lero, Vineno, Senisa.

The Three Kings, as people called

them, were the founders of many

kingdonms on the northern continent.

Many myths tell of the birth and fall

of the Three Kings. The one closest

to the truth is the following:

Legend says that the northern

continent becamne as it is now

because of the descendants of the

winter god, Kuatra Galiau. He was an

ice beast with long black wings that

could cOver the sky, a mane as red as

fire, and a white body. When the ice-

covered god settled on the northern

tip of the land, an unending winter

Swallowed the north.

A long time passed and Kuatra Galiau

became a mountain range where the

snow never melted. Upon learning of

his transformation, Nuadga, another

god, planted a bay tree next to him as

a farewell.

The bay tree bloomed and bore three

fruit. East Wind, West Wind, South

Wind, and North Wind looked after

the fruit with great care, and soon

three children tore through the skins

of the fruit and came out into the

World.

Their names were lero, Vineno, and

Senisa, in order of birth. The three

entered adolescence in two weeks

and were fully grown in ninety days.

They then went their separate ways

to found their own countries.

lero ruled with fear, severely

punishing convicts. His strictness

bought him both reverence and

hatred from his vassals, so he had to

constantly be on the watch for their

Swords.

Vineno poisoned criminals in an

effort to give them a clean death. But

a vassal who feared his poisoned

wine secretly gave his cup to Vineno.

Thus, the kingdom lost its king.

Senisa burned his own flesh to

absolve all sinners of his land. His

vassals were not afraid to sin, so he

eventually turned into ash.

Hence, the three kingdoms fell, and

the great divide in the north

Commenced.

Hundreds of years later, the son of

Yeigan from Rarke wrote that the

Three Kings myth was actually "three

roads of a king."

Every so-called king in the north

hears this story at least once.

There are three thrones in the world.

All those who call themselves kings

are forced to choose one of the three.

Which would you choose?

Funereal oration

Vano oredalak Nuadga, muin janlisas

guire Rarkaddanya. Nuadga of death,

lead us to Rarkaddan.

There is a tale of a utopia passed on

from the ancient Rarkalia Dynasty.

When the great ones under the

protection of Nuadga draw their final

breath, they go to Rarkaddan.

A land where there is no hunger,

disease, or pain, at the cost of one

gold coin.

All the great generals will meet once

again past the gate, in the free land.

So ye who listen, do not fear death.

Love as you will, rejoice as you will,

fight as you will.

Rarke in the north did not fear

fighting mighty enemies.

The glory of the utopia where all

loved ones gather is their old faith.

preface of mariposa

This tale begins with a queen from

two hundred years ago. A tragedy and

a comedy of a queen who madly

loved her country, a brother who

worshipped her, and a man who loved

her as a woman.

The time will come for the dance of

the swords that could not leave the

battlefield,

For the arrival of those who come

back through the stream of time,

And the return of a lost butterfly,

When a blue flower that has not been

seen before blooms.

part 1 fallen glory

It all began two hundred years ago, in

a small country in the north.

Rarke was a kingdom on the border

between the north and the west of

the continent. Dolomete III was the

twenty-fourth king of the kingdom,

which remained a weak country a

quarter of a century since its

foundation. He had eleven children:

three children from the queen, and

eight from two concubines. The

eleven children were all intelligent

and talented, but the most beloved

was the first princess, Swan Sekalrid

Rarkalia.

The princess had the king's fiery hair,

and she loved Rarke more than

anyone else. The soil, the air, and

even the grain from Rarke were her

source of pride. She shared her bread

with the hungry and gave her clothes

to the cold. The people widely

praised her for the mercy and love

she displayed not with her words but

with her actions. Hence, the king

adored and trusted Swan very much,

and the rough-natured nobles

admired her as well.

As a merciful ruler to all she decided

was hers, Swan was a royal born to

reign. The old nobles and the young

all agreed about her. "Though she

has the body of a woman, she has a

better nmind and charisma than most

men," they would say.

Swan followed the cunning Thick

Black Theory, an eastern philosophy

that emphasized developing a thick

skin and a black mind, encouraging

followers to pursue their own

benefits while thoroughly hiding

themselves behind a thick mask. At a

young age, she was sharp-witted and

aggressive, believing in the blood-

and-iron policy.

She grew up on the rough land,

gulling her brothers into thinking of

her as a friend by volunteering to

train with them and thawing her

sisters' cold hearts with calculated

generosity and appeasement. Even

her natural beauty became a weapon,

for the nobles could not resist her

smile, which was like a single rose on

a rocky land.

