Tsuki was unusually busy in the month following the spring festival. Master Heele had received a lot of new business from the other villages and some of the rural farms. By the time he had a free day to come to the forest, summer was approaching.
I spotted him from a distance and ran to hug him. "Tsuki!"
He caught me with a small sound as I knocked the air out of him. His eyes were wide as he looked at me. "Oh…hello…"
I glared at him. "Why are you acting like you aren't happy to see me? I bet your life has been painfully boring without me."
Tsuki busied himself taking off his mask and didn't answer. His cheeks were tinted pink and he tried to hide his smile. I laughed at his reaction. "I knew it," I nudged him with my elbow.
We walked back to the hut where Budding was waiting. "What news from the village?" she asked.
Tsuki sighed. "The Smitta has set up his school. They are using Chief Westerly's garden while the weather is fine. They are insisting that all the boys in the village attend, but it's optional for the girls."
I frowned. I didn't like any method of teaching that separated genders. I couldn't think of anything that could be learned by one but not the other.
"What's being taught at the school?" Min inquired.
Tsuki shook his head. "I only went to the first lesson, then I asked Master Heele to excuse me. They taught about recognizing the presence of evil."
Budding and Min exchanged glances. I didn't understand the full meaning of their looks, but I knew enough to see that it wasn't anything good.
"Is everyone going to the lessons?" I asked.
He shook his head. "There are those who have too much work to take time away for schooling. There are also a few families who say it's a waste of time, but the Smitta has been making an effort to change their minds."
"Why does he care?" I muttered. "Does he get a prize for having the biggest class?"
Tsuki chuckled. "Maybe."
"The Followers of Purity are always looking for recruits," Budding said.
"I'm sure he'd be rewarded for converting the whole village," Min added spitefully.
Tsuki nodded, setting down his mask and the sack that held his midday meal. "There are also some rumors of a new evil on the outskirts of the village, so that has people asking Smitta Farlin to keep them safe."
I pursed my lips together. "A new evil?"
"They probably mean me," came Shin's voice from the shadows of the hut. He stepped out into the open, once again avoiding direct sunlight.
Tsuki's eyebrows shot upward. "Choro," he gasped, bowing deeply.
Shin gently took hold of Tsuki's arm and helped him to stand upright. "There's no need for that, child. I'm not some deity. I am called Shin."
"He's been waiting for you," I said proudly. "He's going to be your teacher."
Tsuki looked horrified. "I apologize for my delay, Choro," he stammered.
I struggled to contain the laughter that was bubbling up in my throat. Min threw a pebble in my direction but missed on purpose. "Stop tormenting the boy," he reprimanded.
Shin's expression was kind. "You don't need to apologize. I came willingly, knowing that you have other concerns in your life."
My friend hurried to nod. "Master Heele said that if I take too many days off, the Smitta will question why I'm not attending his school."
I furrowed my brow as a thought crossed my mind. "Shin, why would there be rumors about you in the village?"
The kag smiled, showing his prominent teeth. "I have to nourish myself, don't I?"
My jaw dropped. "You've been eating people?"
Tsuki pinched my arm. "Don't say such things," he scolded. "That's not how it works."
Shin didn't seem offended by my thoughtless words. "Kags will put their target in a trance, but it isn't uncommon for faint memories to remain. Rumors are a natural happening."
"Do you bite them?" I asked, earning another glare from Tsuki.
Shin laughed. "Not like you are thinking," he replied. "We're not vampires, we don't feed on blood."
"How, then?" I pressed.
"Please stop asking questions," Tsuki rasped, looking anguished.
"Why?" I whispered back.
His voice became even quieter. "It's embarrassing."
I gave him an incredulous glance. How could something as basic as eating be embarrassing?
"The akagine child is uncomfortable," Shin observed. "We will defer your question to another time."
I shrugged, but my confusion persisted. All living things had to be nourished in one way or another. What was embarrassing about that? What did it matter how humans or kags or tiernan ate? It all served the same purpose in the end.
"I see that you have spent your life among humans," Shin continued. "This has made you unfamiliar with our ways."
Tsuki crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. "I grew up near other akagine, but I rarely met with any kags, Choro Shin."
