A Place To Bloom

The Agreement

"Come on, man!" Haron urged him. "You gotta tell us!"

Tenae closed his eyes, scrunched his lips, and shook his head.

Kaye was showing Josha the white bat's wing tattoo on his dark skin when he lifted his yellow eyes to me. "ʒɪ gæðu ŋuve?"

I translated for him. "He asks that Tenae tells him that story that first time that he kills the enemy."

"Ahh! yʊpidaxa!" And he looked up at Tenae expectantly.

Tenae waved his hands and looked away.

"Come on man," Rolon tapped his shoulder. "You been out there runnin' ops. We know you killed a man out there."

"Ya gotta tell us," Haron insisted. "You're on my team out there, I gotta know!"

Tenae clenched his jaw. His chest lifted up from a deep breath.

Thirteen of us cowered in a triangle of shade beneath the dried-mud walls of Ta'o's apartment block. Beside us, in the open, the Terrible Sun assaulted the world with fire and brimstone from the sky. Just breathing in, even in the shade, my lungs felt like they were burning.

"I have an idea!" I stood, leaving a dark spot where I'd leaned against the mud wall behind me. "Here's the agreement:"

Haron narrowed his dark-green eyes at me. The cougar brand on his shoulder glistened with sweat along with the bear claw scar half-hidden beneath his bow strap. Tenae locked his gaze upon me as well. He had the same pitch-black eyes as Sarina, same warm yellow skin and bronze-black hair in tight curls. Unlike Sarina, he had the number 858-471 burned onto each arm.

Father Yewan taught me this trick. "Haron, you go first. Something you've never told anyone. Something you wouldn't think to tell anyone. And Tenae, you decide what that's worth in terms of what you're willing to share."

Everyone sat up to listen. Haron thought about it.

"I'll go first!" Renou leaned his back against the dried mud wall. He looked up with a smirk in my direction. "We're already dead anyway, right?"

That felt warm. That felt real warm, and I liked it.

"One time, when I was away at my grandparents' house in the country, I had to go to the pit, and I saw a mouse in there. He was just there floating in shit, and those little black eyes looked up at me. And I peed on him. I don't know why. Something... I aimed right at him and I pissed all over his little face. He tried to swim out of the way, but I just... and then I left. I don't know why I did that. Sometimes I can still see his tiny face staring up at me. I think about that someti—"

"Bro, what the hell?" Ta'o emerged from behind us. He looked like a proper warrior, with a polished-leather bow sling over one shoulder and a pressed, plain cotton yithi with a little green ear embroidered in one corner. "Where have you guys been?"

"Waitin' for you!" Haron barked.

"Everybody is waiting," Ta'o said. "Let's go!"

He led us around the open posts marking the vita'o yard to the massive stone arch of the main gate.

The other five teams had all gathered together. Dax, Finn, Kurt, Bilal, and Ta'o all stood with their men, all of them glistening beneath the horrid sun and glaring at us when we joined them. Ahmi had an infant asleep in her arms with one tiny hand clinging to a lock of feral white hair curtained over her shoulders. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head at us. The three students I'd met the other day were there. The one with the blue left eye held one hand over her face like a visor and scowled at me.