Who We Were

JP with Lorem, and Omni

“What was Little Voah like? She break game rules too?”

She smirked at the question and shrugged. She almost forgot they were playing the question game.

Little Voah was much more of a free spirit. No hatred in her heart. Just fear of the witch, the sorcerer, the bogeyman.

“She was… carefree. Loved music. A little weird, I guess… And wild. The embodiment of Cambena… I got along better with adults than the other children. I was annoying. And inquisitive.” she sighed.

“What about little Gonyaul? Has he always played this game?”

Gonyaul was captivated using his imagination to picture Voah as a child as she painted her with her words.

“Endless question game, yes. With elders and peers, never before with one that makes my heart sing.”

He grinned mischievously thinking of himself in the past. “Little me was full of wonder. Huge imagination. I liked learning. Way too curious, got in trouble a lot. Therefore always in extra meditations and study sessions. Very sweet and kind.”

He moved closer, he wondered did Voah have a magnetic personality in his overactive imagination?

“You’d probably beat me in a wrestling match back then easy.”

“You bet I would. I was a competitive, impatient, little brat. If I didn’t win I would have said I did.” Voah laughed as nudged her side into him.

“That got me in a lot of trouble too. My parents were so very patient.”

Gonyaul laughed. “I would have gotten creative and figured out how to win from a different approach. Not head on, probably tickled you into submission.”

“Tickling?!” she gasped in mock surprise. “I believe that is called cheating.” she joked with tongue in cheek.

“Cheating? No cheating. Equal value of fight, just not the same.” He chuckled.

He rested his head gently on top of hers and whispered “I assume words of little Voah. It is only cheating if you get caught.”

He then inquired, “What is like to have two parents?”

Indeed her younger self might’ve said something like that, but that was before she got serious about becoming an Arbiter.

She thought back on her life as a child with two parents… she had lived longer with only one. But having two was just normal to her.

“The people of our caravan looked after each other, so it was like having more than two sometimes… but I miss my maja and dah fiercely. They’re both gone now. Why? Did you not have two parents?” she wondered aloud.

He smiled thinking on what she said. He shook his head.

“We all belong to the Itinuymok upon birth and led by Orohc. Little like you caravan but no specific parent to be with at end of day. We all belong to all? If make sense?”

“How unusual.” she thought aloud. It made some sense but she couldn’t imagine not going home to the Sahnsuur carriage or tent at the end of each day.

“But surely you know who gave birth to you? Your mother?”

“Yes as I get Iuruf I learn my Nassuhs amam is. Gave birth to me.”

He thought for a second on how to say it.

“All Iuruf Iesoj are my mom at home. All Iuruf Iesnad are my dad.”

He added, “Me would have help raise all young too once become Okoto. But left home not but one moon after Okoto.” He was having trouble explaining and was mixing common tongue with vauxian in places.

It sounded like some kind of tribal thing. She wondered how many people were in this community. How old was Okoto and how old was he now?

This WAS an endless question game and she felt like she had more lined up than ever.

“So… where is home?” Voah asked.

Gonyaul wondered how to answer that. There was no designated city name to give the place or known landmarks to outsiders. In fact, the only way he would be able to find it again would be if he could remember visually the way backtracking his steps from the day he left. At this point he was not even sure he could find it.

“Kru’ll jungle is all I know, but Orohc teach it was not always so.” He didn’t mean to rhyme.

That got Voah’s mind really wandering. Did his home have no name? It mustn’t. So… the Vaux might be hiding in the jungles of Kru’ll. Many magik weavers had fled there as well, all that she had experienced had been hunted down there. It was a no wonder though, it might have been the best place in all of Helias to hide.

He was gazing at the ever changing flames of the fire, their liveliness and incessant dancing igniting his next question.

“My turn … What would be perfect day for you?”

Gonyual swiftly changed the subject with the hard question.

Nothing much mattered to her anymore, now that family was gone and she had left the old world. The Pillars were all she had and lately her thoughts on them weren't perfect anymore. Honestly, she tried to live her best life everyday anyway, thanking the Gods and never really asking for more than what she already had. What would the PERFECT day look like? Gonyaul would be left to wonder as Voah fell asleep nestled into him.