by Orr, Krystal
Arizira braced her weight on the branch she was perched on and smiled to herself as she continued to watch Talliea fidget with the edges of her skirt. The dark-skinned woman appeared nearly dejected as she looked around the glade with sad eyes. Arizira had disliked not allowing the Esu woman to know of her nearness the past six nights, but she'd not wished to make herself known until she was certain she could communicate. Finding a tree that was willing to impart unto her the knowledge of the Esu language had been trying. Most of the spirits she'd communed with had seen little benefit in parting with the information, and had been more interested in speaking to her about the coming winter.
Once she'd found a young tree, a sapling, she'd managed to express her desire to learn the Esu language and the small fir had happily obliged her. She had been slightly perturbed at the ease in which she learned the Esu words, but nonetheless overjoyed. Though she was still working to sort through the information she'd received, tonight she felt confident enough to attempt communication with Talliea.
She watched Talliea look up at the moon with a desperate longing. Aitla's rays of light bathed the Esu in an ethereal glow and Arizira could not help the awed smile that touched her lips. It seemed as though her goddess was smiling her own smile at the Esu woman.
Quietly, Arizira lowered herself to another branch without so much as rustling the leaves. Talliea continued to look up at the night time sky with wonder. Again, Arizira lightly jumped down until, with a silence born of her kind, she landed in the center of the glade in front of the other woman.
Talliea jumped at her sudden appearance and held a hand to her chest. A look of surprise mixed with one of happy and hesitant excitement. Blue eyes, slightly aglow with a silver fire, took in the contours and lines of Talliea's face. "Tah-li," Arizira said slowly, a confident smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
Talliea stood up, smiling herself, and quickly moved around the shoulder of the rock. A laugh, bright and happy, bubbled up from her throat as she came to stand in front of Arizira. "Ari...Ahmanae." She took in the silvery glow coming from the Arniran's eyes and could do nothing but openly stare. The light shine enhanced the face Talliea already found pleasing to look upon. It gave Arizira the appearance of a goddess. "I have waited for you," she started. "I have...I want so much to learn about you. I...I mean...you...you can not understand my speech, yet I find myself desiring to speak with you. I feared I had imagined you. I came here every night hoping to..."
She stopped herself. Words were passing her lips, but she knew they left in a task that was complete folly. Arizira could not understand her words. She had no idea what Talliea was saying to her. The perpetual smirk on the Arniran’s face, and the light coming from her eyes, seemed to be ploys designed to pull the words, however useless, from Talliea's mouth. Suddenly, Talliea felt very foolish. Her only thought for six nights had been just to see Arizira again. She had not planned much further in exactly what she would do if she actually got the opportunity. Seeing the Arniran looking at her with such a perplexed expression only heightened her sense of dread.
What was she doing coming so deep into the woods, in the dark of night, attempting to make contact with a being from myth that could not speak her language? What madness, as her mother had called it, had possessed her to behave so rashly? "I-I do not know why I have come here. This was a mistake," she said, backing away from Arizira.
Before she could take another step, a soft and gentle hand wrapped long fingers around her wrist. "Tah-li, I can...see your words," Arizira said slowly in broken Esulan. Talliea faltered and open confusion washed over her face. Eyes narrowed and focused on the smaller woman keeping her from moving away. "H-how?"
Arizira, fingers still grasping a smooth wrist, smiled and looked up at the trees towering over the two of them. She was still having difficulty in the placement of certain words in the Esu tongue and several phrases had many different meanings, but she was filled with hope at knowing Talliea had understood her. "I learn," she replied, pointing to the branches covering them both in slanted and dancing shadows. "Trees listen to your people. They watch you. They hear you. I hear them, thus I learn. I see your words, Tah-li"
Talliea shook her head and looked above her. The tress had taught her words to Arizira? She was unsure what the Arniran could possibly mean by that and wondered briefly if the smaller woman had spoken incorrectly in her language. She had never heard tale or story or myth that spoke of trees as anything other than what they were. How had the trees taught Arizira anything? It had only been a short amount of time since last they met.
"You can understand me?" she asked wanting to convince herself. Arizira dropped her wrist and walked closer to her. Her eyes were wide with curiosity and the smile on her lips seemed disinclined to part. Stepping around Talliea, Arizira looked her over with a steady gaze. "Yes, Tah-li. I see you words."
Talliea nodded and continued to stand in the middle of the clearing while Arizira walked around her and took in her appearance. She replayed the Arniran's words and ascertained that "seeing" was Arizira's way of affirming she understood. The lyrical accent that accompanied the other woman’s speech only enhanced Talliea's attraction.
A soft hand suddenly traced an open palm over the outside of her right arm and caused her to jump. She turned her head and caught Arizira's silvery-blue eyes. "I mean no harm, Tah-li," the Arniran explained. Her hand glided down Talliea's arm and back up again. "Your skin does not burn?"
Swallowing at the unexpected sensation such a simple gesture evoked, Talliea watched Arizira's long, fair fingers move across her arm and wondered why her breathing was becoming more difficult to maintain. Arizira's words, again, made little sense to her. She was unsure how to answer. Surprisingly to her, she found her skin did burn and tingle the longer Arizira's fingers moved across her flesh.
