Stranded - Chapter 7

Sasha watched as Billy’s tall silhouette dragged the Frail One back into his hut.

“You seems to be quite… invested in that Outworlder.”

Sasha turned to the source of the voice, which belonged to her mother, Mara, who was walking besides her. Sasha silently nodded.

“I know that you are wise enough to make your own decisions now, but… do not get too entangled with those Outworlders. They… only bring about troubles.”

“Even Billy?”

“…”

Mara only quickened her walking pace as a response. Sasha hastened to chase after her mother as well, however, she still glanced back at Billy’s hut.

—-

Sasha’s first waking memory was of a tired, dignified woman smiling at her. The woman softly caressed Sasha’s cheek, and the woman’s face slowly pulled back for another person to peer in, this time is a tall man. Sasha can feel the plip plops of the tears from the man’s blue eyes landing onto her face. She giggled, and the man let out even a louder cry, until the woman hushed him and wiped at his eyes. Sasha smiled, feeling oddly happy at this strange scene, of the big man trying to hold his tears in, and the small woman calming him down.

—-

Sasha has undergone five moon cycles then. She watched as the strange piece of colourful fabric was flown across the sky. They were all connected to a long, thin string, being held by her peers, who were running across the fields, with their parents watching. Sasha’s mom was still busy talking to the light-skinned strangers who brought these toys. Sasha heard that they came from strange lands, beyond the Mirak waterfall. She stared longingly at the scene, feeling a weird, sinking sensation. Her mother was always busy as the upcoming chieftain, and whenever she asked about her father, everyone would say that he is away. Or they turned their head away and remained silent.

“You want to play with it too, kid?”

Sasha flinched and turned to the source of the rough voice. Towering above her was the strange man living inside her village, the villagers referred to him as the Indomitable One, Bivoshka.

“Bib-boscka?”

“No no no, Bivoshka.”

The man laughed out loud and lifted her up. Sasha always liked looking at his blond hair and blue eyes, especially his eyes, as they stroke a nice contrast to her mom’s beautiful red eyes. As Bivoshka put her down, Sasha noticed that hung on his waist was the same colourful toy she has seen being flown by her friends.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, do you want to play?”

Sasha nodded vigorously. Bivoshka then gave Sasha the string connected to the toy.

“Alright, hold onto this string tightly, and run as fast as you can to errrrr…. that tree over there, okay?”

Sasha nodded, and she held the string as tight as when she was holding onto her mother’s hands. Then Sasha ran, feeling the soft breeze caressing her skin and Bivoshka further away from her. All of a sudden she felt a sharp tug from the string she was holding, and as she turned back, the toy was already flying up high, just like her friends’. The toy reigned onto the winds, riding higher and higher, its propulsion nearly tugged away the string Sasha was holding onto.

“Careful now…”

Sasha could feel Bivoshka’s large hands holding hers, steadying the string connected to the toy. He has managed to rush over when she was struggling to hold the toy back.

“Alright, let me hold it for ya.”

Sasha released the string as Bivoshka’s large hand held onto the string for her. With his free hand, he hoisted Sasha up and placed her on his shoulder. Sasha gazed in amazement at the toy flying up high.

“If only I could fly like that…”

“Heh, if you become good enough with your spiritual arts, then maybe you can!”

“B-but my mom is very good at it… but she can’t fly… Even you can’t fly too, B-Bibotchka.”

“Hahahah, yes! But one day, you will surpass your momma, and surely you will be able to fly like that Sasha! Besides, back in my place, we can ride on these huge metal birds!”

“What?”

And so Bivoshka filled Sasha’s curious mind with the stories of the metal birds that can swallow people inside it, and carry them around the world. A moment later, Mara finished the dealings with the strangers and came back to pick up her daughter from the huge man. As her mother carried her back into their home, Sasha waved back to Bivoshka, in her small curious mind, an inkling of fascination to the Outworlders slowly rise.

—-

Ten moon-cycles later, Sasha has matured into a fine young lady. However, she still managed to keep most of her curiosity and inquisitiveness through Bivoshka’s stories. And those stories were also one of her sole sources of entertainment. Her status as the next chieftain in-the-making has given her a sort of strange respect from her peers. Thanks to this, Sasha only managed to hang around with only very few girls around her age, at least those who were tolerable enough of Sasha’s unorthodox ways of using the spiritual arts.

One time, Sasha created a small vortex inside the village’s river using the wind arts to better wash off the dirt from the clothes. The vortex resulted in the dirt being effectively removed but got blasted around to the other girls working nearby. This small incident has earned her a strange distance from most of the girls in the village. Sasha was a bit saddened. She was only trying to emulate the weird iron box that can spin and wash clothes of the Outworlders.

The boys around her age also kept a respectful distance towards her, even during the scavenging sessions that she joined. The distance further increased whenever Bivoshka was nearby. A few times Sasha turned back to the Bivoshka giving the boys a nasty look.

“Billy… Why are you so harsh towards them…”

“Oho! You can pronounce my name very well now, young lady!”

“Don’t try to change the topic!”

“Oh my, I am touched! To think I am no longer called as Bivoshka anymore!”

