The Nichan Smile

by C. J. Merwild

  In front of him, a pool of clear water splashed against pink granite rocks. From the towering heights that stood blocking their way, a waterfall broke along a cliff, before becoming one with the pond.

  Gus was speechless. He gazed at the view and then the delicate scent of moss and wet rock filled his lungs.

  Without warning, two powerful arms lifted him into the air. His happiness having reached its climax, it was time for Domino to enjoy himself. Gus knew at once what he had in mind.

  “Don’t you think about it,” Gus said, laughing as his friend approached the edge of the pond. “Domino!”

  The next second, Gus flew through the air, propelled by the nichan’s force. He sank into the water, which enveloped him in freshness from head to toe. He touched the bottom with the tips of his toes, stretched out his legs, pushed, and rose to the surface. As his head emerged, a mass of arms and legs smashed against the water. Domino reappeared moments later, snorting and howling, scaring all the birds out of the area. In front of him, Gus pushed back the blond hair falling in front of his eyes, unable to stop smiling.

  “One of these days you’ll have to learn to be subtle,” he mocked, struggling to get rid of the sleeveless tunic that water was sticking to his skin.

  In response, Domino undressed and threw his wet pants in his friend’s face. “Never!” He laughed.

  Gus sent the pants and his own clothes to the nearest rock—they would drain and dry in no time—and then dived under again.

  Having grown by the sea, Domino had taught Gus to swim years earlier. A few weeks after the drowning that could have cost him his life, Gus had headed for the village river and dove down, not allowing himself to be afraid, determined to save himself. He’d regretted his boldness until Domino joined him, pulling him out of the water yet again.

  Gus was a quick learner. Soon fear left him for good. He and Domino would always stay in the water until their skin crumpled, their teeth chattered, or until Mora dragged them out.

  As Domino grew up, it had become impossible for him to dive into the river without pounding the bottom hard. A few years later, Gus had encountered the same problem, and their love of water had been curbed.

  Here, nothing could stop them.

  They fought, splashed, and challenged each other. In the midst of swarms of bubbles and dead leaves, repressed instincts regained their rights. If this had been possible, they would have abandoned the earth and the waves to take over the sky. This moment and the world were theirs entirely. Beautiful and infinite.

  Face blushed as much from the physical exercise as from the invisible sun burning them even through the thick clouds, Gus put his palms on Domino’s shoulders, wedged his foot in the palm of his friend’s hands, and prepared to jump. Facing him, Domino had his hair all over, his eyes bloodshot from hitting the water with his whole body again and again for over an hour. Yet nothing on his face expressed any tiredness. He tightened the muscles in his arms and back and pushed.

  The jump was underwhelming. Gus’s foot had slipped. He dove down and returned to Domino in a few fathoms for another try.

  He’d never had so much fun. When his hands landed on Domino’s shoulders, he squeezed them against the wet skin, as much to hold himself as to make sure it wasn’t all a figment of his imagination.

  “Give it your all this time,” he told Domino. “I want to believe my wings can fly.”

  He spread the one he could control. Water ran along the diaphanous membrane. The other wing, which had stopped growing when he was a toddler, hung on his back, dripping, lifeless.

  Domino uncovered his teeth in a grin. And he pushed once more, shouting.

  Lying on his stomach against a rock, the lower half of his body still submerged, Gus opened his eyes. The light had changed in the sky, turning sandy through the puffs of black clouds. The heat continued to warm his neck, his back, his arms, his wings. He was lying down like this, one arm under his cheek. Next to him, their clothes were dry.

  Domino, who had left the water a few minutes earlier, hadn’t bothered to put his pants on. It was far too hot to get dressed, and they still had time before they had to return to Surhok. He approached Gus, back from a lonely jaunt in the area, and sat down on the rock with his legs crossed. A bunch of small items rolled out of his hands—a fruitful picking.

  “I found some nam nuts.” Domino put them on the cloth to prevent the fruits from rolling and getting lost in the water. “I saw an Oné tree over there. It’s full of fruits, but I couldn’t reach them.”

