The Blue Desert

Chapter Four

"No," Anan insisted, pulling the pebble from her sister's hands. "Emna, that's disgusting, and you mustn't eat it."

Her sister looked at her for a moment before leaning over and picking another one from between the cobblestones and lifting it to her mouth. At her exasperated sigh, their mother looked over with an amused smile.

"Dremna, darling, don't eat the rocks."

The little girl looked at the thing in her hand and dropped it. "Yes, Mama." She took her older sister's hand and skipped over to where their mother was seated in the shade of the wall.

"I don't get it," Anan said, dropping down beside her on the blanket. "She won't listen to me."

"She's only four, Valhanan," her mother said. "When you were her age you didn't settle for little rocks. You chased after living things and squeezed them until they squealed."

"She still does," Kevresh observed from where he was seated against the cold stones.

Anan rolled her eyes and leaned backwards until she was staring at him upside down. "At least I don't try to ride an animal that is twice my size when it doesn't want me to."

"Your brother is a wonderful horseman," their mother said. "It's a gift that he should be proud of. You could learn something from him."

"I don't want to be a horseman," Anan said, leaning back on her elbows and watching the little children play.

"That is good, because you're a girl." Kevresh laughed and tugged at a strand of her hair.

Their mother smiled at them and picked up her book to read. Anan simply stared at her brother. "Now you're acting like Nobi, and he's just seen three summers. Do you want to be that young again because I can start treating you as if you were."

"Yes, my big sister," he teased, attempting to tie to pieces of her hair together and failing.

"You are a child." Anan pulled away from him.

"And you are fire and water," he returned, but now there was a fondness in his voice.

He often told her that, and she simply thought that he was making fun of her red hair and blue eyes. She did not think her eyes were funny, though. She was proud that her eyes were like her mother's; as blue as the lake of Tria. She only wished she knew what the lake was like.

"I'm bored," Anan announced moments later.

"Why don't you play with your siblings?" her mother suggested distractedly.

Her daughter gave her a sour look. "Mother, Ania barely plays anymore, and she is six summers younger than I am. I do not want to play."

She looked up from her book to stare at Anan for a long moment. "Yes, I suppose that is so. You are a young woman, and it would be improper for you to play."

Anan blinked at the tone her mother had adopted. There was something about it that almost scared her. It sounded serious and yet contemplative, and she did not know how to respond to it. Instead she turned to look at her brother. "Do something with me."

"We are doing something; we are resting."

"Resting is an excuse to do nothing," Anan returned. "I don't want to do nothing."

Kevresh sighed and let his head fall back against the stones of the wall. "Watch the clouds."

"That is not exciting."

"Oh, yes, it is," Kevresh insisted, lifting to point at something in the sky. "That cloud is a strawberry."

Anan could only ignore him for a moment before she was squinting into the blue expanse above them. "That is not a strawberry!" she exclaimed. "It's a puppy."