Only a couple of years after she first

bled, she became the only princess

who knew how to utilize her sex,

instead of considering it an

irreparable weakness.

Though she was beloved by all her

blood, she did not truly return their

love in the slightest. Her brothers

were talented and gifted with the

masculinity she was not, but they

had no ambition, like satisfied fish in

a little pond. The concubines'

children who dared to get in line for

the throne were imbeciles Wrecking

Rarke.

Such were her opinions about her

siblings, except Peijak Dollehan

Rarkalia, the sixth prince of Rarke,

five years younger than her.

"Rest assured, brother, I will protect

you from now on," she told him.

"And I will protect you, sister, when I

am groWn. I swear it."

She smiled at him. "You've got a

snake's

child."

tongue,

She took note of her half-brother's

potential. She gathered all the love

that could have gone to her other

brothers and sisters and gave it to

Peijak, who looked just like their

father and therefore like her.

"I will protect you." As she had

spoken, Swan eliminated the

remaining supporters of her two

brothers, who destroyed each other

fighting for the throne. She was soon

praised as the sole true heir. Thus,

she solidified her road to the throne

even before the age of nineteen.

When she reached twenty-one, the

king met an untimely death not long

after his fortieth birthday.

After the king's funeral, Swan

married the margrave from House

most beautiful throne in the world.

In the process of securing her

accession, she destroyed her

professor, Yeigan, and handed those

young sisters who remained in the

palace to her supporting houses.

Brionake, the largest house of

warriors, and sat on the coldest and

It seemed as if a peaceful era under

the rule of a queen was to commence.

But alas, her ambitions did not aim at

a peaceful reign.

A year after a bitterly cold winter, the

most horrifying war since the

beginning of time began.

"Until when should the people of

Rarke fight over small lands in this

cold?" she declared. "Shall we leave

the rich, fertile lands with golden

crops to the hillbillies in the south

and continue to hold our breath for

the coming of winter? If you truly are

patriots, shed your tears and rise. If

you understand the duty of force,

follow. Raising my shield and sword

for you, even at the risk of my owWn

life, is the future I seek. I will fill your

bellies with food and let you strip off

your thick coats and run about the

fields freely. Prince Consort Margrave

Brionake will be given a dukedom

and will rule Rarke as regent. Sir

Peijak Dollehan will go to war with

me as the commander of my army."

Her unexpected ambition thus

commenced.

Countless nobles stood by the queen

Hall.

In the solemn, suffocating

atmosphere, the queen placed her

Sword on the left shoulder of her red-

haired and blue-eyed half-brother,

Peijak, who was said to be a superb

swordsman. The two, soon to be

written as the worst queen and

knight in history, swore to each

other.

in front of her throne in Norte

"I, Swan Sekalrid Rarkalia, as the

successor of the Bay Tree and the

Queen of Rarke, swear to be fair to

you. Your life, death, glory, and

everything will be as they are done in

my hands. All you will achieve from

this day on will be in my name."

"As you wish, my queen. Saturga

guire Rarke."

Thus, Peijak Dollehan officially

became the queen's knight.

No one dared to oppose the twenty-

six-year-old queen with the greatest

knight in the country, Peijak

margrave in the north, Belbarote

Paseid of Brionake, House of

Dollehan, on her left, and the best

Warriors, on her right.

A conquest began that would last

eleven years. After five hundred years

of peace, neighboring kingdoms fell

without even putting up a fight at the

sudden invasion. Though Rarke

retreated from time to time, they

were never defeated.

"All rise and stop the queen of Rarke.

Else, you will meet your doom

splattered with blood," exclaimed the

king of a small kingdom at death's

door.

No one could stop the cold-hearted

queen, who developed new ways of

war, burning castles, changing or

blocking water supply routes, and

building roads in the mountains

instead of declaring a war and then

fighting out in the field as the others

did. One by one, her enenmies

succumbed.

Even the nomadic country in the

west swore their loyalty to the queen

after being chased to the edge of the desert.

She finished her preparations

to march to the fertile south. This

only took her two years.

Swan was like a goddess of war, as

good or better than men at sword

fighting, archery, horseback riding,

spear-throwing, and even hand-to-

hand combat. She also had the

merciless ghost of war, Sir Peijak

Dollehan, by her side. The queen

stood at the front of her army and

granted love to her soldiers and

shameless death to her enemies.

Peijak worshipped his only sister and

kissed her blood-soaked hair. "I

respect you for your love for Rarke. I

love you with all my worthless body

and mind,"

She reached the age of twenty-eight

after twO years of war.