  “Well maybe I can,” Gus said after a silence.

  A few minutes later, Domino helped him climb the tree he’d spotted. After several attempts—which almost went wrong without Gus giving a damn—he came back down, his tunic rolled up into a ball loaded with gold- and translucent-skinned Onés. Fruits like these were far too rare not to be enjoyed. Where the heat peaks seemed to suffocate and kill everything else, Onés would gorge themselves on it, reaching maturity when the temperature became unbearable for other living things.

  It was also the only fruit in the region to retain its original color after the Corruption had dyed the great majority of the world black and gray. A miracle in a world sorely lacking in them. The Uetos therefore attributed great power to this fruit, whose oval shape was reminiscent of a human heart. They believed sharing Onés with loved ones brought strength and luck. The only Oné tree in the village had died a few years earlier, its trunk gnawed away from the inside by larvae. A bad omen, the clan’s Orator had announced.

  “I’ve never really liked this fruit,” Gus admitted before spitting a seed on the opposite bank. “Mine’s a little floury. It’s too ripe.”

  Domino looked up at him in surprise. “Why did you climb that tree if you don’t like it?”

  “You looked disappointed. And they bring luck, don’t they? Besides, I’d never climbed a tree this big.”

  Domino smiled. “You went from human to monkey today.”

  “To what?”

  “A monkey. I heard there are some in Meishua.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The country, Meishua.”

  “No, I’m talking about the monkey thing.”

  “It’s an animal. Never seen one. Dadou talked about it this morning on the way home.”

  Domino stopped chewing and fell silent, leaving a heavy blankness stand between them, like an impenetrable wall. As if nothing had happened, Gus placed his half-eaten Oné on the stone and grabbed a nam nut Domino had cracked. He wasn’t upset anymore about the restrictions. No Prayer Stones for him. So what? By now Gus had given up the idea of seeing these monoliths with his own eyes. He and Domino could have gone there now without anyone knowing about it, defying the prohibitions imposed by Ero, but it took more than an hour to reach the site from the village. Neither boy wanted to waste so much time when this pond was so close, full of possibilities. The Stones were not meant for fun, and they wanted to have fun, not to contemplate a circle of rocks under which nichans prayed every month during the Calling.

  Sitting in front of him, Domino pursed his lips as if to trap the words, and then gobbled up what was left of his snack with a pensive look. He gave the impression of walking on eggshells, as if he’d committed treason by mentioning Natso’s baptism. Gus didn’t want that discomfort. Not here, not when he was feeling happier than ever.

  Happy.

  It was time to break the taboo. “How was it? The baptism, I mean.”

  After a hesitation, pulp sliding down his chin, Domino spoke. “Long and not very fun.” He seemed to think for a second, and a furtive smile passed over his lips. “Until the creature came. Yes, you heard me. I saw her, like I’m seeing you right now. Huge legs, multicolored rows of giant scales, a mouth wide enough to swallow the whole village with a single bite. The Meishua Calamity appeared out of nowhere, tearing the sky open.”

  “Oh really?” A light smile curled Gus’s lips. He appreciated the trouble Domino went to in order to warm up the atmospher
e.

  “Yes. True and true. That was quite amazing. I think Beïka shit his pants. Before she attacked, Ero knelt before her. ‘Have mercy, mighty beauty of the south, O greatness of the past! Do not attack me. I am an Unaan, so please spare me and devour my family instead!’ But the Calamity looked at him, with her beady eyes, like this, and said, ‘Then I will just kill you, for I don’t want your filthy flesh, you disgusting, pudgy thing.’ ”

  “What a perceptive beast.”

  Domino nodded, breaking the shell of another nam nut in the hollow of his fist. “You have no idea. I knew that the moment I looked at her. She’s got a knack for spotting assholes.” A slight grimace twisted Domino’s face but he chased it away and continued. “Ero then asked, ‘What should I do? I’ll do whatever you want. Ask and I’ll oblige.’ And do you know what she answered?”

  “I’m all ears.”

