Nanowrimo Day 8
"Wow," Tamara said. "That was really deep."
Candace grinned, then hoisted herself up to her feet. "Yin!" she called. "You can come down now."
Yin's eyes were as big as saucers. Had he seen them fighting obia before? Tamara couldn't remember.
"Truly you are the warriors they foretold," he gasped.
"Hey, what'd I tell you about all that fancy talk," Tamara chided him. "We're still the same people. We just like killing things sometimes."
"I just wish Arsal had seen it," Yin said.
"Don't worry," Brittany said. "We've got a lot of obia to kill, I'm sure both of you will get sick of it soon enough."
"Are there any other obia tracks?" Tamara asked, looking around. "Or did we get all of them?"
"I'll take a look," Yin said, obviously happy to be useful. After a few minutes, he reported back. "Nope, if there are any around, they're not here."
"Great," Candace said. "I feel some more, but I think they're in the direction of the village. Should we go back and get Arsal?"
"If he's awake," Tamara said.
"We could even go back into our world," Brittany said. Tamara took a closer look at her. She hadn't seen much of Brittany's battle, but the other girl was clearly winded.
"Well, I don't want to leave any obia near the village while we're here," Tamara said, frowning. "If these were the closest ones, I think we can go back, though."
"Let's see how things feel in the village," Candace said. "Then we can decide."
Walking back to the village while coming down from the adrenaline rush of taking down obia wasn't exactly fun. In this world, Tamara could trot for miles without feeling tired, but apparently even here there were limits to her stamina. Candace and Brittany were obviously feeling the same way, but trying to hide it--Brittany somewhat less effectively than Candace. Even Yin, though he hadn't participated in the fight, was making an obvious effort to keep up.
Tamara wanted to cry when they finally came in view of the walls and gate of the village. "I don't care if there are obia in there right now, I refuse to do anything but eat and sleep."
"Can we sleep here?" Candace asked. "Like, not a nap, but all night?"
"We can stay for as long as we want," Brittany said. "Or as long as there are obia here, anyway."
"Oh, only for that long," Candace muttered.
"How long will this take, anyway?" Tamara asked.
"A few months, our time," Brittany said. "About a year in this world's time."
"What, so your country has different time than ours?" Yin asked.
"I can't believe you guys left me here!" Arsal was waiting at the gate, and he didn't look happy to see them at all. Even in her weariness, Tamara had to smile.
"We couldn't wake you up," she told him.
"Oh come on, that's just an excuse," Arsal complained. "Sheesh, why do you think I came here? Just to sleep?"
"Sure seems like it," Candace giggled, and soon enough Yin and Tamara were joining in.
Brittany, however, remained focused. "I'm going to get some sleep," she said, heading for the house where they were saying. "Ugh, I feel like someone ran me over."
"Yeah, me too," Candace said.
"And me too," Tamara said.
"And me!" Yin said.
Arsal looked at them as they staggered past him. "Seriously, you're just going to go to sleep and not even talk to me? Seriously? Seriously?"
* * *
"I don't know how people tell the time here," Brittany complained. They'd all slept like logs for some indefinable time, but fortunately they'd woken up around the same time. Arsal was there too, sharpening his spear.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Where we come from, the sun doesn't stay in the same place all the time," Candace explained to him. "It moves up in the sky, and then it goes down on the other side, and then it's dark, and then it comes up again."
"Oh yeah, ours does that too," Yin said.
"But ours does it every--day?" Brittany groped for the right words. "Like, if you sleep for a while, and then wake up for a while, by the time you get sleepy again, the sun has gone around one time."
"Whoa, that fast?" Arsal said. "And you don't get dizzy?"
"We get used to it," Tamara said. "To us, this is the weird place." She thought for a moment. "Hey, I should show you guys our world, some time."
Brittany scrunched up her nose. "I don't know if that's a good idea," she said.
"What, will it hurt them?"
"Well, no, but..."
"Then we should do it! Not now, but we could bring some clothes and take them to the mall or a park or something."
"I'd like to see your country," Yin said.
