Chapter 14
She fell asleep on the ground that night. Her mind was too clouded with thoughts to make her stop to undo her bedroll. Mik looked up from where he was cleaning up the meat scraps and chucking them in the fire. He saw her lying on the dirt, using her arms as a pillow. He sighed, sheathed his knife and pulled a blanket out of her bedroll and threw it over her. Once the fire was out she would get cold very quickly.
He knew that there was something strange about this girl with the wide eyes and black hair that fell to her hips when untied. Leo had said something to him earlier about her. He meant to ask he about it sometime but he didn’t quite know how. This girl said she was a simple village girl yet when they first met she couldn’t tie basic knots or start a fire. Feeling the first waves of drowsiness hit him he climbed into his own blankets and tried for some sleep.
They all woke feeling rather edgy and keen to move on. Kiayani thought she could still feel the ghostliness of the village. Kiayani quickly fell into her walking rhythm. The constant motion of putting one foot continuously in front of the other. She thought as she walked. Sometimes coming up with a story to tell the others, sometimes just thinking. However this time she didn’t think so much, she just walked. She didn’t even listen to the other’s conversation.
When they stopped she felt like she could keep going. Her legs were eager to keep moving. They didn’t even hurt anymore. Kiayani didn’t even dump her bag before she went looking for firewood. However she came across Rute and Yulan almost immediately. They were standing beneath a tree with strange contraptions in their hands. They were made of wood and string. Rute raised his thick finger to his mouth when he saw her. Be quiet he meant. She nodded and stayed still as well. Then she watched as Yulan placed a rock on the string, swung it around and released it. His face spread into a smile before he rushed off.
“What was that?” she asked Rute.
He spoke in his deep voice, “squirrel.”
“Squirrel?” she asked. Was this some other kind of strange creature?
Yulan came back with the thing in his hands. It was small and furry with a very bushy tail, “Got it.”
He was smiling.
“How?” Kiayani asked him.
“With the sling,” he answered handing the squirrel to his brother.
Rute walked off, probably back to the camp.
“Sling?” she asked feeling stupider by the second.
She hadn’t ever seen the boys hunt so she wasn’t sure exactly how they managed to bring down beasts down every time. Yulan handed her the wooden sling and she examined it. It was crudely made, but beautiful.
“Can you show me how to use it?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.
He looked a little surprised but agreed. Yulan showed her how to hold it in her hands correctly. He placed some rocks in her hand and she had a go, mimicking his actions when he had shot the squirrel.
The rock hit the nearest tree. Kiayani collected them up and kept on trying, aiming for the trunk. Yulan left her to practice after the first few shots. She was so absorbed that she didn’t realise that Mik was approaching until he said, “nice shot.”
She jumped a little dropping the stones and he laughed.
“What happened to getting firewood?” he asked and she froze.
Then she spoke very fast, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I was and then I saw the twins catch a squirrel and then I wanted to have a go myself.”
He laughed again at the expression on her face, “it’s okay Kiayani. Yulan told me and went to get the firewood himself.”
“Oh,” she felt her face go red; she was so easily flustered around Mik.
She followed him back to camp where Yulan was getting a fire going. She looked away from Rute who was skinning the squirrel. Kiayani gave Yulan back his sling and went to sit down by the fire feeling oddly useless. She had sat there and played when she was meant to be helping.
Like usual she ate in silence. For the first time in a week Leo requested a story.
“Kiayani?” he asked, throwing his bone into the flames.
“Mmm?” she replied, undoing her bedding.
“Could you tell me a story?”
She looked up at him and back down at her bedding, thinking.
“I guess so,” she said, slightly unsure of what she could tell. Her supply was running rather low.
Leo set up his blankets as fast as he could and sat down like a child eager to hear a bedtime tale. She finished setting up her own before starting.
“When the land was still new and spirits roamed freely, man was yet to be created. One spirit sensed a need for mortal beings, with intelligences much like her own, to roam the earth as well. She was the spirit for life. The others did not want such creations to walk on the land that they had built together. So they trapped her, the spirit of life, within a mountain. There she grew weak, tired and lonely. Her vision of creating humans was almost gone. Then when the Great Spirit War raged the movement shook up her mountain prison. A rock fell which had the height of a man and the width. Her vision returned, and using broken stones she carved the rock into a man and gave him the kiss of life. She used the last of her power to create an exit from her prison, setting her creation free into the world.”
