The best part of waking up was arousing on your own terms without anyone inducing it. Most days Jinx would be splashed with water, dumped with a bucket of cowpats and/or just kicked out of the bed by none other than the youngest of Salem's subordinates, Karma.
Jinx peeled his eyes open and stretched obnoxiously. His entire body became stiff from lying down for a long period of time. Birds were singing and tweeting while the cows were mooing more than usual. It was Karma's schedule to milk today, wasn't it? Jinx won't move a muscle today. That kid needed to work some bones. He was way too lanky to be Salem's apprentice.
As Jinx was about to close his eyes, a black fluffy tail rolled down from the upper bunk followed by a white and spiky lizard-like tail that came swinging with a loud smack against the bed frame. His eyes almost popped out from his sockets. Instead of mustering up the courage to run outside and report a beast invasion in their quiet farm, he fainted.
The blonde teenager reawakened an hour or so, rubbing his head. This time he sat up and sighed.
"What a nightmare…" he grumbled.
He groggily slipped out of the bed and headed to the dining table, barefoot. His feet touched the rough wooden floors as he glided. Each step he made created a creaking sound, alerting the three people eating breakfast.
Wait...three people?
"WHAT THE HECK?!" He stumbled back. His hand grabbed on the nearest thing he could seize and threw it at the fiend. Karma jolted up; eyes wide when the klutz threw his most precious jar of candies from his table of confectioneries.
"Don't touch my candies you schmuck!"
There was a piece of toast between the viel's front teeth. His reaction made Kou's tails freeze in tension while the other Salem paid no mind. The black tail snatched the jar mid-air, placing it on the table with ease and to Karma's absolute relief.
"What is that thing doing here? Why is he sitting on MY CHAIR?!"
He thought that everything that happened in El' Azar was a dream. With the presence of the viel and with the bandages wrapped around Karma's shoulder, Jinx had one question in mind:
"Di...didn't I die?"
Karma had the same query as he did. He had witnessed Jinx get toasted to death by the viel but low and behold the ninny was still in tip top shape except for his brain.
"Yes, you did. Kou apologizes," the viel responded, bowing before sitting back down to devour his toast.
"Sorry? Sorry?! Get out of our house!"
He turned him into an overcooked turkey, yet he apologized as if the only damage he gave was a little pluck to the eyebrow.
"Jinx, sit down. Don't make a fuss so early in the morning. The cows will get scared," Salem lightly chided.
"What in the world is that 'thing' doing here?!"
"That's the same question I have for you every day." Karma placed his jar of candies under the table. His master wouldn't allow him to sneak in a piece without having a decent meal.
Jinx pointed a crooked finger at him. 'Whose side are you on, Karma?"
"Never yours that's for sure."
The confused teen turned to Salem for answers. "Ma--master...what's going on?"
Salem was wearing regular clothes–a long gray knitted sweater, white pants, and brown leather shoes. He was neat and clean as always, but half of his face was still hidden in a clothed mask.
Despite living with Salem since he was a baby, he had never seen his face uncovered. It had been 18 years. Sometimes he'd imagine him to have bizarre and otherworldly features. When they ate their meals together, he would only have milk.
"Kou will be living with us for now. A demon lord has entered Canaan. It could be Beelzebub. King Nilus has been notified of what has occurred in El' Azar."
Jinx scoffed. His hands curled into a fist.
"But...he killed me."
The viel kept sneaking glances at him. His master had pinned him with a sharp gaze, showing that he did not want this conversation to continue anymore.
"You're alive now, aren't you?"
Were they really trusting a viel? Had his master lost his wits? How was he alive anyway? Wouldn't Salem explain this baffling miracle?
Kou felt Jinx's dislike towards him but there was nothing he could do to rewrite what had happened. He was merely protecting King Kairon while he rested. What he did was nothing personal. He was only doing his duty.
Jinx turned away and went back to sleep. He lost his appetite and his respect for his master.
"Drama Queen…" Karma snorted.
The knight spread more apricot marmalade on his buttered toast. "Kou is sorry and not sorry at the same time."
"Your ambivalence is understandable," Salem commented.
The day proceeded; Jinx decided to move. He'll get rid of Kou despite the possibility of losing his life again. This was their home. They couldn't let a freak stay here. His master may have trusted him, but Jinx wasn't buying it.
Jinx volunteered to prepare lunch. He cooked peas, rice, corn soup, and roasted slabs of pork. He divided their portions and sprinkled rat's poison in Kou's soup.
Once everyone was seated, Jinx cleared his throat, nervously calling out Karma who sat at the place where he expected Kou to be sitting.
"That's Kou's place."
The young boy gave him a questioning look. "Since when did we assign seats? I can sit wherever I want."
"We should start assigning seats because who knows what poison he has on his ass!"
"The guy isn't a puffer fish, stop catastrophizing things!"
The knight's head popped up from under the table, sniffing the corn soup where the rat's poison was sprinkled in.
"Soup smells funny."
The subordinates stopped quarrelling; Karma glared at Jinx who refused to make eye contact.
"You don't say?"
Salem came in to join with an open packet of rat's poison from the kitchen.
"Jinx, I'm banning you from the kitchen from now on."
"I don't know how that got there; I swear!"
He was deeply offended. He came off as the snake in the grass when his intentions were to protect their home. This made him even more hateful towards the freak of nature.
Karma had to redo their lunch with what scraps they had left from the cupboard. Since he was royally pissed at Jinx, he only gave him a strand like piece of meat, but the teen was too busy glaring at the knight who was minding his manners. It was like a piglet trying to intimidate the big bad wolf.
