As far as Kamo knew, the Sea elves had never taken humans into their crews. She learned that they had severed ties with the humans long before she was born.
“Why was your grandfather on a Sea elf ship?” Kamo asked, a little more accusingly than she meant it. She softened her eyes when she looked at him, hoping to make up for her harsher tone.
“I’m not sure,” Gobi answered. “I know it wasn’t exactly in the culture back then to interact with humans, but they took him. He was a fantastic sailor. Perhaps they admired him for that. Anyway, they allowed me to stay on the ship with him, and they taught me to sail. So did my grandpa. That was only for about a year, though, and then they dropped us off at Tartha, saying they had to leave and, that was it. ‘Our destination is not a place you can dwell. It is better that you stay here.’”
“Ten years ago, the Sea elves began their final journey to Oshana,” Kamo said. “So many vessels had gotten attacked, so many lives lost by the Fires. We’d had enough. They left you to find their safety there, but they’re right. You couldn’t have gone with them. Humans have never set foot in Oshana.”
“Oh, I wasn’t angry,” Gobi explained quickly. “Captain Amaru had given us a life for our first year together as a family.”
“Amaru,” Kamo repeated, searching her memory. “I never met him, but Sheelo said his fleet was one of the first to leave.”
“He was a good man,” Gobi said. “He’s the reason I was so excited when I saw you. You reminded me of him, and everything I’d learned, and my grandpa. It was like I could finally acknowledge that maybe something good had come from something terrible.”
Kamo stared at Gobi as if seeing him for the first time. His green eyes were still mischievous and childlike, but the longer she stared, the more she saw the sorrow and heartache she’d seen hiding behind the brown of her own eyes.
“And today, with the Earth elf gang, you realized what you felt?” Kamo asked faintly.
Gobi furrowed his brow.
“I realized that one elf can hate my entire race without ever meeting a single one of us. I didn’t like the thought. It got me thinking as we walked away, ‘can I hate them all? Can I condemn those who have done no wrong simply because of their scales?’ I felt sick thinking about it.”
Kamo smiled a genuine, caring smile. “Gobi,” she said, “you and I have more in common than I would have ever guessed.”
Gobi’s face tilted in confusion. “Because we can’t hate people?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Sort of,” Kamo answered, tilting her head to his angle. “More like that, we had to take the time to figure that out.”
Gobi nodded and looked at Rolin. “I guess it just takes some of us a bit longer to recognize the error of our ways,” he said.
Rolin shook his head calmly, but fire flashed in his eyes like a warning.
“Rolin’s the one who told me to reconsider about the Fire elves in the first place,” Kamo replied, confused by the look in Rolin’s eyes. “I don’t think he needed the time like we did or that experience.”
Gobi sighed and looked back at Kamo, sagging a little in defeat. “No, you’re right about that,” he agreed, agitated. “But he still has some errors to correct,” and the next sentence he finished in Oshia, “he’s not the perfect soldier he seems.”
Rolin stood from the ground in a quick motion.
“We’ve discussed this, and I won’t discuss it anymore,” he said sternly. He looked at Kamo, whose face was a mess of emotion and bewilderment, and spoke to her in a smoother tone. “I’m going to find something to eat.”
He left for the tent to fetch his weapons and then stormed off into the forest surrounding them, his boots trudging loudly on the crisp snow.
“What was that all about?” Kamo asked Gobi.
“Ask Rolin,” Gobi said angrily, “it’s not my place.”
He stood as well and headed straight for his tent.
“Wait, Gobi,” Kamo called after him, stumbling to her feet.
“What is it?” he asked, only turning his head slightly in her direction.
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about the elves today,” Kamo responded. “Broman and the others. Not all elves are like that.”
Gobi relaxed his jaw and turned to face her completely.
“I know that,” he replied. “I’ve met plenty of elves who aren’t hateful sods, believe it or not.”
