sven

eight When we woke up in the morning it was to Rose and Aiden trying to go through our bags. “Why are you in my bag?” I asked Rose. She blushed and asnwered, “Neither of us have any clothes and we don’t want to ask for somebody to lead us back. It was his idea.” She said pointing at Aiden, His face got really red. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” I said to Sam, nicely enough so he wouldn’t get to annoyed. “Why are we always waking up so early?” He asked me and rolled over so he was facing me. “I honestly can’t say. It’s never my doing so…” I said. He pulled me close and I rested with him holding me. Aiden and Rose just stared at us. I sighed and pulled away and grabbed some clothes. I put them on under the covers and Sam grabbed a pair of pants and did the same. Once I was dressed I threw Rose some clothes and she went in the other room to put them on. She came out looking awkward and ready to be wearing her traditional clothes again. I grinned at her and she grimaced back to me. I rolled out of bed and went outside. It was still chilly it was so early. I popped my head back in the hut and glared at them. “You got me up this early why?” I asked them. “This is normal time of day to get up in this village,” Rose told me. I rolled my eyes and left the hut with Sam. I went and found the dinining table with my eyes closed. Sam was following me just as tired. When I fell into the table I heard a lot of low chortling and I frowned. It was getting brighter and I could tell I was looking like a grouch. A guy came up behind me and yelled in my ear and I punched him in the stomach hard enough so that he was on the ground gasping for air. My eyes were still closed. Sam laughed. He sounded fully awake now. I put my head on his shoulder and he blew on my neck giving me goose bumps. I ruffled up and sat in my spot with perfect posture trying to chase the chill away. “Why does it have to feel like summer camp when I was twelve and I was forced out of bed at six in the morning?” I asked him. “It’s so cold this early…” I said trailing off. I called anger to me, thinking of that man beating Rose. I got really warm really fast. My hair started smoking and I stopped the emotion in its’ tracks. “That’s not working,” I said and pouted. I picked up the food in front of me and spat it out at the same time. I opened my eyes a sliver to see that it looked like a fried worm. I touched it with my finger. It moved. I screamed so loud that I heard the echos and ran away as fast as I could. I went to the bathroom and scrubbed my mouth with soap. Lily came in laughing her head off and I threw air at her. “I can’t believe you almost ate it too!” She said. I was boiling hot by now and then someone sprayed me with the shower head. I didn’t get wet, but there was a whole lot of steam. I stomped out with my hair still steaming and went back to the table. “Whose bright idea was that?” I yelled my voice like thunder. The entire village stared at me. Ivan was still laughing so hard he looked like he’d wet himself. I had the earth swallow him and he screamed. “Oh, you wuss.” I said and brought him back up. He stared at me with frightened eyes. I rolled mine and jogged off in the other direction. “Hey, where are you going?” A couple of guys asked me. “To somewhere I can get some decent not worms food.” I said. They laughed and fell behind. I ran off and when I got to a McDonalds I paid for my breakfast and jogged back. I was warm and awake now so they didn’t give me any issues. It was maybe six in the morning now and I was ready to start my day. It was weird. I went and found my swim suit and put it on. It covered less than my normal underwear. I grinned thinking of the reactions I was going to get. I walked out of my hut with that and a towel over my shoulder and I had every eye in the village. Sam came up behind me. “That is completely inappropriate,” he said with a grin. When we woke up in the morning it was to Rose and Aiden trying to go through our bags. “Why are you in my bag?” I asked Rose. She blushed and asnwered, “Neither of us have any clothes and we don’t want to ask for somebody to lead us back. It was his idea.” She said pointing at Aiden, His face got really red. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” I said to Sam, nicely enough so he wouldn’t get to annoyed. “Why are we always waking up so early?” He asked me and rolled over so he was facing me. “I honestly can’t say. It’s never my doing so…” I said. He pulled me close and I rested with him holding me. Aiden and Rose just stared at us. I sighed and pulled away and grabbed some clothes. I put them on under the covers and Sam grabbed a pair of pants and did the same. Once I was dressed I threw Rose some clothes and she went in the other room to put them on. She came out looking awkward and ready to be wearing her traditional clothes again. I grinned at her and she grimaced back to me. I rolled out of bed and went outside. It was still chilly it was so early. I popped my head back in the hut and glared at them. “You got me up this early why?” I asked them. “This is normal time of day to get up in this village,” Rose told