Talia

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

As the boat hits the sea, we are forced down by the gravitation. Banan almost hit his head against mine, but he manages to stop it with his hands, while Anzor falls at my legs.

"Are you alright?" Banan asks face to face with me. I push him away and sit at the bench in the middle of the boat. Anzor sit behind me and Anzor in front of me. We all turn to look at Grecella which is not far away. She is heading for the city before us, a city in Akila.

"Explode?" I ask ironic, looking at Banan. Suddenly we hear a scream. My breath and heartbeat stops. I see something light and hear something extremely loud which makes me cover my ears. The sound leaves me with a ringing noise. I fall again, still covering my ears. What was that? That sound? It hurts. When I have calmed down I sit up. Smoke and dust makes everything unclear. As far as I can tell, Grecella have lost two masts and a lot of its back. The ship is in flames. People are screaming and jumping of the boat. And the smell or air burns my eyes, I feel like I'm going to cry, but I don’t. Anzor and Banan are coughing and looking at the ship with big eyes.

"What was that?" I ask. Grecella are sinking. The people that survived are swimming against the shore.

"I think they were planning to hit Akila," Banan says.

"Who are they?"

"The black bandits."

We stare at the ship as it sinks and drift further away from shore. Anzor takes the oars, which came with the boat, and starts to row. Banan looks at me and notice his purse.

"You got it for me. Thank you." I give it to him. At first he hugs it and places it around his shoulder underneath his cloak, then he puts one hand under my chin, stare at my eyes and kiss me. I'm in shock. He leans back with a smirk on his mouth. Anzor, who are still rowing, looks like he didn’t see anything.

"Why did you do that?" I ask confused.

"What? Gifro are allowed to do it, and I'm not? It shows my gratitude."

"Thanks are good enough for me."

"But that wouldn’t be any fun. And you looked so cute Dew," he whispers. My body gets a bit tense and warm. I can feel my cheeks turn red. I don’t like this feeling that is why I slap Banan. Anzor suddenly pay attention to us, his face tells me he doesn't have a clue about what is going on. Banan starts to laugh. I don’t like his laugh either, but I don’t slap him again. He sounds like a crazy man that just discovered the world's biggest secret.

"The books. Why do you have my family's books?" Banan finally stops laughing.

"Do you know everything now?" He asks serious.

My family name started in year 0. There were few humans on earth. My family was one of the few who dared to explore the world. The poem Banan have in his purse is about my family. It seems like they ate some kind of fruit that made their blood special. My blood. I have never been badly injured. As a child I noticed that my wounds would recover fast. A scratch vanished once it appeared; a deeper cut needed some seconds to recover. I thought this was normal. And as I grew older I almost never got injured, but once I did it wasn’t more than a bruise or a small cut.

Some diaries are missing, but the first book is a diary from the first generation of Kan, the second is about a generation during some years. The third interests me the most, because it's about my family. It's my fathers.

"Not everything."

"Well, this is all I got from her."

"Her?"

"You're Nanny." My Nanny? I ask him a lot of questions but he doesn't answer any of them. When I'm about to ask again, Banan interrupts me.

"Anzor? I'm curious. How did you manage to find Talia?" Anzor are still rowing and looks at Grecella. The boat is barely over water.

"Her blood." He says simple, still looking at the wreck. Banan pulls a hand through his hair.

"Explain." Anzor finally turns to look at us. He raises one eyebrow, like he thinks were dumb or something, and takes a break from the rowing.

"I broke into the archive of Akila and found Duglas blood. Then I travelled to different cities to compare it with other people's blood. It was really hard actually. Her blood matched his most, that’s why I took a chance on her." On Quince, every birth certification is written by hand by professionals. You have to register your child, or you might risk being imprisoned for a long time. This is causing a lot of trouble, especially if the achieve burns down like it did in Nally a few years ago.

"I talked to her biological parent and got to know what I needed." Linda. I have to get back to Linda. Anzor seems to notice my strain expression.

"I'm sure she was a good parent to you." He says, sounding considerable or maybe sad.

"Was?" He widens his eyes and starts to row again. I feel a lump take from in my throat.

"Was?" I ask again.

"I thought you knew," Anzor says low. "She had an illness that runs through her family." 'Soon I will have a vacation.' I cover my mouth and look at my knees through blurry eyes. Drops fall down at my dress. But it doesn't matter; the color doesn't ruin the color. It fits perfectly.

"Talia! You're crying blood." Banan puts his hands around me; I push him away and cover my eyes as I cry. Small, soundless tears. Meaningless tears. My hands are shaking. I want to throw something, anything. But I stay still and dry my cheeks with my dress.