"Do I not speak your words correctly?" Talliea shook her head. "You speak them well enough. I am just not able to offer you an answer. Why would my skin burn?" Arizira removed her hand and walked around to stand in front of Talliea again. She studied her face intently. "You are a dark skin," she explained, her tone stating that was answer enough.
Talliea laughed. Because her skin was dark, the other woman assumed it was painful? The child-like wonder and innocence contained in the unassuming question was as if some beautiful wind whispered on a cold morning. It was refreshing. "My skin does not burn, Ahmanae, just as I'm sure yours does not often give you a chill."
Smiling and accepting the answer, Arizira remained silent for another breath before raising her right hand and running her fingers over the bridge of Talliea's nose. The slight gasp from the Esu caused her to halt in her actions. "I hurt you?" she asked.
Talliea could not understand the feelings overtaking her. She did not know Arizira. She knew nothing about her people apart from what she'd heard around a blazing fire. In fact, she was still unsure if she even knew for certain what Arizira was. Despite having only encountered the other woman on three separate occasions, she found herself trusting her with an almost blind disregard for anything else. There was a pull she could not deny that was drawing her ever closer to Arizira. Her gasp had been brought about due to the forward nature of Arizira's touch. "No, you do not hurt me."
Arizira cocked her head to the side in a feral manner and observed her for a moment before resuming her earlier actions. Her fingers lightly ran over Talliea's cheek bones and softly traced over her eyelids. "You are able to see me plainly?"
"Yes, of course."
"Your eyes are not gifted with the light of Aitla. Shadows do not take your vision?" Though it was difficult to understand completely what Arizira meant, Talliea took the question as similar to the one about her skin color. "You think my eyes cheated due to their color?" Arizira nodded and looked up at her. "They are not?" she asked.
Smiling to keep herself from laughing again, Talliea replied, "No, shadows hinder not my vision for I am able to plainly see you in front of me, Ari." Clouds from above them moved an
d briefly dimmed the light shining down upon the glade. Arizira's eyes took on a brighter silver-white glow to compensate for the difference. Insects and woodland animals called out into the night and, somehow, the air seemed heavier about them.
"You are wondrous," Talliea whispered before she could stop herself, and her eyes continued to look intently upon the glowing orbs in front of her. Arizira's smiled widened and she stepped away from the Esu woman. There were so many things she wanted to know, so many things she wished to say and to ask. Yet, being so close to Talliea was clouding her thoughts much the same way Aitla was being masked above her. She had never felt so intense a connection before. Everything in her wished only to be closer to Talliea, but she could not understand why. It was alluring, but at the same time, a cause for caution, for what connection could possibly exist between two strangers?
"You are Esu, yes?" Arizira asked, breaking the silence. Talliea watched her walk around the glade on light feet. Barely a sound could be heard. Her movements were graceful and measured. "I am. You know of my people?"
"Myth is what I know. Unless you are a dream, a myth is what you should be to me." Talliea turned so that she could continue following Arizira's steps. "A dream I am not, but if I were, then you, also, would be as that to me."
Arizira stopped and turned to look at her. "What do you think I am, Tah-li?" Without hesitation, Talliea answered, "A faerie, Ahmanae." Laughter, beautiful, full and rich, echoed into the clearing. "I should think the faeries I know would take offense, for I am much too big to be as they." Smiling again, Talliea chose to answer in more definite terms. "You are Arnira and a myth you are also to me."
Both women said nothing as the information was processed by each. Talliea was amazed that her own people were myths to Arizira. How could each of them know of the other as figures of some great legend? How was it that she was seeing such a figure and interacting with her?
"You believe Arnira are faeries, Tah-li?" Arizira spoke up removing Talliea from her deeper thoughts. The Esu woman noticed that Arizira had begun to move again. "I know only what I have been told,” she answered.
"And what is that?"
Talliea scanned her eyes across Arizira's fair features once more. She found herself completely captivated by her companion. "Arnira worship Aitla, the moon. There are no men in their clans and they choose roles that are unfit for them. Esuval banished them in the yester years for their disobedience and for their unwillingness to lie with men. It is told among my people that the Arnira mate with one another, and it is that abomination that gave them their appearance. Great wars were once fought with the followers of Esuval and the pagans of Aitla. According to myth, the last of the Arnira were cleansed from the world many, many generations ago."
At the end of her telling, Talliea looked up and saw a concerned expression etched across Arizira's face. Lines marked the corners of her eyes and her lips were no longer curving into a playful smile. "You think my appearance some curse? You view the way my people love as abhorrent?"
Talliea shook her head and stepped forward, but Arizira moved away from her. The words that had left her lips had come so freely. They were words similar to what she had grown up hearing and learning. "It is only the tales known to my people, Ari."
"You do not share their tales? Believe them?"
