Forgotten [Raakshyan Series Book 1]

Chapter 3

After about an hour, I sighed as I read the last few words, "... and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."

Wuthering Heights was definitely going onto my favourite books list. It wasn't as bad as people said it would be. I was surprised by how easily Kero understood the story and his capability to explain the dark, sad but wonderful story to me.

Kero sighed, just like he does after every love story.

"You can't always criticize love stories." I said.

'I didn't say anything...'

"We both know what you were going to say."

Kero smiled.

"What do you have against love anyway?"

He seemed a bit shocked. 'I don't have anything against it, why would you say that?'

"Well, I remember researching about tigers a while ago and I read that the males always leave the females to deal with the babies. You really shouldn't be criticizing us. Not all human males leave their wives with the babies. Did you leave your wife or something?" I tried to hide my smile but ended up giggling.

Kero, as expected, didn't find it funny. 'I am not your average tiger.' He said. 'I'm sure you know that.'

"Kero, you aren't married are you?" I thought for a second. "I mean, like tiger married..."

Kero grimaced. 'No. I'm not. And might I say that you, my friend, are a fool.'

I began to pout. "Thanks. I know. So are you." I moved onto my side and used my elbow to hold my head up, I stared at Kero. "Kero, I really am curious. How does this love thing work for you guys?"

'You guys?'

"Like... you and your tiger buddies and stuff."

Kero sighed. 'What exactly do you want to know?'

"I want to know how love goes for your people." I said 'people' with a smile that seemed to annoy Kero.

'I don't know what to say.'

"Just don't be shy and tell me."

Kero thought for a second. 'Well...' He took a deep breath. 'For... tigers... love is something that is, um, important. A... a tiger is considered a young adult the second they fall into 'true' love. And the moment after the... marriage... is conducted, when the bonds are tied, when the two lovers are finally actually one, love becomes something that doesn't give the couples any second chances.'

"What do you mean second chances? Second chances for what?" I asked, totally interested.

'When you choose to wed the person you love and actually go through with it, there's no turning back. You must stay with that person for the rest of your life. I know I seem to be saying it as if getting married is a bad thing but that's not what I mean. You see, my people believe in a goddess and we believe that she is the one who draws lovers together. She is the one who tells us that we are ready to get married.'

"Goddess... huh?"

Kero nodded. 'So once a couple gets married, they get an immediate blessing from her.'

"So your goddess is a matchmaker?" I grinned.

He rolled his eyes. 'And turning your back on a marriage is the same as turning your back on the goddess herself.'

"What if you're atheist?" I asked.

'No such thing where I come from.'

"I can't believe that."

'Then don't.'

I frowned. "Well, what happens if someone does turn their back on a marriage?"

'Than you are rejected.'

"From what?"

'Everything.'

I stared at him, trying to get him to tell me more.

He understood right away that he wasn't being specific enough. Sighing, he said, 'You lose your friends, the people around you will look at you as if you are pure evil. You are shunned, a villain. You lose your...' He paused, thinking of a word to describe something. 'You lose your reason to live.'

"Wow. How cruel." I said, thinking. What if the marriage just didn't work out? They should have the right to leave.

'No. That is not cruel. Not at all!' Kero yelled, shocking me.

I stared at his face, which twisted angrily. "Calm down, calm down. What's wrong?"

He immediately calmed down and sat quietly for a minute. 'Forgive me.' He finally said. 'I don't exactly like it when people disagree with our beliefs.'

"No, really?" I said, sarcastically. He scared me.

And he knew it.

I got up to put my book away.

'I'm sorry.' He said.

"Don't worry about it."

He waited for me to sit down and when I did, he licked my cheek.

I smiled at him and then hugged him tightly. I then got up and walked to my desk, I did a quick clean up, picking up my papers, turning off my computers monitor (which I always forget to do), putting away all my pens and pencils and then pushing in my chair.

When I was done, I stretched, yawned and then sighed.

'Is something wrong?' Kero asked.

I walked back to my bed and sighed again. "Christmas is five days away."

'So?'

"Hello? Christmas is my favourite time of year! And this year, no one is home to celebrate it with me." I sighed dramatically.

'Your brother is here. And what about your aunts and uncles, doesn't your Aunty Seretha always hold a party?'

"Yeah, but they would have called me by now if they were having a party. We would know weeks before, actually. She would tell us just to get us excited."

Kero seemed to be thinking. 'Well, there's no problem with you just... celebrating without them, right?' Kero asked.

