Labyrinth: Saving the Fallen City

Chapter Two: Night Worth Celebrating

"I found his body by the river. He must've fallen and broken his neck" A foreign voice spoke to another. The voices were not from their followers. All Datle and Loette could do was pray the infant wouldn't cry.

"Let's go check near the waterfall. We're as dead as him if we come up with no baby."

Datle let go of Loette as the footsteps disappeared, but both were too frightened to move. They stayed in their spots until morning when footsteps woke them from their exhausted sleep. They huddled together once more at the sound of being approached. Neither knew if the baby was still living, but they were too scared to check.

"I figured you ran away, but I never thought I'd find this" The voice of one of the leaders of the Bloma stood above Datle and Loette holding a hidden baby in their arms.

Datle stood and looked at the woman in front of him with Loette at his side. Neither understood what they had just started, or who they had just helped. Unbeknownst to them, they just saved a very important baby from a fate worse than death.

***

Current day

The next morning, I woke from a peacefully dreamless night of sleep. The rain from a couple hours prior had gone and a cool breeze took its place. The sun squeezed through the miniscule cracks in the walls, lighting up my room and chasing out the shadows. The air was heavy with the smell of wet wood. I could hear the preparations for the festival in the market from our hut. Today marked the starting point for a chaotic celebration that would now include me.

Too excited to wait, I jumped from my bed and picked up the leaf that would adorn my body for the day. It was the standard outfit that everyone except for the Wood Bloma to wear because of their need to cover their bodies rather than expose. The leaf was designed in nature as a casing of a thorny fruit with poisonous seeds that grew on the sturdy branches of a short tree hidden away from sunlight. The Wood Bloma sold it for the other people because they were the ones who find and harvest it. Most people had a specific way to wear their leaf because of endless ways to wrap the vines, but that made them all the more exciting.

The Bloma people relied on the sun to energize and feed their bodies. They disliked a lot of material to cover the parts of them that referred to the functions of the body which is why the Wood Bloma needed a larger covering because of their need for shade. I was not Bloma, so my chest was slightly larger and the muscle of my hips were also thicker than most. My body was taller, more muscular. The Bloma people were skinny and more flexible. I was deformed to them, but whenever there was trouble, I was the muscle they used. I would never find a mate because my body was not compatible to theirs.

I took off my gown and placed the sturdy leaf over my chest and tied it to each side of the leaf were strong vines. I crossed the vines behind my back to hold the leaf in place. I wrapped them around my waist and aligned the leave tied to the vine to cover my lower self by tying the ends of the vines behind my back. It was sufficient for my style, but to some I was too traditional.

I made my way down to the common room and saw my Papa grabbing a few baskets. Lo had left before sunrise to help set up for the celebration. The graduating kids, like myself, were not allowed to work or help because the celebration was for them. It was tradition that the graduating kids were to not lift a figure. We weren't supposed to leave our homes.

"Good morning!" I sat down beside my Papa as he was getting dresses ready. People had been coming to pick them up all morning for the Gathering Ball from the emptying appearance of the common floor.

"Good morning! I just have a couple more dresses to give away" He motioned to his work hanging delicately from the roots and smiled proudly.

"What would this community do without you?" I smiled and walked to the door.