Chapter 3

     "TIAN!" Marie shouted, sticking her head out from the chief's house. She leveled the axe against her back before stepping down the stairs. "Where are you boy?"

     Tian emerged out of the forest line sheepishly with three other younger kids in tow. He pushed his blonde hair from his face quickly. Even at his small height, the village kids always liked watching him show off his strength. At 18 years old, he reached 5 foot 8 with the help of a 2 inch block, but he had the strength to rip whole logs apart. He could run faster than anyone else in the village, even the swift Daniel from four doors down. Not only was he insanely fast, he had an endurance of the mule deer they often hunted. He was the only blonde in the village, and that blonde had white tufts tucked in it. Unfortunately, he didn't always know when the strength would show up or when he'd be completely human.

      "Tian, get your ass over here before I whoop it!" Maria shouted and Tian decided not to dilly dally any longer.

         He waved goodbye to his friends and started his way up the path to the middle of the village. Some of the adults waved at him as they worked away at storing what was left of the crops. The last time the Capital had come, they'd taken over 3/4ths of what the village had from harvest. Marie tried bartering with them, giving them some of the foods from the foothills, but they just shook their head and took what was left of their potatoes and corn. It was the first time that Tian had been tempted to wipe the skin paint from his face and sink his teeth into the Capital's warriors. They only claimed that they were running low again this year, that the other villages they took from were starting to disappear. They hadn't said from what. Sickness, or starvation. Marie didn't dare send any riders out to meet with the only other village out as far as they were.

        The way their country was set up, the Capital was clear on the east coast. Somewhere further north, and it was big. It was bustling and full of thousands and thousands of people. They earned their money by trading crops on the ships that sailed across the large seas to other countries and got goods or riches that fueled the Capital. The thousands of people who lived in comfort stole from the villages along the lines. The other village that was 20 miles out from the foot of the Rockies made their livings mining special stones and survived off of what Tian's village supplied them. Their crops recently had been dying of some dark sickness that even the village elders couldn't figure out. Until that village went silent. With no more special stone being traded for crops, trading with the Capital had come to a stop. To exist, the Capital sent tri-monthly raids for supplies, and they took what they wanted. With special stone, the villages could barter for some of their crops back or special spices or treats for the kids. It'd been a year and a half since the mining village went quiet.

         Past the mountains, there was nothing but coastline. Hundreds of miles of land had dropped off into the ocean many, many years before Tian had been born. Looking at old texts, and old English, he could roughly make out what their country had once looked like. With the loss of California, though, millions of people had died horrible deaths. When the caldera blew it covered the states in the west in ash and almost three feet of lava that was still shifting and moving beneath the ground. South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and parts of Colorado were completely wiped out. No one dared living on that cursed land ever again. What Tian had read was that no one knew that California would have fallen into the ocean, ripping more states down with it. But it had. The Great Tsunami was tall enough to completely cover everything up to the large foothills on the west sides of the mountains. Once California started to collapse and break up, buildings littered the water. If the water would recede to what it once was, the remnants of what used to be an entire state would still be there. If someone could swim far enough down, they'd see the remnants of an old city filled with buildings that once touched the sky.

         The water had been rising, entire seas drained as it cut the South in half, splitting them apart with a 500 miles wide lake. Something even science couldn't explain. And then it froze from the ozone. And it rained. For months, water was draining from beneath the surface of the planet. What the Kukouk people had lived with were massive underground rivers that flowed hundreds of miles deep into the surface and drained into the mantel to create the steam that warmed their homes. With the disruption on the surface, that water came to the top and stayed. Tian had never explored far enough below the surface to find the underground rivers. The tunnels down there were so confusing that he often enough feared of getting lost. It kept him close to home.

         So his village was, in fact, one of the farthest villages from the East Coast. There was a mining village close to the rocky mountains, but Marie didn't talk much with them, and they didn't barter goods. What they heard, though, was that the East Coast didn't suffer as much tragedy as the west coast had. They had natural electricity over there and moving transportation. Cars. But their cars couldn't make the long trips out to the outlying villages. They had a king, too, but there were no pictures nor had they ever seen him. Most of what they heard about the East Coast were just rumors spread from the villages further in towards the middle of the country. All forced to work and feed the East Coast as it expanded. All starting to starve as more food was taken from the people.

