Read The Crystals of Tlalli: Awakened Affinities Page 16
have to hide. Just be careful who you tell about your gifts.”
Rica felt a surge of fear at Chaura’s words. Now more then ever she just wanted to get off this world and home where she would be safe from all this madness.
“We will find a way to help you Rica. Don’t worry. I tried to call the Portal Center in Jamara after our talk this afternoon. But no one was answering the shalat. I’ll contact them tomorrow and find out discreetly if the portals have been active recently.”
After dinner they washed the dishes. Zafira spoke about the herb prospects Zos had found along the way and her affinities to the blue and green crystals. Her parents were pleased that Zafira had two affinities. Their pleased pride sparkled around them like a cloud. Chaura was talking to Tod about all the harvesting that they needed to do soon. Rica got an idea while the conversation buzzed around her and decided to broach the subject with them. Rica was desperate to get home but she knew she had to get her mind off her predicament. The best way she knew to do that was to keep busy.
“You know I appreciate everything you are doing for me. I don’t know how long I will be here, or how much it will cost to get home. So I want to help out in some way to pay you back. At home I worked at the food bank once a week and helped my mom with secretarial stuff for her medical practice. Maybe I could do something like that here. I’m a fast learner.” Rica didn’t like staying with people and not helping out somehow; she had been brought up to contribute.
“That sounds like an excellent idea. We have a lot of seasonal work to do around here. Maybe you could help Zafira with the herb harvest and in preparing them to be dried. We keep a small herb garden here in Shani for our own use. It would be a big help to have extra hands.” Chaura said.
“Thanks that makes me feel better knowing I’m helping and not just sitting around.” Rica was relieved that she would have something to do any thing to keep her mind off crazy mages or people trying to find her because of some weird accident in a cave. How had she gotten in this mess? What had that man thrown on the ground in front of her that had sent her here? Had it been one of those spell runes? Rica petted Jim who was curled up in her lap; his warm soft fur helped to reassure her.
8 – Part of the Family
Rica woke with Jim on her chest licking her chin and chattering at her. Rica felt a wave of hunger from him and something else she couldn’t name. Rica picked Jim up, petted him, and then set him on the bed as she rolled over to get up. Dawn was only just breaking outside. Jim was an early riser it seemed.
“Jim I need more sleep.” Rica yawned. Jim jumped to her shoulder and wrapped his tail around her neck putting one hand like paw on her ear for balance. A wave of hunger washed over her again.
“Ok, Ok, I’ll see what I can find for you to eat.” Rica pulled a robe on and yawned again almost knocking Jim off to which he scolded her loudly.
“SHHH, We have to be quiet or we will wake everyone else up.” Rica whispered to him. Jim held onto her hair now and rubbed his face against her cheek as though to say sorry. Warm feelings wrapped her in contentment with a hint of gnawing hunger at its edges as though Jim was happy she was up, but please hurry I’m famished. Rica scratched his chin affectionately and walked to the door and looked out. Everyone else must still be sound asleep. Rica walked as quiet as she could down the stairs and into the kitchen. She looked into a cabinet the door creaking a little. There was a loaf of bread and a couple of sacks of dried grain or vegetables in bins. Rica opened one of the sacks and ended up spilling some of the contents on the counter. Jim jumped down onto the counter and sat on his haunches as he stuffed the spilled grains into his mouth.
“Well that works. I spill it, you clean it up.” Rica laughed. “We’re a team.”
Rica opened what she thought of as a fridge, it looked a little like a fridge from home if you used your imagination. It was tall and had glass doors so that you could see the contents without opening it. There were some fruits inside in a drawer in the bottom. Rica opened the door and got one of the dark purple fruits out, it was the size of a softball and slightly oval shaped. It looked a lot like an eggplant but when she took a bite, it was juicy and good, sort of like a peach. Rica bit apiece off and gave it to Jim who took it and started eating, making little contented noises. Rica smiled at him. When Jim was finished he hopped off the counter to the floor and ran to the door. He stopped and looked at Rica, again she felt that unnamed desire and a feeling of desperate yearning wash over her.