“Billy!”

With almost no peers to hang around with, and the intense training sessions with her mother occupying whenever possible, Sasha’s fascination with the Outworlders only grew more and more. The fascination intensified when she learned about the heart of the Mothertree, the giant white tree that has been sitting at the centre of her village “since forever”, according to her mother and the elders of the village.

Sasha has only managed to witness the heart in rare occasions. The heart nests inside the deepest parts of the tree’s base, where only the chieftain and a selected few are permitted to go in during the Soulsgiving ritual.

And earlier of her fifteenth moon-cycle, when she was permitted to approach the heart more closely, she could see for herself. The heart itself is a giant mass of strange crystal, with diverging branches sprouting from the main body of crystal. These branches spread far and wide inside the body of the Mothertree, and each time a Soulsgiving ritual was conducted, more branches are born, and the older branches reach further and  further, glowing and pulsating with pale blue light. And when Sasha was allowed to get closer to the heart, she could see that inside the crystal mass was not empty at all.

Through the kaleidoscopic reflections of the crystal, she could discern a humanoid figure inside it. The figure wore a strange set of clothes that consisted of rectangle pieces on each of their limbs, and their hands were holding a strange knife that was piercing their own torso. The blood splattered from their wounds aligned with some of the older branches of the crystal body. Upon inquiring Billy about the human figure inside the heart, she was informed that just as her suspected, the figure was also an Outworlder like Billy. Upon further inquiry, she was told that the figure came from a strange land far far away from Billy’s home, where the people are “extremely honourable and strict”.

“Errr how do I explain this to you…”

Billy scratched his chin. Sasha tilted her head a little, waiting for the explanation.

“This person live in uhhh different time to me… This is only what I can tell you.”

“What…?”

“Oh never mind, young lady. Just know that this person is much older than me.”

“But they obviously look younger than-”

Billy turned away and resumed in skinning the boar he just hunted, signalling the end of the conversation. The curiosity about the Outworlders and the figure were then etched into Sasha’s mind even more.

—-

Five moon-cycle later, in one normal day, Sasha was busy teaching younger girls how to use wind spiritual art to dry the clothes. All of a sudden, she noticed a commotion near the Mirak waterfall.

“Wait for me a bit. Please do keep practicing what I have been teaching you.”

Sasha instructed the girls and rushed off to the source of the commotion. As the crowd noticed her coming, they parted and cleared a way for her. In the centre of the crowd was Billy and other hunters, muddied and dirty from their recent hunt. However, what they carried back was not only the animals, but also a strange man and a strange bulk. Her mother and the elders were also standing near Billy, and they were discussing about how to deal with the unconscious stranger. As Sasha was about to interject, her mother turned to her and snapped:

“This is not your conversation yet, young lady, now go back and resume your teaching session! And everyone else, get back to work!”

The crowd dispersed, and Sasha headed back to teaching the girls, albeit reluctantly. Her mind kept wondering about the stranger. This was not the first time the hunters have found strangers unconscious inside the forest, for after all, the forest they were staying in was very dangerous. However, Sasha has never seen them carrying a stranger back to the village like this, as from the stories told, the hunters would just drag them inside a nearby cave and give them some food with water. The last time a stranger was brought inside the village was no other than Billy, according to what her mother told her.

When the teaching session was done, Sasha rushed towards the waterfall again, only to find that those related to the incidents have moved elsewhere. When she wandered back to her old position, she noticed a fire in the distance. Sasha ran to the spot, to see her people dismantling the huge bulk and were burning it. The stranger was nowhere to be found. Sasha felt a sense of dread.

“We have reached a consensus regarding the stranger, and he is to be kept isolated for a while to see if he would pose any harm. All of his strange tools and belongings are to be burned to make sure he does not pose any harm to our village, bar for the clothes he was wearing.”

Mara’s dignified voice rang out behind Sasha. She turned to see her mother standing with Billy nearby. There was a strange distance between them. The elders were leisurely walking back to their home. Sasha breathed a sigh of relief.

“Bivoshka has sworn upon his soul that this Outworlder is safe and ‘tame’.”

Her mother glared at Billy.

“Oh please Mara…”

“… So, I might as well give it a chance. And do not dare refer to me in my name, Bivoshka, for I am still the chieftain.”

Billy looked at Mara with an exasperated expression. Mara only turned away and crossed her arms. Sasha sighed. These two old silly people have been like this since forever.

“And where does this Outworlder come from, Billy?”

“If my guess is correct, little Sasha, then perhaps he comes from the same land with the heart of the Mothertree.”

Mara turned and glared at Billy again. He raised his hands up and smiled awkwardly at her. They didn’t notice Sasha rushing to find the place where the Outworlder was being kept, to sate her curiosity.

Author’s Note: Dear readers, my sincerest apologies for the rather unusual release schedule, but I will try to keep it more consistent from now on, now that I am back to the grind. Please do feel free to leave a comment, or join the discord server to voice your thoughts about the story so far, as any feedbacks for me are very much welcomed and appreciated! Thank you very much for reading and enjoying this silly story that I have been writing!