The Deep Silence

      The river below caught up with her, and her knees wobbled on impact, but she held on and emerged through the mist of the great Water Dragon diving into the river.

     She would not fall today, not on this last run. Aekin hadn’t made it to her other three surfing runs that morning, but she was sure he would be waiting at the finish line this time.

     Sweeping around the final bend, she looked anxiously to the crowds ahead, looking for her brothers, looking for Aekin. At last she spotted Tashni as the human smiled and waved to her. But no one else stood with her; no one else had come for Nokura. The Shoyru slid her board onto the sand beside the river and Tashni ran up to her with a hug. But no one else had come. Not even Aekin, who had promised.

      At home, no message awaited her. Empty and dreamless sleep was her friend that night. Only the following afternoon did she hear a beep from the silver Virtupets Messenger console her brother had installed. Green letters illuminated its dark screen.

     Hi Nokura,

     Sorry I missed your contest, but I got busy with an experiment and didn’t realize how late it was. But I’ll make it up to you, okay? Maybe we’ll go to the Lost Desert like you’ve been asking.

     Aekin

     Nokura smiled at last. It hadn’t actually been a contest, but that didn’t matter. He was going to take her to the Lost Desert to visit her brother! With a smile still on her face, Nokura went downstairs. She was not alone; she had only overreacted.

     “Marm,” she said to her human guardian as she headed for the front door, “I’m going to go tell Anji I can’t go on the surfing trip this weekend.”

     The brunette looked up from her newspaper. “Why? I thought you were looking forward to that.”

     “Aekin is taking me to see Zaf this weekend!”

     “Oh, that’s nice of him.”

     “Yeah, guess I should make him feel guilty more often, huh?”

     Tashni smiled, but the happiness in her eyes seemed reserved.

     That weekend, as the Shenkese river surfers took a boat to Mystery Island, Nokura sat by her window, looking up at the sky, waiting, dreaming of Aekin’s hidden Shoyru Space Station in the stars. While the surfers made memories on the beach, Nokura read comic books, waiting, remembering all the places they had gone on his expeditions to research Neopian culture. He chose all the places, and she helped him to understand. As the river surfers returned to Shenkuu with tightened bonds of friendship, Nokura cried.

      “Never again,” she promised herself. “Never again will I put him before them.”

     The next weekend, Nokura walked down to the shoreline just outside of Shenkuu. Surfers waved to her, standing beside their small docked boat. Nokura pulled her duffle bag strap tighter against her shoulder while her other arm balanced the surf board on her head.

      Nokura felt good about herself for the first time in weeks. No more running around the planet with that crazy alien when she could be spending time with her new neighbors. As Marm put it, home is where your friends are. Well, she lived on Shenkuu now, so she might as well make it home, too.

     “So Anji said, That’s what the bleach is for!” The Zafara’s giggles at her own punch line were joined by the giddy laughs of the other four.

     “Hey guys, what’s up?” Nokura said as she set her board down.

     After they greeted her, and a moment of silence passed as no one came up with something to talk about.

     A lanky Techo turned on his brilliant smile. “Hey, Nokura, I’m really glad you’re coming with us this time. You haven’t been yet.”

     “Yeah, me too.” Nokura took a deep breath and smiled. She would never again waste her time waiting on someone else.

     “There you are,” declared a cheerful voice.

      Nokura whirled around. “Aekin!” She dropped her bag and ran to him.

      “But of course. Sorry I missed your surf competition.” He flashed his trademark geeky smile.

      Giddiness tingled in her bones. “So you’re going to make it up to me?”

      “That’s what I’m here for.”

      “Okay, let me tell the surfers real quick.” The words felt strange pouring out of her mouth.

      “Great!” he said. “I’m parked over behind the noodle shop.”

      Nokura jogged back to the surfers. “I’m sorry, guys, I can’t go with you after all. Aekin is taking me to visit my brother in the Lost Desert. He didn’t tell me before, the stinker, but he’s here now. Maybe next weekend?”

      The Techo shrugged. “Oh, okay, Nokura. Too bad for us, though.”

      Without a second glance, Nokura flew after Aekin toward his space ship.

     The two jumped inside the spherical glass spaceship and Aekin started up the engines, though it was only a slight humming to her ears. They rose off the ground with the grace of a butterfly rising off a flower. “Do you need to go to your house to grab anything?”

     “Nah, I was already packed to go to an island, so I should be fine going to the Lost Desert.”

     “Lost Desert? We’re going to Krawk Island. I have been trying to find the time to go for weeks.”

