Fable (on hiatsu)

4. Working

After school 

So, I was walking home alone, along a long, long stretch of plain, gray pavement. Plants and houses were dotted along each side. A lonesome stretch of faded yellow paint split the road in two. Somewhere, a bird warbled a song. Little puffy clouds slid in the sky and the sun blazed meekly, a mere dot in between the branches of an oak tree to my left.

A ghost of a woman, dressed as a jogger, jogged on past me, waving curtly. I waved back and returned to my contemplation of two sunbirds sitting on a branch. Well, I contemplated their shadows on the ground, looking at them directly would turn me blind.

I eventually passed them and continued walking home. A thousand thoughts flitted in and out of my head, but one kept on returning. I wouldn't have any more free time if I participated in a club as well as work my afternoons off at the shop.

I mean, part of me was just stressed that my friends had decided to delve into the world that shadows reality. But I had become a part of it and I wasn't dead. Yet. Then again, I knew how to act around people, the mostly inhuman kind.

Sooner or later, I ended up home. I went to my room and put on my smoky green kimono over my clothes. Its the shop's uniform. Issa-san decided on it because he says its the only thing that matches both me and T'Ko. I say that's bullsh*t. Green looks horrid on T'Ko.

The only reason I put the uniform on now is that no one can see it except those who have the Sight, like me. And because people recognize me when I do that. I saves you from a horrible scare like when a Shade suddenly rushes at you, screeching like a banshee. With this they simply fly by you with a smile.

And so, I descend from my room, like a green ghost that stomps down the stairs and calls out an empty 'later' to the silent house in the vain hope my mother, absorbed in writing her book, will hear me. I walk out the back door and, with a spring in my step, head to the forest. Pushing through the branches and thick undergrowth till I reach the clear, calm of the spaced trees. Next to no plants emerge from the earth and a thick layer of pine needles litters the ground. The soft murmur of a brook, light green. It is quiet, but not silent. A heavy kind of sleepy quiet that smells like pine.

I walk briskly through the forest, around the trees, up hills, down small valleys, through meadows till I finally reach the shop. A small wooden cabin, dark brown and overgrown with moss. It fills a tiny clearing and is practically invisible, unless you know it’s there. The heavy double wooden doors open when I pull on the brass hoops, the left door squeaks a bit.

Inside, dim light coming from the two small and grimy windows at the far wall and a particularly luminous potion sitting on Issa-san's desk are the only ways to see.

"I'm back, Issa-san," I said, walking into the room, leaving the doors open. T'Ko is out gathering herbs. I head towards the desk, at the very end of the room. The walls on either side of me have little green cloth cubies from floor to ceiling. Behind the desk, I can see the form of my employer, laying on the ground. Again.

His desk is cluttered with several potions of varying colours, a huge pile of yellowed paper covered in important-looking scribbles, a pot of ink, a large blue feather and a mug filled with some blue tea(?) that bubbles. A worrisome and odd smoke puffs out of the steaming mug. On the far wall, a crooked painting of close up scales hangs in one corner and in the other corner, two brooms similar to twisted feathers lay.

I give an ironic glance at Issa-san, though all I can see of him are his big blue wings -from which the feather was probably plucked- and his tail, a very flexible and scaly thing ending with a stinger. That is part of the reason I won't try to wake him. Then, I grab my broom and begin to sweep the room. When I finish, I toss my pile of dust, dirt and downy feathers (not to mention slime, water and several pile of unidentifiable goop) outside. Keeping the doors open helps get rid of the musty smell of drying herbs and flowers.

It's been about twenty minutes since I started sorting through the dried herbs, gathering ingredients for the potions that people have ordered when T'Ko shows up. When turned to look outside, I spotted him emerging from the shadow of a tree. T'Ko is the exact same height as I am, though he seems more serious. He has long blue-black hair that stops just bellow his bum. He wears the same uniform as I do, on top of his prefered short black kimono, with the same coloured pants. He wears sandals, even in winter. His eyes and the bridge of his nose are covered in a thin paper (or cloth?) mask on which an odd symbol is etched in bright blue ink. Its hard to tell what people think when you can't see their eyes, but he has these three shimmering green... feathers(?) on each side of his head that move and show his moods.

They're quite funny, I've got to say.

T'Ko nodded at me and I nodded back, a silent welcome back. In each arm, he carried a large woven basket. Walking up to Issa-san, he kept an eye on the Gryffon's tail (I would have anyway) before dumping the two baskets on our boss' head. With a horrified gasp, Issa-san jumped up, his large wings knocking over his mug and spilling its contents over the important papers.

"T'KO! Wha-what did you do that for!?" the man gasped. Issa-san isn't a griffin like those we hear of in myths, he does have wings and a lion-like tail (I guess), but he has the body of a man. His skin is blue and kind of shimmery, covered in tiny scales. He is taller than me, but not by much. He only ever wears pants the same colour as our 'uniform'. He hasn't changed at all in the four years I've known him and though he has the face of a twenty-year-old, he is in fact 374 years old.

"Our customers'll be here in an hour. At least be ready to see them, we can't always do your work for you." T'Ko replied, he had a soft voice that reminded me of summer.

Issa-san sighed deeply before tucking his wings into order. Then he rescued the remainder of his important papers.

"How many potions do we have ready, Ren?" he asked the two of us. That's how everyone calls us, when they want to address us.

"I've made six while you were asleep," I replied, from my perch. I grabbed a handful of thyme, closed the cubbie and walked over to a bubbling yellow potion. I took several leaves and crushed them into a fine powder before adding them to the yellow substance. "Seven now."

"We have eleven left, then." T'Ko said, walking back into the room, from the closet that serves as a mixing room. Issa-san groaned and flopped back onto the ground.

"Great," he muttered, "Just great. Try to finish in time, Ren."

There are times when I feel like slapping Issazawa Sycthewing. Then I remember that his last name is a title that he's gained for a reason. The days are long in summer...