BIOGRAPHY
PROSSIA COVER REVEAL
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EXCERPT
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Aly easily hid her body within the high
purple and green strands of wheat and grass towering out of the soil after she
reached her quota at work. She sped up her pace because she wanted to make sure
she still had enough time to stare into the sky and daydream, in spite of the
extra hour added to her shift. As she lay in the grass and watched the first
cluster of stars show up, the mastra rubbed her arms to get some warmth from
the chill that harvest time brought.
Another uneventful waste of a day
flowed by as Aly hummed a cheerful tune to herself. As she hummed, the wonders
of other worlds and alien creatures passed on by her rhythm. She envisioned
beautiful creatures very different from her own appearance soaring into the air
effortlessly, thanks to these rumored, flying, mechanical mountains called
“ships.”
The sounds of water precipitating from
the sky made smooth pats against the gravel while beautiful sparks of light
spread its glory across a gray sky. If the Young One recalled correctly, the
sparks were just called “lightning.” She thought it had to be amazing to see
the sky form into bubbles of gray puffs, and release water from above. The only
water her planet received was from the thick fog and dew of the morning.
Aly wondered how the other beings live
amongst themselves when their worlds were so different from hers. How could
they interact with one another without acknowledging the physical differences?
What would they eat, wear, and what would thousands of years of advanced
technology do to a civilization? Such thoughts rolled on as the hours passed by
in the high weeds.
Even though her mind would travel across
the far reaches of the galaxy, Aly always hummed a cheerful tune that
eventually led into a song of her own making as she daydreamed. The song she
made as she nestled in the grass had an aura that pulled the fire beetles into
her being, and complimented her voice as it rose and fell. By this method, she
had gained the very will of time itself and could manipulate it in any way she
pleased.
The Goolian was so enveloped in her own
world and song; she didn’t even hear the footsteps approaching before they were
right upon her. Aly almost sat up when she heard someone brush through the
grass toward her, but it was already too late.
“And what is this? Lying in the middle
of my pappai’s field for your own time to daydream, yes? I have a nerve to give
you a thorough lesson you shall never forget, Young One,” the owner of the
footsteps hissed.
The figure towering over Aly gave her a
glare that would send shivers even down an elder’s spine, but it was also a
glare that Aly didn’t really care for.
“Then perhaps I should remind you of
earlier times you decided to give me a hassle, then, yes?” Aly snarled back.
“Perhaps a lesson such as the one I gave the prior week has already cleared
your thoughts, Mastra?”
Catty playfully kicked Aly in the rib
before she took her place on the ground beside her. She stretched and yawned
loudly, and Aly glared at the yellow-eyed spunk as curse words bounced out of
her brain.
“Truly, why not be grander with your
noise?” Aly insisted. “Does this one wish to suffer me trouble?”
“Nay, all seems well,” Catty said as
she sat up and looked at the two brown, full bags leaning against each other.
“I was to figure I would not delay you until you finished in your typical hour.
And finished you did, in spite of a wounded shoulder! Well performed, Mastra.”
“Why, my dearest thanks, Mistress.”
Catty slapped Aly on the forearm before
she lay back down.
“I told you, no poking fun in regards
to that,” Catty insisted. “I ceased mocking you about such things as your
height and lack of inner being, yes?”
Aly rolled her eyes, and kept staring
at the sky. Catty sighed because she knew she’d never get an apology out of
Aly, so she let the subject drop.
“Your shoulder is well, yes?” the spunk
asked as she noticed a white cloth wrapped around Aly’s arm.
“It is still rather tight,” Aly
confessed. “Yet a decent slumbering tonight shall help—”
Aly stopped talking and sat up when she
heard a rustle in the bush.
“Where is your pappai?” Aly asked.
“He resides in the main house, and he
figured it would be best for me to check on you since you’ve suffered such
terrible production. Truly though, you only heard a field rodent.”
Aly sighed and stretched before leaning
back down onto the ground.
