Chapter 230 - Mysteries in the Village

Katlina stared speechlessly at her son as a shiver ran through her spine. Though she was not terribly old, the fine lines in the corners of her eyes had begun to show on her narrow face. She wondered if her son had really seen a spirit and followed its words.

She recovered quickly, shaking her head with a grumble as she dismissed the thought.

“Stop speaking nonsense, Nilya. There’s no such lady.” She scolded, though she watched him closely. She saw the firmness in his eyes and her breath caught in her chest, “Where is this lady, then?”

Nilya pointed up at the ceiling, for lack of a better response.

Katlina couldn’t help herself from checking the ceiling.

“Nonsense! You see what your uncle’s stories do?” His mother sighed, turning away to his unconscious sister. She continued to grumble as she tended to her daughter. “If that lady talks to you again, you tell her she needs to talk to your mother first.”

“Okay.” Nilya replied, watching as his mother wrung out a rag and placed it on his sister’s forehead.

“You be a good boy and stay away from spirits. If you see or hear anything strange, you come straight to mom and tell me.”

“Okay.”

Anya was not looking any better. The sores on her exposed arms and face were swollen, turning from red to black. She hadn’t opened her eyes in several days.

It was a week since the teenage girl had first caught the disease. Three weeks since the unusual red solar eclipse that blackened the midday sky, when strange new plants and creatures had begun appearing in the swamp.

A week ago Anya had returned after a day of gathering herbs and flowers in the wooded area to the west of the village. She had rushed inside, excitedly declaring that she had found some plants that she’d never heard of before.

She first produced two specimens - a blood red flower that resembled a heart and dripped with a thick red sap, and a bundle of long black hair-like fibres. Nilya looked over his mother and uncle’s shoulders as they examined the plants curiously, discussing amongst themselves the best way to discover information about them.

“There’s one more!” Anya had proclaimed, victoriously drawing out a number of stalks from her basket as a soldier would draw a sword. She held them out in the air with childlike wonder as everyone’s gazes focused on the ends of the stalks.

The bloodied, disembodied eyeballs looked back at them.

The next morning Anya was feeling unwell. By the evening small sores had appeared on her arms and legs. She became lethargic, losing her boundless energy and spirit.

A few days later a traveling devout had arrived in the village, spreading the news. Prince Deka was returning to the land of the living, and would soon be bringing his blessings to the Fuha people, ending the century’s-long famine and destitution of her people.

The devout confirmed the villagers’ experiences, stating that the changes in the environment were a sign that the land was recovering. They learned that the name of Anya’s affliction was from inhaling spores from a plant called the keeper’s gaze. However the devout did not know any details about the disease or how to treat it.

“Pray to Deka. We are His beloved children.” The marked devout sister had said solemnly, before continuing on her journey to spread the word to other villages.

Looking at Anya now, Nilya felt a muted dread that he wouldn’t have a sister for much longer. He’d seen the same anguish in his mother and uncle’s eyes when they thought he wasn’t looking. He was reminded of his younger brother who had died only a year after birth of quinsy, and a girl his age who had passed recently of grippe.

For a land that worshipped the god of Life, they were all intimately familiar with death.

Nilya’s eyes turned to the gathering basket, which his mother had placed neatly by the door. A pang of guilt filled him as he recalled his failure at finding the herbs that morning. At chasing away the guru-chi.

“This isn’t your fault, Nilya-ka.” His mother seemed to read his mind, breaking him out of his thoughts, “Don’t worry. Sammo will apologize to the guru-chi and bring him around again. The guru-chi can heal Anya.”

She opened her arms to him and he found his chest grow tight. He fought away tears as he walked over to his mother’s embrace.

“Anya is a strong girl. She’ll get better yet.” His mother said soothingly.

Nilya heard the doubt in her voice, but chose to believe her words as he pressed his face into her chest.

~

The next day Nilya was gathering water from the stream, when he overheard his friends speaking excitedly in hushed tones. When they spotted him they gestured him over.

“The food thief came back!” A teenage boy with a deep tan and round monkey-like ears announced. “He stole a bunch of smoked boar this time!”

“Right off the drying racks!” A younger boy, eight years old, gestured animatedly.

This was significant news to the boys. For the villagers, meat was a once a month occasion. The village subsisted on fingerling fish and the meagre yield of crops that they could tease out of the land. It was a tough life, one that was only getting tougher with each generation, as evidenced by the slowly sinking number of families that still remained.

