Kaianan

  “Hey! Kaianan!” He cowered as it came at him. “Just calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “How the holom do you know me?”

  “I’ve known you for a long time.”

  “Are you crazy? I’m not from here.”

  “Neither am I.”

  “Then why did you ambush me?” She was walking sideways like a crab at this point. Toward the massive windows along the near wall, opposite the kitchen.

  “I wouldn’t go that way if I was you.”

  “No?”

  “We’re a few levels up,” he said. She looked down to the street, at least fifty feet below. “Here,” he walked his tall, athletic body to the kitchen and Kaianan didn’t let him out of her sight, “I’ve made you some tea.”

  Kaianan’s eyes narrowed. “What? Are you going to poison me?”

  “Don’t you think I would have already done that by now? When you were asleep? I could have stabbed you or strangled you, or drowned you… or—”

  “I get it,” Kaianan took a second to relax her body. He didn’t seem threatening. Then again she didn’t know any better.

  “I’ll leave it here.” He said and left the tea on the granite island bench.

  “What do you want from me?” Kaianan was staring at the white mug. This whole place was dull, bland; red brick walls and white and black furnishings like no one actually lived here.

  “I want you to stay alive.”

  Her eyes went back to him. It was the first time she’d properly looked at him since she’d been here. That brown hair across his chin and shoulders brought out not only his green eyes but his broad shoulders. And that casual grey sweat shirt he was wearing on top of casual black sweat pants made him look, boyish. If that was even possible.

  “I tried to dress you,” he said sheepishly, “sorry. Not sure if you like—”

  “What do you mean!”

  Kaianan had no idea what had happened to her while she was asleep. She looked down to clothes that were exactly the same as his.

  “You dressed me in your clothes?!”

  “I’m sorry, it was all I had that was clean. I’m not staying here for long so I didn’t have much to choose—”

  “Not staying for long? Where are you going? Who are you?!” She was becoming outraged.

  “Okay, let’s make a truce right now; let’s sit down together and talk about the formalities.”

  “Formalities?! You had me around the wrists last night!” She went in search of something else to throw at him.

  “Stop being melodramatic. I’m trying to help—”

  The silver bowl that was sitting on the glass cabinet came flying at him; he dodged it and it smashed into the white kitchen cabinetry.

  “Help me? What’s in this for you?” she said. Anger was still pulsing through her fingers.

  “It’s not for me,” he said assertively, “even if it was, it’s doing the right thing.”

  “Who’s it for? And what’s the right thing to you?”

  “Why do you ask so many questions?”

  “I’m in a foreign world, you tried to kill me, why wouldn’t I ask questions?!”

  “We may be outerworlders to them here, but we’re still the same kind, and I’m definitely not hostile, Kaianan.”

  “Not now you aren’t.”

  “And I won’t be, ever … I was trying to cover for you last night. All I want you to know—”

  “What? What do you want me to know?”

  He’d stopped, sniffed and shrugged. Kaianan didn’t know why his demeanour changed. Then he was heading for the front door which was right next to the kitchen.

  “You can leave.” He said casually. “I can’t talk to you like this.”

  “I can leave? You’re going to let me?”

  “Yes, here’s the door. Get out.” He’d unbuckled it and swung it wide open.

  “Is this a trick?”

  “I’m going to walk away and re-enter the room in five minutes, if you’re still here, I’ll throw you out.”

  And he did, he walked back into the room he came out of and stayed there.

  Kaianan scurried for the door in retreat. There were two elevators in the burgundy carpeted and walled hall. She pressed down. The number lit up four when it opened.

  Two other preforms were also going down. She blended in and tried not to look them in the eye.

  “Where is Melbourne Family Services?” She asked one lady.

  “Oh, that’s Footscray, you’re just off Flemington road, if you go west …” The lady gave her directions. Kaianan kept a mental note of where Julius was staying as she began running street to street barefoot. For one, she didn’t know why he was helping her, and secondly, she didn’t know who he was. And just because being around him made her feel agitated in a good way, it didn’t mean she’d forget all of the things she didn’t know about him.

