"There's no way the freak is going to catch a fish." At the side of a lush river, a group of children chanted and spat their harsh words at one of their own: a young, blonde girl with unusual, golden eyes. They ran, and danced, and tried to scoop up wandering fish in their nets.
"I can too catch a fish! I've been practicing! I'll show you!" The youngling took a defensive stance, stomping her foot in the shallow water.
"Show us, then. Let's see weird-eyes catch a fish." The largest of the children, a tan, muscular boy who looked to be the oldest, taunted her with his words as his followers surrounded him. The girl couldn't have been more than eight or nine years of age, and they circled her like vultures waiting for supper.
"My name is Arika!" Wading into the water, the youth stood her ground at the center of the stream, poised and seeming to be concentrating.
"You don't even have a net! What are you going to do, catch one with your hands?" Another child jeered at her, picking up a stone from the shoreline and tossing it in her direction. She missed, and it landed in the water a couple feet away from her with an audible plop.
"Don't! You'll disturb the fish!" The other children laughed at her, but the girl named Arika was determined. She held still and, once she had selected a target in range, made her move. Bending down into the water, her head disappeared beneath the surface in a flurry. Rising in one swift motion as water splayed from her lengthy waves of hair, her target had been acquired: lodged between her teeth was a smaller fish, just fat enough to make for a succulent meal. Her unusual method of fishing turned the jeering of the others into gasps.
"No way! That is not normal!" The look on the ringleader's face was one of pure disgust. "You're an animal! You should be living out here in the wild with the pigs!" Ignoring the boy's remarks, Arika reveled in her catch and reflexively did what her body needed to do: eat. She swallowed the fish as the others watched in their horror, devouring the still-very-much-alive creature whole without a single bite. With a lurch of her stomach, she spit out the bones, licking her lips and smiling in her victory.
"See? I told you I could do it. I bet I can catch more than all of you!"
"Freak! She's a freak!" One boy pointed at her and began his chanting as the others soon followed. They kept yelling that word at her, 'freak,' over and over and over, until it hammered into her brain and made her cringe.
"Stop it! I'm not a freak!" Arika covered her ears as they grew louder, and louder. 'Gross.' 'Weird.' 'Freak.' The words flowed from them as naturally as the air they were breathing. The girl focused her efforts into silencing them in her mind, and didn't realize that the ringleader had come up behind her in the water. Without warning or a shred of compassion, he grabbed her hair by the fistful and forced her head under the water. Her arms flailed and she screamed into the river, inhaling and causing her to choke. She could still hear them under the muffle of water, which became clear again as he brought her head up. Gasping for air, she gave a desperate scream, but was only met with another dunk, back into the water again. They did this over, and over, screaming those words into her ears each time they pulled her up so roughly. The young girl thought it would never end, but so quickly as it began, it did.
Arika's nails, lengthy and feral, latched onto the ringleader's face and pierced his skin. As the bulky child screamed, the blonde girl rose from the water and stared him down like wrath itself, those reptilian eyes narrow, and brooding. The boy squirmed and started to cry, yet still she held his face there as blood pooled from his skin and dripped down into the water.
His cries grew louder, and louder, and louder.
Viper screamed. Bolting upright in her bed, tears stung at the corners of her eyes as she writhed in a gasp-filled panic. Draziel, who had been indulging in slumber beside her, snapped awake at his lover's sudden outburst.
"Viper." He slid his arms around her, bringing her back down towards him as he hushed her sobs. "What is it? What's troubling you?" He held to the shaking woman, who was burying her head in the comforts of his chest.
"My name is Arika." Her words flowed in almost a whisper, but they deafened the sounds of the jeering from her nightmare. Somehow, even after all this time, she found herself defending a part of herself she had left behind. Draziel, surprised to hear this from her, couldn't help but smile.
"Yes. Yes it is. It's alright, Arika. It was just a nightmare. It's over, now."
"It's never over. My nightmares are my memories."
"I'm sure not all of your memories are nightmares." He raised his hand to come up beneath her chin, tilting her head up just the slightest bit to catch her gaze. "Tell me a happy one. One of your favorite memories. Tell me about this place we are going." As Draziel's lover began to still her trembling form, she considered his question, responding with a soft sigh.
"Krynia is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Just imagine this..., harsh, harsh desert. The areas that are livable are kept in containment, but on the outside, it's just..., nothing. A completely barren place, where you either starve or simply collapse into the sand and fade away."
"That sounds far from beautiful." Facing each other as they lay upon the blanketed mattress, the Kaneren planted a gentle kiss at the fair-skinned woman's cheek.
"Let me finish." She shook her head at him. "Imagine that place, that awful place..., that you're walking through it, and all of a sudden, you see these tall gates in the distance, that look like shimmering gold. You go towards these gates and you enter through them, to discover this lush, green paradise of sparkling waterfalls and massive temples. Where the males, in all of their strength, train in militant might and amass the most powerful army you've ever seen. The women, just as powerful in their own right, maintain the city and act as its guardians. Everywhere you go is just..., beauty."
"Do you miss it, there? Krynia?"