“So, what travels do we take through
the mind today?” Catty asked. Aly was already slipping back into her trance as
she studied the stars.
“What else besides the wonders of the
great beyond?” Aly said. “And nothing beyond what will always be? Simple
wonders.”
“Hmm. Truly, Aly, there are times when
I wish such a situation as a war was a reality beyond that of the simple slips
of loose tongues.”
“A random outburst indeed,” Aly said as
she popped her neck. “Be that as it may, you still speak truly. It would give
good reason for us to be off this rock, yes? To know all, to see all, to have
all, I take it the alien fools who obtain such a gift are ignorant of what they
grasp. Still, such gifts shall probably never be permitted to creatures to the
likes of us.”
“Well, fret not over the thought too
gravely. For I am sure others have thought the same, yes?”
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Aly sat up and fiddled with some beads
tied around her tents. As if acting upon
instinct to a subconscious form of communication, Catty got up on her knees and
started untying the wooden and common looking pebbles decorating Aly’s head.
“Truly,
I make no fuss over such things,” Aly insisted as Catty tugged. “You know such
thoughts are ones that have grown dull over the passing of the years during
early childhood. Every soul has a proper order and purpose in the world, and this
is ours. Being ignorant of others delegations and situations is of little
concern to me.”
“Then I suppose your age begins to
show, in regards to this,” Catty said. She came across a bead that was wrapped
in a knot, and leaned her head in closer so she could have a better look at it.
“I recall when this one had more wonders and excitement out of any other student
when we were first taught about other nations in class.”
“Nay, yet I still do,” Aly said as she
shook her head. Catty yelped when she lost her grip of the knot she had finally
managed to loosen, and thumped Aly in the back of the head. “Apologies,
Cattalice. Now, as I was to say, I considered myself to have managed wondering
without the notion of absolute dread. What we hold in the palm of her hands is
a grand deal, as it is. Nay, it is more than a grand deal. A place to call
home, families to hail as our own, and the obligations we have to the village?
Who should be in want of more?”
Catty poked the mastra on the head, and
Aly extended her hand out to the left so Catty wouldn’t have to place the beads
on the ground.
“Truly, I find this life, when all must
be said and done, to be like these beads,” Aly said as she glanced over at the
hand that was getting filled with her head accessories. “Perhaps simple and
boring compared to others, yet a proud gem that we are blessed to call our own.
Since this be the case, perhaps suffering the troubles of a larger world is better
in the hands of alien creatures.”
“Finished,” Catty said as she dropped
Aly’s final bead into the mastra’s palm. The spunk tossed the eight thick
extensions that were Aly’s tents onto the right side of Aly’s shoulder so she
could massage them with her hands.
“And I cannot agree with you more,” the
spunk said as she gently rubbed Aly’s strands of tentacles individually. “Why,
I myself would find it quite a shock to see how the others may live. Did you
not hear of the Argutain rumor this afternoon?”
“The hairies? What else could possibly
be new of them?”
Catty stopped massaging Aly’s tents,
and she clapped her hands together in delight. Aly spun around and started
straightening her tentacles as she tuned in.
“My pappai was told that they actually
eat the inner rectums of rotten beasts as a delicate formal feast of kinds,”
Catty whispered, as if trying to keep the secret away from invisible people
trying to listen in. “Is that not repulsive?!”
“Catty, surely that one must be an
absolute exaggeration,” Aly said with a disgusted face.
“One should never be surprise when it
comes to the other races, nay?” Catty answered.
Aly took that to mind as she turned back
around, and laid back down. She grabbed one of her two secondary tents that
extended right in front of her ears, and fiddled with it as she started humming
again. Catty tried to lie beside her friend and enjoy the quietness for several
seconds, but it was too much for her. She hopped back up and started picking
out some of the weeds nearby.
“Perhaps you would like to ensure the
fields are beyond ready for the morrow, yes?” Catty asked as she picked. “I
only say this in suggestion.”
