WaterBlade

Chapter Three

I wasn't sure how long I slept, but the sweltering heat soon roused me. Despite having no blankets and thin clothes, I was sweating. Groaning, I peeked out my window, almost blinded by the light. Judging by the position of the sun, it wasn't quite noon. That meant I had only slept for a handful of hours. Not nearly enough sleep for my taste. I tried to go back to sleep, but the heat was too much. I was no stranger to sweat, but I suddenly and desperately craved a bath. Luckily, tonight was my designated bathing day. Like our daily water supplies, bathing, or anything to do with water, was heavily monitored. The guards assigned days and times for each person in the tribe to bathe, also while being heavily monitored. It was very annoying and usually resulted in only being able to bathe once every three or four days. I had long gotten used to the smell of ripe bodies, but I didn't enjoy it. My assigned time wasn't until later tonight, right before the sun set, so for now, I had time to kill.

Eventually, I peeled myself from my bed and changed, thinking of going to the forge and seeing if Papa needed any help. Before stepping outside, I slathered my exposed skin with a special ointment made specifically to keep the sun from damaging our skin. Burnt skin and blisters were common ailments, but treatable. If left untreated, harm from the sun could cause permanent damage and even death. I had witnessed this before and had no wish to experience it myself. The sun coloring my skin darker was one thing, but permanent and painful blemishes was another.

Satisfied I had rubbed on enough ointment, I stepped outside through the back door. Papa's back was too me, but I could see the sweat pouring off from the heat of the forge in addition to the stifling temperature. He was holding something with a pair of tongs in the middle of the fire. "Need any help?" I asked, stepping up beside him.

He grunted and shook his head. His sole focus was on whatever was in the fire. I decided to leave him to it and wrapped my scarf around my head as I headed out with no particular destination. I thought maybe I'd go see Mama's grave again when Khalie bounded up to me, Jyn following at a much slower pace, both with similar scarves wrapped around their heads.

"There you are," she said, sounding exasperated. "We came by earlier, but your father said you were asleep." Khalie made it sound like I had personally done her a great evil by remaining asleep for this long.

"I'm sorry to offend you with my bodily needs." I saw Jyn hide a smirk. "Why were you looking for me?"

Khalie sucked in a large breath and opened her mouth, no doubt about to dive into a lengthy anecdote that probably barely explained why she was looking for me, but luckily for me, Jyn cut her off and explained first. "We have something planned for you for your birthday."

She looked put out and glared at her brother. I loved the girl, but she had a hard time sticking to the point of anything she said. "Thanks Jyn," she snapped, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me along. "He ruins everything," she muttered to me. Behind us, I heard Jyn utter something to himself that I couldn't quite make out.

I wanted to tell them that they didn't have to, that I didn't want a fuss for my birthday, but what was the point? They already had it planned out, and once Jyn and Khalie had their minds set on something, there was no changing it. It was an annoying family quality. "What are we doing?" I asked instead.

Khalie seemed to quiver with excitement. She gripped my arm even tighter. "We got permission to go outside the wall!" she squealed, shaking my arm for emphasis.

I blinked, too shocked to speak. Letting villagers go beyond the wall of our tiny camp was very rare. Usually it only happened when there was manual labor to be done and the guards couldn't busy themselves to do it, so they passed the tasks along to able bodied villagers. Once in a blue moon, villagers got special leave to go beyond the wall for a short trip, usually no more than a day, and always accompanied by at least one guard, but it was so rare that I hardly ever see it actually happen. "How did you manage that?" I finally was able to ask.