Chapter 49: Thirio

Suddenly, an odd feeling welled up inside of Haze, suddenly getting the urge to wipe those expressions off of the siblings' faces.

"We did live in tents for a month, though." Haze jumped into the conversation, surprising both Ren and Rekka.

"Eeegh, please don't remind me of that." Rekka retorted, shivering as her mind involuntarily wandered to that memory.

After that reveal, despite Ren's maturity, he also shivered when recollecting those memories. 

Memories of constantly having to be on guard for monsters, and even other humans at times. Not to mention, their camp had also been invaded by creepy crawlers of all kinds of species, and they couldn't even tell which ones were a threat and which ones weren't, making sleep itself a problem, as they had to bear with these creatures periodically crawling onto them.

And that's not even mentioning the Slettes that occur fairly frequently. There was not a single time during that excursion when they were all able to relax, especially because of how the night conceals Slettes, making it hard to spot them coming before it's too late. 

"Oh yeah, I've heard that there are a bunch of powerful and intelligent Thirio out there." Shry asked, moving on to a fairly unrelated subject like he had prepared a list of what he wanted to know.

"Yup, I even have one as a pet!" Rekka immediately answered, her voice sounding immeasurably bright, surprising Shry and immediately piquing his curiosity.

"REALLY, CAN I SEE IT?" Shry's voice suddenly got much louder, causing his phone's microphone to peak, sending out his voice as mostly static.

Before Shry even asked, Rekka had already begun making her way back to the car and dove to the backseat, grabbing a finely crafted, pearly white cage with dozens of nice, curvy designs.

Not having much else, he thinks he could show Shry. Ren just pointed his phone's camera at his sister, following her every move.

(I guess they are still kids on the inside.) Haze kept his thought to himself, secretly relieved to see the two siblings he had been taking care of could still act like their age.

Along their journey, Ren wasn't just the only one rushing their maturity, because, although Rekka still seemed like her normal self to Ren, she had in truth grown significantly more self-reliant.

While Rekka was wrestling with the inconveniently shaped cage, Shry took the opportunity to ask Ren if he had a pet as well.

*Do you have a pet too, Ren?*

After Ren heard Shry's question, he didn't immediately deny it. For a moment, his body turned toward a forest, looking like he expected something to be hiding in the woods.

"No... I don't," after seeing that there wasn't a rustle, Ren denied.

Soon after that, it looked like Rekka was finally able to pry the cage out from the bottom of the seat, leaving the cage with minor deformities that can be fixed with a little bit of hammering.

"Are you okay, Kivi?" Rekka gently said to the creature inside the cage.

In the cage was an emerald green bird with some light undertones. The bird had a somewhat chubby body with a cute round head, looking like a fusion of a quail and a kiwi bird. 

Currently as it stood in its cage while Rekka worked to unlock it, it occasionally flapped its wings like it was trying to balance itself by spreading its wings, which subsequently revealed a vibrant, shiny green undercoat, kind of like how ostriches spread their feathers.

"CHEEUP" Kivi chirped.

"Wow, so that's a true Thirio, right? That means it can use Node just like us!" Shry sputtered in excitement, not actually expecting much when he asked that question.

At first, Shry thought it was just a normal Thirio, albeit the colors were more vibrant than they normally should be. It is only when it spread its wings and revealed the vibrancy of its feathers that it became clear to Shry that it was a true Thirio, creatures that are extremely rare to see in the city but are fairly common in nature, like at the edge of the world. This is because most true Thirio species are heavily regulated in the city, a safety precaution for populated areas.

"Yup! Kivi was the only upside from our camping trip; the only thing that kept me going that month." Rekka shivered as she remarked half jokingly.

*Crang!*

Rekka finally got the cage to open, creating a loud clang as its locks unhinged.

*CHEEUP CHEEEEUP* Kivi chirped almost as if it were cheering in celebration after regaining its freedom.

With just a flick of its wings, Kivi, within the blink of an eye, flew out, leaving a trail of wind as it effortlessly glided through the air, causing the cage to viciously vibrate for a moment before it settled with a cacophony of clanks.

"Kivi, come here," Rekka beckoned with her left arm.

Seconds after Rekka's demand, after it flew one last round in the sky above Rekka's head, Kivi gently descended onto Rekka's shoulder.

*Wow, I could barely see its silhouette when it was flying* Shry exclaimed,

During Kivi's little fiasco, Ren had been filming it, accurately following its movements, demonstrating his highly proficient hand-eye coordination.

"Kivi, meet Shry; he's our cousin." Rekka introduced Shry to her bird.

Though it doesn't seem to completely understand what Rekka is talking about, it still showed interest in Shry, as it tilted its head sideways, seemingly infatuated as to why it was being shown a moving picture of a boy it didn't know.

Looking into Kivi's clearly intelligent eyes, Shry on the other end seemed to have had his brain cells reduced to the same level as Kivi's, as an odd urge and thought surged up within him.

*Squ squ scak* Shry began making bird noises. 

Hearing Shry's poor imitation of a bird, Ren and Rekka both flinched, cringing at Shry's odd behavior. While Haze, who was observing them from afar, couldn't stop his laughter.

"CHEEIIUP," the bird chirped back, its confusion palpable as its body moved to express it.

