Emi The Deity
Book 2: The Dry Rose
Garden
By Krissie Gault
Chapter 7:
Volume 2
His dress flowed
to the ground. It was white with ruffles. The sleeves resembled sea shells and
rested on his shoulders. The top lining of the dress had golden circles that
rested below his collar bone. Emideus Cheshire Saint, Emi for
short, was dressed as an anime princess of the moon. It matched the cosplay
theme of the café perfectly. The café’s theme? Planets.
There were several moon princesses and
even characters that represented other planets. Everyone chuckled when one of
the servers came dressed as Captain Planet, a late 80s/early 90s super hero.
Emi twirled around in his dress on the
stage. He lip-sang a Sailor Moon song that was requested by several of the
patrons. They even filled the tip jar a quarter full trying to bring the
musical performances quicker.
Emi was elated.
Today was a great day! He could feel it.
He hadn’t had any power hiccups all day. Which instantly made Emi’s day great.
Emi skipped down the steps of the stage and beamed with a wide grin as he
walked over to a table. Two high school aged boys and three high school aged
girls sat there.
“Did you enjoy the song?” Emi did his
best impression of the character.
“You were wonderful!” the girl with
pigtails gushed. The girl with a braid nodded in agreement. “Don’t you guys
think so?” She leaned on the table as she addressed the boys accompanying them.
Two of the boys shrugged, “I guess.” They
didn’t look like twins, but Emi found it amazing that they were so in sync. One
had strawberry blond hair with freckles. He wore an Assassin Creed shirt. The
other had curly black hair styled into an afro. He wore a Metroid shirt.
The third boy was the oldest there. He
looked Emi up and down curiously before smirking. He wore a shirt with several
video game controls on it. He wore several rubber bracelets on his right arm.
“It’s been a while,” he waved lazily. “I can’t believe you work here? And in
character too.”
Emi gave a smile though on the inside he
was nervous. The man before him was Chad. Chad was a few grades behind him. Now
Chad was either a junior or senior. Emi couldn’t completely recall. But he
remembered Chad. Chad was rambunctious and always full of energy. Chad had
tried out for every single sport he could just to get rid of all that extra
energy he had.
“I almost didn’t recognize you,” Emi
admitted, staying in character. “I hope you found an activity to help disperse all
your energy.”
Chad grinned ear to ear. “I did! Tap
dance actually. Not what pops was hoping for, but when you shine, you shine.
These are freshmen from our school. Glenda and Bria were raving about this
place and brought us along. I’m glad I came. Now I get to brag about what a
star you were when you were in high school.”
Emi blushed. “I wasn’t really a star…”
“She went to our high school!?” The girl
with the braid squealed as she clasped her hands together.
Chad simply nodded. “Yep. Princess
Serenity here went to the same high school as us. I was lucky to be in the same
school with this talent for two years. I remember causing you all kinds of
trouble.” He smiled at Emi apologetically but with a warm joke attached. “If I
recall you were on the cheers quad and in drama club for a while, weren’t you?
I don’t remember if you took chorus or not.”
“Chorus and the cheer squad had too many
overlapping dates. So, I wasn’t in chorus.” Emi replied. “But good memory.” He
added a wink.
“I’m flattered,” Chad bowed.
“I can’t believe it! I went to the same
school as Princess Serenity.” The braided hair girl continued to gush with the
girl with pigtails.
“Now is there anything I can get for you
guys?” Emi did his best to stifle his giggle. They had no clue that under this
dress he was a man.
“How about our checks? I think it’s about
time to be heading home before Bria here decides to become your ultimate fan
girl,” Chad jabbed a thumb at the girl with the braid.
Emi nodded. “I’ll be right back with
those.”
Quick work at the register and Emi
returned to their table with the checks. He was also greatly relieved that Chad
didn’t out him as a man in drag. Emi wouldn’t have minded, but it seemed to
cause an uproar when patrons found out. It was like the concept of cross dressing
was foreign to them. But then again, he was in the Bible Belt.
“Guess
they’re just not ready for crossing dressers yet.” Emi thought as he handed out the checks to the group.
“You can pay at the cash register over
there,” Emi pointed towards the register. He began to clean up once the group
left. He dropped the dirty dishes off in the sink and returned with a cloth to
wipe it off. Someone swept while he returned the cloth which made Emi happy
because it was one less thing for him to do. He checked on the other tables.
The fields were covered in roses. There was a maze-like path for people
to walk through. The roses were normally beautiful and blooming constantly. But
something was wrong. The roses were turning brown and the leaves were
shriveling. It was like the rose fields were dying. This greatly disturbed the
deity of roses, Carmen. She had been trying every means she could in her power
to bring the roses back to life. But none of her powers were enough. She had
been bringing all the water she could carry to her fields, but even that wasn’t
enough.
What she needed was a water deity who
could bring water to the withering field.
There was just a small snag with that.
She didn’t know where to find any water deities. In fact, it seemed that they
were becoming a bit scarce. No one heard any tale of them dying, but it was
just that no one had seen them. Like they all were just hiding.
“What a time to be playing hide and
seek,” Carmen grumbled. She perked up as she saw a fairy flying overhead. “Why didn’t I think of it before? I could just get a
water fairy or nymph!” She thought
as she called the fairy over.
The fairy had her blond hair pulled back
into a low pony tail. Her dress was made of dandelion petals. Her wings were a
pale pink with sparkly swirl designs.
“Hey, do you know where I can find a
water fairy? Nymph? Anything really? My roses are dying here without it.” She
waved her hand around the field.
The fairy nodded. “So sad too that
there’s not enough water for them. Why don’t you go ask a water god? They’d be
able to fix this in a tick.”
“No one has seen a water god or deity in
ages.” Carmen replied.
“Really? I’ve been hearing that there was
a water deity in a city south of here. Maybe you can ask them?” the fairy
suggested.
“What’s the name of that city?”
The fairy thought for a moment before
answering. It was a simple city. But it was also a decent size. Carmen packed a
bag and raced down to that state.
