Prevna got her dance on the third night of the festival. It wasn’t exactly the night for dances, since the first night was the one known for that, but Prevna could be nearly as persistent as me when she wanted to be.
She dragged me up on top of Tufani’s hut, in full view of anyone who cared to pay attention, and I let her lead me through a short sequence dance that consisted of three repeated sets of steps because I’d never have peace otherwise. Two of the sets were different from the version I knew, but that wasn’t too surprising given that she had grown up in a Picker band. With people from all different tribes some things were likely to get changed or melded together. Even with the changes the dance was simple enough for me to follow along.
Prevna grinned at me as the blue-green light floated up around her face and she gripped my hand to swing me around to where she had just been. I gave her a tight smile back and her gaze flicked to where we had just touched, concerned. I twitched my head in denial, that wasn’t it, and gripped her hand a little tighter the next time we switched places. One last exchange and the dance was done.
Prevna leaned close as we left the makeshift stage. “Too much?”
“No.” I shook my head. “But that’s the only dance you get.”
She rolled her eyes. “You can jump into giant snake maws but you can’t dance more than once in a night?”
For all of the sarcasm I could tell that she was relieved she hadn’t accidentally pushed past my tolerance. She might test the boundaries, but somehow she always seemed to know what would take her actions from annoyance to crossing a line.
“I’d rather do something I’m good at it.”
“It was fun.”
I gave her a sidelong look before I nodded, and a small, real smile dangerously appeared on my lips. She grinned back and gestured to the tribe spread out before us.
“What next?”
I considered. The Rookery tribe was starting to split up into family groups as the communal feast that marked the beginning of the third night of the Heartsong Festival wound down. Someone was singing in the distance but, like us, they were part of the minority. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the singing and dancing picked back up once everyone was tucked safely into their huts or spread out over the Rookery.
From what I knew Tufani would be joining her family and Barra had disappeared somewhere. The rest of the cohort and us would be left to entertain ourselves. It wasn’t difficult to picture all the ways that could go wrong.
Ulo and Andhi still couldn’t stand the sight of me and I was more than content to ignore them in return. Ulo couldn’t stand that either and I was just waiting for her to start another fight.
Nii seemed to be somewhat on the outs with the pair and was instead spending more time with Breck and Loclen. I didn’t know exactly had prompted that particular break but I couldn’t deny that she had picked better company this time around.
Juniper’s little cohort was also cracking apart. She was understandably upset about her supposed guards letting her get thrown into empty air when we all knew how she was with heights. Prevna said that Idra was upset because everyone had gone through the same thing and that Juniper was acting more like a little girl than a whisper woman. The argument continued that Juniper didn’t think that becoming a whisper woman was nearly as important as returning to their tribe and that she should be able to trust her fellow tribe members most. Idra argued back and Ento kept out of it except to occasionally act as a peace keeper.
It ended up that Juniper spent more and more time with Dera, Prevna, and me. I didn’t like the intrusion and everyone knew I didn’t appreciate the sudden increase in company, but Prevna’s presence kept me from needling the others at every turn.
Which was why Dera and Juniper were waiting for us in front of Tufani’s hut. I glowered, just a bit, and tried to decide on what we could do that didn’t include training, pointless fights, or pure pettiness. I wasn’t exactly well-versed in games we could play and somehow I doubted that slinking off to spend the night on my own like I normally did would be taken well.
Then I remembered the time Prevna had found me at the end of the last Heartsong Festival. “I have a lake tribe tradition we could do.”
Prevna immediately looked suspicious. Dera and Juniper didn’t know enough to realize the danger and looked intrigued.
Still, we made our way to the upper lake and the closer we got to the icy water the more Dera and Juniper realized this might be a mistake.
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“What tradition is this again?” Dera asked.
“Something simple.” I could tell that she wanted more of an answer than that but she wasn’t brave enough to force the issue.
We stopped next to one of the ribs along the shore so we had access to one of the unfrozen sections of the lake. I pointed at the water lapping at the shore. “We see who can stay in there the longest.”
Dera looked at me like I had forgotten something important. “It’s freezing.”
I just looked back at her.
“Racing would be more interesting,” Prevna pointed out.
Juniper’s jaw set like she had something to prove. “I’ll do it.”
“I’ll win,” I countered.
We stripped out of our clothes so we’d at least have something dry to wear when we got out of the water while Dera decided she’d be act as a Scale and judge who won.
“Three, two, one!” Dera dropped her arm and we jumped into the water.
As soon as the water closed over my head I knew something was wrong. Prevna and Juniper rushed ahead, trying to be the first to touch the ice and come back to the shore while I…
I froze.
