XXII

The next day dawned, and I was up to see the sunrise. I was packed, both in Storage and on my back – some of what could not fit was on its way to Yoshiville in a cargo shipment. I did the rudimentary morning duties, and then left my room for the last time I would be a resident there.

My parents and I had discussed the issue about my room. It was across the hall from my parents’ room, both marked with a “Private” sign on the front. They saw it as an opportunity for another guest room, or another retreat room for them. I told them that I wished it to remain as a room for those times I would return to Kippo in my holidays, and therefore, reasonably untouched, including Ark’s bed. Seeing as it would be a shame if I returned and there was nowhere to sleep, they agreed. They also let me keep the front door key.

I went downstairs to the bar. We had breakfast, where they gave me my going-away present: a gold watch, with the time and calendar of Fa’Diel on it, including the year. It was so that I would always know what time it was back home. I still use this watch today, particularly as it was programmed to warn me of special dates – holidays, festivals, my parents’ birthdays, Nase’s birthday (after I programmed it in) and mine. However, my parents had also put in Ark’s birthday, and the day of the flood.

Then, it was time to see me go. They came with me on the train to the cannon north of Gaia’s Navel. As the train pulled out, I felt sad, excited, but also relieved, that I was leaving Kippo. All of those memories of things that had happened there were now well and truly behind me. I was on the first part of my way to my fresh start.

The second stage happened at the cannon. I paid my fare, and when it was my time to go, I bid my parents farewell. My mother started to cry, and only for the second time in my life, I saw my father teary-eyed as well. I went through the doors, into the cannon, and off I went, flying over the Enchanted Forest, the Great Forest, and into Matango Terminal.

As I have stated before, Matango Terminal is like Drepatos, even on a good day. It is the centre of all Cannon Travel on Fa’Diel – with a few exceptions, all cannons point there – as well as the Yamauchi Warp. When I left, the Matangese had still not upgraded the Terminal’s comfort levels, particularly in terms of its seating.

It was also the first time that I was able to converse in Matangese, thanks to my Great Forest Languages classes. There was an interesting conversation I had with the Warp ticket seller:

“One way through the Warp, please,” I started.

“Wow, a Yoshi that speaks Matangese, don’t see many of those around,” he replied. “Do they teach it over there in the Archipelago?”

“I don’t know; I hatched in Kippo.”

“You hatched in Kippo? Did you hear of that Yoshi who got abused by some sergeant in the army?”

“Yeah, I heard of him,” I answered.

“Sad, isn’t it. Though, what can you expect from some Pandorans?”

“True, true.”

“So you’re getting away from it all down there?”

“Yes. Going back home.”

“Right. Good luck. Okay, one way through the warp…do you have any medical conditions?”

“Heratu’s Syndrome,” I answered weakly.

“I see. Is this your first time through the warp?”

“No. I haven’t been through for a few years.”

“We shall then send warning ahead of you, Mister…”

“Yoshi.”

“Oh…oh, of course, yes. Should have guessed. Once you reach the other side, there will be a medical team waiting for you.”

After other arrangements were made, and my luggage was put through, I went and sat back down in the uncomfortable seats. I was only there a few minutes, before I noticed an information booth with a comments box. I took a form and filled out, in Matangese, that I was dissatisfied with the straw seats. I spent the rest of my time wandering around through the crowds and the shops, going from one end to the other. I saw the entry points for the cannons that went to the other places on Fa’Diel. I vowed that I would see the other ends one day.

My number came up for the Warp, and I went to its entry. Since my last time through, they had installed Inspection machines, apparently since the Mushroom Kingdom had requested them. With a splitting headache, I headed for the pipe I had to walk through. After being asked if I was alright, and asked questions about my fitness, I was sent along. Before I went into the film, I turned my head and looked back down the pipe.

“Cyado, Fa’Diel,” I said.

I shut my eyes and braced myself. I tried to move forward, but my legs wouldn’t. I did not want to have to suffer Heratu’s again.

“Look, look, you survived last time,” I told myself. “Besides, you’re holding everyone up.”

I braced myself again and stepped through. After the world spun, and I met with breakfast again and fainted, I woke up with a Mushroom standing over my bed.

“You seem alright now, Mister Yoshi,” he told me. “Welcome to Yamauchi.”

