Reality Skimming

Part 10

“If you let it get any longer it will get in your way all the time,” Amel continued his haircut campaign.

Diff thought about this while they walked hand in hand through the curved halls of the Market Round. Alivda now came up to just past Amel’s hip. She was very proud of this, seeing as she was only three years old.

The Market Round was a huge shopping centre for all kinds of people. That was why Amel liked it so much, for its diversity. That and the three tiers of shops and the crowds of people made it so he didn’t stand out.

“Okay,” Alivda said, finally caving to what she clearly thought of as a chore. “But fast.”

“I can do that,” Amel said.

He led Alivda towards an establishment he frequently visited for the good company.

“In here,” Amel said.

“No,” Diff said again.

“Why not?” Amel asked.

Alivda pointed to the sign. It read ‘Casual Cuts.’

“Yes,” Amel said, “this is a hair cutting place.”

“No,” Alivda said again.

“What’s the matter?” Amel asked her, leaning down so he could look her in the eye.

“No,” Alivda said, no longer pointing anywhere.

Amel sighed. He could have put his foot down and made her go to this place but he knew he would cave as soon as she looked upset.

“Alright, fine,” Amel said. “Where do you want to go?”

“Pretty!” Alivda said, pointing to her chest.

“Yes, you are pretty,” Amel said. “But where do you want to go?”

“Not pretty,” Alivda said, pointing to Casual Cuts.

“You are so spoiled,” Amel said, smiling, for he loved spoiling her.

Twenty minutes later they were at West Alcove, in a much smaller upper class place.

“Is this better?” Amel asked Diff.

She giggled and jumped up in the air. Amel gestured for her to climb on and she did. With her secure on his shoulders, they headed off.

“What can I do for you today, Immortality?” the greeter or host of the salon asked.

“She needs a haircut,” Amel said, pointing to the blonde on his shoulders.

“This way, sir.”

Alivda was seated in a chair and told to wait.

“Don’t touch that!” Amel said, snatching the hair dryer from her, but only seconds later she had a hot iron instead.

“No!” Amel yelled. “That could hurt you. Let go!”

And he tried to pull the hot iron away from her. Alivda released it right away and the backlash of his own pulling force banged the hot element into Amel’s face.

The few seconds of contact with Amel’s skin was enough to leave an angry burn across his cheek.

“That isn’t funny, Alivda,” Amel said, for Diff was giggling and clapping her hand in amusement. “Now sit quietly; they will be here soon,” Amel said then turned his attention to his burned face. He barely had time to do more than tentatively touch his burns, however, before the sound of a bang alerted him.

He looked up. Diff was holding a piece of her hair in triumph. She had cut it off as close to her scalp as she could. Amel barely had enough time to register that the bang he had heard had been all the hairdresser’s tools being thrown to the ground as Alivda dove for the scissors.

“What have you done?” Amel said softly to Alivda, who just grinned like she had done a great thing. It was then that the hairdresser arrived.

“What have you done!” she cried. “My salon! Out, out!!”

Amel didn’t need telling twice. He grabbed Alivda, who was still holding her hair like a prize, left some money on the chair and ran.

A Haircut

Part 9

And so Amel took Alivda to Lilac Hearth. He showed her everything except Ev’rel’s workshop. When he was done, Alivda wanted to know where they could go next.

“The Market Round?” Amel suggested.

“Food?” Alivda asked.

“Yes, they serve food,” Amel said. “But they have places to cut your hair there too.”

Alivda’s hand moved to her head and grabbed her hair.

“Yes, that,” Amel said. “It is getting very long, Diff.”

“No,” Diff said as if that settled the matter.

“How about haircut, then food?” Amel asked.

Alivda still looked wary.

“Why don’t we just go there and look around to start?” Amel tried again.

Alivda thought that sounded reasonable and nodded.

An Outing

Part 8

“Waiting for Amel,” Alivda was saying to a little girl who was older than her but half her height.

“You know Amel!” the little girl said.

“We’re like this,” Alivda said, holding up her crossed fingers.

“Really!” The girl's eyes were as big as saucers. Alivda enjoyed how famous her special friend was. But no matter how kind he was to everyone else, she still knew she was special to him. He only had one baby dragon.

Alivda nodded.

“Can you introduce me?”

“He’s mine,” Alivda said. The girl frowned at her like she didn't know if that was a yes or a no.

The two of them were sitting outside looking up at the clouds. They had only been at it for a few minutes, but Alivda was already bored.

“Let’s run,” Alivda said.

“Mommy told me to stay,” the little girl said.

“Mommy isn’t here,” Alivda grinned and took off.

The little commoner girl didn’t try to keep up. She went back inside the house. Boring.

Alivda stopped running after a while and turned around. She couldn’t see the house anymore. She didn’t know which way was back to where Amel would know to get her.

“Uh oh!” she said out loud.

“Uh oh is right,” came a familiar voice.

“AMEL!” Alivda said and ran to him.

He scooped her up in his arms and spun her around.

“Do you want to see where I live?” Amel asked.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Alivda said.

