The next morning I was awoken by a very cheery Elena who balanced a tray on one of her hands while also casually cleaning up the mess I had made.

“I see, you found the poetry. Boring, isn't it? You'd think an author like Carlos DeCœr would write better, but it appears his strength lies somewhere else. Did you sleep alright?”
Yes, thank you.
“Well, that's great to hear. Or see, rather” she added with a bright laugh.

I got a better look at the tray when she set it down next to me. Two flatbreads, something that appeared to be scrambled eggs and a bowl of milk. I thanked her again to which she gave another laugh.

“No need to thank me, you're thin like a mountain goat and need all the strength you can get for training! Speaking of which, Fern will pick you up in a bit. She said something about horses… but the kid talks so fast I could barely understand a word! And now, eat up!”

I nodded and lifted the shallow bowls onto my lap. A few seconds later Elena shook her head in disbelief.
“My child, has nobody ever taught you how to eat properly?”

I looked at her in confusion. There was nothing wrong with the way I ate. Nothing had fallen onto the blanket or my clothes and I had only used the proper hand. My mother had always told me how well mannered I was so her saying the opposite more than just puzzled me. She held two funny looking things in her hand which clearly held some sort of meaning.

“Have you never seen a spoon? Or a fork?”
I shook my head. The names sounded a lot like names my nonna used to give to frogs when she showed them to us before releasing them back into the water.

“Oh Lord help me. Let me show you how we eat here. And clean your fingers, I don’t want greasy fingerprints all over the furniture.”

When Fern came to pick me up Elena pulled her aside to quietly talk to her. Probably about how she failed to teach me ‘proper’ eating. My hands apparently couldn’t manage to hold those… things without either them slipping from my hands or the food falling off. In the end she resulted to letting me eat with my fingers, unable to find a better option.

Fern just laughed and lifted me off the ground, clearly not as concerned about this issue as she should have probably been.
She carried me down three fights of stairs and down a long and rather dark corridor, for which I was thankful. The way these buildings were made was a mystery. It seemed like all they consisted of were endless lightless corridors.

“I heard you have a name. And a very pretty one as well. However, I assume Elena already gave you a little hint on what we're doing today?”
I tilted my head. Elena had seemed to be just as confused as I was, dropping only a one-word hint.
“Oh, I see. So she didn’t. Okay, I’m gonna keep it a surprise then. I would make a guessing game out of this but I don’t think that will work.”

After several more corners, we reached a door. Upon opening it I recognised the area outside to be the stretch of land I had followed Amanda across only very few days ago. Fern had set me down before opening the entrance gate and now took my hand. We walked across the grass which was a lot prettier than what I had been able to see at night.

Small flowers coloured the green like freckles on a face and some of them reflected the sun like tiny mirrors. Ahead of us lay individual buildings in the sparkling sun of noon, far less than what I had thought in the darkness. They became more as the land rose until on top of the hill they all snuggled against rose a lean building of smooth orange-red.

I tugged Fern’s hand and pointed towards it, hoping to make the question obvious on my face.

“We call it the spire of light. It’s a temple for the sun and its god. Nobody but the priests are allowed inside it, however, the gardens around it are a great place to visit. Ash and I used to sneak out at night to go there when we just started seeing each other. Can you see the patterns on the stone? They are hard to spot from here but at night they glow like molten metal, illuminating everything nearby. If you want to, I will ask Amanda if we can take you there at some point.”

I nodded. The gods I knew were different from what Fern was telling me. Our gods didn’t accompany their signs. They were born within them and learned to wield them in their childhood until they became one with their powers in a quest to protect the land. I wanted to ask how Fern’s gods were like. What their life had been before they became gods but soon realised that that was a question for a different day. For a day when maybe she would be able to understand what exactly my language was like. I shook off the sadness that was threatening to creep up on me and instead tugged on her hand, urging her to continue our walk to wherever it was we were going. She chuckled and ruffled my hair, which I instantly soothed back to my scalp.

As we continued our walk I, for the first time, got a good look at how far the buildings of the Camp truly stretched. We had been walking for at least twenty minutes alongside the outer wall, past many different windows, some high up the wall, some closer to the ground. Though which I tried to see but the sun was shining on the glass and burned my eyes. At some point, Fern stopped and pointed ahead, towards the corner of the building.

“Do you see the fences?”
I nodded, squinting my eyes to be able to identify the things ahead better.
“That’s where we are going. I hope you like it.”

~•~

“Hiya Eachann!”
The guy ahead of us promptly dropped the bale of hay he was holding.

“Fern! Long-time no see, little sister. How’s training going?”
“Absolutely brilliant. So brilliant, actually, that I was promoted to instructor and guess what?” She put her hand on my shoulder and smiled warmly, “We have a new novice who I was assigned to.”

Eachann kneeled down until he was able to look me in the eyes. They had the same warm brown tone Fern’s had and also sparkled with the same wit. His hair was a bit longer than Ash’s and almost fell into his eyes.
“Glad to meet you, kid. My sister seems to be fond of you, huh? May I ask your name?”

I gripped Fern’s hand a bit tighter and stepped closer to her side.
“See, here’s the problem with that. She can’t tell you.”
“And why is that, miss I’m too cryptic for this world?”
“She’s a mute, idiot! And her name is Mahin. At least if we can trust the master’s word on that specific topic.”

