Chapter Twenty

Going Home

The three small yetis came to the caravans before they left. None of them cried. Gemma looked like, what was the human saying, that she had swallowed a lemon, but Adhara and Saulo seemed to be excited and convinced it was the best idea and they gave her something called an icoffin and showed her where their emails were stored. Abbey vaguely thought she remembered Indu playing around with Karuna's and complaining they didn't really get service so far up the mountain. She was also sure that Indu had called hers an iphone, but hers looked the same.

The bigger yetis insisted on putting Abbey in the cart instead of letting her walk along. They said they didn't care about how capable she was, it was good business to have her there with the wares especially since she helped produce some of them. The three small yetis waved her off enthusiastically as the carts headed out, promising they would try to visit her in the human village before Abbey left the mountain.

Abbey waved to them until it became uncomfortable to keep looking in that direction. or a few minutes she say uncomfortably on the railing of the cart, holding on as she tried to balance as the cart bounced along. She really would have preferred to walk. This was very uncomfortable. Abbey took in a deep breath. The thing about dealing with Abominable's yetis is they had a very set way of doing things, and the only changes happened when Abominable told them about it and then they scrambled to obey him while also making accommodations and finding ways to make things easier for Abbey.

It was actually annoying, now that Abbey thought about it. She was grateful they were thinking about her, but she was annoyed they didn't think she was capable to deal with their world on her own merits. Maybe she had been spoiled by the humans world a little, but for most of her life she had been expected to keep up with the other yetis. These yetis were more accommodating, but they were more distant. When Abominable hadn't said anything against forcing Abbey on the cart, they had practically lifted her there and none of them made any indication that they wanted to get to know her.

Before Abbey could become morose and lost in her thoughts, one of the weavers came and started walking next to her, asking about her painting, which turned into a discussion about art. Abbey didn't really like discussing her art she decided. When she had written about it with Karuna, his reactions to her way of thinking had been funny, and she was still discovering her own ability in drawing and would draw more silly things like her human friends as yetis. Now Abbey thought that it was a bad sort of art to take on. A dangerous experiment in the unreal that would only harm her.

This yeti, on the other hand, thought of herself as an artist and talked about wanting to have more freedom when she wove. Abbey listened with growing concern, as the other yeti described her ideal not as being art as another form of communication and capturing the reality of a situation. This yeti was more interested in expressing herself, and seemed to really obsess how Abbey caught the essence of the scenes she painted.

When the human village finally came into Abbey, the small yeti felt a sigh of relief escaping her before the yeti continued to try and describe why Abbey's thinking was apparently limiting. Abbey bit her tongue. She would soon be at the village, and she would rather not leave the yetis from her current tribe on a bad note. So she bit her tongue.

Abominable greeted the humans that came to lead him to the center of the village with his usual ceremony and gave his customary gift to the leader. The man looked up in surprise when Abominable pointed Abbey out. Abbey hoped down from the cart, smiling at Lakshya's father since she knew him. Oddly enough, Abbey had never really met the human leader before. He wasn't even one of the leaders in the battle a week ago.

Abominable explained the situation. The human leader looked a little scandalized when Abominable mentioned he was thinking of sending Abbey to the states as he called them, but he calmed down when Abominable promised they would be sending her with their own money and exchanging goods for her use of their computer lab.

Abbey had to bite back the need to point out that she made money and presumably had some in a bank of some sort. But that would be undermining Abominable, and he already knew probably. Better to trust his judgment. Abbey would probably be expected to save up for other things like her schooling and housing when she got to whatever the states were, and whatever the humans wore there, or the monsters.

When Abominable started encouraging the other yetis to get out to display their supplies and start the haggling just as humans started bringing up their own wares. Abominable caught Abbey's attention with a wink and pointed in the direction of Indu's house. Abbey looked toward Lakshya's father, not ready to join the village if she was going to be attacked. Instead Lakshya ran into her arms and started to talk a mile a minute. She heard Abominable's loud chuckle, but Lakshya pulled her way before she could look behind to see if her leader was laughing at her or something else.

"She's back!" yelled the guard as they entered Kshama's house. A girl screamed and Lakshya pulled them out again, laughing even as something crashed against the door. He giggled and pulled Abbey to her old shed. It was the same as she left it, and Lakshya made a point of shoving the yak stuffed animal in her arms and then hugging her again.

"Miss me?" asked Abbey as she patted his back. He stiffened and pulled away from her, and then he quickly came closer and looked at her mouth.

"It's true then, I can see the scars," said the guard. Abbey blushed and carefully pulled herself out of his hug so they could go and sit down. She wished that she didn't know what he was talking about, but Abbey could never forget the scars she bore or how they had affected her. They were a part of her existence a part of her past. Maybe it wasn't a nice past, but it didn't need to be. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Sewn shut," said Abbey teasingly. Lakshya rolled his eyes.

