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JASIRA HURLED EMPTY BOXES AROUND THE ROOM, searching for the absolute essentials to take with her. She shoved anything useful she could find into an old backpack Vaika had found in the ruins years ago. It was big enough to carry a short rope, a dagger and two empty canisters she could fill with water. She also packed a few tins of food they had stocked up on – mostly cans of expired tuna and beans. Jasira wasn’t even sure if they were still edible, but she’d rather take the chance than eat Prianaj’s food.
She continued tossing everything all over the house, stumbling across childhood memories. A small wooden doll she used to play with fit perfectly inside her palm. Its leg was broken in half, and it had a crack running through its side. She used to fight with Vaika to play with it. That was until Vaika carved her wooden lion.
Jasira found some thin blankets and spare clothes to take with her. Stacked in a small pile of books was the pocket Bible her sister had gifted her six months ago. She placed it inside her back pocket to keep forever as a memento of Vaika.
Someone pounded at the back door and an unknown voice yelled Jasira’s name. Then the house shook with more pounding on the other walls. She immediately raced to throw any last-minute items into her bag and headed through the tunnel. With her baby bump, she didn’t fit easily, but scraping her hands and knees on the metal surface as she wriggled through, she finally broke free into the outer city.
It was December, and the winter air was the coldest it had ever been. Tiny amounts of snow were falling in parts of the city where snow hadn’t fallen for years. Jasira didn’t have many layers of clothing to wear. She had the same boots on her feet that she always wore and thick socks that probably hadn’t been washed for a while. Her thick jacket covered her entire torso, with almost no room for a ripped scarf around her neck.
Some Cerberi came out of nowhere, walking in pairs towards Jasira. Without hesitation, she ran as far as her legs could take her. As she ran, the terrain began to change under her feet; the pavement and cement of the city began to give way to the tall wild grass that submerged it. She wasn’t used to this terrain, and neither were the Cerberi, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to catch her. The city faded away into the distance as she ran further. She passed Prianaj’s wooden cart, but it was empty; no fruits or vegetables filled it up like usual.
Jasira’s stomach rumbled, and her tongue was parched. She tried to drink her saliva to quench her thirst, but it wasn’t helping. She passed a garden that stretched quite far, most likely owned by Prianaj. The sound of running water could be heard further up the mountain. There was a flowing stream there. From what Jasira learned when she was younger, fresh water could be found in springs in the mountains. She figured it was probably where everyone else in The Border got their drinking water from. The water was clear enough for Jasira to see the pebbles at the bottom. She scooped her hands together, and they almost froze. She didn’t care, though; her throat was as parched as the desert in the summer. She filled her two canisters and continued up the mountain, walking alongside the stream.
Jasira kept making her way up the mountainside, getting further from The Border. The sun was beginning to set, and she didn’t have anywhere to rest. She was physically exhausted as if the life had been completely drained from her body. She couldn’t bear it emotionally. Finally, she saw an opening in the mountain ahead of her.
A cave, she thought.
Jasira entered cautiously, tiptoeing on the grass and hay that covered the ground. She looked around the cave, admiring how the rocky walls glowed like soft embers in the warm light from the setting sun outside. The cave wasn’t large. There was just enough space for a makeshift bed at the back, and a table to the side with a pan and a short stack of metal cups.
It’s strange that all these things are here. Jasira thought.
Underneath the table sat a small basket with some loaves of white and multigrain bread. Their scent wafted into Jasira’s nose, and her stomach rumbled again. She crouched down and reached for a small loaf, picking up one of the multigrain buns. The crust crackled as she tore it in half effortlessly. She held it close to her nose, smelling the sweet, soft crumb. The bread made her mouth water, and she tore off a mouthful. It was as if it simply melted in her mouth, disappearing past her teeth.
“You shouldn’t eat the first thing you see. I could have poisoned it.” A voice echoed on the stone walls. The deep, clear voice was familiar.
Jasira gulped, swallowing the rest of the bread in her mouth, and turned her head to the entrance. Silhouetted against the sunlight was the woman who had just spoken. Jasira squinted her eyes and tried to block the sunlight from entering her eyes. The woman’s bushy hair covered most of her face, and she wore thick layers of clothing. Jasira recognised who it was.
“Prianaj!” Jasira breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”
“Jasira, isn’t it?” Prianaj rolled Jasira’s name off her tongue. “Why are you here?” she asked, taking off her sheepskin jacket and prepared a fire.
“I left the main city.”
