Nanowrimo Day 17
They walked and slept, and the next day the village came in sight. Tamara was... not excited exactly. She'd been to a dozen different villages by now. But it was predictable and something to look forward to: seeing new faces, meeting with people, eating the village's specialty food, and then fighting some obia. She hadn't been doing it very long, but by now it was the only life she could imagine herself living.
As they drew closer, though, there was clearly something wrong. There was no one coming out to greet them; no movement at all, in fact. And as they came closer, they could see that the village's walls were cracked and burnt, and its gate had been blasted open.
"Was it obia?" Tamara breathed, momentarily horrified. She remembered the ones that had tried to climb over the walls to the last village, and shuddered. What if they hadn't been there, that time? Would that village have suffered the fate of this one?"
"I don't know what else it could have been," Midori said. "Let's go inside."
Not knowing what they would find, the Warriors left Arsal and Yin at the entrance, to stay out of trouble and watch their backs. Inside, the village was devastated. Everywhere were the burnt remnants of things, rendered unrecognizable, and rubble and debris were strewn everywhere. There was no sign of any person, living or dead.
"How many of them must there have been?" Tamara asked quietly. "Fifty? Seventy?"
Candace had been quiet the entire time, but abruptly she turned pale. "What happened here?" she pleaded to empty space, and they realized that she must have seen a ghost.
"What are they saying?" Brittany demanded.
"It was the obia? ... It wasn't the obia? Then who..."
"I know," Brittany said quietly. "It was the Dusk People, wasn't it?"
Candace turned to her, startled. "The Dusk People, that's what he says? But how did you know?"
"I'll tell you later," Brittany said. Her mouth was set in a hard, thin line. "Let's go."
They turned a corner and reached the center of the village, and that was where they found the bodies. Candace started throwing up, and Midori and even Brittany looked away, but Tamara forced herself to take in the entire thing.
"It looks like they stripped them of their jewelry," Tamara said. "Probably if we looked inside the houses, the really nice things would be gone too."
"Why are you telling us this?" Candace asked. "What difference does it make?"
"I'm just... trying to understand," Tamara said. She meant it to come out tough, but in that scene it simply came across as broken and pathetic. She looked down at her feet, clenching her fists. She was no better at coping than the rest of them.
"Should-- should we bury them or something?" Midori asked.
"There are so many, though," Brittany said. "Could we even do it?"
"We should ask Yin and Arsal," Candace said. "They would know what the victims would like best."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Midori said. "Come on, let's go."
Arsal and Yin were still there at the entrance, waiting where they'd been left.
"It was the Dusk People," Brittany said to them. "Killed everyone."
*"The Dusk People?!" Arsal said.
"So they've begun to move..." Yin said. "Those bastards."
"Anyway, what do we want to do for now? I don't really want to stay in this place," Candace said, shivering.
"No, no, of course not!" Brittany said. "We'll look around the area for obia first, and find a place to put a campsite. And then after that, me and Yin can tell you some things."
"And what if we run into more of these Dusk People?" Tamara asked.
"Well, we'll have to kill them, of course," Brittany said.
"Kill them?" Midori said incredulously.
"Listen, you saw what they did to that village," Arsal said. He sounded angry. "They'd do the same thing to all of us Dawn People if they had the chance. And especially you: you're the Sunlight Warriors. Our warriors. That makes you all targets."
"Maybe we should scout around in pairs, then," Candace said. "Everyone take a partner."
Arsal sidled up to Tamara almost right away. "Hey," he said quietly. "I know I've been a dick and everything, but I want to talk to you."
Candace looked over to see them together, and her eyes widened. "Hey Tamara, I can go with you," she said, stepping away from Yin.
"No, no, it's okay," Tamara said. She was still angry, but her anger had cooled enough that she wasn't as furious as she had been before. "I promise, Candace," she said, when the other girl seemed about to say something. "It'll be fine."
"Well, okay," Candace said. She and Yin shared a look; Tamara wondered if they'd been talking about her and Arsal between themselves. It rose a small spurt of anger in her, but she couldn't really be angry. They were just trying to help, after all.
She and Arsal were dispatched to the small scrub forest southwest of the village. It was nothing like the forests of Sibi, of course, but there were a tolerable number of trees, and it could have been hiding a small army or an ambush. Tamara didn't really want to say anything at first, but Arsal started talking after a while.
