Chapter 5
“Aly the Lame,” “Weird Aly,” “Aly the Dolt –” those were only a few of the things eight-year-old Alytchai heard people call her. She couldn’t hide the pain the words caused anymore. Her steps to school were insecure, her head always aimed down, hoping that if she hid her face, maybe she’d go unnoticed. Master Slew and Teacher tried making her classmates stop, and the children did listen, only when necessary. The grown-ups couldn’t guard Aly’s every single step. So, every day she woke up was a day of dread, knowing she’d have to expose herself to the bullying.
Aly also lost a few of her “friends” because Master Slew said she couldn’t carry their things anymore. They had accused her of tattle telling to him and asked Catty why she was allowed to stay in their company. Catty said her parents gave her little choice in the matter, but that didn’t keep them from bad-mouthing either of them.
Catty tried keeping herself out of the assaults as much as possible by calling out Aly’s faults whenever the opportunity was available. She didn’t like it, but the children at school weren’t giving her much of a choice. If anything, she was still nice to Aly when no one else was looking, and that was what really mattered. As long as Aly knew she actually thought of her as a friend, where was the issue? In that sense, she could have her “sweets and greens” too.
It wasn’t like the Evaluations lingering in the back of their heads was bad enough. Aly couldn’t believe it. She could’ve sworn she was told about losing three years of preparation a couple of months ago, but then she woke up one day, and the worst thing happened; she was eight years old. Six years taken in total, and six years left. Had it been anyone else, worrying about a test that was so far away would’ve been silly, but not for Aly; not for someone who wasn’t physically prepared for it by a long shot. Not for someone who wasn’t sure if she could prove her worth to the tribe.
With all that was going on, the weekends became an escape for both Aly and Catty. The two could practice using the dankerball at the sparring grounds for as long as they wanted, since they were older, or until the older children kicked them away. And when that usually happened, Catty would head over to Shanvi’s store on her own, and Aly would stay behind on a tree branch and read the pictograph scrolls Master Slew had given that week.
That was what Aly was doing one morning after a brief sparring session with Catty before class started. She thought she got a little lucky. Since the older children showed up later than usual, she could finally read about the aliens that Slew mentioned in class the other day.
All of the Little Ones found the thought of other creatures on different worlds fascinating, but not for the same reasons Aly did. As the Little One looked over the brightly colored scrolls filled with images of what other people in the galactic world could look like, she wished there was a way for her to escape to their various planets, as well.
She wondered if the other aliens didn’t use inner being the way Goolians could. Maybe she’d be normal, just like the rest of them, because of it. So, with every picture studied, another sad sigh left the Little One’s lips.
Aly lost her attention by the time she got to her fifth image that covered a race of people called the Ufrians. It wasn’t because the creatures didn’t seem as interesting as the other aliens were, but there was too much commotion approaching. She hoped Catty’s entourage wouldn’t notice her, so she kept acting like she was studying.
“Hey, Aly the Lame.” Requai’s words stung the Little One’s ears as she heard them, but she still forced a smile upon looking down at the group.
“Truly, I did not hear you arrive, Requai,” Aly said. “And hello, other mastras.”
“What nonsense is this one doing?” Glani said. “Truly, what makes this one think she can read a scroll if she cannot even control her being?”
The mastras laughed and Aly folded her scroll away, embarrassed.
“Oh, leave the poor thing alone,” Catty insisted. “If she is to think that she can read, then why trouble it?
Aly, surprised, smiled and nodded at Catty. The fun they had at the sparring grounds that morning must’ve carried over, for a change. The other mastras got quiet as they stared at their leader, confused. Catty shrugged and kicked a pebble by her foot. When no one else said anything, Aly figured it was safe enough to go back to looking at her pictures. A pebble bopped her on the head the instant she turned away. Aly glared at Catty, knowing she was the one who threw it. The others laughed and pointed.
“Truly, what good shall your reflexes be if you can only use them at sparring?” Catty said.
“Why not have the nerve to say such things directly to my face?” Aly snapped back. Even she didn’t know where that outburst came from. She quickly turned back around and hid her head behind the scroll.
The other girls didn’t say anything, but waited for Catty’s comeback. Requai elbowed the mastra in the side, urging her not to let the insult slide. Glani saw a much larger rock nearby and picked it up.
“Nay,” Requai said. “You shall get in trouble with Teacher if she cries to him. Never mind, yes? We best leave her be.”
The bell chimed and the girls dashed off to class. Aly let the scroll she was reading fall down to the grass as she stretched and yawned. She tempted herself for a second with the thought of running away, but someone interrupted her fantasy when she cleared her throat.
“Class begins soon,” Aly heard Catty say from below. When she looked down, the mastra was looking up at her with her hands on her hips.
