Maliha

The silence was comforting as Maliha and Ujarak walked to her tent. The night was alive with animal sounds as the tribe slowly began to retreat into their homes in preparation for sleep.

Ujarak’s large hand rested along Enzo’s back as he carried him the long distance to their tent. Enzo’s night had been excitable, Ujarak had invited them to sit at their fire and though it had been nothing extravagant, Enzo had been in awe of all of the interplays between the ruling members of the tribe.

He had barely touched his food and instead had been fascinated by the topics they discussed. The boy was a ball of energy and finally he had crashed.

“Thank you for having us.” Maliha murmured as she opened the flap of her tent for a Ujarak to enter.

His steps faltered as he took in the decor of her tent. What had once been bare material was now infused with personality, colour and small comforts that made this a true home.

“Your home is beautiful”

“Thank you,” She chuckled at his awestruck expression.

Enzo had helped as much as he could, picking out the fabrics and materials he liked best. Their home was no longer bare but full of vibrant energy, plants hung from the ceilings emitting their calming energies into the room and helping Maliha sleep at night.

“That’s his bed.” She pointed to the one in the far corner.

Ujarak slowly sat on the edge of the palette and lay Enzo down before he began stripping the boy out of his clothes until he was in nothing but a small undergarment.

“He likes to sleep on top of the covers,” Maliha interfered, halting Ujarak from pulling back the covers.

Colour tinged his cheeks as he thanked her bashfully.

Maliha tried to ignore his embarrassment but she couldn’t do so. Enzo had been in Ujarak’s care and yet he didn’t know something as simple as Enzo’s sleeping preference. She didn’t mean to judge, not when Ujarak was trying to make up for his mistakes but she couldn’t help herself. It had taken Ujarak years to finally realise his errors with the boy and that was only after an Alhasmiji had highlighted it to him.

It was a start though.

There was a break of awkward silence between them as they finally finished putting Enzo to sleep. Maliha leant over and kissed Enzo’s forehead before looking to Ujarak for guidance.

Taking the hint that Maliha was unsure what to do with him, Ujarak climbed to his feet and headed to the tent entrance. He halted by the flap before turning back to face her.

“Do you mind sitting outside with me for a while?”

Maliha’s head tilted to the side as she tried to figure out Ujarak’s play.

“I have a meeting soon but it’s a nice night out.”

“A meeting at this time?” She questioned.

Ujarak had become inundated with endless piles of work over the past few days. The day was almost over and yet Ujarak was still having meetings. She knew that the clan meeting was approaching soon and Ujarak and the council had been trying to figure out ways to strengthen the weakening bonds between the Dahsolik nation. There was so much pressure on his shoulders and sometimes he just needed someone to talk to other than council members who had their own agendas and now that Maliha and Ujarak had established a friendship, she found herself becoming his confident.

Often times they would just sit in utter silence, or Maliha would tell him of the tales of her journeys and sometimes their conversations would turn deep and philosophical.

Climbing to her feet, she gathered a few pillows and a blanket before following him outside. She set the down on the floor and then took a seat, her arms wrapping around her legs as she stared out at the starry sky.

“Wait a moment” Ujarak Murmured.

He headed back inside her tent and remained missing for a while. When he finally returned he carried a small pot of tea and two cups.

“You made that quick.”

Maliha murmured as she sipped on the sweet warm brew. Ujarak put the tea pot down on the floor beside him before sinking down onto a cushion beside Maliha and picking up his glass.

“It’s always handy being able to do this.” His palm opened, and a lambent flame flickered on his palm.

Maliha was in awe at the ease in which he just produced the fire, for her, she had to concentrate order to draw the energy from the earth and she told him as much.

“The thing is, Makula wouldn’t teach you this yet but we can conjure the elements without having to tap into the earths energy.”

“I don’t understand.”

Ujarak’s teeth sunk into his bottom lip as he stormed against his rubbles face. His beard was growing back now that he hadn’t had time to groom his face.

“Our Dahsmani is energy in itself, néh? We believe our souls are made up of energy that when our body dies it is released to an astral plane where we sit with our ancestors.”

Maliha’s head nodded in agreement. One of the first things she had learnt about the Der Surjaz, was their understanding of beings having two bodies. The physical and spiritual, the spiritual that was made up of energy that could be fused with the energy of their ancestors at birth and death. The idea that their ancestors lived within them was a very real belief that had never been present in the Melikit tribe. The closest she had come to seeing this belief was among the Feri tribe.

“So, if our soul is energy, energy imbued with powers, thanks to Savuriya’s gift, why can we not use it as a fuel to conjure the elements?”

Hiss question was so matter of fact, as if it only made sense but Maliha couldn’t resonate completely with what he was saying.

“If that has always been a possibility, why would Makula not teach me that?”

“Because It is dangerous. If you are in a battle you can’t just tap into your Dahsmani, if you do, you would essentially be depleting your bodies energy and it would weaken your physical strength.”

Using up your bodies energy to conjure the elements was only a quick tool to defence but in the long run it could leave a person open to an attack that they would be too weak to defend against.

“Makula is teaching you the proper way to tap into energies for your protection, so that your natural inclination is not to draw form your body but to draw from the earth.”

Maliha’s head tilted to the side as she pondered his words.

