by Orr, Krystal
Maybe she could parley with the Arnira leaders and be granted a place among them in exchange for information about the Esu?
Not likely. She would have no place among the Arniran women, what with having no abilities or training; she would be more a hindrance than any form of aid. As much as she despised her people's way of life, she could not be the cause of any harm coming to the innocent women and children that lived among the men. Who was she to gamble their lives in exchange for her freedom?
As her mind began to form one scenario after another, a familiar sensation slowly came over her. It was not strong, feeling as though it were shaded by other feelings, but it caught her attention and made her look around the woods. The sensation was identical to how she felt when she was with Arizira. It was light and fun and curious. It felt like home. It was a feeling of safety. She wondered why she was feeling as she was with the other woman not around.
"You are still here," the woman occupying her thoughts said, coming out from behind several trees with heavy branches. Talliea, surprising herself, did not jump like so many other times. She stood and smiled as she walked toward Arizira. The Arniran woman held a thin rope-like cord over her back and attached to it was the corpse of a fox-silver rabbit.
"Of course I am still here, Ari. Where would I go?" Talliea asked, closing the distance between them and taking the coney. Arizira said nothing and removed her bow and quiver from her back. Placing them inside the rock slope, she turned to Talliea who was removing the noose from around the rabbit's feet. "I hope your tongue appreciates the flavor of rabbit, Tah-li. The snares I set when the moon held the sky offered me the chance of a quick meal today."
Talliea placed the rabbit on a flat-faced rock and watched Arizira search through her leather pack. She pulled out a few carrots and tubers and a small pouch of some kind. "Why were you away so long if the snares you set last night?" she asked.
Arizira removed a small curved knife from the pack and a flint and tender. Smiling up at Talliea, she responded, "I had to pick these," indicating the tubers and carrots sitting next to her. "And I walked by the glade to refill my water skins."
Talliea watched Arizira remove one last item from her pack. The round wooden pot was similar to the mortar she'd seen earlier, but it was darker in color with a wider rim and a deeper bowl. Arizira passed the flint and tender toward her and asked, "Could you bring to life a fire, Tah-li?"
Nodding, Talliea watched Arizira for a moment. The other woman grabbed the rabbit and the small knife and began the task of skinning the creature. Smiling to herself at her fortuitous circumstances, Talliea walked away to start a fire.
* * * * * *
Some time later, the two women were watching the wooden bowl that was filled with boiling water, carrots, tubers, rabbit meat and herbs that Arizira had picked. Both of them were beyond famished and the smell wafting from over the fire only caused their stomachs to yearn for sustenance even more.
Arizira occupied herself by salting some of the remaining meat. The hides, she had placed inside the rock formation so that the heat could dry them for later use. Talliea watched her from the corner of her eye and stirred their stew absentmindedly. There was a welcome and easy serenity that pervaded the two women. Time was theirs and demanded no payment from either.
Talliea continued to watch Arizira's skilled and dexterous fingers. It amazed her the amount of grace the Arniran woman held. "Ari?" she asked after a time. Arizira looked up from her work and met her eyes.
"How many winters have you practiced with your bow?" The silvery-blonde head turned to the side a moment before smiling and answering, "Nearly as many winters as I have seen pass, Tah-li." Talliea let the information lie between them for a moment as she stirred their stew once again. "Would you teach me?" she asked quickly.
Arizira stopped salting the rabbit meat and set it aside. Her blue eyes held Talliea's and she studied the seriousness in the other woman's expression. "You wish to learn your birth right as a woman? You desire me to teach you in the skill of ranged combat?"
Talliea nodded eagerly and with wide eyes. She greatly wished to learn how to defend herself, if not against Lao'dahn and men like him, then against the harsh wilds of the lands. A bear or a wolf could end her days as quickly as any Esu or Arnira with a mind to do so. Her whole life she had been dependant on others for her survival. Her clan provided food and shelter and clothing to her, as well as protection. She could mend cloaks and patch hides, and she knew how to start a fire and cook a simple meal, but aside from those things, she did not have a trade. The knowledge she possessed would not keep her alive for long under the canopy of tress around her.
"If you would be willing, then yes. I am afraid I have not your agile grace nor your light movements, but I would greatly like to learn the things that you know," she replied.
Arizira, sitting on a log around their quiet campfire, her knees bent and her arms resting on top of them, played with her knife and allowed the silence to draw out. She had not taken a student in her young life. Arniran custom allowed her to pass on her skills once she reached her thirty-third birth year. The number was thought of as an important milestone to her people. She still had six winters before she would be able to take on an apprentice. Would teaching Talliea basic survival skills be against her customs and beliefs, or would it be a matter of debate between herself and Aitla?
She had seen the bruises and the scratches on Talliea's back. She had noticed the deep press of discoloration on her neck. She knew someone, someone strong and big, had held their hand against Talliea's throat. Whoever had attacked her had done so with great anger in their heart. Arizira could not imagine the terror the other woman must have felt. She, herself, was not a creature prone to violence or quick aggravation, but she felt an immense desire to meet the person responsible for Talliea's marks.
They would not find so easy a target in her.
