Holly’s eyes fluttered open the next morning. She was greeted by the green of her Maestro’s jacket. Her heart stopped for a second as she realized she had taken it upon herself to fall asleep next to him. Though this time he reciprocated the gesture at some point. She knew she was small, that was an undeniable fact of her biology, but being enveloped in his embrace really hammered that point home.

  She was smothered in warmth and rhythm.

  And she didn’t hate it, a smile overtaking the anxiousness of her heart. Having a Maestro was… nice.

  When light graced her vision once again, time had passed. She couldn’t be sure of how much; though, she could confirm its passage by the difficulty at which the lids of her eyes took to lift. Still though, Holly remained buried in Shouri’s comfort.

  “You’re addicting,” she whispered into his shirt. “How were you ever alone?” she asked on a breath.

  He began to stir, and her heart likewise followed, strumming up the beat until their eyes met.

  “Ah… good morning… Shouri,” she squeaked, her nervous laughter growing as he stared at her, quiet and wide-eyed.

  “If you’re just going to keep doing this, we might as well cut the pretense and use the bed,” Shouri grumbled, clearly not pleased to be sleeping on the couch for no reason.

  “Yeah…” Holly trailed off. The pounding in her chest refused her pleas for peace.

  Thankfully Shouri wouldn’t allow her to expire from heart palpitations this morning and took his leave for the bathroom.

  “Whew,” sighed the plant. She brushed a hand through her hair and counted off four. “Least I slept well,” she noted.

  Now that she had a full day to get her thoughts in order, being with a Maestro was pleasant. Provided you found the right one. She shuddered to think what could have happened to her if she reached that Mr. Noel character, or the even more treacherous possibility of attempting to strike it out on her own. She wished the loner Holly that existed out there in the Book of Kairos all the luck in the world – she’d need it.

  The good little house plant perked up upon Shouri’s return to the room proper. “So, what are we going to do today?” Holly queried.

  “Uhhh…”

  Maestro and Resonator stared at one another, exchanging several blinks in silence before Holly broke the tension.

  “You uhh… um… what were you doing before I ran into you?” came the plant’s next question.

  Shouri had to think about that. “Oh right, my dad was taking us here for a business trip,” he recalled.

  “Business trip?” Holly furrowed her brows.

  “Yeah, Dad owns a big energy company, blah blah, drags us all around for fun or whatever,” Shouri said with a shrug. “Not too interested, wandered away, ran into you.”

  Holly slowly nodded as she processed the words he was speaking. “Right…” she spoke carefully, arms folded as she leaned back into the couch.

  “Not our problem,” said Shouri.

  “So, what is our problem then?” challenged Holly, propping up her feet on the table.

  He took a moment to ruminate on that. “Wanna help me find a friend?” he came out and said it.

  That took the zalavan off guard, earning the straightening of her posture and interest. “A friend?”

  Shouri spent another moment considering his words. “Yeah, I hope you don’t mind. She’s very important to me.” He allowed that to hang in the air for a moment before he realized what he said. “Not that you aren’t!” he quickly yelped. “I just want to find her again,” he admitted, quieter.

  Holly wasn’t sure how to feel about this. On one hand, having an exclusive monopoly on him would be lovely… she shook her head. “It’s fine!” she shouted unintentionally. “What’s her name? Do you know where she is?” asked the Resonator.

  “Her name is Mila, I haven’t seen her since she went missing eight years ago,” he replied.

  The zalavan was taken aback. “Eight years?” she questioned quietly. “Mila,” she tested the name on her lips. After a moment to let it marinade, she smiled. “Alright! Let’s go find Mila!” The zalavan hopped to her feet. “After all, two heads are better than one, right?”

  Shouri couldn’t help but return his Resonator’s infectious positivity. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “So uh… now what?” asked Holly. “We have a goal, but um, what exactly should we do?”

  The Maestro didn’t have a real answer to that question. He backed up until he sat on the bed. “Hmmm…” He folded his arms across his chest, his brows pinched tight as he considered their next plan of action.

  “Let’s go back to the scene of the crime,” he decided.

  “Huh?” Holly didn’t follow.

  “Mila vanished from the park she was staying at eight years ago. I think she was kidnapped,” Shouri revealed.

  That revelation was especially poignant for the zalavan. “Right.” She nodded, gulping as she stiffened. However, it was not fear which earned her tension – it was determination. She had avoided the fate that befell Mila all those years ago. But now she could help Shouri right this injustice.

  “Where was it?” she asked.