“Nay, I am well, my thanks. Truly, I am
thus satisfied with my night’s numbers.”
“My, and how easy it is to speak of
obligations and not follow through on words,” Catty scuffed. “I have yet to see
how you can be so curious yet rebellious all at once, Aly. You are fortunate I
am your closest friend yes? Or perhaps you abuse this relationship.”
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“Perhaps you should try tending to the
fields for several hours like the rest of us, then,” Aly answered. “This IS
your damned property after all. Let us see how great a lazy ass I am then, yes?
Besides, as I spoke prior, I only lie about when I made the evening’s goal and
beyond.”
“. . . A thorough point. My apologies.”
“Nay. My temper still gets the best of
me at times. I am at fault,” admitted Aly.
Catty dropped the issue, placed the
weeds she had picked into Aly’s bag so she could head back to the large hut a decent
distance away.
“Mastra,” Aly called out. “As well as
things may be here, how do you not ponder over what the rest of the world is
like?”
Catty placed her hands behind her head
and smiled.
“Why worry over other’s troubles when
we should tend to our own?” the spunk asked with a smile. “Truly, we should
suffer with the notion of thinking over the greater good and not one’s self.”
“Perhaps,” Aly said as she went back to
gazing at the stars. “Be that as it may, I find little harm in toying with such
harmless thoughts, yet I suppose I am an odd one of sorts in regards to this,
yes?”
Catty looked up so she could see what
was catching her friend’s eye, and shook her head when she didn’t see anything
worth looking at. She then went over and looked at how good Aly’s load was in
better detail.
“I can tell my pappai you made goal for
the night if you wish,” Catty said as she kicked Aly’s foot.
“No bother,” Aly answered. “I shall
idle here for a few more moments, if you do not mind.”
“We never do. Be well then, dearest
Alytchai.”
Aly nodded, and went back to her
daydreaming. She thought about what Catty said, not pondering over silly
things beyond the village. Maybe the spunk was right. Maybe thinking so
wildly was selfish and inconsiderate to everyone else. Aly prayed this wasn’t
the case. The last thing any Goolian would want to do was think herself better
than the rest of the community. All worked.
All learned. All did this for the
whole unit, not the one. This was the Goolian way.
In spite of it all, however, Aly could
not help dreaming, which helped produce the cheerful hum coming from her lips.
Thus, the magic in her voice returned once again.
Chapter 2
The following day was another typical
one. Sparring sessions ended an hour ago, so it was already a little ways into
the evening. The practice, for the most part, went well. Aly couldn’t do a lot
of the runs the other Young Ones like Catty could do since she didn’t know how
to use her inner being, but she was used to it since that had always been the
case ever since she was little. So, Aly would try her best in everything else
to outweigh her flaws. And outweigh them she did, beyond reason to most.
She was very agile. Her defense could
use some improvement, but it was manageable. Aggressiveness, she definitely
had, and Young Ones always hated sparring against her. For one, Aly was very
tall for her age, even taller than males, so she had a horrible advantage in reach.
She wasn’t clumsy in spite of her height either. Aly could flip off the branch
of a tree and land on two feet without any trouble.
Aly was quick, smart, and very
adaptable when it came to sparring. Beyond the lack of that one “little
setback,” she was good, and all the other Young Ones had to respect her for
being so well balanced in everything else. Still, that one “little” flaw still
bothered Aly’s pride at times.
While the Young One was sitting at the
front table of the store, she held out her arms. She was supposed to be
studying the scrolls in front of her, but she began concentrating on her
four-digit hands. Damned objects, why
do you not work? Aly squinted her bright eyes, hoping that might spark the
trigger. Nothing. She held her breath and flexed her biceps . . . still
nothing.
The mastra sighed and put her arms back
down. Silly me. I could not do it then. Why would I be able to do such a
feat now? Defeated once again, she
went back to studying the scrolls.
