Chaos & Kuryo (novel 3) Chapter 7 Part 1

//// Trigger warning for violence!

Aaliyah

It had been several days, and things almost felt normal. Except they weren’t. There were three of us sitting in the living room and frankly, one of us was an evil twin.

Kuryo wasn’t just angry. He was menacing. Something about the way he moved just made everyone shrink away. It was probably the murderous intent in his eyes. So now we’d sat him down and neither me nor Jade knew how to say this but – “You’ve got to go,” I said sharply, glaring at him all while remembering that there was a baseball bat behind the couch. Kuryo was on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. Something angry was in his eyes.

“I agree,” he said icily. “There’s no use sitting around here and waiting. We have to make our own solutions.”

Something about that gave me the chills. I nodded. “We can give you some clothes and food, and point you to the local homeless shelter.”

The corners of his lips twitched in amusement. A bad sign. Jade jiggled beside me. “Look, you can’t stay here-”

Kuryo rose to his feet. “Want a coffee?” and he strolled into the kitchen.

“Uh,” said Jade, her voice almost covering the sound of a knife being drawn from the wooden block. Shit. I was on my feet and had pulled out the baseball bat as Kuryo’s evil twin reappeared with a knife in hand. Jade was also up, but I seriously wondered what good we would be.

Kuryo pulled off his overshirt and laid it aside, as if making sure it wouldn’t get dirty. Not once did he put down the knife, or leave us with his eyes. “Don’t try and change my mind,” he said flatly. “It’s not going to work.”

“Why are you- what are you thinking?” burst Jade, stepping to the other side of the coffee table.

Kuryo’s eyes flicked from her to me. “Easy. I have to save Charr,” he said, so cold and calculated. “And that’s not going to happen if I stay here. Your idiot friend took my transporter, and now I’ve got no choice but to use other means.”

“Black magic?” hissed Jade between staccato breaths. “You’d do that?”

Crinkles appeared around his eyes in a fake smile. “I’ve been studying for years, so just shut up and roll over. It won’t hurt much.”

I threw the baseball bat at him. He ducked, lunging forward as I was mid-transformation into my dragon form. His eyes went wide Just before he reached me. Apparently he hadn’t realized that we were dragons, much less that I was a golden dragon.

But he was too fast. Crows are very agile, and his wings were out. Sharp pain sliced my torso, again and again. I was done for before I even hit my true form.

I crashed to the floor as Jade snatched him up in her jaws. Bad idea. I heard her shrieks as the world faded from me.

And then, sharply, everything was too clear. My golden body lying there in a puddle of blood. Jade writhing, blinded, as blood gushed from her wounds. Kuryo scraping himself up amongst the wreckage, one wing broken and limp and bloodied.

But he was victorious. His wounds were not enough to stop him from landing a final blow to poor Jade.

Then, there was only the sound of his breathing. He dropped to his knees between us, breathing heavily. He was splattered with blood, but when he lifted his head I saw he was determined. He didn’t regret a thing.

Anger burned in me as he positioned our bodies, cut out our hearts, and set fire to our manes in the middle of a circle of blood. As our manes turned to ash, flames erupted around him. He yelled in surprise, then gritted his teeth at the pain as slowly, bit by bit, he vanished away to another dimension.

Little bitch, I thought, you wait and see.

With a running jump I smashed through his circle and landed in the last of twirl of smoke from the ashes – tagging along on his stupid spell and vanishing along with him.

Chaos & Kuryo (Novel 3) Chapter One, Part Two

“We’re all going to die,” said Aaliyah firmly. She was sitting on the couch, dripping snow. She hadn’t taken her hat or boots off, and didn’t seem to realize what was going on around her.

We all sat crowded around her, listening intently. Chaos was on the floor stirring a pot of hot cocoa they’d made, serving it into mugs. Right now, there was fat chance of anyone drinking it.

“I dreamt it,” Aaliyah said softly, hugging herself. Her gaze drifted off at the TV, not really seeing it. “We all drowned.”

Chaos offered her a mug of cocoa. I shook my head at them, but Aaliyah took it.