me. I rolled my eyes and left the hut with Sam. I went and found the dinining table with my eyes closed. Sam was following me just as tired. When I fell into the table I heard a lot of low chortling and I frowned. It was getting brighter and I could tell I was looking like a grouch. A guy came up behind me and yelled in my ear and I punched him in the stomach hard enough so that he was on the ground gasping for air. My eyes were still closed. Sam laughed. He sounded fully awake now. I put my head on his shoulder and he blew on my neck giving me goose bumps. I ruffled up and sat in my spot with perfect posture trying to chase the chill away. “Why does it have to feel like summer camp when I was twelve and I was forced out of bed at six in the morning?” I asked him. “It’s so cold this early…” I said trailing off. I called anger to me, thinking of that man beating Rose. I got really warm really fast. My hair started smoking and I stopped the emotion in its’ tracks. “That’s not working,” I said and pouted. I picked up the food in front of me and spat it out at the same time. I opened my eyes a sliver to see that it looked like a fried worm. I touched it with my finger. It moved. I screamed so loud that I heard the echos and ran away as fast as I could. I went to the bathroom and scrubbed my mouth with soap. Lily came in laughing her head off and I threw air at her. “I can’t believe you almost ate it too!” She said. I was boiling hot by now and then someone sprayed me with the shower head. I didn’t get wet, but there was a whole lot of steam. I stomped out with my hair still steaming and went back to the table. “Whose bright idea was that?” I yelled my voice like thunder. The entire village stared at me. Ivan was still laughing so hard he looked like he’d wet himself. I had the earth swallow him and he screamed. “Oh, you wuss.” I said and brought him back up. He stared at me with frightened eyes. I rolled mine and jogged off in the other direction. “Hey, where are you going?” A couple of guys asked me. “To somewhere I can get some decent not worms food.” I said. They laughed and fell behind. I ran off and when I got to a McDonalds I paid for my breakfast and jogged back. I was warm and awake now so they didn’t give me any issues. It was maybe six in the morning now and I was ready to start my day. It was weird. I went and found my swim suit and put it on. It covered less than my normal underwear. I grinned thinking of the reactions I was going to get. I walked out of my hut with that and a towel over my shoulder and I had every eye in the village. Sam came up behind me. “That is completely inappropriate,” he said with a grin. I laughed out loud. He went and got his swim suit on too and grabbed a shirt to go with it. I rolled my eyes as he came up behind me with a totally school dress code appropriate outfit on. “I wanna know, how do you have the nerve to completely discard all the rules?” Lily said coming up behind me. “My mom taught me not to care what people said behind my back because they’re a coward if they can’t say it to my face. Either way, if they’re talking behind your back it just means you’re two steps ahead anyway.” I told her. She stared at me. “But we’re talking to your face. Act by our standards, even our lowest standards, but you’re being lower than our lowest standards. You’re being…acting like the lowest form of woman and that’s saying something.” She said. I spun around. “I don’t change the way I act to fit in with anybody. I’m going swimming. If you have an issue with it than you need to get over it. If you think this is bad than you should leave the village for more than ten minutes and take a look at the people. They are modern women who have just as many rights as men. Get used to me and my modern culture because I’m comfortable the way I am. I’ve changed a lot to fit in with my village and that’s as much as I’m going to change.” I lectured at her. I looked at her and she looked absolutely appalled. “You were worse?!” She asked me. “The first night in the village I followed him into the guy’s dormitory because I was going to question him about some stuff and I didn’t know that that would have me stuck in the same bed as him. We got used to it but it shocked me how possessive he got after that. I’ve broken every rule except not cheating on him. I’ve insulted him many times, dishonored both of us, and left the village so many times without permission they had to give up on that.” I said to her. She stumbled. I laughed. “My culture is so different from yours.” I said and laughed. “Imagine these guys going to the swimming pool,” I said to Sam. He doubled up laughing. “They think it’s shocking on you and they haven’t even seen bikinis yet,” he said. I laughed so hard that he had to carry me out of the middle of the village. Lily was still following us. “Why don’t you go ask Ivan what a bikini is?” I told her. “Ivan!” She yelled into the guy’s dormitory. “Yeah?” He yelled back. “July told me to ask you what a bikini is!” She yelled. He turned so red that both me and Sam collapsed laughing so hard. “July!” He yelled at me. I was gasping for air. When he saw me he