She had her first child on the

battlefield. It was the child of her

half-brother, not her husband, who

was ruling back in the palace in her

place.

After a small battle, Peijak came back

bloodied from destroying a town in

the south to find Swan glaring at

herself in the mirror.

He fell down and cried. "Sorry. I'm

Sorry,"

"It's my fault for not predicting this.

Not yours."

She was pregnant but had not gone

back to the palace for two years,

because of the war. Things had

changed. Instead of wallowing in

despair, she sent a letter to her

husband.

Duke Brionake replied to her letter

and did not blame her for having

another man's child. "Even if it is a

son, I will keep it a secret if you make

our child the heir."

"I will, Belbarote. Belbi, I truly do not

know what to say."

Though she did not wallow in

despair, she did feel terrible at this

moment. The wifeless husband gave

a bitter smile.

"But come back to the palace and

tend to the affairs of state, Your

Majesty," he said.

So, a yearlong truce was pronounced.

The nobles were starting to grow

tired of the long war, which they had

expected would end in a few years.

Those who raised their voices with

concern that the queen had no heir

held a feast. Small kingdoms in the

south who trembled at the news of

Rarke's invasion were delighted and

sent tribute disguised as gifts. The

people prayed the war would end at

this.

Seven months later, the queen gave

birth to a son. The child looked like

his mother, and hence like his father.

Two months later, Swan led her army

back onto the battlefield, despite her

vassals pleading her to stay and rule.

From then on, Belbarote came to

visit her on the battlefield from time

to time. She did not blame him for

leaving the palace, for she had

promised him a child. He implored

her to end the war and rule her

country whenever he visited.

Peijak, who supported her ambitious

plan to conquer the entire continent,

opposed Brionake and claimed he

was a coward. "You seem to have

grown scared even of the littlest

things since you got locked up in that

castle and started playing with paper

instead of a sword, Your Grace."

"Though you may be winning war

after wa, the people of Rarke are

tired," Brionake snapped in reply.

"Do you not realize that the number

of widows will increase if the drafted

men do not come home, and we will

sOon run out of food because many

are taken to forced labor? Not all of

that can be replaced with plunder."

"If you mean to stop my sister, I will

not just stand aside."

Duke Brionake glared at him,

revealing his personal hatred. “The

only reason you're still alive after

laying your hands on Swan is because

you are protecting her:"

While her two supporters' animosity

toward each other grew day by day,

Swan carried another child. It was

Belbarote's.

The queen decided to compromise.

She promoted Peijak Dollehan to

commander-in-chief. She decided to

return to the palace for two years to

straighten her country's affairs. Not

long after her return, she gave birth

to her second child. Another son.

Belbarote pleaded with the queen,

who only showed any kind of passion

at the continuous reports from the

battlefield, even after giving birth.

"Your conquest has yielded enough,

my queen."

"A little more. We will soon reach

Morgana."

In less than eight years, they reached

the final border in the far south. With

the richest and the most beautiful

kingdom, Morgana, left, she ignored

her advisors' words.

"A little more, a little more, and the

north and the south will unite, and

this continent will be named the

continent of Rarke," she repeated

obsessively.

She was now the age of thirty-four.

She even ignored her husband's

pleading and returned to the

battlefield, to experience the

moment of uniting the country with

Peijak, who had been faithfully

keeping his place on the battlefield

for their grand triumph.

But under the rule of Dernajuke IV,

the Blond King, Morgana was an

enemy of vast strength that she had

not faced yet. The legend of the

undefeated army crumbled like a

sand castle. The Rarkian army

struggled.

And they were defeated.

To Swan, facing defeat was

something unforgivable that shook

her soldiers. "I will not return before

her very core. After repeatedly

advancing and then retreating, she

roared in rage at the dead bodies of

I crush those sons of whores!"

The purpose for her war with

Morgana changed from patriotism to

merciless hate. More people died,

and the war turned into a war of

attrition. Even at the cost of

countless lives of her soldiers, Swan

slowly advanced and reached Olzore

at last.

Olzore was a nature's gift of a fort,

said to have not once fallen since it

was built. There was a narroW valley

and rough lands in the front, and a

valley with a shallow stream of water

behind it.

The queen's army attacked without

hesitation, but utterly failed. The fort

did not fall to her attempts at

infiltration, ambush at night, or

battle. It mocked her.

Filled with hatred, the queen ordered

a new operation so vast in size that

no one had ever dared to think of it.

