~Chapter One~
Six months later
“Here or the next corner, dad?” Oran asked as they stopped at a red light.
Nuru consulted the Melways. “This corner.”
“Okay,” Oran muttered, waiting until the arrow light was green and for a couple of pedestrians to cross the road before turning the corner.
“Here!” Nuru said, as Oran almost passed the car park entrance.
“Yeep,” he murmured, before turning into the car park. Mercifully there were still several 4 hour spaces available.
The moment the engine was off, his twin sister, Sabra commented “Well, I’m glad that’s over. I’m not letting Oran drive ever again.”
He twisted in his seat to scowl at her. “At least I’m not as bad as you. You mount the curb every time you turn a corner.”
Nuru sighed, as Sabra retorted “Do not!”
“Oh, for the love of God, shut up,” Isis moaned, unclicking herself and the triplets. “You’re each no better than the other.”
“If you’re going to complain this much, you can both stay home next time,” Nuru said firmly.
“We might not even
come next time,” Joshi pointed out in a surly voice, arms crossed defiantly.
“
You won’t,” Isis said hotly. “You just wanted to stay home so you could email your girlfriend or Skype her or something along those lines.” Normally she didn’t like to bring mention of girlfriend/boyfriend into her comments like this, because she knew it embarrassed the others.
“Just because you’ve got
your boyfriend with you,” he muttered, sliding lower in his seat.
“But he’s
not,” Isis said, rolling her eyes, noting in the rear-view mirror how Glifieu's ears turned pink, as Nuru buried his head in his hands.
“One more word from any of you and we’re going back home and never coming again,” he said, before groaning, “Why did I decide to have so many children?”
“Because you’re an idiot,” Elki piped up from the back seat next to Isis.
“So I am,” Nuru agreed, knowing that his son was teasing. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
There were several snorts of laughter, and a couple more clicks as those who were still strapped in unclicked, and Joshi reluctantly undid his seatbelt.
“The time is…” Nuru muttered, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he opened the van door, “1:36. We intended to get here half an hour ago.”
“It’s because Oran took that detour,” Sabra said, stepping out of the van, unable to resist another dig at her brother.
“Well, let’s see how many detours
you take on the way back!” he retorted furiously.
Nuru gave them a withering look. “Stop it,” he said firmly. Mercifully, they did.
Numerous items were extracted from the car; a water bottle per person, two soccer balls, six down balls and one football.
“Now get on with you!” Nuru said, half laughing, half sighing with relief.
With Juniper on one hip, water bottle resting on the other, Isis herded the boys in front of her and they walked up the path.
Sitting at a picnic table, were two women, a pram and a boy of about seven.
“That’s Mairi, I think,” Nuru muttered, indicating one of the women at the table. He strode ahead of the others, and said something to her, before giving his entourage of children a thumbs up.
They hurried after him in time to hear Mairi introducing the others at the table.
“… This is my son Damon, that’s Rosanne –”
“Rose,” the other woman winked, rocking the pram gently.
“ – and that’s her youngest, Esmeralda.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Nuru smiled. “That’s Isis, Oran, Sabra, Joshi, Juniper, the triplets Elki, Fudo and Lachlan, Taima and Glifieu.”
“Oh wow, you brought the lot of them did you?”
“Not quite,” Isis said. “There’s still the others at home, Shani, Pinga, Tiba, Zahar, Zahara, Xandi, Raven, Taklishim and Zerlina. So, we brought as many as we left behind, unless you count Glifieu and mum.”
“Mmm,” Nuru said, noticing Mairi and Rose’s incredulous looks. “If I took all of them, they would have massacred each other. We barely got here in one piece as it is.”
“So, Glifieu's not one of yours?” Rose asked, a slight frown creasing her eyebrows as she gave him a look neither he nor Isis could place.
“That is correct,” Nuru said.
“Well, if you’d like to go and overwhelm the others, be my guest,” Mairi said, looking slightly bemused. “Are you going to join in, Damon?”
He was most of the way through a banana. “When I’ve finished this,” he said.
“Here you go dad,” Isis smiled, handing him Juniper. “I found you a lovely little present.”
“Evil munchkin, more like,” Nuru said, somewhat amused, taking her and placing her on his lap. “Isn’t that right?”
They set their bottles down beside the table, and, at varying speeds, headed in the direction of the others, who were over at a concreted part of the park, sitting down and talking.
Introductions were made, and, to their relief, they found that there were another three or four families coming, and they weren’t the last ones.
“We’re always early,” Jae said.
“Us too,” another boy, Jamyn said with a good-natured smile.
There was something odd about him, and he kept giving Isis and Glifieu strange looks.
They mostly talked, before being introduced to four-square.