said, “It covers less than what she’s wearing right now. I know that’s hard to believe with how slutty that is but it’s possible. Just barely,” He said. I sent earth at him and he got a rock to the side of the head. I got launched twenty feet in the air by Lily and I flew and landed on the top of the hut. I laughed at her and she just stared at me. “How do you do that?” She asked me. “Very carefully,” I yelled down to her. I jumped down and laughed as I tumbled lightly. “And think if they saw our dancing,” I said to Sam. He was trying hard not to smile. This guy was staring him down. Then the guy struck Sam. I hit him harder and he whirled around and hit me harder than anybody had ever hit me before. My head was spinning but I called the elements to ground me. He saw my head stop ringing and tried to hit me again. “Don’t make me seriously fight you. I’ll win,” I said. He called earth to him and I saw that he had a few tattoos of his own. “Let’s find a better place for this,” I suggested. “Like where?” He asked. The guy was strong and confident. The kind of guy I might of liked before but that just annoyed me now. It was hard to imagine being attracted to a guy so stubborn about a girl being stronger than him. “Like maybe a mat for you and some kind of medal for me,” I said with a grin. He charged at me and I touched him with one finger telling spirit, //make him sleep.// He fell to the ground sound asleep. I laughed. “I told you to find a mat. I always win these fights.” I said. They were all staring at me. Again. //Wake him,// I whispered to my element. He pushed himself off the ground and charged at me. “I can put you to sleep for days if I want to.” I said to him. “Fight me fairly,” He demanded of me. “That’s fair,” I said. Sam came up and grabbed me by the wrist and started leading me to the hut again. I yanked my wrist free and I could feel the insulted look on my face. “You know way better than that,” I yelled at him, holding all the thunder out of my voice. I sounded oddly betrayed. He tried to punish me like any man would to a woman in the village. I slapped him hard. I had a big spectacle going. I focused on spirit and slowly had my body fade away into mist and I floated away on the air in an amazing feeling of freedom. I got home and started painting. I painted my betrayal and I painted my anger. I wrote the things I couldn’t paint. I put on a simple outfit of jeans and a tank top. I went jogging around the town and felt warm and loose when I got home again. Home felt like an alien place. I sat for a while wondering why this place seemed so empty. I went to my pond and I felt like I was home from a horrible day. I had the earth evelope me gently and I drew strength and thought from it. I called water and had it cushion my head with its’ gentle nature and had fire keep me warm and air blew gently at my hair. I called to spirit and I went into the spirit realm. I floated and drifted in this realm and this meditation ended when I started to get hungry. I came back and I felt so relaxed I knew I could face the world. I called the elements to make me a mirror and I looked ancient and powerful and wise. I had a calm aura to me and I looked strong. I went back to the village to face Sam. I was in comfortable clothes and I glanced at my arm without thinking about it and did a double take. All my tattoos were gone. I went to the bathroom and saw that I looked like a normal girl. I shrugged and let it go. I didn’t need tattoos to tell me I was special. I told my streak to hide. I told it to turn into my usual hair color and it went back to the way it had been my whole life. I looked so average right now I couldn’t help it. I went and put on traditional tribal clothes. I walked around like a normal villager. Nobody noticed me. After I’d eaten I went into the girl’s dorm and slept and nobody noticed me. At breakfast the next morning they were all frantic searching for me. I kept a straight face and just ate like I didn’t mind the chaos that was happening. I put all of my walls up and when they had Rya try to find me and she couldn’t they went into a panic. They told Sam to try his hardest and he couldn’t find me either. They told him to search in the spirit realm and I focused on my spirit and told it to become the same as everybody else’s. He couldn’t find me anywhere. They were in such a panic that I got up and walked right by Sam. He didn’t notice me and after I got back from washing my dishes I went and did the normal women’s chores. Nobody noticed the extra set of hands working. I laughed at their chaos and their panic every once in a while, quiet enough so that they didn’t notice. Sam ran past me probably six times asking the women in my group if they’d seen me. I smiled to myself every time they told him no. I was happy to see the women finish early because of me and then they went to the men to ask what they wanted us to do. They told them to search for me and they gave them my picture. It was a picture of me when I’d had all my tattoos and my silver streak. I saw Sam sobbing in the corner of the hut we were all in. My heart went out to him. I could feel my tattoos wanting to burst