The Lord of the Plains (20 page)

The story continued. From down the front
Aerlid heard some of the children cheering. It looked like Razra
managed to talk to Riley (talk at Riley) and watch the play at the
same time. Aerlid didn’t know any of the characters, but the story
was quite simple so he could follow it. Jeitar ran around fighting
gemengs and protecting Astar with his sidekick Molozor. Jeitar was
human, so sometimes he couldn’t beat the gemengs by himself, though
he always came up with clever plans to escape. Molozor fought
strongly, but most of the lines were Jeitars’. When Molozor did
speak it was usually, ‘yes, Jeitar!’ or ‘coming, Jeitar!’. At the
end the gemengs were beaten back from Astar, for now. Of course
they were coming back; otherwise what would they show next
time?

When it was over Aerlid asked Razra’s
mother, ‘where do they get the costumes?’

‘Molozor’s and the gemeng’s costumes come
from some of the things gemengs wear when they first arrive in
Astar.’ So, like his own clothes, Aerlid thought. ‘Jeitar’s outfit
is an old military uniform. We don’t use that type of armour
anymore.’

It looked very similar to Aerlid, but he
supposed it must be different. The other character’s costumes
weren’t worth mentioning, they were just everyday clothes. ‘Do they
ever do plays about Astar’s founding?’ Aerlid asked curiously.

‘Every so often.’ She replied. ‘Jas out
front will tell you the schedule.’ Then she turned around to yell
at Razra who apparently needed yelling at.

Aerlid felt a sense of satisfaction at this.
Now he knew why there was a theatre and where the stories of their
history came from. It wasn’t so different to how the Seiaan people
had passed on their history. With no written language of their own,
they’d passed on their history through their strong oral tradition.
He would very much like to see a play about the founding of
Astar.

Soon they were all trundling out of the
theatre. Outside people gathered in groups to wait for others still
inside. Aerlid spotted Riley, Razra with her. Riley looked quite
relieved to spot him and immediately veered off in his
direction.

‘Why is the gemeng called Molzolzor?’ Aerlid
asked Razra, as the little boy approached. The name had stuck with
him since he had heard Riley tell him to be wary of Molzolzor.

‘Because he’s a gemeng! All gemengs have
names like Molozor and Molzolzor!’

Riley frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’ she
said finally, because no matter how she thought about it that
sentence didn’t make sense to her.

‘Well, the gemengs outside are real gemengs,
but the gemengs who live here are gemengvals. That’s why they have
names like Riley and not Rollvolzarizar.’ Razra said
cheerfully.

Riley accepted Razra’s explanation,
relieved. She didn’t want to be called Rollvolzarizar. It was way
worse than Rilodana, which Aerlid had originally tried to call her
and which she had replaced with the far superior, ‘Riley’.

‘Razra!’ Razra’s mother was instantly on
him.

‘Oh, I mean, not gemengvals, fake
gemengs.’

Aerlid kept his expression carefully calm.
‘I haven’t heard that expression here.’ he said.

‘It means fake gemeng!’ Razra offered
cheerfully.

‘Am I fake?’ Riley asked, her brow furrowed
in confusion.

‘It means trash. Gemeng trash.’ Razra’s
mother said sternly. ‘It’s not a word you should call your friends,
Razra. Not if you want to keep them. Where have you heard
that?’

‘Fanie.’ Razra looked shocked. ‘He said it
meant fake gemeng! Because the gemengs don’t have claws and teeth,
aren’t as scary as the real ones outside..’ he trailed off.

Razra’s mother went off like a missile
towards one of the older children.

Riley looked genuinely confused as she said
‘but I’m not trash. Or fake.’ She added after a moment.

‘I’m sorry.’ he looked like he was about to
cry. ‘Fann said Molozor was a gemeng and gemengs who live in Astar
are gemeng….’

Once again, Riley accepted his explanation
easily. She wasn’t sure why Razra was so upset. ‘It’s alright,
Razra,’ she said easily, ‘you can keep telling me about
Rollvolzarizar.’

Razra, gratefully, launched off into his
story.

Riley, again, was very pleased at her
progression in the social arts. She wasn’t sure why Razra had been
so upset. It must be because his mother was a very fierce large two
legs, she decided.

Chapter 14

If there was one thing Aerlid asked most
about it was cave mould. The more he thought about it the more
nonsensical it seemed to him.

Keila and Jania learned that this was a bone
of contention with him and were well practiced in weathering his
storms.

‘Isn’t any food saved from the harvest?’
Aerlid asked finally.

Keila blinked, surprised, ‘Well, yes, of
course.’

Aerlid stopped. Usually he didn’t get much
of a response from his two coworkers. ‘Well, where is it?’ he
asked.

‘It’s stored in case of a gemeng
attack.’

