The Mantis Synchronicity - Book Five - 2. Chapter 2 - Ninyani

While Auntie Peg and Dotty Marbles were settling the younger kids of the Shifton Youth Outreach Center down for bed, Ninyani was in the kitchen making himself a cup of tea. He scooped a little dried plant matter into a mesh filter basket, placed it in a mug, and filled the mug with cold water. Ninyani reached into the unlimited well of energy at his control, and he focused the thermodynamics of the universe through his hands and into the mug. The water began to steam just as Dotty Marbles popped into the kitchen.

“That’s gotta be one of the most mundane uses for a Shift power I’ve ever seen, and I love it!” She let out a cackle and Ninyani snorted a little laugh.

“If I’m not going to use my powers to keep my tea hot, what should I use them for?” The young teenager grinned at the queen.

“Oh, I think using your ability to warm water is fantastic!” Dotty Marbles declared. “I love that our little Thech and Jzuna use their powers for everything. They have no qualms about using any of their multiple kinesis abilities whenever they need them.” She chuckled and added, “I’m just grabbing a glass of water for Muunith.” She filled a tumbler, and as Dotty Marbles left the kitchen again, she called out, “Don’t stay up too late!”

The elfish boy removed the mesh basket containing the sodden plant matter, and with his mug in hand, he headed out the front door of the outreach center. Teshon City had become a safer place in the past several months, with the removal of the Messiahs, and Shifts now living out and proud with their Biological Shift cousins. Ninyani felt safe wandering the neighborhood on his own. He was only gone for about ten minutes, but when he turned back onto the street with the Shifton Youth Outreach Center at its far end, he saw that it was under attack!

The mug slipped from Ninyani’s hands and shattered on the pavement. He rushed toward the center, slipped into the darkness of an alleyway, and made his way close enough to hear the leader of the group giving orders.

“The first two soldiers are in,” the man whispered in a gruff voice. “Be on your guard; they may look like children, but abominations live here.”

Ninyani was terrified. Two men were already inside, and more were advancing!

One of the soldiers smashed out a window and threw a molotov cocktail into the center.

Ninyani reached out with his powers from where he hid, and the boy sucked the heat out of the flames; their extinguishment startled the soldiers. Ninyani tried to sneak out of the alley but one of them spotted him and grabbed his shirt by its collar.

The young boy may have only used his powers to warm a mug of water earlier, but now he unleashed them into the man. Ninyani simultaneously subjected the man’s body to the scorching blaze of a supernova and the abysmally cold temperatures of the void. The soldier’s flesh and bones exploded in frozen chunks that instantly thawed and splattered all over Ninyani. Bits of what had been the man’s organs now covered the boy.

“He’s one of them!” the leader shouted.

Ninyani glared at the men through the gore that covered him, and he screamed. He let loose an assault that was massive invisible blades of fire and ice slashing through the air and into the attackers, and the villains did not know what hit them. They burned and froze and were ripped apart by Ninyani’s powers. Four of the men, including their leader, were slaughtered outright, and two of them suffered severe wounds and were slowly dying. One of them was missing his left arm and leg, and the other had an enormous gash in his guts. They were both writhing on the concrete as their lives seeped away from them. A second assault by Ninyani’s thermodynamics eviscerated the soldiers to little more than pieces.

The blood-soaked boy raced to the front of the center. He knew he needed to stop the other two men who were inside, but as he pulled open the door, Auntie Peg came strolling out. She was also speckled with blood, and she was carrying a pair of corpses by the waistbands of their trousers. The soldiers were folded into very unnatural positions. One man’s leg was behind his neck and his arms were twisted around his other thigh. The second man was bent completely backward, and his head was rotated the wrong way around.

Auntie Peg looked at the brutal scene in front of the Shifton Outreach Center, and she asked Ninyani in a chipper tone, “Did you do this?”

Ninyani burst into tears and fled. He did not know where he was running, and he did not listen to Auntie Peg, who called for him to stop and come back. He ran aimlessly through the dark Shifton streets until he found himself on the minor road that led to the house where he had lived with Auntie Peg and Dotty Marbles. He raced to it, slipped down the narrow path that led to the backyard, and he hid in his pink shed. Once the door to it was closed, he began to wail.