"Krynia was an illusion created by the Kaneren to house our species. We thought it to be the great oasis, but in truth, it is simply a mirage. However, with the fall of West City, if we were to bring down those barriers, and I could gather the remaining army to fight for truth..."
"Do you think they will follow the woman that massacred them?"
"I will reveal the truth to them. Those who no longer wish to live in a lie will surely join me. There's only one Krynian standing in my way."
"And who's that?"
Arika gave a heavier sigh as her head nestled into the pillow beneath it. She could feel the fatigue settling back in. "My brother."
Staring at large gates of steel and metal, a young Arika approached, alone. "They're all too afraid to come to the gates. I'll show them! I can't turn back now." At first glance, the task looked almost impossible. But the young girl had a burning determination, and she was going to see this trial to the end. Placing a foot in a nook near the bottom, she hoisted her small frame up onto the infrastructure and began her climb.
Before too long, the girl had reached the pinnacle of the metal wall and descended upon the other side. Arika, who had never once been beyond the gates of her territory, looked at the vast expanse of desert before her in awe. Despite the tiny shreds of fear that began to creep along her spine, she began her march into self-initiated exile.
"Arika, did you hear me?" Draziel, loading several black satchels onto what resembled a hovering craft, looked to the Krynian with an arched eyebrow. The lithe woman, who had been lost in her thoughts, shook her head at him.
"I'm sorry, my thoughts were keeping me occupied. What was that?"
"I loaded the rest of the supplies. Do we need anything else? And are you sure you don't want to bring anyone else with us?"
"I know this desert inside and out. Bringing anyone else would only be a hindrance to our operations, I need only you."
As the Kaneren approached her, he set a hand on her shoulder firmly. "Only me? Tell me again." Despite his attempt at playful affection, Arika jerked her shoulder away from him.
"I did not mean it in that way. You are the most vital asset to this mission by far. With your help, I can convince my people of the truth." Looking to him suddenly, she could see a brimming sadness in his pupil-less eyes. With a sigh, the woman raised a hand to press along the side of his face. "But in the context of everything else, I do..., need you." Her voice held a softness as she spoke to him in this way, which urged him to kiss at her palm in his earnest gratitude.
"Are you ready to go?"
"I've been ready since New Babylon fell to ashes."
The young girl with golden eyes had grown accustomed to her harsh environment. Discovering early on that there were many abandoned settlements scattered throughout the terrain, she'd seek shelter from the storms of sand and would pillage what she needed to survive. While she hadn't actually seen another humanoid, desert scavengers were abundant, and she became feral in her own way, turning into a mighty huntress. The days started to blend together, and weeks turned into months. Somehow, in the turmoil of heat, she had survived. But one day, they came for her.
The black robed, 'Ad'da,' that her people worshiped and feared swept in like crows, catching her off-guard as she traversed the sandy dunes. While she had grown strong in her solitude, they lifted her away with their god-like magic as if she hadn't a single muscle, tossing her about like a doll until they had her where they wanted her. Afraid and defenseless, Arika was brought to large gates, which glimmered in the sun and blinded her eyes. As they opened, a tall figure appeared from the other side: a man, tall and muscular, with short, blonde hair and golden eyes like the sun. While his expression was most serious, the young girl couldn't help but give an earnest expression of amazement as her own vision came into focus.
"You look like me!"
"So what is your brother like, then?" Draziel, monitoring the scanners on their craft as it zoomed in the air above the sands, inquired to Arika as they made way on their journey. The blonde woman stood and surveyed their surroundings, vigilant, like a hawk.
"He's a warrior, trained from birth. He was in command of one of the largest sects of the Krynian army." As she fell to silence, the blonde took a deep breath before deciding to elaborate. "Krynia is not ruled by a..., government, as the cardinal cities are. There is a royal family that governs over all things. Cain, my brother, was a part of that royal family. The son of the former king and queen."
"Former?"
"They're dead."
Draziel, simply content with the fact that she was sharing so much, decided not to push too far on the subject. He simply remained quiet and waited to see if his lover would continue. And she did.
"I too was considered to be a part of the royal family, but I was born with the gifts of an oracle. I would not lay any claim to potential queen-ship, but rather, I was to be a messenger of the gods, and their devoted servant."
"The gods?" Draziel looked to her from over a shoulder, and the golden-eyed woman simply stared at him. After a long pause, the message she had been trying to convey became clear. "The Kaneren."
"I suppose I am..., getting off-topic. My brother was a good man. Strong, brave- determined and a bit stubborn...- I suppose him and I shared many things in common. In my youth, I-..., I did have love for him. But when I learned the truth and begged him to listen to reason, he would not bend in his ways. He fought me until the very end."
Leaving the automatic navigation to do its work, the Kaneren walked over to Arika and slipped an arm around her mid-section. The two of them stared out into the desert, sweating beneath the harsh, unforgiving rays of the sun. "We will change his mind. If you had love for your brother, we must do what we can to bring him on our side."
"I hope you are right. You know how I am, with my convictions."
"Do I?" He laughed at her in jest, and for a moment, Arika laughed along with him. Her head leaned down against his shoulder and the Kaneren found himself grinning broadly, overjoyed. He had never heard her laugh before.
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