"I am unsure. I know that I do not view your appearance as a curse, nor could I ever believe, were that true, that any curse could be so fair." Arizira's posture relaxed and she moved back into the center of the clearing with Talliea. Stepping close, she looked up at the slightly taller woman. "Aitla's blessing is no curse. She blesses us with life. We move through Her forests. We befriend Her children. Our love does not lie with the flesh, but in the spirit. What you have been told varies greatly from what the Dream Speaker has told to me. Heathens and pagans we are not, Tah-li."
Talliea did not know how to respond. Parts of the other woman's words made little sense to her. She was unsure what it meant to "love with the spirit," and a Dream Speaker was a title that barely fit within the confines of the Esu language. It was obvious, by Arizira's answer, that the Esu's version of history gave very little dignity to the Arnira. "Offense was not my intention, Ahmanae. I would learn of your people if you are willing to speak of them to me."
"Then you should first shed the skin of lies that have been told told to you. The world is more than I believe you see it, Tah-li. You must learn to see me as something other than a creature smitten by your god. My world is very different from yours."
Talliea looked back into the bluish eyes staring so deeply into her own and smiled again. "Show me your world, Ahmanae."
* * * * * *
Several paces from the clearing, sitting along a narrow stretch of an elevated hill, an unknown figure watched both women with disdain and suspicion. Words spoken were difficult to make out against the din of the forest, but the figure found little interest in them anyhow. What did settle in the mind of the figure as important was that they knew one of the women in the glade. Unfathomable to the figure was why the woman they knew was conversing with one such as the second person.
Protection was what the figure sitting upon the hill had been charged with, protection of their people; protection of the annals of history; protection of the bloodlines. Stepping away from their perch, the figure faded deeper into the shadows around them and farther away from the two women in the glade. The information the figure now held would have to be known only to them until such a time came as it could prove useful.
Chapter 7: Doira'Liim
Two days after Talliea's and Arizira's first conversation, Talyn called a communion in Rae'kir to discuss the Elders' ruling on the matter of the Esu. Arizira tapped her foot nervously as she waited for the rest of the tribe to gather inside the large tree. Bela'luin cut her a passing glance but did not hold her eyes for long. A hand on her shoulder caused her to look to her right.
Cynra stood beside her. "You have been absent of late." Arizira looked around the base of the tree before finally meeting Cynra's amused expression. "I have been alone with my thoughts, Honored One. The forest allows my mind to wander and gain clarity. Much there is ponder in this time of upset." Cynra watched as the rest of the tribe spoke to one another and waited for the discussion to begin. "You have spoken with the trees, child?" Smiling to herself, Arizira nodded. "Yes. The young ones were much more willing to appease my need."
"Good. Their information proved useful?"
Talyn held up a hand to call the women present to attention. Arizira was thankful for the interruption. There was something about Cynra's line of questioning that made her slightly uneasy; it was as if the older woman possessed more information than she was willing to say. Did she know Arizira had met with Talliea?
The two women had spoken at great length two days before. They had each been fascinated with the other and asked questions regarding myth and fact. Despite their seemingly easy going conversation, it had been noticeable to Arizira that Talliea was hesitant about answering certain questions, just as she herself had been less than forth coming with information about her tribe and their location.
Since that night, neither woman had been able to meet the other again. The connection Arizira felt with Talliea was still present. It was strange and unnerving, yet almost comforting and welcome. Talliea had answered her questions about the Esu as best as she could. At times, she had appeared to be uncomfortable and had turned Arizira's questions around so that they never got answered. Her uneasiness and obvious tension over the matter of the men of the Esu had both intrigued and confused Arizira. She could not fathom why Talliea had been so reluctant to discuss with her the nature of the Esu men and the mating habits of the Esu as a people.
Time had slipped away from both women, night fading into a new day, and they had both parted company promising to speak again as soon as fortune played in their favor.
"Silence," Talyn called and her smooth voice resounded inside the hollow base of the large Rae'kir. "The
matter of the Esu has been long discussed and will here now be spoken of plainly by the tribe and its Elders." A hush fell over the gathered and a palpable sense of anxiety could be felt. Talyn, standing tall and proud in the protruding extension she used as a platform, looked over the women before her and took a deep breath.
"The other Elders and I have been deep in thought the past several moon settings. Nearly two weeks have passed since first Arizira glanced the strangers in the valley. In that time, the matter of the Esu has been much debated and thought over. The Esu seem to have sprung from the deepest recesses of our imaginations. Myths and legends now walk along our borders. Some of the Elders think it wise to open communication, to try and learn of the Esu and reconcile myth with fact. Others are against any such endeavors. The stories that have been told from the lost years speak not highly of these dark-skinned peoples. If the myths are to be believed, then communication would prove a futile course. Striking early and in force seems a prudent action by some."
Murmurs arose around Rae'kir. Hunters and Elders and those gifted with a special affinity to Aitla all looked around at one another, their apprehension speaking volumes. "So what single voice of vote is there to be regarding the Esu?" Bela'luin spoke up. Talyn regarded her with a tight expression before replying. "The winter is fast upon us. It would prove to work against us to choose either option. Open war with the Esu while the bitter chill of Salira passes over the land would be folly."