“Whoa.” I said accidentally. Her eyes were strange. She had black sclera just like all Cianían, but her irises were a bright orange instead of the usual nearly bioluminescent blue. How unusual. I wonder if she was premature or overdue. I wonder if she can use magic already. That would be soo awesome! I heard that the earlier they’re born, the more prone to magic they are. Maybe hers is fire magic! Whoa I want to use fire magic that would be…
“Hey, quit staring at my sister.” Said the short haired boy. Oh, right, I probably have some dumb look on my face.
“Sorry, I was just curious. I''d heard about Offborn, but I''ve never seen one.” Offborn, from what I knew, were Cianíans that were born prematurely, or overdue, and their eye and hair color would change to reflect that. I had also heard that they would take more naturally to certain forms of magic.
Truthfully, I was mostly curious as to what her hair felt like. It looked like silk the way it seemed to glow in Kolob’s light. The thought of it and looking at her face made my heartbeat faster, and I had a strange feeling in my stomach, like butterflies. What is that?
She didn''t smell anything like my brothers or sisters. None of them did, but her especially. She smelled different, somehow, in a pleasant way. Though I had learned from my sisters that it wasn''t a good thing to blurt stuff out like that without thinking. Apparently, it was creepy and creepy was bad. I still didn’t fully understand the concept of creepy.
It was an awfully long, confusing, and grueling crash course on all kinds of etiquette. Most of which was far too vague for me to grasp. I turned to the girl, now with her right eyebrow slightly raised. I stood up straight with my hands behind my back and slightly bowed. This is a gesture to show respect and sincerity if I remember right.
“I apologize for making you uncomfortable with my curiosity, and behavior.” When I picked my head back up, the short haired boy was about a foot away from my face.
“What was that?! Now you''re calling her old?” Wait, what? How did he get that out of a respectful apology? Did I misremember? Was I not taught the right thing? The girl was now pressing her lips together in a visible effort to hold in her laughter. Does that mean I did it right? Or that I did it wrong and she found it funny?
“Uhm… I…” I couldn''t really retort the boy''s odd behavior. This is so different from my interactions with my brothers and sisters.
“Ha! I knew it! Your silence proves your guilt!” He said loudly. His face got even closer to mine, inches now. This time the girl couldn''t hold it in and giggled at the boy, or me, hand over her mouth.
“You''re very strange, I think there might be something wrong with you. Also, you are making me uncomfortable.” I said, putting my left index finger on his lips and gently pushed until his head was an arm’s length away. After seeing this, the girl who had been holding back her laughter stopped and stared, surprised for a second, then burst out laughing.
The boy started growling at me, his face one of fury. His intensity is intimidating. He looks like he might hit me. That would suck. I came over here to make friends. My communication skills are more decrepit than I had feared.
“Calm yourself Flint.” Flint, so the short haired, weird one is named Flint. Good to know. The other boy put his right hand on Flint''s shoulder and pulled him back. He still looked mad, but at least he wasn’t furious.
“My name is Klintock (Klin-tuck), and this is Sable.” He pointed to the girl. Sable? That doesn’t sound like a Cianían name. “And Flint''s the feral one. Might I ask your name?” He held his right hand out towards me. I grabbed his forearm and shook it once.
“My name is Croí Geal. Pleased to meet you.” Well, that turned out ok… so far. I''m glad me and Flint didn''t end up coming to blows.
“A Geal huh? Bodes well for us.” Klintock said, with a wry smile.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Geals are lucky, everyone knows that.” Flint said smirking.
“Well lucky or not, we’re glad to have you Croí. Have you eaten yet?” Klintock asked.
“Uh, I had two meat sticks, nothing other than that though.”
“We should all head into the city for a few snacks then. We have a few hours yet and I’ve a few coins that I need to spend.” Klintock said with a smirk, raising his eyebrows up and down quickly a few times before heading towards the large entrance to the Arena.
“Yes! Let’s explore.” Sable said excitedly.
“Can I come?” I asked. Klintock chuckled.
“Sure, why not?” He asked. I glanced to Flint who was ignoring me, staring into the crowd, distracted.
“Ok. I’ll ask my parents.” I rushed over to my parents. “Mom, Dad, can I go with the other Agers and explore the city?” They glanced at each other, Mother looking uncertain. Dad slowly nodded to her, and she sighed.
