She had to give it to them, the Village elders -- at least what she'd seen of them -- were surprisingly insightful and wise men.

They quickly sensed something in Cas's voice when she asked for a private conversation, and immediately, the party was cut short and everyone was told to leave. Some grumbling followed, but with the words of two village elders to contend with, the room was quickly cleared and Cas was left alone with Nemaris and the Fari elder.

The conversation that followed was a quiet one, almost too-formal by nature as Cas took her place at the gathering mat, directly opposite of Nemaris and the Fari elder.

Nemaris, who'd done most of the talking on his side of the mat, hunched over, finally, supporting himself by his elbows and allowing a bit of emotion to creep into his voice, as he said with a hoarse growl: "These are our traditions! How can you -- an outsider, expect to trample upon these things you don't understand?

Cas had the upper hand, and as someone in a winning position, she didn't feel the need to come up with new arguments, repeating herself in a tone just as icy: "your traditions be what they may. I will not be reviving the Oasis until I see Kari back here, safe and sound.

"She's been sent out into the desert! How can you expect us to find her. For all we know, she may already be dead!"

Cas answered simply, "then the village will die with her."

The cold words seemed to surprise the man with their audacity, and he hung his head once more -- doing at least that much to hide his disgusted expression as he spoke in an even voice. "We have nearly five hundred souls in these five villages. Children, elderly, pregnant mothers and their unweaned babes... you would be so callous as to let them die? For the sake of one woman?"

"She's a child!" her own voice grew hoarse with emotion before she clamped it down. Calming herself, Cas was quick with a retort: "And why place the blame on me? Would you be so callous as to let those people die for the sake of some petty tradition?"

Nemaris grew silent at this, taking a deep breath as was his habit when the challenges of life became harsh.

"My half brother... he was sent out into the desert because of a mistake his parents made. He was born deformed, and I never imagine he experienced a single moment of genuine happiness before he became an adult, and was allowed to let the desert have his bones

"This happened because his parents," he snarled the word, "did not follow 'some tradition'. I gave up the love of my life because this tradition did not allow the marriage! Every person here... their entire life, their marriages, their children are protected by the limits of this petty tradition! Do you have any idea what it's like to watch half your children be still born, to watch your sons die before they take their first breath because you married the wrong woman? Do you? This thing you call petty is the only thing that has allowed us to survive!"

Cas had shut her emotions away for the sake of the argument. So, she wasn't sure if she felt pity, but there at least came an understanding. These people -- she looked up at Nemaris' dark eyes, which bore a thousand yard stare into her form -- they were desperate, and isolated, and afraid after the world had swallowed their village up in a great desert. With so few people, with such isolation... avoiding inbreeding would require stringent adherence to certain rules, it would require planning, and Kari had been conceived outside of the confines of that plan. Of course, Kari herself was healthy, but It was likely she was too related to everyone else to be able to have healthy children.

Struggling, Cas attempted to take an outside view of things.

"That may be well, but I'm not asking you to let her have a family. I'm asking you to let her live!"

"We can't afford to keep her fed in this village!"

"You can afford to feed one child!" Cas yelled, cutting through what to her seemed to be obvious bullshit.

Nemaris only chuckled. "I see... that you haven't thought this through. Do you know that next year... two children, a boy and girl, will come of age to go into the desert? On average, we have three. If we kept every child that was a risk to the village, what do you think would happen.

Cas didn't say the answer, but it was obvious she understood.

"The only reason this village has survived is because we are ruled by law," he growled out his last words, "everyone is bound by the same responsibilities and every person -- including me and my half brother -- are to make the sacrifices required for this village to stay alive. What would happen to this village if we saved Kari, but made every other parent watch as their children are sent out into the desert? Or are you suggesting that we keep every child, let this village crumble under the weight of its own kindness?"

Cas couldn't answer him.

He was right.

This village would collapse if it saved every child. The people with genetic defects would build up in the population, and -- even if they didn't raise children -- the healthy members would be too few to maintain their numbers. Their strategy, it was essentially to cull the 'unhealthy' members in order to make room for new attempts at having more genetically healthy babies. It was a well executed strategy, to tell by the longevity of the village. It allowed them to kill birth defects before they could spread, it let them keep some genetic distance between villages, it was evil.

It was evil, yet it was the only way they could survive, Cas realized. She looked out the open flap of the door. The Elder's house was in the outskirts, and the door gave a direct view to the expanse of waste that surrounded the village. Cas remembered that the people of this village had thought the world ended five hundred years ago, when the desert engulfed their home.

Perhaps this was what it took to survive the apocalypse.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Cas couldn't think of a single good reason to save Kari.

----------------------------------------

Kari was a small girl, with pensive, sometimes coy, features. She had a face for loud expressions, and had once been a very talkative child.

The world she grew up in was large, however, and against its crushing weight Kari could find no way to survive other than to shelter against herself. After a certain age, she found that she didn't talk with people much, and the villagers didn't want to talk to her either. So, she stayed quiet and paid attention. Animals had more to say than most people noticed. They were hungry, lazy, greedy, sad and they looked at her with attentive eyes that didn't glance away with embarrassment.

Cas had been the first person to look at her like she was there.

Kari was sad that Cas had showed up so late in her life. By that time, she'd forgotten so much about how to talk to people, that she could never tell the girl what was in her heart. She'd asked Cas whether they were friends, but she'd never told her that she, too, saw Cas as her best friend in the world.

Another step, and the baking sands ran painfully up her ankles. The dunes were higher here, away from the rocky dirt of the Oasis, and every foot-step sank deeper into the sands, the air itself baking her as she struggled onward.

