A Place To Bloom

Oasis

Oasis came downstairs wearing a printed shawl of reds, whites, and yellows swirled together in square patterns that wrapped over her body and hugged her waist leaving her dark-olive skin exposed at the sides of her breasts along with her phenomenal legs. She'd tied her hair back on one side with a white lace scarf and silver hair pin, but left a twisting lock of bronze hair to fall beside her round face, with her exposed ear decorated by several tiny silver ringlets and a delicate chain that had a small diamond-tree stone dangling at the end carved into hundreds of tiny facets that glittered like a rainbow. About her feet she had black sandals that webbed over her toes all the way up her calves. Her light-green eyes met mine directly as soon as she appeared.

Anyanna fixed her eyes to mine as Oasis came downstairs, then she looked away as soon as I turned to face her.

"Oasis, this is Anyanna. She says there's a place called Turtle Plaza that promises to be fun."

Anyanna angled her face towards her, but didn't raise her eyes up to meet. Oasis smiled and nodded. As we turned towards the door, Anyanna leaned close to me. "I don't speak Goloagi very well."

"Nothing at all?"

Anyanna shrugged. "A few simple phrases, but not enough to hold a conversation."

"Well that's a conundrum. She doesn't speak Herali."

At that, Anyanna glanced over at Oasis and stepped forward to lead the way without another word.

Through the crowded plaza, Oasis and I followed Anyanna down a westward street with the midmorning sun casting its warmth on our backs. The street dropped down, taking us with it. Up above, a stone Cougar six stories up kept watch over the passersby, with the building on the opposite side hosting a stone Alligator doing the same. In a shop on the left, the fragrant invitation of fresh cut flowers called out, and at one corner a boy stood quietly holding up a folded stack of paper pressed with the day's news. He just stood there and said nothing.

I turned to Oasis. "I was that boy in Kyoen for a few weeks; they made us shout the headlines as loud as we could."

Oasis smiled and nodded, glancing over her shoulder at him before he was out of view. Anyanna glanced back at me over the remark, then turned back ahead of us and kept walking.

As for Turtle Plaza, we could hear it well before we got there. Above the bustling noise of the street below, the thunderous boom of a bass drum echoed off the stone walls of the towering buildings as it curved round and to the left.

By the time we rounded the turn, I could hear other instruments join in. Strings, horns, rattles, a song of every color echoed off the stones, but Anyanna led us down a side-street small enough that we could have easily walked past and not noticed it was there. About ten yards down amid a handful of makeshift stalls of rough-hewn planks of wood showing wares of dyed cottons, carved wooden beads and other wares was an old man with dark-green skin.

I'd only ever seen people that color before in the tapestries from the day before. It was real. Wherever he came from, people had that color—dark green like the color of seaweed and wrinkled from his years. His hair was long and ivory colored with streaks of gray, braided down his back beneath a black cap that fitted over his head like a rag, and his eyes were golden yellow. He wore a simple brown tunic made of burlap, and I could almost make out beneath the collar the tip of a white tattoo peeking from underneath.

Oasis didn't seem to mind him all that much, but I could scarcely take my eyes from him. He spoke not a word to me, but nodded and smiled with what little teeth he had left. Before him on the stand was a series of brown cups made of pressed coconut husk, along with a series of ornate tins. Behind him, he had a small brick fire over which rested a large metal cauldron filled with sand that let off a sharp, nutty aroma unlike anything I'd ever experienced that dominated everything around us.