“That’s what I said,” Victor nodded.
I wanted to explain the difference between coupling and mixing but as always, Aubri broke in.
“We’re not scared either. We just don’t want to harm one of you for touching us.”
“Why would we touch you?” the Motlander boy asked with more confusion.
“You won’t!” Thor narrowed his eyes and resembled his father Khan as he stared the boy down.
“It’s nothing personal,” Freya explained. “These are just old customs from a time when there were very few women in our country.”
“There’s still too few,” I added, but Freya ignored me and soon the bonding games began.
We spent the day divided into three mixed teams searching for answers about the past. Nostalgia Park was separated into time pockets and was the closest thing we could get to time traveling. I found it hard to focus on the questions for the quiz when I was fascinated with the actors and scenarios imitating different time periods from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century.
Exploring the Bronze Age, I was measuring my height next to the door opening of a hut when Freya came running from her own group to me.
“What do you have so far?” she whispered.
“I think humans in the Bronze Age were dwarfs. Look at the size of this door.”
“Honestly, do you know anything about history?” Her tone was annoyed.
Jerking my head back, I pulled my hand from the door frame. “Of course.”
“They built the door opening short so that any intruders would have to bow their heads to get in. It gave the people inside the opportunity to knock them on their heads, and it also helped to keep the heat in during winter.” Freya’s words rambled before she lowered her voice: “Keep an eye on Victor, he’s their champion.”
“What do you mean by champion?”
“I’m not sure yet, but Belle told me he’s won all sorts of competitions back home.”
“What kind of competitions are we talking about?” I craned my head to see Victor, who was standing with two others from his group, petting sheep.
“I’m going to find out, but Belle isn’t close to the others. It sounds like they don’t like her and didn’t want her to come.”
“Can you blame them? Why is she even here? She’s just a kid.”
Freya wrinkled her forehead. “Hmm, yes, it does seem strange, but Aubri and I like her. Maybe she’ll tell us more. You better keep your ears and eyes open too.”
My solemn nod was all Freya needed before she took off again, running back to her group where Belle smiled at her as if Freya’s return was a relief. I took a second to watch the young girl with a sense of curiosity. Why was Belle here? And why was she willing to provide information about the members of her group? Had she no understanding of how knowledge was power?
As if she felt my questions across the open field, Belle looked up and for a long second her innocent doe eyes met mine. How could her group not like her? I saw nothing but kindness in her eyes before shyness crept in and made her turn away.
Curious to understand more, I walked over to Simon, one of the French in my group. “Hey, Simon.”
He was more than a head shorter than me and leaned his head back. “Hi?”
“What’s the deal with Belle? She seems very quiet and shy. Is she the daughter of your ruler or something?”
“You mean our Prime Minister?” Wrinkling his nose up, he shot a single glare in her direction. “No, she’s nobody.”
“Then why is she here? This is a summit for future leaders.”
“None of us understand it either. We were all chosen for our rank and supérieur intellect, but she hasn’t even advanced to level A yet.”
“What’s level A?”
Like the other French participants, Simon spoke with a strong accent and had a weird fashion sense. His pants were multi-colored with one leg in green and the other in blue. The pockets were yellow. He wasn’t dressed in as feminine a fashion as the boys from the Motherlands. But with his colorful pants and a yellow shirt with random black paint stains that were most likely high fashion in Old Europe, he resembled an abstract painting in my eyes.
“A is short for Academic. Our school system sépare us into two groups, academic and practical. Any society needs both of course, but no champion has ever been chosen from the practical group. The four of us excel academically and were classified as A level early on. But from what I know, Belle hasn’t shown any supérieur academic skills. Her last try will be at the age of fourteen.”
“Hmm.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “Why would your primal minister send her then? That makes no sense.”
“It’s prime minister, not primal, and as I said, I cannot explain it either. Sophie thinks it’s because Belle is supposed to be artistique.”
“She’s what?”
“You know artistique.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Ehm…” Simon looked up as if trying to remember the word he was trying to so say. “You know someone who paints and create art.”
“Ah, you mean an artist.”
“Oui. Anyway, that’s Sophie’s theory, and it might be true, but Victor thinks it’s because Belle is pretty and our leaders want to emphasize that we have both brains and beauté. We’re aware of the rumors that our small number of citizens means we’re inbred, but we have strict systems to prevent that from happening.”
“How many are you in total now?”
“Almost one point two million.”
“That’s more than I thought.”
Simon shrugged. “What about you?”
“We’ve grown from ten to eleven point five million within the last five years.”
Just then my attention was distracted by the sound of laughing. Aubri had picked up a sword and was swinging it above her head with a large grin.
“Come on, Indi. Wanna have a real sword fight?”
“Careful,” I shouted because my sister’s pretty face had enough scars as it was.
The others gathered around Aubri and Indiana, who danced around each other swinging the swords, while a distraught staff member from the park urged them to put the weapons down.
“Please don’t play with the exhibited items,” she urged.
Indiana’s strength helped him hold the heavy iron sword steadier than Aubri, who was starting to struggle a bit.
The crowd jumped back to move out of their way as Indiana drew Aubri backward, both of them still grinning from the excitement of having real iron swords in their hands. I walked in the direction of the play fight while Simon ran to see it up close. With a disrespectful push, he shoved Belle to the side to see better. Being only twelve and small for her age, she rose on her toes and tried to look over the shoulders of her group, who now blocked her view. From the way her head sank, it was clear she was disappointed in missing out on the fun.
Using my large body, I made my way between Simon and Victor and opened a path for her. At first, Belle blinked her eyes, looking unsure, but when I muttered a short “Come on” she slid in under my arm and stood in front of me where she could see the action.
Later that same night, we had our first meeting where we were asked to discuss subjects that mattered to us. The Motlanders brought up environmental protection plans. The French wanted to talk about trade, and Thor wanted to discuss drone traffic across borders.