"I know you're mad at me, and I know I had it coming," he said. "But I really didn't mean to hurt you that way, I promise."
Tamara couldn't keep quiet at that. "So it would've been fine if I'd never known about it?"
"Look, that girl didn't mean anything," Arsal said. "But I knew you'd get all weird about it if you knew, so--"
"Weird about it? You think I'm just being weird about it?" Tamara said, her voice rising. "Look, Arsal, I don't care if you like someone else. But if you do, then go to her! Don't keep flirting with me and leading me on. I thought-- you know, I really thought that you liked me."
"I do, honestly!" Arsal said. "And that's why this hurts so much! I just wish there was some way I could make it up to you!"
"Leave me alone," Tamara said, stomping ahead. "That's how you can make it up to me."
The worst part of it was, she thought, that part of her really did want to go to him. She could tell that he really liked her, and even after everything, she still liked him a lot. But Tamara had a lot of pride, and the last thing she wanted was a guy who was so interested in other girls. She didn't want people following her with sidelong looks and whispering behind their hands about how pathetic she was. She could do so much better than that!
She was so consumed in her own thoughts that she hardly noticed the girl in front of her. When she finally did notice, her hands flew to her swords; it was only when the girl flinched back that she took a closer look at her.
She was beautiful. That was the first thing Tamara thought. Her skin was an even brown, the color of fine wood, her dark eyes were framed with long, full lashes, and her lips were full and perfectly formed.
The second thing Tamara thought was that this girl needed help. That beautiful face was contorted in an expression of fear, and her clothes were ragged and torn.
"Please, Sunlight Warrior! Help me!" she said.
"Are you from the village?" Tamara asked her. "What happened there?"
"We were sleeping when they attacked," the girl sobbed. "I ran with my family, but they were all shot. I think I'm the only one who escaped."
"Okay, calm down," Tamara said. She touched the girl's arm. "I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm a Sunlight Warrior! My job is to protect the Dawn People, and I'll protect you."
Arsal finally caught up with her then. "Hey, what's-- are you from the village?" he asked. "What happened?"
"She's the only one who escaped, at least as far as she knows," Tamara said. "Are there any more Dusk People hiding here?"
"Would I be alive if there were?" the girl said bitterly.
"I guess that means no," Arsal said. "Okay, let's go back to the camp site. What's your name?" he asked the girl.
"Onala," the girl said. "It's because I was born under a tree." She started weeping then, obviously relieving the recent past.
"Come on, it'll be okay," Tamara said. She hugged the girl, rubbing her back to calm her. Arsal started to approach as well, but she gave him such a venomous look that he didn't dare approach any closer.
"So, uh, what did you do? I mean, before," Tamara asked as they walked back.
"Did? I mean, I cooked, of course, and washed clothes and helped my mother. I did a little in the mines too, but I've never liked it, and I don't have the strength to be a blacksmith."
"I guess I forget sometimes," Tamara said. "In my home, there are so many different jobs that people can do. But it seems like here people only do a few things."
"Well how many jobs are there for people to do?" Arsal asked. "Once you've got farmers and housekeepers and herders and miners and carpenters and traders and blacksmiths."
"There are people who catch fish to eat, in the capital," Onala spoke up. "And I think there are other jobs there too. Stonemasons and pearl divers and... I've heard there are even people who are soldiers all the time! Like, that's all they do!"
"What, seriously?" Arsal asked. "No way, it would be so boring. You can't do anything about obia, and Dusk People hardly ever attack, so what else is there to do? Derail wild animals?"
"I don't really get it either," Onala admitted. "But that's what they say."
Tamara didn't like them talking to each other in such a friendly way. She butted in. "In my world... there must be thousands of jobs that people can have. Maybe even millions."
"Really?" Onala asked. "Like what?"
"Oh, all kinds of things. Like, there are the people who run the government, there are lots of different jobs there. That's what my mom does, she makes people pay their taxes."
"Oh yeah, we have those too," Arsal said. "Messengers from the queen do that kind of stuff. It was never a big deal at home, though, we don't have very much so we can't give them very much."
"There are way more people at home than there are here, so it ends up being a big job," Tamara said. "And sometimes people try not to pay, or they get confused and pay the wrong amount. And my dad is what's called a lawyer... like, if someone is accused of doing something bad, and they have to go to the court, he represents them and does his best to explain why they didn't do it."
"Courts?"