Leo’s eyelids were half closed and when she finished he yawned, thanked her for the story and drifted off into sleep. The others followed suit. Kiayani however stayed awake. She felt sorry for the spirit of life, but in some ways she was wrong. Humans were masters of destruction.
She lay down not feeling tired at all, looking up at the glowing orb that was the moon.
When the others stirred into consciousness around her she got up quickly. She had not slept at all but was ready to keep moving. They packed everything away quickly and got going almost straight away.
Kiayani dropped her bag as she slumped to the ground. She couldn’t ever remember walking for so far or for so long. She rested her head against the tree behind her and shut her eyes. Blood pounded through her body and her feet felt numb. Kiayani was looking forward to a good, long sleep.
“Can I ask you something?” Mik asked, dropping down beside her.
Kiayani opened her eyes and looked over at Mik. His brown hair had grown quite a bit since they had first met she noticed.
“Of course,” she answered pulling her eyes away from his face.
“Thanks,” he paused awkwardly before continuing, unsure of how to begin, “I want to ask you if you know what you’re doing. I’ve seen you confused most of the time, walking by yourself and not talking. You seem a little lost, or perhaps unsure.”
Kiayani’s eyes went wide, “What do you mean?”
“I think that you don’t really know what you want to do.”
She sighed and turned back to face him, looking at Mik directly in the eyes, “I can’t help it,” Kiayani looked down at her hands, “All my life I’ve been told what to do and who to be. I’ve always wanted freedom and now that I have it I have no idea of what to do next. I thought if that I joined you boys that I would feel free, but now I just feel empty, like something is missing.”
Mik was stunned silent and he didn’t reply until a minute or two after, “You lied about being a farm girl lost in the forest didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Kiayani said sadly, “I was being sent away to be married to a nobleman.”
It hurt to admit the truth, but she couldn’t hold the lie any longer.
Mik didn’t have anything to say to this, it shocked him more than what she had said before. He went to stand up but Kiayani grabbed his arm desperately, “Please don’t tell the others this, I would prefer they didn’t know.”
She slowly released her grip and Mik looked at her with a mixture of pity and sadness, “Of course.”
“Thank you, I really feel that you are my friend.”
Mik had no reply so he left her sitting beneath the tree alone. She thought hard about what he had said. Kiayani sat there for a few minutes before jumping up to do her usual chores.
That night around the camp fire, Koran was going over plans. Apparently they were very close to the mountains and certain things would need to be sorted out before then.
“We will need to have some food sorted; I don’t know how much can live up there. That will probably mean we will have to cook some stuff and take it with us,” he said.
“Agreed,” said Mik.
“I also think that Kiayani should wait for us at the bottom, it might be dangerous,” he said looking at the girl.
She flared up at once, standing up and walking over to him, “What was that?”
“I was saying that you should wait for us,” he said narrowing his eyes.
“What do you have against me?” said Kiayani angrily, “What did I ever do to offend you?”
She poked him hard on the chest, “How dare you say that I should wait at the bottom of the mountain for you?” Everyone was staring at her.
“What are you talking about?” he said rather weakly.
“You know what I’m talking about; you didn’t want me here from the first day. And this whole time you have been treating me like I’m some kind of china doll,” she said.
“Kiayani take a seat,” he said calmly, “There is something I should explain.”
She sat down, still feeling the blood pounding through her. Koran sat down opposite her.
“Do you want to know why I didn’t want you to come?” he asked her, avoiding her eyes.
“Yes,” she said definitely.
He sighed before continuing, “I didn’t want you to come because I wanted to protect you.”
That was not the answer Kiayani was expecting and her jaw froze.
“The way you talk and act, your bravery and opinion, all reminded me of my sister Tanya. I-I couldn’t protect her and. . .” he stopped speaking.
Kiayani’s hands flew to her mouth; she suddenly wished that she hadn’t said anything, “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault Koran,” Mik stepped away from the tree he was leaning on and Koran jumped as though he had been shocked, “She followed me into the forest when our families chased us away.”
Kiayani looked at both of the boys. She felt like an idiot. He had no reason to hate her so why did she think that? She moved her lips but she couldn’t find the right words to say. Instead she just stayed silent and mulled over what she had just heard in her head. Mik said Koran’s sister had followed him. But why? And then the recollection of his face flashed in her thoughts. He had the same look as Koran. Did that mean? It couldn’t possibly be that he loved Tanya? For some reason the thought made Kiayani feel very hollow. At least she understood why Koran didn’t want her to come, and she couldn’t blame him. After losing someone that close to you, you feel very protective.
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