Chapter One, Part Two
Aralyn took the back way to the house, cutting across the meadow behind the village. The five foot high weeds were golden this time of year, between the end of summer and the middle of autumn. As she came into view of her home she made her way quietly up to the door. Opening it, she found her mother sitting at the table with baby Hui laying beside her in his high seat gurgling quietly. Her mother's long red hair was in a messy bun as she lifted her head and greeted Aralyn with a tired smile. Eyes and hands weary, she returned to cutting the fresh carrot in front of her. She needs sleep, and lots of it, Aralyn realized. Ever since Hui was born less than a year ago, she has seemed almost like a ghost. She is weak and tired and hardly ever speaks in large quantities. It is her illness getting the best of her and her whole family, Aralyn thought.
“Hello mother. Go and rest. Now,” Aralyn said, taking her mother's spot at the table. She made her way to her bed without saying a word and was asleep in seconds.
Aralyn finished chopping the bright orange carrot and dumped them into the pot of boiling water over the fire. After stirring it, she made her way to table and sat down. She put her head in her hands, lightly touching where Iarran's lips had met her hair. A smile crept upon her lips ever so slowly. Did Iarran like her? Is the reason he is exited for her birthday because he could ask for her hand in marriage?
“No!” Aralyn yelped aloud, causing her mother to stir.
She didn't want to be married, she never wanted to marry. She wanted to travel past the mountains and into the world beyond their snowy peaks. She wanted to explore all that her world had to offer, and yet how was she so sure that there was a world beyond them? She was raised to believe there was not, and yet somehow she knew there was more to the world than just the Farahad forest that surrounded her village.
Aralyn jumped at the sound of the door opening. She looked up to see her brother Casimir walking through the door. His hair was matted down with sweat and dirt splotches were slashed across his light tan skin.
“You okay, Aralyn?” Casimir wondered.
“Yeah,” she nodded, eying his dirty pants and jacket, “Just a little tired, thats all. Did you go hunting?”
“Yeah.”
“You kill anything?” Aralyn pushed him.
“No.”
“You know...if you let me hunt, I could get you some game.”
“Stop it, Aralyn. Please. I'm tired, and really not in the mood, okay? The chief doesn't allow it, I'm sorry,” he apologized.
Aralyn sighed heavily.
“Whatever. Go to the river and clean yourself, dinner shall be ready in twenty minutes,” she ordered, taking on Mothers role.
Casimir gathered his soap and clothes and left to freshen himself up. Aralyn took the long wooden spoon and mixed the stew. Large bubbles rose to the top of the heated stew, bursting as they hit the air. Baby Hui awoke and began a high pitched wail that hurt Aralyn's ears. Aralyn retrieved her brother and went to sit by the fire. She stroked his small pink face. His eyes were wide open, the large round pupils a vivid sky blue, identical to Nella's and Casimir's. His ears were miniature, the tiny locks of hair red like his mothers. As his howls worsened, Aralyn began to sing softly, a song that she had written years before that voiced her wish to travel.
Oh, ever so restless
the wanderer of my soul,
born to follow
wherever
the path may lead.
Will not the moon
become addicted to
the steady
movement of my feet?
Step by step, I will walk,
until the day is at
its end and further still
until I reach the stars.
Oh, ever so restless,
the wanderer of my soul.
As soon as the baby heard Aralyn's voice he quieted, for her voice soothed him. Aralyn sat by the fire and stared into the flames while humming to her brother.
Hui and Nella and Casimir had the same parents. And Aralyn did as well. But they were not her birth parents. All Aralyn knew was that on her birthday, seventeen years ago, she was dropped off on this houses doorstep and left to this family to raise. Is it that her birth mother didn't want her? Or could her birth mother not care for a child so young? Aralyn didn't know, and likely never would.
The arms of the fire seemed to reach out to her, seemed to beckon her to join them in their wild dance.
A little while later, Casimir returned from bathing and Nella returned from playing tag all day. She came into the house panting like a weary horse. Casimir and Aralyn raised their eyebrows at her. Nella smiled playfully back.
“What? I was only having a little fun,” Nella giggled.
