PoV: Yaci
The day started like any other day.
I'm eating breakfast alone. My father died in a confrontation with humans a couple of months ago, the same night in which my mother was captured.
To the tribe, they are both dead.
I just can't accept it.
But I'm powerless to do anything about it. I'm one of the strongest warriors of the tribe, but, alone, I'm weak.
My father was stronger than me, and he died.
I don't want to accept it.
My mother is probably alive, somewhere. I want to go after her, but the elders forbid me to do so. Even the Loa of the tribe said so.
"Wait, for a southern thunder is coming." That's what the Loa said.
The Loa is the collective consciousness of all the ancestor kitsune of the tribe. It's the spirit that guides us and provides for us in this wilderness.
Their word is law. Once the Loa told me to wait; if I disobey, I could face severe punishment.
:::
After I finish my breakfast, I walk outside my tent.
The whole tribe is already out and about. The sky is clear, with no sign of storm or thunder on the horizon. The Yrasema oasis is calm, and the clear water gives a hint of freshness to the barren and dry land.
I see the warriors from the night patrol arriving, so I rush to them.
"Kawan, Pyatan, Mwacir. I see you've arrived."
"Good morning, Yaci. We've arrived. And with good meat, you see."
Indeed, as Kawan's words state, they bring a dead koa'ty in tow. It's enormous, thrice the size of a regular one.
"Is it a mana-transformed koa'ty?" I ask, curiously.
"Indeed, Yaci. It became a monster, but I'm told its meat will taste the same." Pyatan was the one who answered me this time.
"Are you going to patrol the south again, Yaci?" Kawan asks me.
"Yes."
An uneasy silence befalls us.
I've been patrolling the southern border of our territory every day since the Loa gave us their word. And everyone knows why.
I don't know what I'm looking for. I keep searching for signs of a storm of some sort, but it never comes. I feel like that's not what they meant with "thunder," but I have no other clue.
I only do it because staying here would feel worse.
"Oh, good morning, everyone. I see you hunted well tonight." The head elder, Ubyratan, arrived and broke our silence.
"Yes, Ubyratan. We'll bring it to the cleaners."
"Good job, you three. Be sure to rest properly for the day."
"Thank you!"
The three of them go to the group of tents where the cleaners live.
:::
"So, I heard you're going out today as well."
"Yes, head elder."
He sighs, putting a palm on his face.
"You know there's no use, right? You should just accept it already."
"I won't."
"Listen. Mimby was our best ranger. Nobody knew the Barrens better than her. If there was any hope of her escaping, she would be here already."
"Maybe she just needs someone to help her escape."
"There's no way to know if that's true."
"But the Loa said. They didn't tell me to give up. No, what they said was to wait. So there is a chance."
He just stood there, looking like he was trying to find what to say.
Heh, the Loa argument is hard to fight against.
They said that I shouldn't go, but not because there wasn't a way, but because I have to wait. Wait for whatever that southern thunder is.
Which means I can still hope.
Before he can say anything else, I walk away.
:::
I go to my camel, Sandstorm.
He's a good boy, very obedient and loyal, and fierce in combat. It already saved me once, during a night patrol last year.
I give him some dates and groom him as we prepare for the patrol. After some time, I mount and we part.
:::
It's mid-afternoon already.
The sky has been clear, and the day has been pretty uneventful until now.
I stand on my saddle, looking thoughtfully at the horizon, wondering what the "thunder" the Loa said means.
Then I see it.
A huge lightning bolt comes from the sky. Some time after that, the thunder roars, louder than any I've ever heard before.
That should be the sign the Loa told me to wait for.
With my heart pounding in my chest, I signal for Sandstorm to run. I go as fast as I can in the direction of the lightning I've just seen.
:::
It doesn't take long for me to arrive.
There's a Tree of the Enchanted Ones, with ripe fruit.
That fact by itself would already be reason for a feast in the tribe tonight.
But what caught my attention was a little girl, fallen on the ground. There's the peel and core of a fruit at her side, as well as a knife.
She has probably eaten the fruit unknowingly and is now hallucinating.
But how is such a little girl all alone in the middle of the Barrens like this? A human girl, to make it even harder to believe.
Adult humans have a hard time surviving out here alone, yet here she is. With a slavery collar on her neck and all.
And there's another thing on her neck... a pendant?
When I see the symbol on the pendant, I understand. It's our tribe sign, made out of cloth. Did... my mother make it?
Is that little girl the thunder that the Loa told me to wait for?
Everything seems to point at it. Yet... she's just a little girl, probably around six years old.
A little girl who has just eaten a fruit of the Enchanted Ones and entered a trance. Without any defense, all alone in the wilderness.
If a monster arrived here before me, she would have already been dead right now.
How can someone be so careless in a place like this?
I sigh, then I take my pack and pick the fruits on the tree. I fasten the pack on the side of Sandstorm's saddle, as well as the girl's backpack.
Then I take the girl in my arms and put her over the saddle, mount the camel, and arrange her in a way that she won't fall over nor be too uncomfortable.
I carefully ride back to the oasis with my precious cargo.
She's a human girl, but if she has a pendant made by my mother, then she's probably a good person.
At least I hope that she is.