“I grow tired of you playing nice to me in one instant and picking on me the next when it is of convenience to you,” Aly said. “You have done this for years! You be a bad friend, Catty.”
Catty looked ahead to see how far away the other girls were and held her hands out in surrender. “What am I to do? You should have stood up for yourself when we first began our schooling, Alytchai. Now surely they shall pick on me as well if they see me act sympathetic to you.”
“Truly, I have no need of your sympathy.”
“Hear me out, Mastra, I beg. I shall still play with you at the sparring grounds, very good? That be fair enough, yes?”
“Nay, Catty. It is not. Now, make haste. Your friends are leaving you.”
Catty stood there, not knowing what else to do. The final bell went off seconds later and she still couldn’t tear herself away from the tree Aly sat in. She was too scared of losing something more important than perfect timing to class if she did. Aly didn’t budge however.
“I shall see you in class,” Catty said, ears whimpering.
Aly let the mastra walk off far enough so she didn’t have to hurry to class beside her. When she jumped out of the tree and picked up her pictographs, the Little One stuck her long, purple tongue out before she ran off to the schoolhouse by a slightly different route.
Later that day, the Little Ones met up at the sparring grounds with Teacher. They could tell he was getting frustrated with the curriculum changes. Ever since he made that announcement years ago, he had to come back and tell them they were jumping ahead even more on a bi-monthly basis.
Glani shot another arrow at one of the four moving dummies. “Truly, I wish we could have spent a little more time on our acrobatics last week. And my body aches terribly. My mammai had me sit in water with salt last night, as she and my pappai do after tending the fields. These cursed Evaluations best be worth the pain.”
Requai aimed and fired an arrow at the moving dummy beside the one that Glani struck. “And I am to complain about sore muscles on a similar level with my folks as well. Yet why am I to complain? If we are to keep at such a pace, then we shall be learning as much as the Young Ones! Perhaps we shall bout against them during the assessment as well, yes? Would that not be grand, if not terrifying!”
“Truly, this one dreams big. Perhaps someone in our class shall make it to the final numbers of contestants. I know Catty is to think she is already good enough, and for all purposes that I have seen, I am inclined to b
elieve her! Yet, by Truth’s Grace, do you think the overseer shall put a call for us to tend the fields at a younger age, as well?”
“Now, that would be grand!” Requai set her bow down. She raised her arms in the same form as holding it, and shot a beam of being into another dummy. It was weak, but at least it was visible. “My pappai says field work is not as grand as it seems, yet I, for one, am quite excited about doing what the grander children can do. Especially since they are allowed to use the chouloos.”
“Indeed. I have always wanted to play with them, yet my pappai says our cattle are not for fun and I am far too young to be around them. Truly, I cannot wait to be big.”
As the rest of the class practiced their aiming, Teacher took Aly to another part of the sparring ground. He handed her a stick that had three leaves half her size on one end. The Little One stared at the broom oddly, then looked up at the other Goolian.
“Um, if I may, what am I to do with this?” she asked.
Teacher squatted down and patted the Little One on the head. “Alytchai, the field lord, along with your pappai and I, had another discussion this prior weekend. Apologies, yet we must follow the rules, as always. You are lowest ranked in the class, thus you must perform the chores until you outrank another.”
Aly swallowed the lump in her throat. She then glanced at the other Little Ones. They were all watching her. “Look at what Aly is doing since she is not as skilled as the rest of us,” she imagined them whispering to each other. She saw Catty looking as repulsed as the rest of them. It was just another reminder of how different she was from everyone else, and how much she hated herself for it.
She handed Teacher the broom, but he didn’t take it back.
“I beg, I can perform better.”
Teacher rubbed her shoulders. “Nay, dearest. Truly, this should not be seen as punishment, very good? It is to help motivate you for improving. Now, fret not over what the others may say, yes? We only ask this one to be as patient as we. Truly, I am sure another shall have to do this assigned task eventually. Be that as it may, why not trouble yourselves over other matters beyond sparring for the moment being? Perhaps the martial arts are not meant for you.”
The Little One froze.
“What did you say?” She had no idea why Teacher looked so nervous all of a sudden. And more importantly, she had no idea why she was so cross with him all of a sudden.
“I beg, mind your tone, Little One.”
“Apologies, Master,” Aly forced herself to say. She lowered the broom and began to sweep, not saying another word.
“My thanks. Now, enough worries. Truly, there are other manners in which this one can contribute her worth to the tribe, yes? Did you not always say that you wanted to be in the bakery business as your pappai?”
Teacher patted the Little One on the cheek before he went back to the rest of the class. Aly swept fiercely as the Adult’s words sunk in. She wasn’t good enough. That was basically what he said, and while hearing it from her peers was agonizing, being told such a thing from a grown-up, who she thought was always supposed to say pointless things like “you can be whatever you desire,” was beyond a mock of who she was. It was a direct insult to the Alytchai name.
