Chapter One
Abiha packed her bag and answered her university roommate. “Yes, I’m actually from the first forest, and yes, I have to go back there for my sister’s wedding, and yes, it is just as weird as that sounds.”
Uleika chuckled. “Do you have to fight the forest?”
Abiha shook her head. “No, I just have to ask it for permission for Ledana to marry one of the locals.”
“I thought that is where you were from?”
Abiha chuckled. “My father was doing research there. I was born there and grew up there, but I am not local.”
“What about your mother and sister?”
Abiha sighed. “That is why I have to go. All of her blood has to be represented for this, so since Dad died, I am the only missing piece to the puzzle. I will ask the forest for permission, and if it doesn’t strike me down, it is considered to have agreed.”
“So, you are going to dress in the formalwear and wear the family blade?” Uleika looked at her with gleaming eyes.
“Yes. I’m the eldest; I have the training to use it. Dad was a stickler for the proprieties.” She buckled the suitcase.
“Can you take pictures of you in the formalwear? I bet you would look like an ancient warrior.”
Abiha looked at her friend with narrowed eyes. “It is just a few layers of robes, and there is no tech like an imager in the first forest. I have to leave everything at the guardian gates. They are going to check everything, and traditional clothing has to be worn the moment that I enter the forest.”
“Aww, this sounds like a trip to one of the theme parks.” Uleika grinned.
“It is a lot less fun when the basic tech is all accomplished by hand. Everything from food to drawing water has to be done by hand.”
Abiha looked out the window, and her transport had arrived. “Right. I’ll see you in two weeks.”
“I wish I was going.”
“Go to the museum and look at some of the historical portraits of the forest. It is just like being there but slightly less green.” She grinned and patted her friend’s shoulder. “Okay. Have fun, and don’t have sex in my bed. I don’t even have sex in my bed.”
She left her room and headed down the stairs. She nodded to the transport driver, and he put her bag in the cargo area. She sat and watched the city fly by as they drove past all of the sights that had been so familiar to her for the last ten years. When her father got sick, he needed someone to help him with his research. She had been sixteen and completed her basic education, so she joined him as his assistant at the university. By the time his disease had run its course, she had been twenty-two and was firmly entrenched in the lifestyle of the city. Her parents had gone their separate ways in the forest, her sister had stayed with her mother, and Abiha had gone her own way. She thought she was done with the forest, but she had forgotten all the rituals involved around permanently joining the village in the forest.
Her driver started speaking two hours into the drive. “Miss, have you been to the forest before?”
She nodded. “I have. Why?”
“There are rumors about strange events going on in there.”
She looked out the window and watched the world go by. “The rumors are right. The forest is not for everyone, but most pharmaceutical breakthroughs in the last two hundred years have all come out of that weird little village.”
“What?”
She spent the next four hours, minus a comfort break, giving him a lecture on all of the advancements that had emerged from the village, the plants, and the people who enjoyed the silent study of the natural world.
“You sound very knowledgeable.”
“I am going for my second degree right now. History is what I’m good at.” She chuckled. “Two more hours and we will be there. I will be home.”
He was startled. “Home?”
She sighed. “Yeah, in all the ways that matter. Home.”
She could feel him looking at her as they continued the long and winding drive.
Abiha started to feel anticipation when the mountains that backed the forest came into view. The forest wall was twenty feet high and ten feet wide. There were two entrances and a heavy military presence on the exterior.
She took her bag from the driver and nodded. “Thank you for the ride.”
He inclined his head. “Are you sure you don’t want me to wait? They might not let you in.”
She chuckled. “Then, they would have a problem. Thank you for your help.”
He bowed slightly, and the transport left.
She walked toward the gatehouse and smiled. “Hello. I am here for a wedding.”
She slid her documentation along the counter.
“No one is allowed in the forest without clearance. You had better get back in your transport.”
She inclined her head. “Please run the identification.”
He snorted and swiped her ident card. His eyes went wide. “Professor Nahe! Apologies. I wasn’t expecting you to look like...”
He waved at her.
“Yeah. I get that a lot. Can we get on with the clearances, and you can confiscate all of my tech.” She smiled politely.
“Oh, yes, Professor.” He snapped into work mode, and she soon was having her clothing examined for artificial fibers, and her communication and entertainment items were removed and stored for her.
She was given a large square of fabric to take her clothing in, and when she was properly attired, the door opened, and she stepped through.
She might not be considered a villager, but she had still been born inside the forest. That gave her a certain cache in her research circles, but right now, it meant only one thing. It was time to go home.
Abiha walked for two miles, stopping at familiar streams for water and continuing on as the sun went down. She was going to arrive after dark, which wasn’t ideal.
The village lights flickered ahead of her, and she altered her steps to the standard village glide to avoid making too much noise as she passed the homes where families were gathered for dinner.
She found her mother’s home at the far edge of the village, and she scratched lightly at the door. It took a minute before her sister slid the door open. They stared at each other for a moment, each taking in the maturity of the other. Ledana Alwe stepped aside and let Abiha inside, closing the door before she was enveloped in a hug.
“I didn’t think you were coming.”
“I sent a letter to mother last week. Didn’t she get it?” Abiha returned the hug.
Ledana was one year younger than she was, but they looked like twins. “She might have, she’s been tense over the wedding. Jimon’s family is fine with me, but Mom is holding on to the ancient tradition.”
“Well, I have my ceremonial clothing with me, so I can do the asking tomorrow if you like. Oh, shit. I have to go to the temple.”
Ledana’s eyes widened. “Go. Shoo.”
Abiha nodded, put her shoes back on, and walked to the large, dark structure tucked under the trees. She left her shoes on the ground and walked up the steps and into the temple, kneeling in front of the altar and bowing. “Kiloh of the forest, please allow me to stay within your demesne, eat of your food, and drink of your water.”