Chapter 4: Momentary Quiet
“Concentrate!”
Saede heard the word lash out just a fraction before a hand bopped her on the back of the head. She looked up guiltily at Alannari, who was standing off to the side, glowering.
“What by the Living Force was that?”
“I...I got distracted...”
Lana arched an eyebrow slightly, looking down at her. “Well, that much is more than apparent. I’m not going to ask what distracted you, because I can assure you that I don’t want to know. Now, try it again.”
Nodding slowly, she closed her eyes again. Saede knew that Alannari did indeed want to know what was on her mind, and would ask about it later. During training sessions like this, Lana tended to be harsher, more demanding than at other, more relaxed, times, where they would sit and talk.
She’d been with the Singing Mountain clan for over four months now, as close as she could guess. Alannari had taken her under her wing, becoming her mentor not only in the ways of the clan, but also in the ways of what the sisters called the “Living Force.” She’d spent long weeks first teaching Saede the language before she would even speak of the living force to her in any great detail. Struggling through each day, Saede would collapse on her cot in Niara’s hut every evening, surprisingly exhausted by such a purely mental exercise. After Alannari was finally satisfied that Saede could at least converse in a civilized manner, she started on what she called the “real” training. It didn’t take long for Saede to agree that if she thought she’d been exhausted before, she obviously didn’t know the meaning of the word before now.
Everyday, Alannari would come to Niara’s hut, waking her up at dawn. A quick trip down to the river, and a hurried breakfast later, they would find themselves in the forest, trekking to whatever site Lana had decided training would be at that day. It was like nothing Saede had ever done in her life. The absolute dedication and concentration that Lana demanded of her was astounding. But it only made her try harder, not willing to disappoint this woman who seemed to be putting every ounce of life she had into teaching Saede what she knew.
They worked on a number of things, some of them making little sense to Saede until much later. Lana spoke of the powers many of the sisters had, demonstrating several of her own, the most impressive being her ability to call up a localized windstorm. The first time she did it, Saede had spent a nerve-wracking five minutes holed up under an outcropping of rocks while Alannari stood, untouched by any of the flying debris, smirking at her new apprentice.
Every few days, some time after they had stopped for the noon meal, Niara would appear out of the forest, nodding once to Alannari before beckoning Saede to follow her. It seemed to be some prearranged agreement between her mentor and her friend, but Lana never spoke of it, nor did Niara. Her friend would take her out, teaching her more mundane lessons, like which plants were good to eat, what could be made into medicine, what were the most deadly poisons known to the tribe. She taught her about the animals, hunting and trapping techniques, the ability to track a creature through the thickest parts of the forest. Sometimes these lessons would last until well past dark, and the two would hurry back to the village, speaking in hushed tones about what Saede had learned that day while they readied for bed.
Saede sighed, trying to clear her mind of all distractions. Lana had been especially concentrating on this, once she realized just how inept her protégé was at it. She said that it was a way to draw strength from the life around you, to ground yourself, gain some sort of insight. Lana claimed that it relaxed her, enabling her to find a certain peace with herself and the world around her. Saede only found it frustrating. Each time she tried to clear her mind of everything around her, she just found her mind instead drifting to thoughts of things that weren’t there. Or, more accurately, of people who weren’t there. This annoyed Alannari to no end, and they had been drilling this for the last two weeks with no variation. Saede had found many places that she excelled in, the ability to lift objects, manipulating fine tools, sensing the emotions of another person, even a certain danger sense that Lana said that of all things, would serve her best. But this, this was not one of her strong points. Lana said that this was vital in the ability to shield herself from the senses of others, keep them out of her own thoughts, something that she wouldn’t be able to learn until she at least had a rudimentary ability to clear her mind.
They sat in silence for several more minutes before Saede felt another person approaching. She opened her eyes, emerald gaze searching eagerly for her friend. Lana quirked an eyebrow at her, frowning slightly.
