Undefined - The Zephyr Book 1 ? (completed)(#Wattys2016)

Chapter 9 - Syianne

9 - Syianne
After meeting Risa Medrick, I am euphoric. I skip alongside Cello on our way to the Lemming and begin humming my favourite Risa song.

I have an indescribable feeling in my stomach. I still don't know what's going to happen to me, but maybe I feel optimistic. After all, I met Risa Medrick on my very first day. It's a rare thing to see a Jewel on television and even then, it only ever involves the music industry. Risa first appeared when she was eight, already playing her guitar beautifully, already writing her own songs. Her music was the only pleasure I allowed myself without feeling guilty, the only thing that upon leaving home and coming here, I would come closer to rather than leave behind.

It's becoming a beautiful day, the spring air is sweet and Rockdem is turning out to be a very pretty city. The area around the Zephyr has really old buildings, the kind that look foreboding and heavy, made of stone with thick outer walls. Every building is painted in a different colour and decorated with stone carvings of naked ladies, flowers and angels.

Following the little map drawn on the back of the voucher ticket, we turn to a street lined with tall elm trees, flowers blooming in flower-beds on the inner side of the pavement and flower-boxes hanging from every window and balcony.

Now that I'm here and on the brink of starting something new, I feel strangely different. I feel more solid; like I've always been this misshapen blob and I'm finally taking shape to look like something human. And also, I realise that I'm feeling relieved. There, I had said goodbye, I had gone away, and I'm still alive.

I'm more alive than I've ever been.

I've always felt that without other people my existence will become thinner and thinner until I would dissipate and vanish. I've always needed someone to look my way. Now I've left everyone who knows me behind, and I came here. It's a relief that every single pair of eyes that I've met so far didn't reflect the diamond on my forehead. They see me, and I see them. Maybe Fellin and Cello will be my friends. Maybe they already are, I can't tell, I haven't been able to make friends in so long. I look over at Cello –

And he isn't there.

I anxiously look all around me and find him standing a block away, leaning against the cold stone wall of a building. I don't understand what he's doing so I stomp up to him, ready to scold. Then I see his face, and I'm a completely different kind of anxious. He looks sick, his eyes are screwed shut and his skin is as pale as death, he's clutching his stomach and panting like a dog.

The Alprine also looks very worried about this; she's nipping his ear and licking his face. She looks at me, "Wa," she says, or maybe that's the sound that Alprine's make, her voice is oddly musical, as if she's some sort of bird.

"Cello?" I reach out and touch his arm, through his thin t-shirt I could feel how hot his body is. "Cello? What's wrong? Are you sick?"

It's stupid to ask, obviously he's sick. He tries to speak, stumbles forward, throwing down my backpack and throws up into a flower bed. I don't feel grossed out, but rather a surge of pity towards him.

He stays crouched on the ground panting and I dig out a tissue from my pocket and hand it to him. He wipes his streaming eyes, his mouth and nose. I wish I had more tissue. I touch his forehead like a concerned mother, it's damp and burning. "You've got a fever," I tell him. He doesn't answer because his teeth are chattering and he's too busy shaking all over.

I put on my heavy backpack and pick up his little ragged bag too. "Do you want me to go get help? You should go to the hospital."

He shakes his head. "I can walk," he says hoarsely through shivering lips.