through. I made the elements turn me invisible and came back with all of my tattoos and my streak. Nobody noticed me since I was heading toward Sam. “Hey, don’t cry,” I said to him. He looked up and hit me so hard that I heard my nose break. He kept attacking me with a ferocious onslaught that had me scared for my life. Then I remembered that I was the stronger of us. I put him to sleep and they all stared at me. “Lily!” I yelled to her. She came running and her eyes bugged at me. “Can you fix me?” I asked her. She nodded and set my nose and healed me. “Spirit awaken him and water and spirit, touch his mind and soul, repairing any damage done and bring him back to me in something…nonviolent.” I told the elements. He woke up but his anger boiled. “I can’t believe you ran away from the village and then shut us all out! I thought you were dead!” He screamed at me. “Don’t ever grab me and try to treat me like normal girl. I’m so much more and I will not put up with it. Since you were treating me like a normal woman in this village, I acted it for the day. You walked by me at least seven times and you never noticed me! How is that my fault?” I asked him calmly. They all stared at me. I calmed myself and meditated. I didn’t let my tattoos disappear. “If you ever hit me again boy…” I threatened him. “I will not be abused,” I told him and the authority in my voice had his attention. It broke through his anger. He broke through the water that was binding him and he grabbed me and held me tight. He sobbed into me. The shock had my mind pitching and turning not able to decide if I was angry or not. He took me back to the hut and he wouldn’t let me go. He held me and sobbed himself to sleep. I slipped out of his arms and sat in the corner. Then I went into the other room. His reactions were scaring me. He woke up and he yelled for me. “Give me a minute,” I said to him. “Why are you in here?” He asked me. “Give me room,” I said. His brow furrowed but he did as I asked. I meditated. I had the earth engulf me and the water cool my face and join my tears in fear and terror. Fire slipped in and out of my palms as jolts of anger flooded me. Air surrounded me and kept me alive but it caressed my bruised skin and spirit held me in a tight grip to keep me from insanity. I was truly afraid. I had never been this afraid in my life. I came up and told him, “I’ll be back,” He protested behind me but when he tried to grab me I burned him. It wasn’t even a choice. I was angry in that moment. I used my link to Rya to lead me to her. She was trying to figure out where I was still. “Rya,” I called to her. She spun on the spot and shot at me like an arrow. She hugged me hard. “I need to talk.” I told her. She nodded. I told her about Sam’s reaction to me coming back to him. “How did you disappear off the map completely, with absolutely no trace of you?” She asked me. “I took off my tattoos and my streak. I cloaked my spirit to make it look like a normal villagers’ and I worked as a normal woman all day. It wasn’t hard, really.” I said. She nodded. “It was so…scary. We’d thought a demon had gotten you when you ran away from Sam.” She said. “Yeah…but his reaction was scary. It was like he’d thought I was dead but when I wasn’t he tried to kill me. He broke my nose.” I said rubbing the bruise on my nose. Her eyebrows shot up. “That is scary.” She said. “I’m scared to be around him now. He seems happy to have me back but being around somebody that has done that to me that much…I’m not sure I can just forgive and forget about that.” I said. “Do you still love him?” She asked me. “At this moment, I can’t think clearly enough to know.” I said to her. She nodded. “Take us to the spirit realm.” She told me. I did this with such ease it was like breathing. My sash wasn’t the same red as it had been. Now it was a sad color of gray and when I touched it there was a lot of mistrust going through my head. “He doesn’t trust me anymore.” I said to her. She nodded. “Then you need to earn it back. It might be hard but touch your end of it.” I did as she told me to and there was a lot of anger and fear, but there was so much love in it at the same time that my mind was overwhelmed. “How do I fix it?” I asked her. “I don’t know!” She said, sounding irritated. “That’s a question for a shaman. I’d say go to Sam, but he’s involved and it takes someone who isn’t involved to find a solution.” She said. She brought me back to my body and we walked. “I’m scared of him now, but I still love him. I was going for the joke of the century but it turned out to be hurtful.” I said to her. “Been there, done that.” She said. We got to the shaman’s hut in no time at all and I told Rya everything. We came into the shaman’s hut and it instantly got silent. “A shaman coming to another shaman?” One man said. “I told you a woman couldn’t handle the duties.” Another man said. “Look, I came for advice and if I can’t get that respectfully here then I’ll get it someplace else.” I said. “Where else are you going to go to get it? That boy of yours doesn’t trust you going to your own hut without him anymore.” The first man said. I’d taken out my tattoos in the