Shin nodded, not looking surprised. "My kind have become increasingly reclusive, even to their descendants. I was told you came from the southland."
"Yes."
"There is much persecution in those areas," he acknowledged. "It isn't surprising that you have experienced isolation from your ancestors."
Tsuki's eyes were fixed on the ground. "Are you…unable to teach me, then?"
Shin tilted his head to the side. "Why wouldn't I teach you?"
"Because I wasn't raised to be the same," he murmured.
The kag smiled, but his expression was sad. "You cannot help how you were raised, child. Your parents made the choices they did out of necessity, and it allowed you to survive to this day. I don't condemn you for your circumstances."
Tsuki's face brightened. "So, I still get to learn?"
"Of course."
"Shin and Tsuki will stay here for their lesson," Budding told me. "We will go back to the focal point to continue ours."
I stuck out my lower lip. "I don't get to watch?"
"How could you benefit from that?" Min demanded. "You aren't an akagine."
"I just thought it'd be interesting," I muttered.
"You have your own things to learn," the hoak pointed out. "And you aren't doing well with that, either."
I felt my heart drop. I hated to admit it, but he was right. I still struggled to connect with individual plants and receive detailed knowledge from them.
"Fine," I groaned, walking away from the hut with a gloomy wave to my friend.
Budding linked arms with me as we walked. She studied me for a thoughtful moment before suddenly changing directions.
"Are we going to a different focal point?"
She shook her head. "No, we're going to try something different today."
Budding led me to an area of the forest where the ground leveled out. The trees were thick, making the sunlight dappled. My small mountain was rich with life, and I reveled in the sounds and smells around me.
There were things that I enjoyed about every season, but early summer had more things than the others. I loved the green, earthy smell that filled the warm air. I loved seeing all the insects and birds dart through the trees. I loved all the sturdy summer flowers that replaced the delicate blossoms of the spring.
It was the best time of year.
This year, however, the season always came with a twinge of sadness for me. Everything that I saw and experienced reminded me that my mother wasn't there to share in it.
She continued doing her miscellaneous work in the village. Now it included occasional housework for the prominent families of the village. (Apparently, they preferred her service because she knew 'how it was supposed to be done.')
Once I'd asked her if she missed living in our hut in the woods, but she'd said no. She was genuinely happy to have a place in the village, even if it was doing manual labor.
It was something that I couldn't understand, even with my advanced imagination.
I could understand wanting to belong—I'd often felt that myself. I wanted to have friends and be greeted by neighbors. I wanted to feel safe walking through the village, no matter the circumstances.
I just couldn't understand sacrificing the rest of my daily happiness for those things. It wasn't worth it to me to be able to live among the villagers if it meant working from dawn until dusk, doing all the menial tasks that they thought beneath them.
I couldn't understand why Mother would prefer to scrub stains from someone's clothes instead of coming with me to sit on the soft moss and dip our feet into the crystal water of the stream.
"Tiff?" Budding nudged, reclaiming my attention.
"Hmm?"
She smiled and repeated what she'd said. "Today we're going to play a game."
This time my interest was piqued. "A game?"
Budding held up two blindfolds, although I have no idea where she got them. "You and I will wear these. We will start in separate areas; then, using only the information we can gather from the plant life, we must find Mineral without being caught by each other."
I giggled at the idea. "What happens if you catch me?"
"Then I automatically win," she replied.
"What if neither of us can find Min?"
"Then he wins."
"I will win," Min predicted.
I put my fists on my hips. "Wait. I'm the one with the biggest disadvantage, here. I'm still learning how to communicate with plants, but both of you have loads of experience."
"Not me," Min piped in. "I can't talk to plants at all."
I waved a hand at him dismissively. "All you have to do is hide."
He turned up his nose. "I'll have you know that hiding from a tiernan is not an easy task!"
Budding patted my shoulder. "If you want to win, you'll have to learn quickly."
I sputtered for a moment, but I knew that arguing would do no good. Budding was right. I would either have to learn fast or accept that I was going to lose.
I hated losing.
I took the blindfold from Budding's hand. "Are there boundaries?"
She shook her head. "Just stay in this part of the forest. However, I don't think Mineral will make it too difficult on us."
He snorted. "See that I won't."
We all laughed.