  “A park near where I live,” he replied.

  “Okay, so how do we get there?”

  “Good question. Maybe like a bus or something considering our money situation.”

  Something didn’t track. “Wait, didn’t you say you came here with your family? Couldn’t we just go back with them?” questioned Holly.

  Shouri’s expression became rather strained. “Yeah… probably best if we avoid that sticky conversation for now.”

  She didn’t like the way he was avoiding seeing his family. Then again, she couldn’t blame him if there was some… history there.

  It was something she could unfortunately empathize with.

  After further planning, the duo decided on their course of action: they’d hop from city to city until they reached Riva Solare, Shouri’s hometown. The plan was to do hunts at each stop to keep themselves topped up on money and also avoid sleeping on a bus.

  It was a simple, but elegant plan.

  Too bad they failed to account for one very minor detail.

  “Hand her over.”

  Neither boy nor plant had expected to get jumped in broad daylight on the way to the bus terminal by a bunch of suits – a Maestro and a fire Resonator. The Dalliva streets were not the place for a battle.

  Holly was stuck in place, totally frozen. She knew what happened to her wasn’t exactly the most above-board thing, but she didn’t think these people were crazy enough to just attack them on the street like this.

  Regardless, Shouri wasn’t about to lose another Resonator. He held an arm in front of Holly, mustering up the most hateful scowl he could produce. “You’ll take her over my dead body,” he growled.

  The nature element’s undivided attention shot to her Maestro. Wasn’t she supposed to be the one protecting him? She shook her head. If he was willing to go that far for her, she had to do everything she could.

  “She doesn’t belong to you,” said the suited Maestro.

  “Really? This green tuner and lack of chip when I found her say otherwise. She’s mine, fuck off,” Shouri snarled at the men, flashing the green device in question at the pair.

  She was thankful he was running distraction as it afforded her plenty of time to sort her seeds. A flick of his eyes to her communicated everything she needed to know and she adjusted her palmed seeds accordingly.

  “So be it,” said the suited Maestro.

  “Hope this is worth your life,” the fire element added.

  “Anello di Fuoco, Tenuto,” the fire Maestro called.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Precipitazioni Frontali, Accelerando!” Shouri called in response.

  A ring of fire erupted around Shouri and Holly, but the nature element didn’t panic and instead shot a ball of blue light into the clouds at the low cost of three watermelon seeds. Within seconds, it began to rain, snuffing out the growing fire.

  Shouri and Holly turned and ran. The fire element went to give chase, but the two escapees were faster.

  “L'onda di tempesta, Accelerando!” Shouri commanded.

  Truthfully Shouri didn’t need to call the spells, Holly could cast these all on her own thanks to her seeds. She did appreciate the quick wit and battle strategy, however, and took his advice with the same reverence as if he called a nature spell. Holly didn’t look back, she burned three more watermelon seeds and upon one of her steps, a river of water erupted down the sidewalk, pushing both the pursuing Maestro and Resonator away.

  Unfortunately, those weren’t the only two sent after the prize that was the little zalavan girl. Another suit, this one with a lightning element jumped out. Shouri remained quicker, this time not relying on Holly’s ammunition, but his own rhythm.

  “Linfa Appiccicosa, Tenuto Staccato!” he shouted as they pivoted into a nearby alley. Holly moved on pure instinct, leaving behind a trail of buds in their wake.

  The obscene shouts and screams told their gambit succeeded. The bud’s sticky sap secured their pursuers, binding them to the sidewalk where they had stepped into the traps.

  But before they could celebrate a winged man swooped down and plucked Holly from the ground.

  Unfortunately for the solar element, Shouri’s unending thought processes had already considered such a maneuver. “Spore di Veleno, Moderato!”

  And then the bird man began choking on a ball of spores localized entirely in his breathable space. As he choked and wheezed on the hazardous air, he dropped Holly. Shouri caught the girl before she was introduced to the concrete via gravity.

  “Thanks,” she panted.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” he wheezed, glaring ahead at the approaching Maestros and their Resonators. There were so many, and the fleeing pair were already being worn down from just three meager encounters.

  Shouri refused to put Holly down and held her tighter, shakily stepping back. Holly gulped, shaking with fear at what was to come.

  Was this really it?

  She couldn’t let him get hurt.

  He was too good to her.

  As she took in a breath to tell him to hand her over, a wind blew behind them and a new voice joined the fray.

  “Take another step and I promise you’ll regret it.”

