Daughter of the Mármaros

by Shayna Grissom

  Gabe barked in agreement and joined her and Adam. He pawed at her, patting her on the shoulder and arms. Bernadette decided this was affection in his way. She was grateful but undeserving. At the slightest provocation, Bernadette ran away from her people. What if she did it to these poor boys? She did not know herself as much as she thought, and they were only children.

  No, Bernadette reassured herself. They don’t expect anything of her apart from her affections. They did not sneer when she entered the room, and they didn’t try to manipulate her through the use of power. The jungle boys knew more about what it was to be people and family than her own. She just hoped that was enough to keep them together.

  Chapter Six

  The sun inched overhead before the father moon chased it away. While she was glad the jungle boys wished her to stay, she still felt the nausea of homesickness. She missed her mother and her books, her servants and the comforts the jungle didn’t provide. Even the vibrant colors of the jungle that she initially thought were beautiful now appeared harsh and strange.

  “Alexi could come back at any time,” Cal said as he tried to bribe Gabe with a piece of fruit.

  It was bath time for the jungle boys, and Bernadette couldn’t be happier to hear it. Gabe was fully aware of the clean water and sponge that awaited him, so he refused to come down. Bernadette was able to coax him down from his branch. Just so long as she held him, Cal was able to wash the filthy little thing.

  “Look!” she cried. “There is a little boy under all that dirt.”

  “It’s usually Otto’s turn to bathe Gabe, but he said I had to do it because he washed Gabe’s leg.”

  She had to refrain from smiling. Otto’s intent was noble. He had to clean Gabe’s injured leg to prevent infection, but his method was not effective. Gabe saw the washcloth and a honeycomb on a banana leaf and did not understand what was going to happen until Otto set upon him.

  Had Otto been a little gentler, perhaps Gabe could have been coaxed, but Otto was an adolescent boy who didn’t have the patience for his toddler brother’s ego. It hurt Gabe’s feelings to be wrangled and manhandled. He fought, kicking and screaming the entire time. Otto was left with several deep scratches that required an application of honey as well.

  Bernadette inspected the bruised, scabbed little leg and held Gabe just a little bit tighter before he scampered from her arms and into the nearest tree branch, flicking his little back legs free of residual moisture. He uttered guttural noises as he fled the cavern and Bernadette did her best to contain her smile.

  Adam was much better at bath time though he disdained it almost as much as Gabe, Adam found ways to delay the bath and tried to negotiate his way out of washing more than he believed necessary. She left the cave with the little ones so that the older boys could clean in private.

  She thought about Alexi while Adam babbled away. She longed for his lips and curly blond hair as well as the activities they did the night before. Bernadette had studied procreation and understood the act could provide pleasure, but among her people, it was a trivial and non-existent aspect. With Alexi, it was clear that pleasure was the only motive and that provided a level of freedom she’d never experienced within the confines of the Mármaros.

  “He only comes out at night,” Adam said.

  Bernadette only looked at him, and he shrugged. “You are thinking about him.” Of course, she was. Was she so obvious that even a small child could figure out she was obsessing over a man?

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get back to the camp.”

  The shadows of the fire grew taller as the night covered the jungle roof. The boys sang again much like they did the night before. She had found it so amusing yesterday, but tonight the performance had lost its touch. Perhaps it was her mood rather than the song, but the boys did their best to entertain her.

  “Don’t look so sad,” Jon said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, leaning in towards Jon. “I just miss my home.”

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Jon asked.

  Adam paused from his artwork in the dirt, his little face threatening to cry at any moment.

  Bernadette found a distinguishable difference between Jon and Tom. Jon was missing a front tooth and Tom still had what he called his “little teeth.” His didn’t fall out as quickly as Jon’s. Tom also had a belly button that stuck out. He had shown her that with great pride. Tom was loud and merry while Jon was quiet and sullen.

