“Vermin of the earth!” spat my father, as we walked back towards the elevators. His face was red and he looked like he was about to burst anytime. I had never seen him like that before, so angry and frustrated. And more importantly, I had heard about the humans but I didn’t know much about them. They lived in the world above, having driven us underground and we had been hiding from them for a long time. But Didn’t really know what was wrong with them. And if the present generations didn’t know about our existence, how did a human get into our city of Rothem? It was a big question.

We had barely delved into the topic of humans back in school, and all we were told that they were a taller species who lived in communities like ours on the surface, spoke the same language, used the same basic necessities. I had never met one, and despite other people’s animosity towards them, I was just curious.

The elevator dinged on ground level and my father climbed on, grumbling under his breath. I followed him, keeping my head low lest he lash out on me. We rode up in uncomfortable silence, and I followed him through the Paths on the ceiling without interrupting his rage. After what felt like an intolerable eternity, we finally reached our house. My father banged open the door, marched into the living room where my sister was studying, and slapped down his fist onto the table. I flinched silently as my sister looked up, worry lines creasing her brow. “What happened dad?”

“Those useless humans! They deserve to burn in hell!” he declared, and stormed out of the room. I heard him climbing up to level one, where his workshop was. He sat there all day, repairing other people’s jewellery and furniture, and making his own small things from iron like armours, weapons, shields, keychains, chains. I exchanged a glance with my sister as we heard him start banging on something upstairs with his hammer. “What was that about?” my Phimine asked.

“I’m not sure. We saw that the museum was closed due to a human break in, and he flipped out,” I shrugged.

Anxiety filled Phimine’s deep black eyes. I wondered what was up. “Why, though?” I asked. “Why does dad loathe the humans?”

“I don’t know either, Melga. But since mom left, I have noticed his hatred towards humans. he doesn’t like to talk of them, and he gets angry at every little thing they do. Don’t mention it again, or he will get triggered,” Phimine explained, her bob cut of bright pink hair bouncing as she spoke.

I found it a bit hard to keep a straight face as I nodded. Then I noticed the book she was holding. BASICS OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD. Queer. That wasn’t part of her syllabus. “Shouldn’t you be studying your geography? I thought you were planning to become a cartographer?” I asked. Phimine was only a year older than me, about to begin with grade 11, where she had to decide her career. But to begin training and school, each student had to give an exam based on the subject and life that they wanted. Phimine had been focusing on her geography for the past two weeks so much that I had seen only maps, diagrams and geography textbooks attached to her. Dad’s mother had been a cartographer too, and he had been delighted to see Phimine taking that up for her studies and job. Our grandparents were no longer alive, the maximum age dwarves reached was around seventy, and most of my classmates didn’t have living grandparents.

“I was, and this has a bit of geography,” she said, her voice low and her eyes down.

“But…?” I prompted her.

“But I want to be an Explorer. I want to go out into the human world and find out what it is like to live in the outside world!” she declared, finally meeting my grey eyes.

I stopped short, unsure of what to say. Being an Explorer was another profession altogether, she would have to change her entire test and subjects. And it was said to be a very dangerous job, surviving among humans would be challenging. I was a bit nervous about the prospect, even if it didn’t concern me. But I knew that dad would be even more disturbed by it.

“But… Why, Phimine? What about your dream of becoming a cartographer?” I asked, still flabbergasted.

“It was never my dream. I just said that to you and dad so that he didn’t worry about my career choice, and neither would he contradict me. But all my life, I have actually dreamt of going out there, meeting a whole different species of intellectual creatures, living without a layer of soil over y head. Most of all, I dream of seeing the sun. I had thought that it would remain a dream until it popped into my head that I could be an Explorer.”

“But Dad won’t approve,” I pointed out.

“I value dad’s opinion, believe me, I do. But this is my life we are talking about here. And if he truly loves me, he wouldn’t mind me pursuing my passion. And anyways, he doesn’t need to know right now.”

“You’re not going to tell him? He’ll be heartbroken when he finds out,” I said, still trying to accept the fact that my sister was going to go out into the upper world. It came as a huge shock to me, carrying a wave of helplessness and fear. In my mother’s absence, Phimine had become a second mother to me as well as a best friend. I couldn’t imagine her leaving for good, after I had come to depend on her so much. And while the hardships out there did not daunt my courageous sister, I was honestly worried for her.

“I’ll tell him when the time comes, but I will manage him. He’ll be accepting it in no time,” she tried reassuring me, but the banging of dad’s hammer overhead appeared to be at odds with her.

“But-“ I wanted her to stay, but I realised that she was following her dream, and I would have to let her go. At least I had another year to spend with her. “I hope you do well in your exam tomorrow,” I hugged her.

“Eww, little sister sweat!” she tried backing away, and both of us went into a fit of giggles.

The bell hanging from the door to the staircase rang, signifying there was a visitor. The switch at the main door was connected to an iron bell on each floor to alert us, and Phimine and I made our way up to the front door.

“Happy Birthday Geraki- ” the woman at the door trailed off as she saw the two of us at the door. “Who are you two?” She was holding a big, beautifully decorated apple pie, but it was only half finished. I hadn’t seen the plump little woman since a long time, who was a foot shorter than me, but I recognised her. She had been my mother’s best friend, and they had been inseparable before my mother got married. Then Mrs. Heloma, the woman with the pie, got amnesia. She still sometimes believed that Geraki was alive, and had delusions that they were back to the good old days of twenty years ago. She didn’t even remember us, her hallucinations existed from before we were born, and her mind lived in another time altogether. Sometimes she would come back to the present, but I had heard her husband telling dad that her amnesia and schizophrenia was only worsening.

Standing at the door, looking at the apple pie with ‘Geraki’ written on it in brown icing and smelling the cinnamon that my mother often used to smell of, I burst into tears.