The Rapha and the Firefly, page 20
“Daddy,” Ariel’s voice whispered in his ear. “Do you trust me?”
He looked at his daughter again and she nodded. Believe me, her eyes pleaded. With one last look at his youngest daughter, SkyKing made a decision. He brought the berry in his hand up to his mouth and ate it.
The men gasped. The women and children stared wide mouthed and open eyed. A smile spread across Ariel’s face. SkyKing contemplated the flavor that filled his mouth and nodded his approval before giving his proclamation:
“Whoever wants some, can have some,”
The children gathered around greedily, adding their pleas to their mothers’. A few men were lingering there. They hadn’t been as lucky as Thorn in their foraging.
“The men should have first choice!” they proclaimed.
Ariel’s heart fell. Did they always have to get everything first?
The group looked for SkyKing to back up what the men said. He thought for a few seconds.
“Ariel found it, she can share it however she wants to,” he declared.
“But…” the men stammered. “We’re the men! We should be fed first!”
“Then learn to find food better,” the King rebuked them.
As it was, the berry was big enough to afford a handful of fruit to anyone who wanted some, even the greedy men. After everyone had their share, Ariel came up to her father.
“Daddy, it will make them sick it that’s all they have to eat,” she admitted. “It’s not poison, it’s just too much will give them watery poop.”
SkyKing scrutinized her. “How would you know that?” he wanted to know.
“It’s not the first time I’ve eaten them,” she humbly confessed. She cringed there, half expecting to be hit for her statement. He stared at her for a long time, but said nothing. Instead, he took the piece of meat out from under his arm and looked down at his hands. One held the meat, the other the strawberry. The chunks were about the same size. He stared at the meat. He had already eaten a sizable amount of it. What was left, he handed to his daughter.
“Share this with the children,” he instructed.
She gaped in amazement at the gift.
The King had gone back to scrutinizing the fruit.
“We used to eat these,” he recalled again. in a low voice that only Ariel could hear. “Before your mother died. The woman would gather them and we’d eat them. And other berries too. And then, we stopped. It made sense because the berries were poison. But then the elders decided married women were no longer allowed to leave the barn. They were the ones who gathered them, and once the gathering stopped, there was no need for them to leave.”
He glowered at the men arguing with one another on the other side of the barn, and continued his confession to his daughter. “The men didn’t care, because they could gather as much road kill and scraps as they needed to fill their bellies. And at first, it was enough to feed everyone. As the years passed though, there was less food, and no one remembered the berries anymore.”
“Because, as long as the men were fed, they didn’t care about the women and children,” Ariel surmised.
Her father didn’t answer. He was blinking again, trying to figure out how they had degraded so far. He stared at the starving children, greedily eating the berry.
Ariel looked at the women and children around them. Windy came up, and tentatively asked if there was any more. But the berry was gone. Nothing was left except what was in her father’s hands. Thinking quickly, Ariel handed off the chunk of meat, telling her sister to tear it up and give it to the children. Windy stared as if it were treasure but nodded. Her child would receive meat that day. She also made sure a portion found its way into Breeze’s hands.
SkyKing looked at the women and children gathered there, unsure what to do. Ariel had some ideas though.
“Daddy,” she whispered to him. “I know where these berries grow. The married women aren’t allowed to leave the barn, but I can show the older kids, so they can gather them and help feed their families. These berries are good, Daddy! Look how hungry these children are! This food can save them, Daddy. Please! Lift the ban so the children can eat too!”
The flyer leader stared at his daughter for a few long moments, his expression unreadable.
“You are so much like your mother,” he finally told her. His voice caught in his throat as he looked at his youngest, amazed how she had somehow become so like her deceased parent, not only in looks but in how she cared about the overlooked members of their community. When had she grown into this young woman beside him? But he’d have to figure that out at another time. He turned and barked at some of the other youths.
“Blaze, Fern, Dew, Fox!” he demanded sharply. “Get over here! Now!”
They quickly scurried over, wondering how they’d drawn his attention. The young teenagers, two boys and two girls. stood before him trembling. To their relief, the king pointed at his youngest daughter.
“Ariel knows where these berries grow. She’s going to show you. Bring some back for the colony and share them.”
The youngsters stood there, staring at him, uncomprehending.
“NOW!” he roared.
That got them going.
Even Ariel beat a hasty retreat out the barn door with the others on her heels. As she took to the sky, she broke into a broad smile.
Today it’s strawberries, she thought to herself. Tomorrow, I’ll show them where to find mushrooms! And the day after, maybe frog or fish eggs! Clover, pecans, blackberries, river oysters… Her mind reeled with all the possibilities her time with the plains’ keepers had exposed her to. In her days with them, they’d shown her how to find the treasures nature held, what was poison and what wasn’t, how to crack nuts and shell fish. The world was now opened to her, and she was going to save her colony.
Oh, you may have banished me, Keeper! she thought to herself, but I am not going to be idle!
32
GeAnn Powers, The Rapha and the Firefly
