AMNESIA'S TYRANNY

Chapter 5 | A Tribe's Escort

Her black snow boots crunched the snow under each step.

She wore warm grey snow pants and a grey puffy jacket with fluffy hems made from rabbit pelt. With her hood down, her Dutch braid was wrapped in a bun behind her head. Due to her long hair, it was big regardless of being tied up.

Ahead of Lily was Zisa and Aun, who led her down a snowy pathway. It was incredibly used and flattened.

The twins were quietly discussing but communicating in an entirely different language.

"Eyéndyá utʼáyʼ kwán' dr tlin..." Aun would comment.
[She smells like a dog.]

Zisa huffed, "Mmm... Drj, dr łekan dän. Drj drt' tlin." She disagreed.
[Mmm... No, a sweet person. Not a dog.]

Strangely, Lily found herself slowly translating their words. She furrowed her brows in thought. She didn't actually know what language they were speaking, but she understood.

"Drt' tth'trgrtragay drgr tth'trgrtrshra cho..."
[Not werewolf or werebear...]

Werewolf? Werebear? Why are they talking about mythical creatures? Lily couldn't help but find them a little weird.

She raised her hands and gently slapped her cheeks- squeezing her eyes shut while following the twins. Calling them weird was rude! She didn't say it to their faces, but she disliked thinking rudely of people.

During her scolding, the trio finally reached their destination. 

The plaza was beautiful. Nature was everywhere, but modern architecture and stone pathways stood under her feet. The tall wooden buildings screamed a Nordic aesthetic, but their sharp turns and large windows told her they were rebuilt to be bigger and sturdier.
She noticed the largest building amongst them had windows assumably 15 feet tall, its massive double doors wide open with people going in and out freely. Lily followed Zisa and Aun, who were heading for the building.

Zisa slowed down, smiling softly at Lily, before opening her lips. She was interrupted by her brother, though.

"This is the Tribe's Communal building." He explained, "Members can freely go in and out, use its utilities, and leaders prefer to work in the offices or talk in the meeting rooms."

The twin sister huffed, "I would've explained that better." She muttered.

Tribe members looked at her with curiosity, somehow easily able to tell she was a stranger. To be fair, Lily wore more clothing than they did. Perhaps they were just acclimated to the cold?

She couldn't help but notice how tall everyone was compared to her. Zisa was tall for a woman, and Aun was even taller- but everyone shared these ridiculous heights. Perhaps their genes are different from the majority of Canada's?

Amongst the members, though, one stood out to her. 

Her heart picked up.

They wore a black pelt cloak with a red embroidered Tribe-stylistic bear on the back of it. The bear reminded her of the Native American style used to create artwork, totems, and clothing. The figure's gloved hands were seen coming out from the big sleeves.
A hood was pulled over their head, their broad shoulders making the cloak appear bigger. The figure towered over everyone, absolutely titanic compared to even the men. Lily's eyes widened, imagining the top of her head likely barely reached his shoulders.

Zisa guided the woman by her shoulders, entering the building and forcing her to be unable to see the cloaked person.

Sighing, she felt herself relax the further they went in. "Where are we going?" Lily softly asked, her mellifluous voice making Zisa smile.

"A meeting room," Zisa explained curtly, not elaborating further.

They climbed some stairs, a few tribe members going up and down around them. You'd think they were all tourists, but everyone was a tribe member. They all spoke in a foreign language, wore cultural clothing, and had similar insane heights.

Lily was panting miserably by the time they stopped climbing stairs.

How tall was this damn building?!

The floor they stopped at had a few people walking down its halls, the fourth floor. Offices, meeting rooms, and presentation rooms for small audiences were what scoured the floor. 

Plaques written in the language were on some walls to make it easier to locate rooms.

Walking down the grand and clean hallways, Aun suddenly turned into a room by lazily pushing the door open and not watching for the two to come with. Zisa rolled her eyes.

The meeting room had many blue chairs along a large round table. It was your usual meeting room, but Lily found her knowledge about other meeting rooms lacking when she studied its appearance. The appearance of the paintings took her a moment to figure out what they were depicting, and it worried her.
Struggling with her amnesia, it was only easy to understand something when its appearance explained its entire meaning. When she searched her brain for information on an object- she came up with little or nothing.

Sometimes, more information than she asked for would pop up about something. It was distracting and overwhelming.

A shadow was cast behind her as she stood in the room.

Turning around, a taller woman loomed over her. She donned a black buzzcut, her face littered with scars. Her brilliant ruby eyes scrutinized Lily, eyeing every detail and morsel of her appearance with cruel disbelief.

She wore a black cardigan with a mix of dark brown and red knitted into its authentic wool, a comfortable moose pelt turtleneck hugging her upper body. A simple black naked pelt pair of pants hung from her muscular legs.

Again, her abrupt knowledge of the pelt the woman wore was overwhelming and confusing.

"Hello." Lily kindly smiled.

The muscular woman simply scoffed, "THIS-" She'd gesture toward the plump stranger, "- Is the lady you want to be an esteemed guest?"

Zisa beamed, "You know it!"

Aun gritted his molars, jaw flexing. "Lily," He caught her attention, "This is Vor Telja, Ek of the tribe." He gestured to the scowling woman.
[Beta]

He didn't translate, but he didn't need to. Lily understood that Ek translated to Beta in English. But why Beta?

Zisa gasped, "You didn't introduce yourself properly, either." She told her twin brother, who simply scoffed and gestured to himself, "I'm Aun Friðr, Fjǫrðr of the tribe."
[Gamma.]

The translation was rough, and she struggled to understand, but it meant Gamma. Lily finally understood the weight of these titles as she thought more and more about them.

Beta and Gamma were next to Alpha- the Tribe Leader.

This entire time, Aun has been the third leader of the tribe.