Ko stood at the edge of the jetty wrapped in her cloak. The past few days ran circles in her mind, filling it with more questions than answers. Thoughts of the vision she had were in abundance, constantly buzzing around in her head.
It still didn't make any sense. Who was this voice that kept talking to her? What did it want? It seemed like it wasn't going to go away anytime soon either. For almost two months now, it had constantly spoken to her in her sleep, anytime she was unconscious. Kori and Trikka had said something about 'angels' and a 'Temple of Agaron'. It helped, but it still got them no closer to actually finding out what was happening to her.
Ko had asked about it earlier, Kori had said the temple was off of any known maps, that no-one actually knew where it was. Or if it even existed at all. He also stated that there were billions of planets that were still yet to be unexplored, and that there was always the potential that it could be located on one of those uncharted planets. Even with the technology of the day, a billion is a very very big number.
She looked on out to the horizon and gazed at the two enormous skyscrapers in the city. Every time she looked at them, she got the feeling that whatever this was, whatever was talking to her, was much bigger than any of them could imagine. And certainly much bigger than a single little zapher girl.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards as the rain from the black clouds above poured down. It was a strange feeling, experiencing rain for the first time. She'd explained to Fischer earlier that because it was so cold on Diamar, it never rained. The only thing that fell from the sky there was snow.
Feeling the rain gently splash on her snout and trickle down her cheek was actually quite relaxing, almost soothing. It felt. . . freeing, somehow. It felt like she had left her old life behind. That Ko was no longer just a name she was called.
Ko was her.
Ko was who she was. And right now, she was scared.
"Hey there. You alright?" A voice she immediately recognised as Quin caught her attention. Turning around, she saw the carcan standing behind her, a gentle smile on her face.
"Oh, hey Quin," She replied.
Quin walked up and stood beside her. Ko noticed her stripes where a light shade of blue.
"Everything alright? Folks usually tend to avoid the rain normally, not stand directly under it," The carcan asked.
Ko clutched her arms together, gently rubbing her forearms. "I-I've just never seen rain before. Diamar is always so cold it's always snowing. Too cold for rain."
"Ah. I take it you like it?"
"I guess. It feels nice. It's something different. It's relaxing."
Quin gave her a smile. "You really are something different Ko. You know that?"
The zapher turned and gave her a shy look of confusion. Quin noticed her horns were tilted slightly downwards.
"Sorry. It's not often I get to talk with people who aren't Kori or Trikka. I love them, I love them to death but. . . you know, it's always nice to have someone else to chat with. Speaking of which, you never answered my question?"
"What question?"
"You alright?"
Ko took in a big breath before sighing heavily. "I. . . I don't know. I-I don't know what's happening to me, I don't know how to make it stop. And I'm scared."
Quin gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked down at the crashing waves below in a moment of brief contemplation. "Yea. . . yea I know. I know it can't be easy what you're going through. I mean I can't even begin to understand what it's like to have all that going on in side of your head. It can't be fun. But I know what it's like to be scared. I know what it's like to not know what comes next, or if there's ever a light at the end of the tunnel. I know how that feels."
Ko's gaze returned to Quin as she spoke. It seemed that she didn't plan on continuing her sentence however.
"C-can I ask why?"
Quin looked up from the ground and over to the skyscrapers in the distance. She raised her hand and flicked a finger in their direction.
"The city?" Ko asked, puzzled.
"Yup. Before I met Kori that was my home. More like a prison if I'm being honest. Seemed like no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get out."
"What happened?"
The carcan paused for a moment, biting her lip in contemplation, appearing unsure if she wanted to continue her sentence.
Eventually, she found the words to match what she was thinking. "I. . . I was a pretty lucky person now that I think about it. I was born into a pretty wealthy family. I had everything I could've ever dreamed of. I was never scared, never hungry, never had to worry about if I was going to wake up the next day. I never worried about when my next meal was. My mum and dad were among the top one percent."
Ko listened on with a shred of disdain in her heart, knowing how differently she had been brought up. But she ignored that and listened on.
"I mean, I had everything. Except freedom. I was set for life, but I was only set in the way my parents wanted me. Most people have loving parents that accept their children for who they are. Except me. Seems like all that privilege came at a cost."
Ko thought back to as far as she could remember. She thought back to trudging through the ice deserts of Diamar, alone, afraid and freezing cold. She thought back to how her parents had just abandoned her, left her to freeze. It seemed like Quin had been through a similar gauntlet.
"What were they like? D-did they hurt you?" Ko asked.
