tales from the enchanted gardens and shadow hollow
“Do you think before you speak?” Anna asked, arching an eyebrow. When Johannesen gave her a confused look, she frowned. “It doesn’t even occur to you that your words are offensive.”
“Why should Rune be offended?” Johannesen asked. “I only speak the truth. His…”
“I meant you offend Captain Hummel,” Anna snapped, before he could use the word on the tip of his tongue. “Not to mention that your inability to be civil with him offends us all.”
Yori frowned at Ezra, who could only chuckle and nod. “That’s what you heard him sing?” he asked. He stifled a laugh and shook his head. “You’re not serious, surely! You’re kidding me. Right?”
“Nope,” Ezra said, grinning. “It took hearing someone else singing along with the radio for me to understand the proper lyrics.”
“You’re strange,” Yori said. He laughed and shook his head. “At least I can say I heard those lyrics correctly!”
Yori was fuming. Rune tried to get his attention, setting hand on his hips and nuzzling one ear, but Yori was having none of it. He shifted and pulled away. “Stop it,” Yori said, when Rune caught his wrist.
Rune drew Yori close gently. He looked down into Yori’s eyes and frowned. “Would it help if I apologized?”
“You – you don’t even know why I’m angry,” Yori said, his voice cracking. He tried to pull away again, but Rune hugged him. Sighing, he set his head on Rune’s chest. “You never… stick up for me.”
“I don’t think his snarky asides bear commentary, Bellissima,” Rune said, his voice soft. “No one thinks that way, save for him. I refuse to sink to his level.”
Yori sighed and relaxed into Rune’s arms. “It still hurts,” he whispered.
Rune kissed his forehead. “Does that make the hurt better?” he asked, his tone light and faintly teasing.
Chuckling, Yori shook his head. “Silly fox,” he said, bouncing to his toes to kiss Rune on the mouth.
Yori gasped and looked at Winnie. “I must have misheard that,” he said, shaking his head.
Winnie frowned. “What did you think they said?”
Flushing, Yori shook his head again. “I can say something like that!” he replied. He flushed deeper when Ezra began chuckling. “What’s so funny?”
“Ghostbusters,” Ezra wheezed. “They’re saying, ‘Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!”
When Yori looked confused, Winnie said, “It’s from a movie.”
“People really need to annunciate better when they sing,” Yori said, folding his arms over his chest. He refused to be embarrassed by having misheard the lyrics of yet another song.
Yori frowned at the radio. “Winnie?” he said, looking over at her. She gave him a patient smile and he shrugged. “Where’s my Asian friend?”
Shaking her head, she told him, “It’s ‘What’s my age again’.”
“I see,” Yori said, nodding. His brows furrowed and he listened more closely. He could hear the correct lyrics now that he knew them. After a moment, he asked, “How can he not know his age?”
“He knows his age,” Winnie said, shrugging. “He just doesn’t want to grow up.”
“Ah,” Yori said, smiling. “Like the flying boy in that play we watched.” Satisfied, Yori went back to what he was doing before he’d stopped to try and decipher the lyrics of yet another song.
Yori frowned as he watched jets of water stream across the sky, only to freeze and shatter, dropping back into the river. He scowled darkly and looked at Rune. “What’s that all about?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Seems like Leif is training one of his men,” Rune replied. He smirked and stood. Catching Yori’s hand, he said, “It’s fun to watch when the trainee finally figures out how to get through Leif’s defenses.”
“What if they miss?” Yori said. He didn’t want to get drenched watching the fight.
Rune laughed. “You’ve got power over air, Bellissima,” he said. “Just blow the water back at them.”
Yori gasped softly as he saw one of the young nobles nearly collide with one of the other couples. A moment later, he buried his face in Rune’s shoulder to smother laughter.
“That boy’s a menace,” Rune murmured, twirling Yori away from him. “between trodding his dancing partner’s feet flat and colliding with other couples, his tutors are going to have his ears for how graceless he is.”
Nodding, Yori started to speak but stopped, gasping again, as a cry of pain echoed through the hall. Rune arched an eyebrow when Yori buried his face once more. Between chuckles, Yori said, “He did some move that sent the poor girl he’s dancing with into another couple, while he ended up kicking the queen!”
Rune grimced. “Sounds like I got us away from him just in time,” he said, his voice faint. He glanced over at the young noble once more. He was apologizing to everyone: the queen most especially. His partner was in tears and was slapping his arm repeatedly. Stifling a laugh, he added, “Oh, yes, I certainly did.”
Yori gasped and ran up to the edge of the nest. He looked down and saw wide brown eyes staring back at him. “Mother,” he said, looking up at the large gryphon. “Please be careful.”
She made a serious of chirps and then clicked. She leaned down, then, and played with Rune’s hair.
Shaking his head, Yori peeked down into the nest once more. “I thought she’d sat on you,” he said.
“I thought she was going to,” Rune replied, his voice muffled. Yori heard a soft chuckle, then Rune added, “At least we know she likes me.”
Yori smothered a laugh of his own. “That’s true,” he said.
Yori’s brows furrowed as he tried to understand the lyrics – to make them fit something he knew. “The age of… asparagus?” he murmured. He flinched when Ezra burst out laughing.
“The age of Aquarius!” he corrected. “It means… It’s an astrological age that’s supposed to mean people will more humanitarian and nonconformist. It fit right in with the popular culture when the song first came out.”
“Ah,” Yori said, nodding. “That… actually makes a great deal of sense.”
Ezra nodded. “A great deal more than the age of asparagus does,” he said, grinning.
Yori sighed softly and padded out to the kitchen, where Winnie was making breakfast. Ezra was sitting on the couch in the connected living room, reading. “Winnie?” he said, his brows furrowing. “I think, perhaps, I am misunderstanding these… lyrics?”
“What’d you think he said?” Winnie said, as she scrambled the eggs in the pan.
For a moment, Yori watched her. How could they eat eggs? Maybe it was because they had live birth that didn’t involve eggs. He shook the thought away. These were chicken eggs – chickens were food, so it would follow that their eggs should be. “There’s a bathroom on the right?”
Ezra stifled a laugh and Winnie looked up from her cooking. “Yeah, no,” she said, shaking her head.
“The words are, ‘There’s a bad moon on the rise’,” Ezra said, grinning brightly. Then he said, “I think your version is better, though!”
Yori sighed softly. Ezra had an odd sense of humor.
July 31, 2010
Heather
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