"Let's look for Jess today," Emily says on our way to breakfast.
"Really?" I thought she didn't want to talk to her friends during the week.
"W-well, she knows a lot more about the gods than I do, so it'll be better if she helps me teach you about them."
"Oh, I understand," I nod quickly. So she's going to Jess for my sake.
When we find her in the dining room, Emily approaches her. She seems uncomfortable and worried, as does Jess.
"Hey, uhh, Jess. I've been teaching Aria about the gods. You're a lot better than me at that stuff, so I was wondering if you could help me out..." At the mention of gods, Jess' eyes light up, but she quickly turns away, clearing her throat before answering.
"I guess I could help out..." she mutters in response. She still seems excited though. As we take seats near her, she asks, "So what are you teaching her right now?"
"Well, Aria just started learning, so we're doing the basics. We're still going over all of the gods' names and what each one does."
"I see... So Aria, which gods do you know?"
"So far we've covered Arcanas, Goddess of Creation and Order, Venar, God of Time and Change, and Herat, God of Chaos and Disorder." I carefully recite the names and titles I learned yesterday, trying to keep them all in my head. Jess nods.
"Did you learn their days and months?"
"Yes." I begin counting them off. "Arcanas has Arcaday, the first day of the week, Venar has Venaday, the second day of the week. Herat..." I stop briefly. "Does he have a day? Emily didn't mention that."
"No, there is no day for Herat," she says simply. I want to ask why not, but the answer is obvious as soon as I think about it. There are twelve gods and only seven days in the week. So five of the gods must not have days named after them.
"Ok." I go on, "For months, Arcanas has Arbor, the third month. Venar has... Vent. It's the first month. And Herat has..." I keep thinking, but can't bring the name back to mind. "I forget, but I think it's the second month."
"It's Herst. The month is named for both Herat and the storms that are frequent during the month," she answers smoothly.
"It's named for the storms?" Emily didn't mention that. "What about them?"
Jess glances at Emily, who shrugs to show she doesn't know about this. "In Herst, the beginning 'Her' comes from Herat, while the ending 'st' comes from the storms. Most of the months of the year follow a pattern like that. For Arbor, 'Ar' comes from Arcanas, while 'bor' comes from how most children are born in that month. In Vent, the 'Ve' comes from Venar while 'ent' comes from the way the month is the entrance to the new year." I don't know if I can say I completely understand her descriptions, but it seems that the months draw the first part of their name from their god, and the second part from some aspect of the month itself.
"And their marks?" Jess asks. I don't know what those are, but Emily cuts in first.
"We can do those later, right? She should really know the basics first."
"Ok, that's fine," Jess pouts for a moment, looking a little less excited, before shrugging and moving on. "Since we've covered these three, the next are Saras and Hurena." Why two at once? But she keeps going, reciting it like Emily did. "Saras rules the sky while Hurena rules the land. Saras is The God of Sky and Weather, Hurena is Goddess of Land and Harvest. These two are twin gods. They were created together to bring the world into order by establishing up and down."
"Wait, you've totally lost me," I wave my hands. "First off, you called them twin gods, what are twins?"
"Twins just means when two babies are born at the same time instead of one like normal," Emily fills me in. "They're called twin gods because they were created at the same time."
"Yeah, that's the next part. You said they were created together. Gods can be created?"
Jess comes back in to explain that one. "Yeah. We don't know how, but the gods definitely created each other in the beginning." She takes a small breath, then goes on. "Arcanas created Saras and Hurena together to bring the world into order after Herat introduced chaos. By creating land and sky, she established up and down to make the world orderly." She mentioned all of this before, but it makes a lot more sense with the extra context now.
"But... how does creating up and down make the world orderly anyway?" I ask. I don't see the relation.
Jess thinks about that for a bit. "I'm not really sure, they never mentioned how that worked exactly. I think it has to do with the way it made rules for everything to follow. With up and down, everything has to fall down."
"I guess that kind of makes sense in a way," I mutter. So order means establishing rules that the whole world follows.
Jess slips out of her teaching tone a little. "As I was saying, Saras is The God of Sky and Weather. He rules the sky and controls the wind, rain, clouds, and everything else there. That's why birds are considered symbols of Saras." Ok, that one is pretty easy to understand. She recovers and goes on, "Hurena is The Goddess of Land and Harvest. She controls everything below the sky. The ground, the plants, the land animals, and holds power over harvests. She's one of the gods we pray to most often because she is the one who determines if we have good or bad seasons. Her blessing means our crops grow well. Displeasing her brings droughts and famine," she says seriously.