Once again, I found myself regretting that Yamauchi has not discovered the wonders of Cannon Travel as I flew from Toad Town to Yoshiville in an aeroplane. I remember that I sat beside a Yoshi businessman who was interested in taking his family to Fa’Diel for a holiday. I asked him what had happened since I last came to Yamauchi, and he told me that a war had come and gone on the Western Continent, there were a few sporting events, King Bowser of the Koopa Kingdom had not really done anything for a while (this was news on Yamauchi), and that the governments of Hoenn, Kanto and Johto, along with the Pokémon League, had allowed Pokémon Trainer Licences to be granted to non-citizens, therefore, allowing Pokémon to be caught by trainers in those countries and taken back to others. Places for the care and treatment of Pokémon, imaginatively called PokéCentres, were springing up everywhere.

Through my Yamauchian Studies classes, Syoro Ki had taught us about Pokémon: animals indigenous to the Hoenn/Kanto/Johto region that have some level of intelligence which can be trained as pets, companions, or to fight other Pokémon. My class was bemused and somewhat shocked by the fact that they are usually trained to fight; Syoro Ki explained that in most cases, the Pokémon don’t seem to mind, and actually benefit from fighting, becoming stronger. Care for them is expensive, however, so I decided that once I had a lot of money (more than the compensation payout), I would go there, get my licence, and take them home.

As we descended into Yoshiville, I was able to get a bird’s-eye view of my new home. Coming from Kippo into Yoshiville was a cultural shock, mainly due to the sheer number of people living in the city. Fortunately I had some previous experience with that factor in my first visit, but Yoshiville had grown since then, as cities do, and there were more people, particularly from other races.

It was now not uncommon to see Koopas in Yoshiville, refugees from Bowser’s regime, especially when they held jobs. Yoshies held no surprise in going into a convenience store and finding a Koopa behind the counter. Some had even taken out Archipelago citizenship; you would not refer to them as a “Yoshi” though, even if the Pro-Koopa Assimilation Front would want you to, anyway. I was surprised the first few times I did come across one, though – I think one or two may have been offended by that. I could not help it: I had lived on Fa’Diel all my life, only hearing about my homeworld second-hand.

Nevertheless, after Aunt Tia greeted me at the terminal, while I was driven to her house out in the suburbs, I looked around out of the car windows and realised that I was among my own kind at last. The only humans likely to be seen in Yoshiville were tourists from the Pokémon countries.

I told her how things were going back home – I did not tell her about my time in the Army, though. Cars were a new concept to me at the time, even with my previous holiday to Yoshiville. Everyone gets around Fa’Diel via the cannon or the train, so I never had the opportunity to develop one of the most vital of life skills until then. I decided I was going to learn how to drive. This did not bode well with Aunt Tia at the time, as this was only the second time in my entire life that I had seen an automobile, not to mention the fact that she did not have a second car and that to buy one and to maintain it was very expensive. I wanted my compensation money to go as far as possible, so I changed my decision. It could wait.

It still is waiting.

Aunt Tia had moved since my last visit, so her new house had three bedrooms, one of which she used as a study, so it was decently sized for both of us. She lived alone, and had never married. She had been a secretary to a series of lawyers in Yoshiville after fleeing the destruction of Dinokan, but had retired two Yamauchian years before I arrived. It had a decent-sized backyard, which she had turned into a garden. It was still in its infancy at the time, but it was her pride and joy. She told me that she had always wanted a garden, and with her now near-infinite free time, she created it and took care of it, as well as occupying herself with things that she had wanted to do throughout her working life, like family tree research.

I had never really understood my roots. Family was not something that my parents really talked about since being on Fa’Diel had detached us from the rest of the family tree. Over the course of the first two weeks there, I began to realise that my parents may have actually wanted that detachment.

However, my prime focus of those two weeks was to acquaint myself with my new home. Aunt Tia’s neighbourhood was quite pleasant: there was a shop around the corner, a supermarket was a five-minute drive away, and there was a park with a stream running through it only about four houses down from her. I liked the idea of there being a stream, and so one day (it was towards the end of summer) I told her that I was headed down there for a swim. She stopped me. This was the city. Creeks and streams are not clean like back in Kippo. I was disappointed.

