Pentad of Un

Chapter 9 - Jelro

     "Someone's at the door."

     Jelro glanced up from where he was cleaning a small owl's wound. The bird had gotten caught in the wind and thrown into a thorny bush.

     Oireug was looking at the door in an expectant way.

     "What? Who would be here at this time of day?" Jelro wondered.

     "Smells like Adif and Shayrow," the rabbit remarked.

     "Why would they be here?" Jelro mumbled, carefully finishing his cleaning job before placing the last bandage on the owl. "There you go. Try not to fly for a bit, okay? Just hang around here. I'll get you something to eat."

     "Thank you," the owl—who was named Liaj—hooted. "It feels better already."

     "There's guests—it's Adif and Shayrow!" Breek exclaimed, circling near the window.

     "Why are Adi and S'ay here?" Jelro asked, baffled. "They ought to be with their groups, getting ready to go on some kind of mission, or..." He trailed off.

     "It's not just Adif and Shayrow," Refi said as she peered out the window. "There's more than just them."

     "What?" Jelro glanced up again. "Who?"

     "I don't know," Refi said. "I've never seen them before."

     "Maybe those are the ones in their group," Cove suggested.

     "Oh. Yeah, that would make sense. Kind of." Jelro frowned to himself.

     But why are they here?

     Someone knocked on the door a moment later. Jelro went to open it—right as Eiss got himself tangled around a chair's legs and knocked the whole chair over.

     "Eiss!"

     "I'll help him," Refi said. "Greet your guests, Jelro."

     Jelro turned back to the door and opened it, moving his unkempt hair back from his face.

     I really ought to get a trim...

     "You didn't say your friend's a merf," someone said, making Jelro wince at the slang. Only merfolk from mid-ocean regions used the term merf.

     The one who spoke was a boy with pointed ears, a mop of curly strawberry-blond hair and round, persimmon-orange eyes. He looked quite frankly unimpressed at the sight of Jelro.

     Standing next to him was a girl with mallow-purple eyes and long, auburn hair. Her posture was impeccable and she had a sort of graceful air about her.

     And standing in the front were Jelro's friends—Adif and Shayrow.

     "Uh, Adi? S'ay?" Jelro glanced at them. "What's going on?"

     "Do you want to join our group?" Adif asked.

     Jelro fell back a step.

     "What did she just say?" Cove asked.

     "What's a group?" Breek wondered.

     "Jelro, what's going on?" Oireug worriedly asked.

     Jelro glanced back at his animal friends. They were all watching him with concern, able to sense his distress.

     He turned back to Adif, Shayrow, and the other two.