The Cloud Roost (Jekua Book 5), page 12
After a short stroll on the beach chatting about nothing, they headed into town, which was a little livelier than Alani was expecting. She was enjoying the small-town vibe of the place, with merchants standing outside their quaint shops, waving to passersby as they set up and got ready for the day. The smell of baked bread and freshly-brewed coffee permeated the streets, mingling with the salty air carried in from the ocean. Their noses followed the coffee scent, which was too tempting for Aeiko to ignore, and it placed them squarely in front of a café on Main Street called Squeak & Squeal, which was a name that Alani did not want to know the origin of. It seemed that Sonosoik didn’t have any big chain restaurants or cafés, such as Moonwish. Another nonsensical name, but at least it didn’t send shivers down her spine.
Aeiko finally finished placing the order and paid the barista, who hurried off to prepare their drinks. They walked over to Alani, who was pretending to be deeply interested in a flier hanging on the wall which was the behavior of someone who had not been staring at them for the past several minutes.
“Anything good?” they asked, nodding at the flier.
Alani didn’t even know what the thing said, it was merely a rectangle covered in shapes and colors to her. “Not really,” she replied. “What’d you get?”
“Just a latte. And a scoop of pistachio gelato.”
On cue, the barista called out Aeiko’s name, and they scurried over to grab their treat. A tiny, plastic yellow spoon stuck out from the top of the green mound of gelato. They returned to Alani’s side and stuck the spoon in their mouth, letting out a low moan of pleasure.
“How can you eat that?” Alani asked them. “I think if I ate one more thing after that huge breakfast, I’d throw up.” It had been less than an hour since they’d eaten, and beyond that, Alani did not think gelato was particularly a morning food.
Aeiko shrugged. “It just looked so good,” they said. “That’s how they get you: they put the freezer case right there by the register, so you impulse buy it.”
“And it worked.”
“It definitely did,” they giggled, scooping out more gelato. “I would’ve asked if you wanted one too, but I know you’re not big on sweets.”
Their name was called again a minute later, and Alani offered to grab the drinks. She picked up Aeiko’s latte from the counter, as well as her own sipwisp tea. It was apparently a specialty of Kou Tekkis, crafted from a blend of herbs only found in the Vettenestiq Forest. It was something she’d never had before, and she had no idea what it was going to taste like. Before she returned to Aeiko, she took a tentative sip. It immediately burned her tongue, which surely muted it somewhat, but the flavor was pleasant nonetheless. Pretty sweet, but with just a touch of earthy spice to it. Not her favorite tea she’d ever had, but fairly good.
She returned to Aeiko and handed them their drink. “How’s that?” they asked her, referring to the sipwisp tea. They hadn’t heard of it either, and had to do a search on their linkpad to even learn what it was.
“Not bad,” Alani answered, though she was waiting for it to cool a bit before drinking more. “Do you want to stay here, or keep walking around?” she then asked. They’d received their drinks in to-go cups, but she wasn’t sure what Aeiko had in mind.
“Let’s sit outside,” Aeiko said, heading out the door. There were a few wrought iron tables set up outside on the patio, with large red umbrellas overhead to block out any harsh sun. The two of them sat at the table farthest from the door, so as to not be bothered by guests coming and going.
Looking at them switching between their coffee and gelato, Alani had to ask, “Is that combination any good?”
“Surprisingly, yes,” they grinned.
Alani removed the lid from her cup, releasing a puff of steam, with the hope that it would help cool her beverage faster. They sat in companionable silence for a minute as Aeiko leisurely enjoyed their gelato and Alani surveyed the busy street.
Across from them was a toy shop, with a display in the front window comprised of a plastic gingerbread house topped with snow, and tons of little anthropomorphized Jekuas all around it. Little families of Suelus and Bombats and Juntoos who were all wearing winter outfits, colorful puffy jackets with black boots. She thought it was kind of early to start showcasing Winter-themed stuff, but what did she know? She didn’t run a toy shop. Maybe it was good for business to get the kids hyped up this far in advance, so they could start annoying their parents for weeks on end until they finally caved and bought the toys. The set was something she would have killed for as a kid, if her parents had been able to afford such a luxury when the holidays came around.
Thinking about her parents, she began absently tapping on the soulstitcher clinging to her chest. After a couple seconds, the metallic clink clink clink shook her from her stupor and she looked down at the whirring device. The thing keeping her from descending into soulsickness every day.
Designed entirely by Aeiko. Based on preexisting technology, sure, but still. Adapting it for her situation was a pretty impressive feat. She looked up from the soulstitcher at Aeiko, who was already nearly done with their gelato.
She said, “Maybe you can do something with this.” She tapped on the device again.
Aeiko looked at her, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“If you were to leave Lakahlo, maybe you could start your own company selling these.”
They laughed. “I don’t think I have the business acumen necessary to start my own company,” they said. “I appreciate your confidence in me, though.”
“You could probably get help. I’m sure some investors would offer funding, or something. That’s what businesspeople do, right?”
“I have no idea.”
