Talia

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

When we get outside the forest it is dark. We came from darkness to darkness. A road leads us to Bju. The buildings are even taller than I thought they would be. Even though its night, about every corner is illuminated. No matter where your gaze takes you, it doesn't attach. I see people from every kinds. Someone isn't taller than my legs. Others are two times taller than me. A man wears nothing more than pants, and he has strange drawings on his stomach; a black drawing of the sun. I find it interesting and start to stare. Banan hits my head, which hurts, and makes me to move on.

I catch people glaring at us, someone even gapes. Compared to others, we look terrible. Not only do we look bad, we also smell awful. We are pigs, while they are white and proud horses. The streets must be cleaner; it honestly looks like you can lick the ground.

Wherever you walk, you will meet a desperate seller. They say everything from "I have a family that starves" to "Buy this or I will kill you."

In an ally I see two men and a young girl. Am I the only person who sees this? Everybody walks past them, somebody looks straight ahead, and others stare at them as they pass. Neither of the men have hair, nor any weapons as far as I can tell. They wear black clothes, like Anzor. If I look close enough I can see that they are wearing masks, that are also black. I grab Banans hand and run to them. They are still facing the girl, showing their back to us. In the middle of their head, I see another strange drawing. This time it shows a slant route with a dot in.

"Let go of her!" I command. They finally turn around. Their masks are ridiculous. It covers their faces, but leaves the ears sticking out. It has golden dust on its edges. When they notice us, they laugh. Banan puts on an offended expression.

"Make us little girl," one of them says.

"Ey Dew?" Banan whisper. " They are from the black bandits. A group of people who were soldiers."

"How do you know?" I ask.

"I was asked to join them once." Our hands are still united.

"I take the one at the left," I say and force Banan with me. We separate when I punch the guy in his chest. As we fight, I have a small flashback. One time, when I and Gifro were balancing at railings, Gifro lost his balance and fell. The railing hit him in the middle of his legs. I remember him screaming something about his weak spot.

Before the man gets the chance to do anything, I kick him between his legs. He screams and falls to the ground while holding his hands on his weak spot. I understand.

Banan is still playing with his pray.

"Just hit him," I say irritated. Banan looks at me like a kid who has to go home, but wants to play more with his friends. Then he looks down at the man I have injured. He raises one eyebrow along with his fist. Banans fist knocks the guy out, punching in his chin pit. I'm surprised the rope didn't interfere with our fighting.

The girl sits in a corner. She holds her hands around her legs, and her face is buried in her knees.

"It's alright. You are safe now." She looks up at me. Her eyes are red and filled with tears. She is thin; I can see her veins sticking out from her skin. They are blue and make her look like Banan when he is really tired.

"No, no one is safe!" She screams, pushes us aside and runs.

"How rude." Banan drags a hand throught his hair. No one is safe? I wonder what she means.

When we get back on the streets we see Anzor and Gifro talking to a woman. She looks angry and waves a paper in their faces. Anzor has a troubled look; his eyebrows tries to gather, and this gives him wrinkles. He has an unsure smile. Gifro seems scared and hides behind Anzor, while using one hand to hold onto Anzors sweater.

"We are sorry!" Gifro repeats over and over in an endless circle of apologies.

"We don't have any money," Anzors says with his hands in the air. Banan drags them out of the situation. He literally drags them away from her.

"You're hopeless Anzor. All you need to say is no."

We stop where a sign says: "The Inn." They must have had trouble getting a name. Down the street I can see more signs: "The fantastic Inn," "The pink Inn," "Walk Inn," and so on.

The building is tall. I don't understand how people make them, or the fact that the building don't tilt, or that the floors don't fall on each other. The point is, how do they make them stable enough to stand?

On each side of the front door there are flowerbeds that contain starflowers in different colors. Some of them are blue, yellow, red and even pink. How creative, they must have painted them. As I look at them with admiration, I accidentally walk in a door. The others laugh. I open the door and go inside like nothing happened.

On the inside the walls are white. They keep starflowers in pots to make the rooms light. Maybe they take them out during the day to absorb the sun and then put them inside again during the night. A cute woman greets us and shakes our hands.

"Hello! My name is Ty. I will be your host during your stay. If you have any questions, please ask me." After saying these words like a robot, she inspects us with deeper interest. I can tell she is disgusted, her eyes gets smaller as if she's trying to concentrate on what she is actually looking at, but she keeps her expression in check and smiles.

"Would you like to have a bath?"

To my astonishment, they have two bathtubs on the second floor. I wonder how they manage to bring fresh and clean water to the bathtubs all the time. There is one bath for women, and one for men. Banan made sure Ty came with me to watch me and keep me from escaping. He handed her some money and suddenly she started looking at me like a vulture that has been out in the desert for days without food. She doesn't take her eyes of me, not even once. This makes me feel uncomfortable, especially when I'm about to take of my clothes.

"This is from Banan," she says and hands me clothing. I receive it.

"Thank you, I will put it on after the bath."

I won't call it a bathtub, it's a small pool; a square where each side is at least six meters. Even though its cold water, stealing the heat of my body, I feel like a queen.

"Aren't there any other guests?" I ask.

"Not, right now. They will come with the boat tomorrow."

"Oh, how do you switch water?"

"We don't." With these words I feel uneasy. How many people have been in here?

"We don't because we don't have to," she continues. "After someone have been bathing, we but in clean grass." Clean grass is rare and hard to get, not to mention expensive. Biology taught me that some plants can make every kind of liquid clean. This is a plant they use in medicine against poison.

I scrub myself with soap. When I'm finished, Ty holds up a towel.

"Thank you."

I nicked out the clothing. It's a dress; a very pretty dress. My mind remembers something. I asked Banan for food and clothes, could this be what he bought me in the other town? It fits perfectly. The dress is red and covers my knees. The red color probably match Banans cloak. It's pretty simple and makes my waist look small. It's easy to move in. I really do feel like a queen tonight. The only problem is my shoes. They are dirty and don't match the dress.

"You look lovely. If you want to, you can buy some shoes from me." I welcome her suggestion. It's not me who's going to pay, its Banan. Ty showes me a couple of alternatives; I chose some black shoes with a bit of heel. If I decide to buy a shoe with a taller heel, I will be much taller than Gifro. Even now I'm sure I'm some centimeters taller.

Ty follows me all the way to Banan, who stands just outside the woman's wardrobe.

"You are la.." He stares at me for some seconds. When he snaps out of it, he smiles at me. Its real, his smile is real. Banan have also changed his clothes. They are the exact same, but clean.

"That! I knew you would suit it, you look gorgeous," he says and hugs me. I push him away.

"Don't get any funny ideas. Where are Gifro and Anzor?"

"In our room."