After a few seconds, Missandra crossed her arms.
“I am still against it. And I don’t understand your weird practices, anyway. The dragon people are strange. One man can bed as many women as he wants, but women can’t? And this whole wife-concubine status thing, too! This is just…”
“Missandra, calm down,” said Cassandra.
“Wait, I’m curious,” says Shareen. “You girls are from a different country, after all, tell us about it.”
“It’s not a country,” replied Missandra. “We don’t own the land or anything on it but ourselves. You people see a square of land and declare it yours. It’s ridiculous!”
Cassandra was waiting for Shareen to get mad, but she just looked genuinely surprised. Kareen too was rubbing her chin with her finger, looking interested as she grabbed her tea.
“Tell us more, child. I’m curious too. None of us have ever heard about other cultures or tribes besides the Eastern Republic and the Northern Barbarians.”
Missandra seemed surprised to hear her interest and looked around, a bit perplexed. She glanced at Cassandra, unsure, but seeing her older sister give her a little nod, she proceeded to speak, blushing a bit. For once she looked her age and shyer than Cassandra.
“W…well, I was only seven, so I don’t remember too many things… But I know we only lived by the swamps, and in our shacks. ”
“Shacks? Not real houses?”
“The soil was too uneven for stones like it is here, it would have gotten muddy and moldy in no time,” explained Cassandra, who remembered it better. “We used special types of wood, and grew creepers around it.
“Us children played all day in the rivers, catching fish, swimming and diving,” Missandra reminisced, smiling.
“You were the best at catching fish,” noted Cassandra with the same smile.
“You were the best swimmer! My sister could dive the deepest and stay the longest underwater. All the kids always followed her around and tried to imitate her. I was always so proud to be your sister .”
Missandra blushed a bit after saying that, and Cassandra was touched. Indeed, she remembered the cheeky little Missandra, always following right behind her, playing around and going on adventures in the swamps. She wasn’t afraid to get dirty or climb high up into the mangroves.
“You mentioned that your mother taught you about herbs?” Kareen probed.
“Everyone in our tribe knew all about the basic herbs. We cooked with most of them, but we also used some for hygiene, medicine, or cleaning. Most of our knowledge was based on what the Elders passed down to us. They were our main resource.”
“Our Grandfather was the Chief of the village, as the eldest of the adults,” explained Missandra. “Mother was the best doctor. She taught my sister a lot, and the other children who were old enough, too.”
“You kept making everyone eat tingling leaves once you discovered their effect,” chuckled Cassandra. “You even put it in Paba’s tea when he was nagging you.”
The sisters laughed at the memory, making everyone else chuckle too.
“Paba?” repeated Kareen. “I noticed you two can talk in that strange language. What is it?”
“Our mother tongue,” explained Cassandra. “It doesn’t really have a name. Paba means Grandpa.”
“You call each otherLinueandHinue,” said Shareen.
“It’s ‘little sister’ and ‘big sister’ . They can also be used to address other girls, even if they are not from the same family, as long as they are close.
“Interesting.”
“How do you say husband?” asked Kairen.
Everyone was surprised to hear him speak. Missandra immediately frowned.
“We don’t say it,” she said. “And we don’t get married to men who take concubines!”
“Missandra,” sighed Cassandra.
The little sister pouted, crossing her arms, visibly unhappy. Cassandra turned back to her Prince.
