Evaluations of the Tribe Page 9

  Shanvi didn’t say a word as both masters helped him outside.

  Cattalice covered her face as she got up and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and jumped out of her skin when she opened them again. Aly was looking up at her.

  “Oh, Alytchai,” the mastra said, holding her chest. “You – you scared me, dearest.”

  “Apologies, Mistress, yet I heard a little... a little––”

  “Commotion?”

  “I believe that be the proper term.”

  Cattalice’s laugh was fake.

  Aly stepped out from the doorway a little more and walked up to her. “If I may, my pappai is still here, yes––”

  “Mastra––” Cattalice almost fell over a chair as she stepped away. “Truly, I thought I was to hear your pappai instruct you with your evening assignments. Now, trouble him not, yes? No worries. He and the other masters are merely chatting outside, admiring the lovely pond and marshes you have in the back.”

  Aly’s ears drooped as she turned around and dragged herself back into her room. Cattalice reached out to the Little One, wanting to apologize for being so harsh, but she was still too scared of her to say anything. Anyone would have done the same thing, now knowing what she knew. Still, the mastra’s shame made her cover her mouth as she wailed behind her palms.

  * * *

  Catty was still in her room when her parents came back from Shanvi’s that evening. One of the two maids in her household left dinner outside her door, since part of her punishment included staying in her room. Quongun also took whatever toys she had and placed them downstairs before he and Cattalice the Elder left for Shanvi’s hut.

  When her parents knocked and walked into her room, Catty turned as stiff as green oak wood. By their initial reaction to hearing what she had done that morning, the Little One hoped she wouldn’t have to see her folks for the rest of the day. Now, as far as she could tell, they were ready to lay out some more limitations on her.

  However, Cattalice and Quongun didn’t look anywhere near as enraged as before. So, the Little One didn’t feel as nervous when her mammai sat on her bed and her pappai pulled up a seat. Then again, the silence between the two wasn’t too reassuring, either. Her parents looked at each other, as if they were both cueing the other one to say something first, but neither of them wanted to initiate.

  “Cattalice,” her mother eventually said. “You bring great shame to our family name. Why has this one done such a thing, let alone to one whom you call a friend? Surely your pappai and I have taught you better than this, yes?”

  “Truly, you have. Yet, if I may?”

  “You may.”

  “Aly saw to embarrassing me in front of the entire class and my friends. Should she not know better than to do this?”

  “Ah, so I see it, then,” Quongun said, leaning back in his seat. “I suppose you were to remind her who the one in charge is.”

  Catty was going to protest that choice of words, but she kept quiet when she couldn’t think of anything to counter that allegation.

  “This one should not suffer hubris, Little One,” her pappai added.

  “What be a ‘hubris’?”

  “In simple terms, it is too much blind pride for one’s own good. That is not the way of our people, dearest. You are hailed in high regards due to the hopes of what you may provide the village when you are of age. Thus, being considered the highest ranked in the tribe is not a mere sign given for you to boast about. We understand the new rules with your class now. That be a great honor, yet there are great expectations of you lot as well. Perhaps more so than what was placed on us when we were your age.”

  “What is more,” Cattalice cut in. “This one may have high standards today, yet anyone may boot you off your stump in the morrow. Why, Aly may even be the one to do so.”

  Catty tried not to laugh. “If I may, I surely doubt such a thing.”

  Her parents looked even more uncomfortable as they fidgeted. Catty stopped smiling and scooted closer to her mother, who didn’t even look her in the face. The Little One tugged on her mammai’s fabric as her ears twitched.

  “I merely joke,” Catty said. “Truly, I regret what I did. I shall not do so again.”

  “Nay, that is well and all, dearest.” Cattalice moved Catty’s hand away. “Yet I fear your pappai and I need to tell...”

  The mastra paused and bit a finger.

  “Tell me what?” Catty asked.

  Her mammai looked at her pappai. Quongun shook his head, and Cattalice nodded, as if agreeing on some secret code that only mated couples could understand. The older mastra smiled, and patted Catty’s thigh.