  “No, not at all,” she assured them. “My people are ignorant and overbearing. They have so many rules and laws. They wanted to make me do things I wasn’t ready to do with someone I did not want to do them with. I do miss my mother, though. I don’t want her to worry.”

  “A mother is a good person,” Adam concluded.

  The boys had no idea what a mother was. She had given them brief explanations—females who bear children, but there was much more to it than that. It also was far more straightforward than she imagined. Here she was caring for children that were not her own while still pining for her mother’s comforting assurances.

  It wasn’t for Alexi’s affections. She didn’t know what it was to love and care for children, but the desperation to protect them overtook her when Gabe was hanging in that trap. She found herself holding Adam close to her without reason other than the fact that she loved the stillness.

  Jon and Tom actively sought her approval. They were so intelligent and so well adapted. Cal was a nurturing spirit who looked after the little ones the most while Otto played the father to the ragtag group.

  Adam looked at Otto, silently pleading him to make her stay. Guilt pulled Bernadette in all directions.

  “How about we go on an adventure?” Otto offered.

  “An adventure?” she asked, straightening on the log.

  “You said yourself that you left heavy tracks in the jungle. Tracks that would lead people here. It won’t rain for at least another week. Let’s see the world,” Otto explained.

  “Things your books can’t show you!” Cal agreed.

  She laughed at the idea, but Bernadette had to admit, the idea was intriguing. They were right. She’d never seen the world. It only seemed fair that she got to experience life on her terms before devoting the rest of her life as the Mármaros’s broodmare—that is, if she ever decided to go back. She was still uncertain about a lot of things.

  “When do we leave?” she asked.

  The boys spent the rest of the day preparing for the expedition. They performed their singular roles without consulting one another as if they had already planned the whole thing. Bernadette could do nothing but sit there with her chin on her fist while her eyes followed the frenzy before her.

  Cal motioned to Gabe, who responded by screeching and throwing large compound leaves from the trees. Cal picked them up and began weaving them together into a mat. Otto was rolling up the furs into right little bundles that he attached to the iron rod they held over the fire. Meanwhile, Jon and Tom scattered the rocks that created the fire pit.

  “Here you are,” Cal said, handing the leaf mat to Adam, who proceeded to put it on the ground and walk over the makeshift rug, only to take the second mat to lay it in front of where he had stomped and repeated the process. Bernadette stood as Adam fell from view. A small wave of panic began to take hold.

  “He won’t go too far,” Jon said.

  Tom threw a rock and added, “He’s just covering some of your tracks.”

  “Course it will be impossible to cover all our tracks, but your people are not very good at hunting,” Cal explained.

  “My people don’t hunt, They use your people that they capture,” she corrected.

  “Once your people take them, they’re your people,” Otto said.

  “They never come back after that. It’s like they forget who they are,” Cal agreed.

  Bernadette heard them, but she was growing anxious waiting for Adam to come back. Gabe came down from the tree and demanded she hold him as if he
sensed her distress. He was too small of a boy to be given any responsibility at all, but they were in the jungle, she reminded herself. If his skills were not keen enough, he would die. That didn’t appease the nagging feeling in her heart.

  Her stomach growled, and Gabe patted her on the shoulder in case she didn’t feel it. “Yes, I know,” she told him. Bernadette walked with him on her hip to the dwindling plate of dried fruits and grazed on some berries. She heard some movement to her right and instantly envisioned Alexi standing there. It was instead Adam in his little loincloth, clumsy with a mat in each hand as he waded through the foliage.

  Despite how tired she was, Bernadette jumped at every noise. Each crunch along the floor was Alexi’s footfalls. Each response from the jungle boy’s outside the cave was a response to him. Every time she dozed off, the slightest breeze would jolt her awake. She didn’t want to cling to his chains, yet she couldn’t stop herself from looking for him everywhere. It was maddening.

