Hello and welcome back everyone! Once again, sorry about the last chapter's lateness. I made sure that this one was on-time, despite this feeling weird to me, to be uploading chapters so close to each other. But that's my own fault.
This is the first chapter of Orange I. We're finally almost done Part 1! Orange I is only three chapters long, but its more interesting then you may think. Not this chapter in particular, but more stuff starts to connect, which may or may not be interesting for some of you. It was fun for me to start connecting stuff.
Anyways, let's get on with it.
I awoke early in the morning, stretching my thin arms and looking around the village that I slept in. I slept outside my family's hut.
I reached up and patted my head. My hair was still there, unfortunately, and pulling a bit of it down in front of my face, I saw its orange color. Sighing, I fell back down on my pile of long grasses.
"Viridianai!" My mother called, "Get out of bed!"
I started to get up again.
"Now!" She called, "Hurry it up!"
She wasn't like this to my older sister. She treated her very well, actually. All because she had blue hair. I thought it was stupid that people were judged based on their hair color in Nalak, but it was the way it was, and I wasn't allowed to go against that. Especially someone like me.
Standing up from my bed, I found my mother waiting a little ways away. She stared crossly at me.
"What took so long?" She asked.
"Sorry" I replied.
"I didn't ask for your apology, I asked for your reason" She said.
"I was tired, so I fell over and tried to fall asleep" I replied.
She smacked me over the back of the head, "Quit doing that," She demanded, "I've done everything for you. You're lucky to still be here"
"I know, I know" I replied.
"Don't you 'I know' me, you don't know, you little runt" She said.
"Alright" I said. I knew that saying 'I know' again would set her off, and saying anything against her would do the same.
"You know the routine" Mother said, turning around and leaving.
I walked over to the tree behind her and sat down at the base. This was my life, simply because of my orange hair. Here in Nalak people are judged by the hair color. People with white hair are said to be pure and good, whereas people with blue hair (like my sister) symbolize water, or resources and materials. They are 'more likely' to collect good resources and keep the village living. My parents believed that I'd have green hair, which symbolized life and fertility. Instead I was born with orange hair. Orange was a symbol of demons, meaning that I would bring bad luck and taint everything. It wasn't as bad as red, which symbolized the devil himself, or black, which symbolized death, but I was still pretty bad in the eyes of Nalak law. And because of that I wasn't allowed to work, because I might 'taint' the crops or anything else that I touch.
The council of Nalak had been discussing what to do with me, after my father had begged them to. My mother claimed to have done everything she could, but she had been content with my execution. The council was still discussing what to do, as they had been for days now.
In the meantime I was to sit on the side and taint the tree I leaned against. It wasn't particularly big, nor did it bear fruit, so in the eyes of the council it meant nothing to anyone.
As the day dragged on people walked by, casting me scowls of disgust or looks of hatred. It made me feel terrible, like I'd done something wrong. It wasn't my fault that I was born.
"Go die you wretch!" A child yelled at me before running off. I watched the kid leave, then tucked myself up into a ball. This was my routine for the past several years, and I'd never gotten used to it.
I hated having to sit on the side and not do anything. I felt useless, and I didn't like feeling useless. I was old enough to work, but I wasn't allowed to.
"Tsk," I heard someone say, "embarrassing"
I looked up, "It's not my fault that I was born!" I cried, "I didn't choose this!"
The person ignored me. Everyone did. The only time that they didn't was to make fun of me.
"You could have gone back into mommy" someone said. I turned. It was Zipporah, my older sister. "Then come out later with new hair"
"That's not even possible!" I retorted.
"Prove it!" Zipporah challenged.
I couldn't prove it, but it sounded absurd.
"Ha!" She said, flicking my forehead, "Idiot" she turned and walked away. I started to reach out and grab her, but stopped myself. If I attacked (or even touched) anyone I'd definitely be executed. I'd learned to control myself much better than most people my age, even better than my sister who wanted nothing but for me to be killed.
But I refused to go down without a fight. The system of Nalak was stupid in my opinion. I'd had lots of time to think about it and was probably smarter than most of my older peers. I planned to prove myself to the council and show how good I could be, orange hair or not.
Sitting down and curling up into a ball again, I let the hours drag by. At the end of the day I was given only a little bit of food to eat before I was sent to my small bed of grass to sleep.
The next day was similar; I awoke later than everyone else, then was sent to my tree. People scowled and called me names, but I ignored them.
Then something changed: a Nalak elder exited the council's discussion hut. I didn't notice, as I was too distracted with my head in my arms. However, when I heard the scratchy voice of the elder I glanced up, seeing him talking to my father.
"We've been discussing." The elder started. You got that right, I thought. "And we have decided to give Viridianai a chance. However, one slip up and she's to be executed"
My father nodded, "Thank you, sir" he said, reaching out and shaking the elder's hand.
When the elder left my father turned to me and smiled. I smiled back.
"Did everyone hear that?" The elder announced to the rest of the village, "Treat her as one of our own!"
All of a sudden the village broke out into shouts. "She'll taint the crops!" "She'll destroy the huts!" "She'll infect the food!"
The elder cleared his throat, taking in all the complaints, before announcing, "Quiet!" very loudly, "At this rate there won't be any animals to infect! Quiet down! Now," he lowered his voice, "I expect you to treat her with as much respect as you would anyone else. Adelbert, find your daughter some work to do"
My father nodded, "Right" he replied, turning to me and indicating for me to follow him. I stood and followed him to the farms, where he showed me how to plant seeds in the ground after it'd been plowed.
At the end of the day my hands were dirty and stiff, and my back ached from bending over so much, but I was satisfied. I could finally work and be helpful.
Lying down on my new bed in the family hut, I fell asleep very quickly. Tomorrow will be another good day, I thought as I lay in my bed.
Remember the village of Nalak? If not, that's where Wintanweorth Coal is from (White I).
This chapter wasn't horribly exciting. Editing it was pretty boring, but we have to do these introduction chapters before we get into anything interesting. I'm sure that most of you can see what's going to happen next, but if you don't then I won't spoil it for you.
Also, the day I uploaded Green I Chapter 2 I finished Orange I, which was the first time I did any writing over Spring Break (which is now over), then after that I started Part 2: HellFall, which was a lot of fun. I hope that you guys are excited for it because I sure am. But you'll still have to wait. Once I finish Part 1 I'll be taking a break from posting so that I can get ahead in Part 2, then have lot's of chapters that I can post. But who knows? Maybe I'll get bored and post early (I'll try to keep my promise not to though)
Anyways, that's it. As usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies or don't if you don't want to. And I will see you all in the next chapter.