Snippet #1746293

Neboka

A family of deer search through a sea of endless snow, looking for just a morsel of green vegetation. There are two babies stumbling after their mother and a male deer fairly close by. Little do the poor creatures know they are being stalked by the most dangerous predator on earth: Human. With a steady and well trained hand, an arrow is shot straight through the heart of the buck, sending the other deer scampering away. The human rushes out of the thick, snow covered brush and approaches the buck. This human is a woman. She is a woman dressed in a humble warm dress, of fairly traditionally style worn in Celidina. Celidina is tormented with an almost eternal winter and strong winds. The woman’s long ebony hair sways in the cold wind. Quickly, the woman ties ropes around the large buck in order to drag it to her home. She stops a moment to touch the fur of the deer. “So handsome” she said to herself, dreaming of all the things her mother, a tailor, would make from it. After hiking through the snow with the deer she nears her small log cabin home nestled in the midst of the snow. Her family lived on the very edge of town, fairly far from most other homes. Many homes of Celidina were scattered around the edge of town, far off from others. The closest one to this home could just be seen in the distance. It was a slightly larger home made from logs. If one headed toward it they would find the path leading into the heart of town, the market place. The heart of town was fairly populated with many small family owned shops and businesses, all located around the market and the semi-frozen lake next to it. The young hunter woman traveled here often to pick up supplies, visit, and take part in what schooling this town had.

“Oh my Neboka! How ever did you find such a large buck?!?” exclaimed a brunette middle aged woman as the huntress neared.

“I’m not quite sure… You scarcely see numerous animals about yet I found a whole family of deer. However, I couldn’t bring myself to shoot the offspring or their mother...” Neboka said feeling a little ashamed. People around here would never even hesitate to do so; most of them were fairly close to not being able to feed their family.

“Boka, yer always talkin like yer a royal er somthin. Folks gonna start thinkin you some kinda prick darlin. Is what I get fer letin you become an educated type with all yer dang odd schoolin n such.” said a voice from in the house. Neboka brought in the deer and began cleaning it with her mother Ottaka, the brunette woman.

“Boka darlin, aint you got yer schoolin ta get ta soon?” said the man with black hair, her father Rahee Colber. He always supported her efforts toward school, but how it made her talk differently from other people made him worry for her. Despite her playful, dreamy mentality, she spoke with great eloquence and beauty that was vastly beyond her years. This was vastly different from the highly uneducated people who lived here. He and his wife had become very protective since everything with Gaxieno; Neboka had become a lot less trusting and pure minded too. Her natural innocence and willingness to believe had become very on guard and unwilling to get too close to anyone.

“Oh my! I am tardy!” Neboka cried rushing out the door. Neboka often got lost in her thoughts and forgot things. Neboka ran out of the door into the woods to take a short cut before she realized she forgot her book bag. After running back and grabbing it, making sure her “just in case” dagger was strapped to her inner thigh she was off again. Along the way she got distracted several times because she saw vegetation or thought of something interesting but eventually she made it to town. It was a good thing she was quick and strong due to her laborious life style or she would have taken much longer. Her parents actually had the day off today but they both owned businesses in town. Her mother owned her own tailoring shop and her father a lumber supplier. He supplied the lumber for practically every building in town. This was a reason Neboka was so strong for a girl, she was constantly either studying or cutting lumber. Or she might be found out in nature, recording data and characteristics of plants or animals, drawing sketches of them in her note book for further research. However, constantly she dreamt. During the day, during the night, her imagination constantly ran wild. She was often lost in her own little world.

Neboka neared the building where only the best students in town went. It was what this town had as a version of college. Very few were able to go after their version of high school. Before she entered, Neboka brought her hands together in a cup. Inside them she created a ball of fire. The process heated her whole body that had been chilled from coming there. She smiled at the little ball of fiery light in her hands. Everyone in Celidina knew she had abilities to control, contort and produce light. Once Neboka got in her teens she found that this meant fire too if she concentrated and condensed it enough. Light is just energy after all. Fire is the same thing except a much larger quantity of energy. In the world Neboka lives in, magical things happen all the time. Magic can be found under every leaf and rock; it’s in the very air. For Neboka to mysteriously have an ability is not common (in fact it is practically unheard of) but it is not enough to cause a great upset. After all, people in this world believe in folk lore, whimsy and myth. Which legends are true and which are simply fairy tale is yet to be seen…

The young Huntress quenched the fire in her hands before she entered the school house with the words “Celidina’s Advanced Schooling for the gifted: grades 13 through 16” engraved in a silver plaque above the door frame. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Miss Colber. Late again I see.” said the prudish and severe woman from Galma known as Miss Oberlin. She was very well educated, having studied for many years in her home town. For some reason she came to this frozen wasteland to teach around twenty years ago. She actually favored Neboka despite her having Miss Oberlin’s most hated qualities: tardiness, dreaminess and beauty. Miss Oberlin generally acted as if she hated everyone, but her advanced class was her favorite due to their intelligence. They were however treated with only a small degree less harshness.

“Certainly Miss Oberlin. I greatly apologize for my tardiness” Neboka said with a small bow. Even adults like herself where always taught extreme respect for their elders in this town. Even the most rebellious of children knew better than to show any sign of disrespect.