I frowned. "Perfect. Celebrate Christmas on my own. Wonderful."

Kero smiled. 'Hey, I'll be there, right? And so will your brother.'

I smiled. "Yeah... I guess."

'It's late, go to bed.'

I nodded as I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth.

Winter nights have always been my favourite time of day. It was always quiet and peaceful. I always kept my curtains open on nights like this. As the snow sprinkled down, I snuggled up in my blanket to keep warm and Kero's body always added to that warmness.

It hadn't been snowing too much this year, I wish it did. I like snow. Well, actually, I like looking at snow, not being in it. This winter seemed to be dark... and strange. Not like normal winters when kids were always outside throwing snowballs or making snowmen. Everyone was always inside this year.

I dreamed about snow that night. It was snowing and I was at our town's park. I stood at the beautiful fountain and watched as the snow fell onto me. There were so many tiny white flakes that, when you looked closely, seemed to be crafted into intricate shapes. I remembered my mother telling me that the snowflakes were created by the winter fairies. She told me that they were able to make the designs in snowflakes because their hands were so tiny. I remembered imagining thousands of fairies, working together to create the snowflakes. The snow continued to fall, and then stopped. I looked around and saw no one. I then turned to the fountain and saw that it had begun to glow. And then I began to run...

Kero's voice woke me up. 'Wake up, hurry!'

I got up and looked at him. "What?"

'Get dressed and I'll tell you.'

"Why?"

Kero sighed. 'We are going to go shopping.' He said.

I raised an eyebrow. "What? We are? I just went yesterday though."

Kero shook his head. 'You went with your friends. Today you will go with me.'

"Why?" I asked.

'Just go get dressed.' He used his teeth to pull my blanket off and when I jumped out, he used his head to push me foreword.

I laughed. "Ok, ok! I'll hurry!" I walked into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and took a shower. When I was finished, I returned to my room in my towel and noticed Kero looking out the window. "What should I wear?" I asked.

He turned around and immediately turned back when he noticed I was in my towel.

I smiled, nice to know that male animals had better manners then male humans.

'Whatever you want.' He said.

I couldn't hold back my laugh, when I heard the embarrassment in his voice.

'Please. You shouldn't walk out in your towel. What if there is someone else in here?' He asked.

Shrugging, I turned around and opened my closet. I pulled out a long, grey, wool, turtle neck and black skinny jeans.

I saw, from the corner of my eye, Kero jump onto my bed. He sat down with his back towards me. "What are you doing?"

He used his paws to cover his eyes. 'Tell me when you are done.' He said.

I laughed again. "Ok." I said. I quickly put on my clothes and told Kero I was done.

He turned around and watched as I sat down and started to comb my hair.

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

'To the mall.' He said.

"Why?"

'You'll see. And we're walking.'

"Why?" I asked, annoyed.

'Because I say so. Unless you want someone to mess up your fathers van again.' He grinned.

I sighed. "Fine."

'Oh, I almost forgot.' He got off my bed and walked to my closet. He reached up, pulled my purse off a hook and then placed it on my dresser. 'Your aunty came over last night.'

"She did?" I was a little surprised and sad because I didn't get to see her.

'Yes. And she left something for you.' He pushed my purse closer to me. 'Check your wallet.'

I pulled my wallet out and opened it. My mouth gaped when I pulled out two hundred dollars. "You're kidding me!" I squeaked.

Kero smiled.

My aunty was amazing but she always goes overboard with gifts. "Is this why we're going to the mall?" I asked.

Kero shook his head. 'No.'

Before I could ask him to tell me why, there was a knock at the door. "Aathy?"

"Come in!" I said.

My brother walked in and like always, he stared at Kero who was in his tiger form. He always needed to confirm that he was awake. My brother shook his head and then looked at me. "You're going out?" He asked.

I nodded. "To the mall."

He frowned. "You went yesterday."

I nodded again. "That's what I said to Kero."

He looked at Kero. "You're making her go?"

Kero nodded, not bothering to say 'yes' since my brother couldn't hear him.

Aathavan smiled and then turned to me, holding up something in his right hand. Grinning, he waved around the two hundred dollars that my aunty gave him. "Not that I'm not happy that I found two hundred bucks in my wallet but where the hell did this come from?"

I started to grin too. "Kero said that Aunty Seretha came over last night."

My brother didn't seem to be surprised. "Figures... why is she so amazing? I think I'm going to go out and spend some of this money too." He said as he walked away.

