What we know?

Remember, none of them can know you’re a third born, the not so sweet last words of my mother before I joined the others. I had spent the first 6 years of my life in the warren, a subterranean maze over 1000ft deep, Purified air, artificial lights, and plants covering every wall. Until today the only others I had seen close to my age were my sisters and cousins. Now after 10 years of preparation, I’m being thrust into trials with the others of age!

The next voice I heard however came from the largest Scotsman I had ever seen, not that it was difficult, only a couple of the traders are and it’s a long way to walk. Like all Scots, he had deep brown eyes and flame red hair. It wasn’t just the clear foot taller than everyone that stood out, nor was the broadness of his shoulders, it was the owl! Pure white, almost defiantly asleep on his left shoulder, I was so fascinated that I wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying.

“Some of you will think you are at a disadvantage being so far from home, but remember humanities greatest strength is our adaptability to adapt!”

Looking round it was clear that lots of the others had travelled quite some distance, Welsh with their dark brown hair, lightest blond of the Scandinavians, black hair of the Dutch and many other English with our mucky blond. Once again I realised I wasn’t listening...

“...you are being watched! Whilst you are participants in the trials, you can only ask for help from your partner. Socialising with the others of age, is strongly encouraged as you will get a vote for who you want to be your prospective bonds.”

It dawned on me that over the next weeks I will meet the woman I would be bonded with for life, I had never considered how we meet girls who weren’t related to us!

“Each of you will be tested on your clans’ speciality as well as, Crafting, Hunting, foraging and cooking, how well you do at each of these will earn you a score. It is essential that the next generation remembers, remembers how we stand, remembers the ‘important’ skills, remember how we share, and remembers HOW WE SURVIVE!”

It was then that possibly the most beautiful girl I had ever seen walked up to me, I was speechless, flame red hair, freckles and almost black eyes, and then, I had a satchel shoved into my chest, tanned with tree bark, made of deer leather with the neatest of stitching and Branded upon it was a rabbit, my clans crest. By the time I looked up she was gone and the Scotsman was talking again.

“you will find in your pack the only things that can be used that were not made by you, after this point. We are all enjoying the hospitality of the warren whilst the trials are on. BUT, after tomorrows first meal you will be expected to feed each other and those that call the warren home. You have the rest of the day to socialise and familiarise yourself with the layout here. I understand that if you choose there is a fast way down, for the rest it is a considerable distance. We will all meet in the main chamber just after sunset”

As they are all staying in my home I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to ditch the crowd and figure out what to do next. With everyone heading to the main entrance, it was easy to slip into one of the tunnels that run into the woods. 15 minutes later I was back under the cover of the trees, wouldn’t be long until all the leaves were gone, but for now they had their green and purple leaves. Finding my way to one of the ancient oaks, I climbed up to the hunting platform and opened the satchel. Inside was a mixture of things, several other small leather pouches, a few hessian sacks, a length of sinew, a roe deer antler, the jawbone of a red deer and several other animal bones. It was hard to decide what to do first, it was easily a few hours until sunset, packing everything away again I decided I would go and see what things I could find to make the trials easier. After about 30 minutes of foraging I was able collect a bird’s nest to use as fire starter few apples as a snack and some herbs that might also come in use.

As I turned to go back to the tunnel I heard a voice through the trees. “Bore da” it was one of the welsh girls and I couldn’t escape. “Hello, are you ok? A girl with blue eyes, dark brown hair and a flush in her cheeks approached. She steadied herself for a moment to catch her breath.

“I saw you slip away after the meeting was done, been trying to catch you since. I assume you’re one of the locals as you’re not interested in the tour. I’m sure these woods stretch to my home, we didn’t leave the woods the whole way here, so that would make sense. Granddad said I should get to know as many foreigners as I can, as they will make the best bonds for my clan.”

