Duplicate Custodians

Chapter 18

"Whoa! What's your skill, Alyx?"

I asked after he showed me pics in flames of hearth near a comfortable feather couch where I was lying dead- so he showed me the pics of his whole house as demanded by me. It was wooden everywhere. It had 3 small rooms with a huge lounge. A kitchen, where the hearth was burning with its extreme too. And a single washroom and bathroom. The lounge had walls like no...Umm, there were bookshelves all around instead of any wall. A huge glass wall in the corridor leading to the three rooms.

The three rooms, all white, ceilings, and walls. The bed was bigger than a single one and smaller than the queen size, two per room, with wooden frames. A huge picture or paintings of quotes on a beautiful abstract background. There was one of Alyx, a bed in one corner, a study table on the opposite corner with a wooden chair like those in the lounge with flowers and beetles caged in a huge rectangle box dancing. And there was the 6 meters bookshelf with many books placed neatly.

"I don't use ma room and bed tha' often". He said when he saw me praising his neat room.

"Uh, that's why it's not messed with your books. You still didn't tell me your skill. I wish I could read minds like Elvina." I let my head fall in my hands,

"Elvina? Princess Elvina?" Alyx was interested. I wiped my face which was embedded in sweat, brushed my black messy hair back, and told him the story.

"Oh, I see," he said, folding some papers.

"Yeah, I just wanted to find her, and take her home," I said finally breathing deeply.

"But, I won't give up. I haven't traveled this far just to get abandoned." I finished.

"Boy, everythin's gonna be fine. How's ya stomach?" He asked gently, passing me the tissue to wipe my face.

I still felt frogs jumping in my stomach. Earlier that day when I took a hot bath, he placed some ice sort of thing and wrapped my bleeding stomach with newspapers, old and useless morphyll, and some book covers whose paper works were discarded, so I looked like a paper zombie. Or a nerd mummy.

"It feels like a frog jumping inside a dead-living paper zombie." I cracked a smile and a laugh and sigh of already-tired. He chuckled a bit.

"How are you feeling? Your neck, I mean." I asked. He nodded. His dark hand went up to where the crows' had bated him, a needle scar. "It doesn't feel. I'm okay as long as it doesn't." He replied. "Alyx, how did you do that? I know you guys told me not to talk about it, but still, tell me how did you vaporize the big grey storm? Does it live inside your stomach?" I was afraid to ask, not to make him angry in case he might throw up on me. "Boy, you've gotta have some patience. Nothin' s gonna be spitting upon you. Ya were the cause of it, but need some of the heart like that blonde girl. She's got talent that you don't." he took some books out of the shelf and started to turn the pages.

"What do you mean? I wasn't prepared for any of this. Adding the fact that I was attacked by arrows. No one cares. I fought, still, that blonde girl's gonna get all the credit? That's not fair, Alyx." I stood up and walked towards the glass wall. No sign of any existence near. I turned and saw Alyx. He was clipping some pages in the book. I felt a rush of pain in my stomach, but I decided against it. 

"Everyone cares for each other. All I am saying is, your mission is not only to fix the relation between you and your sister, you've got to mend the distance between it. These crows were just the beginning. Lady Nimue knows you are here." He cleaned the dust on the book and kept them back on the shelf. I watched as his dark hands went up and down, nicely picking up each book and fixing them between the empty spaces.

He walked over to me and took the coffee cup from my side. Smiled and patted my shoulder. I nodded and sighed.

"Okay now, half of da room's empty for ya. Ya can walk around and your gut will be fine in 2 to 3 days so first rest. And the'..."