  “Nay. We shall explain when you are of a more proper age, very good?”

  Catty groaned; she hated secrets. “I – very good, Mammai.”

  Cattalice shook the Little One’s leg before extending her pinky. Catty sighed aloud through her nose, but still grabbed her mother’s finger with her own and shook. Cattalice winked and walked out the room. Quongun got up, stretched, and followed after her.

  “If I may, how long shall I bear this punishment, Pappai?”

  “As long as I feel the need. Now, off to bed, Mastra.”

  Catty puffed out her bottom lip and crossed her arms when her pappai turned back around.

  Cattalice waited for Quongun from the other end of the hallway and walked with him down the stairs to their own room.

  “What are we to do if Teacher’s hypothesis of Aly is valid?” she asked.

  “I shall worry over those matters if they are to arrive.”

  “You may not have to wait long. Perhaps it be best to tell Catty of such possibilities now.”

  Quongun stopped when he made it to the bottom floor. He rubbed his smooth chin, pondering. One of the maids came into the walkway, but Cattalice held up a finger, signaling the mastra to wait a moment. When the maid bowed and left, Quongun shook his head and kept moving.

  “Truly, she is not ready to hear of such things,” Quongun said. “Why, we were but nine when we were told of those capabilities.”

  “That was to be the case for us, yet these Little Ones may very well be going to school with one of them,” Cattalice insisted as she followed. “The circumstances are truly different, and dare I say, truly more dire if this be so. Quongun, Catty and her classmates are to take part in the Evaluations, and one of them being sent into the wilderness alongside them may very well be a––”

  “Catty is too young, love. What if she is to tell the news to others? For Truth’s Grace, the Little One is but five. Beyond this, do we wish to stir commotion about the entire village over a thing that is not yet definite?”

  The mistress sighed as she rubbed her mate’s back. “Very well, then, if that be your wish. And even so, it may be as you say. Perhaps we are merely overreacting in all of this anyways, yes? Truly, perhaps Aly merely delays in her inner being.”

  “I pray it be.” Quongun folded his hands behind his back. “By Truth’s Grace, I pray it be.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 5

  “Aly the Lame,” “Weird Aly,” “Aly the Dolt –” those were only a few of the things eight-year-old Alytchai heard people call her. She couldn’t hide the pain the words caused anymore. Her steps to school were insecure, her head always aimed down, hoping that if she hid her face, maybe she’d go unnoticed. Master Slew and Teacher tried making her classmates stop, and the children did listen, only when necessary. The grown-ups couldn’t guard Aly’s every single step. So, every day she woke up was a day of dread, knowing she’d have to expose herself to the bullying.

  Aly also lost a few of her “friends” because Master Slew said she couldn’t carry their things anymore. They had accused her of tattle telling to him and asked Catty why she was allowed to stay in their company. Catty said her parents gave her little choice in the matter, but that didn’t keep them from bad-mouthing either of them.

  Catty tried keeping herself out of the assaults as much as
possible by calling out Aly’s faults whenever the opportunity was available. She didn’t like it, but the children at school weren’t giving her much of a choice. If anything, she was still nice to Aly when no one else was looking, and that was what really mattered. As long as Aly knew she actually thought of her as a friend, where was the issue? In that sense, she could have her “sweets and greens” too.

  It wasn’t like the Evaluations lingering in the back of their heads was bad enough. Aly couldn’t believe it. She could’ve sworn she was told about losing three years of preparation a couple of months ago, but then she woke up one day, and the worst thing happened; she was eight years old. Six years taken in total, and six years left. Had it been anyone else, worrying about a test that was so far away would’ve been silly, but not for Aly; not for someone who wasn’t physically prepared for it by a long shot. Not for someone who wasn’t sure if she could prove her worth to the tribe.

