Still breathing

Chapter 7

New leaves, Evening, Moon's day, Riverperson's boat, Day 12, Year 287

Kira didn't dream. It was dark and quiet. She wasn't used to this, to the quietness of her mind. She opened her eyes.

She was lying on Tal's chest; his SOUL beat was quiet, he snored loudly. Kira sat up then slowly pulled herself off him; he didn't stir. He must be tired. Kira rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Were they there yet? Kira looked over the boat to look at her surroundings.

The forest was gone, instead; it was replaced with sand that went on for miles and miles. Sparse trees were few in between, Kira could count the number of trees she could see on her fingers. The wind blew across the sandy land, kicking up dust into the sky. She saw a few little animals; they were brown and tiny, they looked like miniature versions of dogs. Kira wanted to hop out of the boat to take one!

"Tra la la," Riverperson said, startling Kira. They stared at Kira; their hood covered their face, unnerving her. Kira preferred to see someone's face when they were talking to her.

"Oh, hi Riverperson," Kira said.

"Watch out for the dust, the winds of change are coming." They said suddenly, they turned and faced the front once again. Watch out for dust, the winds of change are coming. What could they mean? Was it a prophecy? Or was it just some random gibberish? Kira was confused, should she tell Tal? Tal could help her figure it out. She didn't want to wake him up for something Riverperson said.

She's going to tell him later. Kira sat down on a bench two seats away from Riverperson. All the furmons in the back got off in Furmon territory, were Kira and Tal even still in Furmon Territory? Probably not, there's lots of sand all around, Furmon territory consists of forestry. She hasn't read anything about; the other clans, she only knows Furmon territory. She knows that Tal loves to read, she would be surprised if he didn't bring a book. Maybe he has a book on the boundaries. She knows its kind of a stretch, but she wanted to check anyway.

Kira leaned over Tal and grabbed his backpack. She pulled it over him and opened it; his bag held clothes, lots of clothes. She pulled them out and placed them on the ground. He brought a bag of caramel treats, Kira loved caramel! Tal didn't like them very much; they were too sweet for him. That means he brought it for her! She opened the bag and popped one into her mouth. They were delicious.

He had a bag of lead; this was for writing. When Kira finally got to the bottom of the bag, she found a few books. She pulled them out, they were worn down and had tons of claw marks.

Gods! Tal had Good books! She recognized them from the library; they had blank covers with words on them. Kira couldn't read them. She huffed in frustration; she wishes she could understand, so no one doesn't have to read for her. How come Melathe never taught her how to read? If Melathe had time to read to her, how come Melathe couldn't have taught her? Kira shook her head and opened the first book.

More writing. There were no pictures. Kira flipped through the pages, no pictures. The print was tiny; it hurt Kira's head just by looking at it. She closed the book and placed it back in his bag.

She opened the next one; it had a loose leather cover. Inside, there were pictures, but the writing was different, not the usual handwriting. (The librarian's family went to many different bookstores and took a few, they would then hand write those books to put inside the library, it was painstaking work that created the massive library today. They would also get volunteers to write books for her and donate them to the library.) The drawings in this book were drawn by someone else, not the volunteer artist that would paint the books.

These look like Tal's art pieces! His book was old; the pages were yellowing, Kira wondered how old they could be. She ate another caramel treat. There was a drawing of two kits; one had a bow in her oversize ears. She held her sister, Kira guessed. They were both smiling. A few paintings were war paintings; a Wingmon was carrying a No fur in his, Another was two furmons fighting each other. A junglemon and Shadowmon was hugging each other; they were crying. Many weapons, like swords, maces, axes, and bows were drawn at random.