The bird, Kivi, seemed to have a glimmer of acknowledgement as to what was going on, but due to its limited interaction with humans, all it could think of doing was replicate the expression Rekka gave it the first time they met.

*Yeah, that's true* Shry said in response, acting like he knew what the bird said.

Rekka's smile twitched, actually falling for Shry's trick for a moment. It was only when Ren calmly whispered in her ear that she realized 

"He's just playing around." 

Rekka looked flustered when she found out but quickly hid it to maintain her dignity in front of Shry.

*...*

Right as the silence began to grow with neither party having anything to say, mainly because Shry was paying too much to Kivi, Haze's voice sounded in the background, out of frame.

"We have to go soon! Get on in a minute or less!"

With that said, Haze didn't linger there for any longer and got into the car, saying nothing else as he waited for Ren and Rekka to get in so they could get back on track. 

(We need to get to the nearest city before nightfall), Haze secretly thought, keeping those thoughts to himself so Ren and Rekka don't panic.

Using this as an opportunity, Rekka casually removed herself from Shry's attention, still letting her embarrassment cloud her mind, not realizing that the main source of attention still sat on her shoulder, even more confused than before.

"Alright then, we'll see you on Monday. Hope you guys are having a good Saturday," Ren said, getting ready to hang up.

Wai— before Shry could finish, unfortunately for him, Ren's finger was already falling on the bright red button to cancel the call.

Completely glossing over Shry's plea, Ren steadily walks back to their car, reclaiming the front seat.

"Rekka, I don't think you need to put Kivi back into the cage; at this point, with how fast the car was going, it might actually kill him," Ren said as soon as he entered the car, immediately listing out all his points to indirectly convince Haze, who is the person in control.

"You better hold him tight, because we're going faster this time." Haze said, thinking the same after being reminded of Kivi's existence since it had been surprisingly quiet during their trip.

Hearing that, even with Ren's unnaturally high composure, he couldn't help but sweat, but yet, he didn't argue. As for Rekka, however, she looked like she was extremely nervous, but she held herself back from expressing it as she quietly gulped down her saliva.

...

Tomorrow, Sunday, 7:58am.

In a pitch-black room, a 12-year-old boy, Shry, with his sky blue hair, wearing a set of brightly colored pajamas, lay comfortably in his bed, somehow managing to shine in his dark room with his aesthetic.

*Tick tock, tick tock-* an inaudible clack of a rustic clock ticked as each second passed, its imaginary clacks giving off a foreboding feeling. 

Reaching the final second of the hour, Shry's eyes sprang open like a high-powered piston, beaming with excitement and anticipation, because today, after anxiously waiting for the whole week, was the day he gets to watch the parade, one of the biggest yearly events that is celebrated all throughout the world no matter the culture or race.

However, when he opened his eyes, all he was met with was darkness. He blinked a couple times, thinking that he may have been mistaken. 

It was only after 4 consecutive blinks that he stopped.

(Oh! I guess I must be blind now) Shry thought, somehow coming to the worst conclusion possible while staying completely calm like it was nothing.

Almost like he accepted his fate, Shry rolled to his side, ready to get out of bed, when he noticed a glowing red dot emanating from one of his many inventions.

"YAY, I'M NOT BLIND!" Despite waking just seconds ago. With his dry throat, he shouted in celebration, like he was celebrating that he regained his vision after being blind for years.

Suddenly, it was like Shry could see again, as the grogginess from his slumber faded, revealing more than a dozen red dots, including the numbers on his alarm clock that had never rung even a single time throughout the years since he got it.

(What's this?) Shry thought to himself in confusion as he stared at his alarm clock.

Looking at the time, Shry was confused. Clearly, looking at his surroundings, the setting couldn't be anything else but nighttime, but yet, the glowing red numbers on his alarm clock said otherwise.

"8:03 am? Did this guy finally break?" Shry said to himself, tapping the top of his alarm clock, like he was poking to see if an animal was dead or not.

After prodding his alarm clock for a good minute, Shry only relented after seeing the numbers change.

Unable to do anything else while in the dark, Shry, with ease, traversed through his invention-riddled floor, somehow dodging every single one without as much as a graze, making his way to the light switch in seconds.

...

Unbeknownst to the oblivious and optimistic Shry, far above him, spanning over two neighborhoods, was a sea of clouds, thicker and also darker than black ink, blanketing Shry's entire neighborhood, almost like it was reversing the time back to night, despite the sun being up.

The clouds were unmoving, almost like they were permanently stuck in place, creating an almost disturbing scene for those who saw it.

...

"Okayyyy, it's not broken, but it still looks like it's too early." Shry said with clear hesitation in his voice.

Shry takes great pride in his internal clock, so even as he realized that his environment was undoubtedly night, he noticed something: an inconsistency with the streetlights.

Although it may be minor, it is near impossible with the technology that they have today that the street lamps could malfunction at whatever hour at night this was.

"Oh! my phone, I can check the time on that." Shry, his mind finally settling, remembered that he had another outlet he could check the time on.

Looking through his now lit-up room, Shry searched for his phone through his mess of a room with dozens of mechanical components that could be mistaken for his phone.

(Wait, if I remember correctly, it should beeeeee...)

"Here!" Shry voiced out, celebrating his minor accomplishment after finding his phone hidden beneath a pile of tools.