  With all that was going on, the weekends became an escape for both Aly and Catty. The two could practice using the dankerball at the sparring grounds for as long as they wanted, since they were older, or until the older children kicked them away. And when that usually happened, Catty would head over to Shanvi’s store on her own, and Aly would stay behind on a tree branch and read the pictograph scrolls Master Slew had given that week.

  That was what Aly was doing one morning after a brief sparring session with Catty before class started. She thought she got a little lucky. Since the older children showed up later than usual, she could finally read about the aliens that Slew mentioned in class the other day.

  All of the Little Ones found the thought of other creatures on different worlds fascinating, but not for the same reasons Aly did. As the Little One looked over the brightly colored scrolls filled with images of what other people in the galactic world could look like, she wished there was a way for her to escape to their various planets, as well.

  She wondered if the other aliens didn’t use inner being the way Goolians could. Maybe she’d be normal, just like the rest of them, because of it. So, with every picture studied, another sad sigh left the Little One’s lips.

  Aly lost her attention by the time she got to her fifth image that covered a race of people called the Ufrians. It wasn’t because the creatures didn’t seem as interesting as the other aliens were, but there was too much commotion approaching. She hoped Catty’s entourage wouldn’t notice her, so she kept acting like she was studying.

  “Hey, Aly the Lame.” Requai’s words stung the Little One’s ears as she heard them, but she still forced a smile upon looking down at the group.

  “Truly, I did not hear you arrive, Requai,” Aly said. “And hello, other mastras.”

  “What nonsense is this one doing?” Glani said. “Truly, what makes this one think she can read a scroll if she cannot even control her being?”

  The mastras laughed and Aly folded her scroll away, embarrassed.

  “Oh, leave the poor thing alone,” Catty insisted. “If she is to think that she can read, then why trouble it?

  Aly, surprised, smiled and nodded at Catty. The fun they had at the sparring grounds that morning must’ve carried over, for a change. The other mastras got quiet as they stared at their leader, confused. Catty shrugged and kicked a pebble by her foot. When no one else said anything, Aly figured it was safe enough to go back to looking at her pictures. A pebble bopped her on the head the instant she turned away. Aly glared at Catty, knowing she was the one who threw it. The others laughed and pointed.

  “Truly, what good shall your reflexes be if you can only use them at sparring?” Catty said.

  “Why not have the nerve to say such things directly to my face?” Aly snapped back. Even she didn’t know where that outburst came from. She quickly turned back around and hid her head behind the scroll.

  The other girls didn’t say anything, but waited for Catty’s comeback. Requai elbowed the mastra in the side, urging her not to let the insult slide. Glani saw a much larger rock nearby and picked it up.

  “Nay,” Requai said. “You shall get in trouble with Teacher if she cries to him. Never mind, yes? We best leave her be.”

  The bell chimed and the girls dashed off to class. Aly let the scroll she was reading fall down to the grass as she stretched and yawned. She tempted herself for a second with the thought of running away, but someone interrupted her fantasy when she cleared her throat.

  “Class begins soon,” Aly heard Catty say from below. When she looked down, the mastra was looking up at her with her hands on her hips.

  “I grow tired of you playing nice to me in one instant and picking on me the next when it is of convenience to you,” Aly said. “You have done this for years! You be a bad friend, Catty.”

  Catty looked ahead to see how far away the other girls were and held her hands out in surrender. “What am I to do? You should have stood up for yourself when we first began our schooling, Alytchai. Now surely they shall pick on me as well if they see me act sympathetic to you.”

  “Truly, I have no need of your sympathy.”

  “Hear me out, Mastra, I beg. I shall still play with you at the sparring grounds, very good? That be fair enough, yes?”

  “Nay, Catty. It is not. Now, make haste. Your friends are leaving you.”

  Catty stood there, not knowing what else to do. The final bell went off seconds later and she still couldn’t tear herself away from the tree Aly sat in. She was too scared of losing something more important than perfect timing to class if she did. Aly didn’t budge however.

  “I shall see you in class,” Catty said, ears whimpering.

