Jaein was happy. It had been a while since she had been truly happy, the giddy kind of happy that made everything else just fade away, like smoke in the breeze. The source of her happiness walked beside her, his warm hand clasped in hers.
“What should we do today?” she had asked him earlier that morning. It had been three days since they had returned from the Free Fleet and they had no pressing duties for another four days. “Why don’t we go for a walk?” he said. “You can show me around the city and I can treat you to dinner.”
So that was what they had done, spending the whole day just walking around the city. Jaein had shown Clint New Cathun City, the streets, the parks, the shops, the little things about the city that made it unique. She showed him the Library, one of her favorite places in the city. After that, she had taken him to the Marble Park, a park with a large amount of beautifully carved statues. He enjoyed it all.
They talked a great deal during their walks. It was nothing substantial, no deep secrets, but it seemed the most important thing in the universe. Every word, every gesture was a clue into the enigma that was Clint Stone. Her training as a Diplomat was helpful, allowing her to draw conclusions from the smallest twitch of an eyebrow or the simple stroke of a finger as he scratched his chin. But for all that, Clint Stone could have shown a stone wall a few things about not revealing secrets. But she did not mind. She enjoyed a challenge.
On the surface, Clint was deceptively simple. He was the last survivor of his race, the Last Son of Earth as he called himself. He had shared that with her the second night they had been together, but he had not told her much more than that. As such, he was motivated by an anger and a need for vengeance she had never seen before. When Jaein had looked in his eyes after he had spoken of the murder of his planet, she had seen something in there that was far darker and much more dangerous than anything she had seen before.
He was also a good man. Even during his time as a wandering adventurer, he had always helped those who needed it, often without regard for his own personal safety. He had a soft spot for children, and from what she had heard, woe be unto those who incurred Clint’s wrath on behalf of a child. He was one of those rare beings who seemed like they had been drawn from a fairy tale, full of righteousness and honor. But underneath of it all was a strange mix of emotions and hidden thoughts to decipher that made negotiating with a Wersn seem a simple task. But she was determined to solve the mystery that was Clint Stone.
And everything she learned about him just made her love him more. It was strange. She had only known him for six days, not counting their disastrous first meeting on Pthunas Major, but Jaein felt like she had know him for much longer. She didn’t know much about his past, but she trusted him completely. It was a strange thought, but one she accepted.
Now, they were walking through a small park, one of the few that were not centered around one of the massive pillars. It was an unremarkable park, lacking any plants or distinguishing features. It was a field, plain and simple. It was a favorite of the children, ideally suited for running and throwing things.
She could see a score of them, running around, throwing a fist-sized ball around. Several others were having a mock sword fight with large sticks, likely from the trees in the parks around the pillars. One of the children overthrew the ball and it sailed over the other’s head. It rolled to a stop in front of Clint.
One of the children, a small Hyrth, ran after it, not looking where she was going. She finally got to the ball, but when she got there, Clint had already picked it up. The girl stopped in front of Clint and looked up at him, her head bent almost all the way back.
“Whoa. You’re big,” said the girl.
Clint smiled. “And you’re small.”
She squinted at him, then pointed at the ball in his hand. “Can I have the ball back?”
“Here you go,” said Clint, handing the ball to the girl. “Have fun.”
The children returned to their games and Jaein and Clint continued on their walk. She nudged him with her shoulder. “I think you have some admirers,” Jaein said, pointing her free thumb over her shoulder at the group of children, who had stopped their game to stand and stare at Clint walking. He looked back at them and waved. They scattered.
“I don’t think they’re looking at me,” he said.
“No? You’ve got to be the biggest being they’ve ever seen.”
“But you are the most beautiful one they’ve ever seen. Don’t give me that look,” he said, laughing as she gave him a sideways glance. “You know it’s true.”
Well, he sure did know how to give a compliment, Clint Stone. “Where is Tedix?” she asked abruptly. “I’ve been meaning to talk to him, but I haven’t seen him since we got back.”
Clint shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s probably snuggled up somewhere with a beautiful woman, exchanging words of passion.”
He bent close and whispered in her ear something that made her blush, the heat rushing to her face. “Well, then, what are we waiting for?” she said with a wicked smile. He grinned back at her, an equally wicked expression, and he snaked his arm behind her legs before Jaein knew what he was doing, knocking her off her feet and scooping her up in his arms.
“I don’t know,” he said as he set off to her house a few blocks away.
She woke up, limbs sore and body relaxed, buried under a pile of blankets. It had been an eventful night, even more so than the first night on board the Golden Hound. While they had spent most of the night in the bed, she had only fallen asleep around two o’clock in the morning. She rolled to the side and saw that it was almost three in the afternoon. She had been exhausted. Keeping up with Clint Stone was tiring work. Enjoyable, but tiring.