spirit realm. I’d taken out my silver streak as well. I felt the ancient sadness creep into my eyes and I saw a glowing and the silver streak came back. I could see through Rya’s eyes that I looked absolutely ancient and absolutely broken. She could see I looked broken enough that it got their attention. “That’s why I’m here. I don’t know how to get his trust back. I’m as afraid of him now as much as he doesn’t trust me.” I said. They asked me to tell them. I told them of the scene. Their eyes got wide. “It was proper punishment.” One man said. “I did what a woman is expected to do. You wanted me normal so I did normal for a day and made myself unnoticeable and he hit me. Hard.” I said. “I can see why you’re afraid.” A female voice came from the back. I knew immediately that she was an herb woman. Wiser than most and with enough nerve to speak out in front of shaman or a man in general. “I’ve heard all of what you said. This isn’t a question for men. Only a woman would know how to answer this kindly and without criticism.” She said glaring at the men in the hut who had insulted me. She offered me her hand and I rose. She took me to another hut and she talked to me for a long time. I showed her our sashes. “You have lost his trust, but who would trust you not to run off after how much you’ve run off?” She asked me. “I guess nobody would. But I feel like a little kid always having to tell people where I’m going and having to get permission.” I complained. “I get that. With your culture it must be near impossible for you.” She said. I nodded and she shook her head. “If you intend to marry him, or any man from any of the villages you’re going to have to become accustomed to our culture.” She said. I nodded. “It’ll be complicated but I do love him.” I said. She nodded. There was a lot of nodding going on. I heard him calling my name all of a sudden. I poked my head out of the door and he saw me. He came up to me and scolded me. I stared at the ground and felt the ancient sadness breaking through. My face got warm and the tears poured down my face. I cried silently while he yelled at me for running off without telling him where I was going. I didn’t let my shoulders shake and I didn’t look at him. I stared at my feet with my hair in front of my face and hiding behind it. I felt so exposed and so…insecure. These weren’t emotions I was accustomed to. They made me angry at first but then I realized that I had let him down in the worst way. I felt myself breaking and I couldn’t keep my shoulders from shaking with my silent sobs. He was pacing and speaking in a low voice that was frightening. “Look at me!” He suddenly yelled. I flinched away from him and my hands came up weakly. He came towards me and I backed up fear coursing through me in torrents that were unmanageable. He came closer and his voice kept getting angrier and angrier. I couldn’t make my ears function enough to understand what he was saying. Once he’d backed me up to the hut I had just come out of and he kept coming at me I curled up a ball and covered my head. I was sobbing so hard I couldn’t understand anything but the fear. I started shaking. I was so horrified that I wanted to throw up. I was gasping for air and I couldn’t…feel anything besides his harsh tone. I felt my spirit rip and I couldn’t even scream. I sobbed harder and my will to stay conscious was erased. Everything went black. I woke up with him standing over me looking so pissed that I tried to crawl away. “Don’t you try and run from me!” He yelled at me. He yelled with so much hate. All my walls came down. He fell over with the weight of it. He got up and kept coming at me. The fear engulfed me so thoroughly that I could barely breath. He stopped. The herb woman came and crouched beside my panicking body. I heard her voice and the soothing tone. My breathing came a little easier. I was still gasping and then Rya was there with Isaiah at her side. Isaiah grabbed Sam and made him be quiet. Rya helped the herb woman pick me up and they took me to the infirmary. Once some of the fear eased I got up and ran to the bathroom to throw up everything I’d eaten in the past two days. Rya held my hair and she soothed me with water. It helped a little but the fear was so immense. She took me back to the infirmary and they held me there for a week. I didn’t remember who I was or my confidence. They came and visited me often. They let Sam in for a little more each day. The exposure to my fear had me shaking all over again at first but as the week wore on and he began to see how much fear that encompassed me he was gentler in tone and touch. He sat down on the bed and would just hold my hand. He’d kiss my hand and I’d be afraid for a second but the regret in his eyes made me calm. On the last day he lay with me for a long time. After maybe an hour I scooted close to him and he held me. I was still afraid but I was getting braver and the fear was receding. They made me get out of bed that day and get my own food. When I saw all the people and they saw me, I was so afraid. The fear surprised them. Sam looked so sad, so…guilty. He knew that I wouldn’t be the same. Rya took my