It was funny. Kari had essentially been raised for this. From the moment of her birth, she'd been designated as a sacrifice to the desert. Every year, on her birthday, the old women would come to her hut and teach her spells to recite at the moment of her death, ones that would bring the villages good water. Kari wondered if the last few children hadn't been spitting a few curses instead...

That was the strange thing about it, though. Despite the fact that this was Kari's destiny, she'd never thought about it much. She always avoided the topic when it came up, and even days away from her last birthday she'd never built up the courage to say it out loud, to even tell Cas 'I'm meant to die soon.' Granted, she hadn't expected them to send a man into the Oasis to get her. She thought she'd be safe there until a better time. Maybe, if she'd been brave and told Cas the truth, Cas wouldn't have gone out on that trip... maybe she wouldn't have died on that trip.

She'd seen Cas die. She'd seen the vultures attacking her until she fell behind the great mountain, and that falling, crimson figure in the distance was the last time Kari saw her friend.

Strange... Kari almost laughed. It'd been so long since Cas had said they were friends, and here was the first time Kari was willing to say it to her self.

Despite her avoidance of the topic, on certain nights, Kari did have a dream about her walking through the desert.

In her dreams it was much more peaceful. In her dreams it was the comfortable walk of a person taking their last steps.

"Ughhh!"

She sputtered, huffing heavy breaths and not bothering to touch the spittle that ran down her lips.

Reality was far crueler. It was painful, exhausting torture that drained the life from her with every step. And, even though Kari had lost her friend, and any prospects at life, even though she wanted to die, her body just wouldn't stop striving to live. It couldn't.

A weak step onto uneven sand collapsed her legs, and she fell into the sand, her body too numb and exhausted to register any pain.

It was a large world Kari had been birthed into. It was so large that it crushed her tiny body flat until she could do nothing but sink into the sand, eyes bleary as the whole world turned into a mush of color. Many people had been crushed under the world, and Kari didn't feel anything special about being its latest victim. She actually felt quite comfortable, letting her eyes drift into a close as she basked in the warm darkness. She was sad about a lot, she was sad that she didn't get to say goodbye to the only person that had ever cared, she was sad that her sister had been kept away from the ceremony, she was sad about so much... but she also had happy memories, too.

She remembered talking to her sister under the Oasis. She remembered playing tag. She remembered the amazement of realizing that Sakkari could fly!

Kari had spent her entire life preparing for death, and perhaps it had been too much to expect a fairy tale savior out of the desert. But, in the real world, she was glad to have met someone who could give her happy memories before the end.

She was thankful for that.

And, for a girl being crushed by the world... that was enough.

----------------------------------------

Cas stood silently with Nemaris in his hut. Currently, his wife was helping him dress and fix the tassels and adornments over his shawl.

Cas felt sick to her stomach. Anxiety eating her up as she sat in the hut, useless and cowardly and anxious as she tried to reassure herself.

"Nemaris spoke without facing her."

"In spite of everything... I thank you for understanding enough to help us."

"I cared for her," Cas answered.

"I cared for her for far longer than you did!" Nermaris' voice sizzled with hate, losing its previous composure before he coughed, and adjusted the bottom cuff of his shawl. "I... you have lived under our hospitality for so long... how is it you dare to do this? You know we can kill you at any time. I think you'll be surprised at how quickly the sun would kill you without a roof over your head."

"I think you'll be surprised at how little I care for your threats," Cas answered her own patience frayed as she glanced out the door. "We've already made the agreement that I will save your village."

"With great insult," Nemaris jeered. "How can you sit there so confidently? What would happen if we threw you out into the desert after the Oasis was fixed anyway?"

Cas, had elected not to reveal her shape-shifting abilities, so her confidence probably came as a great surprise as she repeated her earlier words: "Then you won't be a man of your word, Nemaris. And that'll be that."

A dry laugh came up from the corner, where the Fari elder sat watching with great amusement. "I think it's fair to say that she's soundly beaten you, elder Nemaris. I told you... didn't I warn you, that one day your own honor and civility would be the downfall of you."

Nemaris only spat at Cas. "I will keep my end of the bargain... but know this, Sage. You've lost your first and only ally in this village!"

Cas shouted back. "Good!"

Cas found herself snappy with anxiety lately. Her decision not to reveal her abilities meant that she couldn't go and help save Kari herself! Still... her flight form was unlikely to be helpful in bringing her back, and Nemaris had sent a man off from the first moment Cas had made her threat, and that man -- a large man with heroic stature, stepped in through the shawl without a knock. Again, everyone excused him this politeness, for his arms were burdened by the weight of a young girl with sandy hair and light eyes!

"Kari!" Cas yelled, crawling over to the girl, spouting fresh water into a nearby pot. "Did you give her water!" she glared up at the man who had brought her.

"I gave her all my water," he answered simply, "she was half dead by the time I reached her. Don't give her too much," he cautioned, tipping his hand to stop her stalk. "She is weak. It's best to give her water in moderation."

Cas knew he was right, yet her instinct was to yell at him. Thankfully, this was stopped by a hoarse voice that called:

"Cas..."

"Kari!" Cas answered, trying to display more happiness than worry. "It's going to be ok," she cooed, running a stalk through the girls hair. The first time she'd been able to touch the girl since she cleared all that acid out of her system. "They're going to let you live here, now."

Kari didn't react much to the news, only saying: "You're alive. I thought," she choked up in her voice, though her eyes could only squint tearlessly. "I saw the vultures..."

"I'm fine!" Cas announced, not eager to let the girl prattle on about her flight. "And you're going to be fine, too," she said, taking the girls soft hand in her stalk.

Again, a tearful, choked up noise.

"Why?"

Cas grew confused. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you save me?"

Cas, finally understanding, answered simply with the only reason she had:

"Because you're my friend."