It felt like Scarlett was in a dream within a dream. In the back of her mind, she knew what she was doing. She was an eighteen-year-old trainee of the Karai tribe, undergoing the second to last trial to become a Karaina. After fighting a tiger spirit beast, she had entered the spirit realm to face the remembrance and learn what she needed to know to face the dangers of the future.
But at the same time, she was someone else, a spectator in a scene that made no sense.
She stood in a long and tall throne room, all alone. There were skylights above, letting in a greyish light. Something white that she had never seen fell on the glass. All of a sudden she felt cold, and a word popped into her head.
Snow.
The white things falling over the skylights was snow.
This was certainly not her memory, for she had never even heard of such a thing. Water. It was water, turned to something else by the cold.
BANG
A door slammed open behind her, and she turned to see two tall Hovas walking down the hall towards the throne. For a moment, she felt the urge to run, but the two Hovas had no idea she was there.
She reminded herself this wasn’t real. It was just a memory.
But whose? Why was she seeing Hovas?
The two men talked in whispers as they walked past her without even looking at her. The taller Hova sat on the throne, and the other stood beside him.
With their mouths closed, they would have looked exactly like normal humans, except for their greyish skin and abnormal stature. They were both dressed in dark blue attires, with golden epaulets and ornaments decorating their chests.
They are brothers, she realized.
Who are they?
As soon as this thought crossed her mind, the taller Hova looked up.
A human, not too older than Scarlett, walked through the open door. Her hair was dark blonde, and she wore a plum-colored dress that was clearly not made for the cold weather. She shivered as she moved.
“Dav! What on earth are you still doing here?” yelled the woman, striding towards the throne.
“I am not abandoning my place,” said the man in the chair. The other one stood awkwardly by him with downcast eyes, not even looking at the woman.
“They are coming for you. For you both,” she said, pleading with the two men.
For some reason, it looked like the standing Hova was purposely trying to avoid meeting eyes with the woman. He looked to the ceiling and sighed.
Scarlett moved closer to the throne. She wanted to see what the woman’s expression was. Before she reached the stairs where the woman stood, the woman let out a cry.
“I’m with child,” she said. “If they find out what… who, I’m carrying, they will kill us all.”
This caught the attention of both Hovas. Dav seemed very conflicted, like he wanted to reach out to the woman, but was forcing himself to stay seated. It was painful to even look at the struggle in his eyes.
“Thorm, this changes everything,” he slowly said. The other Hova, Thorm, closed his silver eyes very slowly. Then he looked down at Dav.
“What would you have me do, brother?”
“You must leave with Olive.”
“What about you?” Thorm.
“I already said what I would do. I am not abandoning my place.”
Thorm let out a longer sigh this time, and he bowed to his brother before turning abruptly towards the woman.
“Come,” he said brusquely as if dreading to condescend himself by speaking to the woman called Olive.
“Dav… Please. Think about the future. You can’t fix this mess if you’re dead,” said Olive, moving closer to the throne.
Before she could get any closer, Thorm grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. They looked at each other for a moment, and tears began to fall down her eyes.
“If I never see you again, I want you to know one thing. I would have loved you until the end of time,” she said, hands shaking. Then she let herself be pulled away by Thorm.
They sped past Scarlett, leaving the Hova named Dav all alone in the hall. Then Dav placed both hands on his head and roared, his cry echoing through the empty room.
Then it was as if someone pulled a black curtain over Scarlett’s eyes, and the world went dark again. A few seconds later, she found herself somewhere else.
As she took in the new environment, she tried to make sense of what she had just seen. This couldn’t be the past. The Hova and the humans had been enemies since the dawn of time.
The woman named Olive was clearly carrying Dav’s baby. Who were these two people?
She stood in an open meadow, and this time the sun shone above her, warming her body.
Then she heard a groan from behind, making her turn around.
What she saw, made her wish she had never entered the spirit world.