hand and led me to where the food was. Rose took my other hand and they got me over there simply because they were the only ones I trusted. I got food and I started heading back to the infirmary but they dragged me to the least populated table. There were so many people. My hands were shaking hard and it was a wonder that I didn’t drop my food. I sat and ate and then before they could drag me I went back to the infirmary. I curled up in a ball and I couldn’t feel anything but fear. Sam came in and he scooted in next to me. He picked me up and put me in his lap. I was tense for a moment and then I relaxed. I remembered this. I was starting to see past the time that I’d fainted, to remember how brave I was before. I relaxed into him and it felt right. He put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up till my face was inches from his. He kissed me gently. It was the first time he’d kissed me since I’d fainted and I just vaguely remembered it. I remembered kissing him so much, but I didn’t remember what it meant. What it meant to him, to me, to the village; especially to the village was what I was worried about. I pulled away and just sat. I wasn’t afraid. But I wasn’t confident either. I just knew that I didn’t want to kiss him right now. He sighed and he sounded so miserable. Somebody came into the infirmary and immediately I hid. When I saw it was just Rya I went and sat on my bed. She looked worried but she looked to Sam. “Maybe we should take her to the spirit realm,” She said to him. He got up and grabbed her hand. He grabbed mine too and I didn’t pull away. Then, it was like I was out of my body. I noticed my smooth and clear skin, and how pale it was. I looked almost dead. It was scary. I saw the aura around my body and it was a deep confused purple and the outline of it was a bright green to signify fear. I looked at my spirit and remembered a little more. But not enough. They stared at me and they looked utterly afraid. Sam came and held me tight. I was broken and he knew it. He brought us back to our bodies and he paced. A man came in and grabbed him. Three more men came and started beating him. I looked outside the hut and I saw that the village was under attack. I came back in and battered ineffectually at their arms. One hit me in the face and I heard a crunch. I gasped and held my nose. I was about to go for Lily but then I saw her forced in and put on her knees. They started beating her. They brought in Rose and started beating her. They knocked out Rya before she could do anything to stop them and they brought all of the women of the village in and started beating them. A new emotion burst through my mind. It was hot and it was wild. I didn’t know how to control it. My mind whispered to me. “I’m mad,” I said and they all looked at me and laughed. One guy came and hit me. Memory flooded back to me. I remembered my anger. I hit him back. He hit me even harder. I remembered my pain. I hit him harder still. He kicked me in the chest and I flew back. I remembered my fight, my will to go against the norm. I kicked him with a square karate kick. Three men at once charged at me. I remembered my power. I called the elements to me and there was a bright flash of light. I looked at my body and all the tattoos were back. They all charged me and started beating me. I remembered who I was. One more punch and everything I’d forgotten flooded into my mind. The anger was stronger than all three of them. I beat all of them till they were all weak and unconscious. I burst through the doors and protectors were attacking other protectors. I knew who was from this village and I used the earth to capture the rest. All at once I captured them and they all looked around shocked. I saw fighting still going on. “Enough!” I yelled. My voice was as loud as thunder. The power and the authority that was in my voice had everybody’s attention. I attacked the men who weren’t from my village with brutal force and then I was facing four protectors at once. “One woman? Is that all your village has to fight us?” They taunted me. They attacked me all at once and I was hit hard from every direction. I focused and I meditated. Calm flooded through me and I saw how to take each protector down. I moved faster than even I could keep track of. I struck each protector with deadly precision and they each fell to their knees. I put each of them to sleep. I went into the spirit realm and put each man who wasn’t from my village to sleep. The people watched in awe as their attackers fell. Once the fight was done I went back into the infirmary and healed anybody who needed it. They all stared at me in shock and I didn’t bother to tell them what had happened. I hid all of my tattoos and my streak and then woke up Rya and Sam. They looked around, completely mystified. I helped Sam up and stepped into his arms. He held me for a long time, not sure if I was me again or not. I decided he needed a hint. I pulled away and reached up and kissed him. His reaction was instant. He kissed me so fervently that I had to remind him that people were watching. He dragged me to our hut and told me nobody was watching. I smiled