“I can explain.”

“Go on. Please do,” Mother insists.

I get that I was caught trying to listen in on a conversation she clearly didn’t want me to hear. It’s not like I heard any of it anyway. And didn’t she purposely send me away to invite them here? She’s the one who didn’t bother to tell me there were other people like me around. I’m the one who should be upset here. I know I said that I would be patient and wait for answers, but before I found out about this. I’ll talk my way out of this, but I’m getting answers today.

“I followed Baolarah, as you said. But this other Baolarah showed up, she fought it off, and I ran. When I got back, I noticed that you had…company, so I decided to be polite and wait,” I smile nervously. Do you think she bought it?

“Another…Baolarah?”

I don’t think she did.

“Yes, only I think it was male. It was much bigger too and shabby looking. Maybe he doesn’t have someone to take care of him as well as you do?”

“So, after you run for your life, you find the time to eavesdrop?”

What? I guess she’s mad about me looking through the window. I’ve got nothing for that.

“Um, that's...”

Mother lets out a deep sigh. Meanwhile, the men are standing there, shifting in place. The mean one who caught me won’t stop staring at me, and the others keep glancing curiously. I know I look different from them, but they don’t have to stare. Trying to salvage this situation and shift the blame, I stand a little taller and look directly at her.

“So…who are they? I imagine I would have missed them had I not come back so early. I sure you wouldn’t have mentioned they’d come by anyway,”

“Aderran,” she warns.

“Mother.”

I know she feels like she needs to protect me, but this is too much. I should have at least known that there are others like her and me. If I don’t get answers from her, then I’ll try my luck with them.

“I’m Aderran. Who might you be?” I turn to look at them, except the tall one. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little scared of him. His eyes are making my stomach turn.

“Sonta, should we?” One of the older ones asks.

Sonta? Oh, Sonta definitely will never hear the end of this. She looks between the men and me, lets out a deep breath, and sits at the table—the man who spoke before turns back to me.

“Well, we’re from the village down by the lake, a little way from here. It was quite a while ago that we met your…mother? She came to us, and she never told us where, and I offered to let her live among us. She insisted against it, but we told her that there’s an area deep in the forest that even our people don’t go near for fear of the large beasts that we don’t dare hunt. 

"She said in exchange for our generosity. She’d help ensure our lands were fruitful even in the cold when we couldn’t go to the forest and keep us from sickness. All we must do is make sure no one comes this far into the forest. That is, except for us.”

At this point, I have to take a seat. Not only are there others like me, but there’s also a village of them? That means there’s a lot more, right?

“This village, there are more people who look like you?”

“More or less, yes.” He looks confused. Was my question that weird?

“Are there people who look like me?”

One of the other men speaks up. Looking closer at his face, he looks a lot like the scary one. They have the same strong jaw and eyes that could stop you in your tracks.

“We’ve never seen anyone like you before.”

Is it “be mean to Aderran” day? What’s his problem? It’s bad enough I’ve already figured out Mother and I look nothing alike, which is a handful of questions. Everything around here has some vague familiarity that I can never grasp, so much so that it frustrates me to the point of a headache. Every time I try to figure out something on my own, I end up with more questions. And now I find out that Mother is from some other place and has these people protecting her. From what? Why? And all this brings me back to the main questions I’ve always asked: why am I here? Where did she find me? Where did I come from? I can count the village out because I look nothing like them.

“Well, I can also assure you that I’ve never seen anyone like you before. As a matter of fact,” I look over to Mother when I say this. “I’ve never seen anyone else before.”

They look from me over to Mother, who now has her head down, long brown hair hanging in her face. The first man who spoke looks at me.

“You’ve never seen anyone before?”

“Nope.”

“But how?”

“Good question. Although I admit that I feel like I have been around ones like you all before.”

“Ones like us? What does that mean?”

“Maeren. Not now,” the man in the middle says.

Ah, so that’s his name. Noted.

“All I said was that you all seem familiar. What’s the problem with that, Maeren?”

“Don’t act familiar with me.” He steps closer to me. I’m eye level with his chest. Okay, all that courage I had before is going away. “You’re the one who’s just as suspicious as your mother over there.”

“Maeren!” the man yells.

“But Father, he- “

“Enough!” Mother finally gets up and steps between us. Good thing she did because I would have done…something. I’m just not sure what that is yet.

The other man who has been silent this whole time steps forward. Getting a closer look at him, I can see that his hair is thinning in the front.

