Tales From Talimara

An Interesting Introduction

Another snippet of my novel-in-the-works. Here Jinarvah Maltek meets Lira Stallion at an evening social gathering.

Jinarvah had been waiting in the hall ten minutes. He had been joined by Kamia, who soon left to get something from upstairs. Andali arrived soon after, with curly lengths of hair hanging delicately down her face. They brought out the prominence of her raven-black eyelashes. As soon as he saw her Jinarvah gave his sister a massive hug round her waist.

"Jinarvah!" Andali said, fretting about her meticulous dress. "I love you, honey, but this always takes a long time to put on. Maybe you should do the adjusting."

"I could." The little boy grinned up at his big sister. "Then you'll look even prettier, Andali."

Andali shook her head with a sigh. "You know I can't get angry at you when you're sweet like that," she told her little brother as she stroked his hair.

"Dresses shouldn't be fussed over like this," Jinarvah quipped.

Andali playfully scoffed and tapped the boy on the top of his head. "Dresses are works of art! Next time I'll see how you like it when I rough up your suit."

The two of them laughed and Jinarvah squeezed her even tighter before letting her go. He gazed up at the younger twin with curious eyes. "You don't even need to wear something this beautiful," he said. "I like your homewear dresses better. Or your sundresses!"

"And my pajama dresses," Andali reminded him.

"And your dancing dresses," the boy added.

"I can dance in this one too, Jinarvah," Andali said hotly. "As you'll see soon enough."

Jinarvah glanced round the room. "What about Kamia? Where is she?"

"Beats me, little brother. She'll be back shortly. Normando's coming downstairs, too." Andali knelt and gave her brother a kiss. "You chose a cute suit, by the way. You look so good!"

"Mother always said I look handsome in white," Jinarvah said, kissing Andali in thanks. "I like plum, too. Or a nice olive brown."

"You should try neon, Jinarvee," suggested Kamia, who had just returned, looking splendidly radiant in her golden gown. "A little pink would really spruce you up."

Jinarvah pointed to the pink pocket square at his breast. "Spruced."

"I meant maybe a little more," said Kamia, giving her brother an affectionate tap on his forehead.

Soon Normando joined his siblings, looking dapper in his space suit. It was truly space-themed, dark as night with countless lights twinkling all over with the subtlety of the universe. Every so often shooting stars flew as he moved. Jinarvah waved to his brother as he arrived. As usual, Kamia and Andali fought over who got to hug him first.

"What's the rush, you two?" Normando asked as the Twins threw their arms around him.

"We're going to be missing you so much," Andali told him.

"Still here, Andali," Normando reminded her.

"Not for much longer," Jinarvah said. He looked over. "You're going to be gone, Normando, and I'll have no one to beat at holochess. I wanna hug too."

The two boys hugged and as usual, the Twins gave their harmonic awww. "Don't worry about that, Jinarvah," said Normando.

"Not worried," said the littler boy, who was staring at the carpet. "Just a little angry."