I laughed as I put on my favourite silver hoop earrings and necklace with a cursive 'A' pendant. I then got up, picked up my large purse and walked down the stairs.

When I walked into the kitchen, I picked up two Rice Krispies Bars and ate them. I then put on my black, leather, knee high boots and my favourite long white jacket. I put on my black scarf and black earmuffs as well.

I lifted Kero up into my arms and walked to the staircase. "Bye Aathavan!" I said from the bottom of the staircase.

"See ya!" There was a pause. "Are you taking the van?" He asked with a concerned tone.

"No." I replied as I walked to the door.

"Good!" He yelled.

I rolled my eyes. "Bye!" I said again as I shut the door behind me. After locking it, I walked off my porch and then stood there, amazed.

The floor was covered with soft, fluffy, cotton like snow and it was a bright morning, the first one since it first started snowing. The snow continued to sprinkle from the sky, which tempted me to stick my tongue out. So I did.

Kero laughed.

I then heard the cheery laughing of kids. Glad that I wore boots that made sure I didn't slip; I walked quickly through the snow and around my dad's van.

Kids... everywhere. Throwing around snowballs, making snowmen and castles and forts too! I smiled widely as I watched them. I loved kids!

I walked through the snow and I waved at the kids who called out to me.

"Hey Aathy!" My neighbor's son Jess called.

I smiled. "Hey!"

He ran up to me. "Kero!" He squealed. The seven year old boy happily petted Kero when I bent down. "Can you play with us today? You and Kero?" He asked me, tugging at Kero's ear.

'Please. Please Aathy, take me away from this child.'

I giggled. "Sorry Jess! I'm a bit busy today, how about another day?"

Jess pouted. "Promise?"

I nodded. "Promise."

He smiled and petted Kero again. "Ok! Bye!"

After giving him a big hug, he ran back to his friends and I continued to walk towards the mall which wasn't too far from my house.

I live in the most beautiful part of Toronto, Canada... the town of Kaysville. There was a lot of green in this town, flowers, a bunch of trees everywhere (in the spring and summer, right now all of that is covered with snow) and it was very clean. It was an amazing place to live in because everything was close to us, the mall, the school and the library and almost everyone knew each other.

It was a nice place to live in indeed.

I walked down the road and smiled. "Wow, today is such a nice day, isn't it?"

'It's cold. But nice, yes.' Kero said.

"Yeah, it is a bit cold but not that cold. It was worse yesterday, right?"

'Yes, that's true.'

I then noticed that a lady was looking at me.

Kero started to laugh and I blushed, embarrassed that, yet again, someone caught me talking to Kero who to them was just a cat.

When we walked a far enough distance from the lady, I pulled Kero's ear. "Jerk." I muttered. "You totally knew she was there."

He continued to laugh.

My favourite part of this town was the town's park. Since I normally walked through there to get to the mall I was able to see the snows beauty as I walked through the gates.

The park was large. It had two basket ball courts, a soccer field and a baseball field too. But obviously, all those fields and courts were covered with snow and little kids making snow people and structures.

But, the best part of the park was the fountain. The fountain was quite similar, in size and shape, to the one in New York called the Bethesda Fountain. But, rather than an angel at the top of this fountain, there was just a woman. The statue of the woman stands to be about nine-feet tall, water spouted from the circle platform which she stood on and flowed into an upper basin and then into the surrounding pool. The whole fountain is made completely of marble and has carvings of animals all around it.

The woman at the top was beautiful. She wore a long dress that seemed to flow and had a kind, smiling face. Her right hand was lifted up, pointing to the sky and her left hand stayed down. She looked angelic and powerful. There were jewels on her too, I always wondered if they were real because no one ever dared to touch them, no thief has ever done anything to this fountain.

The fountain was apparently constructed thousands of years ago and had many different stories about it. My favourite story is the one of how it is a link from our world to another, used by warriors in the past. It's cool to think about the existence of another world.

But I don't think Kero likes the fountain as much as I do. He always seems to stiffen up when we get near it, even if we were sitting far from it on one of the benches. I guess all cat's, normal or abnormal, are afraid of water.

I continued to stare at the fountain and then I gasped as I suddenly felt a snowball hit my back. Hard. "Ow!" I yelled.

Kero started growling.

I turned around and saw someone run up to me.

"Sorry! Sorry!" He said.

It was then that I realized it was Chris.