"Abbey," shouted Indu, running in and throwing herself at Abbey and hugging her closely. Unlike Lakshya, she didn't linger in the hug, and actually pushed away. "Come on, let's get somewhere warm."

When Abbey walked into the healing house. The girl was absent and Kshama was sitting at her work table and besides mentioning that she expected Abbey to consent to a physical later, she didn't seem overly impressed Abbey was back.

"She's only been gone a week," said the old woman.

"But we didn't know if she was coming back," said Lakshya with a with a sigh.

Abbey smiled and found herself hugging the ridiculous stuffed animal to her chest. They caught up a bit, and with the rapid fire of questions she got from the two, she was reminded of the three yetis. Lakshya wanted to know why she was back and if she had been treated well. Indu was interested in if they had small yetis and if what she was wearing was what all yetis wore. They asked more questions, and Abbey found herself listening and not trying to really answer. They were really like the three yetis. They asked questions so quickly, and while they left moments for Abbey to answer, all Abbey would have to do was open her mouth and they would think of more questions to ask.

The door opened after what felt like only five minutes, but could have been hours. Abbey turned her head, and the questions became background noise. In the doorway stood Karuna, bag slung over his shoulder and heavy. They stared at each other for what felt like days, until suddenly Abbey found her legs and rushed over to draw Karuna into a hug. She tried to be conscious of the fact he was human but was still afraid that she might be squeezing him too close by the way all the air was pushed from his body.

"I was afraid you'd never come back," whispered Karuna, his hand coming to rest on the back of her head. He suddenly shivered and laughed even as he pulled out of his hug, though his hand stayed latched onto her clothes.

"This is home," Abbey said with a shrug.

Karuna looked at her, shock evident in his expression. He then looked away and then back, a mischievous smile now plastered on his face.

"Why do all yetis have Russian accents?" he asked with a laugh. Abbey just cocked her head to the side.

"What is a Russian accent?" asked Abbey. Karuna rolled his eyes and then picked up his bag.

"Come on Abbey. They got me some of the things you'll need to start studying to be ready for Monster High," said Karuna, walking over the table and throwing his bag on it.

"What high school?" asked Indu and then she drew in a fast breath. "You're following Karuna to the states? Did you get thrown out of your tribe again?"

"Are you both going to a monster school? What is a monster school?" asked Lakshya.

Kshama's crane crashed on the wall. Everyone stopped talking and looked in her direction. "One question at a time. Starting with why you're here girl."

"This is my home," said Abbey again, really humans didn't listen well enough. Just because there was more air down the mountain didn't mean they should waste it. But trying to explain that to the three small yetis had been hard enough. Abbey still remembered when Karuna had acted confused and then laughed when Abbey had tried to explain it to him. Perhaps the monsters at Monster High would be more understanding, they were all in a school, which according to everyone only intelligent people continued lessons beyond the basic at a young age.

"But are you still part of Abominable's tribe?" asked Karuna, all three humans seemed to be leaning closer to Abbey in interest.

"Yes, I'm going to be an ambassador," said Abbey. The humans looked shocked and then Karuna started snorting and then laughing, even Lakshya started laughing. Abbey looked at them in confusion and Indu rolled her eyes and then hit them on the back of their head.

"Seeing as she's here, living with us, I think it'll work," said Indu.

"I think she fit in because she's a good defender," said Lakshya. "I know I thought we were insane not to demand that Abominable not take care of you when you were stalking around the village."

"And we wouldn't take care of her because..." asked Indu, looking at Lakshya incredulously.

"Because we couldn't find her and even though she's human size she's still a yeti," said Lakshya dryly.

"I'm still with the tribe, but I am home with Karuna and Abominable needs me to go and help make connections with other monsters overseas since I have proved I can thrive by making a family with my friends," said Abbey, hoping to derail the current conversation and get them back on track. Not that she was being self-centered, it was just that she wanted to get all the questions answered right now with all of them there instead of having to repeat herself over and over again.

"Why did they choose you?" asked Karuna to which Indu kicked him lightly.

"Why do you think?" asked Lakshya with a smile. Abbey looked between them, then thought she might know what they were talking about.

"I am not in love with Karuna," she said. It was a waste of breath in some ways to point out what Abbey thought should be an obvious fact but it seemed like such a common misconception of what she felt toward a human. Maybe it was the size thing. Because Abbey was a yeti and Karuna was a human. They would work together.

"We know," said Lakshya but Indu just looked at Abbey skeptically. Karuna dramatically put his hand on his head and leaned over on her shoulder.