“I told you to clear your mind, little one. Not seek out those who approach. If you had been following my instructions like you ought to, you wouldn’t even know that Niara was coming.” At the last word, Niara slipped into the small clearing, nodding at Lana with a smile, a pair of spears slung over one shoulder.
Alannari made a mock exasperated sound. “We’ll get nothing more accomplished today, I can see that already.” And with that, she turned, making her way slowly back to the village, just as she always did.
Saede unfolded herself from her seat on the ground, loping over to Niara with a grin. Her friend smirked at her, falling into an easy stride as they headed off into the forest.
“Long day I take it? You’re never this happy to see me,” she teased, tossing Saede one of the spears as they ran.
She gave a small nod, smiling as she caught the spear deftly. “Alannari had me concentrating on nothingness again. After seven hours of that, I’d be glad to see Koranthis!”
The two friends roared with laughter, disappearing into the trees.
*****
“You know Karina, people are starting to talk.”
Saede looked over at Niara in surprise, shifting her weight slightly. They’d been sitting in a tree for the last two hours, wedged against the trunk. She sat a few feet above her friend, spear balanced carefully on her knees. They were waiting over a small animal trail that headed back and forth to the river that Saede had discovered on their previous trip out. It had been just before sunset, so they decided to come back another day, vowing to bring back something before their next hunting trip was up. So here they were, waiting in a tree, occasionally speaking softly to each other, but mostly sitting silently, eyes keeping a steady watch on trail below them.
Niara continued, keeping an eye on the trail, “You don’t have a slave Karina. The other women think that it’s high time you had someone to take care of you…”
She chuckled softly, turning her gaze back to the trail. Most of the women of the tribe had slaves. A man who stayed in their hut, cooking, cleaning, helping them get ready for the day. For many women though, their slaves were far more than that. They would take them as a mate, or a husband, someone with a far more equal place in their partnership. Neither she nor Niara had one, but Niara apparently had a good excuse. She’d had one, but not long before Saede came to the tribe, he had died in a sickness that had swept the village, taking the lives of several people before the elders were able to find a way to combat the illness.
Saede just didn’t agree with the idea of anyone being a slave, even if the partnership was equal in some cases. It just didn’t sit right with her, and she hadn’t gone out of her way looking for a slave, like many of the other women her age would. Some of them would spend months in the wilderness, waiting for a sign that would lead them to the man that would give them a daughter. It bothered her on some deeper level, and she had sworn that she would never go out on one of those vision quests, or participate in the slave raids that some of the other women would plan on neighboring clans. Surprisingly enough, the raids were all in good cheer, and it was considered bad form to steal a slave back after he had been rightfully taken. It all confused Saede to no end, and she had just decided that she wanted no part of it.
“I also don’t have a hut for him to clean, or a hearth for him to keep warm…”
“Or your own bed for him to keep warm,” Niara said with a coy smile thrown in Saede’s direction.
She felt herself growing slightly red on her cheeks, but she kept her eyes fixed resolutely on the trail. “I don’t need anyone to warm my bed, it’s warm enough on its own, thank you.”
Niara barked out a short laugh, stifling the sound quickly though. She looked up at her with a twinkle in her eye. Saede tried to frown, looking very serious for a moment before the corners of her lips started to twitch. They both started to giggle softly, the giggling turning into guffawing laughter before they were able to get themselves back under control, snickering softly, tears streaming down their faces.
*****
About an hour before sunset, the two made their way back towards the village, a brace of darithas, small herbivorous mammals, slung over Saede’s shoulder. The conversation after Niara’s mention of slaves had taken a lighter turn, mostly talking about what they would like to see happen to Koranthis given half a chance. None of it was serious, but it relieved a lot of the tension that Saede couldn’t do anything about in the Koran department.
