Mariel scanned the faces surrounding her. Her father looked down at the ground ashamed. Her mother stood fearful to the side. Koda would have been left back at their roost. Varren caught her eye. He had his red war paint on and the vines on his head pulled back into double tails. His wolf, Blue, sat at his side. Varren had a way of looking at her that reminded her of a starving wolf spotting a limping deer. Fitting that he would pair with a wolf. He had his bark grown out across his upper back and shoulders. His chest and stomach were showing, and the bark started again low on his waist down to his knees like pants on a man.

Mariel’s breath caught when she saw who was standing behind him. His four black stripes painted on his face had blended him in the shadows. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him. Kai. The most delicious name of all the Viv. She let her eyes drag down the sides of his ribs where the bark started and grew into a kilt around his waist. His skin was darker than hers and his eyes were as deep as wells of fresh water. His cougar, Sweetie, must have been up a tree somewhere because she didn’t see her. Kai was older than her by a few years. He was a soldier as well. She melted where she stood. His vines hung wild against his cheeks.

“The brand.” The chief said in a demanding voice. “Where did you get it?”

Mariel turned back to the chief slowly clenching her teeth. He was going to have her sacrificed? She glared at him. “What brand?”

The chief stood and pointed with his staff at her left hand. Mariel glanced down to see two lines struck on the back of her wrist to her middle knuckle and from one side of the back of her hand to the other. She lifted her hand to look closer. She had seen this symbol before on another girl sacrificed when she was younger. The girl had gone mad. She raved for weeks. Mariel remembered being terrified when the girl came crashing through their new moon festival. Her eyes had been wild and her vines a tangled mass growing nearly to her waist. Mariel shivered. She lowered her hand and tucked it behind her back. “I don’t know.”

“There must be some mistake.” Varren stepped out from the crowd. “Mariel isn’t mad. Tell them, Mariel. It must have happened some other way.” He looked at her nodding.

She looked up to see her father, Gunter, look up at her hopeful. She searched his eyes wondering at the desperation in them. The vines on his chin had begun to grow out in bristles uncharacteristic of his clean shaved face. Mysterious Gunter, never able to say what was on his mind. She always had to read him. Right now, he was biting his lip and pleading with her in waves of silence, but she couldn’t tell what he wanted her to contain.

“Tell us, Mariel.” The chief said in a goading tone. He sat the butt of his staff on the ground again and leaned on it. “Tell us there is no man in the clouds whispering dire warnings in your ears. Tell us there is no calamity coming. Tell us all is well, and all will continue as it has been, and you simply scraped your hand on something.”

Mariel felt a chill slither down her spine. She could still see her cold breath before her face when she blinked. She could hear the crunch of her feet in the, what did he call it? Snow, she could feel the chill in her bones. It was real as her hand before her face. She lowered her hand and leveled a fiery gaze at the chief.

The chief clenched his jaw, and a ripple ran down his thick cheek. He pulled the boar head hat down tighter to his eyes and gave a nod to Viv in the trees. Two Of them sat silhouetted in the darkness. Mariel watched as they pulled up long tubes to their mouths. The dark figures sucked in a deep breath and Mariel ducked as the darts shot through the air.

The growl of an angry wolf followed, and Mariel turned her head to see Blue and Varren leap into the middle of the fire circle. Varren’s double red stripe dragged down to his jawline making him look fierce in the firelight. He palmed a shaped deer antler in his hand the point looked as sharp as the panther tooth necklace around his neck. Mariel leaped toward the gathered crowd to break through amidst the distraction. She ran into the strong chest of her father. Gunter grunted and looked down at her surprised. He grunted but said nothing. Mariel couldn’t move she was like a rabbit caught in the eyes of a snake. Gunter reached up and grabbed the arm of an attacker behind her and threw the man back.

Her heart stopped when Kai jumped in the middle. He had trimmed his bark to form down both sides of his ribs to his knees. His strong calves' arms and chest glowed chestnut in the night. He tackled a man leaping toward Mariel with a knife. An arm tightened around her wrist and tugged her around. Her mother was face to face with her now. “Run.”

Sweetie ran past Mariel’s leg the gray and white cougar would not allow Kai to have fun without it. Mariel shoved through the rest of the crowd, tugging free of clasping hands and even striking a few of her tribe. She broke free of the chaos and looked back as she climbed the hill leading out of judgment valley. Her father has buried under a half dozen Viv. Kai and Varren were fighting valiantly but soon to be overtaken.