“Yes. Just make sure you hurry back as soon as the horns sound.” Mother said, kissing me on the cheek. I smiled and thanked them, turning to see that the others were already on their way out of the Arena. Klintock waved and motioned for me to catch up to them. He reminds me of Kixas. Not with the way he looks but his composure, and attitude.
“So Croí, ready for the Aging?” Sable asked as I caught up to them. My stomach twisted.
“Uh. I hope so.” I said in a small voice.
“Yeah, me too.” Sable said with a small chuckle.
“About the Aging. Do any of you know if there is anything I was supposed to bring?” I asked. Klintock furrowed his brow for a second, glancing at the other two before answering.
“I can''t remember any information of items to bring with us. If I remember right, they will take what we have and give us all new equipment and assign us duties to perform.” Duties? Other than attempting not to be eaten or killed? Sounds… sarcastically easy.
“Croí.” Sable started. “Why haven’t we seen you around? Where did you get your training?”
“Oh. Well, I live about four weeks ride to the North of here. I''ve only been to town a few times, and we only came for necessities before immediately returning. I trained at home with my family. Where did all of you train?” Klintock and Sable nodded their heads in understanding.
“Klintock and Flint trained with their family, I joined them on occasion, but most of my training I got from the Public Center.” Sable explained. Public Center? I think I heard about those places, where people could train if they couldn’t train with their family. Which didn’t make sense to me. Why wouldn’t you train with your family?
“So.” Sable said as we started down the long steps towards the vendors. “What is it like up North?” I thought about it for a minute. I guess the best way to describe it would be to compare it to where we are now.
“Well, it''s colder, being higher in the mountains, and it rains heavily for days at a time during the spring and fall months. There are many dangerous predators and beasts, such as wolves, bears, even Rónars (Row-nars). Sable interrupted me.
“Rónars? Are they as dangerous as the books say? What do they look like?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never read the books, but the ones I’ve seen were big and aggressive. They’re really scary too, but my brothers always said that if you just mark where their territory is, and try to stay out of it, you should be fine. They have big teeth, and black eyes that glow in the dark. They have big muscly, hairy arms, and long tails with spikes on the end. They have these big bones sticking out of the back of their head, almost like antlers, but they’re flat, wide, and surround the top of their head kind of like a tall crown, but their bellies and hands are covered in scales.”
“Interesting. So does playing dead make them leave you alone?” She asked. I shook my head.
“No way. Why would it?” I asked.
“Well, the book says that they don’t eat dead meats, so if you pretend to be dead, they lose interest.” She explained.
“Oh. I mean they don’t care to eat you from what my brothers told me, they’re just mad that you’re in their territory. If you stay out of it than they’ll leave you alone. So, lying down in their territory is just a good way to get yourself killed.” I explained.
“Good to know.” She said, looking serious for a moment, playing with her bottom lip. “What else can you tell me about where you live?” She asked. “Umm...oh, it''s harder to breathe the higher up the mountains you go, not sure why. There are almost no people around. So, we have to get our own food and tend to our own wounds and stuff like that. There are also times when we meet travelers from a human village when we''re hunting.” She turned to me with wide eyes and a small gasp. Klintock and Flint glanced back from their position in front of us, eyebrows raised with intrigue.
“You''ve seen a human? What are they like?” Her orange eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“From the times that we''ve encountered them, they seem more similar than different. Except maybe the first time I saw them.” I explained.
“Similar how?” Flint asked.
“Well, they look similar. They have the same number of limbs and stuff, and the ones I saw had similar skin. They are different in a lot of ways though. For example, Cianíans, aside from Offborn, have black hair and blue eyes, right? Well Humans have all kinds of colors, seemingly at random.”
“Like what?” Klintock asked.
“From the ones I saw, most were brown haired, with brown eyes that almost looked black sometimes.”
“Black eyes? That’s kinda scary.” Sable said.
“Yeah, but some had blue eyes kind of like ours too, but different shades of blue, and I’ve seen a few that had what they call ‘blonde’ hair, which is like a yellow-brown color, like wheat, and even one that had red hair.”