"Wow, Hurena seems like a really powerful god," I comment.
"Mm, not really." Jess shakes her head. "She's important to us, but gods like Arcanas and Herat are way more powerful."
"I don't understand, how are they more powerful?" Her description doesn't really make sense.
She has to think a bit for this one, brow furrowing as she tries to remember, before reciting slowly. "The gods aren't all powerful. They control the world, but to different degrees. Arcanas was the first god. She created existence itself. The others came from her, so they can't be as powerful as their creator. Herat and Venar are the closest. They rule over chaos and time, concepts with no form that influence everything in the world, but they are still limited to things that exist. Arcanas can bring existence from nothingness, so she is more powerful."
I think about that a bit, trying to understand and reduce the long descriptions into something a little more simple and understandable. When I think I've got it, I say, "So... Arcanas is the most powerful, and controls everything. Then Herat and Venar control a part of that."
"Yes, exactly." She nods quickly. "Then... Saras and Hurena are below them. They have power over set physical places. The sky and the land. Since they are less powerful, their domains are finite, and don't span all of existence like the ones more powerful than them."
Despite all of the words I'm not familiar with, I think I get the idea, and try to summarize it. "So the more powerful they are, the more influence they have over a larger section of the world, got it."
Jess smiles a little, looking oddly relieved. "That's why we pray to them regularly. If we can please them and receive their blessings, it will make our lives better. Clear skies, good harvests, healthy children... Their blessings affect all parts of our lives."
"Hmm..." I consider that for a few moments. If that's the case, why doesn't anyone mention them most of the time? Marrianne and Francis never mentioned the gods at any point while I was living there. Emily doesn't either unless we're talking about them. I consider asking about it, but the way Jess' eyes are shining talking about the gods makes me hesitate before mentioning something like that. Instead, I pivot to a related topic.
"So what about the days and months? Which ones are named after them?"
"They come after Venaday. So Saraday is the third day of the week, and Hureday is the fourth day. For the months, Sarel is the month of sky. It's the eighth month of the year. Hurven is the tenth month." Without even pausing, she slips right into describing them, "Sarel is the month when the skies are at their clearest and most beautiful. Hurven is the month of harvests, when we see our final and greatest harvest of the year, when we bring in all the crops to prepare for winter." She stops for a moment. "As far as I know, their names don't use any specific aspects of their months."
I mentally add that to my list of names. Saraday, Hureday. Sarel, Hurven. I repeat them aloud a few times. "I'll try to remember them."
"Good. It looks like breakfast is over. I'll be glad to teach you more later."
"Thanks a lot, Jess." I give her a big smile, and she returns it.
"I'll... see you later Emily," she says to her friend with a conflicted smile.
"See you later, Jess," Emily answers the same way. We leave the table to get ready for the day. That's five gods down, seven to go.
As we walk away, I ask Emily what I was wondering, before I forget about it. "Hey, Jess mentioned that we should pray to the gods a lot for their favor, but I never see anyone do that. Is there some reason for it?"
"Well, it's basically not worth the effort."
"It's not? It sounds like they do all sorts of important things."
"Oh yeah, they do," she agrees immediately. "It's just that it doesn't really affect us."
"I thought it affected everyone though." I don't understand, the priest definitely tried to emphasize how the gods' blessings have a great effect on all people. Is there something else to it?
"Yes and no. Things like the harvests have some effect on us because we eat some of the food. But for the most part, the blessings of the gods don't have much impact on us commoners. They don't usually go around blessing each one of us individually, so it's not like if I pray for good weather, I'll get it. Mostly, their blessings matter to the nobles, since they cause big changes to entire cities. Us commoners only experience a tiny bit of it, so we usually don't worry about it that much."
"Huh, I never thought of it that way. So the nobles are mostly the ones that deal with the gods and their blessings... Commoners like us just go to church and pray on Shanadays?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Oh, but that doesn't mean it isn't important to learn about the gods," she insists. "You still have to know about them. It's common knowledge, so you should learn it as soon as you can."
"Alright, I'll keep working on it." We've made it to Mister Fredricson's office, so Emily releases my hand and I head in.
