Chapter 8

The eighth chapter.

It’s such a pain.  I have to walk around baby-sitting someone my own age.  It suddenly makes me feel so tired.  Oh well, it at least it’s just for today.  He’s just walking around the outer part of the village, looking around like he’s never been between two buildings before.  Might as well see if he even knows what’s around here.
            “So, Jay, where do ya wanna go?” I ask him.
            “Well… I don’t really know anything around here,” he stammers out.  “I’m still new here.”
            “So you aren’t from around here?” I ask before turning to look him over.  “You don’t seem to be from here, you do somehow look different from everyone else.”
            “Different?” he asked, “How?”
            “You look too normal.  I mean, your face,” I chuckle and put my hand in front of my face, circling it around.  It’s just a little joke, so I don’t expect him to take it seriously.  He laughed a little uneasily, but I think he got it.
            I’m bored, and walking around without him saying anything doesn’t help.  I turn around to talk to him, and I see that he’s walking slowly by the dojo, looking at a sign out front.  I walk up to and see it’s just another poster on a stand of “The Rhino” and his next match.  It’s nothing too special, but he seemed interested in it.
            “You wanna go?” I ask him.  “It’s later tonight,” I pointed out, looking at the time.
            It almost looked like he was mesmerized by it, but he managed to make a sort of mumble to say yes.
            “It’s not all that special, ya know.  It’s just Rhino testin’, or teasin’, everyone else’s strength, like always,” I explained.  “I wouldn’t have guessed you a wrestlin’ fan.  What, do you know him?”
            “More or less,” he said slowly.  He’s sort of acting like a child... it’s weird.  Maybe not a child, it’s hard to explain.  Weird is the only way I can put it.
            We both start walking again, moving out of town.  Every time I look back at him he’s either looking around at all of the buildings or the ground.  He looked kind of uneasy or sad, so I thought to cheer him up.  I slowed down to beside him and slapped his back.   “Don’t worry about anything, I’m sure you’ll fit right in before too long,” I assure him.  “With someone like me as your guide, you’re sure not to get lost!” 
            Sure I said it a little loud and people around us were staring a little, but it was nothing to get too embarrassed over; but that didn’t stop him from getting all smaller like a kid.  Everyone goes on, he turns to me and looked from side to side to make sure no one was looking at us still.  “Well... I feel like someone’s following us,” he said scared, kind of whispering.
            “It wouldn’t surprise me,” I say.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the village were following us, just to keep watch over my flawlessness,” I joke, flicking back a part of my gorgeous, wavy hair with my wrist.  “That’s what you get when you are both strong and beautiful.”
            “Right...” he comments back, as if not believing me.  I give him him the evil eye and he makes an apologetic shrug.  I grin some more, and we keep on walking.  A good joke is all he needs.
            “So, where are you from?” I finally manage to remember to ask.  He was still silent, looking all uneasy again.  “You aren’t as composed as a Laurenan,” I joke, smiling.

            That question really caught me off-guard.  I mean, they told me not to tell anyone I’m a transfer, but what do I say when people ask me where I came from?  Ahh, now I’m just scrambling.  Think... think... where is somewhere that sounds believable enough to be where I’m from?
            “Umm...”  I try to stall by making it look like I’m blanking out.  Then I remember that no one here knows any country names in the outside world… probably.  That’s it!  It’s flawless!  “I’m from America,” I pointed out.
            “Amarica?” Ruoiu asked.

“No, America,” I correct. 

“Never heard of it.  Is it on the other side of the mountains?”  She twirled her finger.
            “I guess you could say that.”  I’m saved by ignorance.  Thank you, previous transfer humans, for not telling these people the name of our countries, or at least keeping it to a minimum.

I decide to ask the same question back.  “Where are you from?”

