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===[CHAPTER 10: ORPHANS]===
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It was chilly in the morning hours over Raritan. Mist clung to the high grass blades. Dragonflies darted between the flowers and blossoms that hung close to the pond’s edge. Their colorful petals occasionally caught a breeze and dipped to take a sip of the still water. Water striders and frogs lurked near the surface, as fish swam underneath the cover of spotty green algae. An orange sun brightened the waning night sky, and the birds awoke to their daily schedules, serenading the forest with their chirps and song.
Otaes crouched in the high cattails that bordered the still water of the pond. She could hear the flies and mosquitos buzzing near the algae covered surface which painted much of the lake a bright green. She stared at herself in the water. The image of her painted mask ebbed and flowed in the water’s surface, while her face was obscured underneath. The only thing that broke it was the occasional wave, or a fish which swam underneath her mirror self.
She could take her mask off now. Inhale the full scent of nature surrounding the small pond. Bask in the light of the morning sun. She was home. Only outsiders of the Warrior Elves were barred from seeing Kitchi Warriors maskless. She could let her own face roam free to the outside world.
Yet she didn’t.
Her mask, her mother’s mask, had become a strange part of her. Her fingers went to trace the red paint that slashed its way across her left eye. Feeling it for the billionth time. Her mask, oddly enough, fit better over her face than her face did. It was easier to imagine herself as the warrior her mother wanted her to be with the mask on, than it was to imagine her own face. Injured, bruised, vulnerable. Those were the traits her face carried. But the mask was fearless. It was brave. It was a warrior. It was the face that she wished she could be. But deep down, she was still afraid.
The battle near Canau weighed heavy on her mind, haunting her. Something bad was brewing near the Republic’s border. A new war, so soon after the last one had ended. Would she be able to protect Temetet now that he was older? Had she truly grown stronger since the guns were laid down and the dead buried? She doubted that she was, and it was that doubt most of all that troubled her.
Perhaps she wanted to find a definitive answer in the pond’s turbid water? She watched the mist hang near the surface, flicking away the mosquitoes and watching as the little beetles and ants went on with their life in the dirt and blades of grass. It was a peculiar type of nothingness that allowed her something that had become rare in recent times. No matter how bad the world around her got, life still went on. Undaunted. Nature would always continue. The world would always be here. Even as the other world, the one she was responsible for, grew uncertain.
Trips to the pond usually helped her sort her mind out. But this time, she felt as if it had failed to do so. Something was different in the air as of recent. She couldn’t name what it was, and it probably had something to do with the fact that the humans fighting on Canau were a “Unknown”. Even now, after the Elven Chiefs had assembled, nobody knew what exactly was going on. It was as if they were from another world…
Something rustled in the bushes across the pond. Her ears twitched, and she looked up to see. A mud-brown furry coat, big ears, sharp teeth, and crooked antlers. A Jackelope. Her hands reached for the bow strapped on her back and the quill of arrows on her hip. Hunting was a favorite pastime of hers. It was her responsibility to keep her senses sharp, and she would take any excuse to keep her mind focused on anything besides what was going on in Canau. Plus, a jackelope’s antlers could still fetch a decent price at the market given the right people were there. Not quite the bounty they were during the scarcity of the war, but enough that the market butchers and fur traders were willing to fork over enough Commonwealth Credits to make the ordeal worthwhile.
Her hands reflectively drew a black arrow from her quill, stringing it onto her bow in one smooth and concise manner. A move she was forced to rehearse millions of times before. Her eyes narrowed on the tiny dot that was the head of the jackelope. The tip of the arrow held in place right over it. With a pull and release of the drawstring, the arrow flew through the air. There was a rustle in the bushes, and the jackelope vanished.
She sighed, standing up. Otaes lifted her spear and followed after it.
It wasn’t too hot during mornings like these here in the jungle. The forest surrounded the outskirts of the small rural villages and semi-suburbs that flanked Raritan’s periphery. Otaes’ childhood home was not too far, only about a mile’s trek back to where she came.
This spot near the pond was a favorite of hers. At least judging by the amount of time she spent here, staring into the pond’s waters, listening to the songs of birds and the buzz of insects as they danced in the air.
Securing another arrow into her bow, she followed the path of destruction that the jackelope had made when it was hit by the arrow. There were claw marks in the dirt between trees. Droplets of blood marked a trail through the bushes it ran into. It couldn’t have made it far, and so Otaes decided to pursue it. Tracking it down into a small spot near a decaying palm tree whose coconut fruits had long since begun to rot at its base. The brown body of the jackelope lie flat on its side, its chest rising and falling quickly – but slowing down.
