Chapter 4

“Really?” Nanako called through, “I find that hard to believe.”

“Who exactly would have cooked for me? ‘Cause I certainly can’t.”

“So you’ve really never had a home-cooked meal?”

“Nope, and besides, how exactly can you have a home-cooked meal when you ain’t got a home for it to come from?  You know, this place is very nice.”

“Well, I did tell you that you would like it better than that old apartment you were trying to make me stop in,” Nanako looked around at the pine doors and cupboards and ran her hand along with the grain of one.

Had Nezaki really never had a home?  Had he really travelled all around the world with his father in the quest to gain more knowledge?  She did sympathise with him, hold on, why should she?  He had saved her life but he was the one who had taken her from her home in the first place.  And now her mother wasn’t coming home.  Nezaki said she wouldn’t until it was all over but refused to say more.

She stirred the spoon in the pan absently and stroked her hands back through her hair.  This couldn’t be happening because it was too surreal; if it were going to happen to anyone it would not have been her.  But she hadn’t woken up yet had she?

What exactly was it that they were expecting of her?  If she knew that she could at least prepare, was she supposed to lead an army against the lowba?  Yeah, right, like she could lead anyone, she couldn’t even have lead a netball team back at school, let alone an army to save the world from a race of super snakes that wanted to… well, she didn’t actually know what they wanted to do.  And now she was supposed to have magical powers?  Well, maybe she could believe that one.  She had, after all, seen proof of that before now.

“Okay, so tell me what all this is about,” she wondered if Nezaki knew himself.

“I can’t just tell you,” he answered, “you wouldn’t believe me even if I did.”

“You never know, I might,” she took plates from the cupboard and started to serve the food whilst she talked.  The little pink flowers in the centre of the plates looked too ordinary to be apart of her life anymore and she wondered how much weirder her life was going to get.

“It isn’t my place to tell you,” Nezaki sounded as if he was pondering this thought, “pray you never find out, it would be better for all of us if you didn’t.”

“Here you go,” she handed him a plate and plopped down on the sofa, “so who can tell me, anyone?”

“Eri… I can’t tell you, look, you’re going to get me in a lot of trouble if I tell you something, so stop asking, okay?” he didn’t seem annoyed, just frustrated.

“Eri?  So you know this person?  Go on, tell me their name.  I’m not going to know them anyway, so what harm could it possibly do?  It’s just a name after all, there are probably a hundred people called the same thing and I won’t know which one it is, so I can’t exactly go out and find them or anything can I?”

“This is good you know.”

“Of course it is, I made it,” she resigned herself to having to wait for more information, “so, what are you?”

“Male,” he answered, sucking up a noodle, “you?”

“Stop it Nezaki, I know for a fact you’re not human,” she looked at his tail pointedly which hung over the arm of the chair, “so what exactly are you?”

He looked up and smiled at her, “I’m an ademot, if you must know, at least, that’s what species I am.”

“Are all ademots as fast as you?” she was pretty curious now, “and exactly how many of you are there on Earth?”

“No, they wouldn’t all be as fast as me, but some might be, anyway there are no more on Earth.”

“You’re all alone then?”

“Uh huh, but at least I know what my job is.”

“Your job, what would that be?”

“To protect you, of course, what cloud has your head been in for the past few days?”

It was starting to sink in that she was involved in something that most of the planet didn’t know existed.  If she didn’t talk it over with someone soon and try to get her head round it she was going to go nuts.  Of course, who could she tell that would actually believe her, and was she allowed to tell anyone?  She wasn’t sure any of her friends would believe her, and if they did they would then be right in the thick of it as well.

“So what am I supposed to do, wait around for something to happen?” Nanako asked him.

“Ah ha, she gets it!” Nezaki looked up at her, “look, I only know slightly more than you do, and in this current time I am not at liberty to tell you, and anyway, it wouldn’t help.”

It irked him that she wanted to know so much and he couldn’t tell her, but what could he do?  He was under strict rules and the breakage of any one of those rules could spell certain disaster.  Nanako would just have to wait for her answers.

He twirled the coin between his fingers; it was hung on a leather thong around his neck.  He knew exactly what it looked like.  A copper band, circular, with a gold centre and a hole right in the middle, just handy for passing through a strip of leather.  He wore it as a reminder of home, but home had bad memories, and instead he thought about all the people he had left behind when he had left.

Did he actually want to go back?  Perhaps, but he wasn’t sure that Nanako could handle it.  The only time he got to go back was when she was called to go there.  If that happened, they were on their way to an end, the end of something which had started over twenty years ago.

“No!” his tail struck the back of the chair he was sitting on and made such a loud crash Nanako jumped and nearly spilt her food.

“Are you okay?” she asked, re-finding her composure.

“Just fine, I just thought a little too loudly.”

“I’ll say!” she went back to eating and he breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t questioned further.

‘You have to help me now,’ he begged silently, ‘I know you always did, but I know the time draws near and I need your help again.  Do I have it?  Oh Erin.’