"The revitalizing force beckons."
*Nyima*
I looked down at the blissful looking Iah as he slept seated on the long, red couch. He was rather annoying with his flirting, but I had to admit, the guy had a fairly handsome face. Alright, maybe a little more than 'fairly'. Uh, only a little...
I turned toward our homeroom teacher. "Do you have any spare blankets? I mean, it's warm now but it'll get cool overnight," I said, sitting down next to Iah.
"I do," Ms. Key responded. She walked up a set of aqua blue carpet stairs but then stopped midway as I stood up to follow her. "If you'd like to take a shower, feel free to do so. There are three bathrooms, so discuss amongst yourselves who will take a shower first."
"Adela did the most to help us out," Vermeil stated. "So I think she should take a shower first."
"You girls should shower first," Alto suggested. "I'm fine waiting." He ran up the first couple of stairs until he was within speaking distance of our teacher. "Is it fine if I grab a glass of water?"
"Yeah, go ahead," Ms. Key responded. "You can drink and eat whatever's available in the kitchen. Oh right. After some of you are done taking a shower, can you accompany me to get some drinks and food? I don't usually have this many guests."
"Well, I'm going to go take a shower," I said as I caught up to Ms. Key. "Teacher, where are the bathrooms?"
"The closest one is upstairs, I'll show you the way," she said. She pointed to the second white oak door closest to the stairs. "I assume you brought your own clothes?"
"Yes," I said, nodding. "I don't have enough money to buy a whole new wardrobe here so I brought some clothes from home."
"You may also use this room to sleep," she said. "Also feel free to use the bed to pick what you'll like to wear."
I formed fists and put them together before bowing slightly. "I don't know how to thank you, but...well thanks."
She grinned as she carried some blankets out of a closet next to my room. "Don't mention it, I want you to enjoy your stay here. Plus, it was my country's fault for what happened."
"Hey, would you mind if I ask you something?"
She raised an eyebrow. "It depends on what it is."
"Did you come to this school when you were our age? The way you were talking, it contained an ounce of bitter nostalgia."
Her brow furrowed as her eyes drooped toward the floor. "Yeah, I did. It wasn't the greatest experience. We foreigners were actively hunted down like animals. My class only managed to survive thanks to the help of a certain boy who brought us together like you are now."
"Hunted you down? That's awful."
She nodded. "It was, and even if we managed to graduate, a lot of us were still left with scars. I'm glad that at least your situation seems to be better. Well, I'll be taking my leave. Enjoy your shower."
I entered the room and picked out my clothes before walking into the bathroom. It was so clean, it was the polar opposite of the bathrooms in our dorm. The cool water felt so good, as if my energy was being revitalized. I even felt like I could fight Zelde, Adela, and Iah all in a row.
I wanted to stay in the tub all day, but the rest still hadn't had a turn. I should have waited until everyone was done to keep the shower to myself, but that would've been rude towards Ms. Key, her water bill would be too high.
I changed into a blue tank top and blue denim shorts. I felt and looked refreshed. I closed my luggage bag and put it, and my sweaty clothes under the bed. As I was finishing someone knocked on the door.
"Wait a moment," I yelled. I opened the door, it was Hikaru.
"Are you done yet?" he said, glaring at me.
I took a step back. "Feel free to use the shower. This room was assigned to me by the way." I couldn't have him steal it now.
"That's fine," he said, sighing. "I plan to sleep in the living room." Hikaru lowered his head and took out something out of one of his eyes. "Can you leave? I don't want to make the others wait."
"Sorry," I said, closing the door quickly. "Hikaru uses contacts?"
"You seem refreshed," Adela said. She had changed into a purple summer dress.
"I never thought I would enjoy a shower as much as today," Zelde said, walking out of her room. She glanced over at my room. "By the way, was that Hikaru who entered the same room you had come out of?"
"Yeah. I thought he would take a shower later like the rest of the guys, seems he's very tired. He seemed to be on edge about something."
"Don't mind him," Yen said as she climbed the stairs. "He can be a little prickly when he hasn't eaten."
"I'll go and make him some food," Adela said, pulling up her sleeves.
"No need to. Hikaru, my brother, and I are already making some. It should be ready when I'm out."
I ran down stairs, passing Xue. Lei was sitting down watching anime with Wanikiya. On the stove were two pots, a small one, and a larger one which I doubted Ms. Key used very often other than for special events.
"You're making broth?" Adela said as she sniffed the vapor.
I did the same. A mouthwatering aroma hit my nose. This food smelled oddly familiar.
Lei nodded. "Yeah. We're making Rios style chicken broth. It should be enough to feed us all. I hope that everyone enjoys it. Oh yeah, I made sure to make veggie broth for you. Perhaps we should've made a dish native to this continent for everyone."
"That's fine," Alto said. "I want to taste your Rios style chicken broth." He stood up. "I should also make something popular in my home country. Since our teacher is from Sefa I bet she has the ingredients." Alto walked over to the fridge and scanned for whatever he was looking for.
"What are you planning to make?" I asked, eyeing the fridge.
"Is it pomegranate juice you're hoping to make?" Ms. Key said, walking into the kitchen. "I ran out of pomegranates last week. Want to go get some? We can get juices, pop, and some more food to last us the week while we're at it."
"If it isn't asking for much," Alto said.
Ms. Key smiled at him. "You remind me a lot of someone back home. He loves pomegranates with a passion." She cleared her eyes of what seemed to be tears. "Let's go."
'Who was teacher thinking of? A relative? A boyfriend? A friend? Ah, was it that boy that had saved her class? She hadn't said what had become of the hero.'
