Divided Attention

Chapter 1: I Smell Clean

            The horses in front of me grunted to each other. To me, it seemed like they were in deep conversation. The thought only made me sigh. I was wishing that I had someone to talk to, but the only being that I would be able to hold a conversation with was currently fast asleep. Or maybe he wasn’t and he was just trying to be lazy.

            I wiped some sweat from my brow and gave a frustrated sigh. This day was a little too hot for me. We didn’t even have one of the waggons with some shade. Either way, this was one of the shipments that had to be sunned out and given air. But even with all of those facts, it didn’t make me any less grumpy.

            The horses were on a good and straight track, so I took the liberty of looking back on the goods. Cream colored flowers rested on blue, spiked stems, called Aui. Turquoise streaked the sides of each flower, but always in different patterns. Right now, all of them were closed because it was daytime. At night, or in dark enough water, they would open and give a beautiful glow. A small amount of saltwater jerked around with every bump in the road.

            I brushed a small strand of dark blue hair out of my face. My long, beaded bangs on either side of my face kept getting in my vision, and the pony tail didn’t do much to help my neck cool down. I looked up for a second, my baby blue eyes glaring at the sun before looking down at my pale skin to see if it had gotten a tan at all. I deduced that I had, and realized that it was going to look weird with my farmers tee and leather pants, both of which had holes in them.

            “Hey Maki,” I called out. “When are you going to stop sleeping and give me some company?”

            I waited for a little bit, looking at the the long, bright blue bead with tribal markings on it. After a couple seconds, I could hear a groan, and the bead started to glow. It morphed and started to change form into a white silhouette that made its way to sit beside me. When the white faded away, something else entirely was there.

            A sleepy dragon the size of a dog was sitting beside me on the wagon. He had teal skin, golden horns sticking out all along his cheeks, two prominent horns flowing out the top of his head and rigid spikes on his back, all of which were a gold coloring. His tail had large feathers stuck to the end, and bird wings the size of him. When they outstretched, they were about twice his size. All of the feathers changed on his mood. Since he was sleepy right now, they were more of an indigo.

            Did you really have to wake me up with that voice of yours? He telepathically complained to me. Maki’s eyes were half open, but they scanned where we were at.

            “Well, you can’t just sleep all day,” I retorted back to him.

            Yes I can.

            “No, you can’t.”

            I totally can Mizu.

            “Maki, no.”

            Yes! See look, I’ll do it right now.

            He closed his eyes, curled up and started snoring. I punched him lightly on his back.

            “C’mon Maki, we’re just about to the Human Kingdom.”

            I heard him laugh, and he uncurled. He looked around at the plains that were only inhabited by long grass, a brick road, and us. Nothing else was around, except for an outline of something in front of us.

            They were giant walls. I knew what they were before even getting there. All of it was made of white stone and guards walked around the top of them with bows at the ready. Two men stood by the wooden doors to check people from going in and out. The Human Kingdom was usually paranoid about people getting in and out, and for good reason. Even those from the Fairy Kingdom can be more powerful than the humans, so they have to keep their guard up.