  It was a voice Shouri recognized, and her presence eased his anxiety as he turned to face-

  “Aura!”

  Holly took in the newcomer the opposite of the suits. A blonde woman in black with two Resonators on either side – a charred fire element dog clad in dark reddish browns and black, and a solar element dragon who was somehow even smaller than she was.

  “Who the fuck are you?!” one of the suits demanded.

  Aura motioned at the boy. “I’m his sister, and I don’t like when people bully my brother.” She cracked her knuckles. “Dames, Chiara, put ‘em in the trash.”

  The dog smirked. “Gladly.”

  Chiara extended her great wings. “With pleasure.”

  The rhythm suddenly flooding the alley was unreal, Holly gripped her Maestro’s jacket tighter. She knew this woman was there to protect them, but did she have to make such a spectacle of it?

  Damian and Chiara ran past to engage the mob of thugs, while Aura rushed to her brother’s side. “You okay Shouri?” she asked.

  “I’ve been better,” Shouri mumbled, finally letting Holly down.

  “Aw, and who are you sweetie?” asked Aura, leaning over to greet the nature element.

  “I’m Holly, miss. Thank you for helping us!” the zalavan had flipped to that innocent face.

  “I can see why they want her, she’s as cute as a button,” Aura grinned, tousling the grass atop the girl’s head.

  “Yo, Aura! We got trouble!” Damian shouted.

  The older Maestro grabbed her tuners and turned to the end of the alleyway where her two Resonators faced down one.

  A small boy clad in the blues of the sea. His tail was strange, not like any species Shouri or Holly had ever seen before, blue and greenish with scales, like some sort of sea dragon? “Shine, it’s been far too long,” greeted the water element.

  “Aura, he’s one of us!” Chiara warned. The solar dragon turned back to face down her counterpart. “Sea, what do you think you’re doing?”

  “What do you think you daft construct? My Maestro asked me to be here.” He raised a hand and pointed directly at the zalavan. “He wants the flower pot, and I’m compelled to collect her.” The yellow glow behind the sea dragon’s bespectacled gaze was locked firmly on the zalavan.

  Holly trembled, grabbing Shouri’s side.

  “Sorry Sea, but she’s the Resonator of my Maestro’s brother. I’m not letting you put a scale on her,” Chiara replied, lowering herself in preparation for a fight.

  Sea chuckled. “You’re forgetting one thing, Shine – my Maestro isn’t here and yours is.” Even with his diminutive stature, the confident glare passed in the two Maestros’ direction glowed, as if they faced a great beast – as if the ocean itself was now their enemy.

  Before a fight could break out, however, the being known as “Sea” chuckled. “That’s what I would like to say, but that man is so particular. He wanted her untouched. And bearing a chip, well that is ‘pretty darn touched’ as the youth says.”

  “Nobody says that, Sea,” Chiara snarked, though she relaxed her aggressive posture just a bit.

  “Girard,” he said in response.

  “Ah, Chiara,” the dragon replied in kind.

  That exchange meant something to the two of them, Holly could sense as much. Not that she could even utter a cry given the monstrous rhythm being radiated from the two Resonators. What exactly was she involved with now? The little zalavan couldn’t be certain.

  However, as quickly as it all started, it was over. The thugs were gone and the Tomoshibi siblings were left with their Resonators.

  “A zalavan huh?” Chiara appraised the still taller than her Resonator. “Been a while since I’ve seen one. Which one are you from?” asked the dragon.

  “Eh?” Holly blinked.

  “Chiara knows a lot of things,” Aura chuckled.

  “Uh, Inverna,” replied the zalavan.

  “Oh! I know that one! It’s in the Cascata Mountains, near the source lake.” Chiara nodded.

  Holly’s eyes widened, as did Shouri’s.

  He looked to his Resonator and she looked up at him. “D-do-” he paused, really struggling to get his words out, “-you want to go home?” he asked.

  “What? No!” she shouted almost instantly. She realized what company she was in and donned her innocent mask. “I’m having so much fun with you, maybe one day, but not right now!”

  Shouri knew there was more to it than that, but that wasn’t a conversation for now. He was happy to be Holly’s Maestro, for as long as she’d have him.

  Hm? What's that?

  Oh, little Holly? Yes, she is quite alive in the world of Riterra you know. She thought as much herself, remember?

  In my Book of Kairos I hold every possibility. While some events are always fated to happen, others ebb and flow with ease. Perhaps you'll find yourself regaled with that loner Holly this one feared becoming.

  Until next we meet dear readers~