Hot cycle, Arc 704
His father had come to pick him up but his mother had told him to stay inside.
"Outside, Quiome," his father had said, and Yanaqi, his half-sister, had dragged him by the hand, wide-eyed, out the door.
The two children were sitting on the log pile stacked next to the house. It was hot out, a lazy day; Yanaqi chased a bug with her fingers, then caught it and let it crawl up to her elbow. It had been a while since father and Yanaqi had come, but they hadn't yet left for the city, and the adults were still inside the house.
Quiome could occasionally hear his mother shouting.
"Why?" he asked Yanaqi, and she shrugged her shoulders. The bug was skittering over her knuckles; she titled it from hand to hand.
"Your mom doesn't want you to go to the city."
"The city? Why?"
"Because it's where the people live."
"Oh."
He had seen the roads, seen the people going along with their horses and carts. Once he'd gone to the shore, seen the boats out on the water. He'd also spied on the neighbors when he could; mostly he just watched their houses, which were bigger but the same as Quiome's house, but sometimes the people came out to work in the fields. He observed them the same way he might watch an animal in the forest, trying to learn all he could.
So far what he had learned most was that people were different than animals, though they did most of the same things. But somehow people were... special.
He had also seen the city walls, but never the inside. To go to the city...
"I want to go," he said. "Yanaqi, let's go. I want to see the people."
"Tell your mother that," the girl said. The bug was cupped in her hands. She made the cage of her fingers smaller and smaller, until Quiome protested; then she opened her hands and let the bug go free. It buzzed its wings and flew off, into the sky. "It'll probably be eaten by a bird," Yana sighed. "And now I have nothing to do. Your mom sure can yell, can't she?"
"What do you think they're saying?" Quiome asked.
"They're arguing over you."
He didn't know what to say to that.
Eventually their father came out of the house, alone, and gestured for them to go. Yanaqi hopped off the wood and helped Quiome down, though he was more than old enough to do it himself, making sure he didn't fall. "Is mother coming?" he asked his father, but the older man just shook his head.
"Let's go, children," he said. "We have until light fall."
---
They had met two of his older brothers in the city --Vaas and Nulun-- and though Quiome was supposed to be greeting them he stared around in dumb amazement. They were in the city square. "Shut your mouth before a moth flies in," Yanaqi said, but she was beaming at him, pleased by his reaction.
"Look at all the people." He had never seen so many people. He had never imagined so many.
"Watch them," his father said. "Learn them."
The crystal family walked around for a short while, then found someplace to sit. Vaas, his oldest brother --so like his father in appearance and demeanor-- disappeared, only to return with food. Quiome took his portion --some sort of fried bread and fish-- and snacked away. He ate without looking at his food, afraid to blink and miss anything.
People really were different than animals, not the same at all. Special. Their food... they way they talked to each other, all the different voices, high and low, male and female.
And the children.
A little girl and some boys ran past with sticks for swords and Quiome was completely mesmerized by the sight of them. He watched them at their play, jaw slightly slack. Yanaqi tried to throw a piece of her bread into his open mouth but missed. Quiome hardly noticed. He hadn't thought about it, hadn't realized that in the city there would be other children; the only other person around his age that he had ever met was Yanaqi, and she was his sister and still two years older. Seeing the normal kids run and play was like looking in a mirror upside down.
"Join them," his father said from behind, and Quiome turned to him in wonder.
"I can... talk to them?" he asked. Had he ever talked to anyone outside of his family before?
"Just be careful," his father said. "Tell me what you learn."
---
It took courage. That was the first thing the crystal boy learned. A person had to be brave to introduce themselves to someone they didn't know.
He chose the girl because she was smaller and she smiled a lot. He really liked her smile; she had freckles on her nose and dimples in her cheeks. He waited until she was separated from her group of boys to come up. "U-Um," he said, holding out his hand like he'd seen the adults do. "I-I'm Q-- Q--"
He hadn't considered changing his name like his brothers and father did. He couldn't think of a new name that might fit him.
