Read The One-Hundred: Part 1 - The Above (Book #1) Page 19
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Six cycles pass. Damian is nowhere to be seen. Tamir is out of my reach. It’s been ten cycles since anything strange has happened, besides my hiding from the moon. Summer is upon us and I must take off my boots. I’ve no idea how I will hide the scales on the bottoms of my feet. And that’s a problem.
For a few days I stay silent in my home, only slightly opening the door when someone comes knocking. They’re turned away as I tell them I don’t feel well. Some visit because they’re worried I’ll die—but I know better than that. I just need time. Time to hide my scales.
It’s a whole week before I come up with something. I’m skinnier than I should be due to the lack of food I have received, but this idea should work. I have strapped a piece of tough animal hide to the bottoms of my feet, hoping it will fix my scaly problem. Such a simple solution, I should have thought of it earlier. But it was the inner battle with the prying looks of the people and the questions that will be thrown my way.
The first day I wear it, people ask the questions I’d expected and I’m forced to lie even more. It gets easier and easier to as I rehearse what to say, but my heart grows heavier and heavier with the burdens of the lies. Soon they accept my creative reasoning and conclude I will live.
And then it’s the day before my birthday. The day before the twelfth full moon since I’ve seen Tamir, since that insane night… The day before I turn eighteen.
Everyone talks. I’m the only one turning eighteen this year and it’s been two of them since we’ve had someone attempt to become a Tribe Leader.
And now it’s my turn.
Rai-si and Tani-mah hang around me during most of the day, making small talk and asking me unimportant questions. They follow me out on my unsuccessful hunts. They eat with me. And they watch as I grow uneasy when the sun makes its decent down the sky. Tomorrow is the day I might become a Tribe Leader. It’s also the night I might get taken by the moon.
I shiver as I lay down in my hammock, every part of me dreading tomorrow.