Canhor

Part One: Unknown

I wake up at 7:02am to the sun beaming in my eyes and a heavy headache. When I try to lift myself off of my pillows my head feels like a hundred pound brick. I lay back down and think to myself, “It’s my 20th birthday today. Why am I feeling so sick?” It’s my twentieth birthday! I frantically look down at my wrist for a lover’s clue tattoo, but my wrist is blank. I lay in pain thinking that maybe it’s too early for my lover clue and reach over to the left side of my bed to reach for my phone and remove it from the charger. I already have 15 messages from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday, but I don’t see any from Phoenix. Phoenix is the guy I have been dating for the past five months and I feel as though he may be my soulmate. I hope he is. Yet, for whatever reason, there is no text from Phoenix and no lover’s clue tattoo. I put my phone down and sit up on the bed, I look over to the right to my bedroom window overlooking Manhattan, the sun is really stunning all its glory today.

I moved to Manhattan about two years ago when I decided I wanted to try something different than farm life in Idaho. My parents were both farmers and were never home because they were always out on the field working countlessly. I had to work out there sometimes also, but my parents always wanted me to focus on school and play soccer. My parents have extremely high expectations for me. Once when I was 12, my mother signed me up for a spelling bee that was for seniors in high school. When I came in second place I was grounded for a month. Their expectations lead me to New York. A free place. A place of ten story skyscrapers, traffic, dreams, and the New York Stock Exchange. I graduated with a master’s degree in accounting, top of my class and immediately decided to move to New York to work for the best firms and eventually weave my way into the New York Stock Exchange business. I don’t know much about it but I know I belong there.

I am startled by my ringtone: Rihanna’s song, Needed Me. It’s my mother. I look at the sun hoping it’ll blind my brain as much as it blinds my eyes to withstand a conversation with my mother this early in the morning.

“Hi mom.” I say with a high pitch voice.

“Happy birthday Morgan!” She says with excitement. “How is your morning going? Are you working today? I would love to take you to that new restaurant on 5th Avenue. You know, that one that just opened up two months ago. I hear you don’t need a reservation since it’s fairly new and not super popular yet. I believe it’s Thai Cuisine.” She says without missing a second. She has a way of forgetting to take a breath in between her words.

“Thank you, mother,” I say with more sunshine in my voice, “that sounds like a good idea. I can meet you around noon. We can have lunch. Are they open that early?”

“Yes, they open at 11am so noon is perfect. See you soon moonlight.”

She hangs up the phone and I throw myself back on my pillows and groan. I would prefer not to hang out with my mother on my birthday, but it’s tradition. Every year since I was five, my mother and I have at least one meal alone on my birthday, no matter what day of the week it is. I’ve missed school for these meals over the years. It’s a way for us to spend time together, she says. She’s always going on about how she never spends enough time with me because she works nonstop.

My phone buzzes and I grab it off of my chest and look at the lock screen, it’s Phoenix. My heart pounds. I unlock the screen to open the text. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVER FRIEND! I’M EXICITED TO SEE YOU TONIGHT. My lover’s clue tattoo hasn’t appeared yet, mostly because I’m not 20 yet, but I know mine will match yours. Can’t wait to see you tonight.” My heart beats a little faster and I kick my feet up and down with excitement. As I get up off the bed to a sitting position again, I feel extremely dizzy. For a moment I forget my head feels like Big Foot beat me with a bat right on my nogging. I texted him back, “THANK YOU PHOENIX!!!! I can’t wait to see you tonight (winky face) and do things to you, another winky face. See you at seven at my place.” Phoenix’s birthday is a week from today, which means we were born in the same aura.

Auras are sections within every season that determine what person would likely be your soulmate. For example, if you were born in Scorpio season and your aura was purple then your soulmate would be someone from either the same aura or the same season. Phoenix and I are from the same aura, black, but our birthday seasons were different. I am an Aries, and he is a Taurus. Rams and Bulls are usually hot and heavy if the aura’s are the same, which makes sense for Phoenix and I because we have a fire that burns all year long. If your aura’s are different, but your season is the same, you usually have a quiet boring life soulmate. At least that’s what I think. I’ve known of a couple of people who don’t seem like they have much chemistry.

I get off of my bed and walk toward the bathroom to get ready for my day. I spend all morning getting ready and replying to birthday wish texts, DMs, and social media shoutouts. After I get ready, I make my bed. I never leave my home without making my bed in the morning. I read once that if your life goes to shit during the your day out in the world, at least you can come home to something that is pretty and right. That’s one less stressful thing to think about.

I’m more of tomboy-ish kind of girl. I like to be cute, but not “the girl next door” cute. My style consists of a lot of black clothing and some spunky pieces and fun shoes. I hate glitter and bedazzles. I think girls who like to wear stuff like that don’t know how to shine on their own and that’s why they wear such ridiculous clothing and accessories. My mother likes when I wear girly clothes, so I am going to wear a sunflower dress and bit of make-up too.

