Paper Moons Part 13 (Patreon)

The girl look emaciated. The bones in her cheeks were sharp cuts across her skin and her eyes were a deep violet that pierced through the shadows.  I looked to her hands, the ones that had been braced near my neck and into the light of the fire. They looked thin and blistered, as if even the smallest amount of light was a detriment to her.

Gabriel stood between the two of us, his back corded, ready to strike if necessary.  I brushed my hand across his arm, trying to tell him silently to stand down.  There was no doubt that the girl in front of us was a dangerous creature but I wondered just how many people considered her dangerous without trying to understand.

“We aren’t here to hurt you,” I tried to assure her.  “In fact, if you are the person that we are here to seek, I would say we are here to help you more than anything else?” She cocked her head to the side, the motion causing her joints to crack loudly. I tried not to flinch. “Do you need help with anything?” I needed this girl to trust us.  I needed her to know we were not her enemy.  And in the end, I needed to know that we were not about to succumb to another trick of the market.  Perhaps if we got to know her a bit better, we could ask her what we came here for.

“Help?” The girl began to laugh. It was loud and shrieking and as I glanced over my shoulder I saw some of the villagers begin to move away. “Help the moon? Why would you help the moon?”

“You are the moon?” Gabriel asked, confused.

It somehow made her laughter higher pitched.  Behind her I could see the fissures of stone race up the cavern wall at the mere sound of it. I winced as I stepped forward, Gabriel bracing at my side as if to stop me.

“We just want to help,” I told her. “And maybe receive help in return. Would you like to talk with us? Is there somewhere more comfortable we can talk?”

Her eyes flashed. “Hungry,” she hissed.

I turned to Gabriel hesitantly.  He could see the question already in my eyes. “No,” he stated firmly.

“She looks sick,” I reasoned. Perhaps if I could just give her a little bit of my blood then she would be able to help us. Be clear-headed.

Gabriel was clearly having none of it, however. “You must eat down here. Where do you procure your food?” he asked.

When her gaze flicked over to a small hovel, both Gabriel and I turned. It looked worn, and the roof looked as if it needed patched but there was a candle in the window, flickering brightly.

“There?” I asked. “If we get you food from there will you speak to us?”

She receded into the shadows, crouching upon a rock and beginning to hum to herself.  Rising to my feet, I gestured towards Gabriel, asking him to follow. The two of us slowly made our way towards the house.

“Do you believe this is the wisest course of action?” he asked me.

“No. But if she is the girl we are supposed to speak to, which I do believe she is, what other choice do we have? She looks practically starving, the poor thing.  Even if she is not the person for us, we should at least tempt to feed her. We can’t just leave her like this.”

Gabriel’s face looked pinched but he said nothing to disagree with me. I was starting to wonder if he could. It was something I noted to speak to him about later.

There was no door to the hut. To any of them in fact. As we approached the one Kavatti indicated, I ducked my head inside. It was one circular room, barely wide enough to fit more than three people. There was a small shelf off to one side, lined with different jars and a set of stairs that led down into what looked like a cellar.

“Hello?” I called out.

A woman popped up, her frizzy hair tinged with blue and her coke bottle glasses sitting on the crisp apples of her tanned cheeks.  “You new?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yes. I uh- there’s a girl out there. Kavatti. She made an indication that there could be some food for her here?”

The woman chuckled, a deep and low hum. “Did she now?”  Climbing up from the cellar, she went over to the bookshelf. “Did she give you anything to trade for it?”  We didn’t have to answer for her to know. “No. I don’t suppose she would.”  Kicking the cellar door shut, she sighed, placing her hands on her ample hips. “Here’s the thing. Kavatti gets a bite of one of the locals here and there to keep her calm but any of the other donated blood, she does need to pay for. She has used up her rations for the week already.”

“Rations?”

“Yup,” she said with a pop.  “We all got them here.  Never a plush month.” Her eyes ticked over my shoulder to Gabriel. “What do you need Kavatti for anyway?”

I cleared my throat, unsure of how much I could really trust these people, but at the same time, if we started lying our way through everything, I didn’t think we were going to make quick friends.

“She might have some information we need,” I stated diplomatically. “But the state that we found her in doesn’t seem as if its going to be very helpful.”

“Probably not. She keeps going up top and talking to that moon out there. Deplete her energy.”

“Do you know what she is attempting?” Gabriel asked.

“Communing with the future, according to her. I don’t put much stock in it. No one here really does.”

“I’m sorry. I do have to ask.  We were under the impression that no one was out here. That the beasts got all the exiles.”

The woman leaned forward with a grin. “Because it’s important for you all to think that,” she said. “Because if you knew there were options, Velvet Guard wouldn’t have control.”

“But why not shatter that illusion?”

“Because we are small. And there are children. And sometimes, it is best to be forgotten,” she said sadly. “Now, what do you want to do about, Kavatti?”

[[We have nothing to trade. Feed her yourself]]

[[Trade your dagger for blood]]

[[Try to find someone within the village that can help or donate blood]]