“You
are fine the way Truth’s Grace made you to be,” Shanvi said without ever
turning around as he took out a fresh roll of cooked wheat from the oven.
“Truly I am,” Aly said, acting like she
didn’t just try to do something she knew she couldn’t do.
The young Goolian read down and up
several scrolls before she eventually lost her concentration again. It was the
window that got her distracted this time. As orange and red as the sky was, as
lively as the Little Ones could be while practicing danker ball in the streets,
Aly sat at the table, inside, bored out of her wits. Nay. Need to
concentrate. These notes are of importance.
Aly tried her best to study the notes
she had taken throughout the entire year. After spending hours and hours into
her leavened class book, she eventually had enough, and rolled the scrolls back
together with both hands.
“You have yet to finish,” Shanvi said
as he continued to wipe off his counters. “The second sun still sets.”
Aly banged her head onto the table for
a quick second, hoping she’d get some sort of inconceivable mercy from her
inconceivable parent. She had gone on with studying for what was probably seven
straight hours.
“Three hours and forty-seven minutes,”
Shanvi corrected as he looked at the second sun in the sky.
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It was annoying when he did that, carrying
a conversation with the thoughts she would never say. Shanvi pulled down the
sides of his old blue vest-like top so it could cover the front of his large
belly before he went on with his work.
“Sigh, permission to speak,
Pappai?” she asked.
“You may.”
“May I not at least take a break, for
Truth‘s Grace?”
“Truth only offers its Grace when
necessary, and the pages in the Philosophy never carried such pages for the
sympathies of studying, only the rewards,” Shanvi insisted. “There are thirty
and eight hours in a day. You spent ten and five at school, a mere five in the
sparring grounds, and the rest here. Surely, it will not kill you to use
several hours performing something productive, yes? I along with every other
Mature Aged had to take higher ed when we were of your ages and—”
Truly, and you had to memorize more
because you did not have note scrolls as grand as ours. Aly heard this
blabbering so many times before, so she grumbled under her breath so she
wouldn’t have to hear it. He didn’t even bother considering the time she had to
work the fields. Sure, she was at home, but her time was still being given to
someone else.
The Young One groaned. Her body ached
because she pulled a muscle in her thigh after she kicked someone in the jaw
that afternoon, her knuckles were sore from punching a green oak wood tree, and
the soles of her feet were still tingling from walking on rocks during the
afternoon.
The mastra looked down at her hands.
Her knuckles were a little darker compared to the rest of her skin. She dug
them into the soft fabric of her robe; hoping massaging them would ease the
kinks a little. Still, she knew there wasn’t a point in voicing this either.
Like Catty said, it was all for the better good. Besides, it was a sign of good
“workmanship.”
“If you are to complain at the dawn of
beginnings, do not expect to overcome any feats in the future,” Shanvi
eventually added.
“Very good, Pappai.”
Aly immediately stuck her nose back
into the scroll. No, she would never talk back to her pappai, or any other
elder Goolian for that matter. Keep the tongue behind the lips unless spoken
to, and be polite when speaking to an elder, this was the rule for everyone.
Fortunately for her, Aly wasn’t as
quick with the lip with the elders like she was with friends. Besides, grownups
were beyond her reasoning. Creatures being as old as two hundred were on their
own level of life. They saw the world with different eyes, different wisdom, a
different power. They were intimidating and boring in one confusing spectacle. Mature
Ages also spoke an entirely different language from Aly and the rest of the
youth. They spoke ahead of themselves, and always had to speak with proverbs.
Overcoming feats in the future,
indeed. This didn’t matter to the ticking time bomb that was Aly. She just
wanted this horror of studying, to end. If anything, a nice little song could
help lift up her spirits.
There were always a handful of Goolian beings
visiting the store, buying Shanvi’s goods, and enjoying the live show Aly gave
when she sung. Truth be told, most came only for the Young One’s voice and
nothing more, but Shanvi had no trouble with this as long as the crowd knew
when it was time for his Young One to do her homework.
