Shadowed by Moonlight (SAMPLE)

Chapter 3.b

When the feast ended, the council retired to my father's hut in the encampment. According to Alani they were about to have another meeting. That was strange, since they had already met before the feast, but not unexpected. This was the first time demons had openly attacked a village in generations; surely that worried the chiefs as much as it did the villagers.

I wanted to join them, so did the rest of the heirs. But our parents reminded us we had cleanup duty. It was one of the many responsibilities we had to prepare us for our calling as future chiefs.

As I helped Ori pile up the meat scraps, I watched Penina, a village girl in her fifth year, shimmy her way up a nearby tree. Her curly brown hair cascaded down her back and she held a stick in her teeth. When she was four feet off the ground she hugged the tree with one hand and waved her stick in the air.

"Look, Tulo!" she called to her brother, "I'm Masina!"

Tulo laughed, "Oh, no! Does that mean I'm the demon then?"

"Yup. And I'm coming to get you!"

She leapt off of the tree. Tulo caught her in his arms, spinning her around before laying down dramatically on the ground. Penina proceeded to pretend-stab him with her stick.

"Die! Die! Die!" she cheered.

Tulo feigned expressions of pain as he tried to ward off her attacks. Then when Penina aimed both hands towards his heart, he flopped his arms and legs to the side and let his tongue loll out.  

Penina threw her hands up, "Victory for the Light Village!" 

"Oh my goodness, look at these children over here doing nothing!" their mother scolded.

Tulo sprang back to life and Penina tossed away her stick. They scooped up the empty dishes and sprinted away to rinse them off. Their mother was right behind them, a broom in her hands.

Alani laughed, watching them go. "Remember when that used to be us?"

"Used to be?" Puana asked, "I feel like your mom still scolds us like that every time we go to the War Village."

Tāwhiri nodded, "It's true. Never mind your rank or how many wars you've fought in. When Aunty Levani's mad, there is no hope for you."

He filled up his basket with the fruit rinds and ulu skins that would go to the compost heap. Koa, who had been doing the same, set down his basket next to Tāwhiri's. Alani started to sweep out the meetinghouse as Puana cleared away the lauhala mats.

"Eh, and how's about you?" Tāwhiri teased, flicking his wrist at Koa, "When we need help burning dead demons you're too sick. But when it's time to eat you're all better."

Koa made a face, "Pssh! And how good would you stay standing if you got bit by one of those? I swear I saw my ancestors today."

"Did they tell you to get off your lazy bum and help Tāwhiri?"

"No, but my dad did when I woke up."

All jokes aside, everyone was relieved Koa was okay. The red-heart leaf had worked wonders for him. Just minutes after applying the leaves, bite marks appeared on his left arm. Not long after that he was walking again. Puana's mother wrapped his arm in the leaves and covered them with a thin cloth. Koa would have to change his leaves three times a day and drink the juice of the red heart leaves morning and night until the symptoms went away. He still looked pale, but he would live.

Tāwhiri switched jobs with me, giving me his small basket so that he could help Ori carry the heavy bones and inedible meat scraps. I held up a torch as I went with Koa to the plantations. We emptied our baskets on the compost and quickly made our way back, not bothering to turn the pile. With demons on the loose, neither one of us wanted to be out of the village at night.