"Who else would like to come?" Ms. Key said.
"I'll stay," Lei said, his eyes fixed on the television. "I plan to watch over the broth."
"Hikaru stole my turn to take a shower," Sarah said. "I'll stay here to make sure no one else goes ahead of me."
"Nice to see you made it," I said, glancing at An and Nuk. "We need to thank you for retrieving the runaway princess."
*Sarah*
[Earlier]
"Sarah!" An said, grabbing my hand, suddenly stopping the rush of wind against my ears as I ran. "Stop running!"
I yanked my arm free from his grip. It was soft, not at all like my brother's. "Leave me alone," I said, keeping my eyes ahead. "I don't wish to talk to anyone." 'Especially not you.'
"Are you sure that you want that?" a voice called out. I turned toward the direction of the howling wind overhead. Nuk jumped down from the sky from what looked like a levitating mini tornado. Had he followed us all along? I must have dropped my guard if so. Though, come to think of it, it was challenging to detect his prana from behind that mask.
"Yes," I said, stomping away toward the cherry blossom gardens.
Nuk sighed and vanished only to appear in front of me. His turquoise eyes seemed to dive into me as if he were searching for something. "You can't be left alone right now. Come on, you've made it this far. You cannot seriously run off as soon as you've been allowed to stay."
I glanced down. 'That wasn't it at all.'
"You two should leave me alone. Go join the others." I sighed. "There's something I have to do."
"Are you going to confront your brother again?" An asked, frowning.
"It concerns neither of you. Now, be gone unless you wish for me to knock you two out."
Nuk snickered. "Are you really that strong? You couldn't..." Water sliced slivers of silver off of his head.
I smiled. "You were saying, mask boy?"
"Not bad," he said, stepping back. He held his arms in front of him and stared me down. "Come at me then!"
I turned around and let out a deep growl. "You don't get it, do you?"
'Maybe I should follow my brother's advice here...'
I sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you two to Ms. Key's place."
"Yay!" Nuk said, leaping into the air. Something about the guy reminded me of Lei... and it wasn't just their eye color either.
An smiled and walked on ahead. "We should get going now, the others left already and we don't even know where Ms. Key lives. If we did then I could teleport there using my magic."
"I can find that out," I said. I picked up my phone and dialed Vermeil. "Hello?"
*Nyima*
['Present']
Sarah crossed her arms. "I wasn't running away. I was simply going to go confront that stupid brother of mine..."
"He could've taken you back home if you did that. He said that he had given up, but so had the twins back at the boat and you saw what they pulled here," Vermeil said as she flipped the page on a thick book. I guessed it was some sort of sappy romance novel by the look of the cover.
"Even more reason for me not to leave the house." Sarah leaned her head against the sofa and sighed.
"Well, I want to go," An said. He glanced down at his clothes. "I'd like to see what a Kyuu Seishinian store looks like."
"In that case, I'll go!" Vermeil said, raising her eyes from her novel.
"In that case we'll wait for you to take a shower," Ms. Key said.
"No skipping past us," Sarah said, glaring at Vermeil and An.
"I'm done," Hikaru said. He dried his wet black hair. His eyes looked no different from before. "The next person can..."
Sarah ran upstairs before he could finish speaking.
"Someone is in a hurry," he said. He sniffed the air and smiled. "The broth is smelling great."
"It sure is," Yen said as she dried her hair with a yellow bath towel. "It's still not done, is it? Is it even enough for all of us?"
"I think it'll be enough," Vermeil said, closing her book. "I'll just eat some of the veggie broth. Now if you excuse me, I'm off to shower." Vermeil stood up and went upstairs.
Lei got up and returned to the kitchen. He opened the lid and stirred the broth a little. "It looks like it still needs to cook some more." It'll probably be done by the time Ms. Key and those going with her to the store return."
"Sorry, my stove doesn't warm things quickly," Ms. Key said, frowning.
Lei shook his head. "It's not your fault, usually this kind of broth takes a while. It's a big pot too, so it requires more energy to properly cook." He checked Adela and Vermeil's veggie broth. "However, it seems like this one will be ready soon."
"Color me impressed, I didn't know you knew how to cook," I said, snickering.
Lei blushed. "I was the one who taught Adela how to cook, you know? Several of those dishes which you had at the boat were made by my hand, at least partially," he said defensively. "You see, my maternal grandfather's mother, who was a Xianian priestess, raised gramps to be the ideal Xianian man. Likewise, he expects us to cook and do the chores around the house."
"Really? Reminds me of my clan," I said.
"Yeah, we're a matriarchy just like the Taiyang," Adela said nonchalantly. "Men are seen as the fragile of the two sexes."
Lei grumbled as he returned to the living room. "I'm not fragile."
"Either way, it seems that the student surpassed the master in the area of cooking," Wanikiya said, nudging Lei.
"How about you cook us something?" Hal said, directing his gray eyes toward Adela. "I'd like to compare your food with your master's."
Adela shook her head as she said, "Lei put his heart into making this... we should eat his food today."
Lei puffed his cheeks. "You don't think I'm better than you either, your words give it away. Whatever, even I'll admit you probably are at my level."
Adela laughed and sat down next to him.
The rest of us sat down to watch the anime that was on. It was a show about a girl from the fictional country of Sen who was killed and brought back to life by a strange boy who looked like a teenager but in reality was hundreds of years old.
The boy's presence reminded me of Adela's, with that mysterious aura, as if they were not of this world. The girl, on the other hand, reminded me of Lei with her hatred for being weak. There was something appealing about the main character's desire to become stronger. In some ways the girl also reminded me of myself...
**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter :D!**