"Quiome," he finally said, knowing it was wrong to say, but in this case giving away his true name didn't feel bad. Especially not when the girl turned her smile to him.
"Jessa," she chirped in response, and tucked her stick under her arm to reach out and take his hand. "I don't think I know you? Are you from Ne'haer? You're not in my class."
"N-No, not exactly Ne'haer," Quiome stuttered. "My mother and I live out past the farms. I-I'm homeschooled."
"Homeschooled?" Jessa wrinkled her nose, frowning, though not as if she thought homeschooling was a bad thing. She squinted at him. "Is it just your mother and you, then?"
"Yes," he said. "Just us most the time. We don't come into the c-city."
"You don't have any friends?" He shook his head. The girl looked at him with pity. "That must be very lonely."
Lonely, he thought, weighing the word against everything he knew. Against memories of home. Lonely.
"Yes," he said after a moment, softer.
Jessa looked at him, perhaps waiting for him to say something else. "Well, do you want to play evil wizards with us, or what?" she eventually asked, with a grin.
"Wizards?" He was still thinking of his life out in the woods. He must not have heard her right. "I thought you were playing knights."
The girl gave him an odd look, and he realized he had just told her he'd been watching them play. He blushed and looked down.
"Well we were before..." she said slowly. Then in her regular chipper tone, "But we're playing wizards now. See this stick?" She whirled it out from under her arm, then spun the tip in a circle in the air. "It's a magic stick. It does magic stuff. You know the stuff, like mind magic, that sort of thing. Evil magic. Basically I'm the mind-control wizard. Whoever I tap with the stick has to do whatever I tell them. You know like--" she reached out and tapped him with the stick, "--now you can't walk, you can only jump!"
Quiome hesitated, and the girl tapped him again. "Jump, I said!" He began cautiously hopping.
"You've got it," Jessa said. "Now you're my minion. So come along, let's catch the others and make them eat dirt!" And off she ran.
Smiling hesitantly, Quiome followed.
---
He had been playing with the others for some time now and he had learned a lot. He had learned a few types of games (all of them, he noticed, had multiple players). He'd also learned things the other kids seemed to naturally know. Don't get in the way of adults. Older brothers and sisters can be mean. Other kids can be mean. There was one boy in particular who didn't seem to much like Quiome, no matter what he did. He was trying to figure out how he could get the boy to like him. That was another of father's lessons: gain their trust.
He thought he had an idea how to go about it.
"Jessa!" he called, and the girl bounded over. She brushed her sweaty hair out of her face. "Yes?"
His father was nearby and seemed to be paying attention. Quiome decided that this was not the place to be. Don't get in the way of adults, the others had taught him.
"I've got an idea about maybe something we could do? But I want to show you first before I show the others," he said, and she nodded and followed him off to a more secluded place.
"Okay, so watch this!" he said, and concentrated on the crystals that made up his hand.
As the girl looked on, the skin of his palm turned distinctly not-skin-colored. Now it had an opalescent gleam. "Quio--!" she gasped, and he said, trying to concentrate, "No, wait Jessa, this isn't it yet."
A few bits more and he had it. He turned his palm upwards a certain way. A beam of light caught in it, and a rainbow shone from his hand onto Jessa's awed face, like a prism of light off glass or water.
"Quiome," she whispered, "How can you do this?"
"It's magic," he said impressively, and then a hand crashed down on his shoulder and his arm was knocked out of place.
"We're leaving. Now," his father said, and dragged Quiome away, straight through the city --past his two brothers, who just watched them go like everyone else-- and out the gates. Yanaqi sprinted after them, not wanting to be left behind.
"I was just playing," the boy said breathlessly, but his father's expression didn't change. On his other side Yanaqi too was struggling to keep up with the adult's long-legged stride. She reached out and grabbed Quiome's other hand, looking at him with something like fear, and he held her hand back, tightly, not knowing what was going on.