If Saede thought that things would get better as time progressed with that woman, she was sorely mistaken. She had taken Niara’s advice at first, just avoiding the woman. Perhaps Koranthis would forget about her immediate dislike of Saede. But it seemed as though that woman was hell bent on making her life miserable. It was nothing overt, but Saede would often find things she had left outside missing, or broken. This community was as safe as could be, no one stole, no one caused trouble like that. No one else had this problem with things disappearing, and she eventually stopped leaving projects outside. She couldn’t catch Koranthis or her cronies doing anything, but she and Niara knew it had to be her. She also made sure to avoid the river if she knew that Koran would be there. She was tired of getting poked, tripped, and prodded while she bathed, was tired of the dirty looks and snide comments. Now especially that she understood the language, things had come to hit terribly close to home.
Koranthis hadn’t done anything as overt as she had that first day at the river, but Saede was far more likely to avoid any confrontation with her anyway, not wanting to tempt fate. She had spoke with Alannari about it once, and her answer had been less than encouraging.
“Koranthis is a very unhappy woman, little one. For many reasons, I might add, not just because of you. But you’re an easy person to blame Karina, and if Koranthis needed anything, it was someone to blame. For a very long time, she thought that I would take her as my student when the time came. There was no way that I could. There is too much anger in her, too much frustration with herself, too much fear of others.”
Saede had looked at her oddly, and Lana nodded.
“Yes, fear. She is afraid that she isn’t good enough. Afraid that she is never going to be as strong as everyone thinks she is. And you coming here, it is a perfect excuse for her. She can say that it’s your fault that I didn’t take her as a student, that you tricked me with some power offworlders wield, thus belittling both of us.”
And those were indeed the stories that had started circulating very shortly after her appearance in the village. But it didn’t take long for many of the women to start ignoring Koranthis. Once they got to know Saede, they quickly saw the shallow purpose behind Koran’s words. There were several women who stuck with the clans woman on this subject, but the majority of the village understood what was really happening.
She sighed softly, shaking her head to herself. She would never understand it all, but she would keep trying to avoid problems with her as much as she could. It was hard, since Koranthis really was going out of her way to cause trouble.
As they neared the center of the village, loud voices started to float out towards them, though the words were lost at this distance. Niara looked quizzically at Saede, then smiled.
“Sounds like the raiding party is back. Let’s go see what Koranthis has to brag about this time.”
She nodded, shooting Niara a nasty grin. “Especially since she’s come back empty handed from the last two raids.”
The two took off at a fast paced trot, coming up on a clearing just outside of the village quickly. The words floating on the wind became clearer as they got closer, one of the middle aged women of the tribe, the leader of this particular expedition, a raid on the Spider Clan, was standing at the center of the gathering, loudly proclaiming news of their exploits, brave deeds by those involved, and of course, the slaves taken.
Saede scanned the small group of women standing in the center of the clearing, whistling softly to herself. They had been successful on this trip. Every last one of the women who had gone on the raid had a slave beside them. Her eyes met Koranthis’ gaze, and the taller woman smirked at her, raising a man’s hand into view, eyes flashing a challenge. Any woman in the clan who took a liking to another’s slave were more than welcome to challenge that person for the rights to that slave. It seemed like Koranthis was just itching for a reason to fight, but Saede wasn’t going to give her any excuse. She looked away, breaking their visual contact, gaze flitting to the young man whose hand Koranthis clutched so closely.
And he was young, probably closer to Niara’s age than Koranthis, who was a few years older than Saede. He was staring rather pointedly at the ground, looking a little worse for wear. A large bruise bloomed over the left side of his face, the upper edge a jagged break in his tanned skin. Long, brown hair was tied back out of his face, giving everyone a good view of a strong jaw line, and high, elegant cheekbones. His jaw was set, obviously trying to keep completely neutral, but as he lifted his face to look up at the gathering crowd, Saede could see that he was fighting back tears. Soft, chocolate brown eyes glanced up for a moment, meeting her gaze for a fleeting second before he looked back down at the ground.
