Separate Crowns of One Heart

Ønė

18 SĖASØNS LATĖR:

Looking in the looking glass, I begrudgingly pull my braids back from my face with an elastic and glance at the simple red dress with a dotted design that Demi put out for me to wear. Every sun-up she does this, and every sunup I don a different dressing. It's not that I have an issue with the color red or that polka dots rub me the wrong way... It's that the Ėlders require Fems to dress a certain way to attract Males and I have no desire to attract anyone.

There's a loud knocking on the door to my quarters. "Odusanya!" It's Demi. We do this every sunup. "Are you ready?"

"In a second!" I respond. Quickly going to the dresser, I shuffle through the possible dressings and decide to don a loose dress pinched at the waist with a leather belt and leggings to wear under.

I open the door for Demi and she openly assesses my outfit in disdain. She starts to scold me so I quickly kiss her cheek and run towards the Hall where the Fems in my season are meeting.

Everyone is already inside as I enter. The heavy oak door bangs shut behind me and every head turns to look at me as the sound echoes throughout the hall. Madamé Inez furrowed eyebrows draw further together (though I never thought it possible).

"How kind of you to honor us with your presence," she says as I take a seat in the back. Away from the rest of the Fems. "At least you were able to pull your tresses back today."

The hall fills with laughter as everyone joins in mocking me. I just roll my eyes and keep a stone face. A Fem a few rows ahead of me turns to look back. She gives me a sympathetic smile and I nod back in acknowledgment. That's Mila, the closest thing I have to a friend in this retched place.

We are gathered at the Hall today because every other sunup we come here to train for breeding and mating. We're programmed to learn how to maintain a home, how to cook, how to attract and choose a fit Male to breed with— the whole work.

All of it bores me. That is why I always look out the window and watch the Jaguars train for all four hours. They are the Warriors that protect the Kittana Kingdom. Their movements are so in sync and precise, that it's mesmerizing. The armor clashes loudly with each step and with each draw of a sword.

"Odusanya!" By the tone of Madamé Inez's voice, I know she has been calling my name for some time. I look up at where she stands. The Fems snicker and whisper behind their hands. "Since you think you don't need these lessons, why don't you come up here and show everyone how it's done?"

"I would rather not," I decline her request.

"The nerve of that tikiweka!" Someone whispers. Tikiweka. That means foreigner in the Ilsani language. And they never let me forget I'm not one of them.

"You may dismiss yourself, Odusanya," Madamé crosses her arms and waits for me to exit.

"My pleasure." I mockingly bow to her and happily exit the Hall. Demi looks surprised to see me when I get back to my quarters.

"Should you be here right now?" She puts down the pages she's reading.

I shrug nonchalantly. "Early dismissal."

She raises a sharp eyebrow at me. "Only for you?" I shrug again. She sighs as I make my way to my Armor room. "Odus--"

"I told you to call me Cyrah." My name's Cyrah Odusanya and I've been trying to get Demi to call me by my given name ever since I came to the District six seasons ago. She refuses, afraid to break a single rule put in place by the Ėlders.

"Odusanya," she continues, joining me in the armor. "You've got to stop standing out. Just do what all the Fems in your season are doing." I rummage around in the mess of contraband weapons until I find what I'm looking for. "There's no need to make everything comp—" She stops when she sees the bow and arrows in my hand. "What do you need that for?"