  Domino bit the inside of his cheek and looked down, as if uncertain. “She floated to Ero, her nostrils steaming. There was a scorching smell in the air. I thought she was going to spit acid in his face. But she didn’t. What a missed opportunity. But no. Instead she said, ‘Kiss me.’ ”

  Domino looked up, his obsidian eyes shining like pearls.

  Facing him, Gus swallowed hard, confused and not quite sure why. “And in reality, what actually happened?”

  “In reality, we stayed up there praying for hours, longer than during a Calling. Natso started crying as soon as Belma put him on the altar.”

  “Not a very comfortable crib for a baby.”

  “Yeah. That, and the fact that he’d crapped himself.”

  Domino laughed, and Gus smiled.

  After birth, a nichan infant would remain in almost constant contact with their mother’s or father’s skin—or anyone’s willing to give a hand—for up to two months after birth. To take the child away from this primordial comfort to be laid on hard stone under the gaze of Gods who had been gone for nearly two centuries seemed like a form of mistreatment, according to Gus.

  “It was hilarious,” Domino said. “Belma felt he needed to be changed. Ero told her to wait. He used his big voice: ‘These are the sacred Stones; the Gods are watching us.’ You see what I mean, as if the Gods mattered to him. I’m not even sure Belma would have taken the Orator seriously if he’d been there. She didn’t wait. She said she didn’t want her son to be introduced to the Gods with a change full of shit, and she cleaned Natso, just like that, on the baptismal altar. Beïka was shocked. The clan chief’s good little dog. What a dick. And Mora and I were laughing. Even Memek was having a hard time holding back. Only Dadou kept on praying, as if nothing happened.”

  His laughter subsided. He put one hand on his chin to wipe it off and noticed Gus’s insistent look. After a few seconds, Domino admitted, “Okay, even the reality was a bit funny.”

  “That’s good.”

  And he smiled. Domino smiled back, a warm grin that turned his already generously colored cheeks red. Then he dropped his Oné and rummaged through the pile of nuts in front of him. Something shone through his fingers. Amber and transparent, smaller than the nuts, and of an anarchic shape. Domino raised the small object to Gus’s eye level and presented it to him. Dried sap, it seemed.

  “I found it farther away,” Domino said, both shy and satisfied, biting his lip. “I should be able to tie a string to it and wear it around my neck.”

  Ueto jewelry was the craft of the children of the clan. The little ones, developing their dexterity and attention to detail, would spend long hours kneading clay, tinting it with cheap pigment or gold, and shaping beads that would then be worn as necklaces by their parents. Domino and Gus had no parents. Since he’d raised them, Mora wore the necklaces the two children had crafted back then.

  “That’s nice,” replied Gus, confused by his friend’s somewhat embarrassed reaction.

  A few seconds later, after silence had slipped between them, his eyes still focused on his piece of sap, Domino confessed, “I like this color. A lot. It reminds me of your eyes.”

  Gus’s heart boomed in his chest. He hadn’t expected that. Was that a compliment?

  Mouth half-open, he studied his friend’s face before looking down, his own face flushing like hot charcoal as his eyes fell on Domino’s naked body. A body he’d seen so many times. Yet his gaze veered up, focusing on the black curls framing the nichan’s face.

  My eyes . . .

  The peculiarities of his appearance. Gus was embarrassed to be reminded that he wasn’t an ordinary human being, and that it showed at first glance. He’d never liked his eyes. That bright orange lost in black, all hemmed in with pale eyelashes. Most days he was able to forget what they looked like, what the woman in the basement had vehemently showed him in the mirror.

  “I remember telling you that you had beautiful eyes,” Domino continued, not daring to cross Gus’s gaze, his fingers playing with his loot. “We were very young. You didn’t speak Torb yet. You’d never been so close to me before. On purpose, I mean. It was right before you healed me for the first time, after I took the oath. I forgot I had a sore arm, that I felt sick, and I said, ‘Your eyes are pretty.’ ”

  Gus’s heart kept pounding against his ribs. He remembered that moment, the result of his new resolutions. Matta had asked him to be nice, to help the three brothers who had saved his life. So Gus had. If he’d grasped Domino’s words at the time, he would have changed his mind. He would have been scared and wouldn’t have healed the wound on the boy’s arm. But today, he was able to resist the urge to run away. To tell the truth, he wanted to hear Domino utter those words again.

