Chapter Text
Wow! Clay tablets! I finished the clay tablets! Oh great and mighty Mesopotamian culture, may you live forever!
I had just written the last word of the bedtime story Mom always told me when I was bedridden onto the clay tablets and was savoring the immense sense of accomplishment when I heard a deep, unfamiliar voice burst from the bushes behind me.
“I think I found it!” said the voice, making me turn quickly in its direction. “Look at this, it’s… Hey, what the heck are you kids doing?”
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” I slapped my cheeks and screamed in a way that made me look like Edvard Munch’s The Scream itself. What I saw before me was so unbelievable that my mind went blank.
Lutz, holding his gathering basket, ran back to where I was. “What is it, Myne?!”
“This guy stepped on them! He ruined everything! Lutz, I… UWAAAH!” The first half of the story I had fully written—more than half, actually—had become a shapeless mass under the man’s boots. The stranger stared at me, stunned. His bluish-purple hair, stuck all over his face, was drenched in sweat and mud—a funny sight on any other occasion, but at that moment all I felt was despair. The tablets fell apart, and his footprints made the text illegible.
“I-I finally finished them… How cruel! Uwaaah! Do you have any idea how hard I worked to get here?! How hard it was for me to strengthen this weak and sick body…?! I even got Lutz and Tuuli involved to finish them, and even so! GAAAH! YOU IDIOT! STUPID FOOL!”
I glared at the man with all my might, stifling sobs as tears streamed down my face. Anger surged through my body as if it wanted to boil my blood, but somehow my mind was eerily calm. Deep down, I knew I was being immature and that this stranger could be dangerous for all of us, but I just couldn’t calm down.
The stranger’s eyes widened before he shrank back from my glare, slowly retreating in fear.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but this is bad, really bad… Karl, we’ve got an emergency here!”
…I was almost there! Just one more step and I could have made a book, and now it’s all a mess!
“Look, little girl… Myne, right?” the stranger tried to talk, coming closer, and stepped on yet another tablet, which made my anger boil even hotter. I narrowed my eyes and was seized by a wild urge to kick him. That must have shown on my face because the man seemed to choke on his words and stepped back just as a second man, visibly alarmed, appeared behind him.
“What the heck did you do?!?”
“I don’t know!!! Listen, little girl… Myne… you need to calm down!”
“The tablets, sir! Get off of them!” Lutz pointed to the ground, showing the mess that my attempt at making a book had become. The stranger finally realized he was standing on something and leapt backward, bumping comically into his companion.
“Myne, what happened?!” Tuuli, who had run over when she heard me scream, looked at my face and immediately her expression twisted in fear, just like the stranger’s had before. Fey and the others appeared right behind her and also went pale when they saw me. “…What happened? You look really, really angry.” She looked away and glanced around to assess the situation while comforting me. “Myne, you can’t be this angry. I’m sure these gentlemen didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, right?”
Whether or not they meant to hurt me, the destroyed clay tablets wouldn’t come back. My rage at all my effort being wasted couldn’t be soothed by Tuuli’s words alone.
“Whatever! I’ll never forgive him!” With tears and snot running down my face, I glared at the two strangers with all my might as they squirmed. Trembling, the second stranger leaned on his companion to step shakily aside, reached into a pouch at his waist, took something out, and tossed it to Lutz.
“Kid, put this to her forehead, quick!”
Soon after, I felt something touch my forehead and the heat boiling my blood seemed to cool little by little. Lutz, realizing that whatever he had done had worked, gave me a pat on the back.
“I remember you saying you spent three months getting stronger just so you could go to the forest and make [clay tablets]. I get why you’re mad. I get why you don’t want to forgive him, I really do. But no matter how angry you get, what’s done is done. The only thing you can do is make them again. And, yeah, I’ll help you.”
“If we start now, we can reach the gate before it closes. I’ll help, Myne. Okay?” Tuuli immediately agreed, then stepped closer to take a good look at the object Lutz was pressing to my forehead. “Wow, that’s one of those stones animals like shumils leave behind, isn’t it? Only much bigger… Oops! Lutz!”
“Oh no, it broke…” Lutz muttered as he watched a handful of golden sand slip through his fingers. He slowly turned to the two strangers with an apologetic look. “Uh… sorry?”
Luckily for him, though, the men were staring at us in shock, too stunned to care about their broken stone.
The man who had arrived later, with thin reddish-brown hair, elbowed the book-destroyer and waved to us, while his companion cleared his throat and straightened up.
“I still don’t quite understand the situation, but I think I destroyed something important to you. So, besides my deepest apologies, I’ll make myself available to help you. Is that okay?”
