The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 14

  If there was one thing Aerlid asked most about it was cave mould. The more he thought about it the more nonsensical it seemed to him.

  Keila and Jania learned that this was a bone of contention with him and were well practiced in weathering his storms.

  ‘Isn’t any food saved from the harvest?’ Aerlid asked finally.

  Keila blinked, surprised, ‘Well, yes, of course.’

  Aerlid stopped. Usually he didn’t get much of a response from his two coworkers. ‘Well, where is it?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s stored in case of a gemeng attack.’

  ‘What if there isn’t a gemeng attack?’ he asked after a moment.

  ‘Well the older stores are sold.’

  ‘They’re sold?’ he asked, his voice getting high. Winter was almost past and not once had he heard about an escape from cave mould! ‘Why do you eat cave mould then?’ he demanded.

  ‘Well cave mould needs to be eaten fresh. It only lasts about a week once it’s harvested.’

  ‘How come you didn’t tell me?!’

  ‘I thought you knew.’ Keila said. ‘Didn’t anyone tell you?’

  ‘No! Perhaps they all thought I knew!’ he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. It wouldn’t do to yell at Keila. How did everyone think I knew? a little voice inside demanded. ‘Where can you buy the old stores?’ he asked.

  Keila was happy enough to give him directions.

  That evening after picking Riley up from school Aerlid headed straight to the address Keila had given him. It was in the middle of the city- stores were important after all.

  The food from the old stores was…old. It had little taste, an objectionable texture and was more expensive than cave mould.

  Still, cave mould became an unpleasant accompaniment to the meals which now featured predominantly real food.

  The years slipped by. It never snowed again like it did in their first year in Astar. Snow was unusual in Astar and when it did snow it was in small amounts that quickly melted into a dirty slush. Riley found her school work less engaging as she got older. School was interesting- it was where she learned to socialize, but what was taught in the classroom and what was written on the board? Not interesting. Her marks slipped down to an average level and as a consequence the human children came to feel better about her. The fact that she had once done better than a human, any human, was clearly a fluke. Once this was settled in their minds they were happier to have her as their slightly slow gemeng friend.

  Riley did not consider the other human children friends, only Razra, and Razra was happy to consider her a friend as well.

  While Riley didn’t go out of her way to make friends with the other human children- she already knew their feelings towards her and already had one human friend- she did try and make friends with the other gemengs. Originally they had been pleased to make friends with her, but as they got to know her they found her attitude towards the other humans unsettling. She didn’t behave in a way they thought she should, and so it was difficult in a different way to make friends with the gemengs.

  She tried very hard, as she had no gemeng friends. In a way, she had observed the human children enough to have a basic, unarticulated understanding of their feelings towards her. The gemengs, though, she didn’t understand.

  During lunchtime Riley sat with gemeng children mostly, sitting with Razra every now and then, or seeing him after school. She remained silent and watched and tried to understand. Her silence worked well with the humans, she could listen and learn. But not with the gemengs. She didn’t have the right feel to her. If a human had come up and asked for her lunch, she would have said no, and that would have been the end of the conversation. If a human had asked any of the other children they would have said yes, thank you, can I do anything else for you?

  But she wouldn’t go away, and she was trying. So the gemengs eventually became used to having her follow them around.

  This interest she had in the gemeng children surprised and cheered Aerlid. When he taught her, he still found she only had an interest in a subject if he could relate it back to fighting in some way. She didn’t seem a violent child though Aerlid worried all the same that she only found weapons and fighting techniques of interest.

  Aerlid also found that as Riley grew it became very hard to tire her out. He would be tired from spending all day healing people in a way that wasn’t in any human manual. But even after school and training with Aerlid, Riley would bounce around and wouldn’t want to go to sleep. Eventually he started taking her to the park at night. He told her to run around and not be seen, and not to come back to him til she was tired.