“There is a judgment coming!” She cried clenching both fists to push the words out with all her might. Everyone stopped. Her father panted on the ground her mother stopped pelting the men with apples from her apron. “There will be a winter here as never seen before. It shall cover all that is seen in its pure white light.” The angry chief grew taller despite his girth. None knew what to say.

The chief capitalized on the silence first. With one word never uttered in Mariel’s lifetime. The vilest and most permanent of words. “Banished.” Now, none dared breathe and wash out the stench of the gruesome word. Banished. Not only from the tribe, that would have been torment enough. From the Glowing tree. The very life of the Viv. “All of you.” He lowered his glance to each of her defenders pausing at each shocking face until they understood. Mariel stomped down the hill back toward the fire. She cut through the now parted crowd and strode up to the chief feeling the sting of the inside of her palm before she truly understood she had just slapped the Chief.

Mariel stepped back and felt a tingling sweat cover her. She had earned herself and the ones that cared for her the second to the worse of all punishments. Banishment. The sound still rang in the air. He didn’t have to say another word. The tribe parted and Mariel looked down the wide aisle leading away from the glowing tree. The Viv holding her father down slowly released him and he sat up looking at the tear-filled eyes of his wife Blythe. For the first time the meaning of her name truly was not written on her face she was anything but carefree.

Kai wadded up a rag and wiped the triple black stripes off his face. Once they had held meaning. Defender of the tribe. A high honor won by blood. Now they were just paint. He finished scrubbing the side of his face and tossed the dirty rag at the chief’s feet. His cougar sat at his feet licking blood from his paw. A Jawan crawled away his back bleeding. A Jawan the chief’s bravest fighter taken down by a two-foot cat. Mariel watched the Viv crawl until he was close enough to Varren’s feet to be too much temptation. Varren kicked the man in the head knocking him out.

Gunter grunted shoving the last Viv off of him and climbing to his feet.

“Banished?” Blythe muttered aloud. “How can this be? She is our daughter; how can you expect us not to fight for her?” She challenged the chief. He crossed his arms in answer.

Mariel looked back over her shoulder at the ripe glowing fruits on the glowing tree. A dozen soft glowing colors shone in the night. The massive tree stood with its arms wide like a mother bearing all the sustenance they would ever desire. Now it stood as a great taunt holding its life-giving fruit just out of reach. She wanted to charge the tree and steal the glowing fruit and run off screaming with an armload. A dozen sharp spears between her and the tree persuaded her not to. She instead turned and walked through the corridor of Viv tribesmen and women. Every eye looked down at the ground as she passed none wanting to be caught eye to eye with the anathematized. She walked with her head bowed low as well.

Gunter wrapped his strong arm around his trembling wife and pulled her tight to himself before stepping toward the laid path. “I don’t understand Gunter. Why don’t you say something? Do something. Don’t let them do this to us.” Gunter only grunted.

Varren tucked his sharpened antler knife in his belt and followed with a defiant look on his face. He leveled his gaze at each of the tribesmen as he walked between them. He walked slow and waited for anyone foolish enough to meet his eyes. Finally, he huffed and crested the hilltop. His trusted wolf, Blue, turned back to growl at the Viv before following him over the side of the hill.

Kai pulled his eyes from his suffering parents. He patted his chest and Sweetie leaped up onto his shoulder slinking around the back of his neck to lie over his shoulders and finish cleaning his paw.

“What about Koda and Digger?” Blythe asked her voice shaking.

“We will get him too.” Mariel stopped and turned back to her mother.

“He will die with us,” Kai said coming down the hill. “We should leave him let him make his own choice. The village will care for him.”

“He is my brother, Kai. I will hear it from his own mouth if he wants to stay.”

“We must leave him to the tribe.” Blythe agreed with Kai solemnly.

“I won’t.” Mariel turned and bounded off. Varren and Kai ran after her. She bounded off a tree trunk and Varren mimicked her winking. She smiled and grabbed a low branch swinging up into a tree. She waited as Varren and Kai both entered the tree with more caution. They were out of their element like most of the Viv. A tribe of trees that can hardly climb them. She smirked. She was home. She ran and leaped to the next tree swinging from the branch and landing above it on the balls of her feet. Varren ran and jumped grabbing the branch at the last moment before he tumbled to the ground. Mariel pulled him up by his arm.

“I’m not as comfortable as you are up here.” He grinned and wiped his hands on the bark skirt about his waist.

“Are you coming?” Mariel looked back at Kai with raised brows. He ran and jumped wrapping both arms around the branch desperately.