“Don’t forget that you don’t need to buy anything because you are not do nothing but be pretty tonight. Tonight, I cook for you. Winky-face/<3.” I wait a couple minutes before I reply. I don’t want to seem clingy.

Three minutes pass, “What are you cooking?

Instant reply, “It’s a surprise, but desert isn’t. Winky-face.” We tend to use that emoji often. I don’t reply because I’ve never been good at flirting. I also don’t open the message so he doesn’t see the word read under his message. It’s about 10am now. I’ve walked my dog, Tinki. I had a protein shake for breakfast so I can save space in my belly for lunch and dinner. I’ve done some writing and some reading. I have some errands to run so I leave my house around 10:30am to have enough time to meet my mom a little early. She’s a freak about being on time.

When I get to the restaurant called I love Thai Cuisine, so original, it takes me a moment to find my mother when I walk in. There are a lot of people here, lots more than I expected. I finally find my mother because I hear her voice. My mother is Italian and Guatemalan, which makes her loud by nature. I follow the proud voice and find my mother at the bar wearing a grey sparkly brunch dress with Loui Vuitton Black classic red bottoms. I feel embarrassed. My mother’s shine is dimming by the year I see. I say hi to my mother from her left-hand side and she screams, “Morgan, you scared me! Happy Birthday!” She looks at my outfit and says, “love the dress hate your shoes. What are you twelve?” I look down and reply, “everything, but make it Emo” whilst still looking at the floor. I am wearing my platform Doc Martins sandals.

“Morgan’s birthday party! (five seconds) Morgan’s birthday party?” calls the waitress. We walk over to our table and as soon as we sit my mother says,

“Let me see your Lover’s clue tattoo Morgan.”

“I don’t have one yet mother. Maybe it’s because it’s still early, but I don’t have one.”

My mother takes my arm and says, “how can this be? Everyone gets a lover’s clue no matter what planet you’re from.” It’s true, out of the all the planets in the Milky-Way Galaxy everyone gets a tattoo. “How can you not have a tattoo, Morgan? You should have had one as soon as your birthtime came to pass (which is 7:02am). Do you feel weird?” I told her that I had a massive headache this morning, but that it subsided after a couple of hours. In shock she grabs my arm and hauls me out of the restaurant as the waitress was approaching us with two glasses of water. “Where are we going?” I demanded to know. My mother said nothing for what felt like eternity.

As the valet pulls in with my mothers’ car she says, “get in” and nothing else. “Mom, where are we going? You are scaring me!” I say while I stared at her in fear of what she might say.” She stops at a red light, turns to look at me with tears in her eyes and says, “you are not my daughter Morgan. You are adopted. Your father and I wanted a child so bad that we went to the Fig cellar and picked you out of a basket full of babies. We were not proud of buying you in the black market, but we wanted children so bad we went to extremes to have you. I’m sorry Morgan, I never meant for you to find out. I believe you may be cursed.” She realizes that the cars behind us are honking at us and begins to drive. She drives in silence as I say nothing out of confusion and pain, unfathomable pain. My entire body feels like it is about to collapse. My mother continues to cry passionately. The kind of cry you cry when you don’t want to be heard, but your soul feels like a million shattered pieces broken over and over again.

*Rihanna* “Thinking of you beautiful. Can’t wait to see you!” I don’t reply. I am in too much shock to think about anything other than being fucken adopted.

Part Two: Known

We arrive at a place called Chakra Healing in the middle of now where, somewhere in upstate New York. My mother parks the car, we get down from the car and walk over to the store. As we walk in, there is only one person in the store.

“Where is Two Legged?” my mother says to the young girl behind the counter.

“Who is asking?” says the girl without looking up at my mother.

“Tania Heart. Now where the fuck is Two Legged?” The girl looks up with fear in her eyes.

“Tania Heart? The Tania Heart?” the girl says with amazement.

“What’s it to you? Now I am going to ask you one last time, where is Two Legged?” she says as she walks closer to the counter and the girl.

I follow closely behind her because the store doesn’t feel as healing as the name implies. It is dark in there. To the left-hand side of the store there are about five different types of La Santa Muerte’s and black and red candles displayed for sell and a huge goth-styled mirror behind. To the right there are crystals and what looks like black sage. One mahogany and black table displays a burning black sage with ghouls and demon looking creatures next to it. The walls are filled with the crystals, but they are not healing crystals, they are all black, brown, deep red and colors alike. The entire store is Goth Era styled with dragons on every corner filled with spider webs. My heart sinks to place a not even the ocean can feel. The name of this store is very misleading.