"We'll tear down that valley, Peijak."

Her generals followed the order with

pleasure, for the queen believed that

the word "impossible" was a mere

assembly of meaningless sounds.

They secretly constructed an

enormous plan that would take two

years to complete, only to satisfy the

queen's determination to take down

a single fort.

Not knowing that Rarke was in

danger of falling apart because of the

war that had lasted nearly ten years,

Swan focused only on the imminent

plan.

The Rarkians continued to fight little

battles to fool the enemy, deploying

countless soldiers and starting to dig

through the valley and build tunnels.

They weren't enough. Swan started

to draft workers from the nearby

conquered countries. She even

brought people from her homeland

of Rarke into forced labor.

One day, three months before the

end, those who were tired of war

rebelled in Rarke. A messenger

arrived at the queen's camp.

"I have been ordered to bring Queen

Swan Sekalrid Rarkalia back to the

palace, Your Majesty. By force, if need

be."

She laughed at the messenger. "Who

would dare order me to go anywhere?

Duke Brionake will suppress the"

He cut her off. “Duke Regent's

orders."

An arrest warrant with Duke

Brionake's seal fell near her feet.

Brionake was the head of the

rebellion. She lost half of her army

and her right wing.

Those who had praised her brought

her down, saying that she was mad

for war. Her beloved people and the

man she trusted with her life turned

their backs on her. The shocked

queen forced Peijak to flee and

returned to the palace alone.

She saw her children at a palace that

now felt inexplicably foreign. She

couldn't recognize them, for she had

abandoned them at birth. She didn't

even know their ages.

"You've grown so much," she said.

"You must be..."

"It is an honor to finally meet you,

Your Majesty," her eldest son said.

It was a hard blow.

Her ears, which had remained deaf to

all the people's tearful pleadings,

opened at last. She realized her

madness at the single uttering of a

child.

The nobles forced the befuddled

queen to kneel. Some supported her,

saying that she would be a sage

queen now. Those who feared she

would take revenge on them raised

their voices and sentenced her to die

for neglecting state affairs.

Her armor, which felt like a second

skin after almost half her lifetime,

was thrown into the furnace.

Her husband kneeled in front of her.

"I loved you."

She chuckled at the paradoxical

nature of the first revelation of his

true intentions."I still cannot believe

this is my end."

"Forgive me."

"I do not blame you."

"I failed to protect..."

"You protected Rarke."

“You. I failed to protect you."

He had aged quite a bit over the

years, but he sobbed like a child in

front of her. Time had left its marks

on the face of this man who had

sworn to belong to the queen.

The war had begun when she was

twenty-six.

"It's...how old am I now?" she asked.

She did not even know her own age.

conquest that had started with a

loving desire to enrich her people

had starved them instead and turned

Rarke into a living hell.

What a foolish life it was. The

"You will soon be thirty-seven."

“Ah...and you will be thirty-nine. No,

forty?"

"Forty. It's been a long time."

She could not speak anymore.

Thirty-seven years of ferocious

fighting. All she had left was land

rotten with blood and the

resentment of thousands.

She embraced her destiny without

tears, letting her husband's cries pass

like the wind, unmoved by them. It

was like he was shedding her tears

through his eyes.

In ineffable self-loathing, she asked

for one last thing. "Belbarote, I ask

that you be gentle with Peijak. He...

his only fault is that he stayed by me,

like a moth drawn to fire. I will pay

for everything."

Belbarote's wet lips touched her dirt-

covered forehead. She smiled,

thinking it was quite warm.

Two weeks later, the sentence was

carried out on the scaffold for all to

see. It was the end of a twisted

patriotism and rancid madness. With

the death of the tragic queen, her

horrifying conquest disappeared into

history.

Thus, the bloody war that left an

unhealable wound between Morgana

and Rarke ended with Morgana's

victory.

Belbarote Paseid Brionake, the first

king of the Brionake Dynasty,

ordered that Rarke end the war with

Morgana under all circumstances,

even if it meant they had to sign an

unfair treaty. Dernajuke IV, the king

of Morgana, and the first emperor

(ValarjefI), did not miss the chance

to elevate Morgana as the only

empire on the continent.

The twenty-fifth Queen of Rarke,

Swan Sekalrid Rarkalia's path was

recorded in history. She would be

remembered as an innovative and

ruthless strategic genius, the Iron

Queen, a tyrant.

Under the cold dew of the north, all

she left behind were resentful cries,

seven books of war, and two sons

she'd barely even spoken to.

to Be Continued

"Ill call for you once everything is

taken care of. Trust me and wait,

Pei," Swan had told him.

