==Forbidden friendships==
On the next day, Erika sneaks her way into the caves again.
“Stupid dad. Doesn’t he want me to have friends?”, she mumbles.
Suddenly, a loose rock collapses from a wall and falls toward her. Flora-san comes out of nowhere and saves Erika.
“Are you okay?”, he makes sure and Erika nods with a surprised look.
She then smiles and hugs him to which he asks: “Do you want to meet more cool people? There’re a lot of us who live down here.”
Erika asks: “More not-humans? Yeah! I’d love to have more friends!”
They sneak around the hallways and Flora-san holds up a finger gun to make it look like they’re playing.
Erika giggles as they hide behind a corner and Flora-san notices some actual guards so he shushes Erika and whispers to her: “Quiet! You don’t want them to find out about us, right?”
Erika nods energetically and they keep going.
They enter a room with beds in the walls as everything in the underground is just carved out of the asteroid. Erika looks around the room and sees many different faces.
Flora-san explains: “These are my grandson and some of his friends. Go talk to them.”
Erika excitedly approaches the young Onishgo boy that is dissecting a sewing machine and asks: “Are you Flora-san’s grandson?”
The boy has purple skin, like his granddad, white hair and little black horns growing out of his head.
He asks: “Who wants to know that?”, and then notices, “Eh?! You’re a human! Why is a human here?!”
Flora-san backs Erika up and explains: “She’s a nice human. Don’t worry, she just wants to make friends. Just don’t let any other human know that she’s here because we’ll be the ones who’ll get punished for that.”
The boy looks at the smiling Erika and shily reaches out with his hand for a handshake: “I’m Wista. I’m 9 years old. Nice to meet you.”
Flora-san gives a thumbs up and Erika replies: “I’m Erika, 8 years old and I’d like to be your friend!”
Erika and Wista now go around the room and the other three introduce themselves.
A Skypiera girl with a red-ish belly and a dark grey backside who was drawing made up maps happily says: “I’m Limosa, a Godwit Skypiera! You can call me Limosa-chan if you want!”
She hugs Erika and says relieved: “Finally! We have another girl here! I’ll call you Erika-chan!”
Another boy calmly introduces himself: “I’m Chroji’s grandson Chrono. I’m 10 years old. I hope we get along well.”
As Limosa stops hugging Erika, a bunch of rocks suddenly starts moving. Erika startles and sees a Diamedic for the first time.
He holds out his hand and Erika is a little overwhelmed while Limosa explains: “This is Zaffiro. He’s an 8 year old Blue Diamond Diamedic. The thing is, Diamedics can’t talk because they don’t have mouths like we do. With each other, they do weird crackling stone sounds nobody can understand.”
Erika then examines Zaffiro closer and sees the blue diamonds in his eyes, around his fists and feet and quartz which looks like hair. She shakes his rocky hand and gets back the big smile on her face.
YOU ARE READING
Bounty Hunters - Shokin Kasegi
AdventureThis is the story of Raiden Adoratore, a young man, living on a seemingly endless journey throughout the galaxy. A galaxy, filled with life, civilisations and fantastic worlds. Can he find the man he's looking for? Can you share his excitement for e...
