Wolf Moon 4

CHAPTER 4

in which Yué suspects her best plan needs workshopping. Written because I need some serotonin, things are not going to plan lately. 

The most obvious answer for avoiding Hahn and his necklace was not to go near him. That was a good basis for a plan, but it was significantly complicated by the fact that he’d be looking for her.

Yué stayed in bed late, looking at her ceiling. She had heard her father leave his rooms at his normal time, ice-door closing with a loud shlunk.

Hahn couldn’t come into her rooms. He couldn’t come into the royal wings at all unless invited, and she certainly wasn’t going to do that. Her father wouldn’t… not unless he noticed she was avoiding Hahn and felt there was no other option to force her compliance.

‘So for a while, at least, this is a safe place to be. How can I justify spending so much time here? Fake being ill? Focus on my sewing?’

She rolled over onto her side and hugged  her pillow. ‘I won’t fake being sick. That’s both obvious and a desperation tactic. I’ll save that for if I’m truly desperate. Besides, they’d just call Yugoda or Aunna to heal me and then I’d be expected to be out of my quarters.’

She was not too proud to use even an inefficient and obviously fake stalling tactic, but she’d wait for that.

‘I have to keep going out. It’ll be too obvious that I’m avoiding him if I just don’t leave. I have to give him plausible chances to propose while also avoiding it actually happening.’

Yué bit her lip and buried her face in the pillow. What would Hahn do? Would he want to propose publicly to stake his claim and boast? Would he want to propose privately so that he could take immediate advantage of the relaxed rules for interaction?

The thought of kissing Hahn slid across her mind and she shuddered. “Gross,” Yué said vehemently. The pillow muffled her horror.

She wasn’t as ignorant as everyone wanted her to be. Aunna’s little cousin had had a terrible crush on Hahn. She’d talked about their romance, she’d expected a necklace. And then she simply didn’t talk about him at all. Yué remembered the panic in Kalla’s eyes when the topic had come up. She also remembered that Kalia wasn’t the only girl who had gone from making moon eyes at Hahn to avoiding his name.

Hahn was a terrible boy, who used girls’ feelings. Yué certainly wasn’t going to be tricked into falling for him.

She groaned into her pillow.

That was a terrible pronouncement to make about the person she was supposed to marry. If she didn’t escape him, how would she cope? What would it be like to be married to someone you fundamentally disliked, to have to lay with someone who disgusted you? She couldn’t even say that he was a kind person. How would he treat her in private?

Her stomach turned. She briefly reconsidered using illness as a delaying tactic.

‘If I think about him long enough, I can probably vomit.’

Well. First things first. She forced herself to get up and dressed. She had already missed breakfast, but that wasn’t unusual. She often took her meals in her rooms. Yué combed her hair and braided it, taking care to slip in extra pearls. It would look like she was taking things seriously, or dressing up for an occasion.

It would set a precedent for her to be dripping in jewels that she could use if she saw an escape route.

‘If they finish their training, will the Avatar and Katara take me with them?’

She wasn’t too proud to consider the option. It would be a very unfair thing to ask of them. She deliberately avoided thinking of Sokka, but it crept up on her that he would probably do anything that she asked.

She put her hands on her face and breathed deeply.

‘I don’t want to use people. He has feelings for me. I don’t have to return them, but it would be so disrespectful to use them to manipulate him.’

In any case.

It would damage relations between her tribe and the Avatar, as well as the Southern tribes. They might knowingly do it, but could they really make that decision fairly? Katara and Sokka were the chief’s children, not the chief. There weren’t even any Southern elders to consult.

She finished her preparations and strode into her outer rooms. As expected, breakfast dishes had been brought once the staff had realized that she wasn’t attending the great hall. She ate without tasting the sweetness of fruit or enjoying the perfect flakiness of grilled fish.

‘Aunna will come with me. I should get her close and keep her there. Maybe.. maybe we should just sneak out. I have my personal boat.’

Of course, neither she nor Aunna knew how to steer it or anything about sailing. That was probably a barrier she ought to be concerned about.

