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 Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 3:16 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 4:24 pm
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Ila wipped the sweat from her forehead with a swip of her back hand. Even with her hat, in the middle of the field she could simply not ignore the sun crashing down on her back. She’d been out here for hours, crouched over a couple of crop plants. Ila had been taking notes and samples all day. Her small satchel bag was open on the side; samples were all neatly in their own little divided space all labeled. Her book was next to it, opened as well and revealed some of her best hand writing. She did not slack in that department.
She should have been back hours really. Ila only needed two samples but then she’d gotten to thinking about some of her other projects and she’d just kept on working. She hadn’t thought of the time or anything else really while she was out here. It was Ila and the earth and she liked it that way. Ila and the world. The thought made her smile as she gently grabbed the stalk of one of the plants to test its flexibility by bending it. She wasn’t going to break the stalk of course that would be horrible.
“Ila!”
The Geian hummed to herself, eyes going from one plant to another as she bent lower to grab her notebook to take notes. Patch number 257 was quite a bit more flexible than its predecessor patch 256. Perhaps she would gather the sturdiest stalks and breed those with another batch that was just as sturdy and see how those turned out. A common complaint of the farmer was that his plants seemed to break at the littlest thing. He’d called her in two years ago and she used his crops as one f her projects for her people.
“Ila!”
A woman a touch older than Ila and sporting the same colors was running through the fields. When her voice finally reached Ila, the Geian rose up and tilted her head patiently waiting for her sister to arrive.
“Didn’t you hear me calling your name? Had to make me run all the way over here didn’t you?”
“Sorry Armira,” Ila’s gaze turned to the ground and the smile on her lips disappeared completely.
“I thought I could save myself the run but ah well. Everyone is waiting for you, its dinner. Hurry up and pack up.” Her sister crossed her arms.
Ila nodded sheepishly and turned to start gathering her things. She kept her eyes on the ground and repeatedly wished herself not to cry.
“I’m really sorry,” she began but her sister waved her hand.
“Just hurry up.”
Ila finished and stood up again.
“We’re running back,” her sister warned her before taking off in a run down the length of the field. Ila followed after her in a run. She should have checked the time; her parents were going to be furious. She would not cry at the dinner table, she would sit quietly and eat her dinner.
Thankfuly their home was not too far, the girls made it home out of breath and her sister quickly took off her shoes and ran to the dining room. Ila was slower but she was not far behind her sister as she too entered the dining room. Everyone was talking in soft voice and they just barely paused when she came in. Her mother waved her over to the empty seat.
“Ila, we’ve been waiting for you for a little while now. Did you not keep track of the time?” before Ila could reply her mother was serving her food. “Silly girl. How is your project going? Have you finished it yet? Your sister just completed her fifth one.”
“No I haven’t finished it yet…” Ila stuffed her mouth with some food to avoid having to speak.
“You know we worry about you dear, you will need to pick a class soon. Have you given that a thought? If this project has taken two years so far I don’t want you to lag behind”
And there it was, the thing her mother had been pushing on her for who knew how long. Ila hated it when her mother spoke those words. Compared her to her siblings or even spoke about her project. Breeding plants wasn’t done over night! Results took years to achieve and the smallest mistake on her part could put all of her research in danger. If she bred the wrong male to the wrong female she could lose everything. But of course they didn’t get any of it!
“Well I was thinking…” Ila began.
“You should totally join dad and I with some duel pistols!” her brother piped up with a large smile on his face. Indeed, he and her father we’re practically twins at this point. They both repaired tools used in agriculture and they both had the same weapon type.
“No, no I don’t think that would be for me. Sorry dad,” she gave her father a small smile. “No I was maybe beads.” Everyone paused and turned to look at her.
“Beads? Ila, how are you supposed to protect yourself? Your sister is a lancer and I have a sword and you want to… have beads?”
“I don’t plan on being a fighter; I just want to work with the plants mother. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“Sweetheart, what about all those people they discovered on that other continent? I heard many of them look dangerous and are probably dangerous. Will you please rethink?”
