by Asia
"are you sure she's alright? she's been sleeping for hours"
"of course she's fine Sam, she hadn't slept for a long time, she's just tired" Nanny answered to the worried man. actually she was a bit worried herself. it was four in the afternoon and Emerald was still sleeping.
"I think we should call the doctor" said Margaret, in that moment Emerald began to stir, a smile spread on her face as she open one lazy eye, then the other. she was startled to find the three of them watching her closely, and jump up in surprise.
"what, what happened?"
they was so surprised to see her smiling, so they just stared.
"are you alright honey?" Nanny finally asked.
"sure, everything just great, but what happened?" Emerald was puzzled.
"nothing, we were just worried, you were sleeping a long time." Margaret answered.
"I was very tired, I haven't slept a full night for ages." she felt like lying, though it was part true "now can I get up and dress up?".
"of course." Sam was a little embarrassed.
they walked out, only Nanny stayed. she was very curious.
Emerald got up and waded to the closet. opened it and got out her favorite dress. while she started to dress, she notice Nanny staring at her.
"what?"
"what happened yesterday?" Nanny asked carefully.
Emerald was at lost, she wanted to tell her, and knew Nanny got offended about the other time she didn't tell her. but was afraid to tell her secret "I will tell you, but not now. when I'll be ready, I'll tell." she said finally.
Nanny nodded, she wanted to know, but was happy that Emerald got back to herself.
*****
Joharran's fingers moved slowly over Emerald's face, touching her shaped lips, floating to her straight nose and then caressing her closed eyes. her soft skin felt like velvet to his hands.
"I want to learn your language." she finally said what was in her heart in the past couple of hours.
"you sure ? is not easy learn new language." Joharran was glad she asked, but wanted to make sure she meant it.
"it's alright, I love to learn new languages, and I want to learn yours. I want to talk with a language only me and you would understand." she smiled ."what is your language name?"
"zelandonii."
she never heard this name before, it sounded so exotic. "how do you say man in zelandonii?"
"man" he said, then decided to follow her "woman" he pointed at her "beautiful woman "...
Emerald didn't notice the time, she was so involved in the learning.
"it's time to go now." she said sadly "tomorrow again?"
Joharran nodded and leaned closer to hug her.
"go, you could get into troubles ".
after he left she went to the stable. she didn't visit star for two weeks now. he must have been pretty lonely. and it was to late to go back to the house, her father would ask questions.
*****
Margaret looked out through the window just when Emerald was in site, she saw her dancing in the path that lead to the house. the change was amazing, the smile on her face was apparent even from distance.
"Sam!" she called out loud "you must see this, hurry up!"
Sam came running, he had a concern look on his face "what happened?, is she o.k.?".
she led him to the window "see for yourself".
he looked and saw her, she stopped dancing when she got near the house, but the smile lingered on her face.
he turned around to the very smiling Margaret.
"she must have snapped out of it" she said with a big smile as he ran to the door to meet her. he opened it just as she was about to hold the handle. she was a little bit surprised, but got over it quickly and gave him a big hug.
"are you o.k.?" he asked gently.
"great, better then ever!" she smiled broadly.
"want to tell me?"
"nope, but thanks"
he looked at her puzzled. well, it didn't matter right now, all that mattered was that she was happy again. he smiled again as he heard her humming to herself as she got up the stairs.
*****
Emerald got up the stairs, humming the words she learned. it helped her remember. every time she learned something new, she put it in a melody.
she got to her room, went straight to her desk and took a notebook from one of her drawer.
*****
after few weeks of learning and practicing, Emerald got pretty fluent in zelandonii.
one night, she decided she waited enough .
"where are you from?"
Joharran got caught off guard "ah, it's a long story." he said after a few minutes of trying to find excuse, with no success.
"great, we have the whole night."
"o.k." he said finally "but you have to promise me one thing..."
"what ? "
"you must believe in what I say."
"of course I believe you. you don't have to ask that." she got offended.
"after what I'll tell you, you wouldn't." he looked straight to her eyes.
