A storm ravaged the island late Tuesday night, rain falling into the early hours of Wednesday.
A whispered ‘help’ woke Tani from a deep sleep. He sat up on his bed and listened to the raging rain. The trees in the forest around them broke most of it…
The plea for help came again, and he got out of bed.
Closing his eyes, he listened, and once it came again, he followed it, teleporting to the overflowing river in the middle of the conservancy. The waters had swelled and spilled over to the bank. Not caring that the rain was soaking him; he stood on a flat rock, searching until he saw the little red fox standing on the edge of the flooding river. It was pacing in distress, trying to reach a bobbing boulder caught between two large branches. The river water doing its best to take the boulder downstream.
Tani froze when he saw a second fox caught under the shifting boulder. The river water was racing down too fast. He didn’t stop to think. He simply teleported to the two large branches, reached down, and caught the drowning fox by its neck just as the boulder got loose of the branches and went racing downstream.
Cradling the soaking fox, he returned to the flat rock, and the little fox that had called for help ran after him.
“You poor things, your cave must have flooded,” Tani said, placing the drowned fox he held on the flat rock. The little fox leaned closer, peering at its friend. “Don’t worry. He’s just swallowed a lot of water.”
Tani pressed two fingers to the still fox’s stomach and pushed. Water came out of its mouth and it coughed. Tani rubbed its back, turning the tired fox to its side as it coughed out more water. When it was breathing easier, Tani smiled and pressed his palms on both sides to warm it up. The rain was still falling, so he looked around the thick forest. They needed shelter.
Taking the two foxes into his arms, he walked deeper into the forest until he found a hollowed-out tree. He lined the inside of the hollow with leaves and urged the little foxes into the space.
“You two, don’t wander close to the river until I can get it to calm down,” Tani said when they were settled. The little fox who had desperately called for help licked his hand, and he smiled at the affection. “Stay here until the rain stops.”
He spent a few minutes making sure the hollowed-out tree was safe and dry. When he was done, he returned to the burgeoning river.
Tani checked to see if there were any other animals caught in the fast sweep of water. He tried to calm the waters with his power, but it hurt to use too much. He was still raw from the vineyard so he stopped. Letting out a sigh, he decided he would need to talk to Uncle Amu in the morning. Returning home, Tani found himself standing in the middle of his bedroom, soaked to the bone.
Staring at his muddy feet, all he could think about was what Dante was doing at the same exact moment.
At six in the morning, Tani sat at the kitchen island table, reading a daily report from the conservancy on a tablet they kept in the kitchen.
There were damaged boundary fences, and broken cameras in the forest and the flooding river was making it difficult for the animals to cross it. It pained him that his power still felt too raw to use. If he were to take on the tending of the conservancy, it would take him all day.
Eren entered the kitchen and stopped when she saw him. She was in a long simple frock, her hair falling down her back. She was on bare feet, clearly not dressed for the day.
Eren started to turn away in a clear escape.
“Eren,” Tani said, remembering that she kept making his Elderwood bushes bloom. He could channel her excess power to the river.
“Little lordling,” Eren said, turning to face him, and looking around the sunny kitchen. “Lord Amu?”
“He’s not back yet,” Tani said.
“Hera and Tom?” Eren asked.
“They are at the fortress working,” Tani said, placing his tablet down, now studying Eren. She was clearly unwilling to be in the same room with him. Had to be his comment about disowning his father.
“And Cale?” Eren asked, going down the list of all the people she met last night.
Tani grinned as he realized Eren was hoping she would not have to deal with him alone.
“Cale we can find,” Tani said. “All we have to do is call for him.”
“You mean you call for him,” Erin said, bunching the skirts of her dress. “He won’t respond to me. I’ve tried.”
Tani blinked. He had always thought Cale responded to every call made to him.
“Cale?” Tani said and smiled when Cale appeared a few minutes later in a charcoal grey suit. His hair was brushed to perfection, he was busy adjusting his cuffs.
“You called, Little Lordling,” Cale said.
“Eren was asking about you,” Tani said, pushing the tablet toward Cale who stood a few feet away. He got up from his chair and went to the coffee maker in the corner. He didn’t feel like tea this morning. It was lucky someone in the house had felt the same at a point. There was coffee already made.
“Do you think you can help me with a bit of work?” Tani asked. “The river is flooding and it is causing trouble.”
“I will only make it get worse,” Cale said, picking up the tablet and reading the list made by Tom’s team.
“I don’t need you to fix it, take Eren,” Tani said, finding a mug, he poured himself a half cup and sipped the bitter liquid. “There were foxes in trouble last night. I tried to soothe the river last night, but I could not.”
He lifted his right wrist to show his cuffs.
“I overused at the vineyard,” Tani said, smiling at a panic-stricken Eren. “It happens after a big use. Eren, do you mind?”
“No,” Eren said, shaking her head. “I mean, yes, I will help.”
Tani smiled at her.
“Thank you.”
“Stop making her feel guilty this early in the morning,” Cale said, placing the tablet on the table. He moved to the coffee maker, checked the state of the coffee, and sighed. “Stop drinking stale coffee.”