Talliea watched her and tapped her foot in a nervous gesture. Could she deny someone so willingly coming to her for aid? A part of her, the part of her responsible for her tribe and its protection, wondered if perhaps the Esu were as devious as age old myths spoke of them to be. Could Talliea be a spy working to understand Arniran battle movements and fighting styles? If so, could Arizira risk her people's safety by agreeing to teach an outsider?
The thought left her mind like a fading puff of smoke. She knew Talliea was presenting to her the truth of everything she was. The panic she had felt earlier could not have been feigned. She knew Talliea was lonely and scared.
Nothing more.
Opening her mouth, she finally responded, "If my skills you desire to learn, then I would be honored to teach you, Tah-li. We will have need of the forest before we can begin. Your clothing will not allow you the freedom and range of movement it will need."
Smiling, but still unsure, Talliea asked, "You will teach me?"
"Yes, but not now. There is much you have to learn before your fingers are ready to grasp a bow." Talliea settled by the fire again and watched the flames lick around the base of the bowl. For the first time in her life, she felt empowered and anticipated the opportunity to learn. The feeling was welcome and she allowed it to well up inside her.
After their meal, the weather turned ill again and the sun, which had been so high in the sky, fell victim to the clouds above and soon became obscured. The forest became quiet and the hush brought with it a slight darkness. The wind sighed through the boughs of the trees and hissed across the sharp jutting of high standing stone and rocks.
The shelter Talliea and Arizira were in was just barely deep enough to keep out the weather. The overhang of rock was far enough above them, and the small rounding of land inside just far enough in, to allow the two women to lie inside with their cloaks about them. With the natural heat from the formation, no fire was needed. Even if one could have been built, the wind surely would have snuffed it out before it could offer any other warmth.
Talliea sat against the back of the enclosure with h
er cloak tight around her shoulders. Arizira was next to her with her own cloak keeping the wind at bay and her eyes intermittently drooped. Talliea's mind was alive with questions she had for the other woman. Now that time was not an issue for her, she found herself wanting to speak to Arizira like never before.
After the initial shock of seeing Arizira again had worn off and the two of them had eaten their meal, a comfortable silence had overcome both as they each let their thoughts ponder their situations. Talliea looked over at Arizira and smiled when she noticed the other woman was fighting off sleep. "Ari?"
Blue eyes, slightly aglow with the darkness growing around them, looked up at her with an unfocused air. "Hm?"
"It is true that your people have no men?" Talliea asked, her mind asking the first of many questions she had.
Arizira blinked a few times and buried her nose into her cloak for a moment. Her eyes held Talliea's while her mind tried to understand the question. Had they not known each other long enough for Talliea to have her answer? "Arnira are only female, Tah-li. You know this," she answered slowly.
"But, why? How?" Talliea asked enthusiastically. Squinting her eyes in a show of confusion, Arizira lifted her head and pulled her cloak up to her chin. The weather was steadily progressing from bad to worse. Though it was still about mid-day, the sun had long since left the sky and a heaviness was all about them. No rain or snow could be seen, but the approaching darkness spoke of a possibility of either. "I do not understand your question, Tah-li."
Scooting closer, her eyes wide with interest, Talliea shrugged and held her hand out toward the wilderness just outside their shelter. "Nature has both male and female, Ari. Your people are a part of this forest. You encounter male deer and male birds, do you not?"
"Of course we do. We are aware of nature. I still do not understand."
Talliea shook her head and shrugged again. It was so simple to her. How could Arizira not see her point? Gesturing wildly with her hands, she tried to express what she meant. "If nature gives a male and a female for every beast and bird of prey, how then can your people only possess one half of that?"
Arizira, her hands under her cloak and snuggled against her chin, turned her head to the side and a tight lipped smile spread across her face. Talliea's curiosity touched her. It was warming to her heart to see the other woman so at ease and comfortable. The lines of worry that had marked her face on their previous encounters were not present and, if possible, Arizira thought her even more beautiful.
"Do your people lay eggs, Tah-li? Do your young hatch like the birds of the sky?" she asked, posing a question of her own. Talliea faltered a moment and furrowed her brow. The absurdity in the question baffled her. "No, our young come from us," she said, pointing to herself. "Do not your own come about the same way?"
"Yes," Arizira replied, still smiling. "If nature has the bird lay an egg, is it wrong that we bring our offspring about in a different way?" Understanding came over Talliea and she nodded her head. "Okay, point taken, but the bird still requires a male bird."
"So says nature and nature does not require that Arnira have a male. Nature is different, Tah-li. Some creatures build nests, some build dams. Some creatures fly and others swim. You are dark skinned and without the ability to talk with the forest. Does that then imply that nature erred in your making? No, it means that you are different than I. Different is not wrong, Tah-li. The bird does not fault the fish because it swims and cannot fly."
Talliea let her eyes travel across Arizira's face as her words solidified in her mind. They made sense enough, but still she could not let the matter drop entirely. She understood very little about the mating process. What she did know was that the men planted life inside the women like a seed in the earth and the women carried and nurtured that seed until birth. Did the Arnira perform a similar act? Seeing as they were only women, which one of them would carry their offspring?