Kamo grinned and pulled him into a hug. “I know, I just thought I’d remind you, you know?” she said softly.
“Thanks.”
Gobi pulled away and entered the tent, leaving Kamo right outside the door.
“Kamo?” she heard his voice.
“Yeah?”
“Go talk to Rolin. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
The snow was still fresh and light, and Kamo tracked his footprints from the camp without too much trouble. She spotted him only a few yards from her and quietly called to him.
“Rolin?”
His attention had been focused ahead of him, but as he heard her call, he turned his head and gestured for her to quietly come closer. Kamo crept over to his place behind a stone, and he pointed at the sight ahead of him.
It was a fox. A very familiar-looking fox with beady black eyes.
“Is that—” Kamo whispered before Rolin shushed her.
“The same one?” he finished more quietly, “I think so. I think he’s following us.”
“Do they usually do that?” Kamo asked, trying to match his whisper.
He shrugged and took a deep breath. “I have no idea.”
Kamo looked at the fox. He stood only a few footsteps away from them, digging through the snow. As Kamo peeked her head over the stone, he turned to face her. He sat on the patch of dirt he’d uncovered and stared right back at her, completely content.
“Either this fox knows me, or new travelers don’t bother it at all,” she said.
“Don’t be silly, Kamo,” Rolin whispered back, “how would he know you?”
She shrugged this time and stood from behind the rock. “I don’t know, but there’s one way to find out.”
She started walking calmly and slowly toward the fox. He cocked his head but stayed still on the dirt. She got even closer, and he still gave no indication of fear.
Kamo heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Rolin following her closely.
“Rolin, I think I should handle this myself,” she said coolly. She turned around again, only to find that the fox had run deeper into the forest.
“Sorry,” Rolin said, “I’ve never met a fox.”
Kamo huffed a breath out of her nose and shook her head, fighting the urge to smile.
“Very funny,” she said.
“I try.”
“Have you caught anything tonight? I mean, besides the glimpse of a wily fox.”
“I’m afraid not. The snow doesn’t seem to care if we want a meal,” Rolin replied.
“Well, that’s alright,” Kamo said, “We should get back to Gobi anyway. He seemed pretty upset when you left.”
Rolin frowned. “He’s young. There’s a lot he doesn’t understand about the world,” he said. “But I wasn’t lying. I’m not discussing it. So if he’s sent you as some kind of peacemaker, you can just forget about it.”
“You won’t even discuss it with,” she paused and smiled, “a pretty brown-eyed Sea elf?” She batted her eyes dramatically, hoping to see the corners of his mouth twitch up.
She wasn’t disappointed as Rolin’s anger from the moment before melted into a smile, and he chuckled almost silently.
“Not even with the prettiest brown-eyed Sea elf I’ve ever met,” he said. “But that was an awfully low blow, coming for my weak spot.” He forced his mouth into a pitiful scowl.
“It was worth a shot, though I suppose a more straightforward approach would have done the trick a lot better,” she said.
“No, nothing could have worked qu
ite as well as batting those beautiful eyes,” Rolin replied, “but I’m afraid my mind is quite made up. Gobi knows that.”
Kamo walked beside him, quietly admiring the snow. They reached the tents and then the stone fire ring they’d assembled. Kamo started looking for any dry kindling to light a fire, and Rolin searched with her.
“All right, I won’t bring it up again,” she said absent-mindedly.
Rolin stopped his search and turned his head.
“That’s it? You’re not going to try to persuade me or coax me, or argue or anything?” he asked, baffled by her calm response.
“Would you like me to?” Kamo asked, her eyes coy and soft.
Rolin gawked at her as she kept her eyes carefully focused on his. He answered some moments later.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said slowly, “I just didn’t think you’d give up so easily. I don’t know if I’m pleasantly surprised or pleasantly disappointed.”
“Disappointed?” Kamo said, “As in, disappointed in not having to argue with me?”
Her eyes, coy and soft a moment before, now glittered with fire.
