Free Rojuun by John H. Carroll Page B

a moderate-sized building. It had a dome with a few
holes, but looked largely intact.
    “That looks good to me,” she agreed.
    The large doorway had probably held double
doors at one time, but there was no trace of them now. Inside, it
was dusty and empty with no furniture to give any clue as to what
the building had been used for. They set up the horses in the near
corner and put their camp in the back where the walls and domed
ceiling were still intact. It would protect them from weather
should they wish to stay for any length of time.
    After taking care of the horses and camp,
Liselle asked, “Shall we explore now?”
    A gravelly, tenor voice came from the
doorway. “Oh yes, I do love exploring!”
    Tathan and Liselle spun in alarm.
     
    ***
     
    In the doorway was a thin man. His hair was
metallic purple and his skin was cream-color, tinged with more
purple. The leggings and vest he wore were matching purple with
gold filigree. His feet were bare as was his chest underneath the
unclasped vest.
    It was immediately clear that he was not
human. His eyes were liquid-silver with no pupils or irises. He had
a wide grin with sharp, intimidating teeth.
    But out of all that was odd about this
creature, the fact that he was hopping from one foot to the other
in a funny sort of dance was the strangest. It was a happy dance.
He would hop twice on one foot, then twice on the other foot, and
then he would do a spin, moving his shoulders up and down in time
with some unheard music.
    Tathan had his sword out and was standing in
front of Liselle to protect her. “Who and what are you,
Stranger?”
    “Me? I am . . . Vevin!” he exclaimed, still
doing his happy dance. “Yes! Vevin is my name. Vevin is a good
name, no?” he asked hopefully.
    While Tathan stood there staring in
disbelief, Liselle moved out from behind him and gave the newcomer
a big smile. “Vevin is an excellent name. I like it.” She casually
waved her hand in her cousin’s direction as Tathan crouched, ready
to attack. “Don’t mind Tathan. He’s a bit jumpy and we didn’t
expect to find anyone way out here in the middle of the
forest.”
    “Yay! I like you.” Vevin waved at Tathan.
“Hi Tathan!” Still doing his dance, he spoke to Liselle, “You’re
nice. And pretty! I didn’t expect anyone out here either!” Vevin
added foot slides to his dance.
    “Thank you, Vevin,” Liselle said. “You seem
like a very happy person.”
    Vevin leaned forward with an intense look.
“No! I’m not happy at all. He stole my home and hurt me bad!” Vevin
turned his head and showed them a long, deep gash along the left
side of his face from the bottom of his chin to the top of his
head. It looked as though it was beginning to heal, but it was a
very serious wound.
    “Oh, Vevin. Who did that to you?” Liselle
moved forward with a hand raised to touch it. It made Tathan
nervous.
    Vevin shrank back. “Him! He’s bad and he
stole my home and I can’t say his name or he might find me and kill
me!” The dance changed to a frightened shuffle. Vevin hunched his
shoulders together and began moving back and forth like a
snake.
    Liselle made calming gestures. “It’s
alright, Vevin. We won’t say his name. He’s very bad if he did that
to you and stole your home.”
    “Yes! Very bad!” Vevin went back to doing
the original happy dance. A wide, toothsome smile filled his face,
marred by the wound. “Do we get to go explore now?”
    Liselle could tell that there was something
off about this person. She wondered if perhaps the wound on the
side of his head had damaged his mind. “Yes, Vevin. We can go
explore now.” She turned to her cousin. “Can’t we Tathan?”
    Tathan said nothing, just continued to
crouch with his sword at the ready.
    Liselle walked to Vevin. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll
follow. Let’s go explore.” She linked her arm in Vevin’s elbow.
    Vevin went eagerly with Liselle,
occasionally doing a little hop or dance. “Let’s investigate