"Me too," Arsal said.
"It sounds like fun," Candace said.
Outnumbered, Brittany could only agree to it as well. "I think we should make it short, though," she said. "Our worlds weren't meant to mix."
"If we can hop back and forth all the time, why can't they do it just once?" Tamara asked.
"I think it's fine if it's just once! I just... don't want to make a habit of it, you know?"
"Yeah, okay," Tamara said. "Speaking of our world, why don't we go home now? Candace, do you want to go back to Brittany's house? Or I could take you to the mall or to my house instead."
"I left my stuff at Brittany's house, so I think we should go back there," Candace said.
"Oh yeah." They'd been in Sibi for so long that Tamara could barely even remember what they'd been doing before they arrived. "Let's do it, then."
* * *
The truce with Crystal--remarkably--actually seemed to be holding. She'd talk all through lunch about what she and Stephen had been doing, and Tamara did her best to bite her tongue and pay attention to her food. Her life (or at least the parts she could tell her friends about) was far less interesting, but when she groused about grades or her allowance or her parents, Crystal let her talk.
It was fragile, but they kept it going for an entire week. Lachante stopped frowning during lunch, and, gradually, Tamara could feel herself getting used to it. It wasn't that Crystal wasn't still rubbing her the wrong way all the time, but she found that she could tolerate a certain low level of irritation.
Undoubtedly, it also helped that she was able to spend so much time away from Crystal, as well. It was hard to keep being angry at Crystal when she was really only seeing her every two or three days, instead of every day like she had been.
They cleared the area around the village of obia, and managed to seal all the holes they could find. Finally, Brittany declared the area secure; it was time to move on to the next village.
According to the villagers, it would be several days' walk, so they took as much food as they could, and set off. They walked as far as they could, slept, and walked again. The Warriors went home, leaving Arsal and Yin to stay there for a few days while they attended to their lives at home. In the absence of a doorway, they had to create a gate, put together from clay and branches lashed together. It was ugly, and they had to bend to go through it, but it worked: they were back in Brittany's room again.
"Whew!" Tamara stretched, bending backward and stretching out her arms. "We must have walked forty miles!"
"I never want to walk again," said Brittany, collapsing onto her bed. Tamara and Candace looked at her enviously.
"Candace, why don't you take me to your house?" Tamara said. "If I can set up a gate there, then we can all go straight home instead of messing around at Brittany's house.
Candace's eyes widened for a moment. "No! Well, okay. You can't come today, though. I'll tell you when to come."
"Your parents must be so weird," Tamara said. "They don't care if you're out with us forever but then we can't come visit you? What, is the house really messy or something?"
"It's nothing," Candace said. "It's just--maybe if you could come during the day, or right after school. Not late like this."
"Whatever, it's up to you," Tamara said. She shouldered her backpack. "I'm going to take the shortcut home, though."
She didn't go through the little gate they'd made; instead she stepped back and forth through the door she'd made in their first village. It turned out to be a time when people were awake, so she could greet Issa and tell her about what they'd done.
"So, there are three of you now," Issa said. "The fourth warrior will soon awaken as well, and then you all will go throughout the land slaying obia."
"We're doing that already," Tamara said. "I don't even think we need a fourth person, really."
"Beware false pride, Warrior," Issa warned. "The challenges you face shall be much moar than simply defeating obia."
"Really?" Tamara asked. "Like what else?"
"You shall find out in time," Issa said, smiling. "I have faith that you will persevere and bring the sun back to us, o Warrior. Go in peace."
Tamara said her goodbyes and ducked back into her own world, into her bedroom. She looked at her backpack. Had she done her homework? Could she stand to do it now? Did she even remember what it had been?
"Aargh, this is so impossible!" she said to herself.
"What's impossible?" Tiana, Tamara's little sister, was peering around the door.
"Nothing, go away." Tiana could be exceptionally annoying, and Tamara didn't like answering her questions even when they were about things she could actually talk about.
"Come onnnn," Tiana said. "And when did you get home, anyway?"
"A while ago," Tamara said. "You didn't notice?"