Conundrum

Chapter 3: Tear in My Heart

     Keith owned the suit coat for thirty minutes before he gave it to one of the children in his careavee. She looked so cold, her shirt in tatters and her face bright red. So, forgoing his own comfort, he shrugged the coat off his shoulders and wrapped it around her. The people in the careavee may not be related through blood, but they were family.

      The little girl, Sarah, who Keith gave the coat to, raced to her parents and presented it to them eyes glimmering and her shivering not as noticeable. Her arms were opened wide, the sleeves draped off her arms and the rest shielded her too thin legs from the bitter cold. Keith's arms had gone numb from it, but his he shivered so much, it looked as if he were vibrating.

      Many small fires were scattered around the littered and weed infested cement. Every time he past one, it gave Keith a brief reprieve. Each bonfire had a least three people curled around it, sharing their body heat and the meager amounts of food the careavee had managed to obtain and distribute around. He greeted most of them with a smile or a nod of the head as he pasted them.

      Over the sound of clinking metal silverware against tin cans, Keith was able to grab snippets of conversations, mostly rumors and gossip. He'd learned most from listening. Keith rubbed his hands against his frozen arms as he maneuvered his way through the crowd, he was set on the one fire near the back of the careavee's encampment.

      Five near giants sat around a dying fire, talking amongst themselves in a language incomprehensible to everyone but them. A grin broke his lips apart as he lifted a hand and called out. "Kolivan, fe torga! I'm home!"

      The man, turned to face Keith, his long, braided hair whipped across his back as his normally stoic face pulled into a small smirk. The rest of the carea turned towards him, each having a similar expression on their faces. Kolivan replied in Galran, "Now where did you run off to, Kit?"

      Warmth blossomed in his chest at the term. Keith had always loved being called that, knowing he was considered blood family. Even after all these years it was nice to know that he belonged somewhere. That someone regarded him as their son. The same couldn't be said about his birth parents.

      Because of them Keith was forced to grow up quickly, but in this area, in this family, Keith finally got to act like the twenty-year-old he was, rather than a widow who lived through two wars. Maybe . . . more like the teenager he never got to be.

"Kit?"

      Keith recognized the soft voice as Ulaz and realized he'd been staring into the coals of the fire. Keith snapped his attention to the angular face man. He was leaning against Thace - the quietest one of the small group, but the most affectionate and reliable. He always had the glint of quiet teasing in his eyes.

Keith blushed and stuttered, "What?"

      Regris started to laugh, slapping his knee. The sound reminded Keith of a witch. Keith thought he would've saved such a reaction for something that was amusing. But the man found humor in the oddest places. Yes, the man was . . . interesting to say the least, but everyone around him couldn't help but be drawn to his personality.

      Antok folded his arms, suspision coming off of him in waves. That's when the alarms went off in Keith's head. Did he notice his limp? "Where have you been, Kit?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly. Regris' laughing dialed down to chuckling wheeze as he rubbed his hand across his lips.

      Every pair of eyes of the carea were glued to Keith. He looked down and messed with a pebble with his toes. "Just . . . around town."

      A wall of suspicion smacked him in the face; even Regris became solemn. They could always tell when their Kit was lying. "Where." Kolivan growled. Keith eyes didn't leave the ground.