“Me neither, but it sounds right.” She tapped the soulstitcher again and said, “This thing is amazing. You know it is. The Veptists only know what condition I’d be in by now if you hadn’t figured out how to make this work. The doctor back in Makanuele said that it’s rare, but that people do suffer from this sort of thing. If they had access to tech like this, it would change their lives.”
Aeiko shoved aside their now-empty cup of gelato, the diminutive spoon rattling around inside. “Theoretically, yeah,” they said, tapping their fingernails on their latte cup. “I don’t know the legality of basing it around an animyzer, though.”
“You could always get a lawyer to look into it. Or, if worst comes to worst, you could sell the rights to produce it to Lakahlo, maybe. Specifying that you get a good chunk of the sales, of course.”
“That’s true,” they nodded. “Kind of defeats the purpose of separating myself from the company, but at least I’d be taking some of their profits for myself.”
“Exactly.” She didn’t think it sounded like all that far-fetched of an idea. It would be a real shame if she ended up being the only person with this condition who benefitted from Aeiko’s ingenuity. “Maybe it’d be possible to sell the concept to some other company, if there’s a way to make it work.”
“Maybe,” Aeiko said, mulling it over. “I’d need to do a lot of experimenting. If I did that, I would definitely need to keep you around, to run tests and such.”
Alani refrained from smiling too wide, but she wasn’t totally successful. The idea warmed her. “I would be willing to help out, for sure,” she said.
“Thanks. You know, now that you mention it, it would be pretty awesome to sell the design and just live off that passive income…if I could do that and then not have to worry about all the job hunting and interviewing and all that, that’d be perfect. Only problem is I’d probably need to stick around Lakahlo for a while until I could work out the kinks and make the sale. I’ve got a good amount of money saved up, but most areas in Makanuele are pretty expensive. I definitely don’t have enough in my savings to live off of for however long that process might take. I mean, maybe I do, but I’m not sure I want to take that risk.”
That was a concern of Alani’s as well. For the past three years, the Church had paid for everything for her—her food, her lodging, a (meager) salary—and she had not really managed to save up all that much. She saved everything she could, and not having to pay for meals or shelter definitely helped in that regard, but the bi-weekly payments from the Church didn’t allow for much savings. She couldn’t save what she didn’t receive in the first place. If she quit, she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to survive before finding a new job.
The realities of her decision (were she to make that choice, anyway) had not really begun setting in until now. In her head, it was easy enough to say she was going to leave the Church and turn a new leaf. She was only eighteen, after all, with her entire life ahead of her. But when she started thinking through the logistics of it, doubt crept in. Maybe it wasn’t feasible after all.
Anxiety pooled in her stomach, traveling up and tightening her chest. She tried to ignore it by drinking more of her sipwisp tea. It was still too hot, somehow. She burned her mouth again and set the cup back down bitterly.
“That’s still working well, I assume?” Aeiko asked.
Alani didn’t know what they meant for a moment, then she realized she had been nervously tapping the soulstitcher again. A habit she needed to break.
“Yeah,” she said. Then, smiling, “I haven’t gotten sick yet, anyway. That’s good enough for me.”
“Good, good,” said Aeiko.
They took a long sip of their latte, and Alani wondered if their tolerance for heat was higher than hers or if the Squeak & Squeal only made their teas scolding hot. Maybe the titular “squeal” was from a person after burning themselves. The “squeak” was still a mystery to her.
“Have you thought any more about what you might want to do?” they then asked her. “I know it’s only been a couple days since we talked about it, but…” They trailed off.
Alani’s chest tightened more. “I don’t know,” she said simply. Her eyes shot downward, too embarrassed to look at Aeiko and what was surely their disappointed expression. She stared into her open cup, at the muddled liquid inside. It was still steaming.
When they’d discussed her role in the Church in Makanuele, Aeiko had mentioned that it didn’t seem like she was passionate about it. That was probably true, Alani had come to realize, but she still couldn’t pinpoint what she was passionate about. What called to her? Did anything call to her, or was she destined to float aimlessly through the world?
The more she thought about it, the more one thing in particular came to the forefront. A moment where she felt like she had actually made a difference, had actually done some good, which made her happy.
She looked up at Aeiko and said, “Well, maybe there’s one thing.”
“Oh?” they said, brightening.
“When Balt and I were in the VWC, we found some Jekuas that a poacher was harming. Do you know what a Jollom is?”
Aeiko shook their head.
Alani cracked a smile. They were just as clueless about Jekuas as she was, which was refreshing. She said, “They’re these cute little things—well, cute in an ugly way—that use their beaks and Sonic magic to dig for food. The poacher was cutting the beaks off to sell them, but it meant that the Jolloms couldn’t fend for themselves anymore.”
They looked horrified as Alani described the situation. “That’s awful,” they said.
“Yeah. Luckily, we were able to find the poacher and he was arrested, and the rangers at the VWC said they can create prosthetic beaks for the Jolloms to wear, so they’ll be okay too. But anyway, I felt…I don’t know, I felt like I’d accomplished something real when we helped save those poor animals. The Church always talks about helping people, about making a difference in the world, yet I can’t help but feel like I’ve never actually seen anything tangible to support that. After three years of going through the motions day in and day out, and now embarking on this pilgrimage, it all just feels so hollow.”