The Little One watched Teacher and the other Little Ones practice their being without even giving it a thought. Of all the nerve. They had so much power, so much of a blessing, and they didn’t even realize it. They were probably already planning to omit her from the Evaluations, but they were going to be sorely mistaken once she was old enough to take part in them. No, making it through the Evaluations wasn’t just an expected task anymore for Aly. It was an obligation, and no one was ever going to look down on her again once she finished them.
Then again, maybe everyone in the tribe was right, and she just couldn’t handle the fact of being useless.
“Stupid hands,” she said to herself as she started sweeping again.
Aly got bored with broom work by the third minute and stopped to see how everyone else was doing. By the looks of it, at least the entire class had orange or red balls of being leaving their palms. Not the strongest, per se, but at least they had something.
Aly held out a palm and pushed. As expected – nothing.
“Stupid,” she said again as she punched the broom’s handle. “Ow.” Green oak wood was the densest wood on the planet, so she might as well have been punching a handle made of stone. The mastra shook the sting off her knuckles and went back to watching her classmates.
Teacher was showing everyone different movements meant to enhance their inner being’s circulation throughout the body. As usual, Catty took to the instructions naturally. When Teacher called her to the front to follow his steps, their in-tuned moves looked like they were dancing.
Left hand swoops to the front. Right hand swoops to the front. Palms face forward, and push. A strike. Rotate palms once, and push. Another strike.
“Very well performed, Catty,” Teacher said as the class clapped.
She bowed and took her place back with her peers.
“Wow,” Aly said, now leaning against the broom.
“And thus, we shall all perform this together, very good?” Teacher turned around and went into a basic stance.
“Such a showoff,” Requai said as Catty went by.
Catty acted like her words meant nothing, but she was already telling herself not to channel as much being as she got back to her spot. No one liked a teacher’s pet. It was bad enough some of the class, masters and mastras alike, were calling her out for being fancy and spoiled because she always had something nice to wear, unlike the rest of them.
Catty acted like she messed up her form the second time, just so she wouldn’t hear others whisper about being such a “goody good.” She looked around to see if anyone saw her mishap, but everyone else was too concerned with bettering their form to care. She felt heavy-hearted, realizing that she would lose, one way or another.
Aly picked up her broom and started sweeping again. Since she was frustrated, the Little One put more force into her sweeps than before. The giant leaves at the broom’s base nudged the pile of twigs and rocks that she piled up. The mastra’s left brow went up as she watched the debris roll away. Funny. It reminded her of a being shockwave.
She looked at the broom, and then back at the class. She shrugged as she got into the same fighting stance as everyone else, figuring she might as well have some fun while doing work.
“On my mark,” Teacher said. “And one.”
While the class moved their left arm on “one,” Aly swung the broom to the right like a racket.
“And two.”
Aly tossed the broom into her right hand and swung in the opposite direction.
“And push.”
The Little One paused, not knowing how to mimic everyone else’s attack with a broom in hand. She was contemplating going back to sweeping, but went into her fighting stance along with everyone else. However, instead of holding the broom in one hand, she held it in both. The mastra nodded at her own genius and awaited the order.
“One.” Left sweep.
“Two.” Right sweep.
“And push.” This time, Aly chambered her arms back to her chest and pushed her hands out, just as if she was shooting a ball of being. Of course, no ball came, but she was willing to settle for a reasonable replacement for the time being.
“One.” Another left sweep.
“Two.” A right sweep, but this time, the Little One lowered the broom to the right before she swung, making a swoosh from an upward angle.
“And push.” Aly swung the broom down with an overhead strike. The Little One got out of her stance and stood straight up, amazed.
“How fun!” She ran over to a bag resting against a tree and grabbed a dankerball, skipping deeper into the forest.
By the time sparring sessions ended, the Little Ones had worked up a sweat. Not even Catty wanted to think about staying afterward for practice, so they hurried over to their pi
le of belongings instead.
“Truly, I wish I were as good as you, Catty,” Glani said as she picked up her bag and scrolls. “How are you so skilled?”
“I am not so skilled,” Catty quickly said. “I simply work hard.”
“Ah, and we do not?” Requai said.
“Nay! You know I did not mean such a thing.”
Glani giggled. “Indeed. It is as my folks say.” She straightened her back and put her hands on her hips. “Truly, we are to do well for the mere greater good, Little One.”
The mastra’s laughed at the mockery as they headed home. Catty, however, paused when her ears twitched. She heard something getting walloped with a stick and bouncing off trees.
“Hold,” she said. “Do you lot not hear that? Come.”
