The Chosen of Res

The deep silence of the surroundings didn bother Aequor, who quickly stripped off her simple leather top and skirt, dipping her toes in the cool river. Aequor first lowered herself up to her neck into the murky water, then, humming some indistinct tune, dived completely under the water. Aequors fiery red hair floated to the surface while the girl remained underwater.

Slowly, Aequor stood up in the river. The water reached her tanned neck again. High rocks and a few bushes surrounded the beach where Aequor had left her clothes. While she was still humming, a flock of birds suddenly took flight from behind the rocks. Aequor listened to their voices for a while, and concluded that they were alarmed.

”Estrella? ”, Aequor murmured quietly, rising slowly from the water, while keeping a close eye on the small gap between the rock and the bush, from which she herself had arrived in the clearing.

Aequor bent down to grab her clothes and pulled them on with quick movements. A small splash was heard from the water, Aequor cautiously spun around and, sighing in relief, stepped closer to the white-haired mermaid that had risen to the surface.

”Do you know what startled the birds on the other side of the rocks? ” Aequor whispered.

Blinking her silver gray eyes, the mermaid nodded her head seriously. Or at least as serious as someone so happy could look.

”Estrella, ” Aequor whispered, crouching suddenly as she saw movement behind the bushes.

The mermaid disappeared beneath the surface, waving her aquamarine blue tail. Aequor glared in anger at the splash Estrella had made, mermaids made too much noise, even though they never spoke.

Suddenly a woman with a spear charged through the bush. Aequor squealed and immediately backed into the river, hoping that Estrella would return and drag her along the river to the great open water that Aequors father had called the bahiri.

The golden brown haired woman looked at Aequor in surprise with her turquoise eyes, then lowered her spear and stepped towards Aequor with a somewhat motherly expression on her face. From the womans turquoise and red ring-shaped tattoos, Aequor identified her as a Bahakane, a wandering warrior tribe led by women. If the woman had been any bahakane, Aequor wouldn have been so afraid, but the area between the womans chest and neck had a dark blue curved line that signified the chief.

Aequor scooped up water with her hands to get away faster, but the woman ran along the shore, jumping into the water, getting a strong hold on Aequor. Aequor screamed and thrashed, still trying to get free. She had heard stories about the Bahakane, how they robbed the children of other tribes. And how those children were never heard of again.

”Calm down, I won hurt you, ” the woman insisted.

Aequor did not believe the woman, but continued to struggle.

”How old are you? Where is your mother? ” the woman asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

Aequor was so confused by it that she gave in a bit and felt the woman wrap her arms around her, hugging Aequor.

”Its okay, ” the woman whispered; ”Come on, Ill take you home. ”

The woman relaxed her grip and started walking towards the muddy shore, holding Aequors hand.

”Home? ” Aequor repeated, stopping suddenly, making the woman jerk.

Turning towards Aequor, the woman replied, ”Yes, home. ”

”To mommy? ” Aequor asked out of breath. How long it had been since she last saw her mother…

Troubled, the woman shook her head, casting an apologetic look at the girl, and seeing the downcast expression, pulled the girl into a hug and gently said: ”I am your new mother. ”

Aequor started to cry but didn let the woman hear or see it so she pressed herself tighter against the woman and just sobbed silently. The woman seemed to be happy about it, because she pressed her cheek against Aequors head while stroking Aequors back and the back of her head.

It was confusing for Aequor when some strange woman just suddenly announced that she was her mother. But the woman did feel like a mother, she was gentle and caring. And warm. However, Aequor was still afraid of the woman, so she did not say anything back when the woman rose from the river, pulling Aequor with her.

After getting off the rocky beach, to the other side of the bushes, Aequor and the woman ran into a group of other Bahakane warrior women. One of the women, a young one with black hair, approached the woman dragging Aequor with her; ”Ana, who is she? ”

The woman –ana– glanced at Aequor as if asking for her name.

”Aequor, ” Aequor answered quietly, blushing at everyones stares.

”Shes a hex! ” the young black haired woman who had called the chief ”ana ” remarked pointing at the eye-catching red spike tattooed on both of Aequors cheeks.

”Krasivata ” ana scolded the youngest in a warning way and then glanced at Aequor with a warm look; ”Aequor is your new sister, shes a bahakane now. ”

The other bahakane nodded in agreement, including Krasivata. Ana started to lead the group towards ”home ”, wherever that might be. Aequor had heard that the Bahakane wander from one place to another all year round and camped for only a week at the most.

Krasivata slipped past the others to Aequor and ana. Aequor looked at the womans pale tattooed face, it was common for a red line to be tattooed on the chin if the woman had a spouse. Krasivata and ana both had such tattoos. Aequor looked around and noticed that all of the six other bahakane had the same tattoo.

Krasivata was beautiful, her long jet-black tresses reached down to her hips and her turquoise eyes sparkled proudly on her powerfully built face. Krasivata looked a lot like ana, but she was much taller and her nose curved beautifully, like a hawks beak, while anas nose was straight.

”Im Krasivata, but you can call me baci, the same as I call you. ”

”Baci? ” Aequor repeated in wonder.

”Its a Bahakane word for sister, ” Krasivata explained; ”Anas name is Sameen, but she definitely wants you to call her ana; a mother. ”

Sameen smiled as Aequor looked at her in confusion.