  With the camp broken down, Bernadette was at a loss. For the last several days this spot was her home, and now it just looked like a clearing in the jungle. Colorful birds watched overhead, curious to see if they would leave behind anything worth eating. Bugs that were once deterred by the fire were once again returning. Gabe growled while swatting at them.

  “I guess we’re ready to leave then,” Bernadette said with a sigh.

  She expected the boys to lead the way, but instead, she realized they were circling her. Gabe seemed to be aware that something was about to happen. He wiggled free of her and slid down to the ground, only to make his way up the nearest tree. Bernadette looked around, frowning. She took a step back and fell onto the ground. She looked up to see the jungle boys staring down at her.

  Part Two

  Chapter Seven

  “First things first. Those things on your feet need to go,” Otto said. The boys gathered around, nodding in their assessment.

  Bernadette looked up in surprise. “What’s wrong with my shoes?”

  “They are part of the reason you trip so much. Adam has seen your feet. He said they look just like ours. You’d be much better off without wearing them,” Cal explained.

  Looking down at her gorgeous shoes, she couldn’t refute the logic. They were carved from a shelled animal and the utmost craftsmanship, so much so that no one in the Mármaros had a pair. They were a gift from the council. The shoes were large and admittedly obstructed her movement. It took her weeks to learn how to even walk in them, but they shone so splendidly.

  Bernadette took them off and set them beside a rotting stump, letting the fresh air tickle her toes. It did feel nice to be free of them, she thought.

  “Next, we need to do something about that thing you’re wearing.”

  Tom and Jon nodded in unison. Each held a small dagger. Now they had gone too far.

  They were right about the shoes as they were about the length of her dress. In the Mármaros, a gown that swept across the marble floor was a symbol of regality. Her dress, now shorn to her knees, was freeing. She maintained that her lace gloves would need to stay. The boys just shrugged and wound up the fabric cut from her dress, insisting they could divine a purpose for it later.

  Otto and the twins were discussing where they should go first. Adam clung to her side while she tried to listen in on their scheming. Cal held one of her shoes in the air, and Gabe’s small hand reached down to grab it and carry it away who knows where.

  “We should take her to the waterfalls,” she heard Otto declare.

  “No! We should take her to that...” Jon’s voice hushed so she couldn’t make out what he was saying.

  Cal held up the other shoe, and she watched Gabe whisk it away, never to be seen again. Bernadette wanted to remind them that their names for things were not the same names her people had given them. Even if she knew anything outside the Mármaros, she wouldn’t recognize the names. Still, the boys seemed to be enjoying their game.

  There was a game involving their hands to determine the winner. Jon turned away, rolling his eyes, and Tom groaned with loss. It seemed they were going to the waterfalls, whatever that was.

  “It’s nice out there, Birdie,” Adam assured her. “You will like it.”

  She wanted to squeeze Adam, who was now in his rightful place on her hip. “I’m sure I will,” she said with a smile.

  Otto led the troop while Cal took up the rear. Bernadette and Adam were in the middle while Jon and Tom fanned out somewhere in between, their sharpened sticks pointed outward ready for an attack. Bernadette looked around and asked, “What about Gabe?”

  “He’s up there,” Otto turned and said. “He doesn’t like being down here. He’ll follow as long as we don’t make him come down.”

  “He makes noises,” Adam added.

  “Yeah, every so often he will make a bird noise to let us know he’s still here.”

  No wonder he got lost so easily, Bernadette scowled. It wasn’t the boy’s fault. Alexi should have been more present in their lives. “Alexi doesn’t care for you at all, does he?”

  None of the boys spoke for a moment. It was as if they were trying to choose their words carefully or hoped someone else would respond. A bright green frog with orange eyes croaked at them from a low-hanging leaf as if it were trying to break the silence.

  It was Otto who finally spoke up. “He’s usually around more often. Since you’ve been here, we’ve only seen him the one time.”

  “Yeah, he’s normally with us every night,” Cal added.

