The Sleeping City

Chapter One: A Dance Of Stone

Ketua woke to the sound of her mother retching. The thick woven tapestry of her room worked to keep out the chill from the tightly knit stone walls of their house but did little to dim the noises of everyday living. She dressed quickly under the covers of her bed, soaking in the heat of sleep as she pulled on long cotton underclothes, tucking the length of her night shift into the pants. Then the heavy red woolen hooded tunic. Finally, with the blankets still pulled around her shoulders she stepped into her fur boots, tucking the ends of pants firmly down into them and then lacing them tightly.

The early mornings were still cold on the mountain. She plaited her long dark hair back and away from her face. She tightened the wood-framed rope bed and straightened the blankets over it. Her sister's doll had fallen to the stone floor in the night. She bent to pick it up and placed it on the pillow. She had shared this bed with her sister every warm season. It was large and comfortable and they kept it in the cool outermost room where they stored large baskets of grain and beans, strings of peppers and herbs strung up above it. Warmer weather was coming soon, but her sister had opted to sleep in the kitchen.

Ketua found her there sleeping by the hearth wrapped in a soft skin and fur. The coals from last night were still covered in sand. In the little room, she could see her Mother bent over her bed vomiting darkness into a clay pot which she quickly covered when she noticed Ketua. She smiled weakly at her and whispered a morning greeting.

"Onnu, good morning, Ketua.", Her Mother's voice was a whisper.

"Onnu, Mother.", Ketua repeated the greeting she had been taught as a child. An old word from their ancestors who had lived in a land far and away from this one. Ketua moved to take the pot of sick from her Mother, but her Mother pulled away.

" No, I will dispose of it myself in the fire outside. I need the fresh air.", Ketua shrugged and cast her eye upward at the loft. " Your Aunt has already left.", Her Mother replied still in a whisper as she lifted herself from the bed, her hands never letting go of the little clay pot.

" I will leave now then.", Ketua had her hands on the thick, narrow, peaked door when her Mother called her back in a low voice that sputtered with suppressed coughs.

" Make Onnu over your sister. Give her the prayer of sleep.", Her Mother waved her hand over Leita who still slept and spoke a little prayer. Ketua stepped back into the house, her soft skinned shoes quiet over the polished stone floor. She waved her hand over her sister's sleeping head which was buried deep in furs, only strands of her dark hair showing.

"Onnu Leita.", Ketua let the words pour out of her by heart. " Onnu, Onnu, Onnu, sleep and then wake. Sleep and then wake, sleep and then wake. Do not be tempted by dreaming to leave us forever. Onnu Onnu Onnu, sleep and then work, sleep and then work, the labor is heavy alone, with you it is light as a song.", Ketua suspected Leita was awake when she noticed her shifting. She pretended to be asleep to be saved from morning chores, but Ketua had business with her Aunt this morning, and their Mother was sick. She could pretend to be asleep for half the day and Ketua would make sure that her work waited for her.

With her Mother satisfied she left the house and made her way up the mountain where her Aunt was waiting for her. The other villagers were starting to rise now as well. The most dedicated were already filling out to the terrace farms. All dressed in red woolen tunics with pointed hoods. She climbed the narrow path cutting up the mountain and approached the first of the Atual stones. Tall stone guardians that protected the people who remembered them. Ketua placed her hand on each as she passed and spoke an Onnu good morning greeting.

"Onnu, Ketua", a deep voice rumbled from behind the third stone she met and before she knew it she was caught up in a thick red ribbon. She screamed as she was spun around to face the mountains edge. Her voice startled the black feathered birds behind her, and they flew out from the forest, past her and across the terrace farms. In her fear she caused the ground to shake beneath her, she could feel the Atual stone humming with its own power.