Baniyari: Clouded Minds

Prologue | Chapter 1

Prologue.

The two moons beamed down a small house in the village, staring back at the nursing mother and daughter. Contently laying down on the window seat with a fire cackling and warming the living room around them. The father took out the dinner from the oven and whistled a low tone so as to not wake their toddler. Laying her daughter down on the seat, the mother went over to the couch to eat, just as the husband brought over both plates for them and sat down.

"Do you think the rumors are true?" She asks.

"Regardless if they aren't, we need to prepare for the worst. I've already started to make extra weapons for the Guard, and extra luggage for the entire village for the trip." He said, between bites. His bowl was 3 times the size than the mother's, an appetite well appropriate for his career as one of the village's only blacksmiths.

The mother looks down at her plate, frowning. "After all this time, we're finally leaving. I can't help but wonder what Mother would think. I dedicated my life-"

The husband slammed his fork into the now empty bowl. "And she would be proud of how much you've accomplished." He put both their plates down, turned them both to face each other, and tightly embraced his mate. "It is not like you to be this hopeless, Rabsha. You are my fierce little firebee; graceful in battle, and fearless in heart."

A few tears escaped her, as she listened close to the strong, steady heartbeat of her husband's heart. "I fear for our child, Gao. I wish to fight so that she doesn't have to see her friends and cousins dying around her. I wish to bleed so that she doesn't suffer from the illness, weaponized by our enemies. I wish to give everything for her to live freely and joyfully in the world she was born in."

She looked up at Gao, her face breaking his heart in pieces. "I wish to protect her, my love. But I also wish to liberate our people. I am a mother now. I love my child, I love my family. But I also mourn for the battles I fought alongside my mother and father for the sake of freeing every Kwarinian of this world."

Gao smiled, brought both of his large, scarred hands up to Rabsha's face, and softly brought their heads together. "Then we will stay, Firebee. And we will fight. Together, we will turn the tides of this war, and the world will once again know the name of the Habu Tribe."

Rabsha smiled back, eyes full of love and adoration looking at her husband, and kissed him passionately. When their lips parted, they both took deep breaths, and collapsed simultaneously in each other's embrace.

They awoke to the dozens of rumbling footsteps of the villagers outside, their heads pounding equally as hard. Rabsha sobered quickly, as she recognized the screams and cries of her neighbors and jumped off a still highly lethargic Gao.

"I think the potatoes were bad." Gao groans, sitting up. His body freezes, once his vision clears and observes Rabsha's face.

She stands in the door frame of their bedroom with dead-cruel eyes, no trace of tears anywhere seen the night before. "She's gone."

Chapter 1.

Azina trudged through the main road of nowhere, the smoke behind her blooming into the sky. Crying in soft sobs, her bare feet walked as fast and far as she could to get away from her nightmare. As sad as she felt, her cries quieted slightly as she stared into the sky. She soaked in the slight orange of the afternoon, the vastly different hues of blue of the sky further out, and the gorgeous, golden sun itself. Artificial ceiling lights and pink pastel walls for well over several years had absolutely nothing over fresh air and thin, naturally designed clouds. Azina was lost, in so many ways. For her words, for her whereabouts, for her own self. After all the past years she's blown up, her attacks have never been this... nuclear. There was still soot and bits of rubble covering her night-sky themed pajamas and sticking to her skin. Her bantu puffs were frazzled, and her sobs evolved into yells as the sun began to dip below the mountain peaks.