”How old are you, Aequor? ” Krasivata inquired; ”You hex tattooed the coming of age mark when you were twelve, didn you? ”

A bit troubled, Aequor thought for a moment, before answering; ”Im about thirteen summers. ”

Krasivata seemed surprised; ”Thirteen? Shouldn you already have a tattoo? If you look closely, you don really look like a hex, you don even have horns. ”

Aequor lowered her head in distress. She knew that she was only a hex from her mothers side, but was horrified to realize that she hadn remembered that her mother had horns. Aequor realized that she no longer remembered what her mother looked like, sounded like, or smelled like. Of course, she would recognize her mother if she saw her, but she would no longer be able to imagine her mother from memory.

”Qizim, whats wrong? You
e shaking! ” Sameen caressed Aequors forehead; ”Lets hurry so you can get warm soon and get something to eat. ”

What does qizim mean, Aequor wondered.

It didn take more than a few minutes, and the Bahakane camp was already looming ahead. Leather tents rose from the dry ground. There were many Bahakane dwellings, but the tents were pitched close together to make it easier to defend the area. Aequor watched with interest as many different looking people came to meet the hunters. It was hard to tell at a glance which of the people were the original Bahakane and which were from some other tribe. However, she did not see any other hex.

”Sameen? ” a black haired man stepped towards the hunters, glancing at Aequor in confusion.

It was easy to guess from the mans strong facial features, hawk-like nose and tanned skin, as well as straight jet-black shaggy hair that he was related to Krasivata. On the mans chin was painted a reddish line running towards the neck, from which Aequor deduced that he was Krasivatas father, Sameens spouse.

”Sabaku, sevgim… ” Sameen spread her arms to hug the man, who judging by his expression was still waiting for Sameen to explain who Aequor was.

”This is Aequor, ” Sameen introduced after first receiving a hug from her spouse.

”You want to adopt her? ” Sabaku guessed.

Sameen nodded without expecting any objections from her spouse.

Sabaku turned with a calm expression on his face towards Aequor and held out his hand; ”Lets go. ” Aequor hesitated, Sameen nudged gently urging: ”Go with Sabaku, Ill follow soon. ”

Uncertain, Aequor grabbed Sabakus outstretched hand, letting him lead her through the camp as the hunters stayed to show off their prey. People looked at Aequor for a moment, but did not stare for long. Sabaku slowed down and leaned in through the mouth of the tent. It was warm in the tent, the smoke from the fire burning in the middle rose up from a small hole.

”You can warm up here, ” Sabaku urged, sitting Aequor on a fluffy blanket by the campfire, leaning over to the other side of the tent to look for something.

”Here, ” Sabaku held out a blue-gray cloth; ”Change your wet clothes here, you can leave them to dry by the fire, then come out and get something to eat. ”

Aequor accepted the dress, following with her eyes as Sabaku left the tent. She wasn really cold, and the water had never bothered Aequor, but she decided to change her clothes anyway. The dress was a bit big, but Aequors own clothes had started to get a little too small.

Aequor pulled the leather curtain in front of the doorway and after stepping out looked for Sabaku or Sameen. She saw neither of them, and started creeping along the path between the tents, intending to leave the camp and return to Estrella at the river, when someone interrupted her with a snappy voice; ”Aequor, qizim, where are you going? You can get food here… ”

Aequor glanced over her shoulder to see Sameen standing between the tents in her one-shouldered gray dress decorated with blue pearls and a turquoise belt. Aequor still looked ahead of her at the freedom of the path, wondering if she would be able to escape if she ran. Sameen would catch her, after all, Sameen was the chief of the Bahakane warriors.

”Come on, ” Sameen held out her hand, which Aequor reluctantly grabbed.

Sameen took Aequor to a square that had been left empty in the middle of the tents. There were many bonfires in the square, around which many families had gathered. Sameen walked to one of the campfires with Aquor following behind her. In addition to Sabaku, Krasivata and four other people had sat by the campfire.

The sounds of playing children and dogs barking echoed in the square smelling of smoke. A small girl was sitting on the lap of a young man who resembled Sabaku and Krasivata, who was talking to a woman sitting next to him. Aequor sat between Sabaku and Sameen, crouching with her head between her shoulders.

”This is Aequor, our new daughter, ” Sameen introduced to the young man holding a little girl sitting across from her and the slender dark-haired woman sitting next to him and the brown-eyed youth sitting next to Krasivata.

”Aequor, here is our son Arev and his spouse Ayinafari and their daughter Sireliin ”, Sameen pointed to the young black-haired, dark-eyed man holding the girl and the dark-haired woman sitting next to him.

”Welcome to the family, baci ”, Arev smiled kindly, looking then into his spouses dark eyes.

Before Aequor could even answer, Sameen continued; ”And here is Elere, Krasivatas spouse. ” Aequor and Eleres eyes met, and for a moment Aequor just stared into the boys dark eyes, not knowing what to think of his playful smile and the red line under his chin. Krasivatas spouse seemed much younger than Aequor himself, although Aequor knew that the Bahakane tribesmen did not marry until the age of fifteen.

”We
e happy to have you, baci, ” Krasivata said cheerfully.

Sameen served fried meat to everyone. I wish I could stay here for a while, Aequor thought. At least until I know where to find my mother.