The Truth About Where The Sun Rises From
Rena raised the six appendages beside her head and stared down at the object on the table-like slab. The flower quivered on the table but it did not lift.
“Rena! Concentrate!” her mother said from across the room, one of her eyes bobbed at the back of her head angrily for a moment before returning to its place at the front of her head. Rena tried again to lift the flower and failed.
“Mom, don’t you think it is the color of the day that is making me slow?” She asked beckoning to the blue swirls of air moving around the house. Rena’s mother floated from her side of the room to stand beside the slab.
“Seems it is your lazy color then,” She said and cuffed the child at the side of her head. Rena knew she had it easy, other children were severely beaten by their mothers for the same act of weakness but everyone knew Mar Shadec had a soft spot for her small ivory-colored child.
The predominant colors of the Herukana people were orange, purple and green so an ivory child was a definite rarity and Mar Shadec feared for their family daily.She brushed a hand over her daughter’s wooly blue hair as a signal that she was dismissed. The little girl squealed and fled out of the house as her mother watched her with a proud smile on her face.
The back door opened and Mar Shadec walked over to close the front door knowing the “intruder” would be nobody but her husband. Soon enough, a bold hand snaked around her and cupped one of her breasts in a way that made her blush in embarrassment.
“Stop it!” She said, the shock evident in her voice. Her husband turned her around, saw her face and began to laugh.
“When will you stop being a virgin, my pretty wife,” He said, dropping a quick kiss on her nose. Her six hearing appendages were turning several shades darker than the rest of her body.
“When will you stop sneaking on me?” She asked.
“Never. I promise to sneak up on you for the rest of our lives” the man proclaimed and Mar Shadec hit him playfully on the shoulder.
“How was work?” She asked
“Fine. Where is my little Ivory gold?” He asked as they floated towards the bedroom.
“Went out to play.”
“I need to talk to you about the girl,” Her husband said.
“What about?” Her hearing appendages standing on end and quivering.
“Shhhh! Calm down Olie. It is just me. ” He said. Mar Shadec sighed and went to lean on him “They already have their eyes on her because of her peculiar color. If her power grows they might take her from us.”
She stared into his distressed eyes “I am making sure she doesn’t get powerful” She said.
“That’s not possible. Is it what I am thinking! Tell me! ? What are you doing to our daughter!?” Her husband asked in horror.
“I’m doing what is best for her!” Mar Shadec snapped.
***
The class was quiet as the teacher snapped her cane against the wall. There was a funny look to the cane as it seemed to be twitching and twitching.
“Any questions?” she asked facing the class. After a moment Rena lifted her hand and the class erupted into little pockets of murmuring. “Yes? Speak!”
“Why are the actions of moving called floating and fleeing?” Rena asked, the murmuring grew significantly louder.
“Silence! That’s a very intelligent question Rena. In those days, the Herukana people only floated regally on the plenty friendly gases that cover our lands. Then the enemy came and everything was thrown into chaos. Our people had to change the speed of their movement or risk getting caught by the enemy. This movement was called fleeing. An appropriate name for the action of our people floating faster and faster away from the enemy.
“There were no casualties of war?” Suren the biggest boy in Rena’s class asked.
“Of course there were casualties in the most terrible war the land has ever known. Enough of the questions now, let us all put our water stones on our writing slabs and crush them into pencils with our minds.” She commanded.
“In minutes a multitude of hearing appendages were standing straight and taut in the air. The sound of stones breaking could be heard in the class as the name ’water stones’ was actually a deceptive name of a very hard indigo colored stone.
“Rena. Why have you not started on your stone?” Their teacher asked.
“I can’t do it. I can’t” she whined. Her teacher walked up to her and placed her hand on Rena’s head. After a few moments, she removed her hand very fast from the child’s head and recoiled. It took her some time to regain her voice and when she walked over to the front of the class.
“That’s okay. Put your newly made pencils in your closet and be on your way home” she said. Rena put her stone into her closet and slung her bag over her shoulders. Her teacher watched her pensively until she floated out of the class.
***
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Mar Shadec bent her head as she entered the blue dome in front of the small house. The sweet smell of incense immediately clung to her nose when she crossed the threshold. A woman was standing at the other end of the room without any stitch of clothes on but Mar Shadac was not surprised.