“We all died,” she repeated softly. “But I can’t remember how it happened. There was just all this water and you,” she nodded at me “Couldn’t keep your head above it. There was a shark and -,” she shook her head. “We all drowned.” She looked at Chaos. “You had a wooden crucifix that floated. That was all that was left behind.”

Chaos looked down. We all lowered our gazes. No one knew what to say.

Maybe now’s a good time to say that Aaliyah, being a golden dragon, had rare predictive dreams. She dreamed of the future. Needless to say, dreaming of all of us dying had never happened before, and wasn’t a good sign.

Chaos cleared their throat. All eyes turned to them and I cringed inside, expecting something, well, cringe-worthy.

“You know,” Chaos said, swirling the coca in the pot. “In my realm when one god made a prediction, it was basically taken as a challenge by other gods. A sort of ‘hold my beer’ kind of moment.”

“This was a dream,” Jade said sternly. “It,”

“Was sent by someone,” said Chaos flatly. “And someone else somewhere is probably taking it as a challenge to make it not happen. So-”

“Our world is not populated by zillions of gods like your world was,” I interrupted.

“It’s not written in stone!” Chaos interrupted me back fiercely. “Just because someone says it, doesn’t make it true. It’s a warning, not a death sentence. And how many people have avoided the death sentence?”

“Not a whole lot,” I bit back.

“They’ve got a point,” said Charr quietly. “We can maybe do something.”

Chaos pointed the chocolatey spoon towards her. “Avoid water.”

“I’m thinking something else,” said Charr.

“Like what?”

“Well,” Charr gave me a meaningful look. “Maybe we should contact, you know, the principals.”

There was an unhappy silence. My stomach did an unhappy flip. I looked grudgingly at Charr. I knew she was right. Of all the times, this was as good as any to travel to meet the principals. But – I didn’t want to. “Can it not be tomorrow? I have an exam.” I said grumpily.

“You always have exams,” Chaos said.

I glared at them. “I should be studying right now, thank you. This is important for me.”

“So is this!” said Aaliyah sharply, near tears. “We might all die!”

I cringed. “Okay, let me do my exam first. I have to go study. But I promise, tomorrow when I get home, we,” I looked pointedly at Charr. “Will go visit the principals.”

///////

Chaos’s POV

Well, I was late for work by about ten minutes, spilled a latte on some jerk’s lap, and that was just the start. It was a long shift, I was bored, and every minute felt like drudgery. Really, I couldn’t wait to get home. Kuryo and Charr were going to visit the principals! Kuryo’s exam was in the early afternoon so when I finished my shift, he and Charr should be ready to go on their little dimension trip.

Well! I rushed home through the snow and buses, climbed up the stairs in a rush, and let myself into the dinky apartment that smelled like home.

The moment I stepped inside, I felt an energy. It wasn’t magic per se, but it was… a presence.

Well I didn’t have to look far, it was right in front of me in the living room and staring me in the face.

“Hi?” I said, my brain doing that dumb thing where it refuses to acknowledge what it’s seeing.

It was Kuryo, but not. In fact, take Kuryo and imagine he hit the gym, fronted a heavy metal band, and put on a medieval tunic and that’s what was staring me in the face, long angry hair included. Charr was sitting on the couch beside him, wearing a black dress that I had never seen her wear before.

“Who’s that?” she asked.

“Temporary roommate,” said another Charr, this one wearing clothes I knew, from the kitchen.

Mind. Blown.

I shut the door behind me, just in case the world needed to not know about this. Yeah, something juicy was happening. I could feel it.

So, being me, I started talking. “Uhm, hi, I’m-”

“Why don’t you go get Kuryo?” Charr said, stirring a mug of something and handing it to the other Charr. “Tell him Kuryo has arrived.”

My mouth may have hung open for a minute while my brain just finished exploding in my head. Say whaaat?

Then the metalhead Kuryo gave me an angry look. I nodded and let myself back out.

I met Kuryo, the real one, at the bus stop.

