A Place To Bloom

mɪyaŋi

A cold bath in the sweltering, muggy heat of the jungle wasn't so torturous as it had been at eighteen-thousand feet the night before. Dinner was a mass of gray chunky something dotted with bits of something salty and crusted over with sharp cheese. That was given to us with flat breads to use in place of cutlery and served with what Hoden had called Uhui avocado.

We grew avocado in Heralia, and this was not it. Rather, this thing was bigger than my whole hand and green. It was somewhat avocado-like, though the flesh was a fair bit yellower and had a light buttery flavor to it.

We were joined by three new men who would accompany us to Carthia in the morning, but as they talked, my mind lingered on Miyani. She sat next to Hoden looking around the table and following the conversation with her yellow eyes but saying nothing, and I couldn't get over her face. She had a round face with wide lips and eyes full of pain and life, the face of a girl who in another lifetime would have sufficed for high nobility who wasn't afraid to muddy her finery only to laugh off whatever trouble she'd have gotten into.

The dinner table itself was a long slab of gray-black slate set atop cut wooden tree trunks to suffice for legs beneath a canopy of stone roof held up by several stone columns that arched inwards leaving most of the wallspace open to the elements. Several chickens wandered about, and more than once I saw Hoden drop scraps to them beneath the table.

Kelint was one of the three new guys. He was Herali, with the same olive-green skin as us and long, dark-green hair, but his eyes were a lighter shade of green. He was on the shorter side of average, and his face was still filled in with baby fat. He hailed from the Barony of Dignestran. "It's in Ulum County. Not the city. We're right across the border from Saen and a good half-day's walk from the city."

Ales nodded. "Is that diamond-tree country, too?"

"Yeah," Kelint confirmed.

Davod added, "and what should we know about you?"

Kelint smirked. "Well for one, I'm a finer shot than the lot of you."

Geraln huffed. "I've got five kren that says otherwise."

Kelint smiled wide and narrowed his eyes at that. "Cheapskate!"

The rest of us laughed. I watched as Miyani contrived some laughter after everyone else had started.

Kelint turned to Davod. "What about you?"

I answered for him, "tuzubo."

Miyani giggled quietly, and a genuine smile stretched across her face while everyone else ignored me. Davod shrugged it off and turned back to Kelint. "I'll put in on that."

The other two men were Saeni. The short, stout one was named Rock, while the tall, skinny one was Northstar. Northstar was mostly quiet throughout the evening, while Rock seemed eager to join in the banter despite not understanding very well.

Faren spoke slowly to him, giving him time to process each word. "How much... Herali... do you... know?"

Miyani turned to face Rock as well and watched as he listed out words he knew in a thick Saeni accent. "I know a lot word. Uh... wine... beer... cheese... potato... meat... sour bred... cake... honey..."

Faren chuckled. "I'm sensing a pattern, here!"

Rock then turned to Ales, "what... uh... name you have?"

"Ales."

I answered that, too. "I thought your name was Thisisweird?"

"I'm gonna smack you!"

The rest of the table started laughing, but Miyani furrowed her brow in confusion. She leaned in close to Hoden who whispered something in her ear, then she covered her face in both hands and breathed in deep. Then she faced him and said, "I soly! I soly!"