‘What if there isn’t a gemeng attack?’ he
asked after a moment.

‘Well the older stores are sold.’

‘They’re sold?’ he asked, his voice getting
high. Winter was almost past and not once had he heard about an
escape from cave mould! ‘Why do you eat cave mould then?’ he
demanded.

‘Well cave mould needs to be eaten fresh. It
only lasts about a week once it’s harvested.’

‘How come you didn’t
tell
me?!’

‘I thought you knew.’ Keila said. ‘Didn’t
anyone tell you?’

‘No! Perhaps they all thought I knew!’ he
closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. It wouldn’t do to yell
at Keila. How did everyone think I knew? a little voice inside
demanded. ‘Where can you buy the old stores?’ he asked.

Keila was happy enough to give him
directions.

That evening after picking Riley up from
school Aerlid headed straight to the address Keila had given him.
It was in the middle of the city- stores were important after
all.

The food from the old stores was…old. It had
little taste, an objectionable texture and was more expensive than
cave mould.

Still, cave mould became an unpleasant
accompaniment to the meals which now featured predominantly real
food.

The years slipped by. It never snowed again
like it did in their first year in Astar. Snow was unusual in Astar
and when it did snow it was in small amounts that quickly melted
into a dirty slush. Riley found her school work less engaging as
she got older. School was interesting- it was where she learned to
socialize, but what was taught in the classroom and what was
written on the board? Not interesting. Her marks slipped down to an
average level and as a consequence the human children came to feel
better about her. The fact that she had once done better than a
human, any human, was clearly a fluke. Once this was settled in
their minds they were happier to have her as their slightly slow
gemeng friend.

Riley did not consider the other human
children friends, only Razra, and Razra was happy to consider her a
friend as well.

While Riley didn’t go out of her way to make
friends with the other human children- she already knew their
feelings towards her and already had one human friend- she did try
and make friends with the other gemengs. Originally they had been
pleased to make friends with her, but as they got to know her they
found her attitude towards the other humans unsettling. She didn’t
behave in a way they thought she should, and so it was difficult in
a different way to make friends with the gemengs.

She tried very hard, as she had no gemeng
friends. In a way, she had observed the human children enough to
have a basic, unarticulated understanding of their feelings towards
her. The gemengs, though, she didn’t understand.

During lunchtime Riley sat with gemeng
children mostly, sitting with Razra every now and then, or seeing
him after school. She remained silent and watched and tried to
understand. Her silence worked well with the humans, she could
listen and learn. But not with the gemengs. She didn’t have the
right feel to her. If a human had come up and asked for her lunch,
she would have said no, and that would have been the end of the
conversation. If a human had asked any of the other children they
would have said yes, thank you, can I do anything else for you?

But she wouldn’t go away, and she was
trying. So the gemengs eventually became used to having her follow
them around.

This interest she had in the gemeng children
surprised and cheered Aerlid. When he taught her, he still found
she only had an interest in a subject if he could relate it back to
fighting in some way. She didn’t seem a violent child though Aerlid
worried all the same that she only found weapons and fighting
techniques of interest.

Aerlid also found that as Riley grew it
became very hard to tire her out. He would be tired from spending
all day healing people in a way that wasn’t in any human manual.
But even after school and training with Aerlid, Riley would bounce
around and wouldn’t want to go to sleep. Eventually he started
taking her to the park at night. He told her to run around and not
be seen, and not to come back to him til she was tired.

It was a solution. It surprised him how long
she could run for. And it markedly improved her mood. It was boring
and frustrating for her to chase humans around during exercise
class, moving at a pace that was little more than walking for her.
To stretch her legs after all that cramped movement was a wonderful
relief.

Something had been brewing in Riley’s mind
for a while. She noticed things and tucked them away without
interpreting them and in the back of her mind they came together,
forming a thought. Riley did not try to wheedle it out before it
was ready. It would come when it would come.

Riley watched the children leaving the
school. Some no longer had to wait for their parents, so they left
right away. She walked over to where the gemeng children were
gathered. She’d noticed they tended to group together, in a way
human children did not. Human siblings often left together.
Sometimes human friends would leave together. Why, she and Razra
had even gone over to each other’s houses a few times. They had
both agreed there was very little to do at her house and more often
spent time at his. But this didn’t happen every day, and not
usually in such large groups. Why, every gemeng in her class was
here!

‘Where are you going?’ she asked Jillia
Melras, a serious gemeng girl the same age as Riley. Her severe
demeanour stopped anyone from even thinking of calling her ‘Jill’.
She was the gemeng most comfortable around Riley. Like most, but
not all of the gemengs, she had an Astarian last name. Riley had
discovered that some of the gemeng children had no family name,
only a first name. She had noted this fact, though had no idea why
this was.