“I think that’s enough for today. Sonta, we’ll come back later to get more preparations."

Preparations for what? There’s no way I’m letting them leave without more answers.

“What are you preparing for? Whatever Mother is helping you prepare for, I’m sure I can help too. She’s done so well to teach me a lot of things.”

“Well, that’s-"

“That’s nothing you need to concern yourself with,” she says.

Completely ignoring her, I turn to him, eyes wide. She can get mad if she wants to. I honestly don’t care at this point.

“When are you coming back? Actually, I have a better idea.” I’m asking for it now. I know it. “Why don’t I see where you all live? I get to see more people like me, and I can help with whatever you need from Mother. Less work for her to do, and you don’t have to walk all the way out here. I’m sure the journey’s a little far.”

“Absolutely not!” Mother and Maeren shout at the same time. This is so annoying. What could be so bad about seeing these people? I’m not letting her take this away from me.

“What is so bad about letting me go?”

“You clearly don’t belong with us. Where did you come from? For all we know, you could be an outsider trying to take us out. I still don’t see why you all trust her.” Maeren snaps.

“Aderran, I don’t think you’re to be away from home. It may be too much for you to see so many people.” 

“Well, that’s not for you to decide. I think I’ll be okay. And I can always find my way home.”

“Sonta,” Maeren’s father speaks up. “I understand my son’s concerns. If he’s not ready, you don’t want to overwhelm the boy.”

I arch my brow. I see where Maeren gets his attitude from.

“I don’t think it may be that bad of an idea. He did bring up some good points, and with winter coming, he could be better suited to make it. Or even stay a little while and come back.”

“Tetyh, I think that’s up to Sonta to decide what to do with her son and something for us to discuss. Right, Denchi?” Maeren’s father asks.

The man named Denchi leans on his heels and looks up. I’m hoping he says yes. They seem to value his opinion the most.

“I suppose,” he starts. “We could show him around while everyone is tending to their duties.”

How can she possibly say no when all eyes are on her, and I give her my cutest face? Having nothing but animals to talk to sometimes pays off. I think we’ve finally worn her down because she looks up to me and softly smiles.

“Ok, Aderran, you can go. Tomorrow. But you are to only go during the day when everyone else is out. And I want you to be back well before sunset.”

I’m so happy I could kiss her right now. Since I’m going tomorrow, that means I have the rest of the day to get some questions in.

“Then it’s settled,” Maeren’s father, forcing a half-smile.

Maeren takes this time to walk out. Good, not like I wanted to be near him anymore anyway. His father doesn’t hesitate to follow soon after.

“Please excuse Maeren and Emerta,” Denchi says. “Emerta isn’t too fond of outsiders, and Maeren is a little on edge since he’s studying to take his father’s place.”

“No worries, I understand how this all seems,” Mother says apologetically.

“No excuse to be rude,” I mumble.

Mother looks wide-eyed to me. What? It’s the truth. This is our house; I wouldn’t do that to them. Well, I only knew they existed only a little while ago, but that’s not the point here. Denchi and Tetyh walk to the door and go outside, us behind them. Emerta and Maeren are outside arguing about something. Probably about how terrible they both are. 

Mother goes over to touch one of the rocks and mutters something under her breath. I assumed they were for decoration, but they let outsiders in and out. Not like I’d know for sure anyway. Before the men turn to leave, Tetyh puts his hand on my shoulder very hard. I try not to fall over; I can’t embarrass myself in front of them so soon.

“See you bright and early tomorrow. I’m trusting you to find the way. After the first light in the sky, keep the sun behind you and go until you make it out of the forest. When you feel the cool breeze from the shores, you’ll be there.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smile widely. I can’t help it; I finally get to see more people. Even if they don’t look like me, I already feel a connection to them.

They walk back toward the trees. Before they get too far, Denchi turns and says something that immediately wipes the smile off my face.

“Maeren will gladly show you around, won’t you?”

Good thing they can’t come back because the rocks surrounding the house are glowing again. And even if Maeren wanted to say anything, Denchi puts a strong grip on his shoulder and steers him back in line with him.

Now that they’re gone, I turn back to Mother. She must know that the questions are already forming in my head. She opens her mouth to say something, probably an excuse, but luck is never on my side. Coming through the clearing now is a panting and bloody Baolarah. She makes it just within the rocks before she collapses to the ground.