Water Logged

Eyes To See

By this time the night air had begun to cry down on us, and little tear drops were pattling down on the pavement. Mendella is a country of segregation. Among the wealthy there are Generals, Men of The Council, The Saints, and the royal family, The Usaki. They lived in large mansions with shiny walls and feasted from dawn to dusk. Then there were the Middle class of the social chain, the architects, poets, artists, people who had talent but just couldn’t cut it in the big leagues. Can you guess whose at the bottom? That’s right the grunts, the theives, the servants.Those that had no chance to make anything of themselves and are forced to live in poverty by fate. My brother and I never took from the poor we always took from the rich. Don’t get me wrong this is no robin Hood story our motives were to benefit ourselves.

“Come along the night is still young.”

We slipped along the side of our shack and passed off into the night. The houses in the area all looked very similar. Large stone buildings with a steel chimey sticking out of the side. Yammi’ began scaling the wall of the closest blue house. He'd always pick one of the larger houses because in his mind bigger meant a bigger kitchen or more in general.

“Give me your hand.”

He thrusted me up effortlessly and I’d come down with a silent thud.  We’d obviously done this many times before, but we’d never been caught. We knew exactly what to do, how to avoid security systems, unlock doors with metal sticks, scale walls, hide from weary home owners the whole bibity bobity.

“Watch your step,” he whispered.

The top of the house was very slippery from all the rain fall, I could barely get a good stance. Yammi pulled out  a small carving knife and began cutting a hole into the roofing. First he’d run the blade across the edge of his fingers then chip away a small piece of tile. I’d watch as tatter after tatter of roofing fell gently into the small puddles below. As the wall started to disappear he began to apply more pressure to his thumb. Gradually the pieces of roofing began to increase in size until they were about the same size of my palm. When he’d finally finished the hole was big enough for an entire person to fit through. That person was most likely going to be me. I always did the more dangerous part.

“You should go down, he turned to me in a whisper, “I did my part.”

Not bothering to argue I descended through the hole into what seemed to be a living room. It was very elegant and classy. There were many different seating arrangements which told me the owners had many guests, and shelves of books, which meant they had money to spend on useless things, because no one really reads anymore. But there was something else that caught my eye. On a wooden desk to my right was a small dagger. It was very farmiliar to me, it was the kind the guards used at the main gates to keep away peasants. An obsidian dagger, I think that’s what they call them, black, stone cold, one sided blade, yeah that’s it obsidian. I picked  it up and placed it in the depths of my pant's pockets.

“Now for the food,” I whispered to myself wondering how soaked my brother was by then.

The kitchen was several rooms over. If it had not been for the faint glow of a flambeu I wouldn’t have seen it at all. It was like many other kitchens. It had black and white tiling on the floor with wooden cabinets and shelves decked with nooks and crannies.

I rummaged through many of the cabinets pulling out bundles of bread and sweet poffins. Being careful not to make to much noise sqeauking from the water on my shoes. One, two, three, poffins  I placed down in the bottom of my pockets. I couldn’t but help eating one or two, they were baked sweet, and what would Yammi care. He'd get his, I could have mine. Several moments later I was back in the living room trying to figure out how to get back up onto the roof.

"Yammi!" I whispered in the loudest possible way.

"What?" he questioned.

"Pull me up."

He seemed like he had to think about it for a moment before beginning to lower his arms. I couldn't reach them naturally and then began to realize, I had jumped down quite a bit more than I had expected.

"I can't reach!"

"I have eyes, I can see that."

I was in no mood for any sarcsam.

And then my brother suddenly dissappeared, like a magic act.

"If your going to steal from us you could atleast have the decentcy to do it quietly so I can sleep," a weary voice scorned behind me.

I turned instantaneously to see a boy just about my age with brown hair and blue like eyes staring intently at me. Or maybe through me I couldn't quite tell his glare seemed to pierce at my skin.

"I'm warning you," I said being afraid myself.

"Don't bother," he laughed cooley I already saw that you were coming here.

He must have spotted us outside, we must have not been as hidden as we thought we were.

"I had a dream about it last night, your friend ditched you by the way."

Yammi I thought.

"It's alright though we have plently of food, and I see you've taken a liking to poffins almost as I have.

His kind words were confusing to me, never had we encountered anyone, that was accepting or even pleased with being robbed.

"Stand back," I warned revealing the knife i'd found on the table.

He frowned a second looking me over again.

"You plan to attack me in that stance, your so off center."

"What?"

Before I could think I was quickly thrown to the ground, now looking at the hole we'd created in the ceiling. I was embarrassed.

The boy out stretched his hand to help me up, and then handed the blackened knife back to me.

"Now try this," he said beginning to mold my stance until he found me suitable, it was strange but at this point I was too curious. "See."

He used the same move he had used before, but this time I managed to remain on my feet.

"See with a stance like that you pose a much greater threat.'

"Why are you teaching me this."

He pause a moment to think. Looking around the room a while as if the answer was hiding somewhere perhaps behind one of the book cases.

"Because you'll need it later."

Simple answer I thought.

"But you must leave now, I am actually pretty tired.

That was probably the only time someone told me to leave, and I was interested to stay.

He led me through the halls of countless paintings, priceless objects, and what seemed to be a golden statue of a man similiar to my host until we'd reach what I assumed to be the front door.

"My name's Hinai by the way, Hinai Usaki."

Usaki, the royal family, now I was frightened what if he reported me. The Usaki were the the ruling family in Mendella, the most wealthy and most honored. They were most known for their  x-ray like vision and ability to see events that haven't even happened yet. Legend has it that the most skilled Usaki could see events clearly many years into the future. It started to make more sense to me why he'd "seen me coming."

"I'm Tin-Lea Yagasouri, or Tin or Tin-Tin doesn't really matter."

"I already knew that, he chuckled.

I couldn't help but see some humor in that and feel a bit flattered that somebody knew who I was and it didn't bring them immediate disgust. Give it a couple seconds. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but that was my best friend. Of course I wouldn't be surprised if he had already known.