“My friend Darbh (Daw-rr-v) said there’s a red haired Offborn that lives on the east end of the city.” Flint said. “Do you think Humans have Offborns too?” He asked.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I don’t really know. I’ve never asked. When Kixas would talk with them, they would always shout instead of just talking, and they all seemed kind of deaf too, Kixas would have to yell just to talk with them. Besides that, they speak a different language.” I said.
“Common right?” Klintock asked.
“Yeah. Although some of them speak different variations of Common, or something altogether different from Common.”
“So, you speak it?” Flint asked.
“Very little, sorry.” I said in Common. They all looked at me surprised.
“What did that mean?” Flint asked.
“I said very little and apologized.” His eyebrows lifted in surprise as him and Klintock turned away, walking towards some merchant stands.
“Can you teach me Common?” Sable asked. I nodded.
“I can teach you what I know. It’s enough to understand a basic conversation, but nothing too advanced.”
"I would like that." She said, smiling. Her smile made me smile ever so slightly, and that feeling like butterflies in my stomach returned.
“But other than that, they’re the same as us?” Klintock asked.
“No. There’s two other differences. Their ears are round instead of having the two small one and a half inch points like ours, and the outside part of their eyes, the sclera, is white instead of black.”
“White eyes? That seems like it would be unnerving.” Flint said.
“It’s striking at first, but you get used to it. Apparently, they find our eyes intimidating, something about them glowing in the dark, or that the black scares them.” I said as we reached a vendor selling sweets. Klintock and Flint quickly picked out what they wanted, like they’d done this before. Sable hesitated, but eventually found what she wanted. I stood back and waited.
“So, what about the first group you met? You said they were different than the others?” Sable asked as she turned. She looked surprised. “Don’t you want any?”
“Sure, but I don’t have any coin.” I said. Klintock chuckled.
“Neither will I when the ceremony comes. Me and Flint saved up coin specifically for this, so grab one or two things and we’ll move on.” I nodded, feeling slightly guilty, like I was taking something I hadn’t earned first, but the sweets were too alluring to pass up. I picked up a puffy, square pastry with a hole cut in the middle, covered in a layer of chocolate, and thanked Klintock and the vendor as I bit into it.
I groaned with pleasure, lost in the soft texture and the taste of the chocolate until I felt a small nudge from Sable. Right. First time I met Humans. I swallowed then spoke.
“The first group I met wore armor. They were marching East. When we came across them, we walked up to a man on a horse at the front of the group to greet them. We must''ve startled him because he pulled out his sword and started shouting at us. One of my brothers took me back into the woods. Then the man on his horse pointed his sword at the rest of my brothers and yelled loudly. My brothers told me later that they had to kill a few of them as they escaped because the humans just started attacking.”
“Really? How many of them were there? Why did they attack?” She seemed enthralled by my story. I thought about exaggerating the number to make my brothers seem more fearsome, but then my sister''s words rang in my head. ‘Honesty is the best policy on most occasions little brother.’
“At least twenty.” I said as we started moving down the street.
“How many brothers do you have?” Sable asked.
“I have four, but one took me into the woods, so the other three fought them. They said that they may have killed something like eight or ten of them.” I said, smiling as her mouth fell open.
“Three of your brothers killed ten human warriors?” She asked, surprise in her voice. It made me happy talking with her. That she was so interested in what I had to say. Usually, it was my brothers and sisters I was talking to, and they only listened to me on rare occasions.
“Yes, at least from what they told me later.” I answered. “We learned later that there was a skirmish between kingdoms, and they thought we were on the other side. Their infighting ended pretty soon after that though, so, thankfully, we didn’t meet any more of them.”
“Wow! Your brothers sound amazing. Have you ever fought a human? Do the humans always attack?” She was bouncing on her toes slightly with excitement as we walked. I couldn''t help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. She was fun to watch.
“They are amazing, yes. No, my brothers always said that I was too young to fight other people so if anything happened, they would get me out first. We did kind of fight one other time, but that was it. They’re mostly just wary of us when they first meet us. There are some that we meet regularly and that’s how some of my brothers learned to speak Common.”
This is a much faster paced conversation than I''m used to with my brothers. So many subjects and questions all at once. It''s kind of hard to keep track. Though it is exciting.
“Truly? Come on, you have to tell us about this other time, what happened?” She asked as we reached another vendor, this time with a selection of seafoods. As the vendor finished with Klintock and Flint, I asked.