“Hello, old friend. I’ll put some clothes on. Sit down” the woman said.
“Thank you” Mar Shadec said and sat down. The woman snapped her fingers and a pink shawl draped over her slim form. Mar Shadec looked on enviously, childbirth and the series of miscarriages after Rena had taken away her slim form.
“I want to talk about your daughter?” The woman said.
“What about her?” Mar Shadec said.
“She is not performing well at school.”
“The reason why I enrolled her for your classes was I that I trust you. What are you talking about?” Mar Shadec asked. Rena’s teacher looked at her with eyes darkening in anger.
“Don’t come at me with that attitude. You know that what you did to her is dangerous. Her power is angrily pulling at the binds. Have you bothered to check them lately?” Rena’s teacher asked.
“No, I haven’t” Mar Shedec answered, her cheeks were awash in pink.
“Big mistake! That girl is a danger to herself, to you and the whole of Herukana.” The teacher said.
“I will sort it out. Thank you for inviting me over” Mar Shadec said.
‘What are friends for?” Rena’s teacher asked, smiling. They kissed each other’s forehead and Mar Shadec left.
As she floated back to her house, she thought about the incident of five years ago that had caused her to press suppress Rena’s powers. They had gone with all the other children and mothers in their clan to the beach for a small party. After an hour of playing with her mates, Rena walked up to her.
“Mommy can I go in the water?” She asked wringing her hands and twirling her hearing appendages prettily.
“No you can’t,” Mar Shadec said and went back to talking with the twittering birds around her head.
“I want to go in the water” Rena whined, her voice getting louder.
“Leave me Rena! Go and play with your mates!” Mar Shadec snapped at the little girl who looked pumped with anger. She smiled at the memory, her little girl behaved a lot like the weather in those days. That day she had been a thunderstorm.
“NO!!!” Little Rena screamed when her faucet went off. Her mother and the birds around her head were forcefully pushed away from the wrapping cloth on the sand. Nearby food carts were tossed unto the sand and everyone around took cover. Before they got back up Mar Shadec quickly grabbed the little girl and held her to her breast.
In seconds a clan policeman popped out beside them “What happened here?” he asked looking around at the minor disaster.
“I got angry at her pestering” Mar Shadec said apologetically. The police man looked at the ivory coloured child in her arms and laughed.
“Want me to take her off your hands?” He asked. Mar Shadec shook her head and he seemed satisfied that everything was okay before he slipped away. Rena’s mother smiled at the memory of her fear that day.
It was the density of the swirling air that alerted her that something was wrong. The air was so heavy when there was smoke in it. She fled around the corner leading to her house and stopped short. Her house stood on the small rise of the pink mountain looking like a red cap of fire. The flames were licking up the air around so fast that Mar Shadec felt the heat.
Suddenly she realized she had reflexively tucked her ear appendages in for safety and because of that she couldn’t hear a thing. She released them out of the hole at the side of her head and instantly regretted it. Rena was inside the burning house with her father and their voices went up in a terrible scream.
***
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Rena woke up screaming and sweaty, her eyes immediately landed on the timer on the wall. She had just one hour to get ready for the final test of abilities that would determine who was the most powerful Kana. This person was selected every three years so the king would have the most powerful and most vibrant young Kanas in his employ.
The Kanas were a group of Herukana people who possessed extraordinary powers and who could make extraordinary things happen.
Everyone knew the planet was a place of extraordinary because of the magical properties of the gases that flowed into it as the result of the eternal burning of dead Herukana people who were kept in a crypt just below the planet surface and burned every day of the year except on the special day of Nord (The long day).
Everyone prepared for Nord because it always came suddenly and without warning so Herukana people stored healthy gases in their cellars so they could survive inside their houses on Nord day when the dead decide it is time for them to rest.
Rena put on her white shawl, wrapping them around her body the way her mother taught her. She walked out into the already noisy arena and d stood in her designated spot.
“Rena! It is funny that we were put side by side, isn’t it?” Rena raised her head to see Mona the second-best student in class after her smiling happily at her.
“Yeah,” Rena said, she was wary of the sudden interest.