  “Why?” Gus said in a controlled voice, feeling a new warmth rising to the hollow of his belly. “Why did you say that?”

  Domino finally looked up at him. “Because it’s true.” A pause, a flurry of heartbeats, and Domino added, “Not just your eyes. You’re beautiful.”

  It was furtive, so fast Gus thought he had imagined it, but he could have sworn Domino had looked at his lips before directing them back to his piece of sap, taking a deep breath. As if this sight had awakened something in him, Gus glanced at his friend’s mouth, at his round lips slightly ajar. Domino wet the pulp of them with a slow course of his tongue. A hot flush grew in Gus’s chest, spreading further down, and he looked away once again.

  Farther on, a dark shape dragging itself moved and disappeared behind the waterfall’s wall, attracting his attention.

  Ignoring the pulse drumming in his ears, Gus stretched out his neck. They were not alone. “There’s something over there.”

  X I I

  Hurled out of his thoughts, Domino looked over his shoulder. Nothing except the curtain of water and the sound of the waves pouring into the basin.

  “What is it?” he asked as he surveyed the surroundings.

  “I don’t know. It was moving fast. It disappeared behind the waterfall.”

  Gus’s eyesight was quite weak, so it could have been anything. A human, an animal, the movement of the trees shaken by the wind. Domino stood and squinted. Immediately he spotted a trail of blood in the distance. It stretched across the surface of the rocks before venturing out of his sight.

  “You want to take a look?” Gus asked, putting on his pants, already decided.

  Domino wasn’t reassured. “There’s blood over there. Did it look like a wounded animal?”

  “I didn’t get a chance to see.”

  Domino hesitated. If he got closer, he would recognize the smell of blood. Animal, human, or otherwise.

  “Do you want to go see?” Gus repeated, rushing for it.

  It was early. There was still time before they had to return home. If it was just a wild beast that had come here to die in peace, they had no reason to leave. The thing hadn’t attacked them, hadn’t even come close. It was probably a wounded animal. Might as well know for sure.

  Domino pulled himself together and nodded. “All right.”

  So he put his clothes back on. He gave Gus his piece of sap
for safekeeping (his own pants didn’t have pockets), abandoned the fruits he’d picked, and jumped from one stone to another for about thirty feet to get closer to the waterfall. Even before reaching it, he recognized the smell of animal blood. Each creature, according to its species, sex, age, and build, had a distinct scent. His experience was still to be made, so Domino was unable to accurately identify the animal.

  Closely followed by Gus, he walked around the waterfall and scanned the area. A narrow cavity cutting through the rock provided access to a passageway. Domino walked along the wet wall to the entrance. Natural daylight illuminated a slightly wider path covered with sand, pebbles and dead leaves. The trail of blood—mixed with water—continued from there.

  “It’s an animal, it might still be alive,” Domino said loud enough to cover the sound of the splashes without shouting.

  “You want to finish it off?”

  Yes and no. Domino felt something else besides the animal. Something he couldn’t identify, odorless. It was more of a hunch than an alert of his senses. He opened his mouth to speak when a yelp resounded against the rock and reached them from an out-of-sight area of the cavity.

  Domino didn’t need a weapon to kill this beast and end its ordeal. At thirteen, he already had enough strength to break the neck of a deer with his bare hands, even without transforming. He knew this from experience. All nichan children were at one time or another entrusted with the fate of an animal caught during a hunt. And death was the only acceptable fate for the animal involved. A kid unable to accomplish such a basic task would be nothing but a burden during a hunt. The clan’s survival allowed no weakness. Domino still remembered the terrified deer lying on its side, bound by its legs, that had been thrown at his feet. The gesture, though reluctant, had come naturally to him. The twisting of muscle and bone had put an end to the beast’s life. Domino had been ten years old at the time.