* * *
Catty found Aly near the treetops, stuffing her mouth with dets, yellow fruits about the size of an acorn, while watching the single moon brighten over the mountains that evening. She sat behind her cross-legged.
“Hungry?” Aly held out a det as she turned around.
“Nay, not really. My thanks.”
“We can go without sustenance for days, yet you best have something on the stomach prior to the morrow.”
“So says the one who skipped breakfast this very morning, yes?”
“We were on a trail providing little food, and you lot were in need of what we managed to scavenge more than I. That be all.”
Aly was about to pop another det in her mouth, but jolted when Catty snapped the fruit out of her hand with her tongue, eating it for herself.
“And what manners you have.” Aly rested her head against the tree. “Thus I take it you have arrived for my apology.”
Catty sat up. “I stand by what I said, Mastra. You be my best friend, and thus I see it as an obligation to tell you what you need to hear, even if it does not appease your ears. Be that as it may, if this one is confident in her stance, then I respect––”
“By Truth’s Grace, I apologize, very good? Enough of the guilt trip from the three of you, I beg! You were in the right. Happy?”
Catty leaned back and grinned. “Very.”
“Hate you dearly.”
“I know.” The mastra blew and watched her breath float across the chilled air. “So, what crosses your mind today? This one gazes upon the moon as if she has not ever seen it before.”
“Nay, I merely wonder about the usual. Nothing more.”
“We are milos away from home in unknown territory, finally taking part in what was to be your obsession for years, and even now, this one daydreams about aliens.”
Aly just shrugged.
“Then I suppose I can, at most, enlighten you.” Catty got on her knees and rubbed her bare arms. “Surely you have not heard this one, nay? Do you know that many people think we are related to some of the aliens? Seems bizarre, does it not?”
“As most rumors be. It would be nice to verify some of them.”
“Nay, I am content in living in fact. I merely fancy gossip to pass the time. Beyond this, we are ten and four years old, Aly. I think it be time for us to think of our worth to the tribe. After all, is that not what this task is all about?”
“Hah! You speak as if we are a hundred and ten!”
“Nay, I simply imply that our concerns of yesteryears should not be those of people that shall be Young Ones in within months. That be all. Thus is why this contest is so important to me as well. It be real, not illusioned.”
Aly studied the moon, an object she knew she’d never be able to physically touch in her lifetime. But then there was the tree she rested against, its wood graying and smoothed in age. The det smelled fresh and ripe with juices. The moss that was safe to eat had dew on it every morning. She listened to the cold breeze, shivering as it rushed over her ears. As she lost herself to her senses, Aly wondered if other people on a different planet called such feelings “paradise.” Yes, she still wondered.
Aly looked at Catty and shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.” She then went back to studying the sky.
“You be a hopeless cause, Alytchai. In the meantime, why not focus on the task at hand? Truly, daydreaming of – what be the moving mountains the storyteller talks about called again?”
“Spaceships.”
“Ah, truly. Daydreaming of ‘spaceships’ shall offer little help during our travels in the morrow.”
“Fair enough. And thus, we forget. If the four of us are to end the other teams, then we must bout against one another, if we are to still desire a single victor. Who knows? In the end, perhaps it shall be the two of us fighting to be the last one who stands.”
The joke was too real for Catty to laugh at, and even Aly regretted making light of the possibility. With that, both mastras’ minds came back to Planet Gooliun. The aliens could wait.
* * *
Evaluations of the Tribe - Prossia Book 0 : A Coming of Age Space Opera Page 27