Evaluations of the Tribe - Prossia Book 0 : A Coming of Age Space Opera Read online

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  Aly kept some distance between her and the rest of the mastras on the way back to Kutenbrya that evening. Besides her irritation with them, she was too busy studying while she walked. She was especially fond of the scrolls that dwelt with astronomy.

  The Little One looked up at the darker part of the sky, where the suns no longer were, so she could verify a giant group of stars that almost looked like clouds. She had seen the stars for as long as she could remember, but it was neat knowing what they were called now.

  “So, that is what it be,” she said to herself.

  The other six stopped talking and turned around.

  “What nonsense does this one blabber about now?” Requai demanded.

  “Oh. Apologies.” Aly turned and pointed at an area of the sky that showed the cloud of stars. “That is to be the galactic plane. Neat, yes?”

  Catty looked where Aly was pointing and shrugged, since she only saw what had always been part of their sky. Nothing special. She went back to the more interesting conversation the six were having before.

  When the mastras split up and went their separate ways, Aly still had her nose in the scrolls, too preoccupied to worry about her surroundings unless she was looking up at the sky to verify a particular star or planet. Her ears twitched when she heard Catty running after her, so she sped up.

  “Perhaps you should go home today, Mistress.”

  “Nay,” Catty said, catching up. “I just remembered that my pappai needed me to retrieve your pappai’s sales report for the quarter. I shall not be long.”

  Aly paused and shrugged. “Indeed. Yet I fear my pappai shall insist that you stay and do homework there when he is to see you.”

  Aly’s hunch was right. Shanvi immediately asked Catty to stay, not even a minute after they entered the hut. What an annoyance. She didn’t know her pappai could tell the two were having one of their typical quarrels, and this was his way of making them sit and settle things. He even offered the two their favorite treats at the counter so they’d have no choice but to interact.

  “And what is the product of six and seven?” Shanvi asked thirty minutes into the mastras’ homework as he tallied the sale numbers again.

  “Forty and two,” Catty answered after a momentary pause. She dipped her finger into the blue bowl of paint she and Aly were supposed to be sharing.

  “Very good.” Shanvi turned around to see if he needed to refill the paints. “Oh. I thought you two were to use the same bowl, since you are using similar colors.”

  “Nay,” Aly said, rather coldly. “She can use her own... I mean, she may use her own if she likes.”

  Shanvi whistled nervously and went back to work, knowing that directly lecturing the two about their current relationship wasn’t going to help matters.

  Aly examined Catty’s painting, noting her sky interpretation. She wasn’t impressed. The real sky was a lot more elaborate, especially the sunsets. There were never any clouds, but they were still as magnificent. Watching the stars come out and form a blanket of crystals overhead was fascinating to the Little One, especially now that she knew what the stars actually were.

  Aly looked at one of the white dots outside her window, recalling that it was many astromilos away. She knew what a milo was, but she just learned about astromilos a few days ago. Since she was too young, her current books didn’t explain the difference between the two forms of measurement in much detail, but she knew “astro” meant bigger. Much bigger. With that, she wondered how far something could possibly be to look so small. Stars were other suns, after all. And to think that other people lived around so many of them was absolutely amazing.

  Catty tugged a bead in Aly’s tents when she didn’t give an answer.

  “Pay attention.” Catty groaned. “Your pappai was to ask you what four multiplied by nine was.”

  “Thirty and six,” Aly said, annoyed. “I knew the answer. I was simply wondering.”

  Shanvi unrolled a scroll. “Now, Aly. Catty speaks well. Truly, there be nothing of importance outside, very good? Thus, continue with your painting, dearest.”

  “Apologies, Pappai. Yet, if I may?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Remember how I was to tell you about our discussion about aliens in class the other day? Truly, do you not ever wonder what they do?”

  Catty grabbed her head. “Great. This again.”

  Shanvi laughed as he double-checked his report. “Well, of course. I was to have such thoughts when I was your age, yet as I grew older, I became wiser. I realized how little importance the other people’s dealings are. They mean no harm to us, thus there be no need for concern.”

  “Yet what of those Cyogen rumors we heard of months ago?”

  “In case this one has yet to notice, such things are merely a common item from time to time, Aly,” Catty insisted, now wanting in on the conversation, apparently.

  “And you speak truly, Little One,” Shanvi placed his papers down on the counter. “Do not let the old ghost stories told around the campfires trouble you. Truly, that is all they be, mere stories of a history from eons past. And, since they be nothing more, we best concern ourselves with what we know as fact, and not mere speculation.”

  “Master Shanvi,” Catty cut in, “my pappai was to tell me of a similar rumor about a war prior to my and Aly’s birth.”

  “Ah, truly.” Shanvi stroked his beard as he thought about the many rumors he had heard over the years. “Indeed. That one. Goodness me, that rumor lasted for three long years. It spoke of Ufre fighting the Wethan and Sauthian nations, and we only learned it was a fib... What was it? Ah! I believe it was a solar cycle prior to your births. And – if I do recall – I believe there was even one when I was yet a lad, myself. Do you see, Aly? I beg, do not let such silly talk distract you from reality.”

