Chapter Song: Distant leaps to Circinus | Happenings

Ke’Yan marked more areas with the chalk pencil she had and wrote small notes in her notebook. Eris looked at her all the while, trying not to doze off from standing for so long.

"Annnd, done. I think that should be it."

Eris glanced at the markings on the armor. Eris traced her fingers over various parts, “You don’t think this will make it hard to twist? If you put that piece there. It might mess up this part.”

Ke’Yan squinted at where she had marked and sighed, “Hmm, you might be right. I’ll just shift it over a bit. Let’s see how that works.

Ke'Yan was about to mark the chest piece again until Eris stopped her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Ke’Yan said.

"I need to go," Eris said.

“Really? It hasn’t been that long has it?”

Eris shook her head, “I have to go. Someone is waiting for me.”

Ke’Yan put the tools she held down on the desk and squatted to her level.

“Aww, that’s too bad. You can’t spare even a bit more? Just a tiny bit?”

Ke’Yan looked into her eyes with a slight curl to her frown.

“I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Eris began to try and unstrap the armor. When she tried touching the first clip, Ke’Yan’s hands moved to it first.

“Damn, here I thought my charm would be enough. Guess I can’t put on a face well enough. Oh well,” Ke’Yan smiled and began to lend a hand. “So you’ll come back and help me some more right? I could use a little helper with my side projects.”

“I don’t thin-”

Eris stopped mid-sentence, her words trailed off when she glanced out of the open door to the outside world. Through the window, all she could see was shops and clouds, but something gave her an odd feeling.

Something’s coming. A danger.

Ke’Yan, tilted her head in confusion, but Eris was too busy searching the room. Her attention moved over to the tools on the desk slightly jiggling. When she fixated on them they moved even more erratically.

Ke'Yan stopped unclipping the armor and looked at Eris, You feel that too rig-"

A sudden shift within the room knocked them both onto their feet. The counters and armors that lined the walls clattered and clanged as a tremor raged.

Eris looked up to see what happened, but couldn’t make out what she was looking at, as everything around her swayed wildly. While on the floor, she tried moving closer to KE’Yan, who was farther away and safer near the door.

A tide?

Eris tried moving quicker as she saw heavy items above her shake violently. When she was in reach of Ke’Yan, she felt a tug on her chest and was brought to the floor.

What?

She looked down to see that a loose clip had gotten stuck inside a crack in the floor. As soon as she knew she was stuck, she tried to pull the clip out. Her fingers fumbled at it, trying to remove it at an angle and twist it in different motions from an odd angle. Another hard jolt of the ground rocked the room and along with it, many of the pieces of armor began to fall to the ground.

After seeing one of the plates of armor land with a hard thud next to her, she started tugging at the strap vigorously. The amount of force she tried to generate wasn’t enough due to how close she was to the floor. It became futile so she tried to take off the armor herself as quickly as she could.

Before she could even attempt to remove it, her arm was snatched away and she was pulled so quickly that the strap broke off the vest. Her eyes swam to see what grabbed her. She was met with Ke’Yan’s bright brown eyes and a slightly angry expression.

“Ke’yan.”

“Move!”

An expression that insisted that talking be done later covered her face. With a shove through the opened door, she fell over into the front of the store, right behind the counter. At first, she was confused as to why she needed to be shoved so hard, but she realized a shove was better than death. A heavy sheet of black metal crashed down into the floor, nearly slicing into it perfectly.

Eris's eyes widened as she saw more things fall down into the same spot she was in a second ago. The room looked like it had a self-contained storm going on. It all quickly vanished when Ke'Yan slammed the door behind her.

Ke’Yan’s eyes searched rapidly around the room until they met with Eris’s, “Get under the counter! Now!”

After hearing Ke'Yan bark an order so insistently, she scrambled to the underside of the counter where KE'Yan quickly joined her.

Ke’Yan covered her head and looked at the ground angrily, “Are you serious right now?!”

Heavy thuds from the backroom made her expression even more irritated. The shaking continued, along with it, clothing racks and shelves began to quickly drop off their merchandise onto the floor as well.

"I think it's a tide," Eris said.