at him and kissed him for a very long time. When we woke up around dinner time we went and got our food. We ate together and I was summoned by the elders. I grabbed Sam’s hand and went to them. They looked at me and saw that I still didn’t have my tattoos. Or my streak. “What does this mean?” The oldest of them asked me. “Oh, nothing; I just didn’t feel like having tattoos right now.” I said. They all stared at me and I called my wisdom and my strength and brought back my tattoos and my streak. They stared in wonder as my tattoos laced their way from my forehead down to my legs. They watched as my streak shone into existence. They gawked and I sat down with them. I smoothly plucked a grape off of Rya’s plate and she halfheartedly swatted at my hand. They stared at me. “This morning you were afraid to even be around anybody but a select few to the point of fainting. And now you have the nerve of a stubborn ox. What happened?” One woman asked. “I saw them beating my friends, my fiancé, and when they started beating me I remembered who I was and what my attitude was. I remembered my fight and my anger.” I said. Sam had sat next to me and I snuggled into him. They didn’t say anything but I could tell they didn’t appreciate it. One guy looked like he wanted to say something so I stared him down. He gave up quickly. We went to our hut afterwards and we sat and talked for a long time. I told him everything that happened to me that day. He nodded and told me what had happened to him that day. I went to the spirit realm and our sash was a trustful whitish pink. I touched it and I felt the renewed trust and the care that we felt for each other. I felt the purity of our love for each other, knowing what it was like to live in fear and guilt. The vines that had once been central now paled and the flowers bloomed with a ferocity and brilliance that was breathtaking. I went back to him I snuggled into him for a long time and we slept. When we woke up the next morning, we got dressed and went to breakfast. I was given a hero’s greeting and I smiled and drew myself up in pride. I sat down with Rya and called Isaiah and Jenny over, along with Aiden and Rose and Ivan and Lily. They all sat next to us and Rya called over Qwen. I smiled at my family and my friends. They asked question and I answered them. I was summoned by the elders and I told them if the messenger I’d talk to them if they came over here or they could wait a while. His eyes bugged out so far that I was reminded of a cartoon. His jaw had dropped and I was hoping for a fly to fly in. “You don’t understand, you can’t ignore a summon by the elders.” He said. “I’m not ignoring them, I’m telling them to wait. I’m eating with friends and family that I didn’t trust or remember for the last week.” I said. He looked worried and went back to them. I could hear their gasps of outrage from my table twenty feet away. I heard somebody getting up and came over. They picked me up and started for the men’s dormitory. I made myself a spirit and went back to my table. I finished my meal quickly while he tried to figure out where I’d gone. When he saw me again he came at me with a harder stride and he actually looked mad. He went to grab me again and I made my spirit the dominant center in my body making me slightly transparent and he couldn’t grab me. Everybody stared at me. He turned and hit Sam and my anger was impossible to control. I zapped him with fire and he jumped and scooted his way to the infirmary clutching his butt. I stuck my tongue out at his back. I became solid again. I rolled my eyes and searched Sam for a bruise. He sat there and let me check him over and then told me to go see the elders. I shook my head. “They can wait a while. I don’t care how much power they have, sometimes you have to wait.” I said. The herb woman who I still didn’t know the name of came over and grabbed my ear. She dragged me over to the elders. “Okay, okay, okay, I’ll come, I’ll come!” I said trying to get her to let go of my ear. The elders glared at me when I joined them at their table. “Now what is so important that you had to drag me away from my friends and family?” I asked them knowing I was pouting like a little kid. “What are we going to do with the sleeping warriors?” One woman asked me. I shrugged. “What tribe were they from and why did they attack us?” I asked them. “Don’t you know?” One man asked me. “If I knew I wouldn’t be asking. Either way I’ve been around the villages for barely more than a month.” I said. A couple of them nodded. “They are our enemy tribe, we’ve always hated them. We attack each other on regular intervals. It seems it’s a time of war not that we have been attacked.” A man said. “Why? Why do you need to fight? Why can’t we just not retaliate and wait for them to figure out that we’re not going to attack and see what they do?” I asked them. Their eyes got wide. “They want our land.” The oldest of them said. “How much land?” I asked them. “Enough of this foolishness. She is only one small girl. She doesn’t even know what she’s talking about!” A man I didn’t recognize said coming up to the table with a man holding each of his arms. “