Lutz and Tuuli exchanged glances and seemed to come to an understanding, because Lutz stepped forward as if to shield the two of us from the strangers.
Uh… Lutz?
“There’s no need, sir. It’s not a lot of work. The three of us are enough to finish in time.”
“Yes, you seem like someone important. I’m sure you must be busy with… well, important things!” Tuuli hurried to say, and only then did I stop to take a closer look at the two men. I might not be the most knowledgeable about sewing, but it was as clear as day that although their clothes looked plain at first glance and were muddy, they were made from high-quality fabric. That, and the quick, polite speech from before, practically announced money.
And I had yelled at them?!
Stranger number one seemed amused by us and sat down extravagantly.
“Syl—! You know what, never mind…” Stranger number two protested in vain before sitting down as well, and a wave of sympathy for the poor man washed over me. The book-destroying stranger really did seem like a hard person to deal with.
“Luckily for you, I’m nobody important,” he said, pointing to the animals stranger two was carrying. “We also don’t have anything important to do for the rest of the day. We were just out hunting nearby when we heard noises this way and came to see what was going on.”
Tuuli sighed in relief, but Lutz still looked wary.
“You talk kind of funny.”
“And you wear fancy clothes.”
“Oh? This?” Stranger one grabbed his shirt, took a look, laughed, and pointed to his companion. “This guy works as a hunter for a noble, and I help him every now and then. When you’re used to dealing with nobles, you end up speaking a little strangely sometimes. And you get nice clothes, too.”
Stranger two sighed deeply.
“Well, since we’re here, let me introduce us. I’m Syl, and this is Karl. And who are you?”
Tuuli happily introduced us, cutely pointing at each of us as she said our names. She was clearly quite charmed by stranger one’s easy smile.
Tuuli, this is a trap! That awful guy destroyed my tablets! Whose side are you on?!
While I pouted at my sister, Syl clapped his hands to get our attention.
“So? What were those things I stepped on, anyway? Sorry about that, by the way.”
“Clay tablets,” I replied promptly, still sulking.
“And what are they for?”
“To make a book.”
Syl blinked once, then again, before bursting out laughing.
I’m going to kick this guy in the shin! No, Lutz, don’t hold me back! It’s just a little kick, really quick! It won’t even hurt!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to take my revenge. To my surprise, Karl pulled a stick out of somewhere and smacked Syl on the head with a loud smack! Syl straightened up quickly, now sulking.
Nice one, Karl!
As it turned out, books in this world are apparently works of art, created on parchment by calligraphers who provide beautiful writing, artists who supply illustrations, and leather craftsmen who make the covers, sometimes encrusted with precious stones and gold details. Looking at it this way, my humble attempt to make a book out of clay tablets really did seem laughable.
Not that I would ever admit that to Syl.
“It’s all the nobles’ fault!” I shouted, frustrated, with my fists clenched.
“Excuse me?!”
“Myne, don’t say something so careless!”
“Books, as you yourself explained, are ridiculously expensive, and a commoner like me could never get her hands on one under normal circumstances. That’s why I decided to make a book myself! Besides, I don’t care about purely ornamental details,” I declared, shrugging and ignoring everyone’s horrified faces. “As long as there’s something written in it, I’ll be satisfied with whatever format it takes.”
After we realized that the two strangers weren’t leaving anytime soon, Tuuli, Lutz, and I assigned Karl, who looked more responsible, to help move the surviving tablets out of the way, while Syl was put in charge of reshaping the destroyed clay into new tablets. Fey and the others were sent back to their gathering, which they seemed oddly eager and grateful to do. I would still have to reread everything to see which parts were missing and rewrite them, so I was wandering around looking for a new stick, since my old one had broken at some point during the earlier chaos.
“If you say so. And who’s going to write on those tablets once they’re ready? Actually, will the ink even stick well to that? I’ve never seen anything like it before…”
“Uh, Syl…” Karl called out from the side, carefully holding one of the undamaged tablets. “They’re already written on. Look.”
Syl looked closely at what his partner showed him and his eyes widened. Then he glanced around at all the tablets Karl had carried and then at the trees, as if searching for someone else.
“Which one of you wrote this?”
Lutz pointed at me. “Myne is the only one of us who knows how to read and write.”
“Wait, really?”
I nodded, proudely puffing out my chest. “Unfortunately, my vocabulary is still limited to what I see daily and what comes to me when I help fill out paperwork at the city gate. There’s no reading material in the lower city, which is a real torment for me, y’know?”
The adults were gaping at me, looking as if I were some kind of transcendental being or something. I squirmed uncomfortably under their attention and gripped the twig I’d picked up earlier.
“What kind of three-year-old says ‘vocabulary’?!”
