Chapter 18: A Bath and a Conversation
1351 Words
Kaelonne takes the brush to his hair, familiar enough with it to be trusted to not pull out his hair painfully. He watched as Hartley puttered around his room, pulling out boxes and digging through then until he let out a happy hum and grabbed a couple things and spread them out on the bed.
“This is a hair dryer, basically it uses hot air and speed dries hair.” The human explains as he plugs it on, bringing it over to Kaelonne with a grin.
The young royal startles harshly as it lets out a loud noise, pulling away from the human wielding with a snarl. Hartley turns it off in surprise, holding it as far away from his a possible, “What on Helacean is that thing?”
Hair dryer… I forgot how loud I was.” He winces and turns it on again, letting Kaelonne see his movements this time. The young royal scowls at it, giving Hartley a look of displeasure as he attempted to come closer again. “Look, it’s not harmful, I promise.”
“I don’t like it.” He grits out tensely as he settles back into his original position, flinching slightly when the heat passes over his head. Hartley gently takes the end of his long hair and demonstrates how the hair dryer worked until Kaelonne is sitting a little less rigidly.
“I understand, but I do apologise about having to use it, you’d get a headache if you tried to sleep with wet hair.”
“Fine.” He grunted.
“Well, since you told me about your mess of a week, just I should share some things to.” Hartley chuckled as he turned the hair-dryer back on, he continues talking over the noise, using careful movements so Kaelonne didn’t pull away to much. The young royal was grateful for it as it distracted him from the noise, the streets were loud but having something so grating so close to his head was not pleasant at all. The human talked ceaselessly, switching from one topic to the next so fast that Kaelonne gave up on trying to understand. Words like ‘movies’, ‘t.v show’, ‘media’ simply floated over his head, some he recognised but didn’t have an explanation to place it with.
“That’s really interesting.”
“Hey… do you mind me asking… you’ve had those tattoos since the day I met you. Do they have a meaning for them?” Hartley asked suddenly, his other conversations trailing off, his tone was cautious, giving the Mermatian to ignore it if he wished.
“Yes… most Mermatians get tattoos to signify what they specialize in. It’s in the case of something happening, one would be able to know what the other is able to handle or not.”
“But what if they decide that they are not good at it?”
“If you wish to learn something, the inspiration is already there, so learning something is not hard.”
“Yea, I guess, but, say they decided that they didn’t want to do that job anymore.”
“The tattoos would remain, because it is still a skillset they have rightfully earned.” Kaelonne tapped his fingers gently on the markings that were scrawled up his neck.
“Huh, that’s cool.” “And if they start another job?”
“Then they get the tattoos to commemorate that.”
“Huh.”
“I’ve learnt that the human concept of tattoos is not far off either. Many a time, I’ve seen you all wear them to show support, whether if it for others or oneself.” Kaelonne smiled slightly at that, glancing at Hartley to gauge his reaction.
“Yea, I guess that’s pretty true… did it hurt?”
“Not really, usually the area for the tattoo is rubbed with a natural paste that numbs any pain for a while and then it’s placed.”
“Amazing, so your people are pretty advanced as well, especially considering you would have access to different forms of recourses.”
“Hmm.”
“So… what are the different jobs, are they similar us?”
“Very much so actually. The translation would be slightly different, but we essentially have healers, builders, fighters, researchers and more. Different ways of carrying out their jobs, the same general idea.”
“Your tattoos… what do they mean?”
“Well, the ones by the jaw stands for knowledge, or adignatio. I’m able to pick things up a lot faster than most, connect things and make decisions. It means that in the case of an issue, myself or anyone bearing this marking, should be referred if possible as a strategist.” Being both a researcher and the royal, Kaelonne had found himself often in charge of younger Mermatians still in training.
“That sounds like a heavy thing to carry.”
“I guess it could be, but there’s also a sense of pride with it. We are not generally giving tattoos unless we’ve earned them.”
“How did you earn it?”
“Uh… a long story.” Hartley glances at Kaelonne as his mind seems to drift off into a memory, most likely something he was not quite fond off. He changes the subject.
“That’s fine, what about the others?”
“Oh, uh, this one is the mark of a researcher, quaesotir.” Kaelonne seems to perk up at his, pull his borrowed t-shirt up to show Hartley the mark, it must look like random swirls and patterns to the human but he still let’s out an amazed hum, returning to braiding his hair as a form of telling Kaelonne that he’d seen to the it. “Scientist in human terms.”
“Huh, that’s awesome, we definitely need to talk more on that.” “But there was something I noticed…”
“Yea?” Kaelonne had picked up on his shortened form of confirmation and enjoyed how it sounded on his tongue.
“My chain… you still have it?” Hartley let him see the small grin on his face, and odd pressure building up in his chest. Kaelonne rubbed at his suddenly warm nose and tugs gently at the chain that fell just a little higher than the small bottle of crytals from Idris.
“Well, I never did take it off since that night…”
“Since that night? It hasn’t hurt?”
“No, it’s light.”
“Oh.” And in a softer tone, he continues, “And the other one?”
“This was the last thing my sister gave me before she went back to fight.”
“Oh… I’m sorry if I upset you.”
“You didn’t”
“Your eyes are really cool though. I mean, they were completely black before so it makes sense it would match your scales.”
“My eyes?”
“Yea, your eye- wait, you haven’t seen them?”
“Never really had the chance to, things have been a bit… on the move.”
“Oh, well, here!” Hartley ties of the braid and shuffles over to the wooden desk on the other side of the room, griping a small reflective surface in his hand. With a grin, he shoved it into the young royal’s hand and angled it to reflect his face. “This mirror’s small but it should be enough for you to see them.
Kaelonne glanced at the enthusiastic human with a raised eyebrow before looking in the mirror. A bright grey, with flecks of yellow-gold. He widened his eyes in surprise before frowning. They were a perfect match of his silver scales and his family’s gold tail. It felt like both an honour and a painful reminder.
“I’m not sure if that’s a good reaction… or a bad one.”
“It’s… somewhere in between, I am not familiar with the colours of humans’ eyes, so I’m not sure if they would be considered normal.”
“Well, in between I guess.” Hartley shrugs and rests the small mirror on the bed, moving away so that Kaelonne could stand, “Grey is a known colour, I wouldn’t say common but seen enough that it wouldn’t be considered strange. Yours are pretty clear though, people’ll more look straight at you ‘cause they’d want to see them, not that I can blame them, they’re really cool.”
“So, people would just stare at you?”
“Sometimes. Come on, I’ll explain the intricacies of the humans later.” Hartley ushered him to the door, “For now, we have to get through the whole talking with the family thing.”
- Writer