“Can you teach me how to call fire your way.”

Ujarak was hesitant at first but then reluctantly nodded his head in agreement.

“Okay, close your eyes.”

“Now think fire, see it in your hand. Call it from your being.”

Maliha struggled to do as he told, every time she sought to find the fire she saw the charged particles that made u this earth and felt the fire beneath her feet, but she could not feel it from within.

“No, you are calling. The fire in the earth.” He growled huskily, slapping the earth.

“Don’t do that. You need to see the energy that emits form within you.”

Maliha concentrated again and was pleasantly pleased when she felt the energy inside her begin to uncoil from the tight ball it had been furled in. she still felt the earths energy but now the energy from within her was louder, stronger and more vibrant. It called to her.

“Yes” he gasped in delight.

“There you go.”

Maliha slowly opened her eyes to see a flickering blue flame in her hand. It flickered from blue to green before blazing red. A few months ago, she had no idea that such beings like the Der Surjaz existed and now she was one of them.

“Why the different colours?”

“It’s in relation to your true elements. The elements you naturally call to. Water and earth.”

It made sense as water and earth were the first element’s she had ever called when her power had been awakened.

“Thank you, Ujarak.”

“It was my pleasure.”

They sat in comfortable silence, watching the stars blinking in the cool nights air whilst they drank the hot brew.

“It’s been a while since I have done this,” the melancholy in his tone caught Maliha by surprise

“Done what?”

“Stay up and watch the night while drinking camomile tea,” he mumbled staring at the cup as if it had the answers to the world. “My mother used to make this for me every night.”

The loss of his other was so clear to see in his expression. Her death was something that they had never breached and one that people rarely discussed but it seemed that Ujarak wanted to discuss it now. There was a restless dark energy surrounding him

“It’s good that you have memories of her.”

At least at times like this when the loss became heavy for him, Ujarak still had good memories of his mother to he could remember.

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t have any memories. It makes it easier not to see how bad she got before she died.”

“How did - if you don’t mind me asking, how did she-”

“Die?”

He laughed darkly, bitterness ebbing from his pores as he stared down at his cup of camomile tea as if it had all the answers.

“My mother killed herself.”

Shock. Maliha could not hide her shock at Ujarak’s mother actions. she had killed herself. Maliha couldn’t imagine the type of mind frame a person had to be in to commit suicide knowing that they would be leaving their child behind.

“I used to hate her,” he spat, “I hated that she had put that man’s love above mine but as I got the older I realised something.

She had no one. She was a wander from the La Aquy tribe who had fallen upon this tribe. She was so young and naïve to trust my father, but she did. she trusted them all and when she was at her weakest point of her life, my father stabbed her in the heart.”

Maliha was horrified. Horrified that Ujarak had to grow up knowing that his mother had not only killed herself but had been pushed to that point by his father.

Her heart broke for Ujarak and his mother. She had been a young woman who had known years of loss in the form of her unborn and stillborn children. she had survived that, but the betrayal of having to watch her life mate raise a daughter that was not hers, whilst her daughters were nothing but ashes, it had been too much.

“He ruined my mother and Savuriya made him pay for it.”

Maliha put down her cup of tea and rested her hand on his broad shoulder. He seemed so much smaller, so vulnerable. Ujarak’s grief had Maliha moving before she could even think.

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she pulled him into her embrace. Her skin was damp with his tears as he buried his face into her chest. Tears glided down her cheeks at the pain his mother had suffered through and at the pain that still tainted Ujarak. His parents had been careless and selfish, not thinking for one moment how their actions would affect their child.

They sat there for what felt like hours, Maliha rocking Ujarak back and forth until the last shake ebbed from his body. He slowly pulled his head from her embrace and wiped the tears that glistened along his eyelashes.

Maliha watched Ujarak in admiration as he sipped on his tea and regained his composure.

“In my mother’s death, my father became reckless. He fought with La Aquy who learnt of his indiscretions. He fought dangerously and eventually his actions caught up to him and he was hit with a poisonous arrow by a warrior of the La Aquy tribe.”

Ujarak stared at the pale-yellow liquid of his tea, before gulping back the rest of the drink.

“In his last days he called for my mother and spoke of nothing but the curse. He was barely recognisable and though I hated him for what he did, I wasn’t prepared to be an ormas.”

Ujarak would have rather had a father that had been the cause of his mother’s torment, than be alone and have the tribe looking to him for guidance. In the end, he had no choice but to step up to the role of Razi.

“How old were you when you became the leader?”

“Officially, I became the leader at sixteen, but I had been acting as the Razi since the age of twelve, the moment my father died.”

So young. At twelve Maliha had just began noticing boys in a more sexual way then she had before. At twelve, she had just begun learning how to cook soup whilst Ujarak was not only dealing with the tragic deaths of both of his parents, but he was stepping into the role of Razi.

“Did the council not think you were too young?” she sputtered.

“They did, but Urik had only married into the family. I was the next leader.”

Learning of Ujarak’s parent’s past, made it easier for Maliha to see how he had become the man he was. His childhood had been shrouded in grief and scandal and then he had been shoved into the position of Razi. Had he ever had a moment to just, laugh, as a child?

Maliha doubted it and that was sadder than any neglect she had gone through.