She drew her spear and delivered a killing blow to end its suffering quickly. No need for cruelty in hunting. Cruelty was reserved for warfare, as she learned. She grabbed hold of the dead jackelope and hauled it back to her original spot by the pond.
Skinning the predatory rabbit took a careful eye, and so she took her time. Wishing to savor the surroundings of the pond for just a little moment longer.
“Otaes!” A voice called out from behind her as her knife dug into the red flesh of the creature. She had sensed him approaching long before he made himself known. She sighed as she turned away from the pond with a brief look over her shoulder. Temetet was walking towards her. Of course, his face was bare to the outside world. His purple skin was painted by the morning sun which made his white facial tattoos vibrant. Marks of the Raritan tribespeople. Curly silver hair covered his head, growing long while a red headband kept the hair all in place. But his signature look, a friendly smile, was worn on his young face, “Figured you’d be here.”
“I always am.”
“You always try to be.”
Otaes smirked underneath her mask, looking back out to the water’s edge as Temetet crouched amidst the grass and cattails next to her, looking briefly over at the carcass she tended to before looking away, disgusted, “Something on your mind?” He asked.
“What gave it away?”
“Canau?”
Otaes nodded, silent.
“I’ve been thinking about it too,” He confessed, fishing his hand around in the water and scaring off a turtle that was poking its head through the algae filled water.
“You don’t need to. You know that, right?” She asked him.
“Why’s that?”
“I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing. I’ll look after you. You know that.”
Temetet smiled, hugging his own arms as he too stared into the water’s surface, “You’ll try. But I’m not a kid anymore.”
“You aren’t really grown either,” She poked him in a side, making him flinch and giggle like he was still a kid.
“Sure. But I can fend for myself now. I’ve learned everything I need to. Thanks to you.”
Otaes sighed to herself. Of course, he would say that. And he was sorta right, but in practice he wasn’t. Otaes knew he had a long way to go before he could really fend for himself. What if she had died as their parents had? What if their homes were bombed again by the Avonians? What if there was no more food or water to go around in the tribe? What if he had to beg the Commonwealth’s soldiers for whatever was left of their meal scraps, like she had when the war was at its most severe?
What if he had to be like her? His youthful happiness ruined by the grim world surrounding them? The thought terrified her more than thoughts about her own death. What if Temetet became like she was?
Temetet’s eyes once again drifted to the carcass that Otaes was in the middle of disemboweling. His eyes jerked away briefly before returning, “You know, Mother Ani said jackelopes were special.”
“Hm?” She asked, cleaning her knife of the contrails.
“They find a way to live out in the jungle where anything can kill them. They’re just bunnies really. But out there they’ve gotta go up against a whole bunch of predators. They’re like… uh… smart. They’re smart. And she said that if you see one, it’s better to follow their lead. They’re sacred.”
“Ani says a lot of things.”
“Mother Ani.”
“Our mother is dead.”
“You know what I mean.”
Otaes frowned. So did Temetet. She hated it when Temetet brought up Ani. For it was true that the Grand Chief of the Kiote elves had adopted them, a few years before Otaes had become an adult. But by then, they had already gone so long surviving on their own. Yet Otaes was forced to sacrifice a lot of things to please their new mother and the culture of their people. Things she’d never get back, except only in memories.
“You’ve been practicing your magic like I told you?” She asked him, trying to steer the conversation to something besides their adoptive mother.
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“A little bit-“
“A little bit isn’t an answer. Did you do it or not?”
Temetet coughed to himself a little bit, looking down. He wouldn’t lie to her, she knew that. He was a lot of things. Immature, scatterbrained, danger-prone. But he had a good heart. He always did, “No.”
“Mh,” Otaes stood up, putting her knife away as she put aside the furry coat of the jackelope. She moved over to one of the cattails that hung near the surface of the water. With a tug, she uprooted one and held it in her hands, holding it out for Temetet to see, “We’ll pick up from last time.”
“Oh, come on, I didn’t come here for a magic lesson!”
“Too bad,” Otaes said, running her hand through his silver hair to mess it up as he always hated her doing – but he secretly loved, “Make this float.”
“Really?” Temetet sounded annoyed, but Otaes pressed the Cattail up to him. He rolled his eyes and held out his hand. Focus strained across his face.
There were flickers of blue light. Traces of magical aura which danced across the surface of his hand as the mist did across the pond’s surface. It was there. The energy present. But it faltered. Flickered more… and then vanished.
