The Unreached Duchy

Chapter 16

Namtao had been temporarily been reassigned to guard the rescued humans at the Infirmary. It was an assignment that he normally would have enjoyed but for some reason he was not able to enjoy this assignment.

The Infirmary was a structure built starting in the water and it extended up onto the land so that all races could be treated without difficulty. It also had a Royal Stable at one end for the Mimas and other animals used to help transport people around. The Infirmary staff was used to the multi-colored Mimas flying in with people at all hours of the day and night.

Namtao’s mind kept wandering to Rusalka while he was making his rounds around the Infirmary. He wasn’t sure why but the last few months, he’d been thinking more and more about Rusalka, even more so since the shipwreck the other day. The part that made Namtao frustrated the most was he didn’t know why he kept thinking about Rusalka the way he was but he knew he liked it and it made him feel good inside. They had been best friends their entire lives and had done almost everything together, even getting into trouble.

Namtao had once again, gotten mad at himself for feeling like he had betrayed Senara’s friendship, which was just as long as his friendship with Rusalka, by wanting to only make plans with Rusalka. He had wanted to do everything he could to make sure that Rusalka was never in pain or danger again. Surely human went through this too, didn’t they?

Just then a deep green mima went swimming by and nuzzled Namtao with his golden beak as he paused on his way. Namtao instinctively reached up and started to scratch the base of the creature’s head. This particular mima, Kofi, enjoyed that immensely. Namtao didn’t know what the different colors meant besides the green mimas were guards while the pink mimas were used for transporting sick and injured people. The Mimas were all of the different colors of the rainbow and used by all of the different masons.

The next few days passed by without anything exciting happening except for damage to the Caserma by the volcano eruption, and rescued human choosing between the races in the Kingdom of Makara. They were then sent to their respective host cities to be educated about the customs of their new races. Once they were in their host cities, they would also decide what they wanted to be the rest of their lives; most would be masons of some sort.

Namtao went home to Maimakterion for his required day off since he went directly from Rescue Duty to Infirmary Guard Duty.

The Senet game was in full swing when Namtao got to Rusalka’s. Namtao, for some reason, just wanted to make sure Rusalka was still alright and he was kind of annoyed that Senara was there when he arrived; even though he knew that Senara was going to be there, since that was the plan the three of them made on Mol 20th and here it was Ch’en 2nd already.

He had been on duty for the last two days straight without a moment to rest or close his eyes, so he had been up for almost three days straight. He supposed that everything was going to irritate him at this point until he slept but he was not going to allow himself to sleep until he checked on Rusalka first.

Namtao paused before he went inside the sand and lava rock home that was next door to his. He had always just gone right in the front door; so he was unsure why he stopped this time but he did, almost like he didn’t want to cross boundaries that were now set in anemone stingers.

“Ugh. I’m glad that’s over with for the next 24 hours at least.” Namtao said as he flung himself onto the multicolored mushrooms that covered the water floor as he half way pulled himself out of the water and onto sandstone, still not sure why he felt like he had been intruding on some private space.

“What’s over Nam?” Senara asked inquisitively. “I thought you were confined to Transformation Ceremony Duty until further notice.” She teased while making impressive five space move in Senet.

“Serdar Neruda did confine me, but I was temporarily reassigned to Infirmary Duty because of the shipwreck and all of the human that was on board.” Namtao said as he picked up the game pieces that Senara was working with and actually looked at them.

Rusalka and Senara both chuckled at him as Senara playfully punched Namtao on the shoulder. “So if you’re home and off duty then that means all of the human have made their choices, right?” Rusalka asked Namtao as she rolled to start her turn before moving her pieces.

Namtao hated when work was brought up when they were trying to relax, it didn’t matter whose work it was either. “Yes, they’ve all made their choices. We’ve had more choose to be human this time than ever I’ve seen. Is there anything else you want to know before I give you my normal lecture about work talk while we’re trying to relax?” Namtao knew he sounded a little bit more annoyed than he had a right to and he knew it.

“You can save the speech Nam. I was just curious because a lot of the Lava human end up in the volcanoes. I’m not sure why, but they just do and it’s rather hard for us to replace them.” Rusalka said as she kind of retreated from Namtao a little. “I wasn’t asking to get a lecture, I was just asking because I’m always one of the Lava Master Craftsman who gets stuck training them and it’s hard when I can’t go up to the volcano to show them the proper way to get the lava. It’s equally as hard on them because I can’t take them to an underwater volcano either.”