We also went around the city of Yoshiville as well. I took in the sights, like the tower (which I climbed) and the stadium and all the other usual touristy things. I found where the university was, as well, and found out where my rooms were. The buildings of the university are made from stone (or at least have façades that are), so they are pretty impressive. Things seemed to be on the upswing for those two weeks, until Aunt Tia talked about the family tree.

She had talked to me about it because a conversation had swung that way, and I revealed that I had not had any real understanding of it. All I knew was that there were my parents, my Uncle Reinhard and Aunt Claudia, their child, and her. My parents had not talked about my grandparents much. So, she decided to show me “the truth”, in her own words. We went to her study and she showed me a drawn diagram of the tree, which was basically my pedigree: my mother’s family, and my father’s.

“That’s you there,” she pointed out to me.

And there I was, along with Ark, and his date of death (on Fa’Diel). I frowned when I looked upon it. Not sure if I would cause an argument about my belief that he was alive, I refrained from saying anything.

“There’s your mother, there’s me, and there’s our parents, Eric Will Yoshison and Hilda Yoshison nee Arayoshi,” she continued. “You never met them, and you never will.”

“Did they…?” I asked.

“They were coming to visit me on…Dinokan, when it happened,” she said, tight-lipped.

She did not really want to talk about the disaster at any time – “Dinokan” was a word that she always said with hesitation; to an extent, I have picked that up in my speech from her.

“That’s…that’s horrible,” I replied.

“Yes, it was,” she sighed. “It touched many Yoshies’ lives, and only now you realise it touches you too. But, I don’t think it’s as bad as your father’s lot has had,” she spoke grimly, looking at my father’s part of the tree.

“I…I know my grandfather was orphaned,” I told her, after a brief moment of silence. I knew my father had lost a number of people.

“Yes. His brother, your father’s uncle, Bloshi, was thrown into a lake way up on Star Road before he hatched. It was the great Mario who found him.”

I looked at her with surprise. “No…no way. My great uncle is…is Bloshi? I’ve heard about him in my Yamauchian Studies classes at school! And I have a link to Mario?”

Aunt Tia nodded. “It’s all true.” She gave me a few moments for it to sink in, before she said, “Of course, since he and your grandfather Spekkio were orphans, it’s only natural that I don’t really know anything before him. But I can assume that your great-grandmother is a Hoshi, because it would have been hard for him to be in a lake up there otherwise. So, I assume that it makes you part Hoshi, at least. One-eighth.”

The Hoshies are the “race” of Yoshies that live on Star Road. Some have the ability to turn into stars, but I think the other seven-eighths, if Aunt Tia’s assumption is true, has cancelled that out of me.

“Bloshi has had children, but I don’t know where they or their grandchildren live,” she continued. “Maybe he went back up there with those wings of his and took his children with him. Still, it makes an interesting story. But that’s where the good things stop, I’m afraid.”

I turned to her. “Good things stop?”

She pointed at Uncle Reinhard and Aunt Claudia. There was a question mark for the name of their child. “I’m sure you know about this. But you don’t know about your grandparents, right?”

I nodded.

“Well, after your parents left for Fa’Diel, your grandfather Spekkio died. Your father was devastated that he did not have the money to come back for the funeral. Mina Yoshi nee Yoshilo, your grandmother, was also devastated that he could not return. However, her devastation took one more step when your Aunt Claudia died on the Western Continent, and again, your father could not come to the funeral. She went mad, Dyluck.”

This struck deep within me. “She…went mad?” I asked, uncertain.

Aunt Tia nodded. “Since your father was on Fa’Diel, and could not return, he asked me to take care of your grandmother. She started to believe that your father was not coming back to Yamauchi not out of lack of money, but out of spite. I tried to reason with her, but it was in vain. Then, one time I went to her house, she threatened me with a knife. I left immediately, and called the police. When they returned, they found the house trashed, by her. She’s been taken away to a mental asylum, and I think she’s happy there now. But, if you introduced yourself as Reuben’s son…well, who knows what she would do. If she dies, I will be the first to receive word.”

This was horrible. My father was right by saying that he believed his family was cursed. Everyone in my family appears to be a survivor of something, losing those around them, including myself. I guess it was there that it sank in that I was not alone in my loss of Ark. Yet I still believed he was alive.