The way to his home was a long way to be dragged by one arm, and by the time they reached the little cottage his shoulder was really hurting. He stumbled over a root and nearly fell and his father lifted him back to his feet.
From the door of the cottage, his mother cried out, "Quiome!" Suddenly she was wrenching him from his father's grasp. "Why are you back so early? What happened?" she demanded, and Yanaqi backed away from her, stunned by the woman's fearful tone. His father faced her impassively.
"He revealed what he was to a human child," was all the man said.
At once his mother was yelling. "I thought you said you would watch him! I knew
it-- I knew it! This is not a life for him." Quiome had never seen her like this. She was so afraid. "I won't let you do it. I won't let you risk our son's life just for your family's cursed name--"
But here his father interrupted her. "Do not speak of the Eloquoi in such a manner," he said, quiet. But his voice was shiveringly cool.
His mother shut up at that. She didn't speak for a long moment. "Quiome," she finally said, "Take Yanaqi and go inside."
"Yanaqi will stay out here," their father commanded, and Yana looked between them, confused and frightened.
"Quiome!" his mother barked.
"I-I didn't mean to," he said, and his father reached out as if to grab him.
His mother stepped in the way.
"Quiome, inside, now! Say goodbye to Yanaqi and go!"
And still not knowing what was going on, he did as his mother told him.
---
Later, when his father and sister had gone, his mother sat him down and stared at him for a long time. She gently touched his cheek. He was crying.
"I want to go back to the city," he said. "I don't understand why we have to be alone. There was a girl there, Jessa, she was kind--"
"You will never go back there, Quiome," his mother said, wiping away at his tears. "Your father was wrong to take you there. You must learn from his mistakes, and mine, and now yours, and so remember this: people cannot be trusted. Your little friend may be kind, but she is not like you and me, and now she knows it. What you did today..." She brushed a hand at his hair, and he could feel that her hand was shaking. He took it in his own to still it. "You must never ever tell anyone what you are, my sweet boy. At the very least, your father and I agree on that."
His father had come to pick him up but his mother had told him to stay inside.
"Outside, Quiome," his father had said, and Yanaqi, his half-sister, had dragged him by the hand, wide-eyed, out the door.
The two children were sitting on the log pile stacked next to the house. It was hot out, a lazy day; Yanaqi chased a bug with her fingers, then caught it and let it crawl up to her elbow. It had been a while since father and Yanaqi had come, but they hadn't yet left for the city, and the adults were still inside the house.
Quiome could occasionally hear his mother shouting.
"Why?" he asked Yanaqi, and she shrugged her shoulders. The bug was skittering over her knuckles; she titled it from hand to hand.
"Your mom doesn't want you to go to the city."
"The city? Why?"
"Because it's where the people live."
"Oh."
He had seen the roads, seen the people going along with their horses and carts. Once he'd gone to the shore, seen the boats out on the water. He'd also spied on the neighbors when he could; mostly he just watched their houses, which were bigger but the same as Quiome's house, but sometimes the people came out to work in the fields. He observed them the same way he might watch an animal in the forest, trying to learn all he could.
So far what he had learned most was that people were different than animals, though they did most of the same things. But somehow people were... special.
He had also seen the city walls, but never the inside. To go to the city...
"I want to go," he said. "Yanaqi, let's go. I want to see the people."
"Tell your mother that," the girl said. The bug was cupped in her hands. She made the cage of her fingers smaller and smaller, until Quiome protested; then she opened her hands and let the bug go free. It buzzed its wings and flew off, into the sky. "It'll probably be eaten by a bird," Yana sighed. "And now I have nothing to do. Your mom sure can yell, can't she?"
"What do you think they're saying?" Quiome asked.
"They're arguing over you."
He didn't know what to say to that.
Eventually their father came out of the house, alone, and gestured for them to go. Yanaqi hopped off the wood and helped Quiome down, though he was more than old enough to do it himself, making sure he didn't fall. "Is mother coming?" he asked his father, but the older man just shook his head.
