Flame Touch

Chapter 22-Knox

“So how do we get the food from the cupboard without having our feet ripped off?” I wondered aloud after my stomach rumbled for the fifth time, “And why is it getting so cold in here?” Taris was lying down in the couch across from me with his hands folded behind his head and eyes closed. Oddly enough, there was no wind in the tornado, so his hair stayed in the same place all the time and everyone but Semba and I were asleep in a more or less comfortable manner. Unfortunately this also meant the snacks were staying in the same place unless someone woke up and told me how to get them. Semba was sitting, in quite a cramped position, between the space of the armrest and his legs, “I’ll get the food, I also packed a surprise for you guys.” He said. I gestured at Melody and Sunny, “You mean, to those who are awake.” I said irritably. Have I told you I didn’t like Semba?

Yeah. I told you.

Semba got up from his chair, “Don’t try to get up Knox.” He said as I was about to do the same, “Only I can get up without having my-how did you put it?-feet ripped off.” He said with a laugh and walked over to the snack cupboard and pulled out the last thing I expected to see.

“Ice cream!” I almost shouted, but then I saw Sunny’s closed eyes and restricted myself, “Ice cream!” I whispered happily. Semba nodded and gave me a container with a spork, “Try not to eat mine too ok?” I nodded happily, but then I remembered why I didn’t like him. “Why shouldn’t I take your ice cream?  You took my essay didn’t you?” I asked curtly, still eating the ice cream in the small bowl he gave me. He raised his eyebrows in a confused expression, “Don’t give me that look, seventh grade, Ms. Jeneki’s class, the essay where we had to state the difference between Daoists and Legalists? That was one of my best essays and when you asked me to send it to you, I thought you meant for revision. I didn’t think you’d steal it and get me in trouble for copying.” I said and after a few seconds added, “butthole.”

“Oh, that’s what you’re talking about.”

“Yes,” I pointed my spoon at him, “that.”

He rubbed hand through his hair and sighed (later on, Sunny told me how she rated his sighs, but I’ll just ignore that for now), “Knox, I’m really sorry.”

“Mmhm” I said, unconvinced.

“No really, but you’ve got to understand that I had no clue about your world in seventh grade. That’s the day I was first sent outside of the dorm hall in this country. I only knew how to use the main functions of a computer.”

“Like email.” I stated grumpily.

“Yes. Like email. Look, I don’t know why that’s why you’ve been upset at me all this time. We’re travelling in a tornado on our way to save a celestial body, don’t you think there more important things for you to focus on?” he said in a quietly frustrated way. I shook my head, “I think it’s important for me to trust the people I’m travelling with.”

“It was seventh grade Knox! Why don’t you just drop it?”

“Because Ms. Jenecki didn’t just drop the zero she gave me on that assessment!”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it pal!” It was amazing how quiet we kept our voices, because I really wanted to scream.

“Look, I know how it might have looked at the time.”

“And after that time. And, oh that’s right, now too.”

“Would you just let me finish?” he must have sensed I most certainly was not going to let him finish because he just continued with what he was saying, “I know it must have been bad at the time, but you should know that you can trust me. I swear.” He said doing a little boy scouts salute. I shook my head again, “If you want me to trust you, you have to tell me something.”

“What?”

“Something, information. It can be about you, or about this whole bamboozle that I’m suddenly involved in. Just tell me something that you trust me to know. And then I’ll trust you.” I said my proud nose in the air.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Anything.”

“Uh, okay.” He said, looking a little hesitant, but then put on a mask of confidence, “Well, if I want you to trust me I might as well tell you something I don’t want to.” I nodded my head wisely like I understood what he was saying (I didn’t, but meh, who cares?), “Okay, well I was born in an area next to India right?”

“I didn’t ask you for your life story.”

He acted like he didn’t hear me, “You know the marks from our colonies right?” he asked and as if making a point, he made his mark glow brightly from under his shirt. It was in a space between his ribs, a very odd place for a mark, but then again, Sunny had a picture of two scales on her leg so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. The mark on my arm started glowing too and I felt my eyes go cold. My vision started swimming with blue, “Yup, ok, you made your point, you can stop with the glowing now.” I said through (hopefully) unnoticed gritted teeth. He nodded his head, “So, I, um, my dad was a, ah.”

“Out with it boy!” I whisper/yelled.

“A lion tamer.” He laughed in an almost spiteful way, “Yeah, it seems fitting for someone from the Leo colony to have a dad who was a lion tamer. A total coincidence.”

“Was?” I asked, and almost wished I didn’t when I saw the pained expression on his face, “Oh, is he-sorry.” I said hating the fact that now I was apologizing.

“Don’t be. He was an ass and a child abuser.” He said as if he was talking about a random fact or the weather and he grinned at the surprised look on my face, “One day I forgot to do something, something stupid like forgetting to wash the dishes or something, and he got angry and took me to the lion cage and took out his whip.”

I must have uttered an uber gasp or something because he looked up from the floor to look at my face.

 “Yeah. On about the third slash my mother came in and was about to stop him with her crazy constellation powers, only I didn’t know that about my mother at that time. I thought my dad was going to hurt her.” His gaze shifted from my face and fixed on an unknown spot to my left, “I-I’m not sure what exactly happened after everything started flashing, but when my vision finally cleared my dad was lying on the floor with his skin shredded and torn like a tornado had erupted from his body,” he lifted his gaze again to the spiraling column of wind that was like a grey wall behind me, “Probably because that’s what happened. I must have blacked out for a while after that because when I woke up again, I was in the Leo colony with the Leo mark on the third whip mark I received. About a year later, I met Taris, and you pretty much know the story from there.”

“What, you two just met at a little Luminist party or something?” I asked, trying to keep my nonchalance intact.

“Yeah. Something like that.” He said uneasily. I detected a note of something suspicious there, but decided to let it go. He did, after all, just tell me something that couldn’t have been easy to remember. I tried to imagine my dad lying there. Wind slashed throughout his arms and legs and gashes in his forehead, eyes gorged like black pits blown off by the-

I stopped and shivered, not just from the cold, feeling very homesick. We stayed silent for a long time (one minute? Ten? A day?) The others were still sleeping, and after an eternity Semba finally raised his voice.

“Convinced?” he asked, trying (and failing) to mask the sadness in his voice. I nodded my head.

“Convinced.”