The Forgotten Zodiac

"You have to walk with me. I'm not sad. Should I be sad? I don't think I want to be sad, so Israel doesn't have to be sad, he just wants to be sad and that makes me annoyed, because he shouldn't be sad."

Kai tried to follow that. "Uh, yes,' he said.

Tyler frowned, staring at Kai quizically. "Yes, I should be sad? That's not very nice, Kai. Are you sure you don't mean, no, I shouldn't be sad and Israel shouldn't either?"

"Ah, no. No one should be sad," Kai said. "Except the bad people."

Tyler nodded. "Bad people should always be sad. They should be very, very sad. They should cry all day long." He dropped out of Kai's arms and began running in circles around Kai, the restless energy in his body refusing to let him hold still. "Israel should not be sad, even if he can't fly. He should always be very happy for me."

Kai nodded. "People should be happy," he agreed.

"Not mean ones. Mean ones should be sad, sad, sad." Still being the innocent child he was, he ran up to one of the guards and pulled on his harm. "How much farther? I'm tired of walking now."

"Then let someone carry you," The guard answered dryly. "It's about a mile, as the beorc walks," he sneered.

Tyler rolled his eyes. "Walking and being carried are the same thing. Either way somebody is walking." He huffed, annoyed at the guard's not-falling-in-love-with-adorable-Tyler attitude, and asked his second question. "How long is that going to take us?"

"Half a mark at this pace," he said.

Tyler paused, not sure what to do. He had his answer, but he didn't understand it. At all. Instead of asking the guard another question, he ran back over to Kai. "Kai, how long is half a mark?"

"Six spans of five minutes."

Tyler huffed, annoyed at all the unclear answers. "Is that a long time or not? Is it like how long we were flying, or like how long I sleep, or how long until what?" He bounced up and down alongside Kai, waiting for an answer that he deemed understandable.

"Shorter than those," he said.

He nodded, at least that was clear. "How much shorter? A lot or a little?" He grabbed Kai's hand, hopping along next to him now, instead of bouncing. "Is it as long as the time it took for Ari to make soup?"

"Yes, about that long," Kai nodded.

"Oh. That's good." Tyler stopped and pulled on Kai's arm. "I need you to hold my feet so I can walk on my hands. Walking on my hands is more fun that this."

Kai nodded. "Alright," he said, waiting for the boy to flip onto his hands.

Tyler nodded and flipped onto his hands, waving his feet around in the air unsteadily until Kai grabbed them. "Thank you, Kai. Don't worry, I won't slow down."

Kai nodded. "Okay."