A little investigation was all it took to discern the issue.
Cas had placed the tents where the death rates of the slimes had been highest: a band about fifty meters beyond the borders of the Oasis.
That had been a mistake. The tents cooled the sand in those areas. The lower temperature encouraged more slimes to surface, and those slimes, now coaxed away from the safety of the underground, suffered horrendous casualty rates as they continued their journey past the shaded areas and onto the sun-lit sands.
This was a simple oversight with an even simpler solution. All they had to do was move the tents closer to the Oasis and the problem was fixed.
The villager's patience had worn thin, however, and things were perhaps worse than they looked, to tell by the panicked expression that dressed itself on Kari's features.
"Cas!" Kari announced hurriedly before the door-curtain had fully closed behind her. "I've been eavesdropping again! Nemaris is mad. He's really, really mad!"
Cas was wearing a human skin and a fatalistic expression as she toyed with a minature slime clone on her workbench. "Yeah, he probably, would be," she answered, the slime jiggled as she tapped it with her fingertip. "Did he say anything about the workmen I asked for?"
Cas was genuinely curious, not in the mood to chastise the girl for eavesdropping.
"Cassss!" was Kari's shocked reply.
"What?" Cas replied, indignant.
"What are we supposed to do? Everyone in the village hates us!"
"They hate us more," Cas corrected easily. "They always hated us at least a little."
"Cassss!"
Cas sighed, standing to face the girl and feeling a little vertigo from how much she towered over her now that her human figure was a sixteen year-old. "What do you want me to do, Kari?" she said dejectedly. "I already told them the mistake, and how we can fix it. All we can do now is move the tents and wait for all of this to blow over."
"But, Cas, they-"
"They're really mad," Cas said shortly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, "I get it. I'm not happy about this, either, but I can't do more than I have! Just leave it."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" came the frantic response.
Cas replied shortly, losing her calm. "We aren't doing anything, Kari. It's not your responsibility. Just let me handle-"
Kari broke. "This wouldn't have happened if you didn't take in Nadia!"
A dim silence fell.
Reluctantly dropping the toy slime, feeling herself shake as she turned fully around to face a defiant Kari, "Pardon?" Cas said.
"This is all happening because you didn't listen to me!" Kari charged. "The village hating us, the Oasis, the food!" By now the girl was once again on the verge of sobbing, though she truly didn't want to be, and managed to hold enough composure to finish her accusations. "You're breaking your promise. I - hic - I did everything I was supposed to. I was a good friend, and now you've just forgotten about me to care about sand!"
Kari stamped her foot, arms straightening down her sides while clenched fists flared outwards with an angry tension that matched her squeezed eyelids.
Cas was losing patience, to tell by the effort she had to exert to muster an appropriate response. "Kari!" she said, injecting a firm kindness into her voice. "I'm doing everything I can to help the village. The villagers hate me for it, yes, and that's fine, but I don't want you to hate me, too! I'm honestly just trying to do the right thing, and you should be mature enough to understand that that doesn't mean I hate you."
"No!" Kari stamped again. "You're the one who's not seeing things right! You're being too fair, you're not thinking-"
Cas grew heated enough to interrupt. "I think I know better than some half-"
Kari stood her ground, interrupting back. "pint who can't care-"
From there they both spoke, participating in a mutual tirade as each tried to speak over the other on matters both personal and private
"-selfish sakkari that can't-"
"-thoughtless jerk who doesn't even-"
"-after everything, how could you not care-"
"-just stop, please stop! I just can't focus on you right now!" Cas held her head between shaking hands, all but begging to end the conversation. Though, it was her that was shortly silenced by the surprising words Kari decided to reveal.
Kari, for her part, screamed.
It was different from her previous yells, simple attempts to defend against being talked over. This was the distinct sound of long suppressed words escaping a tired filter.
"You're becoming just like the village!" Kari voice became hoarse from the immediate effort. "You're acting just like them and I don't like you anymore!"
Cas felt the words like they were a steel blade slipping into her throat. She acted like it, too, choking into a silence that allowed the suddenly demure Kari to provide a quieter explanation. She looked abashed suddenly, looking down at her pivoting toes as she continued softly.
"...You don't care about me at all," Kari admitted. "All you care about is saving more lives."
Cas was stunned twice over, this time from bewilderment. "Kari... you're not making any sense," she probed. "I'm trying to save everyone, including you!"
"Including me," Kari spat. "That's what I mean," she let out a crying chuckle, "all you're looking to do is save the village. That's what the villagers are trying to do. That's all they were trying to do when they threw me out into the desert. I thought you'd be different since you're my friend, but I guess I wasn't good enough for you to care about now that have Nadia to do all your chores for you."
