Tsuki ✔️COMPLETE

Chapter 23: Upwards

Mansunsing, North Akali

Akali Foothills

The feather blanket Rubi was given for the night was divine. As she stirred in the morning sunlight streaking through the window in gentle warm beams, she found herself going back to sleep multiple times just because she knew no one would wake her. Her body clock betrayed her and she reawoke each half an hour.

The thing that got her up in the end was the twisting pain in her belly again. Each of them had been paired up for bedrooms and this time she had been paired with Kagemaru. Rubi had learned that Indra's mātā was a skilled upholsterer. She had made all of the mattresses, quilts and cushions they used.

Rubi and Kagemaru occupied the longest mattress and quilt she had ever made, since they were much taller than the average Akali native. In another room, Sama slept in a colourful bed the right size for someone her age, surrounded by soft animal toys.

Kagemaru had barely stirred, sleeping on his stomach. His wings were tucked up awkwardly, either deliberately crooked from growing pains or just flexed from the relaxation of sleep. The odd, tiny blond downy feather dotted the sheets.

His wings were truly beautiful close up. The longest of his primary feathers was easily a foot in length, maybe longer including the hidden part of the spine called a calamus - a name Rubi had read on a diagram in a book once. The shades of blond and brunette on each barb blended together smoothly like a tiger's eye stone, a little puff of white fuzz making up the afterfeather.

The skin she could see between the feathers across the bony parts of his wings looked less sore than before. She hoped he was more comfortable.

He mumbled in his sleep and frowned. Maybe Kiramaru was chasing him around in his dreams now too. Rubi snorted at the thought but that was enough to wake him up. He grumbled the moment his eyes opened.

"What were you dreaming about?" Rubi asked.

"Don't remember." he replied, shoving his face back into the pillow. "It'll come back to me."

An outright lie. He would be sleeping like a log again in minutes few and probably would not remember even speaking to her.

Hauling her unwilling body out of bed, Rubi took the pain pill Mimi had left for her on the nightstand and headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. It was a shame they could not stay long in order to meet their travel plans. The feather bed had been such a treat.

Take'Ichi and Mimi were already awake and sitting at the dining table. Mimi had written in her precise, neat handwriting a number of sums on a scrap of paper and was guiding the little sprite through the arithmetic. There was no formal schooling for sprites in the homeland and Take'Ichi relished the education Mimi could offer him. He wanted to help with planning and organising for their trips, so learning to calculate their needs was essential.

He had taken to reading like a duck to water but mathematics was stumping him a little. But Mimi was patient, always speaking in her soothing, even tone and showing genuine pride when he succeeded. She never scolded him, that was not her way.

"...and so if the mules can graze seventy five percent of their daily needs, which we calculated here by using their body weights, we still have to provide them another twenty five percent."

"Which comes from hay, oats and other grains?" asked Take'Ichi.

"That's right." Mimi replied. "The oats in particular are rich in proteins, important for muscle repair and maintenance."

"How's it going?" Rubi asked.

"Good morning, Captain." Mimi chirped. "I'm very well. How did you sleep?"