She felt her heart ache for a moment, partly for the completely lost look on the boy’s face, though more specifically, the fact that while they didn’t look anything a like, it was the same look that Nico had given her the night before he left. The same look that had often saddened his face in the weeks, the months before they parted ways. The look that said that he didn’t know what to do anymore, and wasn’t sure if there was anything that he could do.
Saede felt a hand on her arm, and she pulled her gaze away from the young man to look over at Niara. Her friend had an odd look in her eyes, searching Saede’s face for a moment before gently pulling her out of the crowd.
Her voice was very soft, an almost wondering quality to it, presumably because of the look on Saede’s face. “Come on Karina, let’s get these cleaned.”
Saede had completely forgotten about the darithas hanging limply from one hand. She nodded, taking one last long look over her shoulder at Koranthis’s new slave. Niara walked back to the hut with her in silence, completely blown away by the thought that perhaps, Karina had finally been taken by a man, even if he did already belong to her staunchest enemy. Perhaps there was hope for her yet.
*****
The next weeks passed quietly, much the same as the last weeks and months had gone. She had her lessons with Lana, and went hunting with Niara, lived day to day, and slept soundly at night.
But Koranthis had stepped up her own obnoxious tendencies, taking every chance she had to rub it in Saede’s face that she had a slave, and Saede didn’t. She didn’t correct her, tell her that she didn’t want one, but her temper was starting to run thin.
It wasn’t even just that Koranthis was being a complete prat about the whole thing. It was her treatment of the young man. Saede’d learned that his name was Kyrshi one day down at the river. Koranthis had been out, doing the Force only knew what, and Kyrshi was there by the river, dutifully washing his master’s clothes. She’d approached slowly, not sure exactly how the slave of someone who hated her so thoroughly would react to her presence. But he’s remained quite, giving her a shy smile and ducking his head back to his work when their eyes met for a moment. She took that moment to really look over him, wondering who he really was, where he’d come from. It had taken months, but she was fairly sure she could tell the slight differences between the tribes now by appearance, and she was convinced that he must come from the Spider Clan. Something about the slight almond shape of his eyes, and higher cheekbones gave it away.
She turned away, ashamed with herself for scrutinizing the poor kid like that. It hadn’t been that long ago that she was the outsider, being studied like some oddity by some of the clan.
Saede smiled kindly at him as she saw him risk another glance up at her. She really didn’t mind, and she did look distinctly different from the golden skinned, dark haired natives. He’d probably never seen a red head before. She finished up quickly though, because while she could rationalize it, it still made her more than a little bit uncomfortable. Drying off, she stepped back into her clothing, tying the wrap skirt snuggly around her hips. She was about to start heading back to the village when she heard a voice speaking behind her, almost to softly for her to catch.
“Your name is Karinadath, isn’t it?”
She turned slowly, emerald eyes finding the boy still crouched at the water’s edge, but now unmoving, his bare back extremely tense as though waiting for a blow to fall. Taking a few steps she paused less than a meter behind him.
“Yes... And you’re name is...”
Her voice trailed off as she got a good look at his back. There were bruises marching up and down his back. They were subtle, but at this distance, more than readily apparent. Some looked a week or two old, but she’d be a bantha’s uncle if at least several of them hadn’t been inflicted in the last few days. If Koranthis was doing this to him… but it would have to be her. The raid had taken place weeks ago, and no one else would lay a hand on another person’s slave in such a manner.
“Kyrshi.” He kept his eyes turned towards the water, and she wasn’t sure if it was merely habit, or something else.
They stood like that for a few minutes in silence, not knowing what could possibly be going through the other’s mind. The chasm that separated them was immeasurable, and Saede didn’t even know what to say.
Finally she spoke up, her voice rather soft. “I don’t think it’s my place to say, but if you ever need anything, please, just ask.” She didn’t know what possessed her to say such a thing to someone else’s slave. And from the slight change in his posture, he didn’t know exactly what to make of it himself. He didn’t turn around or look at her, but nodded, very slowly, knowing exactly what she was speaking of.
