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Tribal Lore

Act: II

~Awash With Belonging~

** ~~~~~*~~~~~ **

I would happily call this the perfect way to begin the day, and no other simplicity could I love as much as starting it with my fathers blessing, as the blessing following breakfast brought good omen for the day to come. For a simple girl such as I, these humble times were easily my personal daily delights. Ahhh, so quick on the uptake I had been, when I rushed to be sat by my fathers side, and now beside him it was enough to inspire me to drive through the day in his later absence, as words of inspiration, he had aplenty.

Brushing up against his side, I giggled knowing I may have even been greedy to a twinge when I claimed the best place next to him and before that of any of my siblings. Although they were wed it was more habitual that we all still ate breakfast together. Bouncing giddily as every morning, I avidly expressed my happiness to all gathered, thus leaving my siblings a little disgruntled. Maybe I was just overly affectionate -he was my father after all. I'd always been this way, or rather playfully possessive over him and his attentions, as from so few but him I'd gained them from.

We ate only those offerings that came free of the land, no meat, nor spoils torn from those that would have once lived. My fathers head dress which he'd now adorned upon our return even this was made of feathers from the Unfezant breeding grounds, from whence they shed from acts of passion, and not that of any fresh kill. They stood tall around his head in greys and ran down tethered to his plat. Those feathers empowered our chieftain, to the fertility of wise leadership in which he may lead our people fruitfully.

Cushioned, I sat on the mat of woolen softness around the eating area, a clean circular cloth with morning nourishment prepared by my sisters spread out before us. The walls of the wigwam gave that special warmth of a safe enclosure in its spacious interior, the creams that surrounded me were painted upon with my historical bloodline lineage. Those sacred paintings traced their path back along my ancestors, and even my own conception was held within these depictions - my own personal heritage to behold. As I did so often, I stared in wonder, and within those paintings, pondering about my part in it all.

Facing the trio of my sisters, adorned in their native working clothes of a simple two piece attire, I swept them with gaze so tentative. To the eye, their brownish cloth constructed of flat leaves of aged corncobs lay frizzled, down to the hemming of twisted cotton stitches that sunk in the weave. Oddly discoloured, these small articles cascaded only their bust and a slither of the same material to cup their nether modesty. Neither piece fared any better than the other, as would be the bane brought with harder worked days. But, no less would've my own garments met the same fate, should I not have gained pardon from my father to do such errands of berry gathering and other rigorous labours of the hand.

My bouncy nature was not to last. Looking around, I had been isolated, gripped by the way I was stared at by my sisters, treated to scorning eyes, and even within my father's company I was starting to feel a little out of place. Invading my ears, came the sounds of small giggles and whispers that strayed from my sisters opposite, and were none other than that of mockery and degrading cast in hushed tones.

A bleak longing surfaced, hand in hand with a desperation to fit in, gain their respect from not being a daughter equal to that of my peers and sisters, but had I not tried hard enough? The 'why' always beckoned for an answer,coming upon me like a slow suffocation. They hated me for the love I'd gained, they hated me still for being loved even though I was not an adult, and most of all it rooted down from me being the perpetrator in question that stole away their mother upon birth. Only they knew of the loss and I could not even fathom what it must have been like for them. Faulted I was, I never knew my mother to any extent that they did, and from the moment she died they have persecuted me in this way for all my remembered years.

I peered down to avert their slanderous eyes, for I knew there was little in escaping them, but if I couldn't see them, then some peace I would find. Reaching to the center I desired to take my share of the fill, to only find that my favorite was not there, macadamia nuts. It could be noted that little of anything else I ate, should allergies claim me in blistering skin. Gingerly, I cocked my head up enough to find resting within their bowls was what I wanted. I gave in, it was clear sharing was not an act of caring to them. With an empty bowl I stared down, til one was pushed under my gaze. Turning, he smiled and patted my head gently, giving me such paternal affection.

"Eat up, for peaches ripen more when fed full." Not an ounce of further hesitation I gave, coyly I grasped upon the generous offering to take my fill from his bowl in small clusters. Looking up again, having gained my cheer, I only found frowning glares to scorn me for having been granted it, for no more would they have wanted me to have it, than they would have wanted to be my sisters. I freely took those macadamia nuts.

Delicious, just the way I loved them, such textures upon my tongue.

What they may have intended to make me feel with shunning acts, failed to hold a power over me, as a smile did I own now.

"Mmm... So good" I commented with a mouth full.

"Disgusting, your manners are at a sore lack, and so is your consideration.... how was theclimb, Mika ?" Emphasising my name, Onida my eldest sister did well to capture my attention, and awkwardness crept to lay waste to me. Having no easy way to reply, I was left to chew softly, taking a large gulp. In attempt to thwart my bashfulness, I opened my mouth but naught of answers came. Pausing again, I sunk my head low, defeated. "So, I take it the prestigious one failed like always, why not just give up? Acceptance of incapability should serve you better, obviously."

