Psychic

43. Blush

The jungle slowly became less dense as they began their sloping climb up the lowest parts of Mount Khoa. Reno gradually retreated back to the end of the group since Roxanne kept looking over her shoulder back at him with a threatening glare. He did not want to give her cause to make another scene in front of Rai. Teleporting was difficult for Roxanne with so many people. She had only been able to do it three times since she was unable to see very far up the mountain.

They were all relieved when they arrived at a road that wound up the side of the mountain. The sky was already turning orange and red and would soon be purple and blue.

Roxanne turned after hearing Rai yawn. She had done it a few times already and she was suspicious. "Why are you so tired?" Roxanne asked her. "We all went to bed at the same time."

"Uh huh," Rai said while nodding through a yawn. She was levitating her sleeping brother in front of her. "Guess I'm just used to being lazy. Exercise doesn't suit me."

"We'll be there soon," Ken added with a heavy sigh. "We'll be able to eat and sleep in a bed and all that good shit. Hopefully."

Rai set Isaac down into her arms when the road came to the first farm of Laksha. There were some thick, woolly sheep on the road that dispersed as Ken and the other walked between them. A farmer chopping wood in front of her house looked up in response to the bleating of her sheep. She criticized them as they ran passed her in a language most of them did not understand. When she turned back to her work, she saw the group approaching and froze at the sight of them. She pulled her ax out of the stump she was chopping on and held it as she faced them. Once she was sure they were close enough to hear her, she pointed it at them and announced something in her language.

"She wants us to go back," Reno translated without being told to. "She says there's nothing to steal here."

"Then tell her why we're actually here," Roxanne sighed.

Reno thought for a moment, considering the language before speaking to the farmer, telling her they were there to trade for a slave who had been sold to a farmer in Laksha. She smiled and rested the ax on her shoulder. She repeated one of the words he said in a questioning tone. He shook his head and corrected himself. The woman called for someone at her house.

A dark skinned elderly man, who practically all bones wrapped in skin, came out of the house. He had a turban on his head, a bushy gray beard and wore loose, poorly fitting clothes with sandals. She called him to come to her and he glared at the strangers on the road as he approached her. He spoke with the woman in a way that sounded more like an argument. The two kept gesturing over at the group as they spoke. At the end, the woman went into the house and the elderly man grunted something at Reno as he started up the road toward the other farms.

"Come on," Reno gestured to the others to follow him as he trailed the man. He led them further up the winding road of the mountain. Sheep and yak were all over the road and so was their stench. One of the yaks made a noise as they walked by, waking Isaac. Rai attempted to put him down but he did not want to be on the floor near animals that were taller than he was. The more they followed the road behind the man, the less livestock surrounded them. Rai was now able to set Isaac down to walk. The homes started to get bigger and fancier. They looked more like suburban houses than typical farmland residences.

The old man pointed at a house a little further up the road. He said something to Reno in his language then began heading back down the road. Reno thanked him and the man simply grunted and waved him off.

Reno told the others, "okay, so the family in that house is only family who bought a slave recently. A young one. Who's going to go to the door?"

"You, obviously," Roxanne answered before anyone else could. "You speak their language so you take care of it."