Mutilated corpses covered the rest of the meadow behind her, hundreds and hundreds of rotting bodies being picked on by vultures.
Scarlett froze when she saw what was left of their clothes. They were the Tupa, from the kingdoms to the west. The blue drop that symbolized their affinity for water magic stood out from the torn and ragged banners and tabards.
She scanned the bodies closer to her, trying to figure out where the groan had come from. But everyone was dead and had been dead at least for a few days. Most of the bodies were bloated and turning green.
“Help,” someone croaked, and Scarlett saw who it was.
An older soldier, perhaps around forty, was trying to pull himself out from under a mass of rotting corpses.
Scarlett ran down the slope and the smell hit her. She fell to the ground and threw up. She realized her arm no longer hurt as she got up again, attempting to reach the man. Trying to avert her eyes from the rest of the bodies, she looked down. If she was going to get to him, she’d have to find a way to walk over the body parts and corpses surrounding him.
The heads were the worst ones. Several of them no longer had eyes, but those that did, showed that the last thing that had been on their faces was pure, infinite terror.
“Please,” the soldier cried.
She made her way towards him, trying not to step on the remains of anyone. When she finally reached him, she knelt down. What could she do? It’d take her hours to remove the bodies piled up on top of him, and she’d never have the strength to pull him out. Only his head and shoulders were showing.
“I don’t know what to do. I…”
Then she realized the man couldn’t see her. He was crying out to no one. He was the last survivor of a battle that hadn’t fared well for the humans.
Other men weren’t capable of such violent slaughter, were they? This could have only been done by the Hova.
As she rose, fighting back tears of hatred, the world went dark again one last time.
THIS TIME THE VISION FELT DIFFERENT as if she were no longer part of a dream. Her surroundings were blurry, and she couldn't make out exactly where she was. All he could see was yellow, orange, and red as if she were in the middle of the sun itself."Who are you, and why do you come here?" said a grave, raspy voice. It came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.Somehow, she knew the voice was speaking to her."I am Scarlett of the Karai," she replied. Her voice came out stronger than she thought it would."No, you are not," said the voice."Why do you come here?"I wish to be a Karaina," replied Scarlett, unsure of what she was supposed to answer."No, you do not.""Yes I do," said Scarlett, without thinking.Who was this voice who told her everything she was saying was a lie?"The path you seek is not the one you must tread. But for now, you must pave your own way. We will meet again," said the voice.
Last year, two trainees who had succeeded in completing all the trials had been rejected by the rheas. Scarlett had never seen the girls again, but Mimbi told her that one of them became a starwatcher. Everyone said there was no shame in being rejected by a rhea, that they had their ways and they knew best. But it said something of you if the birds didn’t want you. That there was something soft or weak in you that the rheas couldn’t ignore, and made them silently tell you that you were not enough to become a warrior.The High Chieftess appeared on her black and grey rhea, which looked battle-worn and tough like its rider. A thick scar fell from its forehead to its beak. The bird moved with long and elegant strides, and behind it, at least twenty rheas followed. They moved in unison, like a small cloud of black, grey, and white feathers.Scarlett had read of ancient times where men and women would be introduced to each other in formal, structured gathe
Dawn was not far away by the time Scarlett and Mimbi were done. A dull headache was settling into Scarlett’s head, but the room around her kept spinning. Mimbi, on the other hand, was fast asleep beside her. How had they ended up like this? After the last trial, the rheas were all taken to be fitted for mounts. Scarlett hadn’t wanted to say goodbye to Sunu so soon after she had picker her, but everyone was anxious to get the celebrations started, even the rhea breeders. She had no words to describe the gratitude she felt towards the bird. Sunu had picker her, and not the other way around. After saying goodbye to Sunu, Scarlett had quickly taken a bath in the pools and then went to join the fun. Then she vaguely remembered talking to Pakuri after drinking too much ale, Mimbi showing up and interrupting them, and then… Somehow it started with a kiss, which later led them to run to the barracks and lock the door behind them. None of them