“The last one was something like a year and a half ago, why did it have to be the day I wanted to polish things up!” Ke’Yan said.

The small chirping crystal that sat above the door spat out it’s tube constantly, as the door waved open and closed. The sound was nearly a solid tune that could be mistaken for the highest note on a flute.

After another two minutes of squatting beneath the counter, Eris heard the chirping crystal's tune begin to slow down. The rumbling that went on underneath her and the shop seemed to die down as quickly as it started. Within a matter of seconds, it had all but gone away.

Eris peaked from the side of the counter to see the rest of the store. A hint of surprise lit up her face when she saw what looked like a wild animal had run rampant in the store. Even that wasn’t enough to describe the damage that had been done.

I’m glad I’m not a shopkeeper.

She returned to her place underneath the counter and looked at Ke’Yan, who happened to be looking at her as well. Ke’Yan’s eyes were nearly begging for an answer to what she saw around the counter. In response, Eris looked at her and shook her head in disappointment.

Ke'Yan put her hands to the floor and lowered her head. A long benevolent sigh escaped her mouth.

“Is this punishment for missing my aunt’s passing or was it the poor Elken I killed for its pelt?”

Eris watched Ke’Yan talk to herself, she looked like she would cry at any moment. She wanted to put a hand to her but she stopped before she could even lift a finger.

Do I do something? What do adults do to help each other when things like this happen?

A thought came to mind and she immediately put it to action.

“Ke’Yan,” Eris looked at her brown eyes as she looked into hers in response. “This isn’t my fault, okay?”

At first, Ke’Yan looked at Eris with an irritated squint but it quickly disappeared and was replaced by a smirk.

“Of course it’s not. Unless you’re hiding some strange child power, I know you didn’t do this.”

Ke’Yan’s smirk was nearing a smile before a loud shout was rang from outside.

“AHH DAMMIT! DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! STOP!”

Ke’Yan sprang up from under the counter and looked at the front window pane.

“Oh damn!” Ke’Yan said.

Eris got up for a look too. She was taken aback by the fire raging atop a shop outside. The keeper was desperately trying to dowse it with a container of water and a large towel.

“I told that idiot to keep the gases away from the metals!” Ke’Yan, turned around and ran around the counter. She looked back at Eris before she got too far, “Eris you should get going. It’s probably hectic around town.”

"What about the Stelite?" Eris said.

"Uhh," Ke'Yan was nearly jogging in place, "Just come back tomorrow I'll make sure you get what you need. I need to go now! See you later, Eris!" Ke'Yan sprinted through the store and swiveled her head while she ran. Eris could hear Ke'Yan mutter a low "no no no" as she looked at the store before dashing out of the door.

Eris walked through the store right after Ke’Yan left and could hear a muffled yell, “Lawrance you idiot, what did I tell you!”

“It wasn’t me! I don’t even remember putting that stuff there!” the shopkeeper yelled.

She got to the door and looked at the fire for a few seconds. Other shopkeepers came running to help put extinguish it. She didn’t stay too long to marvel at their fire fighting abilities.

I need to get back. I hope the Inn isn’t like the shops here.

Eris took one last peek at Ke’Yan and the others before she ran off to head to the Inn.

It was slightly foggy compared to nearly an hour ago. The mildly empty town was now busy with people running around and helping each other with damages. Eris paid no attention to the rest of the town's problems and continued to run back to the Inn.

After a while, Eris made it to the stone archway entrance of the Inn. Slightly out of breath, she looked at the Inn for any signs of trouble.

It looks, just like it did before. She swiveled her head for any outstanding details. Nothing.

Eris walked down the stone path and headed up the stairs to the door. Before she opened the door, she heard faint sounds voices behind it. The voices became more apparent as she opened the door and peeked inside.

A group of five people stood around the lounge area, two of which looked like a couple to her. The other three were a mix of ages and didn’t look like they were related in any way.

So we aren’t the only guests, hm.

Eris watched them converse as she came inside the Inn.

“You didn’t get anything on you at all? How? There is soup all over my pants,” the man of the couple said.

“I drank the broth of course. I’m glad that I eat so fast. We can wash it off later, okay?” the woman said.

The woman looked at the man with a smile and grabbed his hand. Eris turned her attention to the other three.

