Embers in the Dark

More Secrets

Siagon, French Indochina, May of 1904

The sun was high in the sky that day, but one wouldn't really notice since the clouds were so dark and thick.  And the humidity was ungodly.  The rain pattering on the roofs of the small buildings in the area made loud taps and the dirt road was soaked, large puddles forming everywhere.  People ran through the streets of Saigon, French Indochina, hoping to get to their destinations as soon as possible.  Buffalos pulled carts up and down the street, their drivers hollering in Vietnamese.

A rogue figure stood in the doorway of one small building in the middle of all the mild chaos dressed in American western clothing.  Blue trousers, black western boots, a gun belt with revolvers and knives, a dark red button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, black fingerless gloves, and a black bulldogger hat.  The figure lifted their head slightly to light a match for their cigarette.  The edge of the cigarette burned as the person pressed the match to the tobacco.

Their head lifted to reveal the face of a woman with sapphire blue eyes and auburn colored hair tightened back into a braid.  A long, singular scar went from her forehead, to the side of her face, to her jawline.  She took a puff of her cigarette and sighed, leaning her head back.

"Feck all this god damn rain,"  she mumbled in her thick Irish accent.  "And I thought Ireland was a wet country."

Laughter echoed behind her.  "It French Indochina, Lilly," a Vietnamese man said behind her, dressed in a black Vietnamese tunic and white pants.  "It always rains here."

Lilly huffed and smoked on her cigarette.  "Yeah but ya bastards only got two seasons: rainy and dry."

The man laughed and stood up, walking to the door frame.  "We simple folk, girl.  Rain not bother us."

Lilly sucked on her cigarette again before passing it to her companion.  "Yeah but wet clothes feel so...icky."

The man took the cigarette and puffed on it.  "You get used to it."

Lilly chuckled softly.  "I suppose."  She turned her head to look at him.  "Vu, you ever just...wonder why it rains so much here?"

"That because we have toads," Vu replied casually before passing the cigarette and leaning against the other side of the door frame.

"Toads?" Lilly inquired with an arch of her brow, sucking on the cigarette.

"Yes, toads.  You never hear story of The Rain King?"

Lilly shook her head.  "No."

Vu gave her a playful grin.  "I tell you now."

Lilly rolled her eyes and groaned.  "Not another feckin' story," she whined.  "Ya always say yer stories in Vietnamese!"

Vu laughed a high pitched laugh with a bright smile, tugging on his hair knot at the nape of his neck.  "How else you learn language, girl?"

Lilly coughed.  "By reading.  Besides, I already know enough languages to get me by.  I ain't interested in learnin' any new ones because learnin' Vietnamese has damn near been the death of me," she said as she flicked the cigarette and walked back into the small house.

"Why?"  Vu asked, turning toward her and walking in.  "It good to...to expand vocabulary."

Lilly sighed as she went into the small kitchen, looking through the pantry.  "I already got a big enough vocabulary, trust me."

"How big?" Vu asked curiously.

Lilly eyeballed him with a smirk.  "I speak...almost three dozen languages."