Kuala Li

At night, when i was little

when i had just come to danach

i'd pretend that we'd soon go back to earth, to china

just my father and me

but now he is always flying

to this cathair or that island

and i hardly get a chance to see him

i'd like to talk to him, long, good talks

but now there is only time to say goodbye between departures

my father always promises me that

he will take me on the next flight, to some tropical part of danach

but my mother always says i am needed here, at home

my mother wins; my father leaves

my father is awol

absent without my leave

oh father, take my hand

take me out to the dragons, please

we'll get on a copper and fly away

together

michiko li

i speak to you, daughter

as i would to a little green plant

i watch as you grow taller every season

water you with wisdom

clip your branches, in case you grow too wild

i provide rich soil for you here in this new world

this poor gardener asks you but one thing:

when you grow to your full height,

you are to provide shade

for your older mother

you are a wonderful little plant, my daughter

i see the sunlight in your eyes

bain li

i can tell you about the sensation of flight

the business in one cathair and another

the best keeps

the best dragonriders

the best food

i cannot tell you how old my daughter is

her mother would know

i can't tell you what clothes she wears, what music she likes, and what her favorite thing is to do when she has nothing to do

her mother would know that, too

yes, i have interests all over the world

important meetings to attend, people to save, cargo to shipfly, really

i don't take care of business at home

why don't you ask her mother?

Oranna Orola

The healer keep?

i think it's near the utopian cathair

why are you going there?

you don't look sick.

healing? you say you want to be a healer? get real, girl.

you can get that information from a book.

you don't need to be trained.

why you wanna help sick or hurt people, anyway?

as for me, i ain't got no stomach for that.

and i've got enough problems, as it is, than to help someone with theirs.

you're still going there?

oh, you're meeting someone.

that's different.

yeah, it's by Utopian.

Or Fionabhain.

I forget which.

Anque Hollista-Healer

back when i was a little girl

people were more serious

they weren't getting hurt from stupid things like

daring their friend to try to tame a hunterfish

swimming with the tabriz

or stealing a starry dragon's egg

no, they were interested in preserving life,

not playing with it

and the Healers healed the Heart

now i am a healer

i heal the foolish as well as the wise

i heal the poor and i heal the rich

i tend to the important as well as the nobodies

and i try to heal the heart

oh, and i hire apprentices. you interested?

what's your name again? kuala li?

why do you want to be a healer?

you want to help people?

well, that serves as an introduction, but it's not the whole story.

Anque Hollista-Healer

the daughter i had was bright and beautiful

in the quiet language of mothers and daughters

she learned at my knee

and then, as she grew older

at my elbow and finally

at my level, where, these days,

we don't see eye to eye very much anymore

she's away, on the sea with a rambunctious sailor and raising strange snakes

she grudgingly comes home whenever they dock

when we replay the old arguments,

fighting about everything from her boyfriends

to my 'outdated' clothing

i love her, but i don't like her as much as we both

count down the days until she goes back to that ship

we had to many battles

to ever walk again along

the sweet serene path of loving trust and friendship

i look now to kuala li

i realize that in my teaching her

what i know, what i do

i'm trying to fix the damage

i did to myself, i did to my daughter

who is so bright and beautiful

Kuala Li

Anque treats me like i was her daughter

if i sneeze, she asks if i'm feeling alright

if i cough, she asks if i'd like some of her special cherry bark tea

if i can't reach some supplies she asks if i need a ladder

whenever i run an errand, tend a sick person,

stew numbing salve, get out the bandage,

she thanks me as if i had performed

the most difficult task imaginable

whenever i learn something new about healing

she marvels at my intelligence

in her eyes, i can do no wrong

i am the best worker she was ever had

in my mother's eyes, i can do no right

i am the worst worker she has ever known

can both these people truly be me?

anque is like a mother to me

i wish my own mother were more

like a mother to me

alejandro rojas

the healer's?

hey, man, you won't catch me there.

it's for those who don't know what they're doing.

i'm real careful.

so why am i going?

it's my mother.

she's got a real bad cough

so she sent me for some

special bitter-sweet cough syrup

so i'll just run there and back.

you wanna wait?  i'll only be a sec.

oh, hello.

you work here?

since when?

i come here all the time.

never saw you, though

i need some help with my heart, you see.

can you help me?

can i take you out?

what do you mean,

you "don't circulate"

trev jackson

where you been, man?

you gotta get out to the track

how come you took so long?

they givin' away stethoscopes or somethin'?

a girl? what girl?

you crazy, man?

you tryin' to make a healer?

you puttin' your money on the wrong filly

what do you mean, she's a Thoroughbred?

what did you do, check her teeth?

how much do you wanna bet

if she's that gorgeous

someone else's riding her to the finish line?

how much you wanna bet

if she's the class of the field

you ain't gonna win, place, or show?

you comin' with me to the track, or what?

i ain't gonna wait for you.

