Exiled to the surface to live among the Homo sapiens.
At least I’ve been given a length of escarpe to hide my differences.
The Council wouldn’t want me lynched for my luminescent skin,
so different from that of the humans,
so unholy and threatening to them.
The elders do not believe in execution.
So, exile it is.
But for what?
Were my political jokes so offensive?
Were my animal-spirit wall drawings
such a threat to our monotheistic beliefs?
Cara seemed to think so,
had warned me even before we were arrested.
She smiled just before she swallowed the poison.
Death before exile, she whispered.
I held her hands during her last moments,
soul-hummed, as is our custom,
until her spirit drifted away towards the Core,
where it would await re-entry into a ready womb.
Soon they will come for me,
and I will be led to the surface.
I can already hear their approaching footsteps.
I’m not worried about Cara.
They will dispose of her vessel after I’m gone.
I am nervous, but unafraid.
I am more adventurous than my friends
and am curious about the world above,
about the ways of its living things.
The books tell me there are plants that reach into the sky.
I understand that I can mate with a human,
though our offspring will be infertile.
And I am ever so curious about seeing Sol,
source of all energy, so our scientists tell us.
I am told I must avoid Sol’s rays without my escarpe,
that I must also hide my glow in the night
when Luna replaces Sol in the heavens.
I have so much to learn,
but no time to prepare.
They have come.
It is time.