Alligator Eyes

Prologue

Yien stands on the lake shore looking out at the pathetic ripples as the fish bob up to mouth at the algae. His heart is beating anxiously and he hoped to calm it through simple mediation. He was managing it, clearing his mind and filling it with the ease of the lake. No matter how dead it seemed now, it felt like home and he was accustomed to its waters. Although he wishes the water was as clear as it used to be, before their power began to fade.

"Yien?"

He turns at his name, his efforts wasted as soon as he sees his brother, Wan, in his full ceremonial clothing. He has been avoiding dressing in his. Most everyone could guess what the results would be, and he hopes to avoid them by never getting ready to face them.

"I know tonight seems daunting—"

"We don't know it will be me" Yien interjects quickly, wanting to avoid the subject.

"True, we don't know that..." Wan sits on the sand, adjusting his colorful headdress, made from the feathers of an unusually large peacock. "But you have been out here for hours, and people are starting to wonder if you haven't already gone to see her..."

"I haven't, I don't want to see her"

His brother smiles knowingly and stands back up, taking Yien by the arm. "Let's go home and get ready, you're right, it might not be you and there is still the feast to look forward to"

They walk together back to the village in silence, Yien panicking badly. He wished he had gone hunting with the others, at least it would distract him. Or get him killed and then he could avoid this entire ordeal.

His twin sisters, Pom and Eri, are in their matching bear skin robes and his younger brother, Wera, is in his own. Wera's robes are too big for him, dragging on the floor in anticipation of his height. They think it will surpass all of his siblings, including Uteh.

Wan takes Yien through the curtains and hands him his robes. Alligator skins that hang around his thighs with boots that reach up just below his knees made of the same one. An alligator he killed in the swamps to the North as his formal coronation into the royal family. Of course he was a part of the royal family by blood alone, but he had to prove his strength still, it solidified him as an heir, if anything were to happen to his older brother, heaven forbid.

He has a pair of gloves as well, with the claws sown into the knuckles. His headdress has the alligator's teeth around the crown, and the thick green points of its scales with its withered eyes parallel with his own. For the first time in years the headdress has unbearable weight to it, pushing down on his neck.

"You are the best choice, the strongest"

Yien can't stop his eye roll. They all know his older brother, Uteh, is the strongest of the village. He became the oldest when the first born of the family was killed and he slayed the lion that killed him. Uteh was young then and they underestimated the size he would grow into but he's managed to stretch the skins, expanding them using the hides of other lions.

He knew Wan was trying to support him even though they both knew the real reason he would be chosen; he would not be missed. If he was gone, and never returned, someone could take his place.

"I want to be alone" Yien says, leaving the hut with his head held high. He walks back out to the lake, never feeling more akin to it than when he wears his skins.

As the sun sets, the festivities begin and even as his favorite dance trollops by him he can't find it in him to join. His friends hold their hands out for him but he barely looks at them, weaving in between the huts to the villages center.