* * *
The suns were setting faster, so the sky was on the verge of switching from orange to dark blue by the time Aly made it back home. Her hut was the brightest and loudest one on the block, since more people showed up at the end of the week. She crept through the door when she opened it, knowing that she ended up staying out in the fields longer than expected.
It was like a party in the store, now that the village deemed it safe enough to go back to Shanvi’s. With couples dancing, a drum in the back booming, people chanting old folk songs, and the lack of the errand person reporting any fights between Aly and Catty at school, apparently things were back to normal.
Aly shrugged and strolled in, hoping her rare case of tardiness might go unnoticed thanks to the commotion. However, everyone, even the drummer, got quiet the instant she walked into the hut. Aly thought of a swear word as she headed to the counter, knowing her presence was made public to the last person that needed to know.
“There you are,” Shanvi said in Universal as his Little One sat in front of him. He lifted his chin up at the drummer for more music, and the musician did as told. Once the beat came back, the energy returned.
“Apologies for the––”
“I thought you were supposed to be speaking Universal after class today.” Shanvi looked back at a curriculum note he stuck on the wall three days ago.
“I’m sorry for being late, Pappai,” Aly forced her lips to say. “I was...distracted, but there is no excuse.”
Shanvi tried to look as serious as possible, but shook his head when he couldn’t keep his face hardened.
“You’re too well-behaved for scolding.” He leaned in for his daily kiss.
Aly smiled and laid one on his rounding cheeks. Shanvi slapped the counter before turning around and going back to work.
“If I may, it’s weird hearing you speak in Universal,” Aly said as she watched her pappai rustle about.
“I know. I had to go back and study some of your scrolls while you were asleep just to freshen up on it again. Still, it’s part of a parent’s homework as well as yours. I think it’s fun, actually. Why, I even remember liking the assignment when I had to do it at your age.”
Aly shrugged as she pulled out a scroll and hopped off the stool.
“I’m sorry to see that Catty still hasn’t come back in a while,” Shanvi said without turning around. “I hope your little brawl hasn’t ruined your friendship beyond – how do they say – repair?”
Aly tried recalling the Goolian translation for the last word he said and just rolled her eyes when she remembered it. She picked up the rest of her notes and headed off to her bedroom to study. As noisy as it was, it was the visuals that distracted her the most. However, before she made it to the kitchen, she heard the drummer switch his beat and everyone fell into a different song. Her ears sprung up as she turned around.
“I know this song!” she said to Shanvi with a hop. “We were taught it last month in class.”
“That’s nice, dear.” Shanvi smiled passively as he cooked an order. “I’ll have to hear you sing it some time.”
“Um, if I may, can I do it now?”
“Not at the moment. You have homework to do.”
Aly’s ears fell as fast as they rose. She nodded and strolled to the back of the kitchen. She then stopped and turned, watching her pappai concentrate on the dessert he was cooking as long as he could until her accidental guilt trip settled in.
“Oh, all right,” her pappai eventually said.
Aly dashed back to her stool, hopped back on it, and set her scrolls down on the counter.
Shanvi turned and placed a finger on the counter. “Just one verse, okay?”
The Little One nodded with the biggest smile on her face.
“I can sing really good,” she said with too much excitement. “One time, when I was still in children’s garden, I tried singing to a sila and––”
“All right, Aly.” Shanvi laughed. “Settle down. I’m sure you sound wonderful.”
The master turned back around and went back to work. Aly’s eyes, however, followed his every move.
“Don’t you want to hear me sing?”
“I can hear you from here.” Shanvi put some food into a bowl and added spices and toppings on it.
Aly shrugged, turned back around, and followed in with everyone else. Her voice was too quiet to go over the others, but she didn’t care. She could tell that she was on tune, and that was all that mattered to her. However, the two Goolians that were chiming in on the song beside her were able to hear the Little One, and they leaned back.
“Have an eye at this one,” one of them joked. “She thinks to be of fame!”
As the two laughed, Aly paused and glared at them before going back to singing.
The Goolians kept chuckling as they amused themselves over the Little One’s voice. She wasn’t bad. No, not bad at all. Actually, it was pretty nice. But it was more than nice, the more they thought about it. And before they knew it, the masters’ jaws had done everything beyond hitting the floor as they listened.
They were the first who became enthralled, and then Shanvi’s right ear twitched when he thought he heard the sweetest sound on Gooliun. When he turned around, tears immediately came out of his eyes when he realized where the sound came from. As Shanvi stopped and stared, three other Goolians wondered why the master’s face went so blank. They stopped talking and heard a child’s voice echo over the belligerent singing.
The left side of the room stopped, and then the drums stopped, and Aly was too entrapped by her own voice to realize that the entire store was underneath what might as well have been a spell. It was just a carefree folk song that anyone could learn and sing in a matter of seconds. However, the Little One’s voice made it into a message that told of peace, tranquility, and the profound wonders of the entire cosmos.
On and on, the message went. Only two measures were in the song, but even when Aly started over the sixth time, the Goolians in the tiny hut could’ve sworn that was the first time she started. Mates held hands. Neighbors wrapped their arms around one another. In a matter of seconds, that wondrous voice had united everyone into a single family.
“Um...”
When everyone came to, people were wiping their eyes and taking in deep breaths. Aly turned and looked at Shanvi, who kept shaking his head with his mouth gaping open.
“Truly, I made no error with the wording, Pappai, nay?” Aly asked, forgetting to speak Universal.
Shanvi didn’t answer. He just clapped cautiously, and everyone did the same. Aly figured she was supposed to bow, and did so.
“Truth’s Grace,” one of the Goolians said, still baffled. “No one was to ever warn us of their kind’s spell.”
Aly’ s left ear twitched toward the voice. “Pardon? Kind’s spell? Pappai, if I may, what does he––”
“Come to think of it, Aly,” Shanvi said as he grabbed her scrolls and ran around the counter, “I think there’s a bit of a distraction here. Why not finish your studies over at Catty’s tonight?”
Not being one to ever speak out, the Little One could only look up at her pappai in anguish as she took her scrolls and headed for the door. Aly kept that same look on her face all the way down the street, across the block, through the fields, and up to Quongun’s front door.
She didn’t know Catty had used infrared to see who was knocking on the door. Regardless, Aly wasn’t surprised when the other mastra greeted her with a gape-opened mouth.
“Seriously?” Catty said.
“Trust me, I’ve been saying that since I walked out the door.” Aly welcomed herself in.
Evaluations of the Tribe - Prossia Book 0 : A Coming of Age Space Opera Page 18