Requai and Glani called over the other half of their group so they wouldn’t be left out. They followed the sound until they came upon Aly, who was striking a mid-grade dankerball back and forth. The Little Ones didn’t say anything as they watched, mesmerized by Aly’s phenomenal moves with the broom in hand. A swing to the right, a strike from overhead, and then a swoosh to the left, just to keep the ball’s momentum.
The mastra looked like she was hypnotized as she struck the ball. She only smiled when she was able to add in a new attack, and by the time a minute went by, Aly had a different style to her moves. A spin strike here, an uppercut there, and then the girls jolted when the mastra put a roundhouse kick into the mix.
“I mean... Wow.” Catty nudged Requai. “Truly, she is good at this, yes?”
“What of it? What use is it, when a single shot from one of us could lay her out flat? You try to be passive about it, yet you still speak up for that odd one.”
“Truly, I do not!” Catty twiddled her thumbs. “I simply mean she does well for one who lacks the skills as us. She might as well be around for good fun, yes?”
Requai didn’t look convinced, so Catty marched over to Aly.
Aly caught the ball and turned around when she heard Catty’s foot snap a twig. When she saw the others, she could tell she needed to put on her excessively nice face.
“Yes, Mistress?” she said.
“Catty, you dolt,” the other mastra whispered. “Just Catty.”
She turned around to see if her friends were behind her, but the others stayed back, probably so they could evaluate the mastra’s performance.
Aly shook her head and held the dankerball even tighter. “I beg, just walk away.”
Catty thought about the way she left Aly in the tree that morning. She was wrong. There was no other way to put it. Still, she might as well have been on a firing squad with each person just begging for her to give the wrong answer.
“What?” Catty said. “You want to know if I would like to play?”
“Pardon? I never said such a––”
“Why am I to waste time with a dumb broom when I am good enough without one?”
“Ooh,” the girls in the back said.
The only hint of Aly’s irritation was when her pupils widened. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, just as Shanvi suggested she do whenever one of the mastras picked on her. She made it to seven when she opened her eyes, sighed, and smiled.
Without warning, Aly tossed the dankerball into the air, struck it with her broom, and sent it soaring against a tree. The ball bounced against three other trees before it flew back at her. She ducked and smirked when she heard the ball go bung as it smacked Catty in the face.
“Agh!”
The other five mastras went hysterical as Aly caught the ball when it came back to her. She bounced it once as she towered over her fallen foe, still grinning.
Catty sat up and rubbed her face. Everyone was caught off guard when she started to cry. The Little Ones stopped laughing, knowing that Teacher would hear her wails.
“What trouble is there?” they heard the older Goolian say, not even five seconds later.
Teacher shoved through the five and knelt down beside Catty. He picked her up and wiped her eyes with a cloth. She had a flushed spot on her cheek matching the shape of a dankerball. Aly gulped and tried to roll her ball behind her back.
“Aly did it,” the other mastras said in unison.
Teacher turned and glared at the gray-eyed mastra, who went stiff as green oak wood.
“Surely this cannot be true, Alytchai, yes?” When the Little One didn’t say anything to defend herself, he stood back up and shook his head. “Truly, I am deeply disappointed.”
The five avoided eye contact with Aly as she got her scolding. However, Teacher placed his hands behind his back and pointed at Catty.
“This is truly out of her character,” he said. “Thus I take it you were to give reason for her act, Cattalice.”
Catty stopped sniffing as she glanced at the rest of her friends. They didn’t say a word.
Teacher nodded. “Uh huh. And thus I see the guilt in this one’s eyes as well. It has been a long time since you caused trouble, Catty. Am I to fear a return to misbehaving?”
“Nay, Master,” the Little One quickly said. “My gravest apologies.”
“Spare no such words to me. For I am not the one you wronged.”
Catty nodded and turned around to face Aly. Without looking at her, she bowed. “Apologies, Mastra Alytchai.”
The sparring priest crossed his arms. “And what shall we say, Aly?”
The mastra bit her lip and thought of some words she heard the grown-ups say when they thought the Little Ones weren’t close enough to hear them.
“My thanks,” she said instead. “And you have my apology as well.”
“No more trouble, very good?” Teacher said. “And I shall not hear any more of this. Off you go, the lot of you.”
Teacher took Aly’s ball and left. She watched Catty turn around to leave, probably hoping that was the end of things. Instead, she lashed her tongue out and smacked the Little One’s ear with it, just to let her know otherwise. The gesture was the highest insult a Goolian could give another.
Catty turned around and clutched her fists, yellow fumes rising from them as she glared. Requai and Glani grabbed her by the elbows and pulled her away.
“You shall get into even more trouble,” Glani insisted.
“Truly, just leave her be for now,” Requai added. “We always have the morrow, yes?”