The Pearl Fox

Betrayed

The long dense grasses and thorny bracts were filled with hidden snakes. Whenever she paused, to break off pieces of edible leaf, hissing and buzzing things bit her. Arasine had walked on in further through the rain forests, until she came out into open meadows and into a different forest again, checking her compass. She went northerly, but found herself turning north-east to avoid large predators. Sometimes she felt like giving up and turning back. A bit further, she considered, and if nothing appeared, then it would be over. She'd eaten wild fruits and herbs. Sometimes she'd eaten eggs, insects, nuts and even worms. She never touched any mushrooms or white berries. Glossy leaves were bad. Beans within their pods looked appetising but she knew better than to touch them. When she felt very hungry and came into sections of the forest with plants that she didn't recognise, she rubbed her hands on them. Anything that gave her a rash on the fingers were poisonous. 

Then just days before now, she came out with a severe illness after she'd eaten some fruit. There were swollen marks all over her skin at first. The following evening arrived the fever. A distressing sleep broke into pain the next morning and her eyes felt sore. She crawled along the way over sharp foliage and fiery coloured heliconia. When she started to pass diarrhea, she then wanted to stop going any further. Arasine slept, and in the morning, she began to crawl through ferns that were filled with bugs. Laughter appeared close by, behind the wall of thick trees. Arasine tried standing, and then she passed more sick fluid. It was then that she'd staggered through the forest and came to a clearing, with a small grassy rise in the distance. There were wooden shacks and tents and stone huts on top, with a central wooden pole decourated in blue and white twisting grass. A number of people dressed in brightly coloured tunics with bells and tassels walked around this village by the hill. They saw her, and rushed to her. 

Arasine didn't know how long she'd slept for, but often came round during fever. Sometimes there was someone there with her, rinsing her hair and face, dressing her wounds, feeding her food and medicine. She couldn't remember what else happened since leaving the forest, and she woke up, recovering from a disease that she'd caught.

"Hello dear. It's nice to see you looking better," said the kind voice of an elder woman, who was dressed in a thin long robe of embroidered diamond patterns. Her hair was thick and bundled on top of her head, pinned with bamboo grips. "My name is Eloi. You're in the Grass House by the Yellow Snake River. I would love to find out what you were doing out in that dangerous jungle. But you don't need to talk about it yet, my dear, as you must rest. You had a nasty disease but the good news is that you're going to get well. The priests have been treating you day and night." Arasine thanked the woman, but she felt weak and talking felt painful. She soon slept and it was the most calm and relaxing sleep she'd had for so long. Two days later she woke up feeling strong and recovered. Eloi returned bringing a bundle of fresh clothes for Arasine. 

"You're awake," Eloi smiled. "I hope you can come down for breakfast. You've been in that bed for so long that you need exercise."

"Are you a priestess?"

"You have a lovely voice, dear. I judge that you're from South Diaphry where it's much cooler. Yes, I'm a priestess. So you must be of the Blue Path Faith too, by looking at your tunics and compass."

"Yes," she smiled. "I've been alone for almost an eternity in the jungles, and I nearly died. What was wrong with me?"

"You ate a vile conenose bug and there's plenty of them out there."

Arasine told Eloi about her journey as they walked from the wooden house, until they reached the main Grass House, that didn't look like the one in Belldark. This was a long one-storey building made of mahogany and stone. The temple itself was a large four storey tree house on wooden stilts, built against a giant redwood tree. The only thing grassy about that temple was the enchanting green animal figures that were handcrafted by members of the priesthood. Arasine found this Grass House community open and at one with nature. They appeared relaxed enough to have priestesses working in the gardens and around the buildings bare breasted as the men wore no tunics. Only Eloi was draped in a flowing thin dress, but only outside, the bright rays of the sunlight revealed her naked glory through the material. Arasine wore the dress that Eloi gave her and it was a gentle cool dress made of cotton in patterns of blue and yellow stripes. On her feet were leather sandals of blue and pink leather. 

"You had so many nits that we had to wash your hair in lemon oil and tea!" Eloi said. Arasine looked at the traces of yellow and gold in her hair. They didn't just nurse her and feed her, but they also gave her new clothes and dyed her hair blonde. These were Blue Path priests and she had to be courteous even if she wanted to ask so many questions. They entered the main door at the right end, facing West, and came to the dining hall. There was food on many tables, that consisted of cooked figs, pies, roast potatoes, berries, steamed fish, rice, lamb chops, apple tarts, cocoa, leeks, onions, asparagus, hog plums. There was a large dish with a smoked snake, beans, mushrooms, jelly, chickweed grass and ginger. She found dishes on other tables with pastries, fruit cakes, nuts, bread, cheese, black pudding and eyeballs. She tasted a cup of blue wine and sampled very little of the food. She didn't have much of an appetite after her illness and her body felt sensitive to the rich feast. The other priests were piling food on their plates, and pouring wine into cups. It wasn't what the priests in Belldark ate. Their food had been simple and basic while here it was suited for a king. She wondered why there was so much food, but as if they read her mind, one of the priests spoke to her. 

"All of this is to honour the priestess from the south of Diaphry," he said, and everyone raised their cups and goblets to her. They cheered her and gave her blessings.

"The feast is for me?" Arasine asked, not liking it. She thought about the poor people of the villages throughout the country in need of food. 

"Of course it is!" A priestess spoke up, with a mouthful of food.

Before she could respond, Arasine was distracted by a priest who gave her a scroll. "This letter came for you," he informed her, and stepped away. Arasine found that the scroll was sealed by wax and a blue ribbon. She opened the scroll and read it. The message came from the Zirch back in Belldark, and her eyes lit up, and then she began to read the words. They didn't. They couldn't have. She finished reading it and when she looked up, her eyes were full of tears. "What is the matter?" Eloi asked her.

"I've been dismissed from the Faith," she wept. "The Zirch has thrown me out of the Blue Path Faith. He's removed my position and status. I'm no longer a priestess."

As she wept, it seemed the hall filled with an audience of hundreds of priests and priestesses. They ate their food but turned dumb. Only the sounds of Arasine crying was heard and Eloi just stood next to her, stone faced, and then she moved away. 

"Why?" asked one priest from the crowd of eaters. 

"I failed to locate the Pearl Fox." It was written in the letter, that Ebriaso had found the Pearl Fox inside one of the white oak trees around the Grass House. Arasine was gone almost too long, longer than a year, and they'd decided to remove her. She wiped her tears, and everyone looked like marble. 

"A shamed priestess has been eating our food!" yelled a priestess from the crowd.

"Disgraceful!" shouted a man.

"You failed the Zirch, so you failed all of us!" Added the man who was kind to her before. The hall then became a din of angry voices from the priests and priestesses.  They all shouted at once. "A failure!" "You disgrace us all!", "She's not a priestess!" "Arasine doesn't belong here!" "Arasine has disappointed us!" "Go away!" "Leave us!" "Don't come back!" "Get out!" "You let us down!" "Arasine is useless!"

She ran from them all. The Grass House soon was behind her, and when she ran into the forest, she stopped and threw up. She'd kept the letter with her, and put it inside the pocket of her dress. She didn't go back. She didn't want to head south. She went north. She hated the Zirch and everyone who insulted her in the Grass House. She also hated Ebriaso for finding Pearl Fox that was meant for her. She hated Ikatra Niya for telling her big lies. She realised that Jerra and Biankra had been right all along. She wished she'd listened to them.