“Yes,” he said sportingly, “I think I was looking forward to the challenge.”
“As flattering as that is,” Kamo replied, “I don’t think this is my fight. You and Gobi obviously have some differences of opinion, and I’m not going to get in the middle of that. I learned that the hard way. With sisters. Twice.”
Rolin nodded, then shook his head, breathing out almost silent chuckles of laughter.
“Gobi will be disappointed,” he replied. “He thinks you could get me to do anything. I mean, he’s not exactly wrong, to be honest.”
He smiled at her, and his eyes twinkled playfully. Kamo felt the familiar sensation of blood rushing to her ears and cheeks.
“Rolin, why do you do that?” she asked.
“Do what, love?”
“Flirt with me. Call me ‘love.’ Tell me I have pretty brown eyes. Is it something you do for every woman? Because if it is, you can just give it up now,” she said.
She expected Rolin to flash a charming smile and defend his flirtations as harmless and fun, but instead, he looked rather hurt.
“I didn’t realize I came off as such a cad,” he muttered, rubbing his neck uncomfortably. “Is that what you think I am? A hopeless charmer who goes after every pretty woman he meets?”
Guilt flooded through her. “I just assumed, I guess,” she said. “You’re handsome and sweet and funny. You could have your pick of women, I’m sure.”
Rolin sighed and half laughed. “I wasn’t always this handsome. The army has a way of straightening you out and filling in your muscles.” He flexed his arms for demonstration, one eyebrow raised in jest as if impressed by his strength. “I don’t know. I guess I never really met a girl who gave me the time of day until after my service. And when they finally did start to notice me, I found that they only noticed my looks, my hair and uniform. You saw that too. Don’t try to deny it,” he teased, “but when I get arrogant about those things, you don’t swoon and sigh. You roll your eyes and tease me. For some reason, that’s very refreshing.”
She busied her hands, overturning a heavy log to see if there were any dry twigs under it, grateful for an excuse to hide her blushing cheeks.
“So there have been other girls?” she said casually.
“Well, yes,” Rolin said, “but there aren’t right now. Certainly, no other one that I’ve found as interesting as you. But if it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll cut back on the flirting. And the compliments. And I won’t call you ‘love.’”
Kamo gave up her futile search for dry kindling and walked over to Rolin.
“Well, I don’t mind that you call me that,” she said, “I just would like to know how many other women have claimed that title before me.”
“None, as a matter of fact. I’ve never called anyone ‘love.’ Until you. It caught you so off-guard the first time, and you turned so red, even your ears were red. I just wanted to make you blush like that more often.”
Kamo shoved his chest and quickly covered her crimson ears. “Well, love, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind the next time you use that particular term of endearment,” she said.
They heard the flap of Gobi’s tent open and watched him approach the fire pit.
“Couldn’t find anything to hunt then?” he said sleepily.
“Afraid not,” Rolin answered, rubbing the spot where Kamo had shoved him. “We should get to bed soon anyway. We’ll have to bundle pretty tightly tonight to stay warm. Especially without a fire. We couldn’t find any wood dry enough to light.”
The sun was still barely visible in the sky, and the last orange rays offered only slivers of light. Something about them reminded Kamo of the stone she had melted in Blosso.
“There might be another way,” she said slowly, examining her palms. She could try to light the fire herself, though she knew that would mean a dreaded conversation with her companions.
Is it worth it? I’m not that cold, am I?
A gust of wind whipped the snow around them, brushing her cheeks and fingers with frost. She shivered.
That answers that.
“What do you mean?” Gobi asked.
“You’d better take a seat for this,” Kamo said. Confused and slightly bewildered, Gobi and Rolin sat next to the makeshift fire pit.
She found a few split logs, only mildly damp, and threw them in the pit, kneeling beside it.
The cold air nipped at her fingers and nose, and she tried hard to ignore the aching in her toes. She placed a shaking hand on the top log and began to concentrate. She imagined fire running through her veins and willed it to blast out of her hand as it had that night at the fountain, but nothing happened.