“I’m better than him at least.” Varren laughed and he helped pull Kai up.

“Follow me.” Mariel dropped her voice. She walked crouched with her arms out to her side for balance. She walked to the end of the branch and jumped again grabbing a branch on a tree and climbing to the top of the fir tree.

“I thought your bind was an owl,” Kai called after her. “You climb the trees like a squirrel.”

“Shh. Just climb.” Mariel called back. Kai and Varren leaped together. Sweetie began to climb the fir tree from the bottom digging her claws into the bark and climbing past Kai. Blue ran along the ground below looking up at Varren. Letting him know he did not belong up there. When they reached the top, they looked up at the stars above.

“We should have done this before.” Varren nudged Mariel. “The starlight really sparkles off your eyes.”

“What are we doing up here?” Kai said.

Mariel pointed down at the nest woven on the side of the next tree over. It was the largest Viv nest in the forest. Two round windows faced them. The roof was woven together tightly to keep the rain from dripping in and covered in fresh green leaves. A bamboo ladder dropped down from the door to the ground.

“That is the chief’s tent,” Kai said just above a whisper. Mariel looked back into his eyes and forgot to speak. He was so close. She could feel his heavy breath on her neck as he looked over her shoulder.

“I know.” She said at last looking away from him to Varren. “We are going to take the stone.”

“Are you out of your mind?” That time he didn’t whisper. Mariel didn’t break her eyes away from Varren because she knew if she looked back a Kai at this proximity again, she would likely kiss him.

“May as well be.” She answered him. “I am banished, and I have lost Bright Eyes. My parents are down there banished with me, and I am about to kidnap my brother. On top of that, I am having visions from the King that we are about to be annihilated by snow if we don’t leave this place…”

“Snow?” Varren interrupted Mariel had forgotten she was staring at him.

“That is what he called it.” She replied.

“Who?” Varren cocked his head.

“HaShem.” Mariel raised her hand showing the two intersecting lines on the back of her hand and her missing fingernails.

“The HaShem?” Varren scoffed. “You know that is just a tale our parents tell us to keep us in line, right?”

“It’s not. I have seen him. He is as real as you or me.”

“So, what does that have to do with the stone? It is not there you know. The chief will have taken it to the judgment tonight. They will never let us just leave with the stone. They will hunt us to the ends of Lumiterra for that stone.” Kai said incredulously.

“Exactly.” Mariel smiled. “Like Kinesthesis.”

“How is this anything like binding to an animal?” Varren asked but his question fell on deaf ears because Mariel was blushing at Kai.

“Get down.” Mariel’s mother called up the tree. She was pulling her vines back into a tight bun behind her head. Mariel looked down at her mother and father. “What are you doing up there?” Her mother made no attempt at discretion. Gunter stood at her side looking up at the chief’s nest.

“Go get Koda and Digger Ma. I will meet you at the river. Where me and Koda play.”

“I will not.” Blythe wiped her hands on her apron and put her foot on the tree trunk hopping up for a low branch. “You get down here right now.” She was cut off by two firm hands about her waist as her husband lowered her back down beside him. He spoke low to her and waited until she huffed and balled up her fists holding one hand in the other and wringing it anxiously.

Gunter looked up at the nest again before giving Mariel a wary look and turning his wife toward their own nest. They walked away sharing a frantic hushed conversation. Her father’s words were so quiet and low that they fell away in just a few steps. Her mother could be heard far longer. She was speaking faster as her legs pumped to keep up with her husband’s long stride.

“We are going to steal the stone while he sleeps?” Varren seemed eager. Grinning as he said it.

Mariel covered her lips and nodded. Kai and Varren followed her eyes to the procession of torch lights coming through the forest. A dozen Jawan escorted the chief all of them with their spears in hand. They each watched an assigned direction wary of attackers. The drunken chief swayed and laughed telling a story as he staggered to his ladder.

Mariel and the others ducked down as if the soldiers might look at the treetops. “She was the most impeccably, impressive, I mean, what was I saying?” The chief climbed his ladder. The Jawan watched from below as the Chief climbed in the door. Mariel watched as he shrugged off the leather pack from his back and crawled to his bed. “Ah yes, that girl. Mark my words. Watch out for that one she will be back.” He called down from his window then he blew out his torch and dropped back on his bed. The procession below slowly turned and began to saunter back to their own nests to lie down with their wives and children. Mariel, Varren, and Kai shared silent accenting glances in the tree above.