“Excuse me?!”
Damn you, enemy of dreams and destroyer of books! I know I’m small, but I’m not that small!!! I’m not!!!
“Myne, how old are you?” Karl asked cautiously, ignoring Syl, who was holding his head in his hands.
“I’ll be six in the summer,” I mumbled with a pout.
“What?!” Syl wailed, suddenly even more disturbed. “No, no, no… This can’t be. None of this makes sense! The little girl is literate?! And six years old? You’re tiny! It’s like… It’s like Blau! Karl, doesn’t she look like Blau?!”
“What’s a blau?”
“A shumil he had when he was a child,” Karl supplied, clearly regretting many life choices.
“And what the heck is a shumil?”
“A cute little creature, but small and weak, that even children can hunt,” Tuuli replied next.
“Hey, you, that’s just mean!!!” I shouted, indignant at the disrespect.
“Syl, for all the gods’ sake, don’t provoke the girl any further. We don’t need another outburst here.”
“I’m not provoking her! It’s an observation! And a relevant one! I mean, look at her! She’s smaller than my son, and he’s younger than she is!’
“Wait, you’re a father?!” I asked, horrified.
Now it was Syl’s turn to look offended.
“I am, so what?!”
The sound of Tuuli and Lutz’s laughter echoed among us, making me momentarily forget the ongoing argument. I looked at them, very confused.
“Sorry, Myne,” Lutz said between laughs. “But now that Syl mentioned it, I realized you really do look like a shumil.”
“Lutz, not you too!”
Tuuli wiped her tears with the back of her hand and gave me a pat on the head, mocking my sulky face with a wry smile.
“Our Myne was born quite weak, you know? She’s always sick, so she didn’t grow much,” she explained, her hand gently stroking my hair. “Today, in fact, was the first time she came to the forest walking on her own. Before that, we always had to carry her part of the way.”
“Sick, huh? What’s that like? She looks pretty energetic to me,” Karl commented. He held his chin and narrowed his eyes, observing me closely.
Lutz shrugged.
“She never has the strength or stamina for physical work.”
“And she always has a high fever every few days. We never really knew why, right, Myne?”
“I see…” Syl murmured.
I was surprised to realize that he, in a rare moment of silence, was also watching me. For a brief instant, I thought I saw a knowing glint in his green eyes that gave me chills.
“By the way, does that happen often?” Syl asked, returning to his cheeky tone. He ran a piece of rag that Lutz had given him between his fingers, carefully cleaning the clay from his hands. A strange, satisfied smile played on his lips, but I pushed aside any thoughts I had about that for the moment. I had more important things to worry about. The newly made tablets were already all set out, ready to receive the text. I had just read all the others and mentally noted which parts would go on each tablet.
I was heading toward the first one to start my part of the work, when Tuuli spoke up.
“That what?”
“You know. The little one getting scary. She gets so angry she loses control and goes…” Syl trailed off, making wild gestures around his own head.
What?
“Not many times. Only sometimes, when Myne gets irrational for some reason,” Tuuli replied, scratching her head and thinking hard. I didn’t understand any of it, but looking at Lutz and Tuuli, it seemed like they knew exactly what Syl was talking about.
“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, confused, but was ignored.
“Has anyone else seen this happen besides us?” Karl asked next, in a neutral tone.
“I think just our parents. Why?”
“Is Myne in trouble?”
Tuuli and Lutz’s worried glances darted from me to the men and back again, but I had no idea what they were talking about. Karl and Syl didn’t seem particularly alarmed, but there was a hidden seriousness in Karl’s question that I could still sense.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Syl said. “But, either way, it’s probably best if we keep this a secret, don’t you think? No one would be happy to hear that a scary shumil girl is roaming around threatening everyone’s peace, right?”
Lutz and Tuuli nodded solemnly, not paying attention to my growing confusion.
But what the heck are they talking about, anyway?!
After that, and with no one explaining anything to me about what was going on, I quickly set about writing the missing parts of the story of the star children. While I worked hard, Syl and Karl stayed close by, praising my handwriting and, from time to time, correcting a word I wrote wrong. It was during this process that they told me my writing level was advanced for my age, even by noble standards, which surprised me a lot.
Another thing that surprised me was that, despite our previous disagreements, I found myself having fun throughout the short time under their guidance. Karl was definitely a patient man, and Syl, even though he was terribly childish, proved to be honest and genuinely interested in my progress. Also, although they were strange, neither of them seemed to want to hurt or harm any of us.
However, after such a stressful day and so many enigmatic conversations, it was no surprise to anyone that, the next morning, I woke up with a fever and was forbidden from getting out of bed that day.