A Place To Bloom

Someone

Two native women talked ahead of us beneath the tall azuka grass. They each sat atop a vita'o lizard adjacent one another with bows in hand and arrows nocked. One of them was older—she was the same woman who sat with Ahmi and the princess mocking me the day of the alarm. The other was young, perhaps the same age as Dayumi, Jezi's girlfriend. The two of them took turns pointing at us as they spoke.

To the left, women went about working at the green-purple grass. They chopped, gathered into bunches, and brought the thick stalks over to a bison-drawn cart. About half of them were Na'uhui. Two were Goloagi and had numbers seared into their arms, as did a handful of the others. A Tobori girl who couldn't have been fourteen carried one end of a bundle while the other was carried by the Saniwesa woman from the cafe, the one who'd looked incredulously between me and Miyani. She smiled at me and sang, "vʌ ɣʊwoʒiwa!"

I answered her, "vʌ koðosa."

At that she giggled and went about her work. Faren stepped beside me, "did you ever figure out what that means, exactly?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "It means don't get lost."

"You joking?" he laughed. "That's how they say goodbye? Don't get lost?"

"Yeah," I smiled wide. "Apparently she just told us not to get eaten."

"Oh, well... I suppose that's better than the alternative."

I turned to him with a sly grin. "Good thing it's not a race, right?"

Faren scrunched his jaw and nodded, then answered in deep seriousness, "uh-huh."

I heard Jame's voice as he walked alongside Davod. "What's our mission, man?"

Davod answered, "we go to Tower One."

"And then?"

I added, "we also have to find the magic scroll and rescue the princess."

Jame blinked his eyes at me and squinted.

I elaborated, "first we go over the ruby bridge and answer the three questions. From there we enter the enchanted forest and slay the goyin..."

Davod turned to me and snapped, "can you be serious for once?" A bead of sweat meandered down his cheek and dripped over his neck. He took a deep breath and swallowed, then turned back to Jame, "we go to Tower One and we stay there until further notice. That's all."

Jame nodded, then looked at me and shook his head. I looked at Davod, "I was just getting to the good part!"

Davod shook his head and huffed. "I need you to be serious."

"OK," I nodded. I stepped close to him. "What's going on?"

He locked his jaw for a moment before repeating, "I told you; we go to Tower One."

"That's fine," I said, "but you're acting like a rat crawled up your arse and died."

He stopped and faced me directly, clenching his jaw and shaking his head with his eyes closed. Then he took in a deep breath and settled his emerald green eyes on mine. "Look. I don't have time for your shit. I'm responsible for these men. If something happens to them, any of them, it's my fault."

I made to speak, but he held up his hand and cut me off. "I just need you to be serious. Can you please be serious?"

I nodded. "OK, then." So I took his hand, "let us pray..."

Davod raised a finger and grimaced hard, shaking his head, then walked off without saying another word.

"What?" I laughed.