chapter 16 - old friend

"Klee, run!" I shouted at her.

"But big sis, I can use my bombs on them!" she argued and already turned around.

"Don't!" I ran towards her, stopping her before she could throw any bombs. "You will burn down the rainforest, sweetie"

The angry group of fungi approached us, they got closer every second. I really didn't want to fight, I was tired and wanted to arrive at Sumeru City.

"Oh well" I sighed and summoned my catalyst. I felt the dendro powers running through my veins as I summoned tendrils and wrapped them around the fungi. I made a circular motion with my right hand, like I would use ropes to tighten around them and pulled the strings of dendro tendrils strong. The fungi disappeared in a second.

"Big sis, you are amazing!" Klee clapped her hands, I couldn't help but feel proud that she looked up to me.

We've been traveling together for around one and a half month. I took Klee to Natlan, to the land of pyro, I thought it would be useful for her to get close to the nation of her element.  We visited some bathhouses to rest between training sessions. She was talented, but she was still very young, needing a lot of practice. I, myself went through constant training from my time at Dawn winery, Crepus hired professionals for us to train us to use a weapon of our choice. The bow was really a weak point for me, for a claymore I wasn't strong enough physically. I did enjoy wielding a sword, but catalyst weapon was the one meant for me. I guess it runs in the family.

Klee insisted to visit Sumeru together. She has never really been there, and she wanted to see the nation I've spent a lot of time at.

We were walking through the rainforest, our destination was Sumeru city. My mom bought me a small apartment there and it was basically empty now. I was thinking about selling it, I had no intention to live there again for a long time, but now, a backup place was quite useful.

In Natlan, I heard about strange happenings in Sumeru, an affair with the sages, who wanted to create a god, and even my Akasha terminal disappeared. According to the news, it was peaceful now there, but the Akademiya turned upside down, as suddenly there were many open seats for sages.

I guess I made a good decision that I left the city in time.

We were getting close, it kind of felt like I've never really left. I walked through the road to the city multiple times before, after all, it was my home for a while.

Klee was in awe as she inspected our surroundings.

"This city is beautiful, big sis" she exclaimed, her fiery eyes sparkled.

"It is, indeed" I agreed. I led her through the busy streets until we found my apartment. It was on the second floor of a bigger building, a small and cosy place. It had only one room, with tiny kitchen area, a double bed and a separate bathroom. I removed all the decorations when I lived there, they were too colorful for my taste.

"I want to explore the city, big sis!" she clapped her hands.

"We will, Klee" I petted her head. "But first, how about we both take a bath?"

"Klee is stinky" she nodded and left to the bathroom. "The rainforest is amazing" she said from inside. "But you will smell bad and get dirty if you spend too much time there"

I simply just smiled at this. I was stinky too, I needed that bath too, more than anything. But I was patiently waiting for Klee to finish.

I was planning to meet a friend in the upcoming days. I used to talk to him about Klee a lot and he asked me to introduce her once. I don't know why was he interested in my sister, somehow he found fascinating her enthusiasm for bombs. Weird guy.

But honestly, I missed him. He originally was helping me when I started the Akademiya, as calculations wasn't my strongest quality, and I needed some coaching. He randomly came up to me in the library when he saw I was clearly suffering with my homework, and after that time, we simply just became friends. We used to chat about everything. Academic topics, personal struggels, or simply just gossips about other students. They were fun times.

Once both Klee and I finished cleaning ourselves, we decided to have lunch at the city. We visited a tavern, Klee really enjoyed the spicier cuisine of Sumeru.

"And what are we going to do after this, big sis?" asked Klee, munching on her food.

"I want to introduce you to a friend" I smiled at her. "I also want to talk with him, we haven't met for a while. Then, I am going to show you something exciting tonight"

"Really, what is that?" she asked.

"It's a secret" I put my index finger in front of my mouth. "But you're going to like it, trust me"

We left the apartment to go and meet my friend. I didn't inform him that I am in the city, I wanted to surprise him. Last time I visited, we couldn't meet, so we haven't seen each other for a while.

We went to his house, I knocked on the door. His roommate opened the door.

"Oh hey, Alhaitham, how are you? Is Kaveh at home?" I greeted him. I met him a couple times when I visited Kaveh, but he was usually cold and quiet, I've only had some casual small talk with him.

"Tessa, what a surprise" he nodded. "And who is the little lady?" he looked down on Klee. She waved her hand at him.

"This is my sister, Klee" I introduced her.

"I see" he said. "Kaveh is not at home at the moment, but I am pretty sure he will arrive soon" he stated. "I was just about to leave, but please, get inside, you can wait for him here" he offered and stepped back so we could enter the house.

"Thank you, Alhaitham"

"See you later" he nodded and then left. Klee furrowed her eyebrows at me once Alhaitham closed the door.

"He is one of those weird adults" she stated. "Is your friend like him, big sis?"

"No" I shook my head and laughed a little at her comment. "My friend is a very nice guy, actually. Sometimes a little dense"

An idea popped in my head.

"Klee, how about playing a prank on him?"

"A prank?" her eyes widened, but I knew she would take part in it. I whispered the instructions in her eyes. She sat down on the couch in the living room, while I hid in Kaveh's room.

We didn't have to wait long, I heard the door opening soon.

"Uhm, hello?" I heard Kaveh's confused voice, I tried so hard to hold in my laughter.

"Daddy?" asked Klee with her innocent voice.

A couple seconds of silence, then "HUUUUUH? ARE YOU MY DAUGHTER? Wait, wait, wait, you are too big to be my daughter"

I couldn't hold it in anymore, I started laughing loudly. I wish I could see his reaction, but oh well. I came out of the room.

"TESSA?" he asked loudly. "Wait, what?"

He was clearly confused.

"Hello, Kaveh" I waved. "Long time no see. Let me introduce you to my little sister, Klee"

He blinked a couple of times.

"I don't know if I want to hit you or hug you right now" he sighed. He kneeled in front of Klee. "Hello, little Klee, I am Kaveh. Nice to meet you"

"You are a funny guy, Mr Kaveh" grinned Klee. "Nice to meet you"

Kaveh ruffled her hair then he looked up at me.

"I've missed you, stupid Tessa" he stated.

"I've missed you too" I gave him a closed-eyed smile. "Let's talk then, shall we?"

He nodded. We had a lot of things to catch up with.

——

Author's note

Honestly, the first time I saw Kaveh I knew I want to include him in this story. We don't know about him a lot yet, but umm, yeah, this is how I imagine his character to be, sorry if y'all don't like it.

See you in next chapter