Both suns eventually went down behind
the nearby mountains, and the first stars were out before Master Shanvi had
even finished his last batch of wheat. He patted off the cinnamon-like spice
from his hands onto his old gray leggings, and made his way over to the bags below
the counter. He made extra, knowing the crowds were probably going to be larger
tomorrow since everyone stayed home today.
Aly was fiddling with her toes
underneath the table, anticipating a particular star to come out. When it
finally showed up outside her window, the Young One stood up from the table and
popped her back several times. After taking a long stretch, she went over to
help Shanvi place the goods into the proper sized bags.
After they had finished, Aly went to
the back to wash some heavy black pots. She only managed to finish one pan
before her ears picked up the sound of someone walking up to their portal. The
door screeched seconds later when a Goolian entered the store. The Young One
couldn’t make the figure out clearly. Her eyes were still too young for clear
infrared, so she tried to lean towards the right so she could look out the
portal. She only managed to catch a glance of his robe. The cleanliness of the
deep saturated blue and fine patterns on the robe indicated he was probably
their lord.
“Ah, Master Quongun. A pleasure to see
you,” Master Shanvi said with a smile.
Aly guessed right. Of course it was
Master Quongun. Even though she couldn’t clearly make out the figure, she
should’ve known by at least his slenderness and healthy height. Maybe the
absence of Catty’s mother, Cattalice the Elder, gripping his arm was what made
his identification difficult. She did, however, notice he was carrying some
sort of bag with him.
“And it pleases me to see you are well,
Teacher,” the gentle-voiced Quongun replied. “Yet I hope I did not interrupt
Aly from her studying, nay?”
“Truly, perfect timing, actually,”
Shanvi answered while shaking his head. “She finished but a few moments ago.
Now, I beg, sit. Was your day well?”
“Truth be told, Master, I fear I have
some—”
Two pots crashed onto the floor in the
back room when they fell out of the sink. Aly was trying to ease drop on the
conversation, and forgot to turn the water off. The mastra fumbled with the
faucet and pots before they eventually slipped out of her hands, bumped into an
already clean pile, and sent everything tumbling onto the floor.
“Pache,” she swore. The Young
One immediately covered her mouth, hoping the elders didn’t hear her loose
tongue. . . Too late.
“Young Ones,” Shanvi groaned. “They
have yet to control those ears, nor that purple tongue. My apologies, Quongun.
Perhaps we forgot that little part in raising her.”
“Nothing of it, Teacher,” Quongun
replied with an assuring smile. “Cattalice and I literally have to send Little
Catty across the street whenever we have guests. Such nosy creatures they are,
yes?”
The two laughed, but Aly blushed.
Quongun turned around and called the Young One over, and Aly slid one foot in
front of the other into the dining area. She kept her head down, fiddled with
her fingers, and felt more blood rushing to her face.
“Truly, I beg forgiveness for
carelessly eavesdropping onto your conversation, Pappai,” she inclined. “. . . And
for the haughty mouth.”
“Oh, no worries, Little One,” Quongun
spoke before Shanvi could. “We were your age at one time as well, yes, Master
Shanvi?”
“Truly,” Shanvi said as he thought for a
moment. “Yet it is growing difficult to remember what such an age was like.
That was near . . . ninety-seven years ago for me, yes?”
“A mere sixty-four for me,” said
Quongun. “Yet, let me not burden your time any longer. For it is getting late,
and I have my own family to tend to.
Plus, I would think it be best that Alytchai be here for this matter in
any case as well, Master.”
Aly looked at Shanvi. Shanvi looked
at Aly.
“Truly, what business would require her of this audience?
Her productivity in the fields is not troubling, nay?”
“Nay, Master. Rest assured, this one is still of the best
at work. Be that as it may, I would request that she remain.”
“Well, then let it be. Come and sit,
Aly,” Shanvi ordered.
