• We just walked and walked for what seemed to be hours. Stopped only once to rest our feet, but I stayed perched on a treebranch..
    "Come down, will you?" Kolumi asked me, at the bottom of the tree. I shook my head.
    "Fine then. Stop." He grinned.
    The branch broke, and I started to fall, eyes wide, ready for pain. His arms caught me, and set me on my feet. I grumbled.
    "I hate this thing. Can't you take it off? 'Cause I can't." I started to pull at the bracelet around my wrist with my teeth. He shook his head.
    "Nope." He grinned, and walked back to the others. They picked up their equipment, as Liansi came to me.
    "Kyula, myself and Myroki must go to the village a week's walk from here. We will join you in a matter of weeks to come, depeding on what they wish." She gasped, breathless. I nodded.
    "Go. We will be fine. Take Shonni with you, if you may. Or when you come back he will be dead." I barked towards Shonni, who hid behind Kolumi. He laughed.
    I glowered.
    "Thank-you." She said, and turned around, her long black hair slapping me in the face. I glared at her.
    They left me alone with Kolumi, and I was still glaring at Shonni, who kept his eyes away, to not get scared. I turned to him.
    "Let's go. They will meet us at the falls in two weeks." I told him. He nodded, and followed behind me.
    The slow pace of a regular human made me impatient, and soon enough I placed him on my back, and ran faster than he could.
    "What are you doing?" He asked, scared and curious at the same time.
    "Trying to go faster. It would help if you would shut up." I retorted.


    We got to the falls in three days, and once there I took him off my back, and sat on a rock, supporting my weight with my feet. I looked at my reflection in the water. Something wasn't right here...
    Suddenly, something flashes out of the water, to grab Kolumi's arm, and pull him to the depths.
    I gasped, and plunged in after him. What had dragged him was a Myukki, a creature who had ten tentacles and fed on humans and anything else that dared to come close.
    The Myukki was fast, but I was faster. I grabbed Kolumi's other arm, and unwound the tentacle surrounding the other arm. He was unconcious.
    Damn. I thought.
    I surfaced, and dragged him to the grass, were I layed him there. A bunch of sea urchins had cme to watch, and seeing this human, they were hungry. I unsheathed my katana, and something strange happened.
    It was not the small, frail little blade I remembered, that much was evident. It was thick, maybe five feet thick, and longer than my sheath. About five times more. When I took it out, it was big immediately, and it was light, despite the size.
    I twirled in place, and I broke wind, sending it to the sea urchins. I was trying to protect Kolumi, but there were many. They died fast, though, and I stood there, panting. My dripping hair was flat on my back, long and white as snow.
    "You found out how to activate the thing?" Kolumi asked, coughing up water afterwards.
    "Kolumi!" I yelled, and ran to him where he sat. I hugged him a second, untill my mind had caught up with my actions. I pulled away, eyes wary. He laughed.
    "How did you do that?" He asked me.
    "I don't know. I was only trying to protect you...-"
    "There we go. If you try to protect a human, it works. If you try to protect something else, it wont work." He said, cutting me off. "Now I know what the riddle meant, when you took it out of the temple." He started to recite it.

    'Protect the life away from mine,

    Help to save the world one day,

    Save the life dearest to me,

    And let this be the way of life.'

    He said it in such a beautiful voice, that I could only gape.
    "Yep. It will only work if you try to protect someone. Like a human, for instance." He grinned.
    "Thanks." I told him, and hugged him again. He hugged me back.
    I saw that, for once, I was not my irritable self, but rather like a normal human being. I was calm, and my emotions steady. I was in control. I got up, and pulled him to his feet.
    "Come. Let's go meet the others at the village. I don't feel like waiting here." I grimaced.
    "Good idea." He laughed, and I pulled him onto my back, racing towards the village where they waited.