  Aly let the mastra walk off far enough so she didn’t have to hurry to class beside her. When she jumped out of the tree and picked up her pictographs, the Little One stuck her long, purple tongue out before she ran off to the schoolhouse by a slightly different route.

  Later that day, the Little Ones met up at the sparring grounds with Teacher. They could tell he was getting frustrated with the curriculum changes. Ever since he made that announcement years ago, he had to come back and tell them they were jumping ahead even more on a bi-monthly basis.

  Glani shot another arrow at one of the four moving dummies. “Truly, I wish we could have spent a little more time on our acrobatics last week. And my body aches terribly. My mammai had me sit in water with salt last night, as she and my pappai do after tending the fields. These cursed Evaluations best be worth the pain.”

  Requai aimed and fired an arrow at the moving dummy beside the one that Glani struck. “And I am to complain about sore muscles on a similar level with my folks as well. Yet why am I to complain? If we are to keep at such a pace, then we shall be learning as much as the Young Ones! Perhaps we shall bout against them during the assessment as well, yes? Would that not be grand, if not terrifying!”

  “Truly, this one dreams big. Perhaps someone in our class shall make it to the final numbers of contestants. I know Catty is to think she is already good enough, and for all purposes that I have seen, I am inclined to believe her! Yet, by Truth’s Grace, do you think the overseer shall put a call for us to tend the fields at a younger age, as well?”

  “Now, that would be grand!” Requai set her bow down. She raised her arms in the same form as holding it, and shot a beam of being into another dummy. It was weak, but at least it was visible. “My pappai says field work is not as grand as it seems, yet I, for one, am quite excited about doing what the grander children can do. Especially since they are allowed to use the chouloos.”

  “Indeed. I have always wanted to play with them, yet my pappai says our cattle are not for fun and I am far too young to be around them. Truly, I cannot wait to be big.”

  As the rest of the class practiced their aiming, Teacher took Aly to another part of the sparring ground. He handed her a stick that had three leaves half her size on one end. The Little One stared at the broom oddly, then looked up at the other Goolian.

  “Um, if I may, what am I to do with this?
” she asked.

  Teacher squatted down and patted the Little One on the head. “Alytchai, the field lord, along with your pappai and I, had another discussion this prior weekend. Apologies, yet we must follow the rules, as always. You are lowest ranked in the class, thus you must perform the chores until you outrank another.”

  Aly swallowed the lump in her throat. She then glanced at the other Little Ones. They were all watching her. “Look at what Aly is doing since she is not as skilled as the rest of us,” she imagined them whispering to each other. She saw Catty looking as repulsed as the rest of them. It was just another reminder of how different she was from everyone else, and how much she hated herself for it.

  She handed Teacher the broom, but he didn’t take it back.

  “I beg, I can perform better.”

  Teacher rubbed her shoulders. “Nay, dearest. Truly, this should not be seen as punishment, very good? It is to help motivate you for improving. Now, fret not over what the others may say, yes? We only ask this one to be as patient as we. Truly, I am sure another shall have to do this assigned task eventually. Be that as it may, why not trouble yourselves over other matters beyond sparring for the moment being? Perhaps the martial arts are not meant for you.”

  The Little One froze.

  “What did you say?” She had no idea why Teacher looked so nervous all of a sudden. And more importantly, she had no idea why she was so cross with him all of a sudden.

  “I beg, mind your tone, Little One.”

  “Apologies, Master,” Aly forced herself to say. She lowered the broom and began to sweep, not saying another word.

  “My thanks. Now, enough worries. Truly, there are other manners in which this one can contribute her worth to the tribe, yes? Did you not always say that you wanted to be in the bakery business as your pappai?”

  Teacher patted the Little One on the cheek before he went back to the rest of the class. Aly swept fiercely as the Adult’s words sunk in. She wasn’t good enough. That was basically what he said, and while hearing it from her peers was agonizing, being told such a thing from a grown-up, who she thought was always supposed to say pointless things like “you can be whatever you desire,” was beyond a mock of who she was. It was a direct insult to the Alytchai name.