Child of the Stars

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I feel a light tap on my shoulder. "Five more minutes, uncle," I groan.

There's a moment of hesitation, then I hear a voice say, "Um, Pakari? It's me. It's time to get up."

Oh. Right.

I groggily sit up and yawn. "What time is it?"

"Um, probably around ten-ish?" Muruni chuckles. "You had a nice long sleep there."

"Yeah, I guess," I say, standing up. I sure don't feel like I've slept for eleven hours. It feels like I laid down and got back up minutes later. I yawn again. "What's the plan today?"

He chuckles. "Just woke up and you're already ready to do something," he says, smiling. "Let's get you some food first."

He walks over to the bag he brought with us yesterday and opens up the main pocket. He sighs and looks back at me with a smile plastered back on his face.

"Um," he starts, "do you want some bread crumbs?"

I laugh. "Did something get into your bag last night?"

"... maybe?"

Another laugh escapes. "Okay, I'll go get Taraka."

I start walking up the hill, guessing that that's where Taraka's hiding this morning.

"Taraka?" I call. "Are you there?"

I reach the top of the hill and look around, finally spotting a tiny figure waving at me from the river down below. I sigh. I hate hills. I shuffle down the other side of the hill, landing at the shore of the Arana River. I see Taraka trying to catch some fish out of the water. It doesn't seem to be going very well.

"Hey Miti!" they say, trying to catch their breath. "What's up?"

"Not much," I say, yawning. "Just tired. How's the fish going?" I add with a small laugh.

They stick their tongue out at me. "For your information, I almost caught several a little while ago."

"Key word being 'almost,'" I point out, laughing again. I'm in a pretty good mood this morning considering I feel like I got an hour of sleep.

"Something got into Muruni's bag last night," I say when Taraka starts to turn back to the water. "There's no food left in it."

They curse under their breath. "I think I have a map somewhere up there." They mutter something again that I can't quite make out. "Let's go."

We trudge back up the hill and down the other side. My legs are feeling really sore from all the walking through the hills recently, and this one isn't helping.

I wave at Muruni as we near the bottom, but he doesn't seem to notice. An evil grin appears on my face as an idea pops into my head.

I start running towards him when we reach the bottom of the hill. As soon as I reach him, I tackle him. "BOO!"

He lets out a shrill yell. "Stars above, Pakari," he pants, "that scared the living daylights out of me!"

I let out an evil cackle and get off of him.

"You little gremlin!" he punches me playfully on the shoulder, laughing.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see Taraka holding a map, standing impatiently to the side. Why can't they just let us have a good time? I sigh and stand up, pulling Muruni up with me.

"Alright Taraka, what've you got?" Muruni asks, taking a look at their map.

Taraka glares at him and inches away to stand closer to me.

"There's a small village a little ways to the north of here, across the river," they start. "That's our closest option at the moment. Mahana is about twice the distance away."

"How far is it?" Muruni asks.

They shoot a look at him and answer, "Probably just a few hours."

"I don't wanna walk todayyy," I groan, yawning.

The others laugh.

"Okay," I say, stifling another yawn, "you guys can go ahead; I'll catch up in a minute."

"Alright!" Muruni says with a smile, picking up his bag.

"Um, are you sure I can't just stay here?" Taraka exclaims at the same time.

"Nah, it's fine. I just have to take a minute to freshen up and grab my stuff. It shouldn't take that long," I say, glancing at the two of them. Did something happen between them? Taraka seems pretty upset with Muruni. I'll talk to them later.

Taraka sighs, gives me a thumbs-up, and starts walking back over the hill to cross the river with Muruni.

I start walking back up the hill after them, leaving my things down at the camp for now. I get back down to the river and kneel down next to the water. When I look at my reflection, I barely recognize the girl looking back at me.

Only a few days ago, I knew who I was. I had a nice life; nothing that interesting, but always felt just right. I had Uncle, and the stray cats that came in every once in a while. I didn't have any doubt about who I was. I was happy.

But since I started having those weird... 'dreams,' I've been questioning everything about myself. I don't know anything about myself. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why did I have to lose him? Why is this all happening to me? Hell, I don't even know what happened to my stupid hand and stupid foot or why I have this giant scar across my face. I don't know what happened to me nine years ago.

You could leave, my reflection seems to tell me. My breathing quickens. You don't need them. You can leave.

"No," I mutter, "no no no. I can't leave them. They want me to be there."

No they don't. My eyes start to water. They're just taking you along because they pity you. Even Awai only kept you around because he felt sorry for y-