(Please, Please, Please leave a comment!!!)
(This is a little girl speaking. what I am showing you is only a rough draft and is going to be full of mistakes.)
We live in dark times right now or so, at least my mama told me. she said that we have to go into hiding because there was an evil man who would hurt us without a second thought. We have to go to the forest for a little while and wait, she said. We have to be careful and stay in the forest because that is our safe place. I am frightened. People are telling me to be brave, to not be afraid, but that is a hard thing to do. I try but still I am scared. My brother tries to be brave for me, but I can tell that he's scared too. His thoughts are all confused. He does not understand what's happening either. I want to comfort him but I don not know what to say.
Mama says that it's a good thing we live so close to the forest, otherwise we would be in trouble. She says that the bad man wants to keep us from going to the forest. We walked for a long long time. I got really tired. My brother tried not to cry. I tell him that it's going to be okay, but really, I don't know anything.
I see the trees in the distance and so does everyone else. I hear people give a small sigh of relief, but they don't slow down. My feet hurt and I want to stop but Mama says we must keep walking. I must be brave.
There are people waiting at the edge of the forest. They are just like the people I am traveling with. They beckon silently and we follow. Mama tells me we're almost there, and to be as quiet as possible. I try, but sometimes I would step on a stick and it would break. The people we were following lead us to a hidden village. We are safe here, Mama says. I look at my brother and tell him in my head, I want to go home. He tells me in his head he wants to go home too.
The people of the village come out to show us where we would be staying until we could go home. The forest was strange. The trees were really, really, really big and it was darker here than my old home.
The people here lived inside the trees. Mama said that they burned out the inside of the tree, that's how there's a big hole in it. They used the bark from the tree to create a door. When the door was closed, it didn't look like there was a big hole in it, it looked like a normal tree.
We stayed there for a long, long time. At first I cried alot and said I wanted to go home. Mama cried too, but only when it was time to sleep. She thought I wasn't awake, but I heard her. It made me cry too.
Slowly, I got used to my new home. I stopped crying and started to like it. The people who lived here were just like the people who used to live in the village I lived in. But sometimes the people who lived here could be scary. They didn't make any sound when they walked. That scared me. But I wanted to know how to do it. Mama could do it too. Yo have to know how if you grow up in the forest, she said. She started showing Rori and me how to be silent like the people who lived here. She said that I have to keep most of my feet off the ground, that I have to stand on the balls of my feet. It was hard. She said to step lightly. I tried. I couldn't do it and started crying. My brother was having trouble too, but only at first. When he learned, he made it look so easy. I tried again, and I couldn't do it. No, Rori said in his head, like this. And he showed me how. Mama said we must stick together in case anything happened. She looked worried and tired. I tried to make her feel better and gave her a hug. she sighed. I think I made her feel better.
I didn't cry at night anymore, but I think Mama still did sometimes. After we had stayed in the hidden village for a while, another person came to the village. They said they had a message for the village leader. They went into a tree for a while and then the leader came back out. She looked sad and tired. I wanted to give her a hug but I stayed with Mama instead.
The people waited for her to speak. Everyone looked unhappy. You can never go back to your village again, the leader said, They're enslaving those of us who didn't leave in time, I'm sorry.
Everyone from my village started making funny highpitched wailing noises. Mama says it's called keening. I started crying too. I didn't know what was going on. I was frightened. I saw Mama crying, but she was quiet. She didn't keen like the rest of the village. That night, I couldn't sleep. Rori, I said to him in my head, Why was everyone crying?
I don't know, he said in his head. It was scary.
Mama came over to us and we stared up at her. Nina, she said, Rori, I don't think we're going back. Not for a long, long time.
It scared me. Not go home? I started to cry, but stopped to hear what Mama was going to say. In the meantime, she said, You're going to have to learn to defend yourselves, You're going to have to learn to fight...
(Note: When Nina ays she's talking to her brother in her head, she means that she is talking to her brother through a telepathic connection she shares with him. Being only six in the introduction, she doesn't know that that's what it's called. All she knows is that the can speak to him in her mind.)
I'm here, I'm Queer, I don't know what the fcuk I'm doing with my life.
Will update this eventually...
Will update this eventually...
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