“OH! You need to go to the bathroom! Ok hold on.” Rica walked over and opened the door so Jim could run out. He made a run for the flowerbeds and disappeared into the foliage.
“Mom won’t be happy if he eats her flowers.” Rica jumped her heart pounding.
“Zafira, You startled me!” Rica turned and looked at Zafira. “Sorry we woke you up. Jim got hungry and needed to go out, you know to use the bathroom.” Rica’s heart raced at the sudden appearance of Zafira. Amusement sparkled around Zafira like lights of feeling. Rica was fascinated at the display.
“It’s ok. Want some breakfast? We could get an early start on the herb garden today.”
“I had a piece of fruit. But I am still a little hungry. I’ll help you.” Rica was getting used to feeling what others felt. The realization surprised her. Yes it is getting easier to cope with this magic stuff.
They went into the kitchen and Rica helped her make breakfast, which consisted of bread with some kind of preserves spread on it. Zafira poured a glass of green milky stuff that Rica decided to pass on. Sometimes the colors of the foods would totally turn her stomach then she would taste it and it would be wonderful. But today Rica did not feel adventurous.
When they were finished with the morning routine they went out to the yard. The garden was no small thing and as the day drew on it seemed to get bigger. Though it was not because of any magic just tired achy muscles. There was more to do then could be done in a day. Zafira taught Rica how to use the curved knife to cut the plants and then tie them into clumps of no more than three or four to a bunch. When they had a stack of them in their baskets they would walk into the drying shed to hang them onto racks. The shed was long and had good air circulation.
“They will dry fast in here. Lets take a break for lunch I think Mom wanted to talk to you about the affinities and where you came from.”
“Ok. I’m worn out anyway. I could use a break.”
“There is a lot more to do. But we can take it slower since you are new at this.”
“Thanks. Do we have to finish all of this today?” Rica and Zafira walked down the path from the garden toward the house. The days seemed to be longer on this world and Rica found she was looking forward to stopping for the day. Jim ran from the field and jumped onto Rica’s shoulder scolding her as if she had abandoned him and he had just found her again.
“That rako likes you. I have never seen one be so friendly with us before.”
“He is so cute! I have never had any pets before. I can feel what he wants sometimes like he is talking to me and I just know. I named him Jim.” Rica reached up and petted him. He rubbed his face on her cheek and cooed.
They had walked up to the door and Zafira’s mom called out from the side of the house.
“Over here girls.” Zafira and Rica walked over and found her tending her flowers. Some of them had been dug up and chewed on.
“Oh oh.” Zafira chuckled.
“Did Jim do that?” was she in trouble already?
“It looks that way.” Zafira’s mom frowned slightly then smiled. “It’s ok. These needed to be dug up for fall anyway. They were starting to fade.” She stood up and took her gloves off dropping them into a basket she had on the ground.
“Lets go get cleaned up and head into town to get something to eat and do some shopping for Rica. Those cloths Zafira gave you are just not fitting you right.”
“I feel like I’m always taking and not giving anything back.”
“Stop right
there.” She looked at Rica sternly. “You are helping and you need help to find your way back home. It’s the least we could do. What if it was our daughter on your world? I would like to think someone would take her in and help her the same way we are helping you. Now no more of this feeling like you are imposing. You are not.”
“Ok.” Rica said flushing red. Light skin could be a pain sometimes. Everyone always knew when she was embarrassed; you could see her blush for quite a ways. Her dad used to tease her she was his beacon on a foggy night you just needed to embarrass her.
Rica put Jim on the grass outside and went in telling him to stay out side. Jim ran off to the nearest tree and climbed up into the top to sit and chatter at her. Rica ignored him. She went up and took a shower and put some fresh cloths on.
Rica went down stairs and found Zafira’s mom sitting at the dinning room table looking through an old book. Chaura looked up when Rica entered the room.
“Come sit with me a moment. Zafira will be a bit. She likes to take her time.” She patted a chair next to her. Rica sat down and looked at the book on the table, it was written in some kind of hieroglyphics with pictures of what looked like the cave Zafira had taken her to.
“The cave where Zafira took me when I passed out on the trail.” Rica said.