Hiding ‘Coro'

Okay, time to pretend everything's normal.

Why would you want to hide this? I have given you a great gift.

Uh-huh. Gift was totally how I would describe it. Although, I had to admit, it was rather cool. So, strange voice, you never did tell me your name.

I am the wind itself. I am a being of pure magical energy. I have no need for your human 'names'.

So, I get to choose what to call you? That was pretty cool.

A sigh echoed in my head. If you require, I will accept a nickname.

Okay, how about Coro? That sounds pretty windy. Not too bad, since it was on the spot. 'Coro' remained silent. I'll take that as a yes.

Then came the hard part, hiding this from literally everyone.

I told you, there is no need to hide.

And I told YOU last night that I am not ready for my so-called 'duty', so we're going to hide this until I reach adulthood AT LEAST.

Did I not inform you of the time limit?

No, you did, I'm just telling you that you've already waited a few thousand years, you can wait a little longer. Having someone else's voice in your head was exhausting. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have chores and then school.

That is more important to you than this? I understand your concerns about age, but school?!

Yes, now LEAVE ME ALONE!! Coro apparently is really bad at respecting boundaries.

***

Evidently, I am not nearly as good at hiding things as I'd hoped. A mere ten minutes into class and Diamond has already managed to drag me to the bathroom to try and find out what's going on. 

"What are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing, everything's fine!" Please believe the lie...

She rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh. Because you always act like a scared animal. All the time. Tell me."

I found myself grasping for something - anything - that Diamond would believe.

You human women have that monthly blood thing, say it's that.

Nervous and ready to go with anything remotely believable, I blurted "My period just started this morning."

Diamond stared at me for a few seconds, probably startled by the 'revelation'. "That... makes sense. You should have told me! You're a woman now! I'm a little surprised you were before me, but we can talk about that later. Oh, this explains so much. Your weird behavior, almost like you're watching your back, is just mood swings!" She swept me up in a bone-crushing hug. "I am so happy for you! Although I've heard nasty things about the cramps, so you might want to stay away from the cheese for a while-"

"Um," Luckily, she was too happy to throttle me for cutting her off mid-rant. "This is just going to stay between the two of us, right? Please don't tell the boys."

"Of course not!" She laughed slightly. "This is a girl's thing. Don't worry, I'll stall the two if they start asking questions." Her ramble went on into how she would do so, with 'don't you worry' mixed in every few seconds. 

"Shouldn't we get back to class, or something?"

"Oh," She blinked, as if just remembering we were supposed to be learning like all the others. "Right. Let's go, young woman." Her smile somehow crept deep into her voice, sending a shiver of guilt down my spine.

  The second we returned to the classroom, Shard concernedly asked what happened - if I was okay. Diamond told him it was nothing he had to worry about, that she had everything under control and that 'under no circumstances are you to ask Aari about this'. I was grateful, but it was a little awkward to sit there and let her defend me from my own friends.

School was alright, although if not for Diamond I might have not survived the first few seconds. It seems like the whole school had gotten wind of my 'acting weird', the joys of village life. Kei, of course, was claiming it was the 'realization of my true heritage', and I almost wished it was. Secretly being from our life-long enemies seemed a better alternative to being the Yogen-Sha - I could really see where Shard had been coming from now, I felt like I was going to crumble under the pressure.

Maybe you should tell him. Nope, bad plan. He would freak out, tell everyone. Best to just stick with the lie from earlier.

I like the thought of telling this friend, if you trust him enough to even consider it I believe he might be very useful in... keeping you sane.

I'm fine. And I thought we agreed that you would keep out of my head!