If I were to just give up, it would be a means in which I shattered not only my dreams, but that of my father's, for he would want me to become a woman.

"The day shall come where I shall reach Aiyanna's summit, upon which I shall stand proud and tall to watch over the world, the wilds to fill my view, and our settlement would but a mere speckle. On that day I shall be an." adult, Objectionable I had been, but she interjected to cut me short.

"You dream of higher skies, but with no wings to get you there, you speak, but only words are what you spit." Turning to face my father, the flat of her fist pummeled into the ground. "She bares shame to you, and to me.... do something about her! There is nothing in which she contributes, and you know how she lazes with not the care in the world. Throw her to the wilderness and let her survive is what I say. During the winter when the cold is cruelest on Aiyanna's summit, if gangrene should strike, would it not be safe to say you would cut of your own limb and be done with it? Or do you feel some other rule applies to her. No less than an infection she is."

"Should you not be jesting, which I believe you not to be, then this would not be the compassion I'd expect given from one sister to another. Heartless, that's the action of what you ask of me. Discard my flesh and blood? Have you no shame?"

"Why not? Does her incapability not prove this? Embarrassment is what I suffer when the others point in claims, that I am the sister of the failure. She is naught but an abomination. How could you ask of sisterly love of me, when you know what she has done, stealing away my mother?"

"She is the last your mother has given us, and should be protected, and therefore equally loved by you. No less love I share for you, than I do for her, for my love is absolute unto you all. Can you not see your mothers light through her?"

"Unequal, is what we are in your eyes before her, and only our mothers face is what she stole, to parade it as a mockery of what she's taken. It makes me loathe her that much more."

Never before have I seen such growing flames in my fathers eyes.

Slowly becoming more stern, he firmly replied but in a manner that need not have him raise his voice, "Onida! Dare not speak out of line, for she is purer of heart than anything you display before me." His reply felt cold enough to send chills to flush up my arms and back, and uncomfortable enough to inspire a little shudder even.

My sister's expression grew more hostile by the moment, and then she finally broke. "Qualetaqa!" she screamed. _ They had the right to call him by name, privileged by becoming adults. It was something I wouldn't dare do should I even become a woman that is, but even then I shall call him nothing less than father, as my father he is._ "She is undignified in eating, unintelligent, immature by age, premature by the nature of her failures, and by cruelty of the heart she is the most callous! This wench which you love so blindly, killed your wife, my mother, lowered us in your eyes, and further afflicted your heart by smiting it with the poison of her false love. She would have done better in being stillborn."

Those words immediately penetrated deep inside me, and in sharpness, pierced my heart. It felt like she was bleeding it dry while it beat inside me. The water of sorrow began to collect within my wells, but I held them aside, as weakness I didn't want to display.

Cruelty -it was such a tormenting thing, and delivered in her slander that etched away at him. This attitude was by no means permissible. Almost thundering, he echoed out, raising his voice significantly, "You'd do well to hold your tongue, lest you wish for your cheek to be reddened by the back of my hand."

I loved them both, and a rift I desired not. To quell this, hastily, I intervened by clasping at my fathers hand, and drawing it within my own lap to hold it firm in both of mine, desperately wanting to douse his flame,

"Noble in your gestures you are, and kind in defending, but my sister she also is, therefore with an open heart I urge of you to forgive her. What she does is out of love for our mother. Of failure she speaks truth, so what I am asking is also from love. Let this go, for isn't smiling better as you say?" I had no further strength, and words did not come thereafter as I hushed.

She stood up fiercely, knocking her plate away, and turned her back to us, bidding her farewells.

"I'll take my leave now, father... but in disowning her, you would do us all a far greater deed." Looking at him, I could have broken to tears, but I held firm, and his hand firmer, shaking my head slowly to implore him to not lash out at her. Defeated, he sighed in resignation by my silent plea.

My two other sisters stood up to follow in suit, showing the same disdain, whilst the three of them continued to depart with no further words. Never before had I heard such hatred from my eldest towards me. Had her feelings grown this spiteful, and recited so harshly by her tongue, that they would make me wish for what she asked in being stillborn. I felt remorse for an act I had no control over when I played my part in my mothers demise. Had this detest for me always been there, this strong behind sealed lips, or was this newly formed from some horrid thing I'd done? My hands were but a mere tremor, and my stomach felt the discomfort of butterflies that warred therein. I didn't want to be here.

Drowning in my own emotions, I Looked deep now within his eyes, scouring his expressions for anything which may give into answers from the estranged questions that roamed within me.

