Feeble Cry

A Year Ago

May 4, 2007

Nikumu opened her eyes as the sunlight penetrated her room. The tiny chirping of the birds heard from outside signalled a new day. She pulled her blanket to cover her face and gestured for the slightly open curtain, hoping for it to close by itself.
"... guess it's not today," she mumbled to herself. She pulled her covers off, adjusted her sight and focused on the wooden clock on top of her desk which was right across her bed. Six-thirty, exactly the usual time she got up every morning to fix her bed and to help her mother in cooking breakfast.
"Still nothing?" A common question every day her mother asks her.
"Nope, not even a simple gush of wind that at least resembled father's quip"
"It's alright," her mother paused. "You're not the only one who's quipless. There are about-..."
"Two percent of the entire population that are quipless and it shouldn't stop me from living on. Two percent is still a great number," Nikumu continued with a grin.
"Well now, I guess I taught you well," her mother smiled.
"You don't have to tell me every single day," she laughed as she kissed her mother goodbye. "Nay, I'm going to go out to go get some eggs for breakfast," Nikumu dashed from her room, down to the kitchen.
"Get some eggplants for me too, langga" her mother said as she waved her hands to light a fire.

Magic was a common sight in Plaridel, it was a town known for its magic afterall. Every town had their own different abilities called quip like Calamba, for example. It was a town filled with people that had inhumane strength. Nikumu was once sent there to learn their ways since she didn't show any signs of having a magical quip, but her strength during the training still did not go up beyond human limits; strength was also not her quip. It was also common to send out children to other towns in order for them to find their quip if they haven't shown any signs of having one, in relation to their town.

Nikumu's mother had fire for a quip. She could generate fire whenever there was oxygen present in the area; her father could control the pressure thus generating winds and air in different strengths. But now that Nikumu was twenty years of age, she still did not show any signs of having a quip, even though she was already sent to the neighboring town during her younger years.

The offspring of both quip-weilders could inherit either one of the parents' quip, a combined quip from both parents, or an entirely different quip from the parents. Nikumu was neither of these cases, she was in fact a quipless. At first, she couldn't accept the fact that she would live her whole life without a quip, but later on, as she went on with her life, she adapted with the fact that she was quipless. Her friends before kept asking why she didn't have any quip when her parents were one of the greatest wielders of their quip.

Since her father's quip was pressure, he could easily change the atmosphere in the air and it was very useful for hunting. Nikumu used to join her father when hunting or fishing. Her father's favorite hunting spot was the Bawbawon Island. They had to ride a boat to get there or pass through a long path by foot on the other side of the island. The fishes were also abundant in that area so they had no trouble fishing.
Her mother really didn't do much with fire but she was one of the five daughters of the lightning-weilder. Nikumu's grandfather could wield lightning and he once helped in the production of electricity, which helped Plaridel a lot.

Nikumu came from a well-known family which was why her friends always wonder why she never had any quip at all. This talk went on for years but she learned to shrug it off and showed them that she didn't need any quip for her to survive.

There were times when she couldn't do things that people with quip could, but there was one thing that anyone couldn't take away from her: it was her cleverness. She could come up with a lot of things to go by even though she was quipless. Because of this, she didn't have difficulties anymore even though she was quipless.

From the kitchen, she passed by the dining room and then the living room, which was where the main door was. The first door were two glass doors and followed by two large wooden door. This door lead to a terrace that overlooked the road.

She opened the glass doors first, which opened inwards, and then reached for the wooden doors, which opened outwards but there was something that was blocking the way outside and it seemed heavy so she went back towards the other entrance still near the livingroom.

It had a wooden door that opened inwards and a screen door that opened outwards. The wooden door was already open so she pushed the screen door and immediately went towards the terrace to find out what was blocking the way.

She noticed the red iron gate was opened so she proceeded with caution. From where she stood, there was a wall that covered the terrace and she had to go around it to be able to access the terrace so she peeked to see what was blocking the main door. To her surprise, she saw a man's foot, layin still on the floor so she dashed up the stairs of the terrace that lead to the main entrance and discovered that it was her father.
Her father, who was gone for about ten years for work was bow on unconscious their doorstep.

"Tay?!" Immediately, she tried to carry him but he was too heavy. In her panic, she let out little shrieks as she pulled her father up but failed to do so. Her mother heard her shrieks from the kitchen and called for her.

"Nikumu, what is going on?"

"Nay, come quick!" She screamed in a high pitched voice, which was almost inaudible. "... ta-... tatay is outside!" When her mother heard about this, she calmed down, thinking Nikumu was just so excited to see her father again.

"You don't have to be so noisy," she said as she was nearing the terrace.

"Come quick!" Nikumu urged.

"Okay, okay. He told me he'll be coming back soon but he didn't say when-..." she paused when she finally saw Nikumu frantically pulling her father up. He was lying still, and his chest was against the floor. It was then that she realized that Nikumu wasn't doing shrieks of excitement but shrieks of panic and fear. Nikumu's terrified eyes were darting at her, signaling for help. At this point, Nikumu couldn't talk anymore. Her shrieks were replaced with sobs that grew louder by the second.

"Dear!" She rushed up the terrace and helped Nikumu. The door was already opened from earlier so both of them just dragged him out of the way, opened the door and dragged him inside, towards the livingroom. They gathered all their strength to carry him up to their room and carefully changed his clothes while Nikumu prepared warm water to wipe his father clean. Once everything was done, they finally had room to breathe.

"Will he be alright?" Nikumu asked her mother.

"I'm sure he will... I was expecting him to be back but he's a bit early though. We don't know what happened so let's just wait until... until he wakes up," she herself was unsure of what was happening and she didn't want Nikumu to worry over her father.