How I Met Hena Chakelithp

Chapter 3. Meeting Hena

And so it was arranged that I would pick her up at the inn the next day.

The next morning, I got up at six o'clock. I lived in a little cottage at the center of the island. It had two floors, but there was only one room on each one. On the bottom floor was my bed, the wood stove, and the table. On the top floor was my weaving loom, spinning wheel, and loft for storing all my hay and food.
I pulled on a gray-green long shirt and khaki cropped pants. I combed my mussy, annoyingly thick, straw-blond hair into the usual braid that came down to my stomach. I finished with my grandmother's earrings and silver necklace with matching obsidian tear-shaped stones.
I walked outside, past the garden, through the little forest that my house was at the edge of, and into the dragon stables. My three dragons were there. I explained to them that another human would be living here. They started talking together in Hereaca, the language of dragons. I asked them to listen and said I needed Kudika to ride to the inn and pick up Hena. Kudika came outside and I got on her back. She lifted up, beating her wings, and then we were off to the to the mainland. As we flew through the air, I watched the land racing below us as I had so often before. It looked like a grid of red, gray, brown, and green. Every so often, there would be a little grove of trees and the branches would reach out, covering the street from above. Finally, in the distance, I saw a large stone building with many windows: the inn. Then I started feeling nervous, as one does just before meeting someone new. But I left Kudika outside, went in, asked Aunt Hessia to see Hena, let her lead me up to a tiny little room on the second floor, and opened the door to see a girl my age sitting on the bed.

She had the blackest eyes I'd ever seen, and her hair was equally dark. On the other hand, her skin was very pale. It was indeed like a piece of paper written on with soot ink. The intensity of the contrast gave her features a defined look. She would have been quite pretty if her cheeks were not so hollow, her eyes not so shadowed and sunken.
"You're Srarori Coreter, right?" she asked. "Kudika told me you were going to live with me now."
"Yeah," I said. "I came to pick you up. My dragon is outside."
Hena and I went outside without talking. She got on and we flew back. There's not much to say about the ride, except Hena didn't talk and I didn't talk and Kudika didn't talk and it was uncomfortable. When we landed, she said,
"You live on your own island?"
"Yeah, my parents bought it for me when I turned ten and could move out." It seemed odd for her to ask this.
"You can move out of your parents' house when you're ten?" Hena seemed shocked.
"Of course! Is it different in your country?" I asked.
"In my country? In my country you can't do that till you're sixteen!" Hena said in awe.
I laughed. "That seems so weird to me!"
Hena laughed too. "Moving out when you're ten seems so weird to me! You're really lucky. I want to live on my own island now."
"Well, let's go inside and eat some food. You look like you need it."
I could practically hear  Hena's mind perking up and thinking, "Food? Food? I really want some food. Can I have some food?"
What she said was, "Totally. That'd be great. Thanks so much."