"Father, does she speak true, do I have no maturity and heart? I love them, but is it so much to wish for them to yield the same for me." I wondered, with a sort gasp for air, becoming choked. Why not me, why did they not love me in the same way I do. "If I was to perish would it end their pain and yours? By no means would I want you all to further suffer from my failures."

Still I held his hand, but he placed his other on top of mine to quieten my short gasps, and sniveling. "You showed far higher maturity than what they implied by not stepping up to them, and far greater heart in asking for their forgiveness. She couldn't be more wrong when she cried poison, for kind in heart and considerate in thoughts, you are."

"A kind heart would not have stolen their mother, your wife."

"Naught you stole, and only gave. Understand, of your mother, from the tree of our love, a peach did drop, birthing another love. You are the final fruit which spawned from our love. Although she is not amongst us, she fortified her love in me through granting me you, giving a broken man love anew, hence I call you my peach."

Quivering in voice, I replied, "What of the pain I bring you?"

"Nothing but love and joy you bring me, so live as if you were never meant to perish and speak never of it, for it breaks me to hear such words."

His hands parted of mine, only to allow his arms to firmly enclose around my petite frame. Feeling the wind almost knocked out of me, my head rolled back, short of breath. I could feel my chest constricting.

"Father, ah ah let go, or no more will I be your peach." He let go just as immediately, not having realized how much strength he'd actually enforced, leaving me to fall to relieved gasps. "Surely if I should not perish normally then it's by your hands I would," I jested, lightening the atmosphere, and even he broke a smile.

"Oh ha-ha, forgive me. Truly you are fragile and squish so easily. Alas, we must depart, my services are requested elsewhere today, and the elders have summoned me to a meeting of utmost importance." Knowing that it would feel as if the day would drag, I planned my educational time by our elders side, and after that, to throw flints, maintaining my sharp throwing skills. Even though I may have decided to keep busy, it didn't lessen the fact I'd miss him even in the shortest of absences.

"Till dusk then." Knowing it was the mornings and evenings where I'd gain my affections, as no other would see it fit, not my sisters, nor my tribe I knew that.... "I'll miss you."

