Pure Breds

CHAPTER THREE

KAI

"I'm serious Zoey, if you don't get your butt out of that tree and down here in five seconds I'm calling your mum over and she's taking you home,"

"Seeerious," the toddler giggled, bouncing up and down on the precariously narrow branch she was clung to.

"Yup. 100% kid. Five...four......"

"Nine! Twelf! Sewen!" She sang as she clapped her chubby fists together.

"No - ugh c'mon Zo! Don't make me come up there," I glanced quickly around me, double checking quickly that we were definitely alone in this thicket - not that I really needed to, but I knew there would be big trouble if Issa showed up suddenly and saw her four-year-old wobbling about fifteen feet up a tree. 

"Kai can't climb like meee," she chanted, scrambling from her branch to another, even more fragile one above, legs kicking at the air. 

"You reckon? You're on," I leapt to grab the lowest branch with my fingertips, shuffling to get a more secure hold and then hauling the rest of my body up with my arms. The girl was impossible - not to mention the tree did actually look kind of fun to climb.

"Oooo," she peered down at me with wide eyes full of delight as I rapidly approached her branch, crossing distances which had taken her minutes in seconds. I hoped she had a better grip onto the tree than it looked like from here - we didn't want another fractured wrist, I remembered with a wince.

I pulled myself up from branch to branch, enjoying the ease in which my shoulders and muscle held the rest of my weight and moved seamlessly together to reach the goal, countless times faster than a regular human would take. This kind of effortless strength never grew old, and I revelled in the feeling every time I had an excuse to fully put it to use - often when I was on babysitting duties, such as now. Although my large frame didn't quite slide so easily between the leafy boughs as Zoey's had, I noted, as my bare arm dragged through a green, prickly clump and came out laced with scratches. 

"Yay!" My head popped up eye level with the little girl just in time for her exclamation. She was nestled into a fork in the trunk, swinging her legs back and forth, a smug grin stretched across her chubby face. Cheeky bugger.

"Right you, we're going down." 

"Dowwwn." My hand flashed out to grab her waist before she started climbing any higher, and without giving her a moment to come up with Plan B I leapt from the branch, a good ten metres from the ground. A satisfying thud as we tumbled upright - a brief mental check assured me the both of us were unscathed - and Zoey was already giggling in my arms. Probably wanting to go again. 

"KAI!" 

Aw shit. 

"What the hell, Kai? Jesus! Do you have any fucking clue what my mum would have if she'd seen that? You'd be limping about on three - "

"Whoa! Aren't you supposed to be controlling outbursts like this? I saw that new book," I spoke innocently as I arranged Zoey onto my back, pretending her big sister wasn't marching on a warpath toward us. "I thought meditation was a calm thing?"

"I-" She paused for a moment as she set herself in front of me, distracted. Phew. "Wait, what?" Suspicion masked her tone but her already red cheeks definitely picked up a shade darker. "Were you in my room?!" 

"I only saw it on your bed when I picked Zoey up earlier. Truthfully, I think it's a great idea, and also long overd- OW!" Her elbow made solid contact with a rib but I still couldn't help cackle at the furious blush now colouring her face. Her dark, flashing eyes fixed menacingly on me as I laughed, steely as ever; eye contact had never seemed to bother Marnie in the same way it makes other people uncomfortable, and despite seeing her almost every day for the last nineteen years I still floundered under her gaze sometimes. I never had a clue what she was thinking when she looked at me. Although, right now, I could probably hazard a guess and say she was picturing my slow, arduous death.