Cale took the mug Tani held and the coffee pot to pour out the coffee and rinse at the sink. He was adding fresh water to the coffee pot when his cell phone buzzed.
Tani frowned, wondering where he had left his own. He had not seen it since the day he was at the Arturo vineyard.
“Hi Hera,” Cale said when he answered the call. “He’s right here. I’ll put you on speaker.”
Cale placed his phone on the island table and returned to making coffee.
“Babu,” Hera said. “Where did you take your phone?”
Tani chuckled and returned to his chair.
“I don’t know,” Tani said.
“Honestly,” Hera said, exasperation clear. “I’m going to find a cord to clip on the phone and have you wear it like a necklace. Uncle Amu won’t make it to the tour. We need you.”
“No.” Tani started to protest, gaining Cale’s undivided attention.
“Who is going to do it then?” Hera asked.
“You or Tom,” Tani said.
Hera sighed and would have started complaining but Cale stopped her.
“Just a sec, Hera,” Cale muted the call and turned to Tani.
“You promised to make an effort on this,” Cale said, glaring at Tani. “Running away is not helping you or him. Time keeps moving along.”
“Why do you care so much?”
“I’m not going to answer that,” Cale said, glancing at a fascinated Eren. “All I know is that you should do the tour today. If you don’t, Eren won’t help with the river, right Eren?”
Eren started to protest inclusion, but Cale glared at her and she sighed.
“Right?” she said, though it sounded more like a question.
Tani scoffed, looking at her for a moment, and then he turned to Cale.
“You’re enjoying this too much,” Tani said and reached for Cale’s phone. He unmuted the call. “Alright, Hera, what time should I be there?”
“Before ten o’clock, you can use Tom’s office. We’ll be waiting for you,” Hera said.
“See you,” Tani ended the call and studied Cale who was now making coffee. “You’re very invested in me and Dante.”
“I’m just tired of watching the colossal disasters that happen between you,” Cale said. “I miss my domain and a peaceful existence.”
“You can imagine how absurd that sounds from the Ekho god of calamity,” Tani pointed out.
“You’re full of good fortune, but you never make it work for you,” Cale said, pouring Tani a fresh cup of coffee when it was ready. He brought the mug to Tani, his right brow raised. “Who is more absurd?”
Tani drank his coffee in silence because he had no answer for Cale. He needed to deal with his indecisiveness. Right before ten o’clock, he teleported into Tom’s office after a hurried shower and a change of clothes.
Hera was visibly relieved to see him. She hurried to his side to adjust his shirt, while Tom watched them from behind his large desk.
“I am so glad you agreed to give this tour,” Hera said, arranging the mandarin collar on Tani’s white shirt. “Otherwise, Tom would have to, and he bores everyone to sleep.”
Tom chuckled and Tani winked at him.
Tani had left the top two buttons of the shirt open. Hera finished with the collar and brushed off lint from his shoulder. Tani tugged at the long sleeves of his shirt. He had used a bit of magic to turn the gold cuffs on his wrist into thin bracelets carved to look like a chain of Elderwood leaves.
Tani smoothed his left hand over the short part of his hair on the left side.
Hera made use of the comb she held to manage the long fringe of hair falling to the right side. She brushed his hair down his right side, straightening out red-brown curls into their cut, making sure his hair hid his right ear lobe. She used a finger to slide a few strands away from his forehead.
Tani grinned at the intent look on her face as she brushed his hair.
She was the one who had taken him to the salon. Hera and Deniz chose his hairstyle, turning it into a right undercut with his long hair brushed to one side to hide the gold Elderwood leaves on his right earlobe.
Hera stepped away from him when she was satisfied with her work. She placed the comb in a small bag on Tom’s desk, and then took him in.
They were anticipating the arrival of Dante’s students in a few minutes. Tom and Hera were handling the visit arrangements: clearing with the various departments, as well as the cafeteria.
Tani had been last to arrive at Tom’s office.
“How do I look?” Tani asked Hera.
“Like the patron of The Elderwood Conservancy,” Hera said with a satisfied nod. She handed Tani gold-rimmed reading glasses that would mute the otherness of his eyes. Tani wore them without protest. “Am I right, Tom?”
“Right,” Tom said, getting up from his chair behind the desk. “The alarm at the gate pinged my phone three minutes ago. They are here.”
Tani breathed in and moved to the windows showing off the front of the building.
His heart sped up when a few minutes later he saw a white staff bus driving up to the fortress’ front entrance. Despite the many hours Tani spent telling himself he should not get excited over Dante, his heart betrayed him when the man so much as appeared.
Just knowing Dante was on the bus was enough to get his heart speeding.
Tani let out a quiet sigh and slid his hands into his tailored black trousers. This was the start. He had no way to stop it, and he was afraid this time he was going to hurt too many people.
“Babu,” Tom said, coming to stand next to him. “Uncle Amu is sure you’ll not be as available after today. Should we be worried?”
Tani stared at the white bus, which had slowed down, navigating around the fountain at the front and coming to a stop at the front doors.