Miss Oberlin stared at Neboka for a long moment, criticizing her with her small severe eyes. “Sit Miss Colber. Next to Titus” she sneered. Neboka began to tremble as she walked toward the seats. Titus was the best friend of Gaxieno. Gaxieno had been a popular, handsome, talented and rich guy. He had women falling all over themselves for him but there was one he could never woo: Neboka. Not being able to have her may have been the main reason for his affixation. Neboka wasn’t very much interested in boys; she was immature in that area and found more pleasure in frolicking in the snow. Gaxieno tried over and over to gain her love but always failed. Eventually he forced his love on her, having his way with her. He threatened her with the death of her family and herself if she ever spoke a word. Therefore Gaxieno made her his girlfriend, regularly and forcibly fulfilling his sexual desires and using her for anything else he might need. One day about a year ago she had too much after doing as he wished for years with threats and abuse and murdered him. She was never prosecuted due to her evidence that he had been raping her for years. All this made Neboka very wary of people that she was not close to and especially ones she did not know. Titus being Gaxieno’s equally rich and handsome best friend since childhood knew about it all along. Both belonged to the upper most class of Celidina’s society (most in the advanced schooling usually were). Titus thought it good sport but Neboka never mentioned this due to there being no evidence. Titus was enraged about his best friend’s death. He often went on “double dates” with Gaxieno and Neboka back in the days, always publicly hanging out with Neboka and Gaxieno, the “happy couple”. The cruel and vengeful Miss Oberlin knew simply how much Neboka feared Titus while suspecting various circumstances. So she used this as punishment, often ignoring Titus’ harassment when Neboka had been late.

There were six seats in this class: three rows with two seats in each. Celina Hucher, a rich and popular woman whose father was a local banker (of the uppermost class) in her third year moved from her seat in the back row next to Titus. She moved to the empty seat next to Begonia Greene in the middle row, an intelligent middle class woman in her fourth and final year. Begonia was a fisherman’s daughter and fairly nice but highly ambitious. She had a demeanor somewhat similar to that of Miss Oberlin but less exacting. In the front by himself was a first year named Calvin Kukama that Neboka usually sat next to. Calvin almost never spoke. However if he did it was only when absolutely necessary, in the shortest possible answers and in softest most quiet voice anyone could ever find. Rumor was he is an orphan but the best writer in the region. Neboka liked to sit next to him because he sat in the front and was good filler so she would not sit next to Titus.

Neboka softly sat down trying her hardest to concentrate on the board, though she felt eyes on her right side appraising her every breath and despising every second of her life. Titus and Neboka were the two second years, growing up in the same classes alongside Gaxieno. Titus was almost exactly like his best friend in demeanor but he was a bit smarter and less discrete. Gaxieno also had an obsession with Neboka and was far more sexual. Gaxieno and Titus’ families were very close; both families adored their own and each other’s children. They often went on vacation together and both hated Neboka with a passion. The women could not believe Neboka would ever make up such lies about Gaxieno and thought her to be an angry girlfriend (as they had often taken her on vacation with them and had her over with Gaxieno). Being a womanizer was a strong trait in Titus’s family and Gaxieno’s family, so all the men thought her insolent and ungrateful.

Miss Oberlin taught on, completely ignoring the back row. The desks were neatly in their rows touching the desk next to each. “NeeNee” Titus whispered closely into Neboka’s ear. That was the nickname that Gaxieno had always called her. A shutter went down Neboka’s body while Calvin and Begonia cast a sorrowful look back at her. They quickly trained themselves back on the board, as Miss Oberlin would never allow such distraction other that in the back row when Neboka needed punishment.

Neboka trembled and kept her eyes trained straight. Titus smiled with hate deep in each dimple of his cheeks. “NeeNee, I haven’t forgotten about you… None of us have” Titus whispered, breathing his hot breath on her neck.

“You are a scum sucking rat” Neboka whispered back fiercely, not looking back at him.

“Oh don’t be so coy Beautiful, I know the filthy tramp that could kill Gaxieno in cold blood could at least look his best friend in the eyes whilst she insults him” Titus whispered as he traced the bones and veins in her neck.

“Y-you are a grimy bastard. A silver spoon fed pretty boy and a pitiful coward” Neboka managed to spit out.

Titus laughed quietly. “Oh NeeNee you are so lucky we aren’t out in the woods by ourselves… Just like when Gaxieno decided to make you his girl friend for the first time... He told me all about how… fulfilling is was. Maybe some night I will sneak into your bed room just like Gaxieno used to do… What better repayment than to make you my girlfriend. But I warn you, I am not nearly as nice as Gaxieno was…” Titus whispered as he played with Neboka’s midnight black hair. Memories rushed into Neboka’s mind of years of abuse. She didn’t know if Titus would actually follow through, he had made many similar threats before but it was enough to terrify her beyond her sanity.

After a long while class was over. Titus had spent it torturing Neboka but he left soon after class. Rich people had many important things to do. Neboka and Calvin were the last two out but before they crossed the door Miss Oberlin called “Do not be late again Miss Colber”. Neboka nodded tearfully and rushed out. Yes, this was a girl Miss Oberlin favored. She was a very harsh woman. Neboka walked side by side with Calvin. He looked at her with great pity and patted her shoulder in a rarely seen act of human interaction. Neboka nodded at her friend and smiled to show she would be okay. He rarely spoke because Calvin did not like speaking and he was extraordinarily shy. Neboka being comfortable with him was unafraid to chat up a storm but she knew how her friend was. Neboka liked to talk and with those she was close to. However she preferred to day dream when in the company of people she barely knew.

The two walked toward the semi frozen lake and sat on the shore. Neboka stared a small fire to warm them. She and Calvin often came here after advanced schooling. They only had a short while each day before they both had to get to work and studding, however they enjoyed the time they had. Usually Neboka just talked and Calvin listened. He liked conversation when it was all the other person talking about something intelligent and interesting and himself just listening. Neboka was very thankful for Calvin, she never thought of him romantically but he was a good friend to her despite his quirk.

“I don’t know Calvin… I don’t know what to do about Titus. I can’t go through what happened with Gaxieno again. Then again, I’m not sure if he has enough nerve to do it.” Neboka said across the fire. Calvin nodded contemplation in his eyes as he stared at the fire.