In Huck's Hands

Chapter 20: :0 ...Don't Die On Me... (:

"Until I am told by anyone of true," I purposefully filtered my smug wildness into a pinpointed stare into Fawi's shakey grey-colored eyes. "Power or authority of any real kind, for me, this summit was over the moment my cousin was expected here and not I." The last terse expression of my true feelings and performatively inflated ego made the older man only gawk at me with a worriedly blank countenance.

The others, even if planning a coop to varying degrees, knew to not interrupt nor question me in the presence of an outsider. We had formed a similar semi-circle the crowd had tried to use to force me into a docile state when challenging the king of Svetlan. "Lord Garan gave strict order from the Old World to not disturb him...I pray you heed my warnings King of Buriti." Fawi put out a shaky hand, seemingly to perform some sort of peaceful gesture that included wiping our hands together somehow,

I immediately turned my face upward at the sight of his filthy low-class hand making its way too close for comfort. Aiko took the time to affirm my stance with a silent shifting of her position to one beside my right arm, the hyena hood on my shoulder was snarled similarly to her own gritted teeth. I felt Yana take up to my left before she brushed slightly past me in a bid to save what little face we had. "By all means, if Tella is a Buriti native...It would mean you violate the summit's laws of self-governance; King Vasca is within his right to--"

"With all respect ministers and generals...Your king has shown nothing but transgression to this entire meeting, I will make a call to my Lord but do not expect to leave this place with Tella." Fawi without much else to do or say took his leave, white robes sashaying in the now calm ocean breeze. Tella sprang from his low position once the man had left eyesight, making small excited darts of his eyes toward his newfound people.

"Why do you insist on swelling our ranks with your friends and lovers?" The gruff voice of Aygu cut through the tense silence that took over once Fawi left. I chuckled at the lack of understanding he had on keeping his traumatized generation away from any real power in my system of governance. "Tella is not like you three, he is my friend and will act as a bridge between me and the common man...His life has been hard enough."

Aiko roughly gripped him by the collar of his robe with as much speed as a swooping raptor, already checking him for anything that could pose a threat to my safety not that he would be near me much more often. "H-hey!" She met Tella's protests with a stern look that made him quieter than the story of my mother's murder had sealed his lips. I chose to put my attention on making our way back to the Eastern Bloc's wing of the summit, letting the others find their way behind me.

I could still hear the sounds of Tella's accosting when Yana cleared her throat loudly. "Just before the vote, your cousin disappeared much like you...Any idea where our esteemed Popa may be?" I did not care where my cousin had scampered off to nor did it bother me that Yana and the others had lost him in the first place.

I continued walking down the muted grey halls, still pushing with excellent pace to our sanctioned place of political foreplay. "Do you ever tire of assuming I am both too incompetent to comprehend what im doing and yet so masterfully all-knowing that I would be able to see what is hidden..."

Once back at the rounded Cactiwood table that Fawi or this Lord Garan must have assumed we would like due to its native origin...The fools used the decayed flesh of a once symbiotic plant to make silly decore that could have been grown to house a family of 12. Just more proof of how little my adversaries knew of me and my people. "Looks like our time to shine got rained out--Whatever will we do now your 'Majesty'." Aygu spat sarcastically while sitting on a half-thrown sitting cushion.

"I have already decided what is next for our fatherland...Regardless of whatever this Coalition votes on is no matter to me anymore. All I need are the leaders of Izmar in one room with me." Yana once again pushed her eyebrows into the same annoyed face that at this point started to aggravate me with how often she couldn't control her face. Her green eyes withered in nature with the anxiety of balancing the cultural significance of every minute detail she could grasp. "I can arrange such a meeting, perhaps we can align the bloc and have their vote."