         As Tian passed the butcher shop, he stopped to stare into the window. Don was busy putting away their recent kills. Two large mule deer and a furry of rabbit they'd caught off the mountains. He'd helped the older man many times, helping him carry the meat into the underground cellars below the butcher shop. It was deep and frigid down there, on top of the ice chunks they laid in the walls every winter to keep the meat as cold as possible. During the winters when the flax berries weren't growing and producing anymore and the Cattails had all been picked, they survived on meat and roots they dug for. At least where they lived, mule deer and sheep were a plenty.

         He came to a stop in front of the house he'd come to call home. It wasn't the most beautiful, Marie's mother's was, but it served its purpose. It was still messy as ever, filled with village supplies that kept the people happy in their homes. When Tian was 15, they had a huge population. Almost breaking 200, but as food became scarcer, families with children started to move further in land towards the Capital. Better education opportunities, and a life without hunger seemed too tempting to stay. Marie, the elders, and Tian were the only ones who could read and write. Tian had tried teaching the other kids, but no one cared to stop and listen long enough. He missed everyone that left, they'd all helped him when he was dying from starvation, and he considered them all family. He wished them well, though, when they left because he couldn't bear the thought that they had never made it to a better life. But crossing the molten lands of the Midwest was one of the hardest journeys to be made. Every village that knew of it agreed on the name they'd given it, the Fields of Fire. Only one group had ever crossed it successfully, and they were the Capital warriors in their big metal cars.

         The front door opened and he saw Marie standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. Her brows were wrinkled in anger and her mouth was furrowed. "Where have you been?"

         "Some of the younger kids wanted to go out and play in the woods."

         She surged forwards, grabbing Tian by the ear and drug him inside. Tian tried grabbing her arm to stop the pain. She came to a stop inside the house and turned towards him. "I had chores for you this morning! A bag of flour to mom, some blankets to Jocelyne and her kids, and I needed you to run this to Old Man Cam. I get home from Mouw village almost a 100 miles north east from here and none of its done. I've been gone for three days and you didn't do any of it! I don't ask for much from you, but you still don't do it."

         Tian hung his head. "I'm sorry Marie. I really am. I can go do it now."

         "I'm not mad… I just… look Tian, I love you to death and I understand that you like to be in the woods among the animals more than here with us. You're human like me, but you're also Kukouk and they existed as free spirits. And I understand. I just… I'll be turning 54 this year, and my mom will be turning 86. But my grandmother only got 45 years and my father died at 55, I don't have much more time on this planet, any day, my number could be up Tian. You are my only child, and when I die, the matriarch will become a Patriarch and follow you. You will be the next chief and I need to know you're ready when I die. Asking simple favors is my way of getting you ready for what awaits you."

         "You act like you're going to die soon," Tian mumbled, looking up at her. "I never asked to be chief after you either."

         "Kid… you're still young and you're not going to understand what the future is going to bring. But I've had my years here, and there is never a guarantee that I'll live as long as my mother."

         "Can't one of Jocelyne's kids take over? I'm not even a human being! I could bring destruction to the clan if the Capital finds out that there's still one half-breed alive."

         "Tian, you're more human than anyone I've ever met. You just turned 18 and I think it's time you start to learn your place among the people. As a person, and not as a half-breed. If the Capital comes for you, then the people of the foothills will protect you. Just as we have all these years as you were growing up. The people that are left will rally behind you. Come with me boy."

         Marie stepped away towards the back of the house. She paused in front of the one forbidden room he was never allowed in. No one in the clan other than the elders was allowed in. She opened the door slowly before looking back at Tian.

         "Tian its time you know the truth."

         "As the next clan leader, it is your duty and right to know why the clans are disappearing all around us."

         Inside the forbidden room was a long table that stretched almost half the room filled with paper and files that Tian didn't even know existed. He knew someone in the clan made paper to trade with the Capital, but he'd never gotten the chance to see it other than in the books he read. He read the handwriting easy enough, but his eyes widened at the biggest word. Slaves.

         "Slaves? What… mom said that meant people who are captured and harmed," Tian said, reaching out to grab some of the papers nearest to him.

