Chapter 8: STRANGE

Reaching a grey colored medium sized house, Uwi brought out a bunch of keys from the inner pocket of her dress and turned the lock open, making way to let Bica step into the house. The house was quite clean with not a single speck of dust and everything was arranged in a neatly order. It was just like Uwi to keep everywhere tidy. There was a bookshelf and a reading desk at the corner of the sitting room which she doubted Uwi ever used.

Then there was a vase on a side table containing a single purple hibiscus in front of a portrait containing her and mother. Nothing changed much since she was last here, she noticed. "Where's your mother?" asked Bica.

"She went to a friend's house, she'll be back soon". They both sat down next to each other on the couch and almost immediately, Uwi started talking. "As for Balem, I-"

"Listen, I'm not against you courting him", interrupted Bica. "But are you sure? That he is, uh, who you want to be with?" Bica had no right to stop her friend from choosing who she felt was right and she knew how the villagers enjoyed blowing things out of proportion when it came to rumors but there was a little bit of truth in here. Balem was someone with previous affairs with women but then people could change. Seeing her go

quiet for a little while, she asked, "Does your mother know?"

"No. She would never support me", she sighed. "Whatever problem Balem had, I'd like to believe it's in the past now and he's a different person. I really love him Bics. I just don't know why people can't let go of spineless rumors and mind their own business", she drew up her legs from the floor to the couch, using her knees to rest her jaw. Her well groomed tail had it's tip tied with a matching pink ribbon. Her blue eyes looked sad.

Bica gave her a hug. "Don't worry. I'm with you", came her words of encouragement. Uwi smiled, that was right, she had her best friend by her side in times like these. She remembered when they first met. Uwi was the complete opposite of her as Bica was an introvert who did nothing but read all day. Yet somehow, the two had connected, leaving them inseparable.

"Now enough talk about me", she grinned, her mood lifted which Bica didn't fail to notice. "What of you?"

"What about me?", there was a bottle of water on the side table and she took it, opening the cap and gulping it as she hadn't had any water for hours.

"Any latest love interest?", hearing this, Bica choked on the water she was drinking and Uwi had to pat her back to calm her down.

When she had finally gotten herself, she looked at Uwi. "Latest?"

"You can't tell me there's no one who has caught your eye up till this point", she whistled.

"You know I am not into those kind of things", she answered meekly.

Uwi shook her head, her friend was two years older than her and yet in the aspect of romance, Bica was zero. Nill to every advance made towards her. It wasn't that she wasn't pretty or attractive, in short Bica was very beautiful which made men swarm her but she always objected each and every one claiming she wasn't ready. "Okay, anything interesting going on then?"

"Well there are some new import in the library but apart from that nothing much", she lied. Bica personally thought that finding a creature that looks so much like them and is told to be evil and non-existent and also conversing with it was a little more than interesting but there was no way she could say that.

Uwi just stared at her blankly before pinching the space between both eyebrows due to her boring friend. "By Ovashi's fangs", she swore. "You have a sad life, my friend. New books?Seriously?"

Bica's just shrugged before something clicked in her mind. "Um, Uwi?", she called.

"Hmm"

"Do you believe in the story of origin?"

"Not really. Why do you ask?"

Her shoulders dropped. "No reason." She wished there was someone she could relate to about her experience but there was no one, she sighed. Uwi watching Bica's expression closely got up. "Is something bothering you? You seem stressed."

"No, I'm fine. Just tired."

"Well then, I'm going to the kitchen to get some food, you can rest".

"Okay"

Now that she was left alone in the room, she couldn't help but ponder on her human captive. He had a fever so she had tried to cool it off as best as she could with damp cloth and a bowl of water. How strange, she thought to herself. The humans could fall sick too. She wondered if there was actually much difference between both creatures save for their looks. But she remembered that night when she found him, he had been easy to catch and much slower. Was this the same for all humans or was he special? Their blood color was also the same. She definitely had alot of studying to do.

Actually feeling tired and drowsy, her dropped and opened up again as she heard sound from the kitchen before closing finally as she dozed off.

Everywhere was dark, but she could see the outline of a person. A woman to be exact, with long wavy black hair and a smiling face. The woman looked oddly familiar but she couldn't see it clearly. Where was she even? "Bica?", the woman suddenly called. "Bica? Bica wake up!". Bica's eyes snapped open to meet Uwi looking down at her with a worried look. She had changed was wearing a free blue dress this time. "Are you alright? I was calling you but you wouldn't wake up".

"Sorry", she apologized, rubbing her head.

"There's no need to be. You could always go meet the physician if your feeling sick".

"I'm alright". Uwi pursed her lips for about three seconds before releasing them to say,

"Food is ready", she moved from where Bica was and picked up the two bowls she had dropped on the table before handing one over to Bica and sitting next to her again.

Turning the spoon in her bowl before taking a sip from it, she looked at her friend. "This tastes really good. You have to teach me how to make it like this"

"Thank you. You can always come over if you want to learn it. It's my mother's special recipe."

"I see. Special thanks to her then", the girls laughed and chatted about so many things but at the back of her mind, she couldn't shake off the strange feeling she got because of her dream. Who was that woman and why did she look so familiar?