  “Children need more than nightly supervision,” Bernadette grumbled.

  “He can’t come out in the day,” Adam reminded her.

  There was a squawking noise in the tree line. Bernadette recognized it as the noise Gabe made the night she found him. Where was Alexi that night? Where was their father then? Bernadette’s feelings for the man she hardly knew tore at her. Alexi was irresponsible, reckless with the lives of his children, and yet she wanted him like no other. She felt guilty for her desire and knew that if he returned to her, she’d be helpless against his advances.

  Pushing those thoughts from her mind, Bernadette considered the path before them. She had no idea where she was or how far they had made it through the jungle. It was a trek of step after step. Whether to scale a fallen log or felled branch or to go around it. To test the sandy patches with a heavy rock, or to walk around it. Each obstacle had to be respected and approached with deference, especially with how limited Bernadette’s movements were. It had to have been a much slower pace than they were accustomed to, but the jungle boys did not complain.

  Her bare feet proved useful on the rough terrain. She also had more endurance than the jungle boys. They stopped and rested when she felt fine. Adam needed to be carried as the day wore on. Soon Gabe also climbed down from a vine and reached out towards her. Bernadette held out her arm, and Gabe scaled it as if it were a tree branch before wrapping himself around her chest.

  “You’re quite good at this,” Cal said as they shared a waterskin. “Without those shoes of yours, you can walk farther than any of us and carry the little ones all day.”

  She couldn’t find a place to sit without disturbing the boys she held in each arm, but she was content enough to stand. Otto chewed on a piece of fruit and complained, “I’m hungry. I hope Tom and Jon find some food.”

  Bernadette’s gaze scanned the canopy as the daylight played along the leaves. “The sun’s getting low. Maybe we should stay here for the night.”

  Otto nodded and stood to undo his makeshift pack. He rolled out some of the furs and Bernadette kneeled to lay Adam and Gabe down and wrap them up. The boys didn’t quite cuddle but they leaned into one another as if they instinctively knew they were brothers.

  Cal worked a chunk of metal and a blade until it sparked against the pile of dead leaves. He nurtured and grew a fire while Otto went out in search of fresh water. There was a stream nearby; they had been following it all day. Bernadette suspected that the stream
would become a river before they reached the waterfalls.

  “About how long until we reach the falls?” Bernadette asked.

  Cal was setting up the spit above the fire. He looked up as he pondered the question, his round cheeks lined with sweat. “It used to take seven or eight days before, but I think we moved a lot faster than last time.”

  The last time they saw the falls, Gabe and Adam were likely much younger. Too young to travel with any speed. Given that Bernadette could carry them, it would cut several days from their trip at least. “Why would you travel so far with the two little ones?” she asked, kneeling beside the fire.

  “We only had Adam then,” Cal explained. “He was barely walking when Alexi told us to meet him there. That’s when we got Gabe.”

  “If he told you at your campsite, why make you travel all that way when he was right there?” she asked, frowning.

  “Oh, no he didn’t tell us in person,” Cal said. “He told us in our dreams.”

  Bernadette didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Whatever Cal was trying to tell her was too much for her to take in. Besides, Tom and Jon were marching toward the camp in unison. Otto brightened at their sights and stood up to meet them.

  “What did you find?”

  Tom smiled, and Jon held up a great, big snake with yellow and white scales. That was to be their dinner for the evening.

  #

  After eating their fill of the enormous snake Tom and Jon had dragged home, everyone settled in for sleep. But Bernadette didn’t want to sleep. She fought it as it took hold of her. She wanted to see Alexi in person, not in a dream. That wasn’t him. It was her mind manifesting what she wanted to see the most, she told herself.

  Sleep won as it always would, but thankfully, Bernadette did not dream. She awoke groggily, and her throat felt dry. Otto had found water the night before, and Bernadette helped herself to the waterskins he had set beside her. She was the last to wake up. Everyone else was picking off the remains of the snake and berries.