A Place To Bloom

A Woman

About twenty mosquito bites further down the road, we descended along a straight path that bottomed out at a bright green clearing before veering off to the right. There, standing in the tall grass, was a girl beside a young boy.

"Holy shit!" Davod exclaimed. "Are you seeing this?"

The girl was Goloagi. Her wet, dark-green hair cascaded behind her in curls. She was average height and dressed in a burlap sack that clung to her figure from the rain earlier, leaving her legs exposed down to her bare feet. And... I mean... Davod wasn't blind, and neither was I.

"Damn!" Neither was Ales.

The boy couldn't have been more than ten. He had that same dark-green skin as the girl riding the lizard, and wore nothing but a cotton flap that hung from a belt around his waist.

As we came close, the girl graced us with a warm smile that filled her whole face. Her emerald-green eyes settled on my best friend, and she spoke in a light accent. "You must be Davod of Gath!"

He reeled back and looked at me in shock.

She looked directly at me. "And you are Caleb of Gath, yes?" Her tone suddenly turned serious. "Look to the crowd; someone isn't laughing."

"Huh?"

"And you must be Geraln, also from Gath."

Geraln shook his head and slapped a mosquito from his neck. "How did you..."

She turned to Faren. "Faren of Suuya..."

But when she looked at Ales, she erupted into a giggle. "And you must be This-is-weird!"

He clenched his jaw and shook his head. "It's Ales. Ahh-less. That other girl..."

Faren slapped his shoulder with a sly grin. "Come now, Thisisweird, don't be rude!"

Davod stepped forward, breathing heavily. He didn't peel his eyes from this mysterious girl; he didn't even blink. "And what's your name, love?"

"Ranía."

He smirked. "A pretty name for a pretty girl!"

"I'm a woman."

"Uh..." he brushed his fingers through his hair and looked around, breathing heavily.

Ranía watched his face with a wide, warm smile. On each of her arms was a brand long distorted as though they'd been burned into her skin as a young child. The number was still legible: 773-614.

Faren nodded to her. "Who's your master?"

She gazed up at him. "Mother owns me."

He glanced at me, confused. I shrugged.

Ranía then rested her hand on the boy's shoulder. "And this is dayu'u."

He turned his face up to her. "'iŋe dowaʒo tʌveɣa'aboʒi?"

She looked around the five of us as she spoke. "dayu'u wants to know if you would be interested in purchasing some mosquito ward. It's very effective, I assure you."

Geraln elbowed his way in front of all of us. Two small black bugs decorated his earlobe, and one of his eyelids was swollen. "Gods, yes! Please! How much are we talking, here?"

He emptied his coin purse into his palm and picked up a brass five-kren. "Will this be enough?"

The boy leaned in and looked over the coins, pointing out a shiny red quarter. He looked up at Ranía once more. "dowʊdexa."

Geraln didn't wait for a translation. "This is five kren. It's worth twenty of those."

She giggled lightly. "Yes, but that one is prettier."