“So, that’s King/Queen square, Prince/Princess, Knight/Joker and Dungeon,” Jae said, indicating each square in turn. He was in King square.
“King or Queen serves. The ball must bounce once in the thrower’s square and once in the catcher’s square. If it bounces twice in either square, the person in that square has to go to the back of the line. If you throw it straight from your square to someone else’s, you’re out. If you bounce it once in yours, once in theirs, then outside their square, they’re out. If it bounces in yours, then outside theirs, you’re out. Oh, and if someone throws to you, then you catch it after the bounce, drop it, and catch it again, you throw straight to someone else’s square, because dropping it counts as the exiting bounce from your square.”
“So, if that happens, it’s useful for getting people out?” Glifieu asked. Damon had come over to join.
Jae nodded. “But you can’t drop and catch on purpose. Each time someone ‘dies’, it goes back to King or Queen to serve.”
They nodded. It sounded fairly straight forward when he explained it.
“Seeing as there’s so many of us, we’ll do two people per square.”
He had just served to Elki and Fudo’s square when he noticed someone else arriving. “Hi Kay!” he yelled, waving to a long haired boy.
“Hello.” He surveyed everyone. “Big group today.” He moved to the back of the line.
Elki and Fudo had gotten in each other’s way in their scramble for the ball, which lay several metres outside the squares.
“You’ve got to work together,” Isis smiled. “Try and give each other some room to manoeuvre, but stay close enough so that if one of you misses, hopefully the other catches.”
Aixa and Ellie moved into Dungeons, Isis and Glifieu into Knight/Joker and Sabra and a scowling Joshi moved into Prince/Princess.
It was easy to get the hang of the game, although, in the beginning there were a few catches before it bounced in their square, or bounces directly to another person’s square.
A few minutes later, Aura and Remus, sister and brother, turned up and joined in, followed, perhaps twenty minutes later by Shane and Caity, Lazuli and Mimili.
Shane was another boy with long hair, and seemed to have a fair sense of humour – or he was just being a boy, it was hard to tell.
Lazuli had a heavy limp, favouring her right leg. As with Jae, there was something strange about her, and Glifieu and Isis were somewhat unnerved.
Lazuli and Mimili were delighted to see Aura, who they hugged. As it turned out, it had been several months since they had seen each other.
The explanation was that Lazuli had fallen and hurt her hip badly, meaning she hadn’t been able to walk for a few months. There was something about the way she said that. It almost seemed like a lie, except not.
Thoroughly puzzled, Glifieu and Isis traded glances. First, Rose’s strange look to Glifieu, and now Jamyn and Lazuli.
Seeing as even with two people per square, the line took forever to progress for four square, and three people per square meant it was too cramped, they changed to survival tag. Or, all but Lazuli and Caity did.
She sat it out, watching from a bench next to where they had played four square, chanting along with the others “Get Kay?!”, who seemed to be the main antagonist in survival, and keeping Caity off her lap.
When tagged, Aura sat with Lazuli, and they chatted, somewhat animatedly. The main topic seemed to be horse games and horses, which piqued Isis’s interest, being a horse person herself.
When she was tagged by Kay, which allowed Damon, Remus and Joshi up, she went to sit next to them.
The moment she opened her mouth, she noticed a look of deep suspicion briefly flashing across Lazuli’s face. Noticing it, Isis explained that she was here to talk about horses.
Lazuli watched her warily, but didn’t object. “You’re new?” she asked.
“Yes, just arrived for the first time today,” Isis answered. “Thought we were late, but we were only the third lot to arrive.”
Lazuli’s eyes narrowed, as though this confirmed something. “I see. So, you said you were interested in horses?”
During this exchange, Aura had been watching them, eyes darting back and forth, seeming somewhat confused.
Isis decided the girl was just edgy at meeting a new person, although she felt there was something more to it. “Yes, we live on a farm, and we have several horses of our own.”
This piqued the girls’ curiosity, but also seemed to alienate Lazuli further.
“You have your own horse?” Aura asked.
Isis nodded. “Yes, her name’s Diamond. She’s a Knabstrupper.”
Lazuli made a tortured groan. “What coat?” she asked.
“Black snowflake.”
“Ohhh,” she dropped her head back. “My dream horse.” Underneath the longing there was still suspicion, and, it seemed, even warning.
Glifieu dropped down heavily next to Isis, getting a look off Lazuli. “Well, I’m dead.”
“Kay?” Isis asked.
“No, Jae actually. Said he was surprised. To be honest, so am I.”