“Yet I believe this will be too easy for you to win just like everything else” She made sure Rena was looking her in the eye “Including killing your father”.
“Shut up, Mona” Rena said, her hands were already into fists. Yet she was trying so hard not to get annoyed because their teacher had told them the competition required maximum concentration.
“You do know I need this position right?” Mona asked.
“Yes, to further the ambition of your Usurper of a father.” Rena said and Mona’s eyes widened so she smiled wickedly and continued. “Yes, I know about your family’s plans. STUPID I must say.”
“At least I have a family, standing there among the bleachers and praying for me to win.” Mona spat.
Rena shook her head as though it didn’t matter but her eyes were on the bleachers already. The mighty bell sounded through the arena and the people stood on their feet to honor the planet that gave them life. When it sounded for the second time the ground began to shake and slowly the crypt opened far below them. ‘
The heat of it was enough to give all the Kanas an idea of the pain they would suffer if they fell. An old Kana stepped unto the dias opposite them and began to speak in a loud voice.
“This year’s competition is a fight for survival. This first stage requires all graduating Kanas to duel with the person on the pedestal by their side. When the first Kana falls, the second enge challenge is unlocked.” He stepped down and a war cry went up among the crowd, it was time to fight.
Rena turned around to see Mona smiling wickedly at her. She smiled back. If the other girl had been unable to beat her in all their dueling for four years then she would be unable to beat her now. The first spell flew at her and Rena jumped out of the way, sending a freezing spell to Mona who blocked it. They fought like that for hours and Rena could see that Mona was losing strength so she relaxed in her attack.
That was a mistake, a spell suddenly hit her in the belly and she looked up to see her assailant. Caleb Mona’s brother, he was staring at her in anger. Rena couldn’t tell how she had offended him. Before she could orient herself, Mona hit her with a stunning spell that kicked her off the pedestal.
As she fell she thought to herself, if she had been able to scream she would at least have destroyed them along with her. The heat closed her in its firm embrace and she disappeared into it. The enge was the next challenge unlocked.
***
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It was around that time when he was waiting to die. Not because he was afflicted with any sickness but because he had nothing left to live for. Staying in a tent by the sea had been a brilliant idea for a man with nothing to lose. Fabian was asleep when a meteor landed in the sea but the smoke woke him up. That night he walked out of his little tent and towards the sea expecting to see something other than what he saw.
In the little burnt out area lay a woman wearing a strange kind of material. She was a black woman that looked as though she had fallen straight out from Africa in the ’80s. His torch shone on her face and her eyes opened. For a moment she stared disoriented at her surroundings but when her eyes fell on him she screamed.
That was five years ago, now he and Rena stayed in a small condo by the sea. She told him stories of her planet and how their dead bu’s rned in the crypt to form the earth-sun. She told him about the competition and how her mates sabotaged her and let her fall to her death. Inside the crypt, she had fought to stay alive as the fire burned all around her. The gases would have eventually killed her had the next day not been Nord. T
he crypt stopped burning and Rena was able to dig her way through the pile of bodies to the bottom where she missed her step and fell through a hole she didn’t know was there.
“If the sun rises from the west, Is it wise to say Herukana is in the west?” he asked her one day.
“You call our name well now” She said smiling “No, Herukana is above the sun and the sun is below our planet.
“So where is the sun? East? West?” Fabian asked confused.
“I do not know of your planet’s workings. You see the ball of fire coming up from the west but I see Herukana’s dead burning eternally. My father, blessing your earth with his flame” She said matter-of-factly.
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She would go outside when the sun was high in the sky and stand staring at it as though she was looking for her father. Both of them could not figure out why she had changed form when she crossed over into earth. Although her main reason for wanting to go back was to exact vengeance on Mona and her gang he often caught her ting sitting sadly on the hot sand.
“What do you miss most about your home?” he asked her one day as she stared at the waves crashing on the sand.
“My mother and the ability to float, the ability to flee,” she said.
“The ability to flee?” He asked.
“Yes, even here the friendly gases of my planet calls out to me,” she answered then she looked up at the sky “Someday I will ascend back to meet my people, into your sun. What do I know? Perhaps someone will come in search of me,” She said sadly, there was hope in her eyes. Fabian put his arm around her.
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