  It was a solution. It surprised him how long she could run for. And it markedly improved her mood. It was boring and frustrating for her to chase humans around during exercise class, moving at a pace that was little more than walking for her. To stretch her legs after all that cramped movement was a wonderful relief.

  Something had been brewing in Riley’s mind for a while. She noticed things and tucked them away without interpreting them and in the back of her mind they came together, forming a thought. Riley did not try to wheedle it out before it was ready. It would come when it would come.

  Riley watched the children leaving the school. Some no longer had to wait for their parents, so they left right away. She walked over to where the gemeng children were gathered. She’d noticed they tended to group together, in a way human children did not. Human siblings often left together. Sometimes human friends would leave together. Why, she and Razra had even gone over to each other’s houses a few times. They had both agreed there was very little to do at her house and more often spent time at his. But this didn’t happen every day, and not usually in such large groups. Why, every gemeng in her class was here!

  ‘Where are you going?’ she asked Jillia Melras, a serious gemeng girl the same age as Riley. Her severe demeanour stopped anyone from even thinking of calling her ‘Jill’. She was the gemeng most comfortable around Riley. Like most, but not all of the gemengs, she had an Astarian last name. Riley had discovered that some of the gemeng children had no family name, only a first name. She had noted this fact, though had no idea why this was.

  The girl, who could easily be mistaken for a human and yet never was, glanced at her. ‘Home.’ There was something more than the features of a face and the proportions of a body that marked one as gemeng or human. Nobody ever got mixed up, except perhaps, Riley.

  Riley was silent. Then she spoke that which had been brewing for a while. ‘Do you all live together?’

  Jillia’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Yes of course.’

  ‘May I see?’ Riley was aware this was a very personal thing to ask, but she was curious that all these gemengs who were not related lived together. That was not how the humans lived.

  ‘Why?’ Jillia asked. ‘They’re all the same.’

  ‘What’s all the same?’

  ‘The dormitories.’

  Riley was momentarily confused. She had never heard her apartment referred to as a dormitory, not that she knew what a dormitory was. She said, ‘there is only room for me and Arntar in our home.’

  Jillia looked at her in disbelief.

  Riley returned the look.

  Clearly neither one knew what to make of this.

  ‘Can I see your home?’ Riley asked again. ‘I can show you mine.’

  Jillia hesitated for a moment, ‘will you be alright to go home alone?’

  Aerlid didn’t like Riley walking around alone, though she was now allowed to walk home from school alone, but Riley didn’t want to pass up this opportunity. ‘Yes, if I know the way.’

  Jillia hesitated again. ‘You might get lost.’

  ‘I won’t get lost.’ Riley said, in uncharacteristic quickness, sensing Jillia’s cooperation was slipping away. ‘I have a good memory.’

  Jillia nodded then. ‘Ok…we’ll go past your place and then to mine.’

  When Riley agreed Jillia turned to
one of her gemeng friends to tell her what was happening. He turned to look at Riley and didn’t seem very happy. ‘Will you be alright on your own?’

  Riley noted his words, his tone, his face. Her brows furrowed, but she said nothing.

  Jillia glanced back at Riley, then to the boy. ‘Yes, we’ll be quick.’

  Once Jillia was done Riley led the way back to her apartment. Though Riley’s social skills were much improved she was not very good at small talk. This wasn’t a problem with Razra, who liked to fill any silence he found. Riley took her cues from Jillia. As Jillia did not seem to mind the silence neither did Riley.

  When they reached the apartment Jillia looked up, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing and thought she was being tricked. Riley gestured and led her up the stairwell and unlocked the door to her apartment. Jillia looked around. ‘You live here?!’ she gaped.

  ‘Yes.’ Riley said. ‘With Arntar, my uncle.’ Aerlid had been very strong in telling her that they were in no way related, that this was just something to tell the people of Astar. He had been quite dissatisfied with her uninterested nod. ‘He’s human.’ Riley added.

