Unknown Factors (Book One)

Ch.115: Slip Away

  The collection of polished, black river stones outside my door was gradually growing, even more so after the festival last month. Sure, the stones were beautiful, but it wasn't me that was collecting them, and I had no clue what to do with them either.

  I knew each stone represented someone wanting to court me, but I hadn't grown any interest in courting or mating in the slightest over the past year of being here. None of my memories had yet to return either, and I was close to just ridding myself of the key and pendant I had arrived with. I mean, I had no use for them nor did I know what they were for. They were connections to my life before coming here, a life I had no clue about, and I debated severing the connections because I was happy here, and I didn't know if I was happy before.

  But, on the other hand, even if I was happy now, it felt like there was a hole inside that nothing I did seemed able to fill.

  Shaking my head, I dragged myself out of my thoughts and turned back to what I was doing. I was crouched in ankle-deep water, washing sand off of shells I had found along the beach that I would grind down once I got home. During my time here, I found that I rather enjoyed painting, and shells were good for paler pigments or to thicken other watery paints made from berries and the like.

  I had the dirty shells just sitting in the sand by my feet while the clean ones were in a basket my tail was wrapped around to keep it from floating away. The water splashed as I shook the shells in the water and rubbed the grit and sand off of them, using my claws to get the hard-to-reach edges and corners. Dropping them into the basket, I grabbed more shells and repeated the process.

  Listening to the calm waves, I let out a heavy sigh, closing my eyes while basking in the heat and atmosphere. It was a beautiful day, but every day was beautiful, even when storms rolled in. As long as one avoided the hazards deeper into the islands or beyond the reefs, it was practically paradise here.

  Suddenly, I heard screaming followed by two loud splashes, and my head whipped to the side as my eyes snapped open. There was more splashing as two people swam for the shore and dragged themselves out of the water.

  "I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" The taller of the two was panicking while the shorter one tried calming the other one down.

  "You're not on fire! You don't burn here, remember?"

  "I'm on- Oh. Right." He cleared his throat, then looked down at himself. "Well, I'm bloody sodden, so there's that."

  "Yeah, but check out the view." The female's voice held awe, and I cocked my head to the side. Neither of them had tails or fur, not even markings or claws. That, and the female had bright red hair while the male's was mostly blindingly yellow and short.

  "Lovely. Nice and all, but I thought your doohicky spell was supposed to bring us right to Aud." The male waved his hand, slicking back his wet hair before wringing out the end of his shirt.

  "I-It was supposed to, but-"

  "If you're looking for someone, I can help you." I called out while standing and resting the basket on my hip. "Though you may be on the wrong island- there's a few of them here." Walking toward them, they both gawked for a brief second before it was my turn to look surprised as they nearly tackled me.

  "Aud!" They yelled, hugging me as I tried to remain standing while feeling rather awkward.

  "Um....what's odd?" The two of them paused before slowly letting me go to look at me.

  "I guess Angel wasn't lying." The female spoke quietly, and I took a step back.

  "Look, if you two very non-threatening people need help, I'm willing to provide it, but it's not really nice to call people that don't look like you 'odd'."