“Don't get used to it. You'll be working soon enough,” Aralyn said bitterly as she gave Hui to Casimir and began to set the table.
“Why are you so pent up against working?” Nella asked in a serious tone.
“I'm not against working. I'm against being stuck her day after day and never leaving this stupid village!” Aralyn answered, her voice raising as she spoke.
Mother awoke at the heightened voices and frowned.
“Girls, cut it out!” She said, lifting herself to her feet and beginning to sway to the side.
Casimir lay Hui down in his crib then rushed over to mother to help her. She recoiled from him in fear when he reached out to help balance her. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her breaths became shallow. A look of crazed fear pounded between the lines of her face.
“Who are you? Don't touch me! Girls, get him out of here!” Mother cried.
Aralyn held Nella close and shut her eyes. Nella got afraid whenever their mother got like this. Aralyn felt fear begin to crawl up her spine. What if this time... She held her breath as Casimir forced their mother into a tight hug. At first she fought him. She pounded on his back and told him to let her go but he didn't. He simply lowered her head into his chest and held her. After several minutes, she settled down. Her breaths became deeper and more regular.
“What's with the hugging, honey?” she said, her voice muffled by Casimir's shirt.
Aralyn closed her eyes and breathed in the relief flooding her bones. Every time their mother had a fit of forgetfulness, Aralyn worried that she would never remember her children. Though every time she did end up returning to normal, it would be worse the next time. Aralyn's mother was more aggressive and it became harder to calm her down and make her memory return.
The room was quiet as Casimir let mother go. Her eyes were no longer bloodshot and she smiled at each of her children. Slowly her smile disappeared. By the time she looked at Nella's still hidden face, she understood what had happened.
“Oh, God. I did it again,” She whispered, covering her mouth with her hand.
Casimir began to reach for her again but she held up her hand. After a breath or two, she fixed her dress and turned to Aralyn.
“Is the stew ready?” their mother asked in a strong voice.
Aralyn gulped and nodded, glad her mother was back to normal. Mother walked over to the pot and removed it from over the fire. Dipping the ladle in, she poured the stew into the bowls Aralyn had set on the table. Then she got Hui and sat down at the table with him on her lap. Aralyn glanced at Casimir and with a nod from him sat with Nella at the table as well.
The four of them ate in silence until Aralyn's father walked through the door. Everyone turned to greet him, then saw the way his face was sullen and they all turned back to their meals. Father sat down at his bowl and began to eat silently. The room was filled with the sounds of chewing and swallowing. Aralyn glanced at Nella and rolled her eyes, knowing that her little sister couldn't stand the quiet.
“It happened again, father,” Nella blurted out.
Her father turned to look at her. His bushy brown beard was especially unkempt this night.
“What happened again?” He asked in his deep gravelly voice.
“Mother forgot who I was,” Casimir interjected.
“Oh,” their father frowned and glanced at his silent wife. He let the heavy subject drop for the moment.
“Aralyn, your seventeenth birthday is only days away. Do you know what you would like?” he asked Aralyn.
“Yes. Three things. One, I want to see the mountains. I want to travel and see the world!”
“Aralyn there is no world beyond those mountains. Anyways, you are meant to marry once you are seventeen and learn how to raise a family of your own. Please for the love of Lemai stop talking about this seeing the world nonsense,” Mother sighed heavily.
“What if Lemai is the one that wishes for me to leave?” Aralyn countered.
“Aralyn! I will not have you speak of our Holy Father that way. You are soon to be a woman, so how about you start acting like one?” father threatened.
Aralyn felt a sharp pain in her heart at his words and the room fell hushed from shock. None of the kids dared to make a sound, not even baby Hui. Aralyn's mother spoke up.
“Gorun please don't...” she trailed off.
It wasn't worth the fight, not right now, Aralyn thought. She swallowed the small lump in her throat and voiced her second birthday wish.
“I wish for the law to change, so that I may hunt.”
Aralyn's mother rubbed her temple and her father closed his eyes for a moment.
“Stop with this nonsense, Aralyn,” her mother said in an aggravated whisper.
“And third?” Casimir asked.