"Am I not good enough for you?" he demanded sadly. Abbey pushed at him in irritation.

"You're human," said Abbey simply, and then because humans were silly. "And talkative."

"So, you're going to marry a big yeti?" asked Indu.

"Doesn't Abominable have small yetis though? I mean, he talked about them when we told him about Abbey sneaking around," said Lakshya.

"Are there a lot of small yetis?" asked Karuna. Abbey looked at the three of them and then sighed. These three reminded her of the three yetis from Abominable's tribe. Though it would be nice if one of them acted as sensibly as Gemma had seemed. Instead they were all quirky in their own way. Maybe Indu could have been like Gemma, but Indu had that whole gossip girly side to her that fascinated Abbey but made the human a little too odd in Abbey's opinion.

Abbey held up three fingers.

"Come on Abbey," said Karuna with an exaggerated sigh. "Your mouth isn't sewed shut anymore, we want to hear your cute Russian accent."

Abbey looked him up and down, and decided that it would be better for Karuna if she didn't continue to help him and she could deal with the humans constant questions. She was probably going to be asked about everything five times at least. Even by Karuna. The human was smart, but he liked clarifying and making hypothesis, and now that Abbey could talk, he would probably be asking a lot of questions. He'd asked before, but Abbey could only answer in pictures, and he considered it a sensitive topic.

"Abbey, you alright?" asked Lakshya, appearing about an inch from Abbey's face and making the yeti blink in surprise.

"Fine," said Abbey with a sigh and then she looked over at Indu and smiled. "I found while doing other chores that I like doing hairstyles."

"Really," said Indu and then cackled, kicking Karuna's chair and then grabbing Abbey's wrist. Abbey checked that her cold really was held under the skin. It wouldn't do to give her friend frost bite, again.

Indu sat Abbey down at their usual spot, and Abbey started to unwind her hair. It now reached just to her waist, and she had kept it braided for the most part. Indu instantly started crooning over it, and while Karuna rolled her eyes and grabbed a book to read, Lakshya sat and watched. Indu told him to go away. Abbey commented that didn't have enough hair to do anything with, but he could put on some makeup. To which the guard went, picked up one of Abbey's books, and started reading to her. Abbey listened with half an ear. It was very boring what he read, something about vampires which Abbey knew nothing about and their tension with humans. There were castles, pitch forks, money, and fire involved.

Humans and their fire.

Abbey spent some time primping and glossing over the more pleasant things that had happened in the tribe and glossing over the one she shared blood with. Abbey eventually did go over and talk to Karuna about what he called her cram course that would get her ready to enroll in a school in the states. It didn't sound horrible. Apparently meant she had to memorize a whole lot of random things. From what Karuna called textbooks and Lakshya and Indu called dry and boring as hell. Still, that had been the generally consensus to all Karuna's studies by everyone in the village, at least the ones Abbey knew.

Still, the textbooks might be hard to concentrate on, at least with Lakshya reading them, but it was clear that reading them and memorizing them was important to the states and college of high school or whatever.

Abbey went out as they started dinner and basked in the cold air.

At dinner Abbey froze her food and turned everyone's drink to slush. They all giggled together and Abbey found that this is what she had been waiting for. The food tasted great. Maybe it was the hot air trying to melt her and the cold food on her tongue making her insides shiver and freeze. Kshama said that they were going to have her have a physical the next day, to which Abbey rolled her eyes.

After dinner she found herself wondering if she really did want to study. In the spirit of her new conviction to be true to herself, she admitted she probably didn't. Abbey had never been interested in the books Karuna had beyond learning to read and write so she could communicate. Some of the books Karuna had given her to read were utterly pointless. Abbey at first thought they were books by a monster called god or angels, or one seemed a story about a sea traveling warrior who encountered monsters and she made it more than halfway through that thing when Karuna told her it was untrue. Historically important literature but not based on facts.

Abbey had no interest in books that weren't true. Now more than ever. She had told this to Karuna when he was going over some of the books he thought she would need to read. He had replied that there were certain things she had to know, and yes, sometimes it was things that she would probably not understand why she needed to know it. Abbey sighed and nodded her head, but she hoped that monsters were more practical than humans and didn't require her to read about things that weren't real.

As Abbey settled down and started drawing, she tried to concentrate on drawing the three small yetis. At first she thought she would do the typical thing, a picture of them together, smiling, but instead she drew them like she found them in that tent. Calm, holding hands, with the cold of the ancestors swirling all around them.

"Does it bother you?" asked Indu. She's sitting in front of Abbey and offering her the cherry flavored lip balm Indu had bought just for her.