The Young One nodded, and took a seat
by her pappai. Quongun picked up the large bag he carried with him into the
store and placed it onto the table. He reached inside and pulled out a fine
yellow leavened “paper” with a red waxed symbol on the cover. He handed it to
Shanvi, who then inspected the construction of the envelope. It was made out of
the finest leaf he’d ever felt. He flipped it over to inspect the seal. Aly
looked over her pappai’s shoulder to get a look and gasped
when she caught a glimpse of the crest.
Shanvi knew the crest as well. Silky,
pressed weeds were finely placed in the middle with two oak-like leaves
attached near the upper right. This envelope had to come from their capital. It
was a letter, and the lettering traveled back to that of Old Goolian Times. Aly
had difficulty reading it since the symbols were meant for proper business
affairs, and she hadn’t studied that type of calligraphy yet. She decided to
read her pappai’s expression instead. The glares the old gloat made while he
read the fine papyrus didn’t look promising.
After several moments of silence
passed, Shanvi eventually looked up at Aly, who continued to stare at the
letter. She was already frustrated by this time and renounced on reading it
because of the difficulty, but she figured she could at least admire the
marksmanship. She looked up when she felt Shanvi looking at her, and she didn’t
like how the hard edges pressing around the corners of his eyes looked on him.
Shanvi, still silent, folded up the scroll
before he placed it back into its yellow compartment, and set it onto the
counter. Master Quongun remained silent, figuring it’d be Master Shanvi’s right
as parent to explain the situation. Aly grabbed a tent and twirled it around
her finger so she wouldn’t look so nervous.
Shanvi folded his hands together so his
Young One couldn’t see them quiver, but he eventually had to rub them together
since they were sweating. He looked over to Master Quongun, who only frowned
and nodded his head. This is not real, Shanvi
thought. Truly, this cannot be real.
“We-these rumors,” Shanvi tried not to
stutter.
Aly raised a brow. What rumors?
Truly, there were about a hundred in town this week. She wanted to ask
Shanvi to be more specific, but something in her gut told her she didn’t want
to know. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to know.
Shanvi tried to finish his words, but
he cut himself off. He looked at the table, and folded his hands in the form of
a prayer. Now Aly was scared.
“Teacher,” Quongun said, “Would you
like me to—”
“The Galactic Order is at arms,” Shanvi
blurted out.
The words didn’t sink into Aly’s head
properly, so her eyes widened gradually as each syllable formed a sentence in
her head. She knew the old gloat didn’t just confirm the silly rumors as being
true, so she couldn’t help but giggle. When Shanvi and Quongun didn’t laugh
back, Aly stopped smiling. She tilted her head, and placed an elbow onto the
table.
“With who?” she asked.
“. . . Cyiaus. The— the Cyogen have
returned.”
Aly jolted and inhaled slowly. Shanvi
had to place a hand on her thigh when she didn’t realize that she was tapping
the floor relentlessly. Shanvi put on what Aly knew to be a fake smile, and the
mastra shook her head.
“P-pardon?” Aly stuttered. “Yet- yet I
thought. . .” Aly's body went numb. Shanvi grabbed her hand and rubbed it when
he noticed it started to shake. “Apologies. This is so sudden, yes? I-I thought
the planet was supposed to be lost.”
“Truly, it was the original thought,
Little One,” Quongun said. “I fear it was apparently an inaccurate one.”
Instincts made Aly squeeze Shanvi’s
hand that was still resting over hers. She jolted again when he squeezed back.
“Uh, so, they are not to arrive here
since that notion of the rumor be true, nay?” Aly asked.
Shanvi looked down at the floor, and
moved his hand away from Aly’s. He leaned back in his seat, and twiddled one
finger over the other.
“It seems we shall be saving them the
trouble,” he said. “The Order has indeed formed an alliance, thus they have
requested our aid. We shall meet them on Planet Argutas.”
“We? You mean by the planet, yes?” she
asked.
“If I may,” Quongun cut in, “You and your
pappai must prepare leave for the Capital, dearest. Kutenbrya has been
drafted.”