University started. There had been a preliminary few days of orientation, but I had already got myself used to my surrounds when I took it, so it was lost on me. There were about thirty other people doing my course, which would diminish as the two years went by. Being fast-tracked, I was at university from early in the morning until late at night five days a week, working flat-out. Many times over those few years I thought about giving up, but I never did.

During this time of orientation, I was approached by the head lecturer, who told me that I had two places in my subjects that needed to be filled for my electives. I could choose from anything relative or supplementary to the course. I asked about music, but I was told I couldn’t do it. It was disappointing, but since I had little knowledge of Yamauchian instruments at the time, it was probably a good thing.

Instead, I chose Mushroom, since I would be travelling through there to get home. Left with one last position to fill, I scanned a list that was given to me. I was thinking about Kantolese due to my interest in Pokémon, but it clashed with my timetable, like all of the languages, except one: Koopan.

I asked myself why I would want to learn it. My parents, shut away from Yamauchi, still retained their dislike of Koopas, so to an extent I still had it from where it had rubbed on me, even with Syoro Ki’s lessons. Speaking Koopan at home was probably not going to be a good idea. I looked at the other choices available in that timeslot, but none of them interested me at all. So, I put my name down for Koopan, figuring that I wouldn’t have to speak it in front of my parents. I’ve never looked back.

The first thing the other students and I had to do, in our first class, was to introduce ourselves to each other, one by one. It was a basic “stand in your place and speak” affair. All of us were Yoshies. Most of us had come from Yoshiville; there were about ten of us who came from abroad. As each one said their names, it was partly unusual for me to hear Yoshian names, having been used to Pandoran ones all my life.

I stood up once I had my turn. “I’m Dyluck Yoshi. Call me Lich.”

It would be the first of many times that I would say those three words. I was here for my fresh start and, yes, I could have dropped that name due to the insults given to me with it. But, accepting that name was accepting myself for who I am. It was basically taking those insults and twisting them around so that they pointed back on themselves. In the old ways before the Unification of the Yoshian Tribes, Yoshies would hatch with one name, and once they reached adulthood, be given another by their chieftain. Dyluck Thanatos was the name I hatched with; Lich was my adult name.

Yet, that twisting around was not total. On Yamauchi, I am called Lich, but on Fa’Diel, I am called Dyluck, particularly by my family. I tend not to like it when people on Fa’Diel call me Lich – this dislike and non-wanting of it acts as a sign of respect towards them and their hate of where the name comes from. I allow Nase exception to this rule, though. In the end, I guess you could call it a quirk.

Here was where I thought about ending my story. I have answered the question regarding my name given to me by my friends. However, on reflection, I realised that there was more that needed to be written. A recent experience of a few months has strangely become fuzzy in my memory, partitioned off and virtually inaccessible. Since I’ve started writing this, it has changed more from explaining why I’m called Lich when I did not like the name, to me trying to find out what happened during that time and cementing what I definitely know about myself. Having a hole in my memory as large as a few months is rather distressing to me, since memory tells us who we are and our actions prescribe and describe ourselves to others. I am not totally aware of what happened during that time, save a few slivers that come through the wall. Therefore, this autobiography acts as a sense of reassurance to me that the rest of my memory tells me who I am. Therefore, I pick up my pen, and continue once more.

Although I had noticed it previously when speaking with Aunt Tia, and even with my parents on occasion, it was speaking there that I realised my Yoshian had an accent. My racial language relies on tone and pitch to differentiate meanings between words. Pandoran, on the other hand, pitches itself somewhat artificially high in the vocal register, giving it a sort of melodic quality. Therefore, after speaking Pandoran all day and Yoshian all night, the two had combined to form a melodic, higher-pitched Yoshian that has some consonants formed in different areas of my mouth.

“Uh, yes,” I told my group as this fact hit me, “you probably realise that I’m not from here, thanks to my voice. I hatched in the Pandora Kingdom, on Fa’Diel, and I’ve lived there until now. So…yeah, that’s about it.”

The silence was uncomfortable as I sat down. I saw people watching me warily. The Yoshi sitting next to me had his turn next; he returned to a different seat.

I was an alien to Fa’Diel, and an alien to Yamauchi.