  Her brain might be in shambles, but she wasn’t stupid. Not entirely.

  Kaianan dipped into a nice hot bath and soaked for hours when she crawled back through her window into her room. The water was a release against her muscles that were starting to seriously ache from ripping her body apart in transformation.

  Then she remembered what she did last night. She killed someone.

  The thought rushed through her; she sunk her body, cheeks, mouth, nose and eyes slowly under the water.

  “Stop, Kaia. You’ve proved your point,” she heard Julius’s voice in her ears.

  The figure kept turning, in green aura, and then slowly, slowly she was killing him. He became grey. Stone. Dead. Then smashed to pieces on the floor, right in front of Julius.

  “Enough!”

  She jerked her body upright out of the water and gasped for air. She wiped the water out of her eyes and brushed her hair back, suddenly, she tried to rip it out. Anger filled her. She began to cry. Defeat like this was new. It was something she had to come to terms with, something she had to learn. She would have to kill again, and she’d have to promise herself to get accustomed to the feeling.

  She pulled the plug and headed for bed.

  She wasn’t sure what time it was when she awoke, but Kaianan’s eyes opened to the red-headed boy practically on top of her.

  “Have you been watching me sleep? Get off.” She shoved his little body to the carpet with one swipe of her arm.

  “Ow,” he said, thumping his backside on the floor.

  “Sorry.” She said abruptly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “I just wanted to come and say hi,” he sat up. “The other kids are all friends but you don’t have any.”

  “What? Reddy, it’s not like that. I just—” she began, then frowned, changing her mind about defending herself, “what are you doing in here anyway?”

  “What I said,” he sat on her bed, he was draped in yellow pyjamas today. “The other kids, they been talking about going to the beach, and I saved up some money and have a bus map. I was going to go with them, but I don’t want you to stay here. Alone.”

  Kaianan felt herself smiling. “You needn’t worry about me.”

  “But you’re new!” he was demanding. “I don’t want you to stay by yourself.”

  “I’m fine, you go enjoy yourself.”

  He eventually nodded, patted her on the arm, went to her desk quickly and then left. “Bye then.”

  Kaianan took another hour in bed, her body was still sore. Today was going to be a relaxing day. After she had a bath, she decided to hop back in bed.

  A red coloured note on her desk caught her eye as she walked from the bathroom to the bedroom. Holding her towel around her, she looked down to the preform money and a bus map. Reddy had left his things for her. He’d even circled what route to take to get to the beach.

  Kaianan didn’t smile this time. She was annoyed. Why would he do this? What was in it for him? Everyone had selfish goals, did they not? She climbed into bed, wet hair and nothing on, and fell asleep.

  Early morning Kaianan woke. Her e
yes adjusted to the room and she realised it was another day on planet Earth. Another day Xandou had not returned, and another day of waiting around with the kids waiting on fosters. It was ludicrous.

  It had been a few days since she had last seen another outerworlder. Julius flooded her mind. And that certainly didn’t make her feel any better. No, today she was going to do something for herself. She was going to explore this city. Reddy gave her the means to, and instead of questioning his motives, she was going to have some fun.

  She dressed after a shower—not a bath, time was of the essence—and climbed out her window. She smiled when her feet touched the gravel: no one had spotted her.

  She set out to the beach. Yes, the beach. Ever since Reddy spoke about it. She wanted to see it. She’d never seen one. She had put on some black jeans, a pair of pink lace-up runners that were her size just sitting in the common room, and a tightfitting pink long sleeve. She’d never looked so suggestive, as Chituma would put it, and it made her laugh.

  She walked a few blocks and waited at the bus-stop as was advised by the map. After a long and empty bus ride, she hoped off in a place called St. Kilda and began walking around.