“The conservancy will continue,” Tani said. “You’re here. There is Uncle Amu, and Cale is around. Everything should run without a problem, the same way it has when I was away.”
“Okay,” Tom said with a soft sigh.
Tani looked behind him and was glad to see Hera on the phone.
“I will ask you to make an appointment with the conservancy’s law firm,” Tani said, giving Tom a small smile. “I need to clean up a few things.”
Tom studied him for a moment and then frowned.
“I hope you know that I’m as attached to you as Hera and Deniz,” Tom said. “I know you disappear on us, but it is okay because we all know you’re around. Easy to meet. Easy to call. I’m asking you now. Can you not go somewhere we can’t reach you?”
Tani turned to face Tom, unable to give him an answer. The look on Tom’s face reminded him of the first time he ran into Tom in this very fortress. It was a mix of challenge and determination.
When Tom was twelve, he had been very angry at the world. His family lived on the outskirts of a city on the mainland. They hid their abilities because they could not share them in a rapidly changing modern world. Tom rebelled against his parents’ ideas. He resented having to hide his true self.
He wanted to show his friends his gift of making the earth shift, making flowers bloom on notice, and whatever else he thought up to amuse himself. When they did not understand him, he ran along the beach on the mainland terrorizing anyone who dared pick on him for being a freak.
One evening, Amu got a message from one of his contacts to check out a strange boy at the beach. Amu arrived just as Tom was busy throwing balls of sand at three boys. Amu ended up with a solid ball of sand in his mouth and became one of Tom’s victims. Tom was eternally shocked when he too received a mouthful of sand in his face in retaliation. Amu always gave back as good as he got, it was the way of the fox clan.
Soon after, Amu brought Tom’s whole family to the fortress and gave them the task of taking care of The Elderwood Conservancy. Young Tom could play to his heart’s content in the forests surrounding the fortress. He met more people like him and made great friends who understood him.
Tani was living at their station in East Africa then, but he would stop by to manage issues that cropped up with the fortress. On one such visit, he ran into twelve-year-old Tom and almost ate dirt from the garden at the front of the fortress, before there was a fountain.
Tani grinned at the memory.
Tom followed him for a whole week to discover how Tani had evaded his ball of dirt. He could not remember how Tom got him to teach him how to shift dirt in midair. The kid was a ball of persistence. As time moved on, he became Tom’s teacher, helping him with his abilities.
Then Tom grew up. Their roles changed. Tani started relying on Tom to take care of the fortress, more and more. In a blink, here they were. Tom was all grown up.
“Do you remember throwing balls of soil at people when you were twelve?” Tani asked, grinning when Tom scowled at him.
“Why are you bringing up my dark days?” Tom asked, frowning at him.
Tani chuckled.
“You were such an angry kid,” Tani mused. “Looking at you now, who would believe it?”
“You,” Tom said with a grin. “Uncle Amu ate a lot of sand.”
“He did,” Tani agreed.
Tom looked handsome as always. His thick dark hair was in a neat cut and combed back. His brown eyes were kind and his smile was ready. He dressed in proper suits when he was at work. Today he was in a grey suit with a white shirt and a burgundy tie.
“I might not be able to give you the promise you want,” Tani said, his gaze shifting to Hera.
Hera was still busy writing down a note, as she listened to the person on the other end of the call. She looked classy today, dressed in a navy blue sheath dress and black heels. Her braids were in a tight ponytail, the length of them falling down her back.
Tani continued.
“I will, however, make sure you’re all—”
“Do not say ‘taken care of’,” Tom said, narrowing his gaze.
Tani smiled and met Tom’s gaze.
“It is the only thing I can say to you,” Tani said. “I have unfinished business…”
“Then finish it, and still return to us,” Tom said, ending the conversation. “I’ll call the lawyers, but only because Uncle Amu would want me to. I expect to see you at my lastborn’s tenth birthday party, Tani Ryuzo. I should warn you, my wife will give me five kids.”
Tani scoffed.
“You don’t even have a girlfriend.”
“Well, look at all that time we have together,” Tom grinned.
“They are signed in,” Hera said, ending her call. “Rachel has led them to the waiting room. Ready, Babu?”
“Yep,” Tani said, and pulled his hands out of his pockets, fighting off nerves.
“Here,” Tom said, holding out a black phone. “In case you leave the fortress and we need to call you.”
“Ok.”
Tani took the phone and slipped it into his trouser pocket, smiling at the determined look on Tom.
Tani rubbed his hands together, suddenly looking forward to the tour.
“We should start with the tower at the entrance,” Tani said. “I think they’ll get a kick out of the observatory, won’t they?”
“Cale was painting up there a month ago,” Hera said, picking up a folder from Tom’s desk. She led the way out of Tom’s office, with Tom bringing up the rear. “Something about helping the restoration crew.”
“Cale sure has a lot of time,” Tani said, shaking his head as he followed Hera. “He had better not have installed gargoyles on the roofs.”
Tom chuckled behind him, as he closed the office door. They headed to the waiting room at the reception together.
****
Sui Writes 
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