Nature Rules - 2022 WATTY'S SHORTLIST

New Shirt, New Shoes, New Feelings

We enter the portal into a massive cavern filled with warm light. The stone floors are polished flat and gleam while the walls are smooth and cool to the touch. There's a stained glass window set high into a wall. Red, yellow, greens and blue rise out of it and strike the ceiling. It's beautiful and I've never seen anything like it.

In our own settlement, 33, the caves are blasted into the mountains. Leaving rough surfaces and dusty and uneven floors. Nakimu is very, very different. It seems to have been hollowed from the inside so the outside can't get in. In 33, everyone has their own doorway. Here there aren't separate entrances but one main entryway leading to various different rooms.

Joanna notices our puzzled expressions. "It's all new to you isn't it?"

She tells us some of the history of Nakimu, the place she's called home with Mujib for several years.

"The caves existed centuries before the war and are natural. They were carved out of the rock millions of years ago by water. The Aeternians, who engineered this place into a village, prophesized the end of the earth and came here for protection.

"They had the time and resources to construct homes to withstand the force of nature and humans," she explains. "Unlike the caves of 33, which were created by blasting into the rock to make temporary shelters."

Not too sure about the temporary part as I lived for over 15 years in one.

"We do use solar power in Nakimu as well as some coal, when we can afford it. Don't want to raise too much suspicion. For the most part, we're a self-sufficient colony. The decedents of the Formers, what we call the Aeternians who assembled here a hundred years ago, are still here. They have the same goals way back then."

"Everyone here is Aeternian?" I ask.

"Mostly everyone," smiles Joanna. "There are some who don't have abilities but they're either the spouse of an Aeternian or a child."

She moves towards a door and knocks three times. She waits a couple of moments and then knocks twice more. The door opens.

"Hello, Joanna," a plump man greets us. He has hair sticking out everywhere, from his chin and head and even his nose and ears. "Hello. Welcome to Naia and Crinae. I'm Solomon."

"Hi Solomon," Crinae says and shakes his offered hand.

"How do you know our names?" I ask the man, while shaking his soft palm.

"Mujib sent a messenger ahead with the news. The messenger went a faster but more complicated route. We didn't want to bring you that way and get you lost."

Oh.

Solomon leads us through the door and we come into a well-sized cavern. It's bright and all the light falls on furniture – real furniture. Aliah's house had some of these things like chairs but I've never seen a real-life chesterfield before. Two people are sitting on it.

"Please, sit down." says the furry man.

Crinae and I squeeze into a puffy chair. It's a tight fit but I feel better with her right beside me.

The two other people in the cavern introduce themselves. Katherine is Solomon's wife. She has brown eyes and frizzy brown hair tied back in a low ponytail. The other woman has travelled from far, far away – farther than Crinae and I.

"This is Iona," Solomon says, introducing us to the woman with red curly hair and green eyes. "She walked over a week to get here and arrived only an hour ahead of you two. We are right in the middle of a meeting. She was just telling us what's happening out there."