The Generation of Flames.

The Next Village Over

-CHAPTER 3-

-LI-

The horse's hooves kick up the dirt and dust of the road. Kai's father, Dou-Wan, sits on the wooden cart leashed to the horse. Watching as he passes carts ten times the size of his small carriage. His back aches from the wooden bench in which he sits. The horse's reins looped loosely around his calloused hands. It doesn't matter though, as he has just passed the gate of the next village over. His village has raised prices of food lately so Dou-Wan thought he would come to Calypso Village to trade for goods that have became way overpriced back at his own village. A very smart choice too, as Dou-Wan looks around at the bustling stalls marked with sales and beautifully low prices. He walks pass a stall covered in an array of knitted assortments. An old lady sways happily on her rocking chair, watching with intent every person who passes her stall, as if counting each one not bothered to notice her, as if observing their every feature so she can remember the people who don't care. Dou-Wan raises an eyebrow, not only that but it seems she is waiting for someone, Dou-Wan takes a guess at who it might be as he notices bundles of coats not for sale yet hidden under the lady's rickety stall. He approaches her and her knitted garments and objects and picks up a mesmerising mandala-patterned blanket. He figures it would make his cart's seat more bearable on the journey back home, Kai may like it for his room as well. He gives the lady the asked-price and then struggles to fit the blanket into his bag. Just as he is about to walk off murmurs ripple through the village. Like the kind when Dou-Wan is out with his son, Kai. A cloaked figure jumps from the roof. He's here, good.

~*~

"Li, it's good to see you." Dou-Wan waves a hand to the figure and watches as they jump from the roof and take the last few steps remaining between them.
"I'm afraid I can't say the same," Li replies his green eyes trained on Dou-Wan.
"Oh come on, Li. I just did what was best to protect the both of you." Dou-Wan looks into the shadows of the boy's hood. Looks where the boy's eyes should be but all he sees is a flicker of green, the rest hidden under the heavy, brown cloak.
"Why do you always hide yourself like that?" Dou-Wan moves to tug the hood off but Li grabs his wrist.
"Because I'm not like Kai. I wasn't raised like he was. The only way to survive most of the time was to hide." Li let's go of the mans wrist and listens to him scowl and rub the red skin in comfort, "But you wouldn't know because after you left you didn't even come to see if I was okay. Why is that? Is it because I'm weaker? Maybe because I'm stronger and you just couldn't handle me?"
"I-I did it to protect you, Li. When will you understand that. I don't to choose between the two of you. I thought if I-"
"Thought what? Huh, that if you hid me this would all go away. Being who I am is hard enough, worrying everyday if I'm next, but being someone who is meant to be dead is harder. It's not I don't understand it's that I don't believe." Suddenly there's silence and within that silence Li leaves. Dou-Wan has only ever done what is needed to protect them. To keep them from being taken.

~*~

Li places a hand on the branch below him, making sure not to set it a flame as he grabs it and swings. He gathers the momentum to swing over the tall, stone wall before the tree he hung from. He lands with a soft thud on the moss padded ground. He runs through the trees to his makeshift, brick tree house. It's balanced precariously on the thick log it sat on. The bricks paved together to form a small box tied to a plank of wood underneath for support to the thick branch. Li hates living in it but where else could he go? No where, absolutely no where. This small brick structure is all he's got. He jumps onto a tall rock then leaps into the tree. The wood is rough on his calloused hands and he sighs as he crawls into his home lying down on the hard bricks. As soon as Li starts to relax and drift off, something he is hardly ever capable of, loud bells sound and Li jumps tumbling from the brick out onto a branch then onto the ground. As he tries to steady his breath he listens into the chimes, he counts four. Four bells signal a fire, Li remembers; jumping from the ground. They sound distant, that means they must've come from the next village over. The village Dou-Wan, Kai's father, lives in. Crap, Kai, Li thinks, racing through the forest along a path long over taken by nature...the path that leads to the next village over.