“No, this is my choice and this is what I have chosen. Don’t believe rumors, they could be very friendly and who knows we could learn many things from them!”
“You’re not planning on going over there are you?”
“Yes, maybe… I don’t know.” Ila wanted to scream, why couldn’t she just do what she wanted? If she didn’t want to pick a fighter class she could pick a healer. She wasn’t like her siblings and she was tired of being compared to them.
“I’m just thinking about your safety.”
“I will think about it,” Ila finally admonished, not that she planned on changing her mind.
“I heard from your teachers, you’re doing better in class. That’s good to hear.”
“Yes I guess… I’ve been doing extra credit work to pass my classes.”
“You are so brave, I couldn’t do much more work than we’re already getting.”
Ila took a deep breath and gave her brother a smile. She knew she wasn’t exactly up to par with the rest of her family’s accomplishments. She knew it and one day she would prove them wrong. She didn’t know how, didn’t know when but it would happen.
“My teacher uses beads and they seem very soothing.
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Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:12 am
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:02 pm
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 10:23 am
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:34 pm
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"Are you seriously leaving?" Came the voice of her younger sister who was currently leaning on the door frame, hands crossed and giving Ila her version of a disapproving look. As if she hadn't gotten enough of those lately.
"Yes I am," Ila turned her back to her sister as she continued to pack silently. She had cried all night and tried to hold back tears all day now. She was scheduled to take the last flight to Tendaji which wasn't for a few more hours now. All of her equipment had been packed into a neat bag and she had made arrangements with someone outside of her family to help her with the items she sent back. Her family had firmly put their foot down and had said they would not support such an endeavor. But this was her life's work, they simply didn't understand that this is what she needed to do.
"You should have stayed in school. Are you leaving because you're getting bad grades?" Her sister could be so straightforward sometimes.
"Jeneva, stop bothering her. Mother needs you." Dedrick too stood at the door with a disapproving look as he pushed his younger sister out the door leaving Ila in silence again.
Except Ila broke down into a silent sob, she truly felt rejected by her family now. This was supposed to be a happy occasion, not something that she felt she was regretting for the rest of her life. It wasn't like she was leaving and never coming back, Belrea was her home she would never leave it forever. However, she also needed to complete her life's work and Tendaji offered her exactly that. Didn't her parents understand that this was her way of succeeding in life? IF she made a breakthrough in her research would they recognize her then?
With a frustrated sigh, she wiped away the dears and closed the final bag. She was taking two with her. A canvas bag that went around her shoulder and laid against her hip and another for her clothing and such that went on her back. Her cape went over everything and ensured that nothing got stolen because apparently, that was something a lot more common on Tendaji. Ally had told her so, and Nadiya had told her to be careful of the forest. Hopefully, she wasn't going to die out there because she knew her parents would think 'I told you so' for the rest of their lives.
Grabbing both bags, Ila left her room into the hall and then dread filled her as she approached the family den. Her mother had just returned from getting groceries for tonight's dinner and she gave Ila a fleeting look before completely ignoring her. Her father was sitting on a chair reading something and he too glanced up before ignoring her.
"I'm leaving," Ila said tried to sound determined but she knew her voice was shaking.
"Have nice travels," her mother said.
"Travel safe," her father said without looking at her.
Both of her siblings came out and gave her a very brief hug before Ila shuffled herself to the door. Once she was outside and the door had closed behind her, Ila felt the pressure atop her shoulders release and she let out a breath she didn't know she as holding. Ila wanted to cry again but there were others and it was enough to steal her just a tiny bit. She could cry when she was in her cabin later on. Maybe it would be easier to sleep once she'd let it all out of her system.
There were few Belreans leaving this late for Tendaji, a few Tendajians lurked around but that was it. Ila patiently waited in line until it was her turn when suddenly she was shoved aside a bit as an Oban squeezed into the space between her and the other person ahead of her. Ila blinked a few times staring at the back of the Oban's head.