“Last one was so long ago I forgot it even happens,” a man said.

“That’s true, I was just about to use the bathroom when everything started shaking,” a woman said.

“My room was upstairs, felt like I was in a tree-house for a while!” another woman said.

As interesting as their conversation was to Eris, she wanted to look for Anya.

The voices died down as she walked down the hallway to Anya’s room.

She could hear a voice coming from an open door. Eris peaked inside and saw Anya next to a small pile of broken ceramic pieces. She was on her knees with a dustpan and small broom trying to reach under the bed for something. Anya muttered to herself while her hand explored the depths of the bed.

The inside of the room looked clean enough except for the various items that had fallen off shelves. Small items like soap, cups, and lighting candles were spread around the floor.

Eris stepped inside quietly, “Anya.”

A quick thump and small yelp resounded from where Anya was. She backed out from under the bed and rubbed her head.

“Ow,” Anya looked to see who interrupted her work. “Oh! Eris, welcome back! Did you feel that tide too?” Anya said.

Eris nodded and walked up to her, “I did. Is everything alright here?”

“Mmmm sort of. There are so many rooms with broken lamps we need to clean. There are places with shelves that dropped stuff everywhere.” Anya said.

“A lot of work?” Eris said.

Anya sat down on the bed and sighed, “We saw thirteen rooms so far. Dad, wants me to count the rest after I clean up this one. How was the market? Did you find what you need?”

“It was, interesting. I might need to go back. Do you need help cleaning?”

Anya suddenly sprang up with excitement lining her eyes, “Will you?! I could work forever if I had you help me.”

“Then, I’ll help too,” Eris said.

Anya grabbed Eris’s hand and hoisted it into the air with a gleeful smile, “Partners!”

Eris watched Anya do a quick dance. A smile was coming on when she had thought of the day she had.

I feel like all I've done is help today. What would happen if I stayed a little bit longer? What will she do if I return home after this?

Anya stopped dancing when she looked at Eris, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing to worry about. Let’s clean.”

Anya's expression changed slightly, she looked at her with a hint of skepticism, "Hmmm, okay. Let's clean then."

Anya walked over to the closet area, which had a few bottles of liquids on the floor. As she was about to pick them up, she stopped and looked at Eris.

“Hey, Eris,” Anya said.

“Hm?” Eris said.

“Where is Zeanis?”

“Huh? Who?”

“Zenais, the boy.”

“Oh, you mean Zeais. I’m not sure. I just got here.”

“Zeais. That’s right. Hmmm, okay.” Anya stood up and took off the white rag that covered her hair. “We should go look for him, if we can get him to help, we can get done faster.”

“Okay. Let’s look for him then. I’m kind of getting hungry.”

“Let’s go then. If we finish soon enough maybe I can get us some snacks.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, some really good ones too! It’ll be faster if we go different ways.”

“I see, then I’ll look too.”

Anya nodded her head and walked over to the door, “I’ll go look around the bottom floor.” After she opened the door, a large barrier stood over her.

“Where are you off to, Anya?” Yale asked.

“Eris said she would help us. We were going to look for the other child to help too.”

Yale walked into the room and looked around. He grabbed the bottles and began to walk out of the room, “There’s a basket in the hallway. Separate the good bottles from the leaking ones, if there are any.”

“Got it, Pa,- Dad. Let’s go Eris.”

Eris nodded and followed Anya out into the hallway.

“I thought you needed to finish the room first. He’s fine with it?”

Anya smiled, “He’s just a bit shy, I kind of know what he’s thinking. He’s going to finish that room while we go look for Zeais.” Anya said.

"Oookay. If you say so," Eris said.

“It’s fine. He’d rather have help anyways if things are bad enough.”

“I see.”

“I’ll go look this way then. If you find him call out for me and I’ll join you.”

“Got it. See you. Again.”

Anya gave Eris a wide smile and walked away. Eris stood there for a moment and looked out of the window that was near her. The day was cloudy and the sun was no longer showing warmth. It reminded her of a certain day out in the forest. A long time ago for her, that pained her in ways that couldn’t be seen from the outside.

She sighed and continued to walk down the hall.