Waiting

Part 7

After his visit with Ann, Amel took Diff on his Envoy adventures for a while. It turned out that when delivering messages it didn’t help to have a baby dragon with you. Alivda got him into trouble more times than he could count, but he didn’t care. She was still his little Diff. and he had never had as much fun than with her. To him, it almost felt like he had a chance to live his childhood over again. Diff, unlike him, would always know she was loved.

When it was time for him to go home, he couldn’t think of where to leave Diff.

“Why can’t I go home with you?” the now three-year-old and quite verbal Diff asked.

“Because Ev’rel doesn’t like visitors,” Amel said, or at least ones who like me, he thought.

“Well, that’s dumb,” Alivda said bluntly. “I want to go with you.”

In the end, Amel and Diff came up with a compromise: Alivda would wait on a nearby planet and Amel would come back sooner than he had originally planned.

* * * * *

“Hello,” Amel said as he walked into Lilac Hearth. “Is anyone here?”

No one answered, so Amel asked a servant.

“The Avim and her sons went out,” the male servant said. Ev’rel only hired men.

“When did they say they’d be back?” Amel asked.

“A few days at least, Your Immortality.”

Amel considered waiting. He had been looking forward to seeing Ev'rel, no matter how stormy their relationship sometimes was. But he found he truly did not want to leave Diff for that long. “Thank you,” Amel said and headed back to his ship.

Homecoming

Part 6

Ann rolled her eyes. She really didn’t like this parent version of Amel at all. She decided she would rather have no Amel than this Amel, even if she was horny. At least this way, her shins would get some rest.

“Amel,” Ann said as she sat at the table.

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure little Diff isn’t bored here?”

“She doesn’t seem bored to me,” Amel said tentatively.

“And did you ask her parents if you could take her into Reetion space?” Ann asked.

“No,” Amel said, sounding worried now. Had the thought only just occurred to him?

“Don’t you think you should wait to come back when you have permission?” Ann asked. "We wouldn't want a diplomatic incident, after all." Maybe this was Ameron's new way of declaring war on Rire. Who needed armies when you had this toddler?

“Perry knows I would never let anything happen to her,” Amel said. “I am sure everything is fine.” He smiled.

Ann tried again. “I also have some stuff I have been putting off and should get back to,” she said. “Why don’t we do another visit soon?”

“I guess, if you’re busy,” Amel said. “But I thought you wanted to see me?”

Yes, I did, Ann thought, but not with clothes on.

“Yeah, I know,” Ann said. “And I thought my work could wait, but it can’t.”

“Okay,” Amel said. “We will go, but please contact me when you are free again, okay?”

“I will,” Ann said, secretly hoping Amel and Ayrium would have a big falling out and Alivda would get taken away from him. When breakfast was over Amel packed up his and Alivda’s stuff and they left.

Ann breathed a sigh of relief and looked up a friend on the casual sex roster. No one was as good as Amel, but right now she didn’t care as long as the man didn’t have a blonde terror with him.

A Reprieve

Part 5

That night there was a battle over Amel; the funny thing was the only person unaware of it was Amel.

Little Diff was curled up by Amel’s head, sharing his pillow. Ann was trying to get closer to Amel while avoiding the dragon.

First Alivda kicked Ann to try and keep her away. Then Ann tried to push Alivda off the bed. The only reason it didn’t escalate to fists flying was because they were both trying not to wake Amel.

“How did you sleep?" Amel asked the next morning while he made breakfast.

“Not well,” Ann said.

“Aw, that’s too bad,” Amel said. “I slept great. But I had a weird dream.”

“About what?”

“I was a piece of meat and two lionesses were fighting over me,” Amel said.

Ann coughed up her orange juice.

“What?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Amel said. “The part that really confused me was that I wasn’t hurt. I thought lionesses ate their prey?”

Ann made a few startled noises and went off to get dressed without breakfast.

As Ann walked through the hall, a blonde tornado went swirling past.

Amel grunted as Diff jumped, with the inertia of her run, onto his back.

“I am just lucky I heal,” Amel said while Alivda got comfortable sitting on his shoulders. “Or I would be a walking bruise by now. So what do you want for breakfast?” Amel asked the girl, once Alivda was settled. Ann couldn't help but notice he didn't ask her anything at all.

Alivda giggled and clapped her hands together.

“Eggs on toast it is,” Amel said, and started cooking.

Ann returned when the smells and sounds of food reached her room.

“That smells good,” she said once she re-entered the kitchen.

“Oh, I didn’t know you wanted any,” Amel said. “Sorry I didn’t make enough.”

Ann was starting to hate this little blonde terror more and more. At this rate Amel was going to forget she existed!

“Oh no, it’s fine,” Ann said, putting on a fake smile. “I will just feed myself.”

So Ann poured herself a bowl of cereal, while Diff consumed all of Amel’s eggs and left the toast.

“Oh right, I forgot,” Amel said. “You have a Vrellish digestive system, sorry.” And he got up and made her more eggs.

He is apologizing for her eating all his food! Ann thought in outrage, while she cut up some fruit for her cereal.

“There, Diff,” Amel said. “Only protein for you.” And he gave her all the eggs, while he had toast and fruit.

“She is going to get fat if you keep feeding her like that,” Ann said.

“Nah, she won’t,” Amel said. “She is too Vrellish, and besides, even if she did she would still be perfect. Isn’t that right?”

Alivda belched.

Lionesses