The prospect of exams did indeed keep Jahrra’s mind preoccupied. The simple challenge of surviving each school day and each night of school work kept her too busy to think about her strange dreams or her odd conversation with a sacred tree and an ancient draffyd. The Fall Festival eventually passed and Solsticetide as well, and Jahrra found herself breathing a sigh of relief during the long break from school. She worked extra hard at her defense lessons during this time, getting up early and staying late in the day until she had a new drill or exercise committed to memory. Since she had been doing so well, Yaraa and Viornen gave her a full week off. Jahrra was so excited she didn’t know what to say.
“We want you to use this time to rest your mind and body, to give it a chance to allow all that you have learned to settle in,” Viornen said, clapping Jahrra on the shoulder.
“Oh, don’t worry, I will!” she answered cheerfully.
Jahrra spent her entire week off with Gieaun and Scede. Now that she was fifteen, Hroombra allowed her a little more independence, including the freedom to stay out later in the evening. Jahrra spent most of her time, not surprisingly, with her friends, often visiting all of the places she had seen on Hroombra’s map that they’d never been to before.
Every now and then, when she was on her own with Phrym or relaxing in her garden, Jahrra would pull out her journal and puzzle over the runes she’d copied from Ehnnit Canyon. She would spend hours looking them over, only to slam her book shut in frustration. When this happened, she would lay back in the tall grass, green from the winter’s rain, or stretch out next to her silent pond and think about the other things that baffled her, mainly, the red-shrouded character that had visited her familiar dream that rainy night in Denaeh’s cave.
Who had it been? Did they mean to do harm or good? Could the green-cloaked man really be an enemy she didn’t recognize and was the red stranger only there to help? What did it all mean? Jahrra would screw her eyes shut and go over these questions until her head hurt and she felt sick. In the end she would just tell herself consolingly, it was just a dream, just a dream.
Spring came early in the season and crept by with the speed of a glacier, slow and languorous. Jahrra made the decision to be more resolute than ever this year, telling herself she was through with the childishness that had ruled her reactions to her classmates so far.
“I’m determined not to take any more dares from the twins, I promise!” she assured Gieaun and Scede.
The siblings merely gave each other a knowing look, but hoped Jahrra would stick to her promise just the same. The warm, fragrant days grew longer, and Jahrra, Gieaun, Scede and all of their new friends at school spent their breaks in the schoolyard counting down the days until they would be of Tarnik and their conceited classmates. And, as always, summer did arrive and Jahrra felt free once again, at least for awhile.
“I can’t believe we’re all fifteen already,” Gieaun exclaimed. “We’re getting so old!”
Two weeks had passed since the end of the school year and Jahrra could scarcely believe it. It felt like just last month she and her friends had gone to Ehnnit Canyon, but it had almost been a year since. Now it was summer, glorious summer, and she had the day off from Yaraa’s and Viornen’s strenuous training sessions to spend with her friends.
Scede rolled his eyes and groaned. “Gieaun, I’ve been fifteen for almost a year now. In fact, I’ll be sixteen in a month!”
Gieaun didn’t let this bother her. She always thought that it was nice that one month out of the year they were all the same age. “I don’t care! You are still fifteen for now, so enjoy it while it lasts!”
As a celebration for her birthday, Gieaun insisted that she, Jahrra and her brother meet a few of their other classmates at Lake Ossar for a picnic. Rhudedth and Pahrdh had been their friends for quite a while now, but ever since the night Eydeth had been “attacked” by the lake monster, things started to change at the school house in Aldehren. Many of the children were no longer listening to the twins and their lies, and even a few chose to spend time with the three outcasts.
Jahrra breathed deeply as they approached the wonderfully quiet boardwalk. The lake was beautiful as always in the mid-day sun, the surface glittering like chipped diamonds. The air was full of the sound of flickering dragonfly wings and twittering birds, and the horses’ hooves fell softly upon the sandy path. Every now and again a swallowtail or monarch butterfly drifted along on a lazy breeze, and Jahrra would close her eyes and thank Ethoes that this place was finally free of her enemies.
Gieaun spotted their other friends first and she called out to them cheerily, “Rhudedth! Pahrdh! Kihna! Hey you guys, over here!”
Jahrra turned to see her three other friends approach on their horses. She grinned, suddenly overwhelmingly happy about her new position in the world. For so long she’d been the outcast, but that was finally a thing of the past. Now she knew the joy of acceptance; the thrill of being liked by more than just those who had loved her since she was young. With relish, she recalled the first time Rhudedth and Pahrdh had stood up to Eydeth and Ellysian at their mansion in Kiniahn Kroi, and even before that in the schoolyard. Her newest Resai friends may not have warmed to Jahrra right away, but they had shown everyone, apart from the twins and their most loyal followers of course, that Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede were no better or worse than anybody else.
Jahrra sighed and looked past the two ruddy-haired siblings and considered the newest member to their small circle of friends. Kihna was tiny with pale blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was petit and delicate-looking, and before she really knew her, Jahrra had labeled the small blond Resai girl as exactly the kind of person who would remain loyal to Ellysian. Fortunately, she had been wrong. It had taken Kihna and her two older sisters, Noehda and Heila, a few years to see Jahrra as anything other than what the twins had claimed her to be. In the end however, they’d seen through Eydeth’s and Ellysian’s veil of shallowness. Once the three sisters learned they were only being used and trailed along by Ellysian, they realized how horrible the twins truly were. They immediately took a liking to the shunned trio and found that going on adventures with Jahrra and her closest friends was much more interesting than following Ellysian around town as she shopped for expensive clothes.
Jahrra was always glad to have her new acquaintances join them on a day at the lakes or a camping trip in the hills, and Gieaun was even more ecstatic to have more girls around.
“Not that you aren’t a girl Jahrra,” she told her friend as kindly as she could, “but Kihna and her sisters are more into fashion than you are.”
Jahrra didn’t mind. She knew Gieaun always felt like the odd one out when it was just the three of them. She was glad to see Gieaun feeling more comfortable and at ease on their excursions. Usually she would trail behind her brother and her friend, or shrink away if Scede or Jahrra found a snake, lizard or even a bizarre insect. Now, at least, Gieaun had someone to talk to when Scede and Jahrra raced ahead to chase after a wild animal or explore some strange corner of wilderness.
At first Jahrra and Gieaun hadn’t expected Scede to be happy about the girls tagging along, that is, until they discovered he had a crush on Kihna. His sister and his friend would pester him to no end, but he would never admit to it.
“Just ask her to go to the Fall Festival with us already! She’s so nice and I bet she likes you too!” Gieaun would encourage, but Scede would just get annoyed and walk away.
Even Eydeth had noticed the way Scede acted around Kihna, and he delighted in making a spectacle of it in front of the entire school.