"Let's go, children," he said. "We have until light fall."
---
They had met two of his older brothers in the city --Vaas and Nulun-- and though Quiome was supposed to be greeting them he stared around in dumb amazement. They were in the city square. "Shut your mouth before a moth flies in," Yanaqi said, but she was beaming at him, pleased by his reaction.
"Look at all the people." He had never seen so many people. He had never imagined so many.
"Watch them," his father said. "Learn them."
The crystal family walked around for a short while, then found someplace to sit. Vaas, his oldest brother --so like his father in appearance and demeanor-- disappeared, only to return with food. Quiome took his portion --some sort of fried bread and fish-- and snacked away. He ate without looking at his food, afraid to blink and miss anything.
People really were different than animals, not the same at all. Special. Their food... they way they talked to each other, all the different voices, high and low, male and female.
And the children.
A little girl and some boys ran past with sticks for swords and Quiome was completely mesmerized by the sight of them. He watched them at their play, jaw slightly slack. Yanaqi tried to throw a piece of her bread into his open mouth but missed. Quiome hardly noticed. He hadn't thought about it, hadn't realized that in the city there would be other children; the only other person around his age that he had ever met was Yanaqi, and she was his sister and still two years older. Seeing the normal kids run and play was like looking in a mirror upside down.
"Join them," his father said from behind, and Quiome turned to him in wonder.
"I can... talk to them?" he asked. Had he ever talked to anyone outside of his family before?
"Just be careful," his father said. "Tell me what you learn."
---
It took courage. That was the first thing the crystal boy learned. A person had to be brave to introduce themselves to someone they didn't know.
He chose the girl because she was smaller and she smiled a lot. He really liked her smile; she had freckles on her nose and dimples in her cheeks. He waited until she was separated from her group of boys to come up. "U-Um," he said, holding out his hand like he'd seen the adults do. "I-I'm Q-- Q--"
He hadn't considered changing his name like his brothers and father did. He couldn't think of a new name that might fit him.
"Quiome," he finally said, knowing it was wrong to say, but in this case giving away his true name didn't feel bad. Especially not when the girl turned her smile to him.
"Jessa," she chirped in response, and tucked her stick under her arm to reach out and take his hand. "I don't think I know you? Are you from Ne'haer? You're not in my class."
"N-No, not exactly Ne'haer," Quiome stuttered. "My mother and I live out past the farms. I-I'm homeschooled."
"Homeschooled?" Jessa wrinkled her nose, frowning, though not as if she thought homeschooling was a bad thing. She squinted at him. "Is it just your mother and you, then?"
"Yes," he said. "Just us most the time. We don't come into the c-city."
"You don't have any friends?" He shook his head. The girl looked at him with pity. "That must be very lonely."
Lonely, he thought, weighing the word against everything he knew. Against memories of home. Lonely.
"Yes," he said after a moment, softer.
Jessa looked at him, perhaps waiting for him to say something else. "Well, do you want to play evil wizards with us, or what?" she eventually asked, with a grin.
"Wizards?" He was still thinking of his life out in the woods. He must not have heard her right. "I thought you were playing knights."
The girl gave him an odd look, and he realized he had just told her he'd been watching them play. He blushed and looked down.
"Well we were before..." she said slowly. Then in her regular chipper tone, "But we're playing wizards now. See this stick?" She whirled it out from under her arm, then spun the tip in a circle in the air. "It's a magic stick. It does magic stuff. You know the stuff, like mind magic, that sort of thing. Evil magic. Basically I'm the mind-control wizard. Whoever I tap with the stick has to do whatever I tell them. You know like--" she reached out and tapped him with the stick, "--now you can't walk, you can only jump!"
Quiome hesitated, and the girl tapped him again. "Jump, I said!" He began cautiously hopping.
"You've got it," Jessa said. "Now you're my minion. So come along, let's catch the others and make them eat dirt!" And off she ran.
Smiling hesitantly, Quiome followed.
