Saki

  I went to ask around where Lyran went when an idea struck me. I quickly pulled up the map. Glancing around no one seemed to notice the large floating map in front of me, or if they did, they didn’t say anything or even glance at it. Quickly I searched the map, but there were too many people.

  In frustration I actually decided to read the buttons on the side. At the very top was a black box and inside it was white letters that said something in a language I barely understood. ‘search’ was inside the box.

  I stared at it and wondered if I could somehow get it to do what it said. I thought about it. Nothing. I blinked, quietly said “Search”. Finally, I tapped at it. The tapping worked.. sort of? Another box popped up in what I can only describe as someone taking the Rojian alphabet and puking it onto a rectangle?!

  I slowly found the letters for L..Y..R..A..N. After a long moment of nothing changing, I frowned and looked. There was a small key to the right of this thing that spelled ‘ENTER”.

  Near another at the bottom was another named ‘SPACE.’ My eye twitched at the absurdity and I resisted the urge to scream at it. I found other ‘words’ like ‘BACKSPACE’ and ‘DELETE’. Delete what! Back to Space? But Space is down at the bottom?

  Why would you need to back it? I sighed in exasperation and tried the ‘space’ button. Nothing seemed to change, except the little blinking thing that had appeared when I tapped on the ‘search’ box and moved another spot to the right.

  Then it clicked. SPACE. It was giving the other letters SPACE! Excited, I considered for a moment.

  If ‘SPACE’ gave space, then ‘BACKSPACE’ would be giving space back? I tested it and sure enough the little blinking then moved back next to the Alphabet character. This was incredible!

  Wait, what happened if I pushed the ‘BACKSPACE’ when it was already at the character? I quickly tapped it again and to my actual shock and horror. The character ‘N’ disappeared! It.. it just erased the character?! Just like that?!

  Worriedly I found and tapped the ‘N’ again. Okay, don’t do that again. Looking around I considered pushing the ‘CAPS LOCK.’ But after a moment I ended up pushing the ‘ENTER’ I really wanted to know what was being entered and why?

  The box suddenly vanished and the map began to shift suddenly and I looked in shock as it zoomed very far out.

  On the Right side most of the buttons disappeared and a list of what I can only describe of names appeared. The map now showed the entire kingdom as though looking at well.. a map of the kingdom, but a lot of dots were missing.

  I looked at the list and noticed all of them had ‘LYRAN’ somewhere in them. Was.. was this all the Lyran’s in the kingdom!?

  “Is something the matter Saki?” A voice suddenly spoke up causing me to jump from surprise. My tail lashed out as I flipped around to grab.. Lyran. He seemed shocked as I held him up with my tail. Slowly I put him back down with a shy smile. “Oh, yea sorry!” I said quickly dismissing the map.

  He looked at me for a moment before suddenly looking uncertain. “Is.. is this about the tracking stone? I don’t have one of you I swear!”

  My mind, still not working right, took a second to latch onto his words as my Illusion activated on pure instinct to hide my cheeks going redder than a tomato. “What.. I.. who? No! I was just um..”

  I paused as I tried to come up with a good way to say looking for you on a map that tracks everyone all the time. I decided there was no good way to put that. Instead, I changed the topic. “So, I was actually searching for you. Is the portal ready by chance?”

  “You were searching for me by standing in the middle of the guild hall and staring into space for over half an hour?” He asked, now utterly puzzled at my response. My face somehow began to feel very warm.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I was…” I tried and failed. Lyran was hard enough to be around normally. Adding the act of almost being caught searching for him on a tracking map after today? Wait, did he say staring into space? That proved it was not visible to anyone but me. Wait, not important right now!

  “I was.. Tama is in the field with Matriarch Talia!” I blurted almost before I could think. Lyran looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my head. I wanted to go and die now.

  ? “Um, Saki.. Do you maybe need some rest?” He asked cautiously.

  I clamped my mouth shut before I said something else stupid and tried to think fast.

  “Oh, hey Lyran. Have you seen Tera? She was supposed to meet me for lunch and help me forge a new sword.” David appeared as if manifesting from the list of people I didn’t want to see me right now and asked a question I actually knew the answer to.

  I took it and ran. “Ah yes, Tera went to find Tama in the outskirts of the town!” My tail lashed aggressively behind my back and my ears flattened. Luckily, all of this was completely invisible to everyone around me as the illusion did its job.

  David looked pissed and rolled his eyes. “Of course she did, that woman can’t leave Tama alone for five damn minutes! Thanks Saki, I appreciate it.” He gave me a nod and a smile before frowning and storming out of the building. Leaving me with Lyran alone again.

  Finally, I grasped a perfect excuse! “I was accessing very important Royal Advisor documents that only Royal Advisors have access to!” Technically, that wasn’t a lie and it got me out of it!

  “Oh? That sounds impressive Saki, what kind of documents were they?” Lyran asked genuinely curious. I deflated.

  “I can’t tell you, sorry. It’s private info! But worry not, maybe when you are the royal engineer, we can discuss it then!” I said as a shot.

  He nodded and pulled out a blueprint before handing it to me. “I have found a way to handle the flux cortex during the transportation.

  A little risky, but I was able to get that boar wrecking the town earlier outside the town using it! It’s on a collar he has on. By the way, do you know why the collar says ‘Jiggle the Goodest boy EVAR?’ I thought Tama couldn’t spell?”

  I looked at him horrified. “Wait, is he okay?!” I asked in a panic. Pictures of Lyran being diced into pieces by an enraged Tama spanned every thought and I started planning escape routes.

  “Oh yea, He was not happy though, charged right back to me and well.. The healers made good coins on me.” Lyran said sheepishly.

  I actually made note of his appearance for the first time and noted he was favoring one leg and his robes were torn. I had been so out of it I hadn’t even noticed he was hurt. I considered for a moment before pulling something out of my bag I only grabbed in case of emergencies.

  A health potion. Ironically, despite being rather common and not that expensive, Health potions had that weird dual effect of being very necessary and yet never usable when needed. Imagine trying to get a vial of liquid down your throat while fighting an enemy where you would need one.

  Then Tama was able to heal us, and the last few weeks we didn’t have access. Never had time and didn’t have the money. Now we had the money and time but no reason to use them. Story of our life really.

  He accepted the health potion shyly and looked at me gratefully “Thank you Saki. I know this might sound a bit strange, but I really like you. You always know just what to say or do to make things better.”

  I felt my nose begin to bleed and I quickly stuttered out “No.. no worries, I’d do it for anyone really!” My tail tucked between my legs and my ears began twitching uncontrollably.

  “Yea, I know. I see the way you save people and help Tama. Earth bless her, she tries her best but Tama is a little slow sometimes you know?

  And you are always there to save her. I think she definitely made the right choice in choosing you as Royal Advisor. I don’t think anyone could handle Tama like you do.”

  ? “I mean, I wouldn’t call it handling, we are best friends!” I said trying to be defensive. But the compliment hit.

  He smiled and nodded “I know, and it shows. I wish I had a best friend like you.”

  I turned and ran out of the guild hall. I ran down the street and into a nearby ally and collapsed to my knees panting. My heart was pounding and I wasn’t thinking clearly. Why had I just run? What was I doing?!

  Chapter 117: The Cost of Fitting in