A Place To Bloom

Translation Needed

I could scarcely breathe. I could scarcely hear over my own heartbeat for I would see her again.

Miyani.

Just saying her name sent chills over my skin.

mɪ-ya-ŋi

Everything had to be right. That silk loincloth, I'd washed it by hand and strung it up to dry early that morning. I combed my hair, scrubbed every inch of my skin—nearly gave myself a rash. I brushed my teeth twice. Dariana had slipped me a vial of yastzi dust the day we left. This'll win you any girl!

Her home was in one of the grass-covered clusters of domes between the vita'o yard and the library—a tower with mud apartments reaching five stories high stacked one atop another and thick grass growing all over it. Several windows on the higher levels gave hints that someone lived within—bright colored cloths hung over the sill or iron pots steaming with some tea. Three of those giant mud apartment houses formed a courtyard dominated by the smoke of seared spices that came from everywhere all at once, accompanied by the sound of children chasing each other amid drums and pipes being practiced off to the side.

People with dark green skin and white hair were everywhere; most were women. I saw one old man sitting beside a brick fire pit nursing an iron pot suspended over a trio of cut branches. His skin wrinkled him well into his elder years, and his hair had thinned long ago. He toked from a long wooden pipe, looked up at me as I came in, and nodded, smiling with the teeth he had left.

On his shoulder was a white tattoo in the shape of a bat's wing just as Miyani had.

Several children bumped into me as they rushed past trying to tag one another with sticks, while a few women shouted at them something in Na'uhui. A few of those children had the same dark-green skin and white hair, while easily three of every four had the dark hair and green eyes of their Herali fathers.

I heard a voice call out, "mɪyaŋi!"

Beside the gaping entrance of one of the clusters an old woman sat, facing inside. Her face had aged into a permanent scowl, and she kept at it as her eyes traversed my body.

She also had a bat's wing inked on her right shoulder.

Then she appeared. She had on a narrow, cream-colored silk flap that fell over her belt and ended in a sharp hem that tickled at her knees. A silver chain necklace dangled between her breasts, and I bathed my eyes in her. She had the most delicious thighs I could ever hope to dream of. Her whole body was toned and fit, in the most perfect way possible. And her face, damn! I couldn't get over those effusive yellow eyes smiling as wide as her lips amid the most adorable round face, framed by her pixie-cut white hair.

The old woman leaned in and spoke to her, "'uzi baxaŋa damʌfidoba yɪθi!"

Miyani's eyes popped and her whole face dropped into alarm. She looked at the old woman. "ʃʊsi 'o'okosedu?"

The old woman stabbed me with her eyes as she elaborated further. "ɣo'imeze damʌfidoba! baxaŋayeza yɪθi!"

Miyani furrowed her eyebrows at me and shouted, "ʒɪ xeŋeðoxe?"

"Uh..." I shook my head, unsure what was going on.

She stepped towards me quite aggressively, "ʒɪ xeŋeðoxe?" shouting it out. "ʒɪ xeŋeðoxe?"

Several faces turned towards me. I shook my head in desperation. "I don't know...?"

Miyani stepped up closer, sneered at me, and shouted "ʒɪ xeŋeðoxe? ʒɪ xeŋeðoye? ʒɪ xeŋeðodeya?"

I shrugged.

Her eyes stabbed me and she shouted, "'asʌ ʒʌgosedu! ʒɪ xeŋeðose!"

I furrowed my eyebrows and shrugged, holding my hands up in confusion. "Maybe?"