“Oooer, that’s bright…”
Yisini’s eyes flicked open thn quickly flicked shut again.
“Why’d it all have to be so damn bright?”
“You know why…”
Yisini opened her eyes properly and sat up, looking around for who was talking to her. She wasn’t surprised that the voice belonged to her mother, the Allmaker Kinisis, but she was surprised about the tone of her voice.
“What’s up, mum?”
Kinisis was sitting on a comically small stool in the corner of the room, occasionally glancing out of a castle window. The walls of the room were painted white and were obviously clean and sterile, meant for medical purposes. On the wall directly ahead of Yisini’s bed was a single framed photo of three serpentine beings playing with a cute, black, scaly puppy.
“Mum?” Yisini repeated herself. “Is all of this because I was knocked unconscious?”
“Yes…” Kinisis sighed. “Arkadin attacked you, didn’t he? He attacked you and left you unconscious. Now the others cannot find him and we are all worried that he may strike again…”
Yisini tilted her head to one side. “How many days have I been unconscious?”
“Only a few.”
“Like, cosmic days, or mortal days?”
“Mortal ones.”
“Huh… Is that all?”
The Allmaker nodded. “You don’t… seem concerned in the slightest?”
Yisini grinned. “Oh, I’m fine. I dunno why you’re all worried.”
“Arkadin attacked you.”
“Nah he didn’t.”
“R-really?” There was a slight stutter in Kinisis’s voice. As if she didn’t quite believe her own daughter.
“Nah, he was just trying to get me off him. I was doing my silly song and dance about trying to bed him, I made some creepy remarks about us becoming one creature and jumped on his back, then I tried to wrap myself around him. Arky freaked out and, while he tried to get rid of me, he accidentally threw me into a moon or something!”
Kinisis hesitated, choosing her next words carefully. “So… you… attacked Arkadin…”
“Yep.”
“And he… only retaliated? To protect himself?”
“Yep.”
Kinisis sighed, slumping further onto her stool. “So… we were all wrong…”
“Let me guess!” Yisini was still smiling. “You all judged him and found him guilty before you worked out what had happened, right?”
“He ran away. He acts as if he is guilty all the time. And now that we know the truth, there is no way of telling Arkadin to come back and tell him…”
“Tell him what?” Yisini asked. “I mean, he knows we all hate him. He knows that none of us trust him. Why the hell would he come back?”
Kinisis got up and wandered towards Yisini, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You were the victim here. You know what happened. You were the one who was hurt. What do you think we should do?”
“We were both victims, mum…” Yisini tutted. “But you want to know what I think? Let Arky run away and hide for a while. He’ll come back eventually. Maybe, if we’re lucky, he’ll grow a thicker skin and come back in a better mood. Maybe he won’t come back at all. We should just leave him alone though.”
Kinisis didn’t seem to approve. “And what if he comes back in a foul rage? What if he begins to see us as enemies?”
“Wellllllll! Firstly, we have a Time Dragon, we’ll know of that stuff in advance…” Yisini’s tuts turned into a smile. “But I have faith in Arky. He’ll be fine. He is too kind and caring to ever willingly want to harm us…”