"I promise." she returned his gaze.
"I will start with telling you about my people. we call ourselves zelandonii. which is, as I explained, means the earth children. we believe in the great earth mother. she is like your god as I learned. there are a lot of groups, with different language. but we all believe in her. we are her children. we have no money. we trade for things we need. everyone has their talent, and share it with others by trading with it. we have no such things as slavery or poorness. we are taking care of each other."
Emerald smiled "they sound like great people, why wouldn't I believe you ?"
"I didn't finish yet. I'll tell you a little bit of myself. each group is divided to more groups, who live together. I was the leader of one of the groups.
one night I had a dream, I don't remember a lot of it, just a sweet laughter. the dream came every night. and I got used to wake up every morning with this warm feeling the laughter made..."
emerald listened to his story, and felt the growing tension in her stomach "you are a slave because of me." she cried.
"no! don't say that. the mother led me to you. I would never have gotten here without the 'head hunting'." he patted her head gently.
"but what does it matter now? you are a slave, which means we could never be together..." she felt the pain come crawling back to her heart.
"Emerald, look at me." he spoon her chin in his hand and turned her face to him "don't worry, we would be together. love doesn't break up so easy..."
Emerald's face lightened "you love me?"
*****
Joharran was at lost, he didn't know what to say or think. 'am I?' he thought to himself. 'do I even know what love is?'.
Emerald was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
'don't be stupid like your little brother.' his mind was racing.
she got up and turned to walk away, it was too humiliating.
he watched her back getting away from him, suddenly the recognition filled him. 'I'm risking my life every night just to see her, of course I love her ' he got up and frantically ran after her. he pulled her hand "I love you " he finally said. he felt the heaviness lifted from his shoulder. "I'm sorry"
she looked puzzled.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I never loved anyone before, I didn't notice it, I'm sorry"
he was holding both her hands now. he could see a smile behind the screen of tears "oh, you are so beautiful when you smile..." the pull was overpowering. he let go of her hands, just to embrace her close to him. she could see tears in his eyes and raised her hand to wipe it off. he took her hand in his and kissed her open palm.
then he lowered his head and gave her a long loving kiss.
she could feel the dizziness taking control over her. in an attempt to regain her conscious she tried to remember what they were talking about.
"I still don't understand why did you thought I wouldn't believe you ?" she severed their contact.
"that is because I didn't finish the story."
they sat down again, and joharran continued.
"I didn't understand where I have been, after I woke up I saw the clothes I was wearing, it was weird but I thought it was just a different way to make them. but after some time, and after learning your language, I realized everything was different. there was no mother, and this concept of slavery was outrages. I got an idea of where I was, it was too strange, but I couldn't get it out of my head.
but when I got to your city I knew I was right. those things you live in."
"you mean my house?" she hesitated
"yes, we don't have this things. we live in caves, we do not make our home..." he wanted to continue but one look at her face made him stop.
Emerald gaped in shock "it can't be true, it just can't be."
his face fell "you promised."
"i know, but this is so unbelievable. you live in caves?"
"yes, but there is more. the clothes are different. I don't know from what you make them, but we make them from leather. I have to admit, yours are much more comfortable."
"that is because we make them from the fur of the animals."
"we have furs also, but this is not it." he was confuse now.
"what I mean is that we take the fur off the animal, without the skin, it is a long process. we call it fabric ."
"but then you'll have to make the animals come to you..." then he smiled "how do you make them come to you? "
she chuckled at his enthusiasm "we raise them, we give them food, taking care of them. and every year at the summer we take off their fur. it grows again in the winter. we take their milk too. and we kill few of them for food."
"but how do you made them come to you in the first place ?"
"oh, it was a long time ago. thousands of years ago people catch some live animals and raised them, they multiplied and got used to people."
joharran looked puzzled "what is thousands ? and years?"
she tried to find the words to explain "year is 4 seasons. and thousands, it's a very large number." while trying to find something more tangible, her eye caught the pebbles near the stream "see this small pebbles ? all the pebbles in the stream supposed to be a few thousands, and see the stars? there are a lot of them, millions, million is bigger then thousand."
it was a hard concept, but he thought he got the idea.