“Excuse me,” she said softly. The Oban turned, gave her a once over before dismissing her completely. Ila bit her lip, she would not cry, she could not. This wasn't the end of the world, it was just one more person in front of her, she could be patient and wait. She cleared her throat ad he looked at her again.
“What?”
Ila stared at him, she could feel the tears building up in her eyes and finally looked away so that she didn't cry in front of him. She would not give him that satisfaction. Finally, they moved and Ila boarded the flying machine and almost ran to where she was staying. As soon as she was seated she let out silent sobs. Of course, those didn't last long before she was wiping them away and trying to keep a straight face.
The flight was uneventful, but Ila missed her family dearly. She could not wait to land to get a feel for the strange land. Soon enough her wish did come true and Ila was standing in Sauti bag in hand and no idea where to go. The realization that she was very far from home with nowhere to go was very scary and panic soon set in. She had not bought a map and she only had a word of mouth to follow. Ila glanced around, there were not many left now.
“Don't go in the forest, don't stay out in the dark,” Ila said out loud to herself, she was already breaking her own rules. So Ila picked a path and began walking down, she didn't know if she was going the right way or anything but she was bound to reach some place at some point right?
Ila ended up walking all night, she grew cold, hungry and cried the whole way. By the time she finally crossed someone else on the road, they were the ones to stop and ask her if she was okay and then walked her to the nearest inn. There they dropped her off before leaving her even though she begged them to stay.
“Come sit at the bar sweet thing,” said the large leaf woman, she looked like the innkeeper but Ila wasn't really sure. She moved sluggishly over and took a seat. “Here drink this while you wait for your room, you look like you need it.”
Ila stared at the brown liquid but drank it making a face as it burned down her throat, at least her sobs had died down to a hiccup.
“So, why are you crying?” the woman asked her.
“I... I left my family back home, they wouldn't come with me.” Just the thought of them made Ila's features scrunch up as if she was going to cry again.
“Eh, you don't need 'em.”
“What?”
“Can't force people to do things for ya, if they didn't want to come then you're better off alone.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It's also not something to cry about,” the woman shrugged. “A lot worst can happen to ya.”
“Well, my experience over wasn't the greatest. Are Obans rude by nature?”
“Rude?” The woman laughed. “Some are, some aren't why do ya ask?”
“One of them pushed himself into the line in front of me.”
“You aren't crying for that are ya? Come on now,” the woman left to go serve another customer leaving Ila to stare at her. She wasn't just crying for that... Ila left like a little child now, it wasn't silly to be upset about that, was it? The people here were so... Harsh and hard. Ila had not expected it, they truly were very behind from Belreans. A Belrean would never have treated her as such.
“I was upset because I got lost,” Ila told the woman when she passed in front of her. The leaf woman stopped and hmph.
“Look, your room is ready.” She threw the key at Ila who almost dropped it trying to catch it. “You didn't get lost, you were on the safest road around. You need to get that stick out of your butt, you're not in fancy pants land where things fly in the air and everyone is happy. This ain't happy land, you get hard or life will be hard. Being so sensitive will do you no good girl, so stop your crying I can already see your tears.”
The leaf woman was gone again and Ila's tears did threaten to spill. She quickly moved away from the bar and up to find her room. She was exhausted and didn't even know how to take it all in. The woman was right though and Ila didn't want her life to be hard while she was here. She didn't want to go running back to her family as a failure. Ila sighed and harshly wiped the tears out of her eyes and cheek. No more crying, she was going to try not to cry while she was in Tendaji. If she cried she had to go back home because she was obviously not made for this kind of life.
Ila was not a failure, she was going to prove them wrong.
Word count 1,549
Quote: Ila is a sensitive little girl and Tendaji is not made for the faint of heart, which is something she learns the hard way. Ila doesn't want to go back home as a failure and as such decides to try and steal herself against whatever she's going to face while she's here. There's no going back for her now.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 7:32 am
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