The Rift in the Domain- The Auranos Stories Book 2

Chapter 9 - Zipo Gana

Zina

We spent our days in Cavebrook making a lot of noise- and I spent the nights wandering around like a vagabond. I could have told Abigail and the others, but something felt shifty about leaving them all in the hotel at night when the spirits weren't paying attention. But anyway, it wasn't a dangerous secret to have, all things considered. In fact, if they ever found out, they could join me.

The second night in Cavebrook, there was a bonfire in the central park. Bonfires are a staple of little Dominion towns. Cavebrook was one of the biggest towns to have a regular bonfire, in fact. Usually they're planned out by a few volunteers and supported by street vendors, performers, and lumber salesmen.

Walking into that bonfire, I realized once again exactly how much I missed the Domain. And it was a lot. I missed the Domain a lot.

The fire was the height of a house and climbing, nearly smokeless but burning very hot; nobody dared stand within five feet of it. I went up to a vendor, handing over a few dull coins for a slice of freshly baked spice bread. There was something wonderful about standing in the cold and eating warm food while listening to folk music, especially while everyone else was doing the same.

I've been carrying on about this bonfire for a while, haven't I? You get the point, don't you? I spent nearly two hours just wandering around enjoying myself, but I could talk about it for longer than that.

Well, everything took a surreal turn when I saw a particular someone across the way. I ducked behind a food stand, warning the vendor not to ask.

Gem Lavender was here. She was right across the path, sitting elegantly on a table near the band and listening to the music as classy people do. She bobbed her head in time with the music like a true artist, feeling the rhythm. But by now the vendor I was hiding behind was getting antsy, so I got up and walked the circumference of the park. I kept an eye on Gem the whole while.

"Hey Gem," I muttered under my breath with sarcastic humor, "Tell any lies about anyone's family recently? Haha..."

Gem, meanwhile, was laughing at something a nearby gentleman had said. I bet it wasn't funny.

The kindest part of me said, turn around and walk back to the hotel before you do something brash.

The other parts said, go kick her. Punch her in the nose. Pull the braids out of her skull.

You could be thinking that I was overreacting. Surely all this awfulness in our relationship could be repaired, if I just forgave and forgot. Make up, send a little apology note, weave up some friendship bracelets, and become friends again.

This was not an option.

I had grown up in a fierce state of optimism, with the belief that every bit of happiness is worth fighting for. Despite our "disagreements", I would grin at Gem every day as I passed her on the sidewalk. In hindsight, I don't think she liked this. It might have been kind of condescending.

But my dad and I would make the best of everything together. He worked as a farmhand on Cavebrook's biggest farm, and would always bring me home any extra snacks he could get, from cookies to cheese to crackers- you name it. And then we'd make a 'feast', our own grand dinner with all sorts of interesting imaginary guests. (The guests would eat imaginary food, of course.) My dad kept this up for years, even after I got way too old for it. And you know what? I didn't even mind. I looked forward to every one of those dinners.

He'd tell me stories about my mom, the great Soar Feather- before she'd taken my dad's name. (Women sometimes do take their husband's last name in the Domain, but sometimes men take the woman's name. It's about a fifty-fifty split- sometimes both people keep their own names. I've been told the practices are somewhat different on Earth.) She and her friend Strider supposedly singlehandedly shut down a corrupt region supervisor in the north. Region supervisors, in case you don't know, are people assigned to enforce the laws and collect taxes in an area, who report directly to Knox. All of the ones that I've heard of are corrupt. Anyway, through these stories, my own mom became a kind of superhero to me.