Two Tails, One Rotten Heart

The Call

13 Years Later

Nala hated the town square. It wasn't so much the thud of the butcher block or the plopping sound as the fish heads hit the bucket, nor the hustle and bustle of the villagers that threatened to run a person over if you weren't fast enough. No, it was more the actual people that Nala couldn't stand. It was the laughing of the men as they talked about their annoying wives or the big fish they caught today. It was the women with their nauseating giggling while their children ran amok, crying and screaming. How irritating.

If possible her sister made it all worse by daring to actual enjoy going to the town square. Indeed, Ula was in her element as she smiled so prettily at the meat man and got this week's provisions discounted. Nala could never do that, the smile wouldn't reach her eyes and she was more likely to advise the man that if he gave every pretty girl a discount he would soon be selling the shop.

"Honestly Nala if you keep scowling like that you are going to scare someone! Probably one of the children" Ula chided. She looped her arm through Nala's and dragged the reluctant sister deeper into the square. They came to stop in front of a stall with bows of all different colors laid out for young girls to see and drop everything in their haste to grab one. Nala never did understand the fascination with wrapping some string in your hair and pulling the strands in every which way to make it 'prettier'. Ula, on the other hand, jumped at the chance to buy a new ribbon, no doubt why she was so keen on getting the discounted price on their food.

There was already a group of girls in front of the stall, faces caked in powder, bright colored dresses draped on their bodies. They all had high pitched laughs that had to be fake and that drove Nala crazy, however their dresses were the only spots of color in this horrible town and even she grew tired of the gray little village so she withstood the urge to tip the stall over and waited a little ways away while Ula talked to them. There's that smile again, thought Nala as she watched her sister charm yet another person. She studied the smile on her sister's face, it stared with a slight twitch of her lips to the side, then a giggle, and then bloomed into a full smile. Nala touched a finger to her lips, one side twitched...

"There are those half girls again. Did you hear what happened to their father? Heard the poor man got bewitched by that woman...ended up dead for it too."

It was a whisper, most likely not meant to be heard by anyone except her companion.

"A shame too. I heard he was good looking to boot. A shame he was wasted on that witch."

Nala heard the roar of waves falling and clogging her eardrums, blocking every noise expect for those words and the giggles that followed. How she hated the sound. Half girls, that is what they called the twins. Half a person, half a mind, half a heart. Unnatural.

"Come away now Nala" Ula grabbed her sister's arm and tried pulling her away from the area. Babbling about some other stall with some other pretty thing she prayed would grab Nala's attention but it was far too late.

"My mother was no witch! And my father would have rather crawled across sharp stones on his bare hands and feet than lie with you old gossiping bags of brittle bones!" The scream erupted out of Nala's throat and silenced everyone around them. The enraged girl was far too busy focusing on her anger to notice anything, let alone the fisherman who was carrying fishing gear that he had most likely taken from his boat to get cleaned. Or sharpened. She didn't notice when his hand slowly curled around his harpoon. But Ula did.

"Forgive my sister! She has not been feeling well. It must be the excitement of the town market."

Ula grinned at the silent townsfolk, all the while pulling and pulling at her sister trying to get her away from the man and the weapon and the crowds. Although the girls had been safe after the burning of their mother no one in town ever forgot whose daughter's they were and no amount of smiles and pretty words would ever get the town to accept the half girls.