The One-Hundred

ｆｉｖｅ

I wait until the water has left my clothes, skin, and hair before trekking back up to my village. I worry someone had, in fact, observed what I did and alerted the Tribe Leaders. My hands shake.

As I walk, I try to keep my mind busy by hunting. I'm able to capture a few squirrels and I'm lucky enough to stumble upon a fox. I force their bodies onto the wooden hooks made of strong and sharpened tree branches hanging from the twine around my hips. The carcasses dangle down, hitting my legs and making them itch as I reach the steep incline to the flat rock that holds my village. I have to stop a few times to scratch the irritation, my skin beginning to flake as sand digs into it, particles I'd originally missed in my first look-over. If you don't count momentary psychosis, the water hadn't done anything to me. So why are we so afraid of it? Is fear even the right word?

I pull myself over the ledge and glance around. Nothing has changed since I left to mourn, aside from a few things that had been repaired in the early dawn. I can tell there are less sounds of sadness echoing from behind closed doors, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. With the numbness toward the babies that die...

The sun lights up the now second largest village on the island: mine. I heave a heavy sigh as I trudge to the line of Tribe Leader houses and unhook the animals from my belt. They make tiny thumping sounds as I plop them onto the long Feasting Table. The fox's eyes stare up at me, lifeless.

Rai-si steps out from the middle house, the one he and Tani-mah share, and he looks me over, deep bags beneath his eyes. His shoulders slump, and I switch my gaze to the animals I'd set out. Other hunters are just now waking and filtering into the trees to help feed what's left of us. The wolf carcasses were probably tossed over the edge of the rock. What's nature's will always return to nature.

Rai-si walks around the table slowly, seeming unable to actually look at me as I turn to him, unsure of what he'll say. Did Tani-mah tell him what I said last night? Is he going to tell me I'm insane?

Gently, he reaches forward and takes a strand of my hair between his fingers. It makes a stiff, crinkling sound and my heart speeds up. It's never sounded like that before. Did the water do that?

"Why do I feel like you've touched the sea?"

My body grows cold suddenly, goosebumps rising on my arms. I can't lie to Rai-si, but I can't tell him the truth, either. He'll have me cast out to sea to die like the Sea-Man. The penalty for touching the water... He won't spare me.

My hands shake.

"I-I was near it," I croak, deciding to dance on the line between truth and lie.

Rai-si lowers his voice as he adjusts his stance, casting a shadow over me.

"Did you touch it, Cressa-la?" He studies my face and brings both of his hands outward, palms up, expecting me to place my own on his. It's how we catch a liar. I pray I have no remains of the water on me. "You know the punishment for touching the water. Don't lie to me. Did you touch it?"

I lift my fingers, desperately trying to control my shaking. There's no way I can lie now. He'll feel my trembling and he'll see it in my eyes. I'll be caught and thrown—

Every nerve inside me lights as horns bellow in the distance, shaking the trees and alerting our village. Rai-si stands up straight and look around in alarm. I follow his final gaze to the woods behind the Tribe Leader houses. The horns sound one more before he turns back to me.

"This conversation is not finished," he growls quietly. I nod stiffly. He won't forget about this, and once this distraction disappears, I could be sentenced to death.

Rai-si moves to stand between his house and Marin-na's to the left, looking out into the dense ascending trees. The crunching of footsteps approach as another sound from the instruments takes over the noise of the island. Suddenly, I can see their faces through the leaves.

A single bright blue streak makes its way from the edge of their hair and down to their top lip, splitting their face in half. The women have three blue dots beneath their eyes, the ones old enough to bear children have another one centered above each eyebrow, and the men have three bright blue stripes on their cheeks, angled to remind me of whiskers. The men old enough to have children sport one dot of blue in the center of their chins.

A shudder washes through me as twenty-three individuals march closer, shuffling past our Wall of Dead. Although they are few and we are greater, a swell of fear grows inside me. What are they doing here at our village?

"Why are you here?" Rai-si calls out to the tribe.

A boy pushes forward, maybe the age of eighteen, two years older than I am. He holds up a hand, not bothering to look behind him as he approaches Rai-si. The tribe stops walking and one more horn sounds its low bellow. Everything is quiet once again, the sounds of the forest growing in crescendo. I fear nature will drown out their words.

"We have news," the boy says, lowering his hand to rest at his side. "We thought you would like to know about it, considering you are closest to the sea."

"What's happened?" Rai-si's eyes are focused on the boy, dubious. "Are you a Tribe Leader?"

The boy bobs his head once, a solemn glint saturating his face for a moment. "Our eldest died last night."

There's a short stretch of silence as the boy shifts his weight, as if he's about to say something uncomfortable and heavy. He shakes his head, glancing back to a girl standing close behind him, her long black hair moving in the breeze, looking one to two years younger than him.

"As I said, we have news." He's back to being serious, all sadness dispersing from his body. "However, before I reveal it to you, I would like to set up a deal."

"What kind of deal, boy?" Rai-si asks through a taught jaw, his voice growing gravelly and sending chills down my spine. "Remember you are outnumbered and unskilled when it comes to weaponry."

The boy nods again and focuses on the ground for a moment before glancing back up at my Head Tribe Leader. "We want you to travel back up the island with us so you are safe."

"Safe from what?" Rai-si presses, his anger growing.

The boy takes a deep breath. "From the tsunami."