Ninyani only cried for a moment before the door suddenly swung open again, and Tchama was standing there with Dozi behind her.

“Ninyani?!” they both cried out together.

Tchama entered the shed and knelt beside the boy. “What happened to you, hunny? Are you hurt? Why are you covered in blood?”

He tried to reply through his sobs. “Some… some… some men… they attacked the center… they tried to get everyone… and I needed to… I needed to… I needed to stop them…”

It took Ninyani a few minutes to calm down enough to explain what happened out front.

“What happened to the two men inside the center?” Dozi asked.

Ninyani cringed at his own thoughts. “Peggy broke them in half.”

Tchama perked up, “Oh, good.”

“Yeah,” Dozi agreed, “I’m sorry you had to do that, but I think it’s a good thing that you did. I wonder who they were.”

“And why they went after the outreach center.” Tchama extended her one hand down to Ninyani. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

“He’s a mess,” Dozi mumbled.

“We’ll take care of him,” Tchama replied.

Ninyani sniffed hard and looked up at the two young women like he had something to say.

They stared back at him.

“What is it, Ninyani?” Tchama asked.

“Would it be okay if you called me she from now on, like Zular?”

Neither Dozi nor Tchama had ever been asked by anyone to call them by new terms.

“Of course, hunny,” Tchama said. “You can be whoever you want to be, and we’ll call you whatever you want.”

“Yeah,” Dozi confirmed with a smile, “you want to be she? You be she!”

Ninyani’s tears of misery were instantly replaced by tears of relief at their responses, and she wiped her eyes hard, smearing blood and guts across her face.

“I’d love to give you a big one-armed hug,” Tchama stated, “but you are a mess, girl! Why don’t we get you out of those nasty clothes while you’re still outside, and then head in where we can draw you a bath.”

“Have you told Peggy and Dot yet?” Dozi asked.

Ninyani shook her head. “I’ve been thinking about things for a while, and the time I spent with Zular recently helped me understand what I was feeling. I don’t know why it all just came out right now.”

Tchama and Dozi helped Ninyani peel the slime-covered clothes off her petite frame, and they wiped off the worst of the gore.

“You went through a trauma,” Dozi replied gently as they brought Ninyani to the privy chamber, “and now that you’re feeling a moment of safety, maybe you don’t want to miss the chance to express how you really feel. I’m glad you felt comfortable telling us.” Dozi smiled at Ninyani and cranked on the taps to fill the tub. “Let’s get you clean.”

Ninyani spoke quietly. “Before my mother died, she called me a god, but I never wanted to be a god. I want to be a girl.”

Dozi was nonplussed. “Do you want us to call you something other than Ninyani? We’ll call you by whatever name feels like you.”

“You know we will,” Tchama confirmed.

Ninyani choked down a little sob of happiness and said, “Zular named herself Zular when she became a woman all the time,” and Ninyani whispered as she climbed into the warm water, “but Zular also told me her old name.”

Dozi and Tchama feigned shock and surprise, and Ninyani giggled.

“No she didn’t!” Tchama said with a laugh.

“You’re obviously much more specialer than us,” Dozi added, sticking her tongue out at Ninyani. “But seriously, we’ll call you anything you want.” She wrapped her arms around Tchama who agreed.

“Absolutely, have you thought about your name?”

Dozi leaned forward and began to scrub the foulness out of Ninyani’s hair. “I have,” she replied with a smile. “My name is from an old family a long time ago who lived in Frostflower village, where I’m from. There were a brother and a sister named Ninyani and Nunyani. Nunyani was the girl.”

Tchama filled a pitcher with fresh water and poured it over Ninyani’s head. “Do you want us to call you Nunyani from now on?”

“I used to tell people my name,” Ninyani said, looking embarrassed, “but I would sort of pronounce it Nunyani, even though my name’s Ninyani.”

“We’ll call you Nunyani,” Dozi added, kissing the girl’s soapy forehead.

Ninyani’s tears of happiness flowed, and she managed to say, “I want to be Nunyani.”

“Hunny,” Dozi said gently, “you can be anyone you want to be. We love you, Nunyani.”

Tchama also kissed her forehead and added, “Nunyani, we love you so much.”✪