"Hi Mister Fredricson, can I have a basket for today?" I ask, as always. He tosses the same one I've been using at me. "Thank you." As I start to turn away, I stop. "Mister Fredricson, I'm going to go into the forest without the little kids today. Is there anything I should have or know before I do?"
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"Eh, ask another kid about it." His eyes don't even leave whatever he's working on as he shoos me from his office.
"Well, that didn't work. Guess I'll have to ask someone else..." I mutter after stepping back into the hall. Emily has already left, so I slowly and carefully go back downstairs alone. She told me all about dangerous things to watch out for, but completely skipped over what I actually need to bring with me, and anything else I might need to know. She must be really worried I'm going to get hurt...
I look around for a big kid. I've personally decided that they become big kids when they turn ten, but I haven't really asked about that, so I don't know if there are actually any specific requirements. I'm just going on whether they seem big enough or not.
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After looking around a bit, I find some big kids cleaning up after breakfast. "Umm, excuse me," I say to get their attention. They all look over at me, then go back to what they're doing. I take that as a go ahead to ask my question... probably. "It's my first day going into the forest without the little kids. I was wondering if someone could tell me if there are any particular tools I should bring with me, or any basic things I should know before I go." A few of them glance at each other, before throwing out a few comments.
"Just make sure to stick with a big kid."
"Looks like you've got a basket. Eventually you should get a bigger one, and a knife." With those comments, the rest just shrug or shake their heads. I guess that's all there is to it then.
"Thanks a lot." I bow, then wave and leave them to their work. Since it sounds like I have everything I'll need for today, I head out to the plaza.
"Hey, I'm going without the little kids for the first time, could I go with you?" I ask one of the big kids.
"Too much trouble, find someone else," he waves me off. I continue going around and asking any big kid I see. Some don't feel like it, some are already traveling with others, and a few already have specific places to go that aren't suited for a little kid like me.
Eventually I find an older boy who says, "Sure, you can tag along."
"Thank you very much." I bow gratefully. "Is there anything I should know while I'm with you?"
"Just try to keep up. I move a lot faster than those little kids do. I'm not going to baby you, if you get tired, you can head back on your own."
"Ok, I'll remember that. There are probably lots of new plants deeper in the forest, is it ok to ask you about things I haven't seen before?"
"As long as you don't slow me down too much, it's fine." I consider that briefly.
"I'm sorry, I'll probably end up asking a lot of questions. Please tell me when you don't feel like answering them anymore." I lower my head and he chuckles. I'm always asking Emily endless streams of questions. She puts up with it because she's my friend and likes teaching me things, but I shouldn't expect that from other people. I'll probably just annoy them after a while...
"In any case, it's time to head out, let's go." We start walking and I can immediately tell that his pace is much faster than when I went with the little kids. "My name is Jack by the way."
"I'm Aria." I respond while moving almost at a jog to keep up with his longer strides. He's pretty tall, I'd guess about twelve from his looks, with brown hair cut very short around his head.
"The new kid? I've heard about you, rumor is you're a tough one."
"Tough? Where did you hear that?" I'm worried about what kind of weird rumors are going around about me...
"Everyone, word went around just after you moved in." I don't get it. I know I seem weird since there are so many things I don't know about, but how am I tough?
"I don't know why anyone would say that." I just shake my head and shrug as we go. He just chuckles a little and drops it. We move at a fast pace through the city, covering blocks much faster than I'm used to. By the fourth bell, we have already arrived at the forest. That's half the time it normally takes!
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"I'm going into the southern area of the forest today. There's more fruit in that area this time of year," he explains. We quickly move between the trees, turning toward the south as we go. As Emily mentioned, it slowly grows darker as we proceed further into the forest. Despite the uneven ground, roots, bushes, branches, and all sorts of other things, he continues at an amazing pace. I stumble my way after him, rushing to keep pace while getting caught up on all of the little obstacles in the way. The biggest issue when trying to move this fast is actually branches and things catching my hair when I'm not moving carefully. I hadn't thought of that with the little kids, but I really should put it up when I'm doing more intense work like this in the forest, like when Marrianne tied it up the other time. At least I don't see any of the dangerous plants or animals Emily mentioned.
Eventually he slows down. I'm panting a bit, sweating, and wishing I had a way to bring water with me. I'm also dirty and scratched up from stumbling through all sorts of brush, with bits of twigs and leaves stuck in my hair. I quickly shake them out of my hair, but I don't have a stick with me, so I don't have any way to put it up.
