For One Nen (37 page)

At first, when Hrilla found this secret place she would bathe in a tub-like
, stone shape, filled by the drops to overflowing. She would sing the telling songs, which her family had passed down through many generations.

After her first few visits to the cave of drops she also started planting seeds in
the moist soil when she would leave. She didn’t know why. But then she didn’t ask such questions. She did what was inside her to do. She felt differently planting in her father’s fields than she did planting on her own, in this enormous, but empty, dwelling.

One day while bathing in her stone tub
, she sang.

“Our life it is lovely. Our land is a gift.

The Hoth of the water. The Nen so small and swift.

The Anthro plant. The Tsila listen.

The Goweli love us. The Antip rule us.

The Het protect us.

We are the Anthro who sing of this telling.

The Giver of Life such a battle he fought.

For his offspring to render the light of Ot.”

As she lay softly singing, Dhobin appeared
, but quickly ducked behind a stone wall. His neck showed a thin dark line on each side, which meant that he hadn’t used his gills in a very long time. But then, the entire Anthro race did not need their gills much anymore. Most of the Anthro looked very much like Dhobin with their gills growing together and turning dark; rendering them unusable. Hrilla’s gills were still very pink because she had a Hoth friend who swam with her in the great lake. She and Fbathin would go to the beautiful underground lake and join other Hoth to play.

Dhobin had often seen her there when he went to gather reeds for his mother for basket weaving.

Hrilla had seen Dhobin as well, and her heart felt alive whenever she did.

She didn’t know, at first, what it meant when her heart felt this way. She only knew she never had this feeling when she looked upon her
prospective path joiner, Mollath.

When Hrilla saw Dhobin on this day, in her cave of drops, her heart felt a tingle, almost a pi
nch, and it stole her breath.

For a second
, she was still as stone.

Dhobin peeked again around the wall and Hrilla had covered herself up to her chin
, but then her gills gasped open and she pushed her covering away to let her gills flail. Her head tilted slightly backward as her lips sprang apart for a breath. It was her body’s way of telling her that she needed to breathe even though her heart forgot to beat for a moment.

She tried
to cover herself up to her chin. Dhobin waited for her gills to turn pink again before saying, “Should I go?”

“There’s room,” she said with controlled emotion in her voice.

He slowly drew closer and sat down on the edge of the tub-like crevice.

“I’ve s
een you before,” Dhobin said.

“Yes?” Hrilla waited for more. She had seen him also in the fields with his family. But she didn’t want to give away
anything of herself.

“Yes. I saw you once, gathering.” He stood to his feet and turned to go.

Hrilla gave only a little hint of emotion, “You can see there is plenty of room, and you’re not intruding.”

Dhobin stopped, though he did not turn toward her. “Yes,” he began slowly. “But I
am
intruding because I’ve followed you here without your knowing. I wish to see you again.” He quickly left without looking back.

Again Hrilla’s gills flailed. When she regained her breath
, she sank further into the tub and smiled.

The following day, while working in the field, her father noticed that his daughter leaned on her planting staff, and gazed far off. He quietly watched her.

At first he thought that Hrilla was just escaping into her own thoughts for Mollath. Her gaze was toward the Empire, though the palace was far out of sight. But as he watched his beloved daughter, down a long row of freshly tilled ground, he saw it. Her eyes as well as her gills gave her away. She gasped for air like she had done while in the presence of Dhobin. Her father followed her gaze out over the field and down into the valley to the rocky underground where only tephla would grow. And there he saw a boy about the age of Hrilla, his daughter. His concern rose quickly.

It wasn’t until evening;
after the work was completed, play had ended, the young ones were in their beds, when at last, Hrilla’s parents voiced their concern.

“It was nothing,” Hrilla said.

“But I saw you, and it was the same as how your mother looked at me when we first loved, and the way she looks at me still,” he said tenderly.

“What about Mollath, dear?” Movvi, her mother asked. “He’s been very kind. He believes
you’ll be joining his path.”

Hrilla answered quickly. “Yes, I know he’s been kind. He’s not asked for me to join him yet. I just think,” she stopped and pulled at her ear as she alw
ays did in moments of stress.

“What is it daughter? We want to hear what you think,” said her father.

Tears began falling from Hrilla’s beautiful round dark blue eyes.

“Oh! Pellin,” she said, which is what she called her father. “I’ve heard of the rumors the Goweli s
peak of and they scare me so.”

“But daughter, that will never happen. We plant much and the
Giver of Life will be our supply. We will work hard. We will sustain...”

“But Pellin,” Hrilla interrupted. “Mollath said if it were to come to,” she couldn’t bring herself to speak of such atrocity. “Oh! Mother,” she explained with deep concern, “Mollath said his loyalty is to the Empire.” She cried with great composure and steadiness
, but her sadness was apparent. “What shall I do?” she asked her parents.

Her father put his arm around her shoulder. “You are right, my daughter, to question t
his now before being joined.”

Her mother added, “Do you believe that your p
ath lies with Mollath?”

Hrilla’s lower lip quivered as she slowly confessed. “I
once did. But I believe it no more,” she said with steadfastness.

“And this boy I saw your gaze fall on? Are you meant to join
his path?” Her father asked.

She spoke slowly again but with a growing smile, “I don’t know.” But her parents could see that she almost lost her breath.

Hrilla avoided Mollath for days; spending time in the fields or in her cave of drops.

Fbathin, her Hoth friend came for her one morning.