“What kind of fish do you have?”
“I have eel, pollan, three different kinds of char, and some oysters too.”
“Do you have any brown trout or white fish?”
“I do. I also have salmon for a copper more.”
“Ooh salmon?” I looked over to Klintock, who nodded his approval. Excitedly I said. “I’ll take the salmon please.”
“Come again when you get back kids.” Said the portly woman behind the cart. We thanked her and moved away from the cart and Sable interrupted me in the middle of savoring a bite of perfectly seasoned salmon to have me continue.
“Ok, well it started when me and my brother Kixas were traveling along one of the side trails to a neighbor’s house, about ten or fifteen miles from our house. There was a heavy mist so we couldn’t see very far at all, and we hadn’t seen any aggressive or armored humans for about three years. We could hear two people running. And there was lots of shouting and the sound of many horses coming our way. Once we stopped, we could even hear arrows whistling through the air. My brother and I stepped off the trail and hid behind some nearby bushes so we could better observe what to do next.”
I stopped for a moment, taking a bite of my fish, and moving around a small group of people that didn’t notice us. I hope I''m giving enough detail and not confusing her.
“Yeah, then what?” She questioned excitedly as we came back together.
“One of the travelers running on foot, a woman, screamed. We could only guess that it was one of the arrows finding its mark. Then after a second or two there was only one set of feet running towards us, and then the arrows were flying past us, so we had to move and get behind a tree next to the trail.”
“Whoa, you got shot at by humans?” Sable asked with a surprised look on her face. Flint and Klintock’s interests were peaked by this, so they turned to listen. Well technically, I guess.
“Indirectly, yeah I guess.” I said.
“That''s so cool.” Sable smiled.
I would more say scary, terrifying even, but I don''t mind if she thinks I''m cool. Flint scoffed and Klintock elbowed him, pointing to a vendor further down the street. I continued.
“After a moment behind the tree, the humans came through the fog where we could see them. There was a man carrying a woman, and she had an arrow in her back. My brother Kixas told me to climb the tree, so I did. Then he came out from behind the tree and spoke to the human and they started going off the trail. As soon as he pulled them off the trail, the ones pursuing them came out of the fog. They were riding on horses, and they ended up passing us by.”
“I heard that humans are all fat too, is that true?” Flint asked.
“I don''t think so. Only two or three of the ones I''ve seen were fat.”
“Your brother is Kixas Geal?” Klintock asked. I nodded and he shared a wide-eyed look with Flint. Sable motioned for me to continue as she bit into her fish
“Well next my brother had me jump down out of the tree so we could leave. That''s when I noticed the girl was bleeding from the arrow and having a hard time moving.”
“What did she look like? Was she pretty?” Sable chimed in; a strange mischievous smile crossed her lips.
“She was pretty short, and her hair was a light brown color, same as her eyes. Yeah, I would say she had a pretty face and figure.”
“And what was it about her figure that was pretty huh?” Sable pressed, giggling. Uh that''s kind of a tough question. I don''t really understand. My sisters told me not to talk about a woman’s figure if I could avoid it.
“She had good shapes, and was very proportional, I guess?” I said, questioningly, confused why she was laughing.
“Did she? You don''t sound too sure.” She laughed. I didn''t really know what to say to her, so I just nodded with an awkward smile. “Calm down, I''m just teasing you. Now come on and finish up.” Teasing. Ok teasing is good. It’s just a different kind of teasing than I’m used to.
“Uh...After that, my brother Kixas told me to go back the way we had come and to have the humans follow me. Right after that another group of people came through the fog. About ten more humans on horses, but at the very front there was an Uraggian (Oo-raw-gee-un).”
“An Uraggian? Seriously? What did he look like?” She gasped. Again, this earned the attention of Klintock and Flint as we reached a vendor of some fresh fruits. Some of the fruits looked familiar, while some had strange hues of purple and were star shaped. Sable grabbed a star shaped one. I thought about grabbing one of those too but was nervous it would taste bad and decided to get an apple instead.
While Klintock paid the vendor and talked with Flint about where to go next, I thought back to that day, gathering as much detail as I could.