It was a scream for help.Scarlett struggled to get up, almost forgetting to put on the dress she had tossed at the side of the stream. While the slope had been easy to descend, the way up wasn't nearly as smooth. When she reached the top, she realized that something was very, very wrong.There was smoke coming from the general direction of the plaza, and more and more screams filled the air.Scarlett ran towards the barracks, bursting into the room where she and Mimbi had been just an hour or so ago. It was empty. The weapons rack was also empty, which meant Mimbi had gone off with them, just moments before Scarlett arrived.Was the village under attack?She realized that she had no idea where she had left her sword and that her armor was probably still being cleaned near the pools where she had undressed to bathe last night. Navigating the village's corridors, she ran as fast as her tired body could carry her. All traces of her hangover had vanis
By the time Scarlett made her way out of the village and across the stream, Pakuri and Voty had rescued over forty girls and one boy who had been visiting his mother. She had searched for other kids as she rode through the village, but it seemed that most of them had run away with their mothers or sisters.Voty was desperately trying to calm the infants, who were terrified, sleepy, and hungry. Pakuri looked like she wanted to murder them all."Do you know where we're regrouping?" Voty said, holding a fat blonde baby in her arms. She kept thrashing and hitting her."We have to go find help. I don't think we can resist the Hova for much longer. There… were a lot of casualties in the meadow near the arena," Scarlett said, trying to hold it together. She feared that if she started crying, the scared-looking kids would all start wailing. Luckily, a few of them seemed to have no idea what was going on, and they were just excited to be taking a trip to the
Not a man.A Hova.Several things happened at the same time. Pakuri hurled a fireball at the Hova before he started coming down the slopes, and Voty and Scarlett tried to usher the kids into the forest. But it was impossible to move them as a single group, and the little girls ran in all directions.Voty called out to them, grabbing some while at mid-run, yelling at them to follow the group.Scarlett left Voty to deal with the children and went back to see what was going on with Pakuri and the Hova. Pakuri wasn’t the only one fighting him. A group of human soldiers was after him, and instead of fighting back, the Hova ran down the shallow stream and its winding path. The soldiers, clad in gold and silver heavy armor, had trouble following him down the slope, but they continued after the Hova down until Scarlett could no longer see them.Pakuri was seething, looking just as hos
"Then we have to leave now,” Scarlett said. "It won’t take them more than two or three days to get there, and once they cross, we will never be able to find them again.”As she turned to leave, Luca grabbed her by the arm.“Wait. You can’t go alone. Wait until the women have mourned their dead and regroup. Talk to your friends. Maybe we can help you, too,” he said.“I think you’ve done enough for us. Under normal circumstances, we can take care of our own,” Scarlett said, analyzing Luca’s face.She could tell he was being sincere about wanting to help. And there was truth to his words. Tomorrow they’d figure out how to get the girls back. If she went alone, she'd probably get captured along with the rest of the girls.Voty returned with the kids who had run out into the forest about an hour later. Their mothers and family members were so grateful to see the young ones return, that th
THE MEETING OF THE SURVIVING KARAINAS WAS NOT GOING WELL. At all. At first, Scarlett thought everyone was in an even worse mood because they still hadn’t eaten anything. That, besides the fact that everyone had lost someone they loved the day before, would be reason enough for the women to be at each other’s throats.However, a few minutes into the meeting, Scarlett was beginning to understand that not everything had been running smoothly even before the attack.A group of about fifteen Karainas was saying that they had been unhappy with Grina’s decision to keep them away from the fighting going on in the nearby kingdoms. That their influence had waned over the years because the High Chieftess refused to let them intervene until it was inevitable. And that that had given the Hova the confidence to strike the way they did the night before.The other women defended the High Chieftess’ decision, saying that she made that decision in our best