As we get closer the young girl no long looks amused, but rather scared again. Pass the counter there is a black curtain with embroidered bats in its outer rim. The young girl points over to the curtain and my mother or Tania, I don’t know what to call her at this point, grabs my hand and we walk through the curtain. As we walk through I feel an extreme gush of wind like the kind you feel when you’re walking through farm fields on windy days when there are warnings of tornadoes. I also feel extremely cold, like New York winter cold and my head begins to spin again. I feel all of this in a matter of seconds and when it all settles we are again in front of the black curtain, but this time opposite end and when we walk through, we are not longer in Chakra Healing. We are now in what looks like the school in the Harry Potter movies, Hogwarts. I grip my hands to my mothers or Tania, as she walks with purpose to a room with a sign that says Dog on it.

We walk in without knocking. It is a small bright room with nothing but white walls and ceiling windows and none on the walls. There is nothing on the walls, just white paint. A man sits in the left-hand corner in beach chair. All of this is very bizarre and random. What kind of sinister adoption place is this? The man is reading some type of newspaper, but the words and letters do not look familiar. He looks up from above the newspaper and says,

“Heart. What a sight to see you after all these years. Is this the goblin you bought years ago?” Goblin? Who is he calling a goblin? I am clearly human.

“Do not call her that. You know exactly what she is and where she comes from and you’re going to tell me right now!” Tania demanded.

He laughs, put the paper down, gets up and out of the chair and walks over to us and doesn’t hug my mom and hardly acknowledges her, and walks over to me and grabs my arm.

“No lover’s clue tattoo I see. Heart, you know what this means right?” He says without looking back at her. She is now facing both of us, looking at his back and my face.

“Of course, I fucken don’t Two Legged. If I knew, I wouldn’t be here now, would I? Where did you get her from” she says as she looks at me with embarrassment and shame.

“Let me look it up. Follow me little goblin, I’ll need your hair and your left hand as well as your left leg.”

He walks past me to my right and as I turn, I now see a machine that almost looks like a coffee roaster, you know the old school kind from the 1950s? They have a huge oven for roasting and a giant pot. I am one hundred percent this was in fact NOT here when we arrived. I turn back to look at my mother and the beach chair is now gone along with the newspaper. As I turn back around there is now a chair and a monitor like the ones you see at hospitals, the ones that monitor peoples heart rate and all. I’m no doctor here, but that’s the best description I have. I sit in the chair, a director – yellow chair. He takes piece of my hair and puts in the oven. He grabs my left arm and puts in a water bag and sticks my left leg into a wooden box. I am very very confused with what is going on. He pushes buttons on the hospital looking machine and several minutes go by. I look over to my mother in doubt and fear of what is to come. Two Legged gasps and steps back several steps away from the machine and I and puts his hand on his hair and wipes them down his face. Leaving his palms on his mouth.

My mother says, “What the hell is it? What is wrong.” A few seconds that feel like hours pass and my mother asks again. “Two Legged. Answer me! What is it?”

Two Legged looks at me and bows and says, “Princess. It is an honor to meet you.”

“PRINCESS!” Tania screams. Now getting closer to him and I both. “What do you mean princess and why are you bowing?”

“Tania.” He pauses and stands up again, “when I receive goblins to sell I am not given any information on who they are, where they come from, and how they get to me.”

“Oh-kaayyy. Aaaannnddddd?” she says, long winded.

“This goblin,” he pauses and turns and bows his head towards me, “sorry, what is her name?

“My name is Morgan.” I say. Realizing that it is the first time I have said anything since the red stoplight in the car.

“Morgan here, is Canhor. She is princess of the Canhor kingdom that rules the Milky-Way galaxy. It is the most powerful kingdom in the otter space.” He says in a low voice.

Louder now he says, “Canhor are the only species that do not get a lover’s clue tattoo because they are goddesses and gods. They can have whomever they desire. Usually, they choose one mate and mate forever. They are the ones that give everyone in the otter space the tattoos. They give tattoos to people because they personally choose who you will spend your life with. A long time ago, the kingdom of Spridar, the second most powerful, though not goddesses or gods, were sick of having the people of Canhor choose who they were to mate with forever. They wanted free rang on deciding who they would mate with and wanted the option to mate more than one person. They traveled from a near by galaxy called Savage and demanded the royals to change the discourse and allow them free rang in love. The Canhor royal refused their petition. A few weeks later when Queen Ethiopia gave birth to her baby who was said would be the most powerful Canhor to rule based on prophecy, the Spridar kingdom sent a scavenging crew to Canhor and they abducted the youngling. That is how the war began. It has only gotten worse, darker.” He stops, looks at me and says, “Morgan, you are that princess. The most powerful being in the entire otter world. You will bring peace to our existence.”

*Rihanna* Morgan. I have been knocking at your door for five minutes now. Where are you? Are you okay?”

My jaw drops in shock. I say no more.

The End.