the bow.

It required a lot of touching—or at least, Maruka made it seem like it did. With a firm, but gentle hand, he showed Eory the correct way to position his body and the correct way to grip his bow.

Eory was beet-red in the face while Maruka touched him. He couldn't tell whether he found Maruka attractive or whether years of isolation had made him addicted to being touched.

Once Eory had hit the straw man square in its head once, Maruka said, "g-great job! Now, h-how about we visit the library?"

Eory, still feeling flustered from all the touching, nodded hastily.

Eory followed Maruka to the fourth floor of the building and then through an open archway to a wide room whose walls were entirely covered by books as far as the eye could see.

Eory's eyes lit up. He said breathlessly, "I would have loved to have this many in my tower..."

Maruka squeezed his shoulder. "You should feel free to come here anytime."

Eory took a moment to walk in a circle around the wondrous room which held boundless knowledge about the world. Maruka said to Eory, "we have an entire section entailing what we know about the doppelganger's over here."

On the opposite side of the room, Maruka was surveying a series of books bound in red covers. Some of them were far thicker than others.

Eory crossed to Maruka's side of the room and searched for any title on the spine of the books that might give him a clue as to how to dispel the doppelgangers.

To start, he began leafing through a book titled, The History of the Doppelgangers. While he found the book an interesting read and wanted to read it cover-to-cover, he had to move on when he decided that no new knowledge could be gained from it.

Maruka sat cross-legged, reading a thinner book titled, Wounding Doppelgangers. "S-so... T-taylor is truly gone? Your body is your own now?"

Eory didn't register what the selkie had said for a moment as he pulled out a different book to glance through. When he finally realized what Maruka said, he murmured with some small regret, "yes. She's gone. I can no longer hear her whispering in my ears."

"T-that's good! I knew you could overcome her!" Maruka exclaimed. "I-I know you don't like compliments, but... You should feel p-proud for conquering such an ugly part of yourself."

The young man rubbed his temples; Maruka's compliments led the fairy to remembering him overcorrecting his hips earlier. He was lost in his own imagination about it for a moment, but he managed to focus on the task at hand. He merely said, "thank you for being so kind and believing in me."

Eory pulled a curious book titled Moonpool out from its alcove. He flipped through it.

It's blank... He thought to himself. He turned to Maruka. "Why is this one blank?"

The selkie rose to his feet and examined the book. "I don't k-know..."

Eory didn't know why, but he felt like the book had the key to destroying the doppelgangers. He turned to Maruka. "Is it okay if I take this book with me?"

"I suppose s-so... I don't think the Astral Elves would mind." Maruka shrugged.

Eory grinned and left the book on the floor so he would remember to take it with him.

The two leafed through as many books as they possibly could together, occasionally taking breaks to talk about things that were both silly and serious. While Eory glanced through the twentieth book he had looked through since they arrived at the library, his eyes began to feel heavy.

"Eory, I found something i-interesting in this book!" Maruka said excitedly. "Eory?"

He scooted over to the fairy who had a book in his lap. He tapped his friend's narrow shoulder. Eory was gently snoring.

He fell over backwards—his head landing in the selkie's lap.

Maruka silently adored his sleeping face. He smiled. "G-goodnight, Eory."