Kadian

The Great Chat

"You're here early today, child. How'd you know I was up?" Elder Zee asked Kadian as she washed a pot.

"I saw you getting some water at the lake," Kadian explained as she ate a croissant. She slept in her hut, but still frequented the same hotel her class stayed at to shower and eat. Just as long as her timing was proper, she could slip into many places off reserve unnoticed, and get whatever she needed. In her eyes, it wasn't stealing because she no longer existed in the outside world.

It wasn't that the villagers wouldn't share their meals with Kadian- they would have in a heartbeat. They were willing to do many things for her ever since she became The Savior. Still, she found herself feeling uneasy towards their sudden change of heart.

"That is just how people are, let it go," Mohassen once told Kadian when she admitted that she wasn't entirely trusting of the villagers .

Letting go was easier said than done, however. Whenever someone smiled at Kadian, greeted her, or stopped to ask her how things were going, she couldn't help but think back to that day. Some of the very same people who smiled in her face had been the ones to call her a 'devil child' that day. The same men who made kind, chivalrous gestures towards her were the same who had been holding her wrists. Then there were those who she couldn't remember if they were present during the incident, but wondered what they might have done. Or why they hadn't spoken up for her if they were there. She almost threw her food away, but decided that she needed her energy since she'd begin training in an hour.

Zee set the pot outside to air dry, wiped her hands, and took a huge bite out of the croissant that Kadian had brought her. "Don't tell anybady I ate this trash. Now wat do you wanna know?"

"Well...I just wanted to know a little more about Mohassen-"

"You talk to da boy everyday."

"Well, yeah. Not about everything, though. I want to know a little more about him and...and Alaba. No one's really been talking about Alaba. Not the way I thought they would, anyways."

Zee knew what Kadian meant by that. Alaba's loss certainly did not go unmentioned. All the villagers gossiped about it in hushed tones.

"What do you think happened to her?" they would say.

"I dunno. All I know is she disappeared the same day a certain somebady else did."

"Ooh."

"Kadian probably killed her."

"Maybe."

"Girl bye! You know that heifer loved attention, she's probably out somewhere in these woods."

Snort. "If she tried hidin' in the woods then she really dead."

"Ha!"

Those were only a few of the rumors that had been circulating around the village. Out of all the things Kadian heard about Alaba, never once had she heard any condolences towards her family. After thinking about it, Kadian realized she hadn't met any of her family members besides Sister.

"I'll neva know why," Zee said, "but I know for a fact she went to Shango. She had a charm that would let her go up there, unharmed."

Kadian raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Really." Zee dug into her shirt and pulled out a small, wooden, brown star.

Kadian gasped. "How do you have it?"

"Omose slipped it to me the day she came back. Told me to hold on to it, that one day I'd know what to do with it. It only works once, but she refreshed it."