‘We are water tribe,’ Yué thought stubbornly. ‘We could do it.’

Of course if they couldn’t, they’d find out by drowning.

She tabled the plan. It was her best one so far but it did have that one little flaw.

“I have to go out sometime,” Yué said to herself, looking at her door. And maybe sooner was better, to show her face early to delay anyone realizing that she was avoiding Hahn. If he didn’t know he’d have limited chances to propose to her, he might not be ready to jump at her from behind a corner.

That decided, she steeled herself and asked for her door to be opened. Her bodyguards for the day fell in line behind her and she realized, with no small amount of relief, that only she could give them orders.

‘Hahn can’t get me completely alone. Even if he manages to propose, I won’t be without a chaperone.’

She went to the Healing tent. She hadn’t been there for more than a week. Yué liked to supervise the lessons. It was a chance to talk to girls who were otherwise too far below her social status to interact.

The lesson she walked into was that of beginners. The attendees were all below their 8th year, except for Katara.

The southern girl’s face brightened when Yué entered. Katara gave a wave and a grin.

Yué smiled back and bowed slightly. Then she slipped to the back and made herself comfortable out of the way.

Yugoda caught her eye and smiled, but she didn’t interrupt her lesson. She didn’t acknowledge Yué until there was a break.

The little girls swarmed Yué.

“Princess, Princess,” a little girl with a perfectly round face cried. She tugged on Yue’s dress.

“Yes?” Yué asked, stroking another girl’s braids. She had tucked her head into Yue’s side.

‘They are so sweet.’ Yué felt her heart swell. Her fingers glided over dark hair, held in place by a darling little ribbon.

The first girl went silent for a moment. Her little fist clenched, then opened. “I love you,” she said.

Yué accepted this information solemnly. “I love you too,” she informed.

“Don’t crowd the Princess,” Yugoda scolded, a little late to stop it. “Girls, back to your seats. Let’s tell the Princess what you learned.”

“I learned about bones!” the littlest girl shouted. The others were going back to their cushions but she stood in front of Yué. “Look!” The girl shook her arm. “That’s a bone!”

“Oh, you do know about bones,” Yué said. “How many arm bones are there?”

The tiny girl hesitated. “There’s enough,” she said. She whipped around so fast that her braid went flying behind her. “Can I go home?”

“No,” Yugoda said solemnly. “You may not go home. Now it is time to have snacks. If you leave, who will eat your snack?”

She scrambled back to her seat. Yué covered her mouth to hide her amusement as the master Healer uncovered a basket and set it on the table. She began giving quiet orders, directing one girl to get plates, another to bring the cups, and one girl to fetch the water. They all undertook their assignments with a seriousness that showed being asked to help was considered a privilege of being grown-up.

‘I miss when I wanted to be a grown-up.’ Her smile felt a bit fake.

“Princess, can you tell the girls about their role in the tribe?” Yugoda asked. She didn’t look at Katara, but Yué was fairly certain this was for her benefit, as well as to make the students excited to be helpful.

“Oh, it’s very important,” Yué said. She looked at each little face. “Every one of you will save lives. We are so lucky to have healers. When someone gets too cold, you can help them. When a mother has a baby, you can keep them both safe. You’ll know about many sicknesses, and be able to give good advice to your families about being healthy. And if something goes wrong, like someone cutting their finger or hurting their ankle, you can make it all better. Isn’t that amazing?”

The little faces shining up at her were silent. Some of them had their mouths open. Yué looked at Healer Yugoda and continued. “Healers are some of the best educated members of the tribe. You might become a teacher, an advisor, or a story teller. When you are elders, everyone will need your help. So really, you are some of the most important people in our tribe.” She folded her hands inside her sleeves.

She caught sight of Katara’s face. The other girl was looking down, face conflicted.

Katara would never be satisfied with that role. Yué could see it. She needed to be able to fight the way that Yué needed to be free.

‘I’ll talk to Father today,’ Yué decided. ‘When he is in his room after lunch.’