“In that case, I apologise, young lady. So, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you are here to get a riding lesson or two?”
“One should be fine for the beginning. Just a quick thing, do you still have some of the paste you made last summer? Because I’m certain she’ll get a sunburn in no time if we aren’t careful. Is your skin sensitive to the sun?”

I raised my palms to the sky. The places I had known so far were covered in forest and shielded from the sun most times of the year.

“I’ll get some, hold up.”
“I really hope it isn’t bad, but the colour of your nose tells me otherwise. It’s already a little pink. So we better get you some protection before you turn into a crab.”
A what?
“Crab. Have you never seen one of those?”
No.

“Okay, how do I describe that best… So, imagine a circle. That circle is a shell and that shell has a bunch of legs sticking out on either side. The eyes are on the front of the shell and most of the time embedded into it but sometimes they stick out. Most crabs are anything between pink and red but there are lots of colours, really. I once found a blue one.”

To me, that sounded more terrifying than anything, even though Fern’s voice was somewhat indicating that it really wasn’t that bad. I just hoped those crabs lived far away and not in the grass under my feet. The way Fern had described them they probably lived inside caves. I shuddered. Another reason to not enter those holes in the mountains. We had a few of them close to the village but I had always kept my distance from them.

My siblings loved to climb around in there and some also held altars to the earth dwelling gods.
Only minutes later Eachann was back, holding a small pot in his hands which revealed a clear, semi-liquid substance.
I wrinkled my nose at the smell. It wasn’t as bad as the food served on my first day but still rather unpleasant.

“Don’t worry, the smell disappears after a few minutes, not entirely sure why. Elena thinks it’s because of the sun. According to her, it cooks the stench out. But really, it probably is a bit more complicated than that. Weirdly enough, the flower we make that stuff from smells really good so we are still wondering where that really comes from. Because the plant itself doesn’t appear to be at fault,” Eachann muttered as he gave the pot to Fern who promptly started spreading some of it onto my nose. It cooled the skin there but still smelled bad. I tried to pull back my head but Fern just continued, unbothered.
“Hold still, I’ll be done in a second.”

The smell truly didn’t last longer than the time it took us to walk from the pile of hay bales we met Eachann at to the stable. The air inside was cool and after only a few seconds I started shivering. after being in the sun for that long of a time my skin had heated up and now, between the thick stone walls, all that warmth seemed to disappear.

After crossing through a wide room full of benches and wooden lockers we entered a long corridor with stalls to both sides. Through some of the gaps between stall door and ceiling poked big noses, sometimes even entire heads.

“Do you have a word for ‘horse’?”
I showed her. Four fingers of a hand pointing to the ground, thumb raised, pointing upwards. Fern mimicked the gesture and I nodded, happy to teach her another bit of language.

We stopped at a stall and Eachann told us to wait. I peeked over the door and was met with a large brown eye. I squeaked and jumped back a step which made Fern giggle.

“Don’t be afraid. May I introduce you to Primrose? Eachann raised her by hand and also trained her. He might be an idiot at times but he really knows how to work with horses. Trust me, she’s the most lovely little horse I ever met.”
“She has her moments, though,” a voice from behind us stated a smile both in her tone and on her face. Next to Eachann stood a girl, younger than Fern and also a lot smaller, just a cubit taller than me. Her mouth seemed too wide for her face, especially when she smiled.

“This is Robin, our best horsewoman and also your trainer for now. Go easy on her, will you?” Eachann said before saluting and vanishing around a corner.
“Don’t worry, little one, we’ll work something out. The great thing about horses is that you don’t need words to communicate with them.”

I stared at her in confusion before turning towards Fern, almost bumping my elbow into Primrose’s nose who had stuck her big head out of the stall.
“It sounds ridiculous, I know. But you can trust her. We’re all still learning from her, even though she’s so much younger than most of us. Is it okay if I leave you alone here for now? I’ll be back in a couple of hours to pick you back up, okay?”

I nodded and bit my lip. Being alone with all these horses made me uncomfortable but I wanted to trust Fern’s judgement of Robin. Fern squeezed my hand briefly before jogging down the hallway, out the door.

I wrapped my arms around my torso and looked to the ground.
“Come on, let’s get this girl ready and then I can show you how to do some basic things with horses, okay?” Robin said and squatted down so she could look me in the eyes. I gave a shy nod and trailed behind her as she picked up a halter from the side of the stall. I looked at her in surprise when she gave it to me and opened the door.

“No need to look at me like that, I’ll show you how everything works. Now come in.”
She followed after me into the stall and showed me how to first pet the horse and then which way a halter went on. It was an intriguing design for only consisting of a bunch of ropes that had been tied together.

Afterwards, she helped me lead her outside, teaching me how to brush and tack up properly.
“Now, I’ll just put you onto her back and you grab this part of the saddle and hold onto it. I’m afraid your feet are a bit short to reach the stirrups but we will work with what we have, alright?”

I nodded and held onto the slightly raised part of the saddle while the horse below me slowly started moving. I was swaying from one side to the other like a small bark boat on a river but at least I had something to hold on to and Robin kept a pace which didn’t feel too bad.

When Fern came back to pick me up I already felt a tad bit safer in the saddle. my hands didn’t cramp around the hold on the saddle so much and I had kinda managed to figure out how the horse stepped.
“You’ll grow up to be a great rider, I’m sure,” Robin said before winking at Fern and giving me a brief hug.

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