         Marie sat down in one of the many chairs around the room. "Slavery is an evil thing. But yes, people are captured and forced to do work most people wouldn't do even if they were paid. Sometimes the slaves are paid in food or water. Most often they're not. They're taken from their homes and dragged clear across the country."

         "The Capital wants them?"

         Marie nodded solemnly. "There's another line of mountains in the East. They were once called Appalachians. They're older than our mountains, more round and less as steep. But… they discovered gold there and other precious metals. And they're searching for something, an energy source that's been hidden for hundreds of years in there. Something our mountains have run out of… and they need people to mine it. To build and create their massive cities and do their work."

         "But our food… if they take our people and our food then…"

         "The Mouw people have been hit Tian. They're less than 100 miles away from us… and the Capital slaughtered most of their people, and took the healthiest and youngest. The elders are what's left and I tried convincing them to come here, but they decided to stay in their homes to die. Their homes were aflame, their food was taken and all their animals were killed. The village that shared the mountains with us, Mountain Foot, have already fallen. They starved to death in a last ditch attempt to scale the Rocky Mountains on the old roads. They all froze to death at the pass. They never made it over. It won't be long before they come for us as well. We're poor enough of a village that they can handle losing our crops."

         "How long do we have before they come for our home?"

         "They could be already on their way for us as we speak. That's why the elders and I have been speaking and we're sending you back underground with our youth. Once our village is gone, it'll be your duty to cross the mountains and live and survive at the coasts."

         "Below ground… they'll age faster than me! It's too cold down there for normal people. I don't want to have to bury every single person I bring down there and I don't know… I don't know if mom has even decomposed and I can't… I'm not ready to face mom yet."

         "Then what do you suggest we do? Wait for them to come and kill us all and take all the kids into slavery? We can't allow that to happen Tian. We, to, are a free people."

         "We follow the old roads up the mountains. We all go together and make a new life on the other side of the mountains. There's got to be way! They used to take their big cars along the old roads."

         "We'll die up there like the others who tried to run Tian. Listen to me this time, as the next Chief, you have to assure the survival of our youth."

         "Give me a week, and I'll find a way through the mountains. I'll get us through Death's pass in one piece," Tian argued, setting down the papers he was rifling through.

         "Tian, you will die up there if I let you go," Marie snapped. "End of discussion already. You will not go up there in those mountains."

         "Wait!" Tian grabbed Marie's arm to stop her from leaving the room. "I came from those mountains. I survived almost 2 years on my own in the cold and warm weather. I can survive Death's pass long enough to find us a way through. I can go before the snow hits, I can make it Marie. I can."

         "No, Tian. Fucking stop it already. You can't time the weather like that, it's always changing. If you go up there and it snows, even with your Kukouk strengths, you won't make it. You're not going up into the mountains until spring, and even then, you won't go up."

         "There won't be any more of our village by then," Tian added quietly and Marie turned around.

         "I know."

         "Then let me try. I'll take one of the horses up, and if things get bad I'll turn around. Please… if I can find a valley or something in the mountains we can survive the winter up there and keep going. We don't even have to pass through Death's pass to see the coast."

         Marie slammed her fist down against the table hard enough to break her own skin. "Why is it that you're the only one who's ever had the nerve to talk back to me so much?"

         "I'm your son. It's my sworn duty. You know I love these people just as much as you do, and I'd do anything to keep them safe. I don't want to watch my people get obliterated."

         Marie ruffled his hair. "Even with your strength, you only get a week. You better be back in your bed by sun down of the seventh day. Take Moth with you, he's the only horse I trust with your safety. You will be wearing a coat as well. You'll encounter bears or mountain lions so bring weapons."

         "Thank you Marie, you won't be disappointed!" Tian shouted excitedly, hugging the older woman tightly. "Love you! I'll leave by morning!"

         "Tian," Marie paused as the boy was getting ready to bound out the door. "If we don't meet again, know that… I love you. More than anything on this planet. I love you for all your quirks and all your energy. There will never be a time where I don't love you. And… the Capital… if you see the Capital… remember that its… it's not as beautiful as it seems."

         "Marie, I'm going to get us all out of here before the Capital comes for us. They're not stupid enough to cross the mountains, but we are mountain folk. We'll all see the coast together," Tian huffed, flashing her a grin before he was out the door.