"This is the area with the fruit I'm looking for," Jack explains. "You can see it up there." He points up overhead. I glance around a little in the area he points, until I spot a purple color that stands out. It's hard to tell at this distance, but... "Is that a... tamaran?" I ask. I've seen it in our meals before. It's bright purple inside and out, and has a sweet and salty flavor. Some days it's kind of hard and difficult to bite through though.
"That's right. There are a good number of them here, and they're pretty nutritious." I don't know what that means, but it doesn't seem related to gathering, so I leave the question for later. "Since they always grow here in the summer, I can gather a lot and sell them for a good price." So he sells them? That brings up another question I'll have to ask about later. I've been wondering what to do with random stuff piling up under my bed. Would selling some of it be possible?
For now, I go with a question that actually relates to what we're doing. "So how do we gather them if they're all the way up there?"
"We have to climb the trees to get to them," he explains. "Here, watch the first time." He finds a tamaran overhead and jumps up to grab onto a tree branch on that tree. Then he pulls himself up, standing on the branch so he can grab another. One by one, Jack climbs up a through a lot of branches until he reaches the level of the tamaran. Once there, he lies down along the branch. It bends down, creaking with a sound that makes me a bit anxious as he slides out on the branch.
He extends his arms all the way out while holding a knife in one hand. Then he reaches the fruit, cutting its stem away from the branch with one hand and retrieving it smoothly with the other. "You get them like that," he calls down from above. "You can just gather things on the ground, or try to get some tamarans. Not sure if you can climb at your age though."
"Can I get them without a knife?" I ask.
"Yeah, you just pull them away from the branch." When he climbs over to another one in the same tree, he grabs it and pulls on it. After some resistance, the stem that connects to the branch snaps, and he puts the fruit in his basket. With a small wave down at me, he continues on, moving away in the trees to continue gathering.
I glance around at the ground, but it looks like there isn't much useful growing in the immediate surroundings of these trees. Just a lot of ground level brush, nothing edible. At least there are no poisonous vines or anything like Emily told me to watch out for. "Guess I'll give it a try," I say to myself. But first I need to do something about my hair. It's bad enough on the ground, it'll get all tangled up in the branches immediately like it is now.
I only know the one way Marrianne taught me, so I'll just have to come up with something myself. To start, I glance at some of the small sticks on the ground, fallen from trees overhead. But when I give one a try, it's way too rough to actually slide through my hair. I guess that rules out that possibility. Well, it was worth trying. I'll have to work with what I have. Unfortunately, all I have is my one scrap of cloth. I go over how I do it normally. First, I twist my hair so it all stays together. I wrap it around the stick over and over to make it into a ball so the length is shorter. I use the stick to pin it against my head so it doesn't fall out. And I use the cloth to tie around it so it doesn't come lose. Those are the main points: keep it together, make it shorter, and keep it from falling out. How should I accomplish all of those with just a piece of cloth? I can still twist it to get it to stay together, and I can roll it up into a ball to make it shorter, but how should I keep it from coming undone with this cloth?
For my first attempt, I twist my hair, roll it up close to my head, and try tying the cloth around the hair. It seems to hold the hair together pretty well, but doesn't keep it from falling back down. So that's no good. Next, I try to wind my hair around the cloth, but don't have a solid idea of how to make it work, and don't get anywhere.
I try just tying it around my hair near my head. It keeps it together near my head, but then it spreads out as it falls down my back and legs. Then I tie it together at the end. It keeps all my hair together all the way at the ends, but moving it around makes all my hair spread out and come together. "Maybe..." I grab all my hair and twist it a little so it'll be easier to keep it all together, and pull the ends up toward my head. I wrap the cloth around and tie it off so it gets both the hair near my head and the ends. It cuts the length of my hair in half so it only goes down to the middle of my back, and stays together decently. "This could work." I nod a little. I swing it around a few times. It holds for a bit before it starts to pull out of the cloth tie. "It comes out kind of easily though..." I stare at the cloth for a bit, trying to think up other ways of doing it, but can't come up with anything at the moment. So for now, I just tie off my hair so that it's half of the normal length and stays together pretty well. It'll do for now.
I walk around, looking up until I find a tamaran overhead and go over to the tree it hangs on. Since I'll need both hands to climb, I set my basket on the ground at the base of the tree. Looking up at it, even the lowest branches are high over my head. Really high. Can I even reach them if I jump? I give it a try, but don't even come close. The lowest branches I can find are probably three or four times my height away from the ground. A regular jump won't do it.
