The Wall Between Our Worlds

Chapter Four

Trep longed to know every single detail about Krimson, but he decided to begin with the obvious questions. He hoped the conversation would distract him from the pain. Yes, he felt a hundredfold better than he had the previous day, but his body still did not want to be moving. He needed something to take his mind off the major agony points.

"Do you have a surname?" he asked.

"No. We are known by our given name, our father's name, and our tribe's name."

"Oh. Interesting. What does your name mean?"

"It is a misspelling of a color. It is spelled with a K rather than a C."

"How did your parents decide—"

"I do not wish to speak about my parents."

Trep swallowed. Note to self—if you want to live, don't talk about Krimson's parents. His instincts told him to shut up altogether, but he couldn't. A thousand questions remained for him to ask.

"So what is your full name, including your father's name and your tribe?"

She didn't answer, and her face became a few degrees harder. Maybe it was the parent thing again. He decided to move onto a different subject. "Your house is a temporary shelter?" he asked. "So you live in the village most of the time?"

"I have been at my house for roughly the past three months. I do not know how much longer I will stay there."

"Why have you been there for so long? You've been by yourself the whole time?"

"I have been by myself," she confirmed. She didn't look him in the eye as she spoke, and there was no spark of the levity he had witnessed in her earlier. Yep, she definitely wants me to shut up.

He didn't shut up.

"You enjoy being by yourself?" he asked. Or maybe it was some sort of religious ritual where young people had to survive on their own in the wilderness?

"I do not dislike solitude, but there are a few people in the village who are very dear to me. I miss them. However, the leadership in our village recently changed. I strongly dislike our new Chief Elder and do not wish to encounter him."

"He's the brutal idiot you mentioned?"

She nodded. "I should not have said that, though. It is not becoming to speak ill of an Elder, regardless of my personal feelings for him. I left the village because I wish to avoid him, but he wants me to return soon. I will have to go back sooner rather than later."

"Huh. So... "

"I do not wish to speak of it anymore."

"Okay. I'm sorry." But I want to know. I want to know why talking about it starts a storm behind those emerald eyes. "Tell me something else about you. Or about your people."

"What do you wish to know?"

"Uh... How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"And you're surviving in the wilderness on your own. That's remarkable. People in the West aren't even considered to be adults until they turn twenty."

"And are you an adult?"

"Barely. I'm twenty-one."

She nodded, a hint of a smile on her face. "I suppose it takes Westerners longer to learn how to live."

"I guess so," Trep said with a little chuckle. "So what's the age of adulthood here?"

"There is no specific age. When a child's parents feel that he or she is mature enough, the child asks the Village Elders for consideration as an adult. The Elders take into account what they know of the child and their family, and then the child must pass a test that the Elders design. The nature of the test depends on which job the child wishes to pursue."