  Aly shrugged and went back to painting.

  “Hey,” Catty said, turning around. “How is this for a thought? Perhaps the war spoken of prior to our birth is the same war the village was to fuss about a few months ago, yes?”

  “If that be the case, then such notions show why we should not concern ourselves over the acts of the more ‘civilized people.’ Our kind’s last dealing with the other nations revealed their advanced technologies and whatnot, and how they waste such intellect by destroying one another.”

  Catty stopped painting and frowned. “How sad.”

  “Truly. Now, back to––” Shanvi froze, then hopped over the counter, startling both Aly and Catty.

  “Pappai, does something trouble you?”

  “Stay here.” Shanvi went and looked out of one of the windows. “By Truth’s Grace.”

  The two watched the master bolt out the door, not saying another word. Catty looked at Aly and the Little One just shrugged, not having a clue what was going on. Seconds later, the Little One’s blood went cold as they heard what had made Shanvi run so quickly.

  The screaming got louder the closer it neared the house, and just as Aly switched her eyes to infrared to see what the commotion outside was, Shanvi, Teacher, and eight others busted through the door. The other Goolians were Young Ones, three females and five males, their ages ranging between seventeen and nineteen. As far as Aly and Catty could tell, they might as well have been coming off some brutal battlefield.

  The Young Ones’ faces were scratched and covered in dirt and mud. Their hands, feet, and ligaments were wrapped in bandages. Their sparring attire, mere loincloth, with a top added for the females had light leather and steel armor placed over them. It didn’t take a genius to know that these Young Ones just came back from an ordeal in the Evaluations.

  Two of the lads were carrying another one of the males, who had his entire upper torso wrapped in a blanket. His agonizing screams made the Little Ones shiver.

  “Pappai?” Aly asked nervously.

  “Just stay there!” Shanvi ordered as he pointed at her.

  Aly jolted at the harshness in his voice and Catty held her tightly, comf
orting both of them.

  “I already spent a near minute in easing the pain, Shanvi, “Teacher said as he followed the group. “Yet I knew I was in need of an extra hand once I grew lightheaded.”

  “Understood.” Shanvi shoved some bowls off a table. “Be quick and set him across here, lads.”

  As the two Young Ones carrying the wounded Goolian set him down across the table, one of the other lads who walked in with them couldn’t stop shaking as he grabbed his head.

  “Apologies,” he said, eyes just as stricken with terror as the screaming Young One’s were with despair. “By Truth’s Grace, my most sincere apologies!”

  Teacher rushed over to the other side of the table. “Fret not. Such accidents may happen.”

  A Goolian couple swung the hut’s door out of the way as they rushed in. Aly and Catty leaned back against the counter, not knowing what to make of the sudden bustle. The older female that rushed in cried out the name of the lad on the table. She and her mate could’ve heard their child’s scream from the other end of the village had they been there.

  “Truth’s Grace.” The mother covered her mouth when she leaned in to get a better look. “I beg, help him!”

  “Indeed we shall, Mastra,” Teacher insisted as he shoved the couple back. “Yet, we beg, we need room. Shanvi?”

  “Truly.” Shanvi helped push the rest of the Goolians out. “If you wish to be of aid, then offer thoughts and prayers at the temple, yes?”

  As the crowd was directed away, Aly and Catty had a clear view of the wounded Goolian lying on the table. Teacher was too busy to pay the Little Ones any mind, so he undid the bandage around the lad’s body without a second thought. When the dressing was tossed away, Aly couldn’t blink and Catty held her breath. The lad’s entire right side had third-degree burns and blisters from a being sphere’s direct hit.

  “Pappai,” Aly yelped helplessly, too scared to move.

  Teacher paused and looked up at the source of the frail and weak voice. Aly and Catty were both pale.

  “Pache.” He quickly moved around the table to block the Little One’s view. “Master Shanvi, I fear my intrusion has caused fresh eyes to see what does not need to be seen.”

  Shanvi ran back into the hut just as fast as he left. He rushed over to Aly and cupped her face. She was freezing.

  “Apologies, Master,” Teacher said. “I should have brought him to his own home.”

  “What you did was sound and commended, and I am happy to assist you by any means necessary,” Shanvi insisted as he held Aly and rocked her back and forth. “All is well, Alytchai.”

  He picked both silent Little Ones up in his arms and went out the back door. Once outside, he set them down in front of the pond in the back and washed their faces.

  Aly jerked away from her pappai’s hand when he tried to make sure she wasn’t going into shock moments later.

  “You are well, yes?” Shanvi asked the two.

  “I – he shall be fine, yes?” Aly asked.

  Shanvi lowered his head. He kissed her and Catty on their foreheads and stood up.

  “I am impressed by my Little One’s unnerving spirit. Truly, rest assured, he shall be well, soon enough. Be that as it may, Teacher is in need of my aid, thus I must stand with him for the moment being. Remain here until I say otherwise, very good?”

  “Very good, Master,” the mastras said.