Lao'dahn, when he had assaulted her, had told her that women were only vessels. They were cattle. When the sticky liquid had connected with her face, he had told her that it was responsible for life. It was the seed. Without it, if Lao'dahn was to be believed, how could the Arnira reproduce?
Suddenly, her simple question was anything but. She realized that during her internal ramble, her eyes had continued to look at Arizira. The other woman was staring back at her with an unsure expression and she shook her head, smiling. "You have given my mind much to think upon, Ahmanae."
"Thought is good, Tah-li."
Again, a silence stretched between them. The wind picked up and the clouds became heavier. The sound of a slow and steady rain could be heard occasionally falling from the sky to the trees and finally ending its journey on the forest floor. The temperature continued to drop and a chill began to set up along the edges of the rocks surrounding both women.
Arizira fought with herself to stay awake. Her people were used to sleeping during the day and her body was protesting at her late activities. She worried about how to explain her absence if any of her sisters discovered her missing. She did not have the same restrictions as Talliea. Her time was her own to manage, mostly. She did have responsibilities to her tribe and duties in regard to her station as a huntress, but her life and her time were free to her. Even still, with the discovery of the Esu, Arizira's people were on high alert. She was unsure how they would react if they knew she had been wandering the forest so much...and during the sun's reign at that.
Her desire to protect Talliea kept her from departing even when she knew she should. What would happen to the other woman if she left? Did Talliea even know what she planned to do? Would she remain in the forest? Try to make a life for herself away from her people? Or would her loneliness overcome her and send her back to a clan that treated her like a possession? Arizira very much did not wish to see Talliea return to the Esu. She did not know who had hurt her, but she worried of a similar incident happening a second time. Talliea did not deserve the life that had been handed to her.
That alone made Arizira feel responsible for her. She greatly desired Talliea to be happy. Turning to the other woman, eyes and body still heading toward sleep, she asked, "What is your path, Tah-li? You can not aimlessly walk in the woods while the trees above shadow your feet."
Talliea, her own eyes having become unfocused as she stared outside, slowly turned her head to meet Arizira's steady gaze. She had been dreading the question since she herself had thought of it. "I am unsure, Ari. I am afraid that I do not have the necessary skills that would ensure my survival in the forest. But I am more afraid of returning to my people. Rather that I should die free and on my own terms than bound and chained at another's will."
Arizira held her eyes and saw the conviction deep within. In that moment, she knew her fate was tied to Talliea's. There was no way she could watch someone that she cared for fumble through their life and worry about an ill-intended hand stabbing her in the back. Talliea had a strong spirit and a thirst for life that rivaled her own people's. Arizira hated seeing her so downhearted. How could anyone desire to stamp out such a vibrant life?
"You do not have to return, Tah-li. I will teach you what I know. I will show you the ways of the Arnira so that you will be able to survive as you wish." Talliea opened her mouth to respond, but was unable to do so as a wide and grateful smile broke out across her face. Arizira smiled back at her and felt her heart begin to beat faster.
Talliea truly was exotically beautiful.
"Thank you...thank you, Ahmanae." Arizira nodded and yawned. The need for sleep was gaining on her. "Do you not have to return to your people? Will they not worry for you?" Talliea asked, scooting closer. Yawning again and blinking to stay awake, Arizira looked next to her and realized her companion was closer than before. "I will have need when the moon returns to the sky, Tah-li, but you need not worry yourself about the affair. I will not abandon you."
Talliea smiled again, something she was doing more and more while in Arizira's presence, and patted her lap with o
ne hand. With the other she reached around Arizira's shoulders. "You fill me with hope, Ari. Sleep. I will be okay to watch over you."
Arizira hesitated a moment, her heart reminding her that it felt more than a friendly emotion, but the soft look in Talliea's eyes finally caused her to give in to the request. She leaned into the warm body next to her and slowly settled her head on Talliea's lap. The dark skinned woman pulled her cloak up to her shoulders and began to soothingly run her hands through her hair.
Her body flamed to life in vivid sensations. Talliea's hands, moving so gently, felt miraculous to her. She felt the other woman's movements trace along the side of her face and up to her ears. Curious fingers trailed along the outside of her ear and down the side of her neck. The touch increased her attraction to Talliea but once again, she put her feelings aside and tried to settle her mind.
Before long, the rhythmic melody outside coupled with the calming glide of Talliea's fingers, lulled Arizira into a welcome and peaceful state of sleep. Just before she let herself completely leave the conscious world, she whispered, "Lirra tai rei, failira." The phrase, in her tongue, told Talliea that she was special to her.
Elsewhere...
"Their bond grows."
"Yes. The two become stronger without their knowledge."
A pause and the first voice, unlike any earthly sound, spoke again. "One is aware of her feelings. She has taken the first step toward her destiny."
The second person nodded, though whom they spoke with did not require such a gesture. "She will not speak of her desires and dismisses the words spoken about her."
"As all great spirits do. Her love for the Esu child will lead her where she needs to go."
"She will not like where her path shall bring her. The issue of her parents has long been hidden from her, just as the history of the Arnira and the Esu has become lost to the ages."