Going Home: Part 2
The ringing of the bell
Welcome to my little corner of the internet! I’m so glad you’re here. Below you’ll find part two of my fantasy short story Going Home. It’s about a young girl named Nani who gets tangled up in fate, tradition, and a giant hole in the ground that leads… somewhere else.
Want to start at the beginning? Here you go:
In spite of her excitement, Nani kept her head down as she walked through the village. She weaved between the squat buildings of stone and straw, wiggling her fingers to try and get some of her nervous energy out. Her family deserved to be the first ones to know that she had been chosen, and it was her father’s right to announce it to everyone else, but Ki’Kiri knew how hard it was to stay silent! She imagined how proud he would be, standing in the town square and ringing the Bell of Good Tidings.
It was late afternoon when she reached her house. The sun had just started to creep toward the horizon. She paused with her toes inside the doorway, giving her eyes a minute to adjust to the shaded room. The smell of fresh bread enveloped her like a blanket, making her take an involuntary step forward. “Papa?” she called. Her mother’s voice answered from deeper inside the dwelling.
“He isn’t back from the hunt yet, Nani.” Her voice was strong and comforting, like a warm wave that breaks around you as it reaches the shore. “Do you have news?”
“I do, Mama, I do,” Nani replied. She wrung her hands together, then put them behind her back. “But I’d like to wait for father before I tell it.”
“Before you tell what?” said a deep, rumbling voice from behind her. Nani turned and let out a squeak as Ru’an scooped her up into his arms, squeezing. He smelled like the forest, earthy and wild. Pine needles clung to his red cotton shirt, and his boots were caked with dirt.
“Papa!” she exclaimed. She hugged him back, burrowing into his neck and clean-shaven face, then squirmed, trying to escape his grasp. This was the kind of news you delivered with two feet on the ground. He put her down, then looked into her eyes. His face grew solemn as he waited for her to speak.
“I went to N’Uata, to search for a sign.” She began the poem that every girl in her village knew by heart.
“To sit on the edge, to seek the divine
And while I was waiting the answer came
In a cloud of dust, in a drop of rain
This is the command he gave to me:
Fly, little warrior. Fly and be free.”
The house, the whole world perhaps, held its breath, as though it knew something momentous had occurred. Silence ruled for a few, fragile heartbeats, before being broken by the sound of a plate falling to the ground and shattering in the other room. The room where her mother had been preparing dinner. “My clumsy hands!” she exclaimed. “Everything is ok!” Nani did not see her come out until much later that day.
Nani turned to her father, a question in her eyes. He stood for a moment, swallowed, then nodded once. “Follow me to the Bell,” he said, a smile lighting up his face. “Today, we celebrate, for my daughter is to be a hero.”
An hour later, Nani stood in the middle of the town square, tired of being the center of attention. It didn’t feel normal; she didn’t feel normal. Like when you lost a tooth and could fit your tongue into the gap it left. It wasn’t just the attention that bothered her; she’d won last year’s snake race and had exulted in the praise of others. No, this type of attention was different. People were looking at her with funny expressions, as though she had worn red to a Mourning Ceremony. They were all polite, but they maintained their distance.
Even Suli, who had practically been raised as Nani’s sister, seemed to regard her as a dangerous animal best kept at arm’s length. They had spent countless hours imagining this moment together, playfully arguing over who would be chosen and diving into bundles of blankets meant to represent N’Uata. Suli’s distance confused and hurt Nani.
Ru’an had warned her that something like this might happen.
“People will look up to you now,” he had told her as they walked toward the Bell. “You are becoming more than a girl. You will be a story soon. It makes them nervous.”
“But I haven’t changed!” she protested. “They’ve known me forever.” Her father stopped walking and looked down at her with the patience that comes from long years and hard lessons.
“Do you remember the first time Lino was asked to go on a boar hunt in the woods?” he asked her.
“…yes,” she said slowly, “But I don’t…”
“Did you see him differently afterwards?”
“Of course I did. It meant he was old enough to start his training as a Guardian. I still don’t see what that has to do with me, Papa.” Ru’an made a soothing sound and stroked her hair, as though she were a young colt straining against the reins.
“Did he change, or did the way people saw him change?” Nani thought for a moment, her mouth scrunching up on one side, before nodding her head.
“I think I understand,” she said.
“Perception is powerful,” he continued. “You have been chosen to be someone special, so people will see you as someone special. Do not judge them for only seeing what they have been told to see.”
