Pirate By Blood

Chapter 18: Jozan

CHAPTER 18

Jozan

Maleen marched over to the boy in the corner; her expression stern.

She felt slightly angry and jealous about the situation – nothing like this had ever occurred before. Fido had always been her dog, not anybody else’s, and it had seemed – up until now – that Fido had thought about it the same way.

But by the way he was acting around the boy in the corner; it seemed that Fido wanted more than one master now.

The boy had his legs stretched out now, a change from the hunched-up position he had been sitting in before; and Fido was lying over him; his whole body splayed across the boy’s legs. He was fussing Fido behind the ear, causing him to swish his tail across the ground in pleasure.

As she approached, Maleen noticed that the boy didn’t seem to be focusing so much on amusing Fido. He looked away from him – and from Maleen – stroking his fur slowly, as if he were in deep thought.

“Why did you steal my dog?” Maleen asked, as sophisticated as she could; trying to solve the matter with as little hassle as was necessary. She expected him to say that he didn’t know he was hers and just give him back. That wasn’t the case.

“And good evening to you to,” He muttered, the nervousness vanished from his features; it was replaced with confidence and cheek. A brilliant smile appeared on his face, “how nice of you to introduce yourself.”

“And how nice of you to kidnap my dog,” Maleen said; her tone resembled the boy’s almost perfectly.

“I’m Jozan,” He said, holding out a hand for Maleen to shake. She looked at it in disgust.

“Why won’t you answer me?”

“Because I didn’t steal him” Jozan answered simply, shrugging as if it wasn’t his problem, “I’m sorry if you misunderstood the matter.”

“Look, I don’t know who you think you are but I don’t like arrogant, over-confident tools who think they know everything,” Maleen finally said; her patience snapping in two, “So, unless you’re dim-witted, I can’t think of any other reason why you wouldn’t speak to me like an adult.”

Jozan sat still, his smile vanished. All of a sudden he looked timid, his dark eyes slipped so they were staring at the floor to his side. The hair on his forehead fell in front of his face – like a curtain he was trying to disguise himself behind.

“I’m sorry,” He said, looking up just enough so he could look into Maleen’s eyes, “can we start again?”

Maleen took a deep breath to calm herself, but it did no good. The anger that had built up in her chest was still there.

“Why on earth would I do that?” She hissed, “I only came over here to get my dog back; why do you even have the nerve to talk to me after you took him away from me? I’ve never come across anyone like you before – and I count myself lucky for it!”

Jozan kept looking up at her; hurt showed in his face, but Maleen only ignored it.

“Come on, Fido,” She muttered, turning away as her canine friend jumped up and followed after her slow, yet angry, footsteps, “let’s get out of here.”

She headed for the door, quickening her pace slightly so she could get away from the bad mannered boy that had annoyed her so much.

They only got a few feet before a hand caught Maleen’s wrist.

“Please,” Jozan said; his face looked as if he were on the verge of begging, “I don’t even know your name.”

“Well you’d better start asking around, then, hadn’t you?” She hissed back, narrowing her eyes before pulling away from Jozan’s grasp.