Free Oakaigus #1: Red Bloom by Nathan Sanders

 
    CHAPTER 1
     
    At the rising sun, a petite girl awoke from her
cloth-stuffed pillow. She felt a slight tingle on her forearm as her vision
sharpened. She looked down and saw a furry, 4-legged insect with a red stringer
scurrying up her arm. “Hate these things,” she mumbled as she slapped her palm
against her light-brown skin.
    She lifted her palm up, only to find nothing there.
    “Dammit,” she said as she lunged across her bed to
grab her sandal. “Where’d it go?!”
    Her eyes darted across the dusty room, but she
couldn’t find it.
    Finally, the corner of her vision caught a small,
red blur to her left.
    She turned, and there the insect was; latched to the
wall with its red stinger erect.
    She felt her heart drop in her chest as she held her
breath.
    The insect launched itself towards her neck,
shrouded in a blur.
    With the stinger only an inch away from her neck,
her body jerked to the side. She swung her sandal around, catching the insect
and crushing its body against the rocky wall.
    “Phew,” she said as she lowered her sandal.
    She rose to her feet and treaded across the rugged,
stone floor coated in a bed of dust.
    She stopped at another bed across the room, occupied
by a tan-skinned boy fidgeting and whispering in his sleep.
    “Jo,” she said as she tapped his shoulder.
    No response.
    “JO!”
    Still no response.
    Her brow slumped into a furrow. “Allllright,” she
said as she stretched her fingers forward.
    She extended her arm towards his forehead, aiming
her fingers at the small mineral protruding from the middle of his head.
    Once she plucked it, his eyes bulged open the
instant he felt the shock rattle down the nerves of his spine. He slapped his
hand over his mouth, breathing heavily out of his nose.
    “WHY,” he said with a heaving breath, “WOULD YOU DO THAT?!”
    “Sorry,” the girl said with her finger up her nose, “I
tapped you but you wouldn’t get up. We gotta’ work today.”
    He sighed as he rubbed the mineral on his head.
    “Oh yeah,” the girl said, “you were moving in your
sleep again. Bad dream?”
    “Uhhh…”
    “…Was it mom again?”
    The boy’s muscles tensed all at once, making him dig
his fingers into his lap.
    The girl sighed as she reached down to gently place
her hand on his shoulder.
    “Don’t worry, Jo,’ we’ll find her.”
    “I hope you’re right,” the boy said with his head
down.
    Suddenly, they both heard a booming voice from the
down the stairs: “JOGEN! LILAH! WHAT’S TAKING YA’?!”
    “Oh,” Lilah said, “COMING!”
    Lilah ran back over to her side of the room and
forced a clothing bag open. She flung out wrinkled, brown pants and a burgundy
tunic with tiny holes in it. “Better hurry up,” she said as she pulled her
pants over her shorts.
    Jogen rose to his feet, stretched out his lanky body
and scratched through his curly, brown hair. “Yeah,” he mumbled.
    Soon afterwards, Lilah came fully-dressed, hopping
down the stairs and into a kitchen filled with steam from a boiling pot.
    “You’re late,” said a tall, bald man with his heavy
voice.
    “I was trying to kill a bug.”
    “And Jo?”
    “Uhhh-“
    Before Lilah could answer, she heard steady
footsteps up the stairwell. She turned around and saw Jogen slowly hopping down
the stairs on one leg, struggling to lace on his right shoe.
    “I-I’m here,” Jogen said, “I just gotta’ get
this--AH!”
    Jogen lost his balance and rolled down the last few
stairs crashing into a stack of iron pots. “S-Sorry Mr. Singu…”
    Mr.
Singu rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “It’s fine,” he said with
an exhale.
     
    With
his shoe on, Jogen hopped to his feet and scrambled to stack the pots back up.
When he finished, he stood next to Lilah, brushing off his tunic.
     
    “Anyway,”
Mr. Singu said, “today’s gonna’ be a bit different. A couple of my associates
actually spotted some Jhama Jhama berries growing in the Badigeon