At this point the flush in her cheeks had grown to a deep red over her whole face. “I'm talking too much, I have a habit of doing that, my names Catrin” she trusted her hand towards me, was possibly the most intense first meeting ever. All I could think was this is my first trial, I lifted her hand to my mouth, kissed it and said “it is a pleasure to meet you Catrin, please let me show you where I live” mainly to avoid any more uncomfortable exchanges, I decided it was best to play my part as the good host, after all it was what most of my training was about. I had never been shown how to hunt, just how to make weapons, never shown how to cook, just how to find food. It seemed that I wouldn’t be using my skills on the trials but on the others of age. Why did I need to know 7 languages but never speak them, how to vanish into shadows, what to say and most importantly what not to, especially ‘sisters’ or that I'm the third child.

I decided that I would take her back to the warren without using the tunnel systems; it was easier to follow the trails when you have someone talking incessantly. Catrin seemed to be uncomfortable with silence; barely a moment would go past without her finding something to talk about. By the time we got back to the entrance the sun was starting to set, there were 2 girls of age by the entrance and as they saw us approaching waved us over. It was at this point I realised how the situation looked! I and Catrin had been alone in the woods for hours, we were greeted at the entrance by a much taller welsh girl and a Scandinavian, the other welsh girl had a scowl on her face and snidely said “what have you two been doing in the woods alone?” Catrin instantly went red again, but before anyone could say a word there was a voice from behind me.

“Nothing against the rules. Just talking, or should I say that Catrin has been talking and the rabbit said nothing. Now hurry down to the main chamber, you don’t have long.”

He must have seen the confused looks on our faces as he then added “you were told, that you were being watched” had he been following us the whole time? I didn’t notice or hear anyone following us on the way back, but like he said Catrin had been talking. Before I could ask he was gone again, I thought I knew how to disappear but I couldn’t figure out where he went.

As it had been quiet, Catrin decided she needed to ask a question. “So then Rabbit what was the ‘fast way down’ the Scotsman mentioned?”

I suppose not everyone lives as deep as we do, I suppose I will have to give the girls a quick history of my home.

“This is the Warrens entrance; we have 2 ways to get to the bottom, we can use the slide or we can walk”

When it is explain like that, the choice is obvious, I was in a hurry and wanted to find out what we would be doing next, but most importantly I didn’t want to be surrounded by girls. What I had failed to mention was that they will be dropping 1600ft, and although it starts off rather pleasant, it drops to a rather dramatic angle and plunges you into complete darkness. Each grabbed a matt and headed to the slide, the Scandinavian was the last to go, just after pushing off the first of the others screamed. They had clearly reached the drop, in broken English I'm sure I heard “why did she scream?” but she would find out soon enough. By the time I got to the bottom the 3 of them were waiting for me, I hadn’t considered the consequences of letting them go first, luckily my uncle walked in and probably saved me from a beating.

It was time for us to get to the main chamber, this required going through decontamination and the airlocks, when we finally made it to the chamber the girls just stopped and I almost walked into them. It was becoming obvious that my home may not be anything like anything they had seen before; I knew that all humanity lives underground but clearly not the same. “The ceiling is 60ft high, it’s part of the original mine workings, and was converted when we moved under”, what I didn’t realise was this little introduction would create even more questions, but once again I was saved. The Scotsman had walked up to the lectern and cleared his throat.

“Ladies of age, if you would all find a seat at this table here and gentlemen on the one over there... Let me talk you through the rules of the trials. Later tonight you will be paired off with one another, after this you will then do everything together. You cannot ask other pairs for help, but you are still expected to cooperate within your groups when completing tasks. Each week your groups will change and your tasks also. You all travelled here with one other from your clan, these will make up the watchers and will eventually decide what scores you all attain. You will go home and discuss the results with your clan, your parents, your clan, and most importantly will each get a vote. These votes will then be used to decide who potential bonds could be, and a year from now we will meet here again and the bonds will be set. But enough of that for now let’s eat.”

I had never seen the warren so full, extra tables had been bought into the hall, those of the clan who hadn’t gone with his sisters and cousins to the other meetings were sat by the kitchens. several large tables were full of the ‘watchers’, one for the ladies and one for us, then a round one with the Scotsman and a few others whispering to each other.