She gulped, worried that she’d been rambling. The words burned like acid in her throat. As the days wore on, she felt more and more like the past three years of her life had been wasted, and that made her chest tighten even more. She impulsively reached for the soulstitcher again but stopped herself, instead wrapping her hands around the cup of tea.
Aeiko did not appear annoyed by her tirade, as she’d feared. They said, “I think that sounds wonderful. I could definitely see you working with animals, either normal ones or Jekuas. That’d be fantastic.” They smiled.
“You think so?” Alani asked meekly. This was something that had been rattling around in the back of her mind for a couple weeks now, but she wasn’t sure it was an idea she had even fully formulated for herself yet. Voicing it felt surprisingly good.
Aeiko nodded emphatically. “Absolutely,” they said. “Any idea where you might want to do work like that?”
Alani shook her head. “Not really,” she replied. “I haven’t given it a ton of thought. It might be kind of cool to actually work at the VWC, but I have no idea if you need some sort of specialized certification or something to work there. I don’t know what they look for in an employee, or what I’d even want to do specifically.” There was a lot to consider. Too much. It was overwhelming.
“Yeah, I don’t know either,” Aeiko said. “Even if you don’t go with them, I know there are lots of places you could do work like that, especially in major cities. Makanuele’s got a small zoo and some animal shelters and stuff like that.”
The suggestion immediately reddened Alani’s cheeks. It was impossible for her to know if Aeiko merely used Makanuele as an example because it was a city they were familiar with, or if it was because they were hinting at wanting her to move there.
She banished the thought. She couldn’t get herself wrapped up in such fantasies right now. There were more important things to worry about than whether or not her foolish feelings were reciprocated.
“There’s plenty of time to work out the details,” Aeiko said, noticing the worry etched on her face. “For both of us.”
They smiled warmly, and against all odds, it did reassure Alani. Somewhat.
“Thank you for talking through this with me,” she said, tearing her gaze from them again. Getting too sentimental made her bashful. Expressing emotion, no matter how small, was not something that came naturally in the Temel household.
“Of course,” said Aeiko. They reached a hand out and placed it on hers. Their hand was so cold compared to hers, which had been warmed by her piping hot tea. Alani felt her cheeks flush. Then Aeiko said, “Any time you want to talk, about this or anything else, I’m always here.”
The conversation had stressed her out, there was no denying that. She was still experiencing the chest pain to prove it. But, on the other hand, she was glad to have come to some sort of conclusion about what she may want to do once this whole Pakree situation was resolved. She wasn’t committing to the animal idea, not yet, but it gave her something to think about. It might ease her anxieties if she looked into what job options were available in that field, as well as what salaries looked like and what potential prerequisites were involved.
For now, however, she wanted to just enjoy her day out with Aeiko and leave those troubled thoughts behind. There was enough on all their plates as it was.
Aeiko pulled their hand away, and Alani lifted her cup to take another sip of tea. It was finally at a bearable temperature.
Well, almost.
But still, she took a deep sip of it and relished the warmth.
Aeiko took a deep breath and said, “I actually have something for you.”
Alani blinked. “Really? What?”
They grinned, reaching into their bag. When their hands returned to the table, they were holding a small, rectangular box wrapped in white and pink polka-dotted paper with green ribbon.
“What is this?” Alani asked, giggling, taking the box from them.
“Just a little gift,” they said. “I know your birthday is in Spring, but consider it an early present. Or a late one. I don’t know.”
“You didn’t need to do this,” Alani told them.
Aeiko waved her words away. “I’ve missed enough of your birthdays. I didn’t want to miss this year’s too.”
“Well, you sort of already did…”
“Oh, hush. You know what I mean.” Their eyes flicked down toward the box.
Alani undid the ribbon and tore into the paper, revealing a plain white box beneath. It was very much like the sort of box a necklace would come in, and she briefly wondered if Aeiko had bought her jewelry.
She lifted the lid and let out a tiny gasp.
Laying inside the box was a metallic figurine. It was human-shaped, although completely featureless—no face, no distinct clothing, nothing. Just the general humanoid shape, with rounded edges and obvious segments where different pieces of metal had been pieced together. Its body was slightly hunched, with the two arms raised as if ready to fight someone. The strangest thing about it was that its left leg stuck straight out.
“Okay, I know it looks weird,” Aeiko said hurriedly, diving into an explanation. “I’m no good at modeling. I wish I could’ve added more detail to it, but…yeah, I’m no good at modeling. It’s supposed to be a Yenna Ranger, like the ones you said you had as a kid. That your parents got rid of.”
Alani’s heart hitched in her chest.
Aeiko had crafted her a homemade Yenna Ranger.
“I kind of went off pictures I found online of the Voltmare Ranger that you mentioned,” they went on. “I know it’s not the same, but I wanted to help you build up your collection again.”
Alani was truly at a loss for words. She finally looked away from the silver figurine, gazing into Aeiko’s eyes.