     The joy vanished from Nokura’s cheeks. “Aekin, didn’t you tell you would take me to the Lost Desert? To make up for missing my competition?”

      “Oh, yeah. And I really will, but right now I’ve only got two days to travel for who knows how long, and I really wanted to go Krawk Island. You don’t mind, do you?” He continued manipulating the controls as they skimmed above the ocean surface, heading west to Krawk Island.

      Nokura chewed on her lip and said nothing more.

     Aekin descended into a swamp behind the fungus cave, and Nokura kept silent about the safety of his parking spot. He opened the hatch and a gooey ‘s-p-u-l-c-h’ rewarded him. The alien flew outside, distaste clearly keeping him from touching the foul mud around them. Nokura flew out toward the marketplace, vaguely aware that Aekin followed her as he soaked in their vile surroundings.

     They landed at a pier bustling with natives and their goods. Aekin flitted from stand to stand, babbling constantly. “It’s absolutely remarkable. Here, Krawk Island is a complete ecological dump, hardly fit for Neopian life, and yet it is a cultural oasis. Goods from every land—Shenkuu, Meridell, even Faerieland! It’s just remarkable; I’ve been wanting to come here for the last three months.”

     Nokura turned sharply to him. “You mean you’ve been planning to come here?”

     “Of course.”

      “For how long?

     “Oh, five weeks at least.”

      She didn’t say another word.

     The rest of the day went on much as Nokura had expected. Aekin ran from place to place about the island, occasionally asking her for directions or recommendations, and she trailed him as he pestered the natives with questions. The answers he received always went in his notebook, along with any passing thought he wanted to preserve. By the early afternoon, dark clouds had blown in over the island.

      “Aekin, that’s a storm coming in.”

      “Don’t be silly. This is an island; it rains all the time. That doesn’t mean a storm is coming.”

      Nokura rolled her eyes as she noted the numerous Islanders closing shop and going into their houses. One of these days Aekin was going to have to learn to listen to other people.

      Of course, rain did fall. Why did he even drag her around Neopia if he wasn’t going to listen to her? She couldn’t even be a proper tour guide, which was apparently all he wanted out of her. Silly, hard-headed alien.

      She brooded as the torrential rain whipped its icy drops into her face. Her hair slapped at her eyes and she growled within herself. Aekin looked only slightly uncomfortable, and she thought she actually saw a smile on his face.

      “What could you possibly be smiling at?”

      “What?” He cupped his hand around his ear.

      “I said, what could you possibly be smiling at?”

      “Oh, sorry. It’s just so amazing! The way your climate can change so quickly. There’s never more than a seven degree temperature change on the station. And here, you go from dry and sunny and to cold and stormy within an hour! Incredible.”

      If looks could kill, Aekin would have dropped dead. “Let’s just get back to your ship and you can take me home,” said Nokura.

      “Take you home? Let’s just sleep in the Sphere, and maybe the storm will be over by tomorrow.”

      Another deadly glare.

      He slumped his shoulders and started for the Sphere.

     The jungle’s already swamp-like ground was now knee-deep with sticky mud that shlopped as their feet came in and out of it. Aekin had been oddly quiet for some time, but Nokura was too disgusted with their trek to notice.

      “I hope the Sphere hasn’t sunk,” Aekin whispered.

      “What did you say?” Nokura stopped and stared at him.

      “Um, I hope the Sphere hasn’t sunk.” He plastered on his optimistic smile. “I’m sure it hasn’t; I’m just saying.”

      Nokura trudged ahead of him into the small clearing where they had landed. She could see the Sphere, but not all of it, and she cried out in wordless vexation. Aekin came in behind her and groaned. The Sphere had sunk at least three feet into the mud.

      She clenched her fists and turned on him. “This is your fault! I told you it would rain—you didn’t listen—now YOU get it out of the mud!”

      Aekin looked up at her with his mouth open. “Nokura, I’m sorry. I guess I should have listened, but—”

      “What do you mean, you guess you should have listened to me? I’ve lived on Neopia my entire life; I know a storm when I see one. And if I am going to be your little tour guide, you should at least listen to me. If you won’t, I’ve had it. I’m through giving up my life for you, you inconsiderate, ungrateful jerk!”

      His eyes widened in shock. “Nokura....”

      Her mouth grew distorted, choking back a sob.

      Nokura didn’t want to cry—she didn’t feel like crying, but she could feel the emotions pushing out of her body through her eyes. She leapt into the air and flew straight up into the grey darkness.

      “Nokura!”

      Nokura felt Aekin grab her arm, and she yanked against him.

     “Nokura, what’s going on?”

      “I waited for you! You said you’d come and you didn’t.”