“His skin was almost the same color as rust, but some of it was white. It kind of looked like he was rubbed with rust colored chalk on large portions of his body. His eyes were pure white. His hair was brown with some grey mixed in and went down to mid back. He didn''t really have a lot of armor on, but he wore lots of furs. He was covered in scars. The creature he was riding looked like an elk but had a greater number of thick horns with slight curves to them, and dark grey and black fur with white spots instead of brown. It had a long tail with a lot of fur at the end of it too.”
“Whoa, that''s a Gust, those things are fast, and they''re powerful. What was his face like? Was he hideous? Or fearsome?”
“No more than the humans next to him. Not that humans are ugly or anything, but him and the Humans he was with weren’t exactly handsome. He did have a more muscular and pronounced jaw and bigger wider nose and jaw though.” To tell the truth he was fearsome. His eyes were so intense. Almost like they might be some form of weapon he could wield.
“And he was very tall, at least seven maybe seven and a half feet tall.” She gasped.
“Seriously? That’s huge! That’s like.” She thought about it. “At least three feet taller than me! Maybe more.” I found it funny how long it took her to calculate such a simple problem.
“Yeah.” I said with a chuckle. “My brother Kixas came out in front of the group of men and talked to the Uraggian in Common. He told him that if they pursued the humans any further, they would enter Cianían territory, and he would be forced to kill them. Some of the humans laughed but the Uraggian smiled.”
“Did they fight? Did your brother fight the Humans and Uraggian?” Sable interrupted.
“Well, he did fight the Uraggian, because the Uraggian had heard Cianíans were great fighters. My brother told him that he would fight him and him alone and then they would leave.”
“And then they fought?” She asked while nodding her understanding. I chuckled at her enthusiasm.
“Yes, but it wasn’t really all that epic. They didn’t even touch swords.” She got a confused look on her face. “My brother Kixas charged the Uraggian and was able to completely sidestep his sword and place his blade on the Uraggian’s throat to end the fight just as soon as it began.” She sat there bewildered for a moment, taking in my words before her eyes lit up.
“So Kixas defeated an Uraggian without a single drop of blood spilt, and within a second?”
“Pretty much.” I said with a nod. She smiled.
“Do you even know how awesome that is? Uraggians are known for their brutal ferocity and never quit attitude. They get excited by the bigger and more dangerous enemies, but Kixas got one to back down within seconds. Wow. I knew Kixas was great but this? Your family is so awesome.” Yeah, I guess they are pretty cool.
“How do you know about Uraggians and Gusts?” I asked, trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.
“She’s a book mite.” Flint said with a teasing smile. Sable stuck her tongue out at Flint before answering my question.
“I read a lot in the Hall of Tomes. The biggest bookstore in the city.”
“What about you two?” I asked the boys. Klintock answered first.
“I train, and when I’m not training, I’m following these two around and making sure they don’t get too out of hand.” He said, flicking Flint’s arm.
“Making sure? Come on Klintock, you know you couldn’t stop us if you tried.” Flint jested, then he turned to me.
“I get in trouble with Sable sometimes, otherwise I train and play games.” As I was talking to Flint about the types of city games the three of them played and how fun they sounded, I was startled by the sound of a loud horn blaring. I had to cover my ears until it was over.
“That was loud.” Klintock said, slightly squinting his left eye in pain.
“That was an understatement.” Flint said. My heart started pounding, and only half because of the horn.
“Let’s get back to the Arena.” Klintock said, starting back to the long steps leading into the Arena. None of us spoke until it was time for us to separate and head back to our families. I stared down at the ground nervously.
“I guess we’ll all see each other again in a couple hours.” Klintock said, pulling my attention back up as we reached the top of the steps. The rest of us nodded.
“Could be worse.” Sable said. We nodded again.
Kolob was setting now, casting a beautiful pink, orange, and red glow across the clouds. As soon as we passed through the entrance and into the arena, light from Kolob’s setting hit us, or, more noticeably, Sable’s hair.
Her white hair reflected the colors of Kolob’s setting in magnificent fashion. I was stunned enough that I could barely manage to reply to her when she waved and told me she was heading off to her family. I just stood there, mouth and eyes mostly open, waving back slowly like I was brain dead. Eventually, I snapped out of it and rejoined my family.
there, mouth and eyes mostly open, waving back slowly like I was brain dead. Eventually, I snapped out of it and rejoined my family.