“I’ve missed you. Are you ill? Mollath has asked about you. Do you need anything?” Fbathin had a way of peppering her friend with questions when she was concerned.

With a soft voice
, Hrilla leaned close to embrace her friend, “My path is uncertain.”

Hrilla straightened up
and faced her friend.

Slipping her fingers through Hrilla’s, Fbathin squeezed, “Our path is certain my friend.”

Hrilla felt her feet grow a little more stable, when she realized that whatever path she took in life, her friend would always live in her heart and their hands would always reach out to steady each other.

“Go,” Hrilla’s mother said. “It will do you good.”

The two girls ran through the planting fields giggling. Hrilla’s mother watched them a moment with a pleased smile before she returned to her work.

When they slowed and caught their breath
, Fbathin hooked her arm through Hrilla’s and they walked along together.

“Father says something awful is coming. He worries for all of us,” Fbathin said as they followed the path toward the lake.

“I feel the same,” Hrilla said. “I feel something isn’t right, and I think Mollath is caught in the throes of it all.”

“I heard him speak of your joining,” Fbathin said.

“When? Who was he talking to?” Hrilla asked hastily as she pulled at her ear.

Fbathin stopped and asked
, “Please don’t join his path, Love.” She folded her arms and looked up at Hrilla. “You are a much too special soul for the likes of him. He scares me.”

Hrilla laid a hand on her friend’s shoulder and agreed, “He’s beginning to scare me as well.”

Pulling Fbathin’s hand, Hrilla shouted, “Come.” Together, they ran the rest of the distance to the lake.

Ot was so bright that day, which made the water easily transparent.

“The whole of the Hoth tribe has joined us today, I see,” Hrilla said laughingly. She loved how the Hoth played. They were the engineers of large contraptions for the Empire, but some of their most amazing work was for pleasure.

Hrilla stripped her outer clothing off quickly as she and Fbathin ran to a vining cliff where the younger Hoth had built a sling shot large enough to fling someone far out into the water. The girls played until they could barely drag their bodies back to shore. There they lay on the dark sandy beach and laughed with the last of their strength.

Hrilla was first to let her laughter fade. It was taken from her and driven far away.

“I wish life could stay like this,” Fbathin said as she felt Hrilla’s emotions, which was their special connection.

“Yes,” Hrilla agreed.

Lying back and looking high into the underground sky
, brightened by the light of Ot, Hrilla said, “Seems too beautiful to have death so near.”

“Death?” Fbathin said as she jerked her body to sit up
right. The look she gave Hrilla, showed clearly, her terror.

Hrilla tried to smile her friend’s fear away.

“Oh, don’t listen to me. You know I prattle on,” Hrilla said with a forced laugh, knowing full well that her friend could feel her true emotion, which at that moment, was worry.

As much as Fbathin wanted to believe her friend
, she also knew that Hrilla always had a way of sensing things; mainly danger.

It was Hrilla that had saved them from the poison lizards that often hid in li
ght bins for warmth. Fbathin had been about to open the communal light bin to take a stone of light home for her family, when Hrilla had screamed just in time. A gray and yellow lizard crawled out of the top. He was strong enough to push off the lid. Fbathin listened to her friend’s promptings from that time forward.

“We’ll be fine,” Hrilla said to her friend. She sat up and explained, “I do feel something’s coming
, but I know we’ll always be friends. We will always look out for each other, and we’ll be fine.”

After a quick kiss on Fbathin’s cheek
, Hrilla called out, “Race you to the top.” Hrilla raced back to the cliff, where she scurried up the vines to be slung out into the water again. Not far behind was her friend.

They played until their bodies were again
, nearly too tired to make it back to shore.

After crawling from the water and catching their breath, Hrilla pulled her friend’s wet body into a tight hug and bade her farewell for the day.

She threw her clothes over her arm and forced her tired body toward home.

“Hrilla,” Mollath called. “I haven’t seen you in days. I was hoping you’d come to the palace. I wanted to show you the room I’m making ready for us. It’s wonderful. It has a private passage to the great eating hall. And a hidden escape tunnel.” He had caught up with Hrilla and had finished his last line with a quieter voice.

Her hair was still wet and it fell over her delicate shoulders and down past her waist. It was usually in many braids and then the braids would be pulled back with a string of prish-h, which grew as a vine through the ground.

Some would gather the vines and soak them with the stems of tenk
, which was usually used for a hot drink. However, after boiling the prish-h with the stems, the vine would fall open and lay bare the long tiny fibers that could be woven or braded together to make thread or rope. Hrilla carried her prish-h strings loosely in her hand, so Mollath knew she had just taken her hair down. Hair up or down; either way, Mollath knew she was the most beautiful Anthro he had ever seen. He also knew many others carried his sentiment.

He had begun to be paranoid like his new employer, Emperor Tapsin. In fact he had begun spending much of his play time with Entic, Tapsin’s son. Between his duties of serving
, he and Entic would take their spears and atlatls in a long boat to hunt for the finned carp that the empire thought to be a delicacy; this was only because they didn’t have to pick out all the tiny bones. Their staff of Tsila and Anthro and others had that tedious job.

While they walked along
, Mollath spoke as if he had her confidence.

“The sparsing is coming, you know.” The edict had gone out the day after Hrilla had asked her parents what to do about joining paths with Mollath.

The edict read: 

“By proclamation of High Priest Tapsin, all tribes shall send all persons between the ages of sixteen and twenty to the celebration ground on the twelfth day of Perta.”