War on Kitaris

Chapter 19 - Poetry and Packing

It turns out that Devin was right; his mother wasn’t heartless and she, surprisingly, immediately gave us permission but under a few conditions.

The first being that we had to return within three days. That was easy enough, because we were aiming to only be in the human world for about two days. The second was, obviously, that Devin had to take me and take care of me, which I knew he was going to do anyway.

The third was that we had to be super-duper careful; use cash only, watch our tracks, and don’t draw attention to ourselves. That, unfortunately, meant that I had to wear contacts again. But the upside to that was that I was able to wear regular clothes again; jeans, shirt and my Converse, with a spare change of clothes packed away.

And the last was that we had to leave the next morning.

I was sort of excited to figure out how to do the transportation thing that Devin did when we went from the human world to Kitaris. I figured it would be handy to use someday, so when Devin had said that he would teach me (but just not this time) I was happy with that answer.

So I spent my afternoon packing clothes, basic toiletries, and cash that Devin had put away into my backpack. A few moments later, Alisanne appeared at my door, holding my precious pair of Converse that I thought she had thrown away, but there they were, in all of their glory, not a scuff mark on them. It was like seeing an old friend.

I noticed a smile on her lips when she saw me take them from her and place them with my bag.

After I had finished my packing, I decided to take a walk through the garden to clear my mind and calm my nerves. Plus, I really liked walking through the gardens here; it was my favourite part of the palace. The colourful flowers, the sweet scents, the sense of peace; everything about it, I loved.

So it was no surprise that Marcus found me there.

“Rose!” I heard him call, and I turned around to see him quickly walking towards me. I hadn’t seen him since the argument that morning, and you could say he looked less angry. Well, he didn’t look like he was going to shoot somebody, so I guess that was an improvement. When he reached me, he continued to walk beside me.

At first, it was an awkward silence, and I was tempted to just say something out of the blue to break it, but Marcus did so first. “So…” he mumbled, looking at his feet, “I heard you’re visiting the human’s world for a couple of days.”

“You’re not going to forbid me from doing that as well, are you?” I asked, and when it came out of my mouth, I immediately regretted it. Marcus looked up, a frown on his face.

“What? No, of course not. I’m happy for you.”

“Oh…” I whispered, looking away from his face. Well, that was awkward. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head, shaking my words off. “No, no it’s okay. I probably shouldn’t have reacted that way and I probably shouldn’t have called all of you stupid.”

I laughed softly. “Probably not. I just want to know why you got so angry, Marcus. It’s okay that you did, I just want to know what’s going on.”

He raked his fingers through his hair, the movement so much like Devin’s, and sighed. “I care a lot about my brother and the Remorna people. I care a lot about you, too.”

“You shouldn’t care about me as much as you do, Marcus.”

“No, probably not, but I do care about you, my brother, and the people of Kitaris. If anything bad happened to either of you…I would die.”

“Marcus,” I said firmly, making him look up at me. “We need to do this.”

He nodded, his eyes full of worry. “I know we do, Rose.”