Now where was he? She pushed herself up and slipped her feet into large slippers, to keep her feet from touching the cold stonemetal floor. She wrapped herself in a large robe hung on the back of her bedroom door and walked out into rest of the house.
“Clint? Where’d you go?”
No answer. Hmm. She walked into the kitchen and spotted a sheet of paper on the table.
Good morning, beautiful. I’ve gone to play some baseball in the park. Come join when you’re up. Love, C What was baseball? Jaein was going to find out. She looked in the mirror and noticed her hair was decidedly messy. She brushed it back and pulled it into a single bunch, secured at the back of her head. Dressing in a pair of old, comfortable pants and shirt, she strode out of the door, heading for the park nearest to her house, the one where Clint had given the ball back to the Hyrth girl.
“Batter up!” Clint’s voice rang out over the low stone barrier that formed the perimeter of the park. Jaein heard a crack, the sound of wood on a hard object.
“Go, go, go,” said Clint. “Run to first. Good! Jeasa, throw the ball to sec-. Great, you’ve got the hang of it.”
What was going on? Jaein walked through the opening in the barrier that served as the gate to the park. What she saw was confusing. All of the children were gathered in one corner of the park, some in a large group off to the side and others spread out in a wide arc around Clint, who stood in the middle of them, holding a ball in his hand.
Around him, in a diamond shape, were four large white discs. She didn’t know what they were, but each one had a child standing next to it. The one closest to her had two children by it, one standing on it, and the other one next to it. In front of Clint was a child holding a large stick, thick and long. When Jaein got closer, she could see that it was the Hryth girl from yesterday. She stood sideways to Clint, her shoulders square and the large stick held in both hands, overing just over her shoulder.
“Are you ready?” asked Clint.
The girl nodded. Clint tossed the ball in his hand in a nice, gentle arc at the girl. It passed right in front of her, and the child behind her scooped it up and tossed it back to Clint.
“What kind of a throw was that?” demanded the girl, her face pinched. “I can’t hit that.”
Clint’s face turned a combination of apologetic and amused. “Sorry, Kela, it won’t happen again.”
She looked at him and nodded again. Clint threw the ball again, underhanded like the last time. But this time it went a little harder and a little faster, passing several feet in front of Kela. It would have but Kela swung the stick with a fury, whipping it through the air, impacting against the ball.
With a loud crack, the ball flew into the air and sailed high over Clint’s head, travelling past the children scattered in the field behind Clint. As soon as the ball had gone a few feet, Kela had dropped the stick and sprinted at the white disc near Jaein. The child who was standing on the disc sprinted at the next disc in the diamond pattern.
“What are you waiting for?” yelled Clint at the children in the field. “Go get the ball!”
The three closest children jumped and ran after it. “What are you waiting for?” Clint asked, looking at the child on the second white disc. “Run!” he said, moving his hands in a shooing gesture. “Go home.”
Why was he telling the kid to go home? They were in the middle of a game. At least, that was what Jaein assumed it was. But the kid did not leave the park, instead running to the next white disc and then to the one where Kela had hit the ball from. When he passed over the disc, half of the children cheered and half of them groaned. Kela was doing the same thing, running close to the first kid’s heels.
The children in the field had managed to chase down the ball and one of them threw it towards another child standing by the second white disc. She caught it and looked at Clint. “Throw it home, get her out,” Clint said. The girl nodded and threw it to the kid standing behind the disc.
Kela noticed the ball flying in and she dove, sliding in the grass until her hands touched the white disc. “Safe!” said Clint, swinging his arms out from his body parallel to the ground. “Home run!”
He walked down from his place in the middle of the discs and lifted his hand before Kela, who had stood up. “High five?” Clint asked. Kela looked at him. “Right, you don’t know what that is. Smack your hand against mine.”
Kela drew back her hand and sent it whistling into Clint’s, their palms meeting with a loud smack. Clint winced and shook his hand. Kela grinned at him. He grinned back. “You are quite the pistol,” he said, ruffling her hair.
She stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed. Jaein walked over. “Good afternoon,” she said.
The children looked up at her, then dismissed her when they realized she wasn’t one of their moms. Clint looked up and his grin grew wider. “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”
“What?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Clint turned to the kids. “Alright, it’s probably time you get home to your parents. Same time tomorrow?”
The kids chorused an agreement. “Then get out of here,” Clint said, shooing them with his hands. They scattered, some leaving in groups, others by themselves. Jaein watched them go. Almost every one of them waved at Clint as they left and he waved back.
“So, have a fun game?” Jaein asked Clint.
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s been so long since I’ve played baseball. It felt good to do it again, even if I only showed them the basics. Can you believe they have nothing like baseball? Nothing at all.”
“Seeing as how I do not know what baseball is, I can believe it.”
He looked down at her. “I guess I’ll just have to explain it to you.” And he did.