“I need to tell you something!” I blurted as we met. Heads turned and I cleared my throat. Kuryo looked tired. He’d been up all night studying for this exam. For a moment, I felt bad for him. But then I remembered what was at the apartment.

“Okay, so, don’t freak, but,” I looped an arm around his shoulders and ducked our heads together.

“Is this a love declaration?” he asked hopefully, trying to make light of the situation. He really did look tired.

“Charr told me to tell you that ‘Kuryo is here’. Has arrived. Something like that.”

Kuryo looked at me, so tired. Then he sighed heavily. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah!” I nodded, eyes wide. “And there was this guy in the apartment, and he looked just like you! Except, I mean, he works out, and there was another Charr-”

Kuryo cursed and began walking towards the apartment building. Little flurries of snow were falling through the sky, floating delicately down. They peppered his hair.

“Do you – you know, you don’t have work or somewhere to go? Feel like doing groceries or something?” he asked me as we neared the curve in the street where our block was.

I took it like a traitorous punch to the gut. “What? You don’t want to include me?”

“No, that’s not it,” groaned Kuryo. I took his shoulders, and he drew to a stop, exasperated. “It’s just – this doesn’t concern you.”

“Doesn’t – but I’m, I’m a part of your life! I was in the dream too, wasn’t I? I’m involved!” a whole well of hurt began swelling inside of me. Charr had called me a ‘temporary roommate’ … were they thinking of getting rid of me?

“Yes but,” Kuryo said. A lot of meaning was in his eyes. “You’re,” and he searched for words.

My heart broke. “Are you dumping me?”

Alright it came out a bit louder but, mercifully, there wasn’t anyone around but the snow to hear. My eyes got all misty and stupid. “Are you?”

“No, but-”

“But?” I nearly shrieked.

Kuryo lifted his hands, trying to placate me. I was having none of it, scrubbing angrily at my tears. “I just don’t think it is wise for you to meet him.”

“Who is he?” I barked, knowing already the answer. A twin. A relative of sorts. Okay, alright, I get it. I’m not the type that you can bring home all proud and Charr was probably already invited home-

“He’s me,” Kuryo said flatly. “But from another dimension.”

“What?” My mind skipped a beat.

“See? This is too complicated,” he said. “Just – go to the grocery store or something.” and he began walking away. I rushed after him.

“He’s you? From another dimension?” I asked as I kept stride with him. He walked fast, trying to shake me off, but who was the one who did all the cardio huh? Me, that’s who. Little old student here didn’t do a whole lot of exercise.

“Yes, and we didn’t necessarily get along either,” Kuryo said as we crossed the street to our block. “Now if you’re going to stick around, you’re going to want not to cross him. Okay? Just – silent observer, okay? Just that. Don’t say anything.”

“And the – she’s another copy of Charr?”

“Charr is here as well?” he asked, whipping around to me. “You didn’t say that!”

“Uh,”

Kuryo hissed some curses and rolled his eyes. “Okay, well, don’t cross any of them, okay? Just – zip it. Okay?”

“I can do that,” I said confidently. Since when was I the chatterbox around here?

Kuryo gave me a nasty look, then drew the block’s door open for us both.

“Attack of the White Clouds”; Chapter Three, Part Two

It would take us a week of steady and swift marching to retrace our steps back to my tribe’s lands. Another week’s walk to maneuver the marshes and find the way to Mara’s hut. There, I was certain we would find something.

For now we retraced our people’s fleeing tracks. They were dispersed, scattered through the rocky plains. Yet as we crested a tall hill, we saw what had become of the forest.

I let out a cry of surprise. H- sucked in his breath in horror. D- cursed. Ch- remained silent, but her skin turned a hue paler, then flushed with anger.

When we had left, the tall forest had been plunged through by the one cloud that had attacked us. Now, it had been ravaged. The great trunks were snapped all throughout and great holes pockmarked what had once been a great canopy.

“They were searching for us,” Ch- said bitterly. “They knew we had rested there, and they hoped to find stragglers.”

I nodded. That meant they may return to find us. Stragglers. Good. If we could pick them off in scouts, or even learn how to defeat them one at a time, that would be a great boon. To learn more of them, we would have to scour these tracks. As horrific as this wreckage was, it was a treasure trove of information waiting to be read.

