LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 14: End Of First Day
“I hope the food is to your liking”
Nana takes a glance at Aria while peeling the yam and mixes it with ikan pansuh served in the bamboo.
“It is delicious.”
Aria shows her thumbs up to signify approval. This action has made the mother and son look at her with a weird look.
She giggles before saying, “This means I approve or it is great. You just need to bring your four fingers and make sure your thumbs perk up.”
The lunch becomes a funny sideshow of people giving each other thumbs up for no reason.
Once they finish with lunch, Nana tells Naki to fetch water since they only have 1 jar of water left in the house. The moment Naki’s footsteps no longer can be heard, Aria leans in at Nana and asks about the people left in the shed where he took her.
“Those people are taking refuge here since the cave tribe destroys their houses. Ever since they cant raid Lu'An Boktu, they have been targeting smaller settlements.”
The longhouse does not have any facilities to accommodate the newcomers thus they were forced to stay in the small shed.
“Naki is going to have a meeting with the warrior and the elders to discuss what to do with the refugees since there are chances for cave tribes to disguise themselves to find a weakness in the longhouse.”
Aria feels relieved hearing from Nana that those people would not get harm.
“Did Naki tell you how he found me?”
She looks for an answer from the lady that is sitting right in front of her.
“He has not told me yet. You can ask him directly in the evening when he comes back for dinner.”
Aria nods and collects the bamboo that was used and puts out the glowing coal.
“You will need to familiarize yourself with the items in the house.”
Nana grabs her hand and shows her where all the items store and which items need to be treated with extra care. She brings Aria outside and formally introduces her to the elders that were resting and weaving baskets. The elders have skeptical looks towards her since Aria has a different appearance than all of them. The young ones weren’t visible as they were busy doing random work outside. Normally they will only flock to the ruai by evening.
“You will follow the young ladies to do foraging in the morning.”
Nana explains their daily schedule as Aria makes mental notes on everything. Once they made the walk around the longhouse, she realizes that the longhouse consists of twenty living apartments housing each family of its own.
Since they still have food and the foraging group has left, Nana asks Aria to help clean the house. Both of them have a handheld broom made from a bunch of coconut leaves’ spine which is called a lidi broom.
Nana did not stop coughing as the room was too dusty. Sympathy creeps into Aria’s heart which makes her inform Nana to sit in the kitchen while she cleans the main living space.
‘This might be one of the reasons that made Nana sick.’
Aria moves her hands like a professional domestic helper. This activity has been her daily job whenever she was living with her grandmother.
“Nana, can I have old fabric to wipe the dust?”
She turns her head to the kitchen as she sweeps all the dust into one of the holes in the corner of the main living space which commonly exists in a longhouse.
Nana gave her an old sarong that she no longer uses. Her eyes widened as Aria tore the fabric to a smaller size rag. Aria moves like a machine as her two hands on the folded clothes and wipes the floor from section to section. She always prefers this method to clean the floor ever since she watched all the Japanese shows growing up. This way it will be easier to see the dirt on the floor compared to mopping. She repeats all this in the kitchen and the attic before sitting down on the main living space covered with sweats.
“I never knew that living space can be this clean. I can breathe easily now.”
Nana gives Aria a thumbs up while handing over water in a cup made of clay.
“No problem. We deep clean our house like this once in fourteen days.”
Aria feels elated as she was getting praises from Nana.
“You can use the water in the last jar to rinse yourself and change to this new sarong.”
She grabs the sarong from Nana and praises God since her wish to cleanse herself comes true.
Both of them lying down on the rattan mat enjoying the evening before Naki opens the door carrying three jars of water into the entrance.
They had grilled fish for dinner which was caught fresh by Naki in the evening.
Once they are done with dinner, Nana gets up to the attic with Aria while carrying a rattan mat and thick blanket.
“You will sleep here from now on. I will be downstairs in case you need anything. Naki will sleep with the fellow men at ruai.”
Nana advises her to be extra careful if she needs to go down at night as there is no light source in the house.
As the sun went down on the horizon, the house turned to complete darkness. The night gets bitterly cold like they were living on top of the hill. She can feel the cold to her bone as she does not have any thick clothing. Alone, at last, that is when reality hits Aria hard. She cries in silence fearing waking up anyone. All she wants is to be with her grandmother. Yet here she is in the middle of nowhere. To be honest, she is terrified as her future is uncertain. “Grandmother, why didn’t you just accept me with you? I miss you so much. If I die anytime soon, would you accept me then?”
She sobs until her eyes are swollen from crying. The darkness in the attic adds fuel to her loneliness. Slowly she drifts to sleep in the middle of the dangerous rainforest.