I consider other possibilities. I could try getting something to stand on like I did at the orphanage, but there's nothing to use in the middle of the forest, and the branches are still way too high. I try grabbing on and just climbing up the trunk of the tree, but it's no good since I can't get my arms even partway around the thick trunk.
The only thing I can think of at this point is using one of the traversal maneuvers they taught us. The thought of using my training is kind of unpleasant though... I look up the tree, eyeing the tamarans overhead. Well, it'll work better than just jumping at least. So I take a few steps back. Then I sprint toward the tree, jumping and kicking off the surface to turn all of my forward momentum upward. I reach my arms out as far as I can, just barely managing to get my hands on the lowest branch at the top of my jump.
I hang for a few moments. Looks like it worked. I'm still not sure how to feel about that... I pull myself up on top of the branch. It's actually really easy because I'm so small and light. From that point, climbing up the tree is no problem. The branches aren't too far apart, and climbing around on them is simple at my size. I make it up to the fruit I saw earlier, but it's far out on the branch. So I lie down along the branch like I saw Jack do, slowly sliding forward until I can reach it. It only takes one good tug to snap it off the branch. Then I carefully slide backward to the trunk again.
I get back up and lean against the trunk of the tree, now holding the fruit. It's pretty big, I can barely hold it in one hand. "I... don't have any way to store this do I...?" I wonder aloud. I can keep small things inside the folds of my robe, but something as big as this tamaran will just fall out. So I try dropping it down to the ground below.
With a loud crack, it strikes the ground and splits right in half. "That... doesn't work..." I mutter. So they'll break if I drop them from this height.
Since I can't carry them, and can't drop them, when I get another, I carefully climb back down while holding the fruit in one hand. I drop back to the ground, and deposit the fruit into my basket under the tree. How is Jack going from one fruit to the next?
I glance around, but don't see him. He must be up in the trees somewhere. I listen, hearing the rustling of him moving around and walk over underneath. "Hey, I got one. How do you get more than one at a time?" I ask.
"Really? Good job," he calls down. "I have a basket with a lid so they don't fall out. For now you'll just have to get one at a time."
"Ok, thank you." Now that I know that, I go back to my basket and start looking for more tamarans. I also have to retie my hair because it's starting to come out. There are plenty of tamarans around, but needing to climb all the way up and down for each one makes it very slow work. Still, once I'm used to doing it, it's not so bad. By my fourth, I'm not so overly cautious. With my size, I can just walk out on the branches. They don't even bend under my weight. I do need to tie my hair up again each time though, since all the jumping and climbing makes my hair fall out of the tie by the time I get back to the ground with each fruit.
The hardest part is getting into the trees in the first place. After coming up short a couple times, I decide to use the two step maneuver instead. It's more difficult to do right, but will get me a little higher up. I take a few steps back, dash toward the tree, jump, and kick off again, but don't put as much force into it.
Not all of my momentum turns upward, and I bring my other foot forward, kicking off a second time. Overall, I get more height, but I also end up kicking away from the tree instead of directly upward. I catch onto a branch, but start swinging from all the extra movement. It takes some time for me to come back to rest in a hanging position before I can pull myself up onto the branch. The maneuver feels a lot more sloppy, but it actually gets me into the tree, so it serves its purpose. I guess it's fine, some of my training can help with things like this at least...
I continue gathering tamarans, pretty confident in my abilities now. After just a little practice, walking around in the tree branches is surprisingly easy. As much as I've always hated being too small, this one thing is so much easier because of it. I try to stay near where I hear Jack working, and just keep gathering the fruits. Before long, my small basket is full to overflowing with them. I kind of expected that, my basket is small and each fruit is pretty large on its own. They don't take that long to pick either, once I know what I'm doing.
We've been gathering for a long time when I suddenly hear the whistle. It startles me a little. We must be so deep in the forest that I haven't been able to hear any of the bells at all. "Hey Jack, how do we know how long we've been out and when to go back?" I ask from my spot in a tree. I can't really see him, but I can hear him working nearby.
"Just need to head back when it starts getting dark," he shouts back from wherever he is among the trees. So we just go until dark? But how can you tell? This place doesn't get that much sunlight in the first place.
"I'm sure he'll say when we're going back, so I'll just see then," I shrug and continue working.