Hesitantly, grandaunt was assisted by Pinky to sit down infront of Kevin. All of a sudden Kevin Moore opened his eyes intently, direct in her eyes. Startled by his full blue eyes, she attempted to crawl away in an escape but Pinky didn't allow her. She instantly grabbed her by the cloth.
"Granny, you're not going anywhere. Your alser needs to go! Stop acting stubborn!"
With a vulnerable stare into Pinky's eyes, grandaunt whispered:
"Really!"
But Pinky insisted.
Grandaunt, in a hesitant way paused, looking at her granddaughter's eye brows contracted in concern. The look on Pinky's face gave her a second thought; to relax and sit back, even when she wasn't comfortable with sitting face to face with Kevin.
"Look at his beard. Looking like a scarecrow! If not because of this alser that keeps bothering my peace, I wouldn't be sitting with this worst nightmare!"
Kevin Moore opened his palms for her to put her hands in, just as others had been doing it. Her hands trembled nervously as she slowly forwarded them to hold in his palms. As soon as he grabbed them, he closed his eyes and started performing his magic on her. A blue heat like wave began flowing from him to her, and all of a sudden the area around where she was sitting was circled in a firelight flame. This took a few minutes and then after, on an instant the flame disappeared. An indication that grandaunt's health had recovered.
She mumbled and then stood up quickly:
"Why was the fire burning cold instead of hot?"
Although wrinkles on their skin and grey hair on their heads had remained, her brother who was Jonathan's father and his wife were not only safe and sound from their deadly old age diseases, but happily stronger from the magical treatment.
Led by Pinky and her father Jonathan, it was high time to show Kevin Moore gratitude for his courteous treatment. With appreciative smiles on their, the whole family stood infront of him bowing, one after the other.
Grandfather who had spent years without talking said:
"Son, It has been a year since I last heard my own voice. Not only you've given it to me back, it is sounding strong and deep as it was when I was in my forties. I can't describe how I feel in my muscles but It's opportunity to live more years ahead. Thank you!"
Grandfather stepped back and grandmother took a step forward to embrace her turn.
"It is indeed unbelievable how I can now walk on a straight back without a walking stick! No back pains, no difficulty in breathing _ I feel like a new born right now. You're heaven sent my son."
She sighed and added:
"Thanks to the gods who brought you to us."
Jonathan lowered his brow on an emotional face and emotional feelings dominated his voice when his turn to speak came.
"Look at me! A poor fisherman who struggles day and night to see that my family survives. Money to buy medicines to keep my parents alive each and and everyday was a tag of war. You've just saved us!
On a tear drop he added:
"Kevin, if you happen to find your father, you can take me as your step father. What you've don't for us, only heavens can reward you."
Kevin made a side eye muttering:
"Step father!"
He had no idea what Jonathan meant. As a barbarian, his vocabulary was very weak.
A smile of gratitude then showered his face and he bowed from where he was sitting, just like they were bowing to him.
"Thank you so much, thank you!"
"All of a sudden, Kevin got up on his feet from the floor he was sitting and said to all of them:
"I have to go and find my father. His name is Sean Moore. I followed the brightest light in the sky just like my mother guided me, upto the human world."
He added:
"I need to take him back home. If my mother can have him back, it is then she can have a real smile on her face. For everything she has done for me, I wish I can give her that as a reward."
Kevin signed in addition:
"I dont think you know where I can find him. So, I have to be on my way now."
Pitiful staring eyes shot at him from Pinky's family members. Jonathan walked with quick steps and entered a nearby room, leaving all of his people giving Kevin a kind look. Within a short while, Jonathan returned and stood in his former position, setting his gaze at Kevin as it was a minute back before he left.
Quickly, Jonathan fixed a hand in his pockets and fished out some papers of cash.
"This was saved to purchase medicines for my parents this week. You can have it."
Jonathan handed the cash over to Pinky who then confronted Kevin, humble and kind.
"As a family, we join hands in a quest for your father with this little token. Please accept it!"
They all smiled their approval as Kevin Moore was still looking at the cash papers in Pinky's hand. The inquisitive gaze at the papers was enough to prove that he had no idea what money was in the first place. Neither he knew it nor he had any idea of what it's being used for.
"Take it. You're going to need it!" Said Pinky.
However, their good spirit sacrifice was of no use to a being that had spent almost all its life time far away in depth of the sea _ a different world were money never existed. Silently, he met his old version scrap computer monitor, held it firmly and traced the exit door.
As Kevin Moore was stepping out of the door, Pinky screamed:
"Wait!"
Everyone stepped forward with curious eyes as she hurried to meet him. They had no idea about what Pinky was intending to do next.
As soon as Pink approached Kevin Moore at the door way, she gazed intently into his blue eyes, stepped closest with a very affectioate smile, and fixed the papers into Kevin's pair of shorts left pocket. Then after, she took off the pearl bead which was hanging around her neck on a simple string, gently grabbed his his hand and tied it around his wrist while he quietly watched.
She sighed with desire, gazing in his eyes:
"Keep it for me."
Then she smiled her approval, setting him off.
Suddenly, a smile smeared on the faces of all her family members who were standing a bit distant, watching the whole session from behind her. When Pinky turned around, only to for her eyes to meet with happy faces of all her family members.
A clear sign that they had nothing against the bond that had blossomed between their daughter and the stranger.
*****
The skies were dark.
In a long sleeved ashy shirt and red pair of shorts, Kevin Moore loitered the bustling city of Capricon barefooted. Having walked for three days under hot sunshine during the day and ice cold nights on an empty stomach, his hope to bite on something close to none at the moment, he held himself accountable for not listening to his mother's words.
For the fact that he had no idea what money could do for him in the human world, he had rejected a little token of cash that was offered to him by Pinky's family.
His stomach stubbornly growled so loud and cruel in intervals, a clear message that anger was at its peak.
On a pale looking face, malnourished ashy lips and a weak body, down on the rough ground near a streetlight pole Kevin placed the old computer monitor first, and then after he sat.
In his head on a downcast face regrets kicked in:
"Mom, I am starving. I wish I had listened when you advised me to stay."
He frowned to the excessive pain in his leg joints and the swelling in his feet which made it difficult for him to continue with loitering. Kevin Moore wasn't familiar with using his legs for a long period of time since all his life was spent on a small rocky island, wriggling his tail fin under deep black sea waters.
His eyes began to betray him. Sluggishly, second after second, as he forced them to open, they insisted found their way back to shutting down. Consistently they kept calling him to sleep, something he wasn't ready for.
He slapped himself to wake. However much he dosed, Kevin couldn't let the sleep on his eyes take control of him. Slowly he force himself to get up on his feet.
Stuck on the lonely streets yet again, Kevin took weak steps as he continued with his stray movement, not leaving behind the old model computer scrap nomatter how tired and hungry he felt.
Without a clear direction to take in this foreign world, just across the road, he saw a dimly lit alleyway.