Aly shot out of her chair, and the
masters did the same. She backed up against the bar counter, and almost fell
over one of the stools. Shanvi ran over and helped his Little One sit down as
Quongun helped himself over to the sink, and got a bowl of water. He handed it
to Aly, whose hands had to clutch into fist so they wouldn’t tremble as
violently.
“Drink,” Shanvi said as he took the bowl
from Quongun’s hand, and held it up to Aly’s lips.
Aly frantically shook her pale face, so
she didn’t start sipping until Shanvi pressed the bowl onto her mouth.
“It is well, Alytchai. It is well,”
Shanvi kept saying as he rubbed her back.
“Apologies,” Quongun said to Shanvi as
he stroked one of Aly’s tents. “I was not expecting—”
“The telling of troubling news remains
troubling news, no matter how one is to give it, lad,” Shanvi insisted. “Truly,
an apology is unnecessary.”
Aly took the bowl into her own hands
after she was able to calm down a little, and sipped slowly.
“You are well, yes?” Shanvi asked. Aly
slowly nodded as she set the bowl onto the counter.
The three didn't say anything for
several moments until Quongun eventually smiled and placed a hand on Aly's
shoulder.
“Fret not,” he said. “There is a
village of other households dealing with this heavy burden as well. Speaking of
such, I must make my visit short. I am to return home and discuss matters with
my own family.”
Quongun grabbed his bag, and went
towards the portal.
“Truly, how I wish I could have brighter
news to give, if the least, stay longer and offer grander details,” he
admitted. “And yet the letter fails to mention such useful information as to
how the Cyogen even returned.”
“Nonsense, lad,” Shanvi insisted as he
walked over to Quongun. “All shall be revealed in just time, and fret not over
your early departure. Truly, you have your own family to meet as well. You
honor us by seeking to inform the rest before your own, which is the proper way
of things.”
“My thanks, yet I must give some credit
to the village’s former sparring trainer for a proper upbringing,” Quongun said
with a bow. “Be that as it may, if I hear of anything new, I shall return to
you and the rest as soon as possible.”
“Very good. Be well then.”
Quongun took a quick look at Aly before
he slid the portal door behind him. Shanvi stood still for a moment, but
eventually sat back down beside his Young One. Aly looked like the war had
already been lost, and she and her pappai had died months ago. Shanvi placed
his hard hand against one of Aly’s ten blue tentacles and stroked it. She could
smell the roasted sweets in his “beard” when he kissed her forehead. His kiss
always made her feel so shielded, so armed, so protected, until now.
“All will be well,” Shanvi said again.
“Alytchai, you do hear me, yes?”
“Catty
and I spoke of how we wished such an issue as a war was true the prior day,”
the Young One said as she shook her head. “Truly, what fools we be.”
Aly sat quietly while she tried to come to grips with the
sudden epiphany. Shanvi studied Aly’s face, and saw just how much of a child
she still was, still decades away from being even a Grown One let alone of
Mature Age. Her face still had a little “baby fat” in it, but Shanvi shook his
head and cancelled his fears.
“Hah! Nay. I should not trouble
myself,” he said out loud. “And neither should you worry as well, Little One.
You have your mammai’s spirit. As stubborn as she was, she was always ready to
take on the worlds if she had to. Such is why I can assure you all will be
well. Never change, and we shall both be fine for the better. Let us keep the
faith of Truth’s Grace, and it shall continue to smile on us even in a time
such as this, yes?”
Aly smiled and Shanvi kissed her
forehead again.
“Your nerves bring you chill, dearest,”
he said as he pulled away. “I beg, we will think nothing more of this ‘til
morning. Our world continues to turn, and the first sun will bring in a new
day. Thus, I suggest you be off to bed, and try to rest your troubled mind. Regardless
of the circumstances, I fear that you still have those exams in the morrow,
yes?”
Aly banged her head onto the counter
and groaned.
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