❝how do you kill a monster without becoming one?❞
In the last city ruled by man, fish soar in the skies above and monsters lurk in the alleys below. Ten years ago, Jase lost both his legs and his mother to one such monster. However, tragedy couldn't...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Where are we going?" Emagīne whined. "We've been walking forever."
This wasn't true. They had - in fact - only been walking for thirty-six minutes. And the reason they'd been walking thirty-six minutes was that Lilja had found someone for Emagīne to stay with and since Kova was the only one she tolerated, he was her escort.
This morning, Kova had talked Emagīne into putting on a pale blue dress Parthēna had brought and made twin braids out of her dark hair. Belatedly, he had situated a white sunhat on her head. The suns were bright today - the smaller getting close to the center of the sky every day - and Kova didn't want her to get burnt.
"You will see, piptīka," Kova said.
"Can you teach me Cynese?" Emagīne asked, running to catch up with him. She had short legs - even shorter than Kova's. He slowed his pace for her. "Please?"
"Juup - copy me." Emagīne turned to him, her eyes wide with excitement. "Crē, g, shī, īp, nach, lēm, meii, del, an, neēx."
"Crah, guh, sheep... um..." Emagīne frowned. "I forgot the rest."
"That is okay, pip." Kova patted her head - or rather her hat. "I forget human words all the time. You just have to say them a lot. Like this: crē - none - g - one - shī - two - īp - three - nach - four - lēm - five - meii - six - del - seven - an - eight - neēx - nine."
"Oh," Emagīne said. "Can you say it again?"
Kova repeated the little chant of numbers for Emagīne. They did it together several more times before she was able to do it on her own. She wasn't very good with the pronunciation of the Cynese words but Kova wasn't very good at pronouncing human words.
Kova was so busy chanting numbers that he barely noticed when they entered Sixth. And then, he did notice. He noticed a lot of things, actually. He noticed the way the fish here knew to get out of the way of people. He noticed the way some couldn't take their eyes off of him and others refused to look. He noticed the fanged and he noticed the toothless. Kova had been in Sixth many times before and he was certain he would return many times more. Because, above all things, Sixth District was the realm of Red Riding Hood.
His vision started to blur. Kova felt his breaths begin to sharpen as his eyes darted to the face of every stranger. Anyone of them could be Red - man or woman, young or old. And then, there was this sick part of Kova that wished one of them was Red. A part that wished to run to her and hand Emagīne over. She would find someone to take care of her.
It wasn't that Kova distrusted Lilja or her choice. He was rather fond of the man. But that was the problem. He was a human man - an old one at that - and Emagīne was a little girl raised on hatred with an awful temper and to top it off she was still grieving her mother. Kova knew that Red would be able to find someone else - someone better - for Emagīne to live with. A full-blooded Smile who could teach her Cynese and would be able to comfort her when she woke chirping in the night.