I had never seen such a feast all in one place, there were my favourites of boar, pheasant, and mashed potatoes, there was also something called caribou that tasted really nice. The lads chatted about how fast they make fire or how good at hunting they are, but I had nothing like that to boast about, I was told not to share what I know. I was starting to feel extremely unprepared for these trials, they seemed to know exactly what we would be doing, and at that moment I couldn’t help but feel I was being watched. The lad sat opposite me was even looking at something over my shoulder, turning round I was confronted by every single eye on the girls table looking at me, it was not a comfortable feeling, made worse by them all turning back to their conversation. The local lad who I had established was a badger, another midland clan who also live in a mine, who asked the obvious question. “What’s there problem with you then?” I decided to follow my training and play stupid, claiming it’s a miss understanding, but they decided that this was an advantage for them. The rest of the meal went uneventful and was finished with honey sweet, something I only get on my birthday usually.

After the tables were cleared it was time for the Scotsman to speak again.

“I am Abhainn, a Librarian, one of the keepers of our history and stories. Each night I will tell you tales from our past, some may be true and others may be lies, but these are the stories we remember.”

As he pursed and looked around the hall, his eyes met mine. At that moment I went cold, like I had been pushed me into snow, struggling to breathe, and suddenly it was gone.

“The story I tell you now is completely true. What we know is this... humanity spread across the planet destroying the mother as we went, cutting down trees, killing more than we need. Killing each other! Living above all, not in harmony, we forgot our place! We grew to 8 Billion humans and dominated ALL! Cities grew to exclude nature; we caged animals for entertainment and to ‘save them from humans’. We poisoned the air and heated the planet, this is where we struggle. Human birth-rates plummeted; our fertility became 2 children per woman starting at age 20, our children became unable to survive outside of a protective environment for their first 6 years! We sought our refuge underground, those that didn’t were washed away by time, cities turned to dust, and if that wasn’t enough of a punishment it was then that the ice came to my homeland, it grew from the sea and never went.”

Two children per woman, nobody had ever explained why I couldn’t say I was a third born, I now had so many questions and nobody to ask, what would happen to me if they knew? I couldn’t imagine anything nice and then I suddenly heard my name! “... you will be paired with Kenna” I now had to figure out who would be my pair for the trials, most of the others had met their pairs moved off into the different passages. I wish I had paid more attention and not gone into the woods earlier, I may have some idea who Kenna was and where everyone else was disappearing off to. Suddenly I got shoved in the back, “show me where your room is” it was the red head, and she was speaking Scottish. It felt like my lucky day, do I respond? After all I was told to act dumb if they didn’t speak in English, before I could decide she spoke in Scottish again.

“Don’t act stupid, father said you speak Scottish. Whether I agree to this whole stupid thing or not, we have been paired together and there allowing you to use your room whilst the trials are on!”

As she was clearly not in a good mood I decided it was best to lead her to my room in silence, we were stuck together and didn’t want to make anything worse. Entering my room it became clear that things had changed. There were now two beds, one on either side of the room, and that was it, all my things were gone, even my plants had be removed.

For the rest of the night not a single word was exchanged between us. The next morning we were all awoken well before dawn, after breakfast we were all assembled outside. Abhainn was getting ready to speak but the owl was missing, I then heard Kenna’s voice, “he’s off hunting” she startled me and I asked “what?”. She ever so softly said “ you wanted to know where the owl had gone, and you forgot your pack” before I could say anything Abhainn started talking.

“you will all have the morning to get anything you will need to gather food for tonight’s meal, those who are able to Craft hunting gear before midday will be allowed to go for a hunt, those who cannot, will have to forage for firewood and everything else”

With that last word the other pairs scattered into the forest like a heard of deer from a hunter, but Kenna just turned to me, “where to first?” it seemed at this point that she didn’t speak a word of English, so I had no choice but to speak Scottish as well. So reluctantly told her to follow me, I decided It would take too long to craft a worthwhile bow, and it was too dangerous to hunt boar. Meaning the best option was to tackle fish in the river and we could collect what was needed on the way down to the river. If I and Kenna were going to be stuck together I would try and make the best of it.

“Were probably better off focusing on fish, the others probably won’t think of it as you can’t hear the river when you’re at the warren. We can also collect what we need to make bows and arrows, they won’t be ready by midday but we should have some nice ones tomorrow if we use our spare time to make them. We need to find; a hazel for the fish spears, oak for bows and then once we get closer to the river we will find willows to make the fish cones and the shafts of arrows.”