Aralyn bit her lip, wondering if she should say her third wish out loud. She had already made a mess of things, and it would certainly bring more unbearable silence into the house. Then again, she could always just walk out if it became too much.
“Third I ask to hear mother laugh.”
As she had predicted, the house fell quiet. The air around the table was stagnant, and Aralyn felt like she couldn't breathe. Hui gurgled and spit up. Their mother wiped the yellowish spit off of her arm. Nella put her head on the table, covered her ears, and began to hum quietly, the silence bothering her. Casimir looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Aralyn had had enough of this. She stood, her chair scraping the floor. Viscously grabbing her bathing supplies, Aralyn exited the house, slamming the door behind her.
The path from the village to the river was fairly short. The trees were dense, bushes lining the dirt path. The evening was quiet, no one else in sight. A light breeze whistled in the cool air, rattling the dry leaves still holding on to their branches. It was early autumn and winter waited just around the corner. A couple more weeks, and the ground would be blanketed with white snow.
Aralyn pushed aside a bare tree branch and the river came into view. The water looked calm, a bright turquoise blue. She strode forward, feeling not dirt on her feet anymore, but sand. It felt heavy and scratchy. With every step forward, the crumbs of rocks filled the holes Aralyn's feet left behind. Tall cattails swung in the evening breeze. She glanced into the water as she removed her dress and stockings. With the liquid was so clear, she could see the soft sand of the river floor, and the deep blue pool that emerged towards the middle of the wide pathway of water. Aralyn could also see little multicolored fish and strange looking creatures of the water. One had long fins and two short legs with a teal belly and green scales, another was fat and purple.
She kicked off her slippers and stood in her light cotton dress that she bathed in. Laying her clothes and nightgown on a branch of a close tree, Aralyn gingerly stepped into the water. She smiled as the warm water caressed her toes.
Wading in, she could feel the soft sand on her feet and see the rainbow fish swimming around her legs and torso. The water was like caramel; silky and smooth and perfectly heated. Every subtle movement she made sent ripples floating down the river. Then, Aralyn felt the sand gently fall away from her feet, and she knew she was in the deep pool. She lay down on the water, spreading out her arms and fingers. Her long black hair swirled around her head. Aralyn closed her eyes, a feeling of peace washing over her.
All the events of the day came crashing upon her. Unlike before when she felt like she could not breathe, she knew she could handle it now, in the serenity of the river. Without necessarily replaying the events in her mind, she thought about everything that had happened. The kiss from Iarran, her father saying she needed to act her age, and the awkward dinner she had just been through. She chose to forget Iarran's kiss because she wanted nothing to do with love. At least, not at this point in her life. She buried the feeling of having a man close to her deep into her heart, so that she would forget it for the time being but someday remember it.
As for what her father said, Aralyn knew it was somewhat true. She did not act like the other women in this village. But she was also not a human like everyone else was. Not to mention how she felt the need to move, to travel, and yet she could not. It was her passion to explore and hunt, and yet she was not allowed to do either of those things. How could her father expect her to act her age when she had no freedom to be who she was?
“You look like you are enjoying yourself,” a voice called out from far above in the trees.
Aralyn glanced up and saw a girl, about five feet tall, jump off of a tree branch and dive into the water. Aralyn smiled as the girl broke the surface, short red hair spiky and wet. It was her best friend, Aliyah. Aralyn swam over to Aliyah.
“Yeah, I was enjoying myself. But now that you're here, I don't know,” Aralyn teased.
Aliyah punched her in the arm playfully. Aralyn ducked under the water, grabbing Aliyah's thin ankles and pulling her down. Aliyah joined Aralyn beneath the surface of the water. They laughed, tiny bubbles escaping their mouths and floating towards the sky. Swimming deeper and hitting the bottom of the river, the two friends were careful around the knife rocks, as Aliyah called them. The rocks were sharp enough to cut through bone, yet their various shades of silvery gray were intoxicating. A long and thin orange fish slithered past Aralyn. Touching it on its back, the fish bolted away, disturbing the water around the girls. They floated back to the surface together.
They welcomed the fresh air with a chuckle.
“So, did you go hunting last night?” she asked, swimming away.