Kari spat the other girl's word like it was poison.
Cas froze, realizing just how much of a spider's web this conversation was proving to be. And despite her best efforts, it was impossible to grasp just what the girl was getting at. Still, treading carefully on that next sensitive string of conversation, Cas spoke, "Kari... I don't understand, of course we're friends. Just because I'm helping other people doesn't mean-"
"Yes it does!" Kari interrupted. "It's all fine now, but... I'm the oldest Unari in the village. You can only make enough food to feed four people. What happens in four years when I get bigger, and you take in six more Unari, and you're running low on food?"
"I don't-"
"Don't play dumb!" Kari laughed meanly. "I mean, you are the great sage. I'm sure you'll be able to figure that you could feed two children using the rations for one sixteen year old!" Kari gestured meaningfully at herself. "I'm sure you'll make the choice that saves the most people!"
Kari's words were vindictive and plain and held quite a bit more logic than Cas had given the girl credit for.
"It's not going to come to that!" Cas answered as a reflex, feeling uncomfortable with the thought.
"So you would sacrifice me if it did!"
"It's not going to!"
"Just answer the damn question!"
"My plan is going to make that question unnecessary!"
"Your plan already failed!" Kari screamed again, speaking past the rivulets of tears that crossed over her lips. "I believed in you, but all you have are more promises! What happens if your bigger plan fails, too? What if it takes you three extra years? You're going to have to answer that question then; but I guess you've already made up your mind!"
And Kari was right. In a way, Cas had made up her mind. Cas knew this, too. She knew that the answer lay somewhere inside of her for ready retrieval; she just didn't want to find out what it was.
Cas collapsed, shoulders slumping, begging. "Kari! Stop asking me that right now. I'm... I'm really tired."
Kari only snarled. "See! I told you. None of this would be happening if you just didn't save Nadia!"
Cas was harried, and ashamed, and surprised by this conversation. She was tired and scared because of the Oasis. She was emotional and had so far been able to handle Kari's challanges despite the weight of her recent failure crushing her. However, Nadia was a sweet girl who's smile she could picture in her face, and Kari's invoking her name was just too much.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"Stop saying such evil, ugly things!" It was Cas's turn to scream. "This isn't like you at all! Stop! Just Stop! I hate what you're saying and how you're saying it!"
Kari grew indignant. "You wouldn't be dealing with this if you didn't take her-"
Cas grew livid. "I wouldn't be dealing with this if I didn't save you, would I?" she said pointedly. "So what's the difference there, exactly?"
Kari shut up immediately, eyes softening into fearful circles.
Cas could feel her emotions whip back in a flash. Her question had been meant to sting, and it had worked a little too well to tell by Kari's hurt look. What had gotten into her? She couldn't remember getting so angry since she'd been a teenager... and she couldn't ever remember delaying an apology for so long. Time seemed to drip like molasses from that point, a perfect tension building as Cas wondered what would happen now. She thought of a Kari screaming, attacking her even, and a thousand other terrible outcomes. She'd never expected that Kari would have an answer for her, though.
"The difference is," Kari took a steadying breath to suck in her tears. "Because --" Kari spoke softer, now, as if embarrassed by her words " -- I thought we were friends."
The pure simpliciity of the answer suddenly made Kari look her age. It shocked Cas to remember that the girl with such worry and foresight was still only twelve.
Cas started, "Kari-"
The door curtain buffeted outward, reaching for Kari's sprinting figure before Cas could gather herself enough to reply.
----------------------------------------
In all matters of importance, it was possible to come onto one side or the other.
Tami, always a purveyor of popular positions, understood instinctively that -- if you wanted to affect public opinion -- it was smarter to play the role of controlled opposition, which was just what she was doing in the middle of the village square.
"I'm certainty no friend of that fiendish Sakkari," Tami prefaced. "Frankly, I think you speak too kindly of her," this statement she directed at her opponent. "However --" she continued, addressing the crowd, now " -- I still struggle to understand how allowing her actions to undermine our elder is of any benefit to the village."
It could be said with no uncertainty that Tami was the singular and only force in the village that so-far kept outrage at bay, and she was quite a force, to boot. Tami was a master of village politicking. She knew everybody and had some modicum of trust among them. She also had a talent for managing emotions, even when they were a great broiling mass of hatred for a monster.
She wasn't planning to make Cas a popular figure. Far from it.