So, he had trusted her.

But not so long after, the news of the

queen's imminent execution reached

even Peijak, who was hiding in a

small town in the fallen Rhine

Kingdom. He had faithfully followed

her for his entire life, and he could

not even imagine losing her. As soon

as he heard the news, Peijak took his

surviving troops and knights and

rode to the palace of Rarke.

Ten days later, the stone wall

surrounding Muiyadro greeted him

glumly under the gray, drizzly sky.

Peijak stared at the severed headhung under the wolf banner on the

wall.

Her red hair, as beautiful as twilight,

was shorn at the neck and matted

with rotting blood.

"A lie..." Peijak murmured.

Her murky blue eyes stared into the

southern sky as if to mourn the

unfinished deed. The bodies around

her reeked of hearts rotten from

betrayal. Swarms of maggots and

bugs crawled in the pools of blood

and rain.

Peijak cut off the rope and held the

rotting head of the queen with his

shaking hands. He slowly caressed

her rotten cheek.

"A lie.." he said through clenched

teeth. She dedicated her life to this

country. She was a good queen who

didn't hesitate to risk her life to give

her people rich land to farm. She was

a great queen, the first in the history

of Rarke to achieve such magnificent

accomplishments of expanding the

country's territory and rebranding it

as a country with an indestructible

army instead of a weak one. Without

even thinking twice about it, they

betrayed that invaluable leader, who

will be incomparable to all those who

follow her...

"A lie. This is a lie."

Peijak raised his head. His view was

blurred by the rain and his angry

tears, but he could still see the whitewolf banner on the wall as clear as

ever.

"B...Brionake!"

His furious cry spread across the

rainy field like thunder.

"Sir Dollehan, the enemies are

coming," one of his men told him.

Peijak pierced the ground with his

terrifying pitch-black spear. It was a

precious gift, with so great a meaning

she had not been able to give it a

name, so Peijak volunteered to

become an actualization of its

meaning himself.

He pierced the queen's head on his

long spear. Then he turned her head

away from the south.

Her blank eyes stared at the palace of

Rarke.

"You ungrateful fools of Rarke!"

Peijak fixed his eyes on the Brionake

banner following the soldiers

running toward him to arrest him

and his troops. It was Belbarote

Paseid Brionake, the new king of

Rarke, and the man who was once the

queen's.

"I detest you! Usurper Brionake! I

detest Rarke!" Peijak cried out as he

glared at Brionake, who was now at

the front.

Peijak turned away from the

betrayers and spurred his horse. The

knights of Rarke who had once

worshipped the queen chased afterhim. Those who followed Peijak until

the end rode south without stopping

to get away from their pursuers.

Then Peijak and hundreds of knights

loyal to him kneeled in front of Fort

Olzore, the fort that had defeated the

queen after years of war.

"1, the sixth son of the former King

Dolomete the third of Rarke, brother

of Queen Swan Selkalrid of Rarkalia,

request refuge at Morgana."

Creaaaak. the front's Door opened

Peijak wept at the grand sight of

Olzore opening its door after so

many days. As he took each step

across the border his respected and

beloved sister could never cross,

Peijak let the rage build inside him.

Morgana was entranced by all the

information the man who once

fought in the fields with the queen of

Rarke had to offer. Pleased with

Peijak's loathing for Rarke, the king

of Morgana granted him a title and

land.

As proof of his loyalty to Morgana,

Peijak presented all the original

copies of the letters the queen had

supposedly written herself and

founded a new house. It was the

beginning of a new force of power in

Morgana, named Mariposa.

Thirty-two years later, as he met an

end to his life stained with hatred

and madness, Peijak Dollehan

Mariposa prophesied, "Tell Rarke.

The queen you betrayed will return

with me."

And two hundred years passed.

chapter one

There was a small town in Galabua of

Rarke, near the forests at the

southeastern border. Though it was

small in size, it was a busy town, full

of life, with travelers coming and

going. With rundown houses built at

an arm's length of each other and the

fields spotted with ripening crops,

the place looked almost like an

undeveloped vacation site.

Its people were peaceful. They didn't

even feel that threatened by being

not too far from the Gerad border,

where there was a war going on.

Rather than showing hostility, they

mingled like family with the

merchants and travelers who came

with news from the outside.

It was a serene land where there was

no man too rich and no man too

poor. Life was easy there.