Alejandro Rojas

face it, anque, you want to hire me

for the healer squad i'm your man

i'm young, strong, and very good-looking

You need patients moved?

You need supplies picked up?

You need to keep the families

of the patients

in line?

I'll be better than anyone you can get.

What do I like about the Healer's Keep?

To tell you the truth, Anque,

It's not the healing, it's the quiet.

The halls, the cathairs, the whole Cathair,

They're so noisy, you can't hear yourself think,

(not to mention, in my Keep, where thinking is completely

out of the question). 

Everyone screaming at each other.

This is the one sane place, besides the beaches, that I can come to.

I got the job?  You mean it?

I love you, Anque, I won't let you down.

I'll be working with Kuala Li?

Who's that? The girl over there?

Is she new?

I've never seen her before.

Trev Jackson

Alejandro Rojas

"Hey man, what you doin' in the Healer's area?"

                "I work here, remember.  You?"

"Just chillin', couldn't hack pilot training today.

"Hey, where's the girl I seen you with?"

"I got put in the we're-good-friends category."

"That's messed up."

"All girls suck.  Didn't I see you hittin' on Kuala Li?"

                "I was, but she shot me down.

                In a nice way, though."

"I hear she's a psycho."

                "I hear she's an angel."

"I hear she's goin' away to another Cathair."

                "I hear she's going to drop out."

"You gonna try again?"

                "I'm thinking about it.

                The way she locks on to you

                With those eyes of hers?

                Man, she seems to know what you're

                Thinking and it's all right.

                You don't feel like an idiot

                Talking to her.

                And she doesn't giggle like girls do."

"Maybe that's love."

                "Yeah, maybe."

Francesca Rojas

i hate kuala li

because she is

the most popular girl around

she is a

stone-hearted

loudmouthed

close-minded

conceited deceiver

who thinks only of herself

she stabs you in the back

while looking you in the face

once, when i had a problem with my parents

she turned a deaf ear and said

"what do i care?"

i hope she gets everything

that is coming to her

she certainly is one of a kind

but try telling that to her teammate

Yana.

Yana Rifkin

i love kuala li

because she is

the most popular girl around

she is a

warmhearted

soft-spoken

open-minded

humble achiever

who thinks only of other people

she touches you in the heart

while looking you in the face

once when i had a

problem with my parents

she let me lean on her shoulder and said

"i really care"

i hope she gets everything that is coming to her

and more

she is certainly one of a kind

but try telling that to the rojas girl

francesca

jash martinsen

whenever miss kuala li walks on by

we people in the hallways look at her

she is a foxy chick from sole to crown

clean-favored, but sexy, most would concur

and she is always quietly arrayed

and is always human when she talks

but still she flutters pulses when she says

"good morning" and she glitters when she walks

and she is cool, yes cooler than a queen

and admirably schooled in every grace

in fine we think that she is everything

to make us wish that we could kiss her face

so on we work and wait for the bell

and go without supper and drill each other

and miss kuala li every springtime night

goes home alone to an unseen mother

latoya tyesha

girl that was you wasn't it?

that was you at the club

shakin' your booty so bad

it made grown men cry

first i says to myself it ain't you

you're too high and mighty to get down

you're too clean to get dirty

you're too cool to be so hot

but it was you wasn't it?

no i ain't playin'

i ain't talkin trash

even though it was dark

with all kinds of colors flashin'

i know white when i see white

and girl, there was a whole lotta white i seen

what was you wearin?

there was more flesh on you than fabric

you callin' me a liar? i'll smack you

wish i had a camera to prove it

cuz girlfriend you was definitely

overexposed

latoya tyesha

so i'm at the club

dancin with my honey

vertically now,

horizontally maybe later

when he looks over my shoulder and says low

like i don't know what he's sayin

"check out that asian thing over there.

she pure vanilla."

i spin him around and

see kuala li starin at my man

"what you lookin at?" i says

she lowers her eyes

"what you lookin at?" i says, louder

"what you makin a scene fo?" my honey says

that ain't right

he stickin up

for that white bitch, so i says

"you be wanting vanilla? go right ahead

cuz you certainly ain't gettin no chocolate"

"i'm just lookin, that's all"

"lookin is wantin" i says,

turnin round but not before saying

"you can play with her,

or you can play with your own fat-assed self.

i'm going home."