"As will I, for who will torment me till then?" Reaching over he towered over me, kissing my forehead. His lips radiated a sweet warmth, and it was almost an ache when he withdrew from me, but knowing we would spend more time later made it feel worth the wait. He was not only my father, but he was my friend.

~~~~~*~~~~~

It was that time when Sun had begun his weary descent to retire slowly into the blanket of dusk, his fading light stroked the distant tree tops, illuminating the nearby hills to shine in a luster, divine. Sweet flutters were audible upon the beaten winds as pidoves flapped to be carried high, scattering across the skies. Their sounds blessed the overhead landscape with the purity of their soaring tweets, whilst a few more flaps saw them home.

Sitting, and from where I was, the evening dew blissfully raised in hazy mist around me, embraced by the mystical afterglow set from the last stretching rays of our glorious Sun. Those glowing mists that formed lay transparent, drifting like a river, and quickly filled the fields with an allure so exotic, animating them to a richness well defined; truly a breathtaking sight. Even though this phenomena was beheld each and every evening, none other could be so beautified.

Even the individual blades of grass danced, so alive, in subtle movements against me. Blossoms of bluest skies, with pinks of the softest puckered lips, and not to neglect the yellows of the freshest reclining light, filled the vista before me. Blowing, these tender blooms brushed against my thighs, tickling in touches so soothing as to cast away any doubt and suffering. Lost and yet found I was, within these colourful fields which held a longing, unsurpassed.

My head swooned, relishing in the ever sweeter fragrances that perfumed to my nostrils, filling my senses. For me, these better fractions of the lost days could only be found here, in the serenity of this flowerbed which I often nested amidst. Such simplicities to make me feel ever more alive and freed. Just strides out of our settlement, it had become a place that held such special meaning to me, and if, ever so I desired, then escape I would find here from those that sought to eclipse me beneath their shadows of shame.

"Mika?" queried a pleasantly familiar voice to withdraw me from the delights but for a moment. Briskly turning upon hearing the summon, I noticed my three elder sisters stood there, their hardened gaze of contempt never waning, for they always stared at me in such an accusatory way.

Lazily, but still observant, I noticed to their sides, adrift upon the waft of air, their vibrantly coloured sigilyphs trailing in loyal accompaniment, for all three of my sisters had been deemed of worthy qualities. So virtuous were these bespoken qualities that they gifted my kinswomen to acquire one of the highest regarded species our people had come to know.

"These flowers carry scents of inspiration. I urge you to try with me." Coyly, I offered with my mind aloft, and to thoughts in the clouds. What else was there to do for one such as I, for a bad influence I was to others by a decree of example set, and not an adult nor ascended.... even one partially spoilt by my father.

My two other sisters deigned to hold whatever piece they had, but my eldest Onida obliged me with her spoken words. "Father spoke unflattering words that may besiege you to know, but I feel it is my place as your caring sister to inform you of them." Smug in the undertone she carried, I knew 'caring' was a word that slipped too loosely from her lips, and further from any form of sincerity.

Rise I did like the sun, and upon the naked grass I stood barefoot. Only frowns I was charged with upon hearing her comment, for what tyranny had I been participant to? Not that I caused trouble deliberately of course. At times it was my lack competency, and on many occasions the scorning came from retreating to this place of resignation without words to keep my father's worry at bay. I would not hold him to fault over this, and understood any good parent would worry for their child, should they disappear like this, that is.

"Of what matter of unsavoury words do you speak of?" I inquired, treading carefully to imbue my inquiry with curiosity, and caution for where her implication was leading.

Hissing, she replied, "He is stricken with contempt that you, being his most beloved, have shamed him. Our people speak of you as unfitting, and one which can not attain even the simplest achievements that a thirteen-year-old quite easily can."

All I knew at that point was her words were bred with loathing towards me. My father never would hate me. Lies, all lies, but I chose to listen. It was beneath me to fight back, hence it would be better to take heed first, although my temper dictated that should it have been anyone other than my sisters, lashing out would have been the prudent course. I hadn't the flavour for bad words to stitch upon any one kindred. Belittling them would not only be hurtful to them, it would've torn me also, for I loved them. Wrath filled recitations was not what my father had raised me to be in the presence of elder family members.

In any case, I had now become the seeker, desperate to gain the insight that these siblings may provide in resolving this tedious affair, in grand ambitions to end my father's shame and that of my own. Despite my awareness of knowing they mixed truth with lie, I did not hold it against them. I saw through their soiled barriers which they failed to hide their self delusion behind. Still.... I let them believe that I was this naïve. I loved them all the same, and maybe that would be my reasoning to never raise my voice to them, holding them in high regard in spite of their despise for me, for blood is thicker than water.

"I have no status, and my rank of no existence wants to earn his pride in me. Help me, for you know I can't scale the Aiyanna." Fear of heights froze me like the rocks of the land.

Pondering, I knew our chieftain would never loathe one of his own blood, and I was his most beloved, but at times the shame that he held I discerned, although he had done well in hiding it behind the adulation given. I knew in every aching day I disappointed him, and yet he still loved me.

"There is a another way of which I know dear sister." she added. Another way or a sentence for my bones to be scattered along the wastelands of my homestead, a complex I had not the answer for. Lending my ears, I searched for this answer dubiously.

"I beg of you, grace me to your insight?" How pathetic I sounded, as my toes curled into the dirt.

Their spherical Pokémon slowly crept within my radius, hovering as they would. They sought to intimidate by merely circling, as if to taunt and look down upon the unworthy. Those three horrid eyes of cyan sent chills through me, with a glare so deep it would crack the very fabrics of my soul. Hissing away, the four winged creatures emphasized their disgust in me.

They were the guardians, delegated tasks other than just assisting my sisters, and were entrusted to protect the innocents as guarantors to deliver them from outside threats, and in dependence many of our people turned to them in such times of need. These particular four winged creatures that swarmed me now had yet to offer aid to me even once, and would sooner watch me die.

After giving some thought, she did answer. "Very well. Aiyanna also resides in another place, and you shall be given an opportunity to prove your adulthood with a feat that is of the same valour as scaling our mountain. To the east of here is Algoma, the valley of flowers".

All of which we all knew had been off limits to even our mightiest gatherers, this being due to its perils of violent Pokémon that dwell therein, and unsafe are the jagged mountainous cliffs that rise from the earth to almost the heavens, residing to either side. Or, from what I had been told.

"What if I should choose to return home with you to request permission for such a thing? Would you assist me to sway father to allow this journey?"

Carefully my eyes scanned these three Pokémon roaming around me with every gesture of their body language, they aimed to degrade with their presence. Hearing their small cackles of mockery which escaped intermittently I knew of their their malice, which was evidently apparent to even a oaf.

Retorting heavily, Onida snapped back at me, with aggression. "I had neglected the issue of warning, should your foot step upon our tribes grounds you shall be forcibly removed... sister."

Why I would be discarded with a lowly comparison to something as needless as waste baffled me.

"Why would such a thing happen?" I demanded an answer. "I'm the daughter of the tribe and chieftain."

"No, you have been stripped of the claim you hold, 'little' sister. The elders held their conference, and to you it involved. Your presence weakens our name, and a diplomatic choice for your exile had been reached. A compromise, to maintain our stature and integrity, to not dishearten the young and old alike, to keep unity without abnormalities."

Abnormality. . . . .