But there's no place without

exceptions. Even in this ordinary

town, there was a celebrity whom all

the residents found odd. She was the

second daughter of the horse dealer,

who had recently gotten a very

handsome deal with the royal family

of Rarke. The girl was a head smallerthan a grown man and had dark-red

hair that shined even redder under

the sun. Her eyes were of the same

shade. She was an unusually pretty

girl for a small country town.

But the reason for her fame was not

her outstanding beauty or virtue. The

men in the town were all country

bumpkins who did not have eyes for

distinguished beauty to begin with,

and they had all watched her grow

up. There was nothing to marvel at

about her appearance.

And her character? The girl, who'd

just stepped into her twenties a few

years ago, was as fierce as the old

man who sold beans, whom all the

townspeople agreed was the fiercest

of all.

Her reason for fame could be

summed up in one word.

Reuyen, the daughter of the only

horse dealer, Jess Detua, was a

genius.

Though a couple young men had

recently gone to war by choice or by

force-for even a peaceful town like

this could not escape the impact of

war--leaving the town quieter than

before, Reuyen was at the center of

all kinds of trouble. She was both

idolized and envied by the local men

until fairly recently.

Everyone knew that she was the

daughter of a man who raised and

sold horses, so her remarkable

equitation made sense. What didn't make sense was her swordsmanship

and archery, even taking down birds

flying in the sky, which no one had

taught her.

Young, competitive countrymen

challenged her for no apparent

reason and tried with all their might,

but like the headstrong girl she was,

Reuyen beat their pride to the

ground without hesitating. Her

mother baking bread as an apology to

the crying, broken men became an

everyday sight in the town.

If that had been all, they would have

just thought she was gifted. But it

wasn't.

The only place with books in the

town was a tiny old bookstore. This

meant that the only way to gatherany kind of knowledge and

information in specific areas was

through learning from the town's

visitors. Yet Reuyen was erudite

enough to teach the outsiders

instead.

When it came to the ancient history

of Rarke, even the eighty-year-old

hunchbacked teacher stopped his

lectures when Reuyen was around,

for he could not follow her. Though

some argued that her words were

made up, most of them were true,

and there was no way of verifying the

rest.

When someone asked, "Where did

you learn all that?" she replied, "I

don't know," made a sulky face, and

changed the subject.

One day, bursting with curiosity, the

adults of the town all went up to her

father, Jess, and questioned him. The

funny thing was, not even the father

knew how or why his daughter knew

the things she did. What was even

funnier was that the so-called genius

girl never admitted to being a genius

herself. Today, her reaction was the

same.

"I understand that I seem smart,"

Reuyen said to the crowd that had

gathered, "but it's not right to say

that I'm a genius. So, stop asking."

"Then what are you, I say?" an old

man asked.

"I don't know. But you all should be

aware, the east wind has turned theother way, so it's going to rain a lot

once the sun sets. Why don't you go

and bring your laundry inside or

something?"

"What? Really?" The old man looked

up to the sky, which held not the

slightest hint of a cloud, with a

curious frown.

"You can doubt me all you want, but

do warn Lea. It looked like she was

putting out her vegetables to dry."

It would rain if the swallows flew low

and the cumulus was high. Her

predictions were not one of those

hit-or-miss sayings. Just how did she

know them, specifically? She was

right most of the time, but there was

something about her.

Everyone thought she must have been hiding

something.

"How long are you going to stay

huddled there, gentlemen?" she

asked.

There wasn't even an inkling of

respect in the question she spat out

as she held up a bundle of wood. The

adults soon started eyeing each other

and then they all dispersed. A

stranger might have laughed at them

for scattering away for shelter from

the rain when the sun was still

shining strong, but they knew that

Reuyen was right seven or eight

times out of ten, so they had nothing

to lose in believing her this time.

"Thank you, Reuyen! Time to bet if

you're right again!"

Reuyen swallowed a sigh as she

watched the adults running like

children.

She put the bundle of wood down at

the doorstep of the smaller room in

her father's house. Her little brother,

who was resting his head on a hard,

wooden pillow and picking at his

teeth, looked up with a blank

expression on his face.

"What are you up to, sis?"

"Sidan, stop just lying around and

help me move the wood. Is that all

that's over there?"

"Why are you bringing it inside?"

"We didn't fix the shed leak."

"Rain?"

"Yup."

Sidan tilted his head and looked at

the clear sky through the old window.

Clear as clear could be. After sulking

for a bit, he dropped his toothpick

question. The Detuas had learned

through experience that every one of

Reuyen's words and actions had

meaning.

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To Be Continued