Inheritance

Chapter 9

Bright green trees and bushes surround me. I can hear the happy chirping and chattering of birds all around me. The sun filtering through the leaves above makes the green look luminescent. Little wildflowers grow beside a worn stone pathway. Moss is like a carpet, covering all but a few of the stones and a gigantic rock that's sitting a few steps away from the stone walkway. This place feels so familiar. Laughter bubbles up from my stomach. Giddiness making me do silly things like twirl around with my arms spread out.

I bump into something solid and warm. Nearly losing my footing. I am saved from an embarrassing fall by strong, muscled arms that quickly wrap around my waist. I look up into eyes that remind me of both sea storms and evergreen woods at the same time, it's him. The golden-haired guy from my dream. "Hey." His voice sends shivers down my arms, sounding so familiar. "H-hi," I choke out, my throat deciding to not play along. He lets me go slowly. My body immediately craves his touch again.

"So... Katei, how are you here?" He asks, a small smirk playing at he corners of his mouth. "I don't know..." my throat relaxes enough that I don't sound like an utter idiot. "But this place amazing." His eyes crinkle a bit at that. Wait. Did he call me Katei? "How do you know my name?" He laughs, probably at my befuddled expression. "I know a lot more about you than your name Katei, maybe even more than you know about yourself." I try and laugh off the effect his voice has on me. "Woah. Stalkerish much?" I want to wipe off the smirk pulling at his lips, even though it makes butterflies spring to life in my stomach. "Nope," he says, popping the "p". "What then?" I ask him, placing my hands on my hips. Trying my damnest not to tuck the bit of hair that came loose behind his ear.

He tilts his head to the side and then he's gone. I stare blankly at the space that was, just seconds ago, occupied. "Cooey!" I turn around and there he is, sitting on the rock I saw earlier. "What. The. Actual?" That annoyingly warming laugh of his dances the distance between us. "Teleportation. Nifty right? I only got it, like a week ago, but so far, it's come into good use. Now that is something I definitely can't say for some of the other 'gifts' I inherited."

I shake my head, trying to make sense of what he's saying. "What?" His magnificent eyes get a glint of seriousness in them. "Well... it can't hurt to tell you, now can it?" His eyes go through me, as if he's expecting an answer to his obviously rhetorical question.

"I am a demigod. One of the most powerful ones to ever exist in fact. My parents are two of the eight Royal gods, the gods that make the basic rules for... well basically everything." A slight chuckle escapes my lips. I've been reading way too many books and watching way too many shows and movies. The darn things are even making my dreams strange. Well at least demigods and gods make for a less traumatising dream than people dying, especially when one of those people are me.

"Aren't you supposed to be a god too if both your parents are gods? I thought demigods are the children that have a god and a human as parents." I ask, deciding to see what stuff my mind comes up with. Who knows, maybe, someday I can write a book about it. "Nope, any child of a god is considered a demigod. Demigod's children are semigods and it goes on until the line sputters out." I think about it.

"So... Are these like the Greek and Roman gods?" I ask, trying to reconcile my dreamworld with something real. Like books. "Not really... They're not really anything like the gods in mythology, and they've taken good care to make sure that almost no Nonikàs know about them." He's silent for a bit. His eyes start to sparkle with enthusiasm. "They aren't really gods in the way society dictates. They're immortal and they create and maintain the basic laws of the world, but that's where the similarities end. They aren't all-knowing creators of life and they don't have amazing powers."

"But you have powers. You just teleported. You said two of those "gods" are your parents, how do you have powers if they don't? What are Nonikàs? It sounds like somebody's nickname for their gran. If they aren't really gods, does it mean that there is actually an actual God? Do you believe in a god? Like do you have a religion? And what about food, do you... or they... or whoever, eat chocolate? 'Cause I can kinda understand the gods but not gods thing, but not eating chocolate is just crazy." I basically barf all my questions at him in one breath. I mean, I am all for strange dreams about hot – I mean so not hot – demigods, but can they at least make sense. I mean who doesn't eat chocolate?

He looks a bit stunned, blinking slowly as if he is trying to process my bajillion questions before answering me. Slowly his lips start to twitch, it almost looks as if the corners of his mouth are having a seizure. Then he doubles over, laughing. Small tears escape the corners of his tightly squeezed eyes as he busts his gut at my expense. Eventually, he starts taking longer breaths in between his laughing fits and he slowly straightens his back, deep chuckles still reverberating through him as he rolls his shoulders back. Wide, muscular, sturdy-looking shoulders that probably won't have any problem making any straight girl or gay guy's knees week.

I am still staring at his shoulders when I realise that it's actually silent. His eyes are locked on mine, blue, grey and green swirl around a chocolate-coloured ring around his pupil. Gosh, maybe I need to lay off the chocolate, I'm getting obsessed. His eyes, it's getting a bit difficult to breathe. The way he's looking at me – as if I'm something peculiar, something strange, but all the more mesmerising for it – makes my heart clench and butterflies go aflutter in my tummy. This is weird.

He breaks our eye contact and I hear him mutter something about reality and dreams and... stupid promises? Whatever. "I tell you about gods, laws and immortals... And you ask if we eat chocolate, have a religion and make a comment about a word sounding like someone's grandma." Another chuckle. "The only question you asked that I actually did expect, is how I have powers if my parents don't. It's weird I'll admit; the gods don't have any obvious powers, but they do have some power. Don't look at me like that Katei, the bell might ring and then you'll be suck like that forever." I scoff at his poor attempt at a joke and try to wipe the confused-kinda-cross-eyed expression off my face.

"Like I said the gods make and maintain the basic rules, meaning that if all eight of the gods agree on a rule, they come together, say a bunch of words, and then voilà the rule is implemented all over the earth. The lesser gods have the same principal, they just have more limited focus areas, like farming and entertainment and such, all in batches of eight. That's the kind of power they have. Us demigods, the power that runs through our veins from our parents manifest differently. We all have potentially immortal lives, but we aren't as impervious to dying when stabbed as our parents. We all have increased strength, stamina and speed, just like all the books and movies say, but most of us have other 'gifts' too."

"Like your teleportation?" I ask, things making a bit more sense now. "Yes," he smiles, "like my teleportation."