Emerald got back home with her head full of thoughts. she was so occupied she didn't notice she was been observed.
the eyes follow her until she reached the path and then the curtain of the window fell to his place.
*****
Emerald was lying on her back, her head nested in Joharran's armpit. she felt so peaceful with him. it still amazed her, though she felt there was a lot of missing parts in his puzzle.
"how old are you?" she finally asked.
"me? I'm twenty five now " now he got curious himself "and you?"
"I'm sixteen years old."
"do you have a mate already?" was his next question.
she was caught by surprise "eh, no " she answered nervously, it wasn't the whole truth, and she knew she had to tell him but just couldn't get herself talking about it.
Joharran notice her distress, and misunderstood it as crossing the line. so he tried to explain. "I just want to know your customs, in what age do the girls mate in here?"
"less then sixteen is too young, but eighteen is more appropriate. what about your customs?".
"there is no rule. but usually the girls mate at thirteen/fourteen. the men usually mate at sixteen."
emerald was quiet for a while. she was afraid to ask, but she had to know. "what about you? do you have a mate?"
"no, I don't. it's our family tradition of late mating " he laughed.
"you never told me about your family."
"it's a very long story..." when he saw her disappointment he added "but I see you like long stories." the smile got back to her face.
"I'll start from the beginning. my mother, Marthona, she is a very special woman. she is mated to Willomar now. she had mates before, he is her third. but the most important thing about her is that she was a leader, and a very good one. what made her good was her way with people. she accepted them the way they are, and used the advantage of their qualities .
she had four children. I'm her eldest. she made me a leader after her because she knew I love it, and I'm good in it. and even though I didn't had a mate she insist ."
"what is mating got to do with leadership?" Emerald didn't want to stop him. but she wanted to understand.
"in the zelandonii, a man can not be leader without a woman at his hearth."
Emerald nodded him to keep talking, though she didn't understand it.
"after me there were two brothers, Jondalar and Thonolan."
she could see his pain and wondered why.
"when Jondalar was eighteen and Thonolan..." the word came in a cry "Thonolan was fifteen, they went on a journey. Marthona, she knew Thonolan would go, she understood him. he was like a butterfly. always running around, always smiling. everybody loved him.
what my mother could not understand is why Jondalar went with him. Jondalar was a home person, not a traveler. none of them had a mate.
in their journey Thonolan fell in love with a woman name Jetamio, and they mated. then Jetamio got pregnant. Jondalar say's he was very happy, that it was the happiest time in his whole life. I hope it was. when Jetamio died in childbirth he lost his mind. he didn't want to live without her. they continue in the journey, but Thonolan started doing this stupid things, trying to get killed. one day they hunted a deer, and a lioness stole their prey. he went after her, and her mate killed him. Jondalar got injured very bad."
Emerald took a napkin out of her pocket and wiped his tears stricken face. her eyes were wet also.
"how did he got away from the lion?" with all the sadness, she was very curious .
"he was saved by a woman named Ayla, a very talented woman. she is a healer. they fell in love. it is pretty hard not to fall in love with my brother, he's quite a women charmer." he laughed. "and she is very beautiful and strong woman. he came back home, and brought her with him. it was more then a year ago. a couple of months before I left she delivered a beautiful girl, her name is Matanya."
"Matanya, it is a beautiful name." Emerald commented. "it's like a combination of Thonolan and Jetamio..."
"that's right, not everyone notice that. it is also a gesture for Marthona. for accepting Ayla like her own daughter."
Emerald nodded in understanding "you said you where four, I only heard of three."
"my youngest sister is Folara. she got Thonolan death pretty hard, she was very close to him as a child. she also didn't mate. not until the last time I saw her. she went on a journey a month before i went away."
he looked at the sky "why don't you tell me about your family? we still have time."
*****