Nani took a deep breath as she meditated on her father’s words from earlier in the day. Using a trick her mother had taught her, she pictured her annoyance as a smooth stone, a solid weight that she cast into the water. She envisioned it skipping once, twice, before sinking beneath the surface. She released the breath she had been holding and looked around, a calm smile forming on her lips. A group of young girls were standing off to the side, staring at her and whispering to each other. Suli was among them. The smile fell, and Nani gripped the edges of her dress with her hands. She took a single, angry step toward the girls, then decided against it and turned away.
She walked eastward, not really caring about the direction. Her only goal was to get away from the town square. The empty houses she passed blended together before finally giving way to yellow fields of wheat, the forest coming into view in the distance and swallowing the horizon. Her shadow stretched in front of her as the day moved toward evening, and the first stars began to wink into existence in the sky above. Nani stopped in the field, gazing at them longingly. Those stars were her ancestors, protectors of her people. Soon she would become one of them.
She stood there, lost in thought and idly playing with the ends of her hair. Because of this she did not notice the boy sneaking up behind her. He had removed his shoes in order to move silently, a hunter stalking its prey. In his right hand was a tuft of wheat, straight and scratchy. He stopped less than a foot from Nani, holding his breath. Reaching out with the wheat, he made a hissing noise as it brushed the back of her neck. Nani screeched, simultaneously slapping at her neck and jumping away. She turned, and her look of horror melted into anger as she realized what had happened.
“Talun!” she yelled. “You goat-lover! You rotten little brat! I hope your hair turns to snakes and eats your tongue in the middle of the night! If you weren’t my little brother I would… I would… ugh!”
Her brother stood up straight, surprised by the heat of her tirade, then burst out laughing. “It’s nice…” he paused to draw a breath. “It’s nice to see you too, Nani.”
His grin was infectious, and soon Nani felt herself smiling too. His prank had given her the excuse she needed to let out the tension she’d felt from before.
“Why were you staring at the sky?” he asked.
“I just needed to clear my head,” she replied. “I was tired of everyone treating me like a freak.”
“But you are a freak,” Talun answered, pretending to be confused. “How else should they treat you?”
Nani stuck her tongue out and Talun laughed again. “Did something happen?” he asked her. “I saw everyone gathered around the Bell, but Papa was busy talking with other adults.”
Nani looked down. “I’ve been chosen,” she said quietly. “By N’Uata.”
“Oh,” was the boy’s simple reply. He stood for a moment, thoughtful, before adding, “That’s a bad thing, right?”
“Do you never pay attention to your lessons, Talun?” Nani asked, putting her hands on her hips. “It is a fabulous thing. The highest honor a girl my age can get, jelly-brains. I’m to join our ancestors in the stars. It will be… wondrous.” Her gaze shifted again to the sky, where a multitude of bright pinpricks of light were now visible.
“But don’t you need to, you know, die first?” Talun had a disgusted look on his face.
“Someone needs to feed N’Uata in exchange for his protection of the village,” Nani said, a hint of annoyance coloring her voice. “Or are you going to defend us from the demons, oh mighty Talun?”
“But why does it need to be a person? Doesn’t N’Uata like cow or goat? Or is it the demons that eat you when you fall…” he trailed off, brow furrowed as he contemplated this new line of thought.
Nani threw her hands in the air. “You. Are. Impossible,” she said. “And I am not going to miss dinner just to argue with an empty head. Everyone except you knows how it works, and everyone except you accepts it.” She turned on her heel and walked back the way she had come. She would rather be stared at in silence than taunted by her brother. There was no way he could understand. He was a boy, and boys could not be trusted with such an important task.
Her anger temporarily blocked the uncertainty that Talun’s words had planted in her mind. It wasn’t until later, when it was cool and quiet and children have time to turn their thoughts inward, that Nani found herself pondering the nature of the sacrifice N’Uata demanded. It kept her up far longer than she cared to admit.
Suggested music for Part 2: Spring / Sun/ Winter / Dread by Everything Everything
Keep reading! Part 3 is ready, for you!
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Its a wonder that indoctrination can get a whole village of girls to be excited to throw themselves into a bottomless pit. Her brother can't be the only one asking whether that is a good thing or not. Her parents were obviously distressed, though they barely showed it.
Good read, looking forward to chapter 3.
Good movement forward. Nicely written. You continue to hold my interest.
A bit of a jump from telling father to being sick of attention of town. I think you could have done more with that, with the idea of how people were looking at her.
I was surprised at "clean-shaven," somehow it seems more fitting for her father to have a beard.
Also didn't think "jelly brains" worked.