Tada -- Cypher!
Also, here's the fourth part of Daki's story.
Chapter 2
Pāto IV
The morning dawned without excitement. Fatbees hovered about lazily, buzzing against Daki's morning face with the driest urgency.
Daki jerked himself awake. Last night. He growled. It was real. No nightmare. Just reality. What could he do? Alerting the warriors of the village wouldn't just put him neck deep in trouble, he would be overridden in shame. And yet, shame had always been something he'd known well enough already.
Maybe calling the Masters was best? They were truly the ones who would lead the fight against those terrors – not the village warriors. Or possibly even King Shiro. He could rally a sizable force from all the villages around. And yet, why would Shiro even listen to a village boy? Stupid talk about ghost skeletons. There probably wasn't even anyone in the village who would believe him.
A fist hammered at the window, loud and obnoxious. “Wake up, sleepy-yack!” Someone scampered away, a snicker following.
Daki jumped out of bed and whipped open the sliding wooden window. Yari was disappearing behind another hut. Daki growled and fell back down to bed. He rubbed at his eyes and stretched. Two hours til noon . . . and being late for practice wouldn't make the others happy.
He raced out of the house and down the main village street, towards the practice field. It was a clearing of long and pale grass. The training was about to start. Daki positioned himself twenty yards in front of another Jinna named Ty. She was twelve and, like Yari, a prodigy. But at least she didn't stuff it in Daki's face like a pie on Cream Pie Day.
Warrior Minuki scowled at Daki, then started his lesson. And a long one it was. Painful and dreadful, horrific and despicable, and whatever other words that meant really boring. A lecture, followed by a demonstration, and finally a pitiful attempt at replicating Minuki's lesson on the Jinnas's part. And it continued. Why did Minuki have to be so good at the philosophy - “mastering by repetition”?
Noon offered a long desired break, on all the Jinnas's parts. Working in the heat had not helped Daki's panicking questions.
He dropped down on a flat stone and put a hand to his forehead. Thick sticky sweat clung to his hand, and a headache throbbed, ready to erupt like a volcano into a migraine. Daki pressed a finger against his forehead, to alleviate the pain, and closed his eyes.
He jolted when a voice addressed him.
“Hey Daki, mind if I sit here?”
Daki blinked against the sudden bright light reflecting off the grass. “Hi, Ty!” He shook his head. “I don't mind.”
Ty handed him a loaf of salt and pepper bread, the crust almost blackened thick with pepper. “Here, I brought you some food,” she said, sitting down.
“Thanks.” Daki tore into the loaf hungrily, but coughed on the sudden bombardment of pepper overriding his senses – even the headache. His expression turned sour.
Ty's face wrinkled up into a giggle. “Guess who's been baking?
"
Daki gulped down the bread with a cough. “Yari, from the looks of it.”
Ty couldn't help a full laugh – or as close to one as she ever got. “Here,” she took the loaves and started brushing at them. “Brush the pepper off the tops. It's not as strong that way.” She handed it back to him.
“Thanks.” Daki went back to munching on his bread.
Ty fiddled with her loaf. It seemed as if there were words right on her lips, but she wasn't speaking them. Finally she almost whispered, “What were you doing last night?”
Daki's eyebrows jumped, his face a mix of confusion. She knew? He was alone with Kai Mun's ghost – there was no way for Ty to know about it. Daki's lips twisted as he tried to stutter out a response.
“I- well- you saw me?”
Ty dropped her gaze. “Yes, I did. I saw you sneak out a window. And that's not normal for you to do at eleven o' clock.” There was a threatening severity in her voice. So different from what it had been moments before.
Daki brushed a peppery hand on his shorts and stuffed his fingers into his hair, resting his temple on his palm. “I- I guess I went for a walk . . .”
“You were gone for so long, though. I stayed up for a little while, because I was worried about you, but you never came back.”
Daki bit the inside of his lip. “I did stay out there for a while.” He dreaded where the conversation might lead.
“What were you doing, Daki?” Ty stared up at him, straight into his eyes, but he couldn't meet the gaze. How could he say what he really did? He violated the village rules by going outside the protective ring, he entered a honored place without permission, and he let something loose. Something dark, something evil. Some kind of malicious . . . spirit, if those things really did exist.
Daki took in a breath. “I, yeah . . . I just went for a walk I guess . . . I don't know what I was doing.” Or what I'm saying! his thoughts echoed. How can I explain this? How do I start?
Ty's watery blue eyes clouded with worry. “It was another fight again, wasn't it? Your parents . . . y'know – y'know what I mean, right?”
A wave of relief hit Daki. But he felt a tinge of new pain. And not about his parents. He rubbed his temples and nodded. “Yeah, they were . . . yeah.” Just the word fight had been taboo in his mind for years.
“I'm really sorry about that . . .” Ty smiled hopefully nevertheless.
“Thanks.” Daki tried to smile back. “Thanks for being a good friend.”
The practice went on as expected. And among the brutal exercise, the weight of guilt bore heaviest on Daki's shoulders. How could he lie to a friend like Ty? How could he be that messed up?
----
I must regretfully say that I probably won't be on the UG for about a week. I've hardly been on at all this past week and I just won't have time to get on (aside from a 'hello' now an then) because of some stressful things that require my immediate attention. Sad face. I won't get to write or draw much at all either. But certainly before the month is over I'll be able to get back on the UG like normal and I'll do the other two drawings and post more of Daki's story.