      “I said I’d try—”

      “But you didn’t! I sent you messages, Aekin, didn’t you get them?”

      “Well, yeah, but I was busy and—”

      “But nothing. You didn’t even come to my competition!”

      “I was in the middle of—”

      “But it was important to me, Aekin. And I thought it would be important to you, too, because I thought you were my friend, but I guess not. Friends don’t abandon you, Aekin, not on the most important day of your life. But I thought, he’ll make it up to me. I know he will. So I waited for you all of that weekend, and not so much as a letter telling me you wouldn’t be coming. Friends don’t do that, Aekin.”

      Aekin drew his arms around himself as if he felt exposed, naked. “Nokura, I... I am your friend.”

      “How can you possible say that? You didn’t come for just one hour to see me surf, you never even said sorry. But then you want to go see the Lost Desert or someplace and you stroll into town and expect me to drop everything and play tour guide.” Her voice cracked. “The worst part of it is I do drop everything because I love going with you. But I can’t blow off the people who are here to go with you. Because of you, I’m not sure I have any friends left.”

      Aekin was silent.

      Nokura pulled off her helmet, letting her scraggly orange hair hang loose. Shaking her head she said, “Later, Aekin,” and yanked her arm away from his hand and flew away.

     Aekin flew back into his ship, and as his feet touched the metal deck, his knees dropped to the ground. He stared at the metal plating, turning over her words, trying to assimilate them. As the shock wore off, anger took its place. How could she say those things to him? How was he supposed to know she was so upset with him, and to have the nerve to just explode at him without warning? Maybe she did this to everyone, got some sick pleasure out of inflicting pain on others. Maybe that’s why she didn’t have any friends in Shenkuu.

      He didn’t need this. He turned on the engine and headed up, home to Shoyru Space Station. As he climbed up the atmosphere, he continued to try to grasp the workings of a disturbed female’s mind. Many psychiatrists theorized that the Neopians were prone to mental instability. How could they not be? They lived on a giant rock hurtling around a star, where wild animals roamed and the wrath of nature could be unleashed without warning. Nothing was clean; nothing could be clean with all those organisms mucking about.

     The ship passed Virtupets, and just beyond it he reached the Shoyru Space Station, hidden from the eyes of Neopia. He went straight to his apartment, not hungry. Plopping on his cot, his eyes wandered to his electronic messenger’s screen. It was filled with messages from Nokura, at least a dozen. Not one of them had warned him of Nokura’s explosive personality, either.

     He had only said that he would take her to the Lost Desert sometime. He certainly hadn’t said when, nor had he asked her to wait for him. He could prove it, too. He tore through her messages, reading each word. All she said was that this competition was coming and she was inviting him. It was the biggest competition of the year. She hoped he would come. Aekin stopped dead in his mental tracks.

     08/02/Y9

     Hi Aekin,

      The surfing competition is tomorrow! Zaf can’t come, which is disappointing, but at least I’ll have you. I’ll have four surf runs! So if you can’t make it to the early ones, I’m sure you’ll be able to make the afternoon run. River surfing is just amazing, I think you’ll really love it!

      - Nokura

     08/03/Y9

     Hi Aekin,

      Thanks for your message. I’m sorry you couldn’t make it to the competition. I guess it was a bad time for a lot of people. Not even Zaf could tear himself away from work to come see me. But you can be here this weekend to take me to the Lost Desert, right? I haven’t seen Zaf in weeks, and I think you’ll really like him.

      - Nokura

     08/08/Y9

     Aekin, where are you? You didn’t come. Could you maybe drop me a letter? I’m worried and haven’t seen you in what, almost three weeks? Thanks.

     - Nokura

     Aekin felt his hand tremble against his lips. Her heart had broken right in front of him and he’d never noticed. He fell to his bed and stared up at the ceiling

     * * *

     Nokura hadn’t left her bed since she’d got home that afternoon. She held a comic book in front of her eyes, but hadn’t read any of the twenty or so pages she’d been leafing through.

      “Nok?” Shoonie’s voice called from the other side of her door.

      “Yeah?”

      The Faerie Grundo tiptoed in. “Back so soon?”

      She turned over away from him. “Yeah.”

      Nokura’s bean bag crackled as he sat down in it. “I was really disappointed Aekin didn’t get to come to your surfing competition.”

      Silence.

      “Why don’t you go out surfing with your friends?”

     “You mean my acquaintances? They’re all at Mystery Island.”

     “I know you really wanted him here, especially because Zaf didn’t come.”

     She curled into a tighter ball.

      “You want anything to eat?”

      “No thanks.”

