RangerWickett
Legend
Elements of Magic.
The cold confusion vanishes, and warmth embraces you with rough hands. Then the dirt is moved from your eyes, and you see a violet-gold sky overhead. A massive figure comes into view and casts a shadow over you, then lifts you, cradles you to its chest
"Hello child," the figure says. "Welcome to the world. I think you'll find it interesting."
Atreya wakes up in her group's longhouse, the light dim behind the thick sleeping curtains. She hears a person entering and rolls over to look. Creeping in through the front door is a little girl, maybe a year younger than Atreya, with dark grey skin, short bouncy brown-blonde hair, and red eyes.
"What do you want?" Atreya asks.
"I'm Esha," the girl says.
"I don't care," Atreya says. "Why are you in here? This isn't your house."
Esha looks down and says, "You're going to Artep's house. My mom won't let me go."
Atreya doesn't know what a 'mom' is.
"Go away," she says.
The other girls in the house snicker, and one thanks Atreya for making the little girl go away. They're all a year older than Atreya, and she hopes they don't associate her with the six-year old.
Atreya rolls back into her bed and closes her eyes. With the detached cruelty only a seven year old girl can muster, Atreya listens to Esha slink out of the longhouse, crying.
* * *
In the boys' longhouse across the street, Myre snores in the dark center of the room, waking up Adeo early. In the back corner, Tochipel wheezes fitfully in his dreams. Near the door at the front, Braden sleeps dutifully, while across from him Gorub lies awake like he does during every sleeping shift. He's never questioned why the adults expect them to do this, but all the other kids seem to like it, and they don't talk, so he too keeps his rocky mouth shut.
There's a sound at the window. Adeo and Gorub sit up and look, seeing small arms trying to lift the weight that keeps the curtain down against the wind. Whoever it is must not be very strong, because soon the curtain slips and clamps down on the two arms. A girl's voice squeals from outside the window. Adeo and Gorub go outside to see what's up, and the commotion wakes Tochipel and Braden.
Adeo watches but doesn't help the girl whose arms are stuck under the curtain. Then from inside, Tochipel lifts the curtain to see who it is, and the little girl falls, landing on the wooden pail she had used as a step.
"Who are you?" Tochipel asks.
The girl rubs her backside and her arms, then looks up at Tochipel in the window.
"I'm Esha," she says.
"Why were you sneaking into our house?" Adeo asks.
Esha turns then and sees she's surrounded by three boys, plus one in the window. She starts to cower, but just then an adult comes up. All the boys recognize her as Gale -- tall, rounded and soft, brown-skinned and not good at answering the kinds of questions 7 year olds ask.
"Why are you all awake?" Gale asks. "Oh, it's Esha."
Braden proudly says to Gale, "I heard her coming into our room, and I made sure we were safe. I was sleeping like I was supposed to."
"Good Braden," Gale says.
She looks around at the kids, purses her lips at the task ahead of her, and starts to round them up for their big day. Today is the seventh anniversary since they were discovered as infants, and there's a lot to do before the night falls.
"C'mon kids," she says. "Go inside and get dressed. You're going to see Artep, and he's gonna teach you to read. Esha, you need to go home."
Esha pouts. "I wanna see Artep. Mom won't let me."
Leaning out of the window, Tochipel wheezes, "What's a mom?"
Almost immediately, Adeo asks, "Why can't she come with us? It's not fair."
Gale sighs. She wishes she had time to answer all their questions, but instead she just shushes them and starts the arduous process of wrangling them for their big day.
* * *
There are other seven year olds in the town of Kinras, but all of them were found on separate days. These six children are special somehow, for their curiosity and fearlessness if nothing else. Gale lines them up for inspection in the field outside Artep's house. He is one of the town's four elders, and Gale wants to make sure the elders see she's done a good job with the task of tending them.
Atreya is the tallest, with skin nearly as dark as ebony, white hair, and red eyes. According to the elders, she looks like a Taranesti elf (and like the town's leader, Lajeca), but to Gale she's not much different from anyone else in the town. Atreya's strong and prone to detachment because she gets to spend time with the older girls, whereas the seven year old boys only get to spend time with each other. She's also the only member of the group wearing pants, a fact which makes Adeo's sense of fairness flare up, with frustrating results.
Adeo is the most boisterous of the boys, curious about all sorts of animals, and the most common winner in tussles. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, but not exactly cute, he resembles the Shahalesti elves (and elder Damati). He asks the second most number of questions, usually because he doesn't like the way some adult or older kid treats people unfairly.
Myre is still sleepy, squinty at the violent-gold sky, even though it is darker today, like a storm. Gale knows, however, that the night is coming. Somehow, though, she imagines Myre wouldn't mind the darkness. He's blonde and pale, and looks somewhat like the Lanjiran humans (and elder Artep), but he prefers to stay indoors or in the shadows of the woods.
Gorub is, admittedly, one of the strangest looking people in Kinras. His skin is tough like rock, and in a few places actual stones seem to jut from his short, stocky body. He doesn't eat, and Gale knows he doesn't sleep but is too shy to complain about sleeping shifts. All he seems to like to do is carry things, and because of how quiet he is, Gale doesn't know if there's anything he really likes.
Braden tries to hard to impress the adults. Gale recognizes this, but the other townsfolk treat him too kindly. The human boy doesn't cause much trouble though, and helps keep the others in line, so Gale is grateful for him.
Then there's Tochipel, the somewhat sickly human boy who never is content with an answer. While Adeo questions why people treat each other certain ways, Tochipel wants to know everything about what things are and why things happen. He has an uncanny knack for asking Gale things she does not want to tell a seven year old boy, like what ghosts are, why girls look funny, or how come the animals they eat don't just get up and walk away.
For right now, they're somewhat quiet and aren't taking off their clothes, so Gale decides it's time to introduce them to their teacher for the next few years. She climbs up the stairs to Artep's porch, then knocks on the door. It opens a moment later, and the anxious, lined and bearded face of Artep leans out.
"Who are you?" Tochipel asks.
"I'm Artep. If you'll come inside, I've got some interesting stories to tell you."