  There were preforms everywhere. The street she walked down had shops all down it, it was similar to Diggers Gap Road, but nicer, cleaner. The shop fronts were much more elaborate, Kaianan couldn’t help but think this was similar to the description of Felrin. She’d never been, but she’d heard the first Homo captiosus species had a well-established infrastructure.

  She was walking only a while down the street when she caught her eye on a store full of cakes and sweets. She bit her lip and smiled. This was a Sprindles. This was a place she could indulge. She immediately went inside and let the pastry smell consume her.

  “What would you like, dear?”

  Kaianan had no idea what to ask for, she pointed at a spiral sweet that looked similar to a berry pastry.

  “I’ll have one of those.”

  The lady plated it up for her. Kaianan gave her the funny looking ‘coin’ Reddy had lent her and took her pastry to sit outside. She sat at an empty table and chair amongst a few others and dug into her sweet. The first bite was amazing; her mouth watered; buttery, sugary flavoured swirled in her mouth and the jam in the centre was better than anything she’d ever had. Better than the Vera Berry. What was this?

  The voices next to her got louder than her thoughts.

  “Yes … they come out at twilight.” The woman’s excited voice said. “Cute little things.”

  “Oh really?” her friend replied.

  “We will get some ice-cream from Seven Apples and head to the Pier to watch them. It really is a remarkable sight.”

  Kaianan watched the two ladies get up and walk away. She felt like this was a sign and dropped her plate back to the lady behind the counter and followed the women down the road. There was a tonne of preforms lining up outside of the light green coloured shop of Seven Apples. She stood in line, nowhere near the ladies, who were ahead of her.

  When she got to the front of the cue, a huge glass cabinetry held multiple slabs of frozen dessert. Kaianan’s eyes scanned the options.

  “What would you like?” The young preform asked.

  “What’s good?” she said.

  “You like sorbet?”

  “Is it sweet?”

  “Sweet enough.”

  “Sure, something berry.”

  It took him a few seconds to roll a scoop up and put it in a wafer cone. Kaianan exchanged coin and went in search of the Pier, to see these cute things, to be a part of the preforms and to experience what they did.

  The first bite into the sorbet was splendid. Her tastebuds danced on her tongue. Earth had such amazing food. She could get used to eating here. Maybe not forever. After a long while of trekking and stuffing her face of sorbet, she reached the beach. It was twilight and people were becoming infrequent by the water’s edge. The timber and concrete she walked on, met a long section of yellow sand. Against the sand, coming in, in gentle waves, was a huge chasm of water. Kaianan watched the sun sparkle as it set. It was an orangey red over the water. This was what a beach was. This is what she was missing out on back home. She sighed and felt her face spread in a grin. This was beautiful. Earth, was beautiful.

  She looked left and right. Which way was the pier? She approached a short man.

  “Excuse me, sir?” she said, “Where’s the Pier with the cute things?”

  He looked at her funny. “Port Melbourne, you mean? Or this pier? Where the penguins are? Is that what you mean by cute things?”

  “Yes, those, thank-you.” She walked in the direction he had pointed in and found the Pier. Night had fallen quickly. But there were preforms scattered down the end of the Pier, at the top of a rocky landscape.

  “Excuse me,” someone tapped her on the shoulder, “can you take a photo of us?”

  “A what?” Kaianan raised her eyebrows to the cheery fat man.

  “Just press this button,” he pointed to a device in his hands, “and point this way!” She had no idea what she was doing, but she thought she’d give it a go.

  “Sure.” Kaianan said and him and three others stood together. Kaianan could see all of them on the screen and pressed the button. “I think I did it right.”

  “Thanks, mam,” he said, taking the device off of her and walking away.

  Kaianan’s ears pricked when she heard the title come out of his mouth. She had forgotten who she was: ‘mam?’ She was a Princess of Layos, from a planet so far away, yet here she was at the end of a Pier, standing over rocks and waiting for cute things to waddle around.