I was really trying but was getting nothing, so I decided to ask questions; do you now how to hunt? Was met with silence, do you know how to fish? Silence. What was I in for, possibly the lowest scores ever and we would be stuck living in silence, with each other, forever! Well I wasn’t having that; I needed us to get scores that would at least give us options. Do you know how to weave a basket? I finally got a yes, so I knew what we could do. I picked up the pace so we could get to the river faster.

Once we arrived at the river I set us to work collect as many suitable willow branches as we could. Kenna protested almost the whole time, ’not seeing the point’.

“keep the straightest to be made into arrows later, we will use the rest to weave a fish cones each and a large basket for our backs.”

It was clear Kenna wasn’t happy about what I had decided was best, and I needed to convince her of my plans.

“it seems like the easiest option, we can build fish cones now and set them in the river, by the time we get back later when we can go off hunting we will already have a haul of fish waiting. On the way back we can collect all the bits we need and tomorrow we will have much better bows and arrows than anything we could rush and make today. We can also fill the baskets with fruits, nuts, herbs, firewood and hide them to collect on our way back later”

I initially didn’t think this went down well, it was greeted with “that’s cheating” but I pointed out that Abhainn didn’t say we couldn’t and that we needed hunting equipment and what we would do later. It wasn’t long then until Kenna had made 3 fish traps and both mine and her baskets before I had finished one come. After placing all the cones in the river we grabbed the baskets and headed back. Mint, thyme, sage, sorrel, and rosehips all collected easily, but the apples, sweet chestnuts, and hazel nuts required me to clime the tree and knock them down as the boars do love to eat the windfall. It wasn’t long before the baskets on our back were heavy and full, finding a good hiding place in a hollow oak about half way back, made it easier to collect the last few bits; two hazel staves and two strait oak branches. Things with Kenna had been going much better since the river, I had managed to find out a few things; her home was close to the edge of the ice, she had a sister, and that it took 5 days to walk here, other than that she was a mystery. Just as we approached the clearing of the warren, she asked her first question “what happened between you and Catrin in the woods?” this time it was me who was silent!

“at the evening meal yesterday some of the girls said you were caught coming out of the woods together whilst everyone else was under, I, I, just wanted to know if you where making alliances or whatever you wanted to call it”

Before I could respond we were confronted by the towering presence of Abhainn, ”I hope you’re playing nice like I asked Kenna, you have been gone a long time to come back with just a few tree branches” my first shock was that Kenna responded in English, but what she said was spine chilling;

“Of cause I'm playing nice father, the rabbit has been showing me the woods, you know there so different to home, and we have been down to scout the river, we decided to catch fish later”

Abhainn smiled at us and as he walked off said “you’re the first pair back, but it doesn’t look like you got much done”. Kenna was back to speaking Scottish again with her next question, “why are we back so early?”

“I decided we could ‘cheat’ again. Your father said that everything had to me made by our own hands, he never said we couldn’t use the tools in the work room.” Obviously noticing the distress in the way I said ‘your father’ Kenna spoke her first words to me in English “I'm sorry, I thought I would have more time to explain that Abhainn is my father” but she was strait back to Scottish again “let’s get this work done, and you can give me a proper tour of your home. What exactly is this slide, I walked down yesterday and I understand you didn’t tell the truth when asked.”

I grabbed us a matt and explained that we could go down together, how it drops of in the dark but nobody had ever been hurt. I climbed on first and Kenna sat behind, we pushed off and just before we reached the drop she pulled me close. Suddenly it felt like I was lying in the snow again, I couldn’t hear the wind I knew was rushing past me I could just hear the soft slow flapping of wings, then crack! We had reached the bottom of the slide, Kenna had stood up and let my head fall onto the solid wooden slide. Jumping up I didn’t mention how I had felt on the slide. We made our way through the tunnels to the workroom and managed to get a good start on the fishing staffs when another pair walked into the workroom, it was Catrin and the Scandinavian boy. The tension in the room could have been split with a stick, I couldn’t tell if Kenna was angry at me or wanting to rip Catrin apart. Catrin could feel the tension as well, she was unusually quiet and as timid as prey. I needed to get out of here, I suggested to Kenna that we should go to our room and finish things off. I instantly knew I had messed up, I spoke Scottish in front of the other two, I could see Catrin wanted to say something but held herself back and her pair Bjorn, just looked really confused.

