Hurricane from Farhost

Division 4_

We walked to Missoula under the orange and yellow rising sun. It reminded me of Ivan's Kulmarian eyes.

I asked him, "You've been on Rahv already for a few days?"

He sighed, acting annoyed that he had to talk to me. "I have. But I've been to Rahv before. I know my way around Palm City. I lived here for a year when I was 25."

"Why did you live on Rahv for a year? This isn't exactly an ideal climate for someone from Kulmar."

"I had to escape something back on Kulmar for a while. I stayed with some people who were in my situation. And if I'm lucky, my motorcycle is still locked up somehwere in Post Rhodia. There's only one other person on Rahv who has access to my bike. He'll know where it is. I haven't been able to sleep much on Rahv the past few days so I haven't had the strength to get it while the sedative was wearing off."

"You couldn't sleep well? Even being in The Demi?"

"What?"

I swallowed. "Where have you been the past few days? Where have you slept?"

"Anywhere I could find a spot. What do you mean, being in The Demi?"

"That sick son-of-a-bitch." I grit my teeth. "He gave me a private room in his hotel last night. He gave you nothing?"

Ivan laughed which was just a small outlet to release a little anger without becoming a raging hot inferno. "You saw him with Mawki, right?"

I nodded.

"He's a creep, Veysa. He loves exotic women. Of course he'd put you up in a room for the night. You're like a precious gem. Mawki, too. You're like one of his imported goods."

"Ew, don't put it that way. I'm going to throw up. If I knew that, I would have slept on the street."

The farther we got from Palm City central, the more residential the streets became. Missoula is the biggest residential district of the city; each road was lined with townhomes and corner stores were scattered throughout. It took an hour to walk to Missoula district, Cypress and 42nd. I was nauseous from hunger and dehydrated from Beshomian Tallor.

I could taste the brackish air from our closeness to Freight Bay and the Safkan in me could sense a winter storm coming in from the eastern mountains. I felt the first drop of rain on the back of my neck as I stood in front of the door to Xiaolan Li's shop in Missoula. The drop turned to a bead of ice against my cold skin.

There was nothing to distinguish this door from others on this residential strip except a laser etched "LI" under the house number. People take care of their homes around here. Most doors had potted plants on their stoop. Under the awning of a closed flower shop on the block was a plant I recognized. It was small and brown with little white poisonous berries bunched at the tips. That plant was imported straight from Safko Varga 4 and was flourishing in this cold Rahv season. It must have been expensive to import and I wondered how the shop owner acquired it. It crossed my mind that the shop owner may be Safkan and the plant reminded him of home, but I rolled my eyes when I remembered that west Missoula is mostly Rahvan and this isn't the Safkan neighborhood. The Rahvan probably doesn't know anything about Safko Varga 4 vegetation. The brown plant with white berries is called a rolling fieldcress. Dominic had the same plant in the lobby of The Demi. During our two months of summer on Safko Varga 4, the berries drop and they roll across the windy ice fields where they grow, hence the name. I vividly remembered the rolling fieldcress's on the plains outside Ice Expanse: the largest city on my home planet.

Xiaolan Li's shop door was open. We descended a damp moldy stairwell and Ivan slammed himself through the lone door at the bottom. The hinges screeched then the door clanged against the stone wall inside. Ivan didn't care to hold the door for me. It bounced back in my face and I gently nudged it enough to squeeze myself through.