The cows boredly stared at Jinx pacing back and forth in the barn. He had been unsettled after lunch. "I can't let him win. My master taught me better–ugh, dammit!"
His boot sank into a soft and mushy manure, but his scowl washed away and was replaced with a devilish grin.
"I'll get you now!"
He collected cow dung from the wide field that his master owned, filling the bucket up to the brim. Jinx asked Karma to call Kou to come to the barn, to which the young boy did but he also came himself to see what the airhead was scheming. It was always nice to see how Jinx finds unique ways to get himself in trouble.
"What are you up to now?"
"Nothing, I was going to ask you for help, but your shoulder is injured."
Jinx situated himself on the second floor and waited for Kou to come. He held the foul-smelling bucket, taking a peek at the wide window of the barn. Karma sat on the hay just outside. As soon as Jinx saw Kou's form, he ducked, not realizing that he was already seen. He lifted the heavy bucket, veins popping on his forehead and with a wide and desperate smile on his lips. Kou was oblivious to his plans which made things more enjoyable for Karma. The knight decided to use a shortcut by leaping straight away to the window on the second floor. His knee knocked the bucket to Jinx's head, tipping the opening to his face.
Jinx fainted then and there with his face buried in cow poop.
The knight felt sorry for him. It wasn't because he thought that it was his fault; Jinx was merely naturally damned.
"Karma?"
"You don't have to tell me. Is he still alive?"
He almost let a laughter slip from his usually stoic face. Master Salem will definitely find this story amusing. Nightfall came. Jinx came around with the odour of dung stuck in his nostrils. He stiffened when Kou entered with a tray of food in hand.
"What are you doing here?"
"Kou brought you dinner."
Jinx sat, glaring at him with gritted teeth. Kou was nothing but a killer, a freak of nature. Why should he trust him?!
He grabbed the glass of orange juice, pouring the contents into Kou's silver hair and slapping the tray of food from his hold. The crooked silverware clanged on the floor; the plate and bowl shattered into pieces. He shoved him against the wall.
"Get out! Leave us alone! We don't need you here!"
Kou's metallic cat-like ears flickered and flattened. Karma and Salem came in with Karma standing in between to break them off.
"Did you lose another screw? What are you doing?"
"Why are we letting this monster live with us, master?"
Salem sighed behind his mask. "If I had the same mindset as you, Jinx, I'd be living alone."
Jinx and Karma couldn't fully comprehend what he meant by that but Jinx, still being a child at mind and heart, pushed the knife of Salem's words further into his chest when his words weren't even meant to stab anyone.
"You were excommunicated because you saved a kid who shouldn't have been saved. Why do you pity monsters?" Jinx questioned angrily.
Salem didn't respond. It was complicated. They wouldn't be able to comprehend. Jinx stormed out of the house when his question was left unanswered. Salem was 32 years old with no wife and kids yet living with these two made him seem like a father of two sons.
"Should we let him be?" Karma asked.
"Yes," Salem answered.
"Good, I wasn't planning on chasing after him anyway."
Jinx's discriminating attitude was shameful, but he could already guess the reason for it. "I'm sorry for his behaviour."
Kou nodded his head in acceptance. "Viels are used to it. We have been called a freak of nature for as long as we can remember."
"He doesn't know what he is saying. Don't pay mind to him," Karma advised.
"Kou understands."
When he was a kid, he would cry about it, but Kairon knew all his hiding spots and would search for him even if the king himself wasn't feeling well.
'Did they say mean words to you again, Kou?'
He racked with sobs. The wounds caused by the rocks thrown at him were already healed.
'Kou is a monster. He is, isn't he?"
Kairon weakly pulled the viel out of the bush, embracing him.
'Kou is no monster. Forgive them Kou, people hate things they don't understand.'
The viel's sobbing calmed down; he hugged the young king back. The king's opinion was the only thing that mattered to him up until now. Despite what the people of El' Azar would say, Kou kept his head high and proudly shielded his king against all threats and harm. King Kairon was the only person he lived for.
Jinx sprinted to the forest; his feet were muddy. He had forgotten to put on shoes. It was the full moon. He was so prideful and arrogant that he missed the fact that he was a wuss in the dark. Panic overwhelmed him. He turned around, meaning to return home but tripped on a rock. He groaned and gathered himself in a crouching position.
At that quiet moment of the crickets, he realized how much of an ungrateful prick he was. Salem may be mean to Jinx most days, but without him, he would have died a long time ago. His parents abandoned him. Salem took him in when he was still a baby. People thought he had a child at a young age; his master neither denied nor accepted the rumours. The prodigy held his hand and guided him up until this date.
With all the bad luck that Jinx brought, any parent would have disowned him. However, Salem never considered throwing him out. To Jinx, Salem was both a father and a mother to him.
He hit his head against the trunk of a tree and yanked his hair out of frustration. "You're so stupid!" He screamed at himself. He covered his face with his hands, becoming teary-eyed.
How could he have done that to him?
"I'm sorry. I'm so stupid..."
Did he still have a face to show? The advantage that Jinx had over others was that even if he didn't have any face to show, he'd still show up.
"I... I have to apologize!" he declared with full resolve. He yelped when the moon's light got obstructed. He glanced up to cuss at the clouds but found that the clouds were not the culprit.
His profound determination was dampened as well as his pants.
"It's been a long time since I ate a human. What a feast."