“That happens sometimes,” Lazuli said. “Usually it’s Kay, but every now and then, Jae surprises everyone and kills Kay and most of the others. One time, he got everyone except for those on his truce. I forget who was on it exactly – Aura, that was the week you came really late with May, wasn’t it? I think you turned up for the next round. Anyway, I ended up tagging him and released the demons.”
Aura nodded. “Yeah, I think I came after that. We slept in till like twelve.”
“Wow,” Glifieu said. “I haven’t done that in ages. Not since the last time I was sick, which was a while ago, thank goodness.”
Lazuli raised her eyebrows. “Hmm.”
There was a moment of awkward silence, then Kay yelled, “Whoever was tagged by Jae is up!”
“Oof,” Glifieu grunted, rising. “That’s my cue.”
“Get Kay,” the others said in unison.
He laughed. “Parrots. I’ve been watching him, I think I can take him.”
“Well, you’ve got the advantage of longer arms, unlike most of the others,” Isis pointed out. “And good reflexes. I think you’re more likely to be gotten by a sneak attack, or if a whole truce comes after you at once.”
“Reading any good books lately?” Aura asked. The question was largely directed to Lazuli, so Isis didn’t answer.
She made a face. “No, not really.”
“How come?”
“Because no-one’s writing fast enough,” Lazuli joked half-heartedly. “Nah, since I hurt my leg, I haven’t really been in the mood, I guess. What about you?”
She looked at Isis, her words indicating she’d like a reply from her. “Finally caught up to the fourth Trials of Apollo book.”
This caught the interest of both girls. “Spoilers?” they demanded.
Isis was delighted to find other Rick Riordan fans. “No,” she grinned. “I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you.”
Lazuli made a face. “They don’t spoil the story for me.”
“Not for me either, really.”
“Apart from when I told you Jason died.”
Aura made an anguished sound. “Enough about him already!”
Isis grinned. “Well, I’ll tell you this –”
There were yells of delight, and Glifieu's voice announced, “KAY’S DOWN!”
“Ah well, another time maybe. I’ve got to go back him up.”
“They probably won’t target him, seeing as he got Kay. Except for Shane and Remus, possibly.” Lazuli said. “You’ll be more of a target, and Jae too.”
“Well, thanks for letting me know,” Isis said, feeling somewhat relieved as she stood.
“You’re up too, Aura,” Lazuli pointed out.
Caity, who had, at some point, gone back to the parents, ran over. “I want to be on your team,” she told Aura.
“Alright,” Aura said. “Kay can’t complain.”
“He still might,” Lazuli pointed out.
“Ehhh…”
They broke out into giggles, and Aura took Caity with her.
As Lazuli had said, Glifieu wasn’t a target. Mostly. It seemed that if you got Kay down, you were to stay up. According to most of the people playing.
There were those like Aixa who didn’t care, and Shane who seemed to be on Kay’s side, who were giving him trouble.
Isis had been fending off Remus when Shane came up behind her and tagged her on the back.
“Eeeevil!” she said, pretending to shake her fist at him as she went to sit down. “Eeevil I say!”
She went back to sit down next to Lazuli, who had been largely staring at the ground in a brooding manner, but raised her head to look her in the eyes in a way Isis found unnerving.
“Why not sit there?” Lazuli asked, indicating where the others who were down sat, on the concrete.
“I thought I’d keep you company,” Isis said.
And an eye on you as well, she thought.
She snorted. “Mmhmm.” There was a lot of skepticism in her tone.
“I can go, if you like,” Isis offered.
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” she said in a way that made Isis uncomfortable. “I just see it as suspicious that the first day I’m back here, you and him turn up. Especially seeing as you are into so many of the same things as me.”
Isis blinked. The girl was obviously paranoid. “What does that have to do with anything?” she asked, baffled.
“Hmm. How should I put it.” There was a touch of musing sarcasm, as Lazuli tapped a finger on her chin. “Let’s just say, that you’re used to being hunted, and your greatest weapon is unavailable to you and two suspicious people have turned up on a day when you are least defended. Make sense?”
Isis froze. “W-wait. Hang on.” She and Glifieu were supposed to be the only humans with the power of “true speech”, but from the way the girl spoke… “You can talk to animals?” she asked, deciding to keep it vague.
“Oh, I could, once upon a time.” Her hand was fiddling with something at her right hip. “Not any more. But once upon a time.” She met Isis’s gaze with a calm one of her own, revealing nothing.
Isis swallowed. “Okay then…” So, Lazuli
had been someone with the power of true speech? There was only supposed to be two people with it, so perhaps the Spirits had removed it from her. She was about to say something else, when Lazuli informed her that she was up.
She walked back to the field, blinking rapidly. The explanation hadn’t really helped. It was like talking to Devi. You could hardly understand a thing she said.