      Shoonie nodded and quietly left. As soon as he shut the door behind him, he stopped tiptoeing and charged into his room. He sat at his private Virtupets Messenger and dug out Aekin’s messenger number.

      “Hello?” Aekin’s face popped up on the screen.

      “Aekin, this is Shoonie.”

      “Oh. Nokura’s brother.”

      “That’s right, Nokura’s brother. Let me tell you something Aekin, you might be able to leave and go up that Station of yours on a whim, but I’m down here with Nokura. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I don’t like seeing her so upset.”

     “She’s still mad.”

      Aekin “No, you idiot, she’s in her room crying.”

      “Crying?”

      “Yes! First you abandoned her on the biggest day of her life, and then you have the gall to dump her back here after she gave up surfing trip to go with you!”

      “I did not dump her back! She wanted to go back.”

      “Why in the world would she want to come back home in just a few hours, Aekin?”

      “She... she was mad at me.”

      “Why?”

      “I don’t know! She wanted to go to the Lost Desert, and I wanted to go to Krawk Isle, that was all.”

      Shoonie snorted in disgust. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Didn’t you promise her you’d take her to the Lost Desert?”

      “I will, but I only had a limited time and—”

      “You idiot.”

      “What?”

      “Aekin, do you have any comprehension of what she’s going through?” Shoonie’s voice cracked.

      “No, I guess not,” the Shoyru whispered. “What’s going on, Shoonie?”

      “You’re a blind fool, that’s what’s going on. Aekin, she has never been so alone as she is right now. That surfing competition nearly broke her heart, especially when Zaf didn’t come up from the Lost Desert. You cannot understand how close she is to her brother, Aekin. It hurt her deeply when Zaf moved to the Lost Desert, even though he still visits. I could see her heart break all over again when he didn’t make it to the surfing competition.

      “But she could still smile about one thing, up until her very last run in the competition. You were coming. Her one friend she could count on. Even when you didn’t come, she was so happy when you told her you would take her to the Lost Desert. She was sure you would show up that weekend to take her. She even told the other surfers she couldn’t go with them to surf at Mystery Island. But you never came, you never even responded to her next letters. Do you understand, Aekin? You made her faith in you look foolish. You made her look foolish.”

      Aekin stared in silence at his fingernails.

      “So this weekend, she was determined not to wait for you any longer. She was going to go with her friends to Mystery Island. But then you showed up, and apparently you forgot all about making it up to Nokura. As if her feelings didn’t really matter. Now more than ever, Aekin, she needs a friend, and she doesn’t feel like she has any.”

      Aekin nodded in silence, and the messenger screen went black. Shoonie leaned back in his chair and ran his hand over his face.

     * * *

     Aekin fidgeted at the top of a mossy hill. He glanced down at the bridge below, at the Shoyru girl sitting on it. He started to walk down the hill toward her, but stopped and turned around.

     “Aekin, you have to,” he whispered to himself and marched down the hill. He sat down next to her and saw her glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

      “Hi, I’m Aekin,” he said, holding out his hand.

      “I thought you were on Shoyru Space Station.”

      “Well, I was, but I came back.”

      She nodded.

      He sighed. “I’m really sorry, Nokura.”

     “I was just a tour guide, Aekin, no need for you to apologize to me.”

     He was silent for a long time before he worked up the courage to speak again. “I ruined your trip to Mystery Island with your friends. It’s not a lot, but I am going to take you there. They’re still going to be there all of today, aren’t they?”

      She nodded and stood up. “Thanks. Where’s your ship?”

      He started to say something, but closed his mouth and led her to the ship. They made the trip in silence, rushing first over the thin peaks of Shenkuu and then over the open ocean.

     The Island quickly came into view, and Nokura pointed to its eastern side. Aekin slowed the ship down until she spotted the surfing spot her friends had often spoke of. He landed and opened the ramp to let her out.

     As she walked toward the exit, Nokura hesitated. “Why are you doing this? Bringing me here?”

     “I have recently become aware of a wise Neopian proverb: To have a friend, you must first be a friend. I only wish they had that saying on the Station.”

      Her hurt eyes looked into his.

      “I’m really sorry, Nokura,” he whispered.

      She was silent at first. “You really want me to teach you how to surf?”

      Aekin nodded.

      She motioned toward the beach. “Come on.” She took his hand and gave him the most wonderful little smile, and he knew everything would be okay.

The End

Author's Note: If you would like to read more about Aekin and Nokura, they have previously appeared in the stories "The Shoyru From Outer Space" and "Revenge of the Golden Jubjub". Neomail is always appreciated. ^_^