"In some ways, yes. They didn't let me live my own life. I had to do everything by their rules, the way they wanted. I had to dress the way they wanted, act the way they wanted, only eat the food they wanted, never talk to anyone they didn't like or see as 'worthy of me.' I mean what the fuck does that even mean? I'm not some stuck up little princess that can't take care of myself around people. I don't think there's anyone who isn't worthy of me. I'm no better than you or Fischer. None of us are. I still can't believe they think that."
Quin's last few words resonated with her. She really thought that they were equals? And she had said it without any hesitation at all. She felt almost uneasy hearing that.
"Anyway like I said, I could only do what they wanted. I had to wear a dress every day, I don't even like dresses. But eventually I just couldn't deal with them anymore. They told me that I would only make it as far as they did if I followed in their footsteps. But I just couldn't see myself being a part of that. So I ran. I ran away from home, I ran away from them. It turned out to be the best and worst decision I ever made.
"When I was at home I felt trapped. I felt like I was in a prison. But when I left I realised just how much I depended on it all. I wandered the streets of that dammed city for two plates. I had never felt more alone in my life, sleeping in alleyways and scavenging food from dumpsters. God it was awful. I remember the worst part about it was just seeing everyone walking by, not even giving me a glimpse. Occasionally every once in a while I'd get someone who cared enough to spare a few merits for me, or a bag of food. But seldom did it ever happen."
Ko began feeling slightly sick in the stomach hearing her story. At least she had somewhere to stay. Quin didn't even get that. She felt the urge to move a little closer, to give her a big hug and tell her that she made it this far, and that it was going to be alright. But the truth was, she didn't even know if that was true. Nothing seemed alright right now.
"Point is, most people don't have peripheral vision. Everyone either has tunnel vision, or they refuse to notice what happens around them. They're blind to the little guy that's struggling desperately to stay breathing. The politicians keep saying that they're injecting money into the economy to help build shelters for the homeless. Ko, in the past thirty five plates this city has received one single shelter that has a capacity of three hundred. That's it.
"The media likes to chase it's tail all day, finding things that aren't issue and then making them issues. All day we hear about how this sector has it rougher than this other sector. It may be true. But both of those sectors don't actually have anything to worry about. The media claims they stand for everyone, that they're a voice for all who can't speak. Biggest lie of the universe if you ask me. Not once have I heard them bring up the homeless problems this city has," she explained with a tone of frustration. She slowly relaxed her fists and took a few deep breaths.
"I-I'm really sorry to hear that. I-is there anything I can do to help?" She queried.
Quin chuckled slightly, patting her on the back. "You've got a heart of gold, you know that? I can see why Fischer likes you."
She felt her cheeks quickly becoming more and more red. Determine to change the subject before it got anymore awkward, she asked about the next part of her story. "What happened after that?"
The carcan gently rubbed her wrist. Ko noticed that her stripes had also gradually turned from a light blue into a darker blue. Although she didn't need any more of an indicator than Quin's voice to tell that digging up past memories wasn't a comfortable experience.
"Well, after two plates of barely getting by, I ran into this big dork named Kori," she chuckled. Ko followed with a smirk of her own.
"You two are really cute together," she smiled.
"Aww. Thanks. You and Fischer are pretty adorable as well."
"We're not together!" she quickly snapped, her face turning bright red.
"Right. Of course, my mistake," Quin replied, her eyebrows raised and a huge grin on her face. "Well anyway, Kori helped me out a bit. He gave me some food, money. We met a few times after that as well, I spent most of my nights in a small alcove just next to one of his favourite shops. Eventually, he asked me if I wanted to come and stay with him for a few nights, just until I could find another place to stay. Well as it turns out, he and I ended up falling for each other. He asked if I wanted to stay, Trikka was cool with it as well, so I stayed. And then we met you two. And here we are now," she finished.
"Wow. That's a pretty crazy story. I'm glad you got a happy ending though."
Quin smiled, holding her hand out and watching as the rain dripped off of her palm.
"Thanks. I am as well. Without him. . . well without him I'd still be sleeping in dumpsters. He's my everything and. . . well. . . I wouldn't trade him for anything honestly."
A bright white light suddenly lit up the sky and the two snapped their attention towards a giant bolt of lightning as it streaked through the sky and struck the top of one of the two towers. A huge roar of thunder rumbled through the clouds afterwards.
Ko jumped at the sound of the thunder, immediately taking a few steps closer to Quin. She chuckled and threw her arm around her skittish friend.
"Heart of gold but nerves of cardboard I see," she jested. "C'mon, lets head back inside hey? I'll grab us some hot drinks."