“Kamo, are you feeling ok?” Gobi asked, his eyes suddenly full of concern.
“I’m fine,” she snapped briskly, “I just thought this would work.” She pulled her hand from the log and hid it in her coat pocket to warm it up before trying again.
“Thought what would work?” Rolin asked, his face also mildly worried.
Kamo stared at the unlit log. With the events of the day, she hadn’t had time to realize how cold she was. With the sun setting and without the adrenaline of danger, her body began to notice the frigid temperatures and unforgiving chill in the wind. She may not want to tell Rolin and Gobi all about her heritage yet, but the colder she got, the less resistant she felt.
“Something happened that night with Pacha,” she said.
“You… learned to start a fire with wet wood?” Gobi asked.
“Umm… something like that.”
“What is it, exactly?” Rolin asked.
Kamo shivered as a gust of wind tore through the air. She took a deep breath. “Fire elves have brown eyes.”
Rolin and Gobi looked at her as if she’d had too much elven wine.
“Fire elves what?” Rolin asked.
Kamo cleared her throat and dug her hands deeper into her pockets. “Fire elves have brown eyes,” she said more slowly.
“So?” Gobi squinted, “lots of people have brown eyes.”
“Lots of people do. Sea elves don’t,” she said. “My eyes are brown because—”
“You’re half Fire elf,” Rolin said.
Kamo slowly nodded her head, looking calmly from Rolin to Gobi to gauge their reactions.
Gobi seemed genuinely confused, and Rolin sat with a bewildered look on his face.
“I know it seems crazy,” she said, “I hardly believed it myself when Pacha told me, but then I got so angry and my blood just boiled, and I accidentally melted a stone in the fountain with my hand,” she said nervously.
“You what?” Gobi said, now frightened as he stared beyond her coat pockets to her fists.
“Something just burst inside me, and it just shot out my palm like some kind of lava,” she said. “As soon as I realized what was happening, I cooled off, and it didn’t happen again, but I thought
of it again just now, and I hoped I could maybe make it happen again for a fire tonight.”
“I’m still confused,” Gobi sputtered. “How could you not know? Didn’t anyone ever mention it to you? Like, your parents, or your sisters or Sheelo? Didn’t they know?”
Kamo felt a surge of heat as Gobi asked similar questions that she had asked of Pacha. Her palms were now sweating in the fur coat pockets, and she removed them to cool off.
“They had to have a good reason for keeping something like that a secret,” Rolin said.
Kamo smirked angrily, her palms and fingers no longer feeling any of the chill in the air.
“Oh, they had a reason,” she sneered.
Kamo felt a burst of flame erupt from her right hand and quickly directed it into the fire pit. Gobi backed away as fast as his hands and legs could carry him, and Rolin shielded his eyes and face as the damp logs lit up with dancing flames of white, yellow, orange, and red.
“I don’t mean to sound insensitive,” Gobi trembled, “but are you trying to kill us, woman? Put those things away!”
Kamo quickly obeyed and tucked her fists back into her coat pockets.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Gobi,” she said, “I only wanted to light a fire. Otherwise, I’d freeze to death.”
“Kamo,” Rolin spoke her name softly, “did Pacha say anything to you about the fountain, about how you felt?” He spoke calmly, and he hadn’t moved away from her.
She looked at him intently. His brown eyes were peaceful and questioning. “She warned me, I think,” she said, letting the peace in his eyes calm her fiery temper. “She said that magic is closely tied to emotions and to the people we love.”
Rolin nodded, never letting his gaze drop.
“Kamo, I don’t know much about magic, but I think that Pacha was trying to tell you that this fire, this burning, is closely tied to your anger. Nothing happened until Gobi asked about your family. Did Sheelo know?” he asked cautiously, still careful not to lose her gaze.
The Last of the Sea Elves Page 10