“Nowhere,” she said.  “Well, here’s where I mean.”  She pointed back at the village.
            Now it is just awkward, neither of us has anything to say, and I still feel like someone’s watching me. They could be friendly; it feels different.  I can’t really put it into words right… it’s like someone I don’t know is watching me.  So I thought I might as well try and draw them out.
            “Let’s go out of town,” I suggested.  “I’d like to see some scenery.”
            “Ah.” She confirmed, and started walking a little bit faster, so I pick up the pace to keep up.
            Ruoiu does look kind of weird when you look at her, though I guess it’s not in a bad way; her clothes just look kind of odd.  If it isn’t all that weird with how she dresses, the fact that the ends of her hair are pink kind of confuses me.  Does she dye it?  Though, most of the other hair colors around here are also weird or different.  There was that one girl, or spirit, that I saw with green hair, and there are humans around here with what look like all the types of hair around here.  Of course most are people with black and brown, and maybe blonde and red, but…  Oh well, this is another world, so things are bound to be different.
            Looking at all of the houses and buildings pretty much flat together, they are all made of wood.  Maybe a brick foundation here or there, but nothing metal or anything, just bright wood.  Though, I guess you don’t need anything else around here.  Now I’m just rambling to myself. 
            Wait, when did we get out of town?
            “Hey,” Ruu snapped her fingers at me, but without any sparks this time.  “We’re out of town, so stop day-dreaming.”
            “S-sorry,” I apologized.
            The road we are on is pretty much the same as in the village.  Nothing but a packed dirt path maybe two cars, err… wagons, wide?
            “Let’s go this way first,” She smiled and spun around, pointing to the left, off the trail.
            “Sure, I guess.”  Might as well forget the similarities.  Things are different now, and there is nothing I can do about it.  Thinking about them will just get me confused.  I am starting to feel heavy-headed anyway.
            After a few minutes of walking through trees and bushes, we get to a cave in the side of a steep incline of stone with patches of plants, which slanted downwards.  It was made of grey and dark colored rocks.  Ruoiu took some interest in it, looking like she was going to run in at any second.
            “I feel like exploring, what about you?”  She asked me.
            “I think I’ll pass,” I respond.  I’m not someone who just walks into a dark place for no reason, plus I’m getting a bad vibe from this place.
            “Hmm?  Are you scared?” She teases at me.  “Or are you just embarrassed to enter a dark place with a girl alone?”
            “N-no, no... Well, scared, a little,” I respond truthfully, I’m feeling a little embarrassed.  If something bad does happen, I wouldn’t want to be a burden and cause her to worry about me.  Also Soro told me to stay safe, and I don’t thing going in there is safe.
            “Oh well, I guess we can always come back here,” she concludes, shrugging her shoulders and walking off.
            A small pain in my stomach reminds me how little I’ve eaten since I got here, that may be it, so I grab some more of what Lance gave me.  We are walking next to the path on its edge in a clearing.  I think I would enjoy the scenery more if I didn’t have this odd feeling in my head.  I hope she doesn’t hate me for being such a burden.

            This guy is such a burden.  Maybe we’d be better off just doing nothing.  I know Soro asked me to take him with me, but I can’t do anything with him around.  Well, at least he seems to be interested in just walking around.  Half of the stuff around here interests him in some way or another.  I guess it’s not all lost: I get to meet the new kid and see some wrestling.
            That brings me back to where he came from, and prompts me to ask:  “So, Jay.  Why’d you decide to move?”
            He wasn’t paying attention, so I repeated myself slowly, “Why did you decide to move?”

 He scrambled with an answer, like he didn’t know how to put it.  Must’ve lost his memory or something.  “Umm... w-well…” he stutters out.  “I wonder why.”  Eh, I guess it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know.  Whatever it is I’m sure it has something to do with how down he looks.  Probably doesn’t wanna talk about it.
            “You should really calm down.”  I grin wider to show him I mean nothing wrong.  He manages to smile back, still uneasy.
            “Hey, Ruu, what’s up?” asks an all too familiar voice.
            “Miataru,” I said slowly back to her.  “You’ve got some nerve to sneak up on me like that in the middle of my walk.”  I try to put on the best serious face I can manage and step just a foot in front of her face.  We stare at each other intensely, which I can tell makes Jay feel even more uneasy.  I step back once and throw around a bent arm in front of her, and she reluctantly made the same motion and impacted with my arm lightly.  At least she did it this time.  One out of three isn’t bad.
            I grinned at her. “What is the shrine maiden doing out of town today?  Runnin’ errands?” 

            Oh, so she must be the other person Soro told me he worked with at the shrine, though I guess you could tell that from looking at her.  She looks like… later teen years, if anything; 17 or 18 maybe, with long and mostly straight bright-brown hair.  She wears red, loose straps unattached to anything around her neck and shoulders, on top of a white button-up shirt with a red, leather cross-strap between her stomach and her breasts.  Her pants are bright red at the top, and fade down into a darker shade of red to the bottom of the legs, and tuck into her close-toed sandal-like shoes.  She also wears a dark red leather belt to hold up her pants, which seem to be a little too big for her.  I’m guessing these aren’t her normal clothes, or at least her shrine clothes.
            “Just an errand for Soro, nothing too big,” Miataru grinned back.  “What about Ruu?” she plays the words; “and who is your guy-friend?” She smiled deviously.
            Ruu looks at me, and with a nod I introduce myself.  “I’m Jeremy.  I recently moved here.”  Trying to be as polite as I can with my first impression; just a little harder than it sounds.
            “Aha...” I can tell she’s looking me over, assessing me.  She grins up at Ruoiu deviously, “What a nice catch.”
            Wait, what   Ruu speaks first:  “No, no, it’s not like that at all.” She didn’t seem to skip a beat.  “I’m just watching over him for Soro,” she explained.
            “Ahh...” Miataru ponders.  “Then it would be more of a case of the pet falling for the master?” She chuckled more.
            “Ok, now you’re just messin’ wi-” Ruoiu began, but Miataru interrupts by nonchalantly walking off and waving.  “Sure Sure. See you later!”
            “Seriously,” Ruu sighs, sounding sort of disappointed.  “She doesn’t even act like that most of the time.  I wonder what’s gotten into her.”  She looked at me, “Yeah, her name is Miataru, but you can just call her Mia; I don’t think she cares.”  Ruu shrugs and starts to walk off again.  I watched her for a little, and then followed.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I’m interested in who she is if she isn’t who she is now.  Ah, I’m just confusing myself again. 

Author's Note

This was an instance of me trying something different: telling it from perspectives. It is this chapter only, so no worries since it did not turn out too well.
Also, do not worry about the tenses when it comes to Jeremy.