  “Look there,” a little girl cried. Kaianan turned her head and smiled. The penguins, as it was stated on the sign, were little black and white critters with small beaks. They were so tiny; their feet were webbed and orange, and their tiny wings floated about as they shifted their bodies side to side.

  Everyone was using devices now. The animals didn’t seem to mind.

  She walked down toward the end of the Pier, excitement running through her and that’s when she saw them.

  Down below the rocks, three young boys, legs swinging, a penguin screaming. Amid the people and their devices, no one had caught on. Kaianan had no idea what possessed her, she didn’t bring her blade and she was still exhausted from the transformation, but she started running.

  “You! Stop!” With the heavy runners different to running in boots, jumping down along the rocks was tedious work. And unlike back home, these boys were not scared of her, not intimated, not aware that she was an exceptional fighter.

  She got to them. They were laughing. Laughing at her! The moon shone across their faces and they didn’t look so young up closely. They actually looked her age.

  “Stop that.” She said unconvincingly.

  “What are you going to do about it?” One of them taunted.

  She smirked. “I’m going to break your head apart.” It wasn’t the most ladylike thing she’d ever said, but somewhere deep inside her she possessed an unforgiving attitude and judging by their faces, they weren’t expecting it either.

  The taller boy came at her, she jumped over him and slid on a rock, slamming her backside down onto a sharp point. Ow. She stood up, the penguin still yelling. Was he yelling at her?

  “I’m trying my best—” Something strange happened when she said it. A man’s voice sounded in her head.

  “Mistake after mistake, Kaianan, you’re failing.”

  “Who said that?”

  The boys were laughing again, all three of them had actually turned their attention to her. A pounding in her head was taking over, someone was screaming at her: “Fail better! Fail better!”

  Kaianan’s hands were on her ears. She was in pain.

  The boys were coming, she was going to get beaten up in this hazy state. They stopped. Shock took over their faces. Kaianan couldn’t see what at, it must have been above her. Bent over, she couldn’t turn her body.

/>   “HE IS MAKING THAT OBJECT FLY!”

  “HE’S GOING TO KILL US!”

  The boys were screaming, louder than the echo in her ears. Kaianan stumbled down a rock, then another, until she was nearly at water’s edge and the wounded penguin looked to her and shook his head.

  She took one big breath and fell in.

  “Kaia.” She heard her name. Somehow, somewhere. She fell into the water with someone holding her around the waist; someone had fallen in the same time she had.

  It only took her a second to feel the drop in her stomach to know the violet aura around her was singing.

  In, out. That’s how quick the water had submerged her, and that’s how quick she willed herself out of it; her ‘portation slamming her—face up—with a tonne of water, back into the bathtub in her dorm.

  Then another burst of water came at her and a heavy stranger fell down on top of her. She coughed her lungs up; her eyes went skyward. A wet green-eyed boy faced her, panting.

  “Julius?”

  “Kaianan,” he said back and smiled.

  Chapter Sixteen: Trustworthy Liars

  “I’m sorry Kaianan,” Julius said. “I didn’t mean – wait – where are we?”

  “Get off me!” She used her elbows to pound him in the chest.

  “Ow,” He wheezed out as he stepped out of the tub and into her small bathroom.

  “What the holom are you doing here?” Kaianan heard her voice reverberate around the white tiled room.

  “How did you get us from the water, here?” He was looking around at the shower, the mirror, cabinetry and tub, “What was that? What are you? Giliou?”

  “No,” she snapped, lifting herself from the tub and pushing him aside into the cabinet, feeling a wave of water drip from her clothes as she did. “What’s your problem! How did you find me?”

  “It’s not hard, you seem to just throw yourself into unsuspecting danger. You should have left those boys alone.”

  “The peng – the penga – whatever – the animal would have died.”

  “So!” Julius’ threw his hands up. “You’re not all noble and righteous, are you?”