Now how could I say that to those around me so they understood? I tried with words as we walked. Pictures of discovery came to mind, ideas and stories of what we may discover and how- but none of this was easy to express. The more I tried to speak, the more they grew confused. Even D- was getting frustrated. Ch- peered at my mouth as I sighed.

“Her tongue is normal, why can’t she speak?”

I twirled my staff and grunted in irritation. They couldn’t say I wasn’t trying!

“Look, we just do not understand,” D- said patiently. “How can you say this is good? Look at the carnage-”

“Tracks!” I protested, monosyllables being all I could manage. “Good! Food-” no, no, not food! I’d meant forage! Cursing inwardly, I pressed a hand to my forehead and smacked my palm there lightly. We were nearing the forest and now they needed to understand. In a final desperate attempt, I waved them over to a mud puddle. Ushering them all to stand around, I tried to draw my plan.

“C-c-clou-,”

“Cloud?” Ch- suggested as I drew one. Nodding, I tried for the forest. They understood that. Then I tried to do spots of things, clues! Clues was the word I’d been searching for.

“Clue!” It burst from me. “Clue, clue-” and now I had a hard time stopping it. I did by biting my lip and pointing to all of us, then the forest. “S-s-sea-earch,”

“Search for clues? You want to search the forest?” H- said eagerly.

“Clues for what?” Ch- said excitedly.

I faltered at the monumentous task before me. There was just so much to be said. I sat down in defeat, cradling my head. So much to be said.

“Listen, no, look here,” and Ch- crouched before me. Scowling, I dropped my arms to my sides so they trailed in the dirt listlessly. She held up her hands between us as if in preparation for battle. Or to demand I focus. “There is a language that my people use, used,” and she faltered, biting her lip. “If you could use it, maybe it would help.”

“The problem is not with her tongue,” H- snapped. “Leave her alone.”

Ch- waved at him in dismissal. To me, she continued. “It is used in hunts, for silence. You speak with your hands.” And she motioned hers around her chest. “Here, for the present. There,” a little farther away “for the future. Near for the past.”

I blinked, mind whirling with possibilities. Slowly, i nodded for her to continue. With a face that said she wasn’t sure she ought to be doing this, she began miming gestures. “I,” pointing to herself with one hand, “think,” a flurry beside her head “that you think,” pointing to me before resuming that flurry, “that we,” pointing to all of us in a circular motion “can catch,” she made a snatch and hauling motion akin to hauling in a net from the sea “the white cloud.” and she gestured as if forming a soft fluff above her head.

I nodded, but that didn’t satisfy her. She flopped a hand towards me, all energy gone into dull disenchantment. “Try it now.”

Hesitant, I puffed my hands above my head. White cloud! Catch! I snatched with my hands, then pretended to search the earth.

A huge grin split Ch-‘s face. “The white cloud catches the earth?” Then she turned that grin to the others. “She is talking! Look! She can talk now!”

It was not talking, and she had not understood me at all, but her good humor was contagious in a way. I chuckled, plopping the twigs down that I’d picked up. Ch- held up her hands again, excited. “I’ll teach you some more! More words!”

I nodded, certain that this still would result in me stuttering. It would just be with my hands. I’d look like a bird flapping its wings.

Yet I tried. It made Ch- smile. Finally, in a stutter, I asked her “C-clue?”

Proud as could be, Ch- mimed picking something up and holding it in a revelatory motion. I copied it and she beamed approval.

dusting off my hands, I prepared a sentence. “White cloud,” Ch- read aloud as I signed. “Caught… clue.”

I nodded eagerly, then pointed at all of us. “We,” she added testily.

A sigh erupted from D-, who was sitting nearby with H-. The pair were watching, chins resting on their palms dismally. “She can’t do it,” H- said as if this was tiring for them too. “Can we just move on? We have to gain ground today-”

i shook my head. Words felt nearer now, yet this was easier. I didn’t need to struggle with sounds, and anything that made speech easier was a huge weight off my shoulders. Again, i tried.