Temetet shoulders lifted as if he had dropped a massive weight, pulling a cart that weighed tons only to finally drop its reins. A few beads of sweat had formed near his pores, yet the cattail remained.
“You need to practice more, Tem. That’s the only way your touch will grow stronger,” Otaes said, tossing the cattail into the lakes surface only to effortlessly retrieve it. With a flick of her hand, the wet plant was dragged from floating across the pond’s surface, and jumped into her hand seemingly by itself, “Focus on your translation spell. You can do that one, right?”
“Yeah, but what’s the use? It’s the only one I’m good at,” The Temetet sighed, “I do better with machines and stuff. I’ve never been good at magic.”
“Hey, what’d I tell you about that? Magic requires practice. You can’t get better if you don’t practice. Besides, the translation spell is one of the more difficult ones,” Otaes shook the cattail in her hand, making its brown tip waddle in front of his face, “You know how. You’ve got potential.”
“You taught me that one when I was a baby.”
“You were nine.”
“Same difference.”
“I taught you that one because it’s the first one Mom taught me. If you ever come face to face with soldiers from Avonia or the Ostralands, you’ll want to speak their language, right?”
Again, she held the cattail out to him, “Just put your mind to it and focus. Remember. You can do it. You just need to concentrate. Okay?”
He shrugged, “If you say so,” Holding his hand out to try again.
Otaes opened her hand out to give him access to the plant. Again, Temetet closed his eyes, “Again, focus. From your feet to your fingertips. Like electricity.”
She grabbed the cattail.
Temetet’s face twisted, straining.
“Like a current, can you feel it?” she asked, tracing the very tip of the cattail against his bare arm.
He nodded, “Y-yeah! Yeah, I feel it! I think I’ve got it!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah! Yeah, I’m doing it! I’m –“
And mid-sentence, she brought the cattail down. Thwacking him with its thin but sharp edge. Immediately Temetet’s hand recoiled, and his eyes shot opened, “Ow! Why would you-“
“That was somehow even worse than last time!” Otaes shouted at him.
“I didn’t think you were gonna hit me! Look, maybe I just don’t have it in me. What if I’m a NoMaj?”
“A No… what?”
“NoMaj. Like in the Ostralands. The elves there haven’t used their magic in so long that it’s like they forgot how to.”
“Are you a Ostralander?”
“No but-“
“Then you’re not a NoMaj. Look, you wanted to be a Kitchi. You can’t do that if you don’t know how to use your magic. Now come on, stop messing around,” Again she, held out the Cattail, “One more time.”
“You won’t hit me again?”
She rolled her eyes, “No promises.”
Temetet huffed. Slowly he closed his eyes and outstretched his hand. Otaes set the cattail free in her palm holding it up to him.
The blue glow flickered from the surface of his skin. It radiated, danced, swirled, spiraling around his hand like a colorful mist – vibrant blue.
There was a jolt from the cattail as the light solidified. A small tug that made it vibrate in her hands. It spun, rotating like a compass. The brown stem scraped against her dark skin, but the resistance grew weaker as the cattail hovered.
Otaes was internally overjoyed. She watched as the plant floated mere centimeters from her hand with wide eyes. Though she was careful not to say anything. Temetet was deep in focus. The force of magic flowing through him distracting thoughts – even the slightest disturbance could throw him off balance, running what was a momentous occasion.
When Temetet finally opened his eyes, the plant had transferred fully, floating from her hand and landing flat in the center of his. They were both speechless, with Temetet’s smile reaching far enough to touch both of his ears. It was a toothy grin, one that Otaes’ secretly returned underneath the coverage of her mask.
Temetet chuckled dryly to himself, sitting in a kneel next to her.
“Guess I’m not a NoMaj, after all.”
Otaes chortled, “I told you so. But…” She raised a free hand out to the pond. Blue magical energy surrounded her hand. For a few moments, nothing happened. But then the surface of the water was disturbed. Waves spawned across the pond’s depths from seemingly nowhere, as if the whole pond was being shaken, “With enough practice…”
And then from the deepness of the water, revealed from their algae cloak, rose the marine life hidden within the depths. Fish, frogs, the swamp alligators that lurked deep near the water’s sediment, even rocks the size of people, broke the surface tension of the water, and hovered in the air. Temetet looked on with half-wonder, his eyes glued to the spectacle that he witnessed before his eyes, “You’ll be able to do more.”