“Yes, I can see that.” Prianaj said, pointing to Jasira’s bag of supplies. “I saw your sister today.”
“So you should know why I am here.” Jasira assumed.
“Yes, I was expecting you.”
“So why ask?”
“To see if you know what you're doing here.” Prianaj emphasised.
Jasira stepped back on the dried hay that crunched under her feet.
“There’s no need to be afraid, Jasira, your sister trusted me enough to take care of you and the baby, or else she wouldn’t have told you to find me. How long do you plan on staying?”
“Only three months, until the baby is born. Then I’ll return to the city.”
“If you return to the city when the baby is born, they’ll ask where you’ve been for the last three months. And you can’t go back if the baby is, well, a boy,” Prianaj said.
“My child most definitely is female. The prophecy can’t be about me.”
“You can’t be entirely sure, Jasira. Do you know the entire prophecy?” Prianaj asked, taking a seat on the bed.
“Of course I do.”
Prianaj rearranged some twigs in a stone fire pit as darkness slowly crept into the cave. She looked at Jasira and remained quiet, awaiting a response.
“The prophecy is that a boy will be born in the third month of the year during a blood moon,” Jasira said confidently.
Prianaj still kept quiet, waiting for more.
“You’re halfway there,” Prianaj began as she struck two stones together, lighting the twigs and dry leaves. “A boy of royal blood will be born in the third month of the year. Immediately after his birth, a full moon as red as blood will signal his arrival.” She wafted air into the fire to fuel it. “He shall take his place as leader, the first boy since the Culling.”
Jasira sighed in relief and rested her legs on a pile of hay.
“I’m not of royal blood,” she said.
“Your sister told me you were adopted, yes?”
“That’s true.” She paused, rubbing her lower back. “But Vaika would have told me who my mother was. And what if you got it wrong, the prophecy, perhaps the month is off.”
“The prophecy cannot be wrong.” Prianaj stressed her words.
“How can you be sure?” Jasira asked.
“It cannot be wrong because I am the oracle who prophesied it.”
With those words, the sun sank beneath the horizon, and darkness completely filled the cave.
###
JASIRA AWOKE TO AN empty cave, the spring breeze blowing inside. Prianaj had gone to the city to sell her supplies. The cave was always darkest in the mornings, as the sunlight shone on the other side of the mountain first. Jasira waited in bed, not wanting to move; her baby bump was too heavy.
Prianaj came back early with a torch in hand; its flames licked at dust particles in the air and spat them back out in tiny amber sparks.
“You’re back early. Any luck selling today?” Jasira asked.
“No,” she said. “I rushed back as fast as I could.”
Jasira sat up, all her attention on Prianaj’s words.
“What is it?”
Prianaj gently rested the torch in the holder attached to the wall. Its light, combined with the sun’s, was enough to illuminate the dried tears on Prianaj’s coffee-coloured skin. Her wrinkles weren’t as prominent as they usually were, but her eyes were dark around the edges.
“Jasira,” she began, “Vaika was the kindest soul I ever met.”
Was? Jasira thought.
“She lived a lot longer than the healers predicted. Even longer than I predicted,” Prianaj continued. “This morning, I went to see her. She took her very last breath in my arms. I’m so sorry, Jasira. She’s gone.”
Jasira felt a wave of sadness wash over her. Even though there was sufficient lighting in the cave, it felt like the light had died out. Her eyes blurred and her head became heavy. A sob rose in her throat, and a sting pierced her chest as her heart twisted. Her eyes prickled with tears, but they didn’t seem to fall. She rounded her arms around Prianaj, who comforted her. It was the first time in three months Jasira had shown an ounce of emotion to Prianaj.
“I know,” Prianaj said, gently patting Jasira’s head.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye.” She choked between sniffles.
“I know what it’s like. My baby was taken from me when she was young.”
“How did you deal with your baby’s death?” Jasira asked, using her shirt to wipe the tears from her face.
“My baby was stolen. I searched for years, but nothing. I still have no closure,” Prianaj said.
Later in the day, Jasira helped pick Vaika’s favourite flower, dahlia. She only picked the bright orange ones, her sister’s favourite colour. She gathered some smaller flowers with large leaves as well and bound them into a wreath. Prianaj threw a black sheepskin coat over her own shoulders. She tied her rusty greying brunette hair in a high bun.
“I feel like I knew she didn’t have much time left, but at the same time, I can’t believe she passed so quickly,” Jasira said, handing the wreath to Prianaj.