---
He had been playing with the others for some time now and he had learned a lot. He had learned a few types of games (all of them, he noticed, had multiple players). He'd also learned things the other kids seemed to naturally know. Don't get in the way of adults. Older brothers and sisters can be mean. Other kids can be mean. There was one boy in particular who didn't seem to much like Quiome, no matter what he did. He was trying to figure out how he could get the boy to like him. That was another of father's lessons: gain their trust.
He thought he had an idea how to go about it.
"Jessa!" he called, and the girl bounded over. She brushed her sweaty hair out of her face. "Yes?"
His father was nearby and seemed to be paying attention. Quiome decided that this was not the place to be. Don't get in the way of adults, the others had taught him.
"I've got an idea about maybe something we could do? But I want to show you first before I show the others," he said, and she nodded and followed him off to a more secluded place.
"Okay, so watch this!" he said, and concentrated on the crystals that made up his hand.
As the girl looked on, the skin of his palm turned distinctly not-skin-colored. Now it had an opalescent gleam. "Quio--!" she gasped, and he said, trying to concentrate, "No, wait Jessa, this isn't it yet."
A few bits more and he had it. He turned his palm upwards a certain way. A beam of light caught in it, and a rainbow shone from his hand onto Jessa's awed face, like a prism of light off glass or water.
"Quiome," she whispered, "How can you do this?"
"It's magic," he said impressively, and then a hand crashed down on his shoulder and his arm was knocked out of place.
"We're leaving. Now," his father said, and dragged Quiome away, straight through the city --past his two brothers, who just watched them go like everyone else-- and out the gates. Yanaqi sprinted after them, not wanting to be left behind.
"I was just playing," the boy said breathlessly, but his father's expression didn't change. On his other side Yanaqi too was struggling to keep up with the adult's long-legged stride. She reached out and grabbed Quiome's other hand, looking at him with something like fear, and he held her hand back, tightly, not knowing what was going on.
The way to his home was a long way to be dragged by one arm, and by the time they reached the little cottage his shoulder was really hurting. He stumbled over a root and nearly fell and his father lifted him back to his feet.
From the door of the cottage, his mother cried out, "Quiome!" Suddenly she was wrenching him from his father's grasp. "Why are you back so early? What happened?" she demanded, and Yanaqi backed away from her, stunned by the woman's fearful tone. His father faced her impassively.
"He revealed what he was to a human child," was all the man said.
At once his mother was yelling. "I thought you said you would watch him! I knew
it-- I knew it! This is not a life for him." Quiome had never seen her like this. She was so afraid. "I won't let you do it. I won't let you risk our son's life just for your family's cursed name--"
But here his father interrupted her. "Do not speak of the Eloquoi in such a manner," he said, quiet. But his voice was shiveringly cool.
His mother shut up at that. She didn't speak for a long moment. "Quiome," she finally said, "Take Yanaqi and go inside."
"Yanaqi will stay out here," their father commanded, and Yana looked between them, confused and frightened.
"Quiome!" his mother barked.
"I-I didn't mean to," he said, and his father reached out as if to grab him.
His mother stepped in the way.
"Quiome, inside, now! Say goodbye to Yanaqi and go!"
And still not knowing what was going on, he did as his mother told him.
---
Later, when his father and sister had gone, his mother sat him down and stared at him for a long time. She gently touched his cheek. He was crying.
"I want to go back to the city," he said. "I don't understand why we have to be alone. There was a girl there, Jessa, she was kind--"
"You will never go back there, Quiome," his mother said, wiping away at his tears. "Your father was wrong to take you there. You must learn from his mistakes, and mine, and now yours, and so remember this: people cannot be trusted. Your little friend may be kind, but she is not like you and me, and now she knows it. What you did today..." She brushed a hand at his hair, and he could feel that her hand was shaking. He took it in his own to still it. "You must never ever tell anyone what you are, my sweet boy. At the very least, your father and I agree on that."
"Speaking in Rakahi" "Speaking in Common" "Speaking in Ulehi"