Rather, in her loud engagement with her neighbor Cindra -- which had by now drawn a sizeable crowd -- Cas deftly managed to pivot the issue of killing the slime into a matter of 'respect for the elders', always a popular position for anyone wanting to stifle progress.
Nemaris hadn't signed-off on a riot, after all, and it was a time honored tradition that: "The elder's preferences are to be respected, not liked," Tami concluded the finishing blow of her statement, speaking as if she just hated the facts of the matter that she was duty bound to speak, a face-saving measure that allowed Cindra to withdraw from the argument with some dignity, which she promptly did.
The crowd, a mass of people bouncing on their toes for action, dispersed with a disappointed air.
As they parted, Tami saw out of the corner of her eye, a wash of messy blonde hair. It looked like Kari. Exerting her self control, she stopped herself from staring at the girl. It wouldn't do to be friendly with Cas's wards at this moment. Although, she couldn't help sneaking a glance, and she couldn't help wanting to talk to the girl who looked so dejected.
----------------------------------------
Kari's life had gotten worse, recently, not that she minded.
Kari had lived a bad life. She'd been through worse.
Before meeting Cas, she’d spent years without a friendly expression from anybody; months went by between people speaking to her or even looking her in the eyes. She'd lived all her life knowing she was going to die, and it never bothered her enough to keep her from being happy. But Cas had done something far more insidious: she'd given Kari hope and crushed it.
Kari stumbled in her walk, vision blurry with tears. She was outside of the village, now, away from those hateful glares that had replaced the indifferent ones. Guess she really was a fool to expect anything more than she'd been given.
The world, a haze of brown and blue, rolled towards her as she continued taking hard steps, reminiscing about all the lessons she'd learned in life.
----------------------------------------
Kari had been born from a love marriage, and people are willing to take risks for love.
Her parents weren't too closely related, but they were in an allowable grey area (Nearly everyone in the village was), and they'd fallen in love. Naturally, they got married, and everything was wonderful until they had an Unari for a child.
Yessina -- Kari's older sister -- was born with a minor defect, a short pinkie finger that couldn't bend fully. Minor as it was, however... such things couldn't be allowed to fester in such an isolated community, and her parents had been given a second chance named Kari.
Kari had been born healthy, perfect even, and was the darling of her family dinner table. Yessina had been sanctioned for the desert, at that point, and so Kari got most of the attention and most of their rations and all of their sweets; and, every night, when mother tucked them into bed, she would tell Kari: "I love you," and every night she would forget to tell Yessina the same.
Kari didn't understand this. She always thought how they treated her sister was mean. She even said as much, once, and was corrected sternly about this by mother, who said: "being fair doesn't mean being nice, and it's not fair to feed a dead girl".
Mother used that phrase like an aphorism, pulling upon it in various situations, particularly when she brought out the broom after Kari had done something bad.
Despite this, Kari felt bad for Yessina, and always managed to sneak back some rations to her sister, although she did tease Yessina about the fact that mother never pulled out the broom to discipline her. Although, maybe that was only fair.
As she grew older, Kari began to understand more, and she also started fainting.
No one knew the cause, but the cure was simple enough. All she had to do was have food on hand, eat it whenever she felt an attack coming on, and she would be safe! It was such a simple fix! Kari could always go around with a satchell full of rations, so it didn't affect her life at all. It was such a minor defect!
The village laws were fair between all defects, minor and great, however. She was declared an Unari, and that very night -- Kari would never forget this moment as long as she lived -- mother forgot to tell her 'I love you'.
That was only fair. You couldn't love a dead girl.
Her 'friends' also strayed further away, and so did the adults, and so did her parents, and her Kari witnessed something amazing as her life fell apart in the course of a day. Worse yet, that same day Yessina discovered her talent for magic. Because of this, her sister had been allowed to live so that she could train with Korivenna to be the next apothecary! How funny that she would lose everything the same day Yessina gained her life back. How funny that she -- who was meant to live -- would die while Yessina -- born to die -- would live.
How funny that this hadn't been enough to cure her of hope.
----------------------------------------
Kari thought of all this she trudged further into the desert.
She was walking without purpose, however that alone seemed enough to bring her in the vicinity of Korivenna's lonely hut, and a figure standing in front of her forced her to stop and wipe her tears away.
"What?" she asked with a wracked voice, surprised to find her sister Yessina looking at her with a grim and nervous expression.
The older girl replied simply, "Korivenna sent me. She has something very important to tell you."
Yessina spoke with the staccato rhythm of a nervous child who'd been trained to follow a script, and Kari followed with sluggish footsteps.