Before we had even got back into my room before I decided the record needed to be set strait. “nothing happened between me and Catrin in the woods, I had gone to be alone and escape the crowd yesterday, she spent half the time trying to catch me up, and the other half telling me more than I ever need to know about welsh...” before I could finish speaking Kenna had pinned me to the wall and kissed me, it was my first kiss, before I knew what was happening, it was over. Kenna had walked off and started crafting a set of bone spikes for the tip of the fish spears and I was still standing where she had left me.

We quickly finished and had plenty of time for a wonder around some of the Warren; I was able to show her the nurseries where the plants for the walls are grown first, and the infirmary. Just before heading back to the surface we had time to look at the old vertical shafts, one is used as a ventilation shaft the other had been repurposed as a ‘potential energy storage’ during the day when the solar panels are working and when the wind turbines turn, these power motors that lift weights up the shaft. When the energy isn’t available the weights fall and turn the motors to produce energy.

After the long walk to the surface the sun was almost above head and many of the pairs had gathered together, there where a few who had crafted simple bow that may work once or twice before breaking but most had very little to show, Catrin and Bjorn had crafted an impressive set of spears and had camouflaged themselves as bushes. Kenna’s attitude to me had changed since the kiss, she was standing closer and touching my shoulder whilst she whispered about the others, pointing out the poor workmanship of a couple of the bows and guessing those that hadn’t tried must be more akin to trapping animals rather than hinting them.

I noticed Abhainn exiting the tunnel, the owl dropped out of the trees to great him and tuck up his usual position on his shoulder. Following where several of the watchers, they all grouped together discussing and pointing at the different pairs. After, we were divided up into work groups, we were joined by the badger and his pair a large Dutch girl, as well as Catrin and Bjorn. It felt like she was haunting me, I just couldn’t get away from her, although Kenna no longer seemed bothered at all.

The familiar voice of Abhainn filled the clearing,

“It is now up to each group to divide the labour, you have the means to provide what is needed, each group is expected to provide an equal share of food and firewood. Those who provide more than their fair share will receive more points, those who do not provide their fare share will receive a forfeit”

After deciding we would all head in the same direction and setting the badger and Dutch girl to work gathering firewood, we had plenty of time to talk on the way to the river. Nothing had been mentioned about forfeits before this point and it had me wondering what it could be. Kenna had started acting really weird since we had entered the woods, holding my hand and pointing out things she could see in Scottish, I'm sure she was doing it to aggravate Catrin as I could feel her eyes burrowing into the back of my head. By the time we reached the river Catrin and Bjorn had disappeared.

Arriving at the river the traps where almost over flowing with fish, at a quick glance I could see several trout and an eel in the first. I didn’t think we would have any need for the fish spears, but Kenna however was watching something deeper in the channel, plunging her spear into the water and then squealing with joy! “Help me get it out!” Kenna had managed to spear and kill a sturgeon with one strike, and an impressively large one. After we got it out of the water she set me to work collecting her all sorts, after about half an hour she had made what she called a ‘sledge’, little like a bed that was easy to push along the floor. I had spent a little time walking up and down the bank picking clams and crayfish out of the shallows, whilst Kenna was building. We loaded it with our catch; the giant sturgeon, 15 trout, 5 eels, and countless other things. Kenna had just started telling me what it was like to be a Librarian when we bumped back into Catrin. Her and Bjorn had managed to take down a male Boar, to say it was big was an understatement, there was no way they would move it by themselves, but it wouldn’t fit on the sledge with all the fish as well and we still needed to collect the baskets we had hidden this morning.

The answer was obvious, but we were going to struggle to get back in time. I and Kenna would rush back to the warren, stopping to grab the baskets, unload the sledge, and rush back. Catrin and Bjorn would start to butcher the boar, leaving the forest its share, making it a little lighter. Hopefully we could all then struggle back with the boar on the sledge before time is up.