But meat - not the pale, chewy meat of lizards that they sometimes caught, but thick, juicy red meat - was something many of them had only a few times in their lives.

In particular, wild boars were dangerous and lived deep within the swamp, far from the village. The hunters rarely ventured far enough to run into them. However last week, out of nowhere, a boar twice the size of a grown man had peacefully walked into the village and lay down in the center of the road, basically submitting itself to death.

The villagers saw the unexpected boon as a gift from Prince Deka, having no rational explanation for the behaviour.

“That’s different than the last times, right?” Nilya frowned in thought.

“Before this it was a pot of the boar stew. And also a bunch of roti that my mom left out.” Taylor, a boy Nilya’s age said, with a slight hesitation in his voice. “Just before we came here we went searching the whole village for the jerky. But just like the other two times, no one knows who’s taken it.”

Nilya thought the lanky boy looked nervous. Perhaps he had gotten in trouble for the missing food at home?

It was a mystery that stumped the villagers, as nothing of the like had happened before. Food was scarce, and the villagers all worked together for everyone’s survival. Everyone in town suffered hunger pangs together, split roti together. Stealing was out of the question.

Yet after the unexpected boon of boar meat there had been several instances of food going missing. Not a lot, but enough to raise suspicions. Yet no one admitted to taking the extra shares.

“How mysterious.” Nilya frowned, mimicking a pose he’d seen his uncle take in the past as he subconsciously found himself watching Taylor.

He caught the furtive glances between the boys, “You know who it is?”

There was another secretive look shared between them as they gathered in closer, including Nilya in the circle as they resumed their original hushed tones.

“You know the deserted house by the cliff?” Mikas looked at Nilya.

Nilya knew the place, and nodded. It was part of the village that had been swallowed by a flood and abandoned.

“We think the thief is hiding the food there.” Mikas said, placing his hand on the youngest boy’s shoulders, “Pip found some footprints going that way.”

“There’s nothing else over that way. They must be going to that house.” Pip said with a tone that suggested he hadn’t been the one to come to that conclusion.

“Isn’t that place off limits now? Those eyeball plants are everywhere over there.” Nilya said.

“Nilya’s right.” Taylor piped up, then looked at Nilya, “They want to investigate. I told them it’s not a good idea because your sister…”

“We’ll be careful, of course. Anya actually touched the plants, so that’s probably why she got sick.” Mikas said, casting a careful glance towards Nilya, “And they’re saying she’ll probably get better soon anyways. And anyways, don’t you want to find the thief?”

Taylor bit his lip, looking down without giving a definite answer. Nilya thought he definitely looked guilty, though the other two boys didn’t catch the expression but instead had moved on to planning the trip.

“If we tie a cloth around our mouths I bet that’ll be enough.”

“Yeah, just don’t touch the plants”

“Should we wait for the next time they steal food?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go right after it’s stolen- but wait, what if they don’t steal again…”

Nilya watched as Taylor grew increasingly agitated, clenching and unclenching his fists as his shoulders trembled.

“Just let me handle it!” Taylor barked out at last, “It’s my family’s food that was stolen, so it’s my business.”

“Didn’t your mom ask all of us to help find the thief?” Mikas raised an eyebrow.

“She was just being polite… And I know we’ll get in trouble if we go out of the village.” Taylor replied. “And anyways, it wasn’t a lot of food that was stolen… We’ve all been eating well for the last week. I’m sure it’s fine.”

“Stealing is stealing.” Mikas replied with a frown.

“Stealing is stealing!” Pip echoed.

All three of them looked to Nilya, seeing which side he supported. Mikas and Pip looked confident in their pursuit of justice, though it was obvious they were just looking for something to do. Taylor’s expression was more muted, but there was a pleading to it as he looked to Nilya for backup.

Out of the three of them, Nilya was closest to Taylor who was his age. He knew Taylor well enough to know that he was trying to hide something. Nilya’s gut told him that Taylor wouldn’t speak up about what was bothering him, even in private.

The changes in the swamp, the unusual behaviour of the boar, the stolen food, the arrival of the guru-chi. He couldn’t remember another time when the village was so full of mysteries.

Nilya’s mind flashed back to the ethereal voice he had heard in his home.

Curiousity ate at the boy as he made up his mind.

“Let’s go check it out!”