Gently she lowered the floating swarm of highly confused marine life, allowing them to dip back underneath the pond’s tranquil water, submerging them into their homes. She knew that she had made the feat appear effortless to Temetet, judging by his look of surprise. But even still, her lungs cried for air, and her skin beaded with sweat. It felt as if she had sprinted a fair distance, not enough to tire her completely, but enough to force her to pause. For even though she knew some spells, mostly related to fighting, she was not a skilled magician. Far from it. Especially true since she was relying on her natural magic, whereas a magician or a magic-tech could use a ekron stone…
Some of the best wizards from faraway lands could do far more. Ekron magic, and Ekron-powered technology could set an entire forest ablaze in a second. Lift an entire fleet of massive vehicles and throw them, level a village in a moment. It had been a wonder how the Kiote people survive fighting against an enemy with access to all of it – but they had only just barely did so.
“Show off,” Temetet sighed when the last squirming frog had been placed back to its original position. But when all was said and done, the peacefulness of the small pond had returned, and it left the two siblings alone in the quiet part of the jungle.
Temetet stirred briefly, bringing his knees up to his chin as he watched the water, “So. Are you going tomorrow?”
“Going where?”
“Back to Canau?”
Otaes sighed, “Yeah. Yeah, I am. The council says that they want me to help keep an eye on anybody crossing through. Bring them back to Raritan if I can.”
“I wanna come with.”
“Tem I don’t-“
“I think I can do it. Help you that is. I’ll be useful!” Temetet said the same line from before, “I swear I will. I mean, I went with you to Canau!”
“That’s before we found out there was a war going on.”
“We still don’t know that yet.”
That was strange. Temetet wasn't around to hear the Chief's debate. Her eyes narrowed, “Who told you?”
Temetet for his part was a terrible liar. Notoriously terrible in fact, “I… uh… heard someone talk about it. It was in the newspaper... you ever read the Colly-“
“You stayed at the Palace, didn’t you?”
“I was only listening!" Temetet caved in, "Besides, Archer didn’t wanna go home either. We don’t know what’s going on out there. I want to help you find out! Please? It’ll be good for my training! Right?”
Otaes sighed. If she could pinch the bridge of her nose through her mask, she would, “I swear. One of these days I’m gonna strangle you.”
“Can you do that after I become a warrior?”
She shrugged, “Sure.”
“So can I come?”
“Only if you promise to do exactly as I tell you. It’s dangerous out there, it always has been, and you know that! Especially now.”
“Okay… Sure let’s go-“
“No, no, no! Not a ‘sure’. I need you to promise me. So, I can get you back in one piece,” Otaes put a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look up at her, eyes locking through her warrior’s mask. Sometimes she felt so distant from the young boy she knew as her brother. It was hard to try and get him to see things her way. Sometimes impossible. But there were moments when she was able to get through to him.
“You’re all I’ve got,” Said Otaes, “You know most of what happened during the last few years, but you don’t know everything about what’s out there. Not even I do. You can’t be me, Tem. You’re better than that.”
Temetet kept a serious face. There were moments where it seemed like the walls put up between them became translucent. Times when it wasn’t just Warrior Otaes trying to lecture Apprentice Temetet. But when it was just them. Brother and sister, and nothing else.
His hands went up to her face, fingers tracing their way against the hard painted surface of her mask, “Can I… see your face?” He asked her.
She closed her eyes, a gesture to go ahead, while his fingers slipped underneath the mask. Pulling it up to rest atop her head. When she opened her eyes once more, the sunlight seemed brighter. The world around her less dark than it was. And Temetet’s face, clearer.
“I promise,” Said Temetet, looking into her eyes with his. Care. Having someone who truly cared was everything. In a world so chaotic, knowing that there was at least one other person who it was possible to connect with – to talk to as a friend – was everything. Ani could never, and their parents were long out of the picture. They only had each other. Two orphans, born into a mess of a world, but somehow finding a home through the fog of it all, “You lead. I follow. And we’ll both make it through. Just like we always have.”
“Just like we always have,” She affirmed. Standing up to stretch her legs. Quickly she put her mask back on, “We leave for the border tomorrow. Night patrol. Get your gadgets ready.”
“Get ready? Like now?” Temetet asked, looking confused briefly.
“No. I want you to take the jackelope to the market and sell it.”
“Ew, I’m not touching that! That’s a dead body!”
“And the clock’s ticking. Hurry up before it attracts flies. And since you’re the griffon whisperer, cut the thigh off for Archer. You know he loves them.”
Temetet sighed, “You always do this! I thought we just had – like – a moment.”
“We did. Moments pass," Otaes stood up with finality, "See ya at the marketplace."
“Yeah," Temetet whispered, "I guess..."
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