“The funeral will be rushed, but if we don’t lay her to rest today, the Cerberi will dispose of her,” Prianaj said as she tied the front of her coat together. “You know you won’t be able to enter the city until—”
“I know, but I can be there in spirit,” Jasira interjected.
Prianaj nodded and headed for the city with the bottom of her coat dragging on the floor. Jasira felt a contraction but was so focused on the death of her sister that she didn’t want to say anything. She waited for Prianaj to disappear around the side of the mountain and then listlessly climbed back into the cave, using one hand to hold the bottom of her baby bump while placing the other on the ground to keep her from losing her balance. The afternoon light hit the back of Jasira’s neck, almost tickling her skin. She scratched it to relieve the uncomfortable feeling, taking her arm off the ground and wobbling a bit. As she clambered up the mountain, she occasionally slipped, catching leaves and twigs in her shirt, but the terrain wasn’t too steep and she didn’t fall very far.
Jasira reached the cave and lay flat on her back on the hay floor. The contractions were stronger this time, and she didn’t know what to do. She called out for Prianaj, but it was no use. There was no one around. Her eyelids were heavy, but she couldn’t sleep now, especially with the pain she was feeling. Through her blurred vision, she saw the hazy silhouette of the mountains on the other side of the valley. She was so utterly exhausted, with every fibre and sinew in her body compelling her to sleep, that somehow the pain disappeared. But just as Jasira was dozing off, another painful contraction forced her wide awake. She cried in pain, clenching piles of hay in her fists.
Hours passed and the contractions became much stronger and closer together. Jasira felt her lower abdomen expand with pressure and was sure she was about to explode. Just then, Prianaj entered with her torch in hand and sprinted to light the cave. She pushed some trivial items out of the way and dragged Jasira by the arms across the cave onto the bed, which was much softer than the hard ground.
“Jasira, what is it?” Prianaj asked aloud.
“It hurts.” Jasira’s eyes rolled around, and her head swung from side to side.
Prianaj ripped open the bag of supplies she brought last month and emptied it beside her. It was filled with bandages, solutions and ointments. Most of it she made herself and traded them in the city, but she preferred the organic versions that she said were much healthier. Jasira squeezed her belly tighter and kept her legs crossed.
“Jasira. The baby is coming,” Prianaj said as she placed a thin blanket over Jasira’s lower half.
“No, no it can’t be yet.”
“Breath, in and out. Quick breaths.” Prianaj emptied clean water into a bucket while performing breathing exercises with Jasira.
Jasira’s screams pierced the walls of the cave, so Prianaj scrunched some fabric into a ball and told Jasira to bite down on it. The cloth was supposed to mute her screams, but somehow, they got even louder. Her cries were so loud the two of them couldn’t even hear the howling winds outside.
“Jasira dear, you’re going to have to push.”
Prianaj waited with her hands ready to deliver the baby. The sheets were getting soaked with blood. Prianaj glanced below, her eyes tight and worried.
“This isn’t normal,” Prianaj muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing, you’re doing great, Jasira.”
Jasira lifted her head to take a look, but Prianaj signalled with her hand to lay back down.
“I can see the baby.”
She splayed out her frail fingers to cradle the baby’s head.
“Almost there, Jasira, just keep pushing.”
The baby’s head was completely out; its soft cries were music to Jasira’s ears.
“My child,” Jasira said, elated.
The rest of the baby came out easily and landed in Prianaj’s palms. She swaddled it in a clean blanket and rocked gently. She then used the other towels to wipe away the blood and other fluids all over the baby, and then cut away the placenta with a knife before tying it into a knot.
Jasira was too far inside the cave to check if the moon outside was blood red. Her vision was blurry from the exertion anyway, so even if she had reached the entrance, she wouldn’t have been able to see the moon.
“Prianaj,” Jasira began as she swallowed hard, “tell me the baby is a girl.”
Prianaj walked to the entrance with the baby in her arms. “Blood moon,” she mumbled, looking into the sky.
“What?”
Prianaj walked back to Jasira, not knowing whether to smile or cry. She reached for Jasira’s hand and squeezed it.
“Prianaj,” Jasira repeated, this time swallowing harder. “Tell me it’s a girl.”
Her mind was reeling with the different possibilities that might be ahead of her. It felt as if she was trying to force pieces to fit together, but she wasn’t completing the right puzzle. Prianaj shook her head slowly and handed Jasira her child.
“Boy,” she whispered.