Freezing, aching cold. Unable to breathe, to blink. Stuck to a tree branch unable to do anything but think and hope and dread. Frozen and forgotten that’s all I—
Arms hooked under my armpits and I was choking on water which wasn’t right. That wasn’t how it went at all. I landed on something soft and freezing in its own right before a hand was thumping against my back. I spluttered out the water that had tried to drown me and flailed a bit to get whoever was hitting me to stop.
Prevna leaned over me. “Are you okay now?”
I coughed and nodded. “Breathing.”
Dera stared from a few steps away. Her face was an odd splotchy mess of flushed with exertion and pale with fear. “What happened? You stopped moving as soon as you hit the water…”
Juniper was dressing now that the danger was past but she clearly wanted an answer for my terrible performance as well. Prevna tossed me my clothes and she followed Juniper’s example though she was clearly reluctant to leave my side.
I shoved my head into my tunic so I wouldn’t have to look at any of them. “It was a bad idea.”
“And?” Juniper prompted.
“Being frozen alive didn’t leave me with the best memories.” The answer slipped out before I could bite it back.
“Oh.” That was Dera. She tried to save the situation. “Tufani said we could use her hut since she’ll be with her family if we don’t want to all crowd in ours.”
It didn’t really solve anything except give us a closer place to warm up, but that was better than nothing. Even if heading back to where we just were added an extra edge to my…irritation.
I should have known better. Known that enclosed in water one step away from freezing wouldn’t ground me in the present any more. Now it belonged with small spaces and being called clever and the rest of the memories that tried to drag me under. And Dera and Juniper had seen.
I wanted to run away. Escape their glances and concern and shock. Lash out at something. And I would if anyone gave me an easy opening.
But I couldn’t leave. Not with Prevna right there and her own quiet plea for me not to chose a snow storm and solitude over her again. She couldn’t do much to help but I couldn’t deny that it was nice that she wanted to. Besides, now all I mostly had to deal with was the burn in my throat from throwing up lake water and shivering—this memory hadn’t clung as close as some of the others. Running into the woods wouldn’t help with either of those.
So we returned to Tufani’s hut and ducked inside to find Breck, Loclen, Nii, and Wren inside. They were all tucked around the table, sipping on drinks, while they traded stories.
Wren blinked up at us while Chirp twittered indignantly at the interruption. “Did you jump from the ribs?”
Juniper’s face darkened. “No. We raced and I won.”
Wren congratulated her and finished welcoming us in. “Well, if you want something sweet there’s more to drink by the fire. Otherwise, Nii was in the middle of telling a tale if you want to settle down for awhile and warm up.”
We did as she said and I grabbed a spare blanket from one of the shelves to wrap myself in. Prevna got me some of the sweet drink and it helped warm me up even if it was a bit too sweet. Then Nii gave us the short version of what we had missed out on in her tale before she continued on.
It turned out that she was from the southern region of the goddess’s territory on the edge of Her great forest. Not the area we had fought along the shore but that just showed how fast that particular forest was. Nii told the story of huntress who could bring down any monster with her sling and a single stone.
Breck took over storytelling next and then Wren. One by one everyone told a different tale. Some were short and straight to the point, others more epic and interesting with their word play. Dera told one particularly far fetched tale about the ice folk but it seemed like nearly everyone got caught up in the idea of mastering a skill with only the help of a single sip from the ice folk’s hidden pond.
I think most of the others had crowded together in an attempt to stave off the realization that this was their first Heartsong Festival without their tribe. Today, the day for family, perhaps that change felt particularly keen. Stories and sharing a bit of home helped to soothe the loss. Technically, this was my first festival away from the Gabbler Shore tribe but I couldn’t say I particularly missed the change, except for the lack of a couple of people. I noted sourly that my experience had prepared me more for being separated from what I knew.
Finally, everyone else had gone and I realized that they were expecting me to pay my due with a story of my own. With this, at least, I had plenty to pick from.
“Have you heard about the time the Beloved convinced the goddess to grow the Seedling Palace?”
Of course most of them had, but I continued on anyways. That made things simpler and like that the night passed quietly with stories and warmth. It wasn’t how I expected the night to go, but I’d take it, especially if it meant burying the memory of my boasting and immediate failure.
That was the last bit of peace we had before Tufani dropped us down the advanced shoots in the morning. From there it was a desperate struggle to improve or convince Tufani that they really didn’t need to fly yet—Dera and Juniper—as we all remembered our lesson at the beginning of the festival.