"Will he be stationary?" I asked.
"Of course not," Min spat. "I'm no sunned rock waiting to be picked up."
"Any starting point?"
Budding's smile widened. "Any starting point."
I quirked an eyebrow. "What if I want to start right here?"
"Then you'll be easy to find," she chuckled.
"But if I just grab Min…" I started.
He held up a pointy finger in warning. "Don't you dare!"
"You don't have to physically catch him," Budding clarified. "Just point him out when you find him."
I pretended to be disappointed. "Boring," I sighed.
"As if you could get close enough to capture me," Min said in an undertone.
Budding pointed in the direction she intended to take. "Count to one hundred, then begin."
I nodded and immediately set off in the opposite direction. Once I was well out of sight I stopped to tie the blindfold around my eyes. It wouldn't do to get too far away, so I didn't venture farther. I began taking slow, deep breaths as I finished counting in my mind. I wanted to be ready to connect to the threads of magic as soon as the time was up.
…Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. One hundred.
I reached out with my thoughts to pull the shimmering threads to myself. My body immediately felt more energetic and all of my senses amplified. I could hear the individual buzzing of each insect. I could smell the various plants that were near me.
I imagined myself using the threads of magic to weave a net, which I cast over my surroundings. I received a clear image in my mind as if I was looking with my own eyes. I felt confident enough to walk forward with minimal hesitation.
There's a tree right in front of me, I said to myself. It's surrounded by bramble.
I adjusted the direction my body was facing and kept walking. I wasn't worried about navigating; that was the easy part. It's as simple as saying, Are you there? Then having the plants answer back, Yes! It was an entirely different matter to say, Describe everything around you, and to understand what's being said back.
Water is in that direction, my instincts told me.
"That's not what I need to know," I whispered to myself.
Bees…
Yes, I could hear them without help.
Silence. The whole forest was helping us to play our game.
A family of squirrels is watching you.
Really? I was proud of myself for being able to discern that from the trees that I passed. It seemed to be working, this exercise devised by my teacher.
Budding is that way.
I froze in my steps. How did I know that?
It wasn't that I could hear her movements or catch her scent. I wouldn't have known anything if I had relied solely on my physical senses. Even so, I knew she was up ahead. Just as I could 'see' the golden strings of magic in my mind's eye, I could identify the beacon of the magic that swirled around the core of her being.
I crouched low to the ground in an effort to be stealthy, but I immediately grinned at my foolishness. I couldn't hide in the usual way. Surely she could sense me just as well as I could sense her. Standing behind trees or kneeling among bushes wouldn't make any difference.
I started moving away from her direction. I didn't know how to approach her without being caught myself, so I figured it would be best to avoid her altogether.
I stumbled over a rock in my path, causing me to tumble painfully to the ground. I drew in breath between my teeth, rubbing the palms of my hands together.
Perhaps navigating blindfolded was not as easy as I assumed.
"Tiff," Budding called from a distance, "I've found Mineral."
I snatched the blindfold from my face, glaring at the ground. "How did she find him so fast?"
I pushed myself to my feet and marched toward the sound of Budding's voice. She and Min were waiting patiently for me to join them.
"Did you let her win?" I accused Min.
His mouth dropped open. "I…let her…I beg your pardon?" he sputtered.
"Now, now," Budding soothed. "Let's not lose our tempers. Tiff, you know that Mineral was playing by the rules."
I threw my hands up. "Well, how am I supposed to even have a chance when you find him so quickly?"
She smiled at me. "You'll have to be faster, I suppose."
I kicked a pine cone on the ground, sending it flying through the trees. "Fine," I growled. "Let's play again."
"This is supposed to be fun," Budding reminded me.
I felt my frustration begin to drain out of me. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know," I muttered. "I'm sorry."
She put her arm around my shoulders. "I know that you're upset that this is taking you so long to learn, but I promise that you're making excellent progress. Not everything can be learned quickly."
I nodded, letting go of the last bit of my disappointment. "Can we play again?"
"Of course," Budding replied. "How about I just watch this time? See if you can find Mineral on your own."
My mood started to lift. "Sure!"
We grinned at each other.
"You won't find me," Min insisted.
I tied the blindfold back around my eyes. "We'll see about that," I responded.