Kadian

The Great Reconnection

Kadian lazily extended her arm to hit the ‘Snooze’ button on her cell phone alarm for the second time that morning. She rolled over in her sheets and contemplated skipping breakfast at the hotel due to a lack of time- it was already five o'clock.

Getting up early was initially rough for Kadian, but became easier as time progressed. Still, there were days when she nearly cried as she forced herself out of bed.  Those days were usually the aftermath of an especially strenuous training session, but that was not the cause of her current exhaustion.  

The night before, Kadian took a shower Azurayan style.  She thought it would be an eye opening experience, and it was in a way- but not in the way she anticipated.  Mosquitoes and bugs were everywhere, dirt kept getting in between her toes despite her flip flops, and the process of gathering water and dumping it in the pond afterwards was tedious.  

Still, none of those things topped the extreme paranoia that plagued her as she bathed.  Being spotted was a concern of Kadian’s from the beginning, but a small rational voice in the back of her mind told her “It’s all in your head.”  So she focused on seeing in the dark, cleaning herself, and avoiding bugs until she realized her rational voice was no longer speaking to her. The voice most likely knew that it’d be lying if it tried to tell Kadian that she had any privacy.  Kadian then looked around as she stepped out of the water and wrapped herself in a towel, but her eyes had betrayed her- everything seemed dark and blurry.  She ran home as fast as she could and had no intentions of going back anytime soon.  “At least I tried!” she thought.  Mohassen would probably find the story amusing if he ever heard it.

Thankfully, a tap on her hut door interrupted her flashback.  “Just a minute please!” Kadian shouted as she leapt out of ‘bed’ and sprinted towards her closet.  She sloppily jumped into a pair of navy green pants, and pulled a loose light green t-shirt over her head.  Kadian snatched her headscarf off and fluffed out her twists as quickly as she could.  She wiped some crust out of her eye, and brushed her teeth in record time.  Finally, she opened the door, but not wide enough for her visitor to see inside of her messy room.  

“Oh...hi you...”  Kadian stared at the teen in front of her.  Everyone looked familiar, but Kadian had a feeling that she had spoken with this particular girl before.  What was her name?

The girl had noticed.  “Zuri,” she said bluntly.

“Oh...oh!  I remember now.  You were with me at the airport, you had my luggage.”  Kadian left out the part where Zuri’s mother screamed at her at The Log for touching said luggage.  She also left out the part where Zuri ignored Kadian until she forgot about her altogether.  

“That was me.”  Zuri kicked at a pebble with her toe.  Kadian watched because she had nothing better to do, or say.   

“Daewon wanted me to tell you something,” Zuri said when the pebble skidded out of her reach.

“What’d he say?” Kadian asked with mild interest. Out of all of the villagers, Daewon never spoke to her.  Kadian was not overtly friendly and acquainted with everyone, but she had made small talk with most of the villagers during her stay.  Seeing that her mentor was Daewon’s best friend, it struck her as odd that Daewon magically had ‘somewhere to be’ every time Kadian came around.

“What really happened was Mohassen told Daewon to tell you, but Daewon sent me instead.”

“Figures,” Kadian muttered.

“Mohassen said he’s busy today, and that he doesn’t want you looking for him.”

Kadian’s heart sank.  “Why?”

Zuri ran her hand through her short, curly hair. “Now that I think of it, he didn’t say why.  I’ll go ask.”

“You don’t have to!”  Kadian slammed the door, only to open it shortly after.  Zuri hadn’t moved, but had a startled look on her face.