Aralyn rubbed soap onto her body. “Um, no, why?”
Aliyah stopped moving and sent a quizzical look at Aralyn.
“Don't lie to me, Aralyn,” she said.
Aralyn sighed. “Of course I went hunting! The chief forbids me to hunt because I am a girl? He's such an idiot! What did you expect me to do?”
“Honestly? Nothing but go hunting,” she shook her head. “Sometimes, Aralyn, its not good to break the rules.”
“And sometimes, it is good to break the rules. Especially the pathetic ones.”
“Yes, but the chief told you, publicly, that if you hunted you would be banished!” Aliyah argued.
“Oh please. He'll never know! He's too dim witted,” Aralyn laughed as she finished bathing. She lay on her back and floated on the surface of the river.
“All I'm trying to say is that if you get caught, my family cannot take you in, okay?”
“Yea, I know.”
“I'm just asking you to be careful, okay? With the wolves and everything, it's dangerous out there even for the men.”
Aralyn nodded. The wolves have always been an enemy of the village, for they have killed many of the villagers. Some years ago, they killed Aliyah's older brother, Ash. Since then, other lives have been taken, though the bodies have never been found. And because the wolves have killed so many of ours, we have in turn killed many of theirs. Whenever the chance presents itself to either side, they always take the kill. It is a blood bath, and it will never cease to exist. That is another sure way to get banished, though. Anyone who has touched or been touched by a wolf must be banished. Chief's rules, and that rule is actually an intelligent one.
“So. You know how I have been secretly training with Iarran?” Aralyn began.
“Yeah, in hand-to-hand combat, correct?”
“Yep. Well, today, he said there was nothing else to teach me, then he...um...” Aralyn stuttered.
“He what?” Aliyah pushed, swimming closer to Aralyn in anticipation.
“He kissed me.”
“What!” She screeched, “On the lips?”
“No, on the forehead,” Aralyn corrected quickly, not wanting Aliyah to think she was in love. Aralyn sighed heavily and closed her eyes.
“What do you think about that? What could it mean?” Aliyah pondered out loud.
“I have a feeling. He said he was exited for my birthday, but he would not tell me why.”
“Oh my gosh. Do you think he plans to marry you?” Aliyah gasped.
“Why would he? He is the chiefs son, and I am a poor girl with a large family that is impossible to care for. And anyways, I have no wish to marry. That would ruin my life. I just want to leave.”
“You want to leave me?” Aliyah said quietly.
“It's nothing personal, Aliyah, I just feel the need to move, and I need to see past those mountains. It's what I really want for my birthday. I want to leave,” Aralyn explained, eyes still shut to block out the setting sun.
Aliyah fell quiet and swam around for a couple minutes.
“So, you don't even like Iarran?”
“Aliyah! You are not helping! And no, that's not true. I do like him, he is handsome. I just don't want to marry him.”
“You know it is a great honor that he has noticed you, right?”
Aralyn opened her eyes and glanced at her friend. “Of course I know that, Aliyah.”
Aliyah threw her hands into the air. “Why then are you not jumping at the chance to marry him? I know as a fact that I would.”
“Did you not hear anything I just said?”
“And did you not pay attention in school? There is nothing past those mountains. Nothing,” Aliyah reminded Aralyn.
“You see, I don't think thats true.”
“How can you not think a fact is true?”
“Has anyone from this village ever ventured past those mountains and returned? No,” Aralyn said. She was becoming annoyed with Aliyah.
“A good thing, too. Because anyone who would do that is wasting their time. And their life as well.”
“Yeah, okay. A waste of their life. Great. Thanks. I have to go, bye,” Aralyn said farewell, pissed off at what Aliyah had said.
She gathered her stuff and headed home. The forest had become dark while she had been bathing and talking with Aliyah. Mist shrouded the path and hugged the tree trunks. Aralyn emerged from the woods and entered the house. Mother and Nella lay in their cots, already asleep. Casimir was leaning into Hui's crib to kiss him goodnight. Father sat at the table writing with his quill pen. Saying nothing, he simply glanced at his daughter with a glazed over expression, then returned to his quill.