  ‘Oh…are you part human then?’ Jillia asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Riley answered, and for the first time thought she should ask. ‘Are you?’

  ‘No, I’m a gemeng. I guess that explains it, if he’s a human…’ Jillia shrugged. It was a sharp shrug and she didn’t seem happy.

  Jillia exited the apartment, trotted quickly down the stairs and out the entry of the apartment complex to stand by the road. ‘Can you take me back to the school?’ she asked, ‘I don’t know the way home from here.’

  Riley nodded and led Jillia back to the school. They were silent again as they walked, and Riley noticed that Jillia was not happy. This made her somewhat uncomfortable.

  They reached the school and stood in front of the gate, facing away from the school buildings. Jillia pointed in the direction they were going and started explaining the route they’d take. She looked at Riley to make sure she was listening before heading off. Jillia stopped every now and then to explain the directions and make sure Riley knew where they were going.

  Riley was surprised at how far they walked, more than twice as far as her own home. They came to the edge of Astar, to a long, unadorned block of a building. Behind the building was forest. Riley’s eyes went to the trees above. She almost missed Jillia talking to her. She shook her head and turned her attention back to Jillia, aware of the forest so close.

  The building was plain and unmarked, though in good repair. There were similar buildings nearby, but that didn’t mean much. All the buildings in Astar were similar. Only then did Riley notice the wall that these buildings rested against. She didn’t remember any walls or gates coming into Astar, but then she didn’t remember very much after being shot.

  They entered the building. It was long and low and dark with few windows to let light in. The building was entirely filled with rows of beds. Between some of the beds were curtains, but no walls. Riley noted possessions were kept under the beds. There were no trunks or bedside tables where things might be stored. The door closed behind them. There was no lock. Riley noticed a glimmer on the wall. She turned and saw behind a pane of glass a sheet of paper. On it were written rules. It was hard to read in this light, though the light was better here than anywhere else in the building.

  Jillia pressed her lips together firmly as she noticed Riley reading. ‘Come,’ she gestured. ‘I’ll show you my home.’

  Riley turned and followed. The writing was nothing new, it detailed the basic rules and principles of Astar they learned in immersion.

  They went perhaps halfway down the room before Jillia stopped beside a curtained area filled with three beds. ‘This is my home.’ Jillia said. Riley looked around.

  Then she turned on her heel and looked around the rest of the building. Curtains and beds and gemeng families gathered around, all minding their own business. ‘This is different. When we arrived we got a loan and the apartment. Why do you live here?’

  Jillia smiled a brittle smile, the sort of smile an eleven year old really shouldn’t be smiling.

  ‘Do all gemengs live here…?’ Riley asked.

  ‘Yes.’ she paused. Then, ‘Except ones like you.’

  Riley hadn’t understood what Jillia meant. She hadn’t understood the smile. She left quickly after that, making her way home easily. The only difficulty had been staying away from the forest.

  When Riley arrived home it was dark and Aerlid was very unimpressed. He withheld his scolding however as Riley had a pensive look on her face.

  She sat down on the chair and looked around their home. Then she told him where the gemengs lived. ‘I don’t understand.’ she said finally. ‘Why would they give us this apartment? Jillia was born here.’ she added.

  Aerlid shrugged. ‘Because they believe I’m human.’

  ‘Is that all?’ she asked.

  He nodded.

  Riley dropped her gaze to her lap.

  She forgot to ask him Jillia’s question.

  After some time Riley came to the conclusion she needed to expand her circle of human contacts. She didn’t understand why the other gemengs lived differently to her. Jillia did, she thought, from the way she’d smiled. But Riley didn’t. Razra was a good friend but perhaps not a reliable source of information.

  So she started spending more time with the human children, while still trying to improve her relationship with the gemengs. The gemengs looked at her differently now. Riley thought they must have learned from Jillia that she didn’t live like them. That didn’t bother her. At least they no longer treated her like an embarrassing, distant relative who they hoped they could pretend wasn’t related to them.