Abbey looked up and raised an eyebrow before using Indu's small mirror to put on the stuff. She smacked her lips like Indu said to evenly spread the stuff and handed the stuff back. She glances at the mirror briefly. The lip balm is clear, and she can still see her scars.

With yetis, it was easy enough to avoid mirrors. They had them, but not many, and not even the most vein yeti was as obsessed over their looks the way Indu did. And Abbey found that she didn't mind as much as she used to. She had thought it was weak, but even as Abbey snapped the mirror closed and handed it back to Indu.

"I could find some lipstick if you want to cover them up," said Indu.

"What?" asked Abbey.

"Your scars, I mean, if you want to. You're not really banished anymore, so those marks don't mean anything. So, I mean, the next time I go down the mountain , I could get you some lipstick," said Indu haltingly.

"Or we could go altogether," said Lakshya. The guard smiled at Abbey. "You have that regulation thing down right? You won't get overheated, and you have all that money saved up. You could get some proper clothes to wear in the states. 'cause I don't think you're uniform or whatever you're wearing right now is going to cut it."

Abbey looked down at her yeti clothes. They weren't that bad she thought. They fit better with what Karuna and the other humans were wearing than her old armor. Well, probably because it wasn't armor.

"We wouldn't be going until at least a month from now. To treacherous until it gets a bit warmer," Karuna told Abbey. "We usually follow the first supply run down to the gondola. We have to stay down there a day or two. It might be too hot for Abbey."

"She needs to get used to the heat. Where you two are going it stays hotter longer," said Kshama as she pushed her way forward and then plopped herself down on the chair in front of the fire. "A few days down at the bottom of the mountain late spring will be good for you."

Abbey nodded and picked up her sketchpad from her lap.

"Are those the Gemma, Adhara, and Saulo?" asked Karuna, leaning over to get a better view of the picture. Abbey bit down a smile. Sometimes humans dragged out conversations unnecessarily, and sometimes they just made decisions and moved past. Abbey was what Karuna would probably call being patronizing, but she couldn't help but feel proud when her human friend made a final decision without talking.

"Yes," said Abbey with a smile. Bringing up her pencil to continue her sketch a bit more before she started to color it.

"They really are spiritual leaders aren't they?" asked Karuna. Abbey nodded. "Why didn't you become one?"

Abbey entertained telling Karuna her winding discovery about why she didn't want to or could become a spiritual leader and then decided she would write it for him if he really wanted the whole story and went for the short version.

"It is hard to be spiritual when I myself am conflicted," said Abbey, and then shrugged. "They are accepting my old tribe into theirs, plus my home is here among humans who don't pray to ancestors."

"I'm sorry," said Indu. Abbey shrugged, not sure what her friend was sorry for or why the humans now looked so solemn.

"I'm not. I get what I want and so do they. I will miss them, but I would miss you more," said Abbey. The others hugged her and they spent the rest of the night talking about anything that came to mind. The humans chattered and Abbey spent her night between writing and drawing. Kshama kept sending her odd looks, but Abbey figured that was because the old woman was still interested in giving her that physical. Indu even acted even more girly. It was so odd. Indu had known Abbey was female for months now, but for some reason she couldn't keep her eyes off Abbey's hair and was giggling and had officially decided that Abbey was on her side in any case.

When it was reaching ten Lakshya left for his shift. Abbey smiled and asked if he wanted her along. He turned her down, and Abbey went to the cabin that was her house. She curled in on her bed. Abbey woke up a couple of hours later drenched in sweat with tears freezing on her cheek. She groped for the feeling of the three yetis to be there but found nowhere. Abbey felt herself shivering, and they weren't there.

Abbey had hoped that she didn't have nightmares anymore. Not that she could remember the last one, all her mind supplied her with was the ghost of the fingers of blinding heat and blue and red blood mixing together. Abbey felt herself flush with heat and quickly stumbled her way out of the cabin and into the orange dawn. She felt her stomach roil and bubble deep in her gut.

How much longer would the nightmares continue? Would it go until she no longer felt guilt, because she didn't think that would ever happen. Maybe she hadn't known her father well, and maybe he had been one of the yetis that cut and hurt her, but he had still been blood. She had known him, played warrior with him, heard his stories, and shared life force with her.

Abbey needed to move forward. She couldn't dwell on the past, especially the ones that were inevitable, and ones that she hadn't done the wrong thing in. Protecting Karuna had been honorable. Siding with the humans and Abominable's tribe had been honorable. Fighting for fightings sake was vicious and cruel. Maybe the humans didn't deserve their forgiveness, but they didn't deserve to be slaughtered, and her tribe had been the aggressors, at least in this instance.

Abbey wiped her mouth and headed to the field. She would meditate on it until breakfast, and then she would go to Karuna to the science lab to start her studies.