A few more silent moments passed before she turned, heading back up towards the village. She mentally berated herself for what she had just said. You just don’t say things like that to someone else’s slave! Especially not Koranthis’. She just hoped that it wouldn’t come back and bite her later. But he’d seemed so vulnerable, so helpless there for a moment that her heart really did go out to him. No one deserved to be treated that way, especially someone who was barely more than a child.
*****
Niara was being particularly secretive, Saede thought, as they traipsed through the forest, on their way back after a three day hunting trek. She’d been chattering about their luck, and Saede had to admit, they had an extremely lucky trip. It was a good thing that they had brought one of the rancors with them, a young female named Darsh who had recently taken a bit of a liking to Saede. More so than that, Lana had been speaking about something called Bonding, where a rancor would choose a rider for the rest of their life, refusing the carry another. It reminded her much of what the Sand people and Banthas did back home on Tatooine. The concept both thrilled and frightened her, but she hadn’t really spoken of it yet, just content to spend the last three days in such wonderful company.
As they entered the village, Niara swerved off from their usual path, taking them slightly to the left, towards the eastern outskirts of the village. Saede followed, looking at her friend quizzically, patting Darsh’s flank absently before the rancor lopped off to join her own kind at the watering hole. They threaded their way through several of the huts, stopping in front of a small, two person dwelling that Saede was unfamiliar with.
She quirked an eyebrow as Niara ducked into the place with a lopsided grin, then shrugged, entering behind her friend. The hut was sparsely furnished, a cot with a single fur and woven blanket, several mostly empty selves, holding only a couple food jugs. A large water urn sat under the shelves, and a new set of woven rugs gathered around the fire pit. A small, rough hewn table sat near the door, a small crystalline clay bowl gracing the top.
She walked over, picking up the bowl and turning it over once in her hands. This was her bowl! Saede had only completed it a few weeks ago, and for all of the work she had put into it, there was no way that she would forget even a single fingerprint etched into the strange river clay.
Looking up at Niara in confusion, she spoke up, “Who lives here, and why do they have my bowl?”
Niara tried to keep a straight face, but her stern expression crumbled into a huge grin.
“It’s yours! Everyone pitched in to put it up before we got back!”
Laughter and cries of good luck echoed from outside. Saede turned around, looking in shock and warming surprise at the gathering of women outside of the hut. Her hut. She turned to Niara with tears in her eyes, taking a few steps to hug her friend tightly. They embraced, and then headed outside, amongst hoots of congratulations and friendly jibes involving the fact that now she’d spend long lonely nights in such a small hut without anyone to share it with. But for that moment, she didn’t mind. She felt, at least then, that after this, she’d never feel truly alone again.
*****
Her hut slowly began to fill out, each week becoming more and more her home rather than just a place to sleep. Several of the woman gave her gifts for good luck in her new hut. Wooden bowls, new furs, a second cot from Niara with whispered teasing of how all she had to do now was find someone to sleep in it. And a beautifully carved chest from Alannari, a warm, honeyed wood that almost seemed to gleam in the low firelight of the hut.
Everything was falling into place for her it seemed. Eventually, even Koranthis backed off a bit, seeming to have come down from her personal high of being a slave owner. It helped that Saede didn’t seem at all phased by the jibes, and eventually things just went back to normal. For a few weeks, Saede felt truly comfortable, excelling in her studies with Lana, becoming more and more attuned with the forest they lived in, loosening up around other members of the clan. Things were just clicking left and right for her, and nothing could ruin her good mood.
Saede smiled softly to herself as she ducked into her hut at the end of a long day with Lana, mentally going over the exercises her mentor had given her. She froze, hand still in the process of lifting up the fur covering her door as she realized that someone was inside. His back was to her, and she let out an involuntary gasp at the sight of it. Long gashes, as though he’d been beaten with a strip of wuffa leather crossed his back, maybe only a day old, no longer bleeding, but still an angry red.
Saede stood there, dumbfounded, as Kyrshi turned around slowly, chocolate eyes meeting hers.
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