“We,” Ch- said, raising her eyebrows. “Catch, clue, of the cloud?”

I nodded, beaming. That was it! Didn’t it make sense? It was so much easier!

And yet they did not think so. They pursed their lips, and Ch- looked defeated. “I don’t understand,” she said while dropping her arms into her lap. As if to make sure I understood she shook her head and listlessly signed that she did not know what I meant.

I tried. Clue! Catch! Clue! Cloud! Clue! We!

No amount of combination seemed to succeed. It seemed beyond their minds that we could find a clue on how to catch the cloud. Ch- guessed everything else under the sun. Until finally-

“We are looking for clues on how to catch the cloud!”

I nearly danced with joy, nodding and holding out my arms in approval. Ch- laughed and jumped up. “I got it I got it! Hey! You two! We are looking for clues on how to catch the clouds!”

The two were impressed, but not exactly happy either. “That only took about two hours,” H- said dryly. “Why didn’t you just let her speak?”

“Are you sure that’s what she means?” D- asked.

I nodded eagerly. D- pursed their lips. “And what would these clues look like?”

Who knew? I held up my arms in the gesture of not knowing that Ch- had taught me.

Ch- translated that too, eager as ever. “She doesn’t know!”

D- heaved a sigh. “So all this, to know that she does not know what she wants us to search for.”

Clues! Clues!

“We are looking for clues,” Ch- said, and that seemed good enough for her. She was puffing in pride, so much that her armor couldn’t seem to stretch any more.

H- and D- smiled pitiably. “Alright,” H- said. “We are looking for clues.”

In the tracks! I motioned for tracks, scooping towards the earth. Ch- gasped. “In the tracks! That’s it! The clues will be in the tracks! That’s why she was so happy about the forest! We have tracks to find clues of it in!”

Yes, yes, yes! I jumped to my feet, urging them to come. That had been surprisingly effortless. Yes it had been long but my mind was not tired. I did not feel like curling up and crying from exhaustion. Rather, I was sparkling with the burst of victory. Urging them up again, I began to walk first towards the forest.

Writing Rant about Autism

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say hi and to let everyone know that I am slowly recuperating from my low. I am no longer bed-confined, but I am still not able to summon the mental strength to exercise. However -> I’m still able to write and draw!

Now first things first, I wanted to say a big thank you to this lovely blogger  who went above and beyond answering my questions about autism. You see, I have very limited experience of autism. When I was young and in my little family/cult time, I heard of autistic relatives who had married into my mothers family as being horrible, incapacitated, and just not trying hard enough. Of their autistic children as being babied. Then, coincidentally, other autistic relatives were given private tutors and taught how to train their minds and won major university scholarships. Either way, they were vilified.

When I was in college, my mother bought me the book ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’. This book amazed me and I remember wishing that I could write something that unique, something that really opened up a world – in someone’s mind. It was a fun thought, but I never actually thought I’d have an autistic character one day. It just seemed too difficult and beyond my reach.

But then, about two or three years ago, I had this dream. After waking up, I drew the characters, knowing that if I did draw them out, it was a sort of pact with the characters in my dream that I would tell their story. Well, I did begin writing it, but the project was laid aside at exactly 30,000 words. I just didn’t feel inspired to write it any more. Years have passed, and it now has a shoddy title, but ‘The Attack of the White Clouds’ is now my central working piece! Yay me for keeping my promises to otherworldly beings!

Now, again, I’d like to bring the topic back to autism. I didn’t set out to make the main character autistic. She just was… showing strong symptoms? Seemingly incapable of speech no matter how I tried? The point here being -> the character is the way that she is, and I’m no expert in portraying autism. I’ve done pitifully little research and know practically nothing about it. So I really hope that I portray the character well, all while not screwing up a representation of autism.

I would also like to point out that, yes, there will be characters  (I’m looking at you, Ch-) who mistreat the main character due to her condition. This isn’t meant to be upsetting, but rather to make a point about how people can discriminate and vilify those who are autistic.

That being said, I hope you all enjoy the story! Do let me know what you think of it!