Alice and Olivia
When the sun sets, the moon rises, and vice versa. This is the endless cycle known as the new day. Most know this and do not spend more than a second’s thought on it, but in the unknown village of Aqualua, a young duo sees this as the sun and the moon in a constant match of tag. Alice and Olivia drew much inspiration from this, and thus, played tag to commemorate the tales they have created. Alice was a scrappy haired brunette girl, she was a thrill seeker who constantly put herself and her friend in danger. Olivia was blonde and a few inches taller than Alice but could never keep up. They have spent their whole lives in this village, together for 21 years and never once wondered what was outside. In their defense, a lot of their childhood was spent doing chores. Although they got to see each other often in the kitchens and hunting grounds, it was not until they were both 18 when they were allowed to freely choose what to do with their time. By then they were both experts at hunting, cooking, cleaning, shelter-making, and cloth weaving. That was also when they were allowed to leave the village grounds, beyond the main village was a large forest that went on for miles. Some smaller villages occupied the forest but Alice and Olivia’s home village of Aqualua held the mass majority of the population in their entire land.
Now that they were both full-fledged adults, they could do whatever they wanted, including eating and wearing whatever they saw fit. There was a strict dress code and diet enforced in both their households, growing up they had to wear the same ox-skin uniform and eat very lean birds and fish. Most households had far more children than adults, so the adults would teach them to hunt and gather but decide how much food and clothes to give. Alice and Olivia could finally eat anything they hunted, and wear whatever they wanted. Alice was especially excited now that she could start wearing reptile-skin instead of just ox. They met at the edge of the village to begin their first solo venture into the woods. This was the first time they went unaccompanied, but it will also be the first time they get to bring home everything they get.
“You ready Alice?” Olivia said nervously.
“We’ve been waiting for this our whole life. No more gates or fences holding us back, it’s just us and the great wilderness.” Alice said, determined.
“You know we’ve been outside the wall before Alice” Olivia said, chuckling.
“No, I’m not talking about just leaving the village grounds, even if we go to the next village over there will still be the same rules and same expectations. Don’t you ever want to just leave it all behind?”
Olivia looked at Alice, noticing the determination in her eyes as she stared into the woods. Olivia looked hard into the forest, trying to see what was giving Alice such a fierce look, but it just ended in her disappointment. She knew Alice looked out there and saw adventure and all the possibilities it included; she saw the future. And no matter how hard Olivia looked, all she saw were trees.
“I don’t think I could ever do that. I know it’s not ideal here, but we have a safe place to stay and enough food to eat, and most importantly we have each other. There could be dangerous predators or poisonous plants, we have no idea what’s out there.”
“Well, we know exactly what’s back here Olivia, and you may not feel it yet but it’s just as poisonous.”
Olivia looked at Alice then down at her feet. “You’re right, I know you are, but I don’t think I’m strong enough. Not like you, you can survive out there and excel in any environment, and I… I’m not like you.”
Alice looked back at Olivia with an inspiring grin, “You might surprise yourself, I think you’re more like me than I am.”
Olivia laughed, “you’re crazy you know that.”
“I know, now let’s get hunting before it starts getting late. I need a new bra and these gators aren’t going to skin themselves.”
Alice and Olivia got back from their hunt rather late, with a bag full of meat strung to a stick over Olivia’s shoulder and a fall collection’s worth of reptile skin over Alice’s. They arrived at the hut they built together when they turned 18, threw their belongings to the side and sprawled out to relax.
Olivia placed the meat down and began to clean it, she glanced over at Alice to ask what she wanted for dinner and froze. The sight of Alice slicing the skin had her in awe, she was a master with blades the same way Olivia was a master of archery. Olivia sat there for a moment, watching Alice fashion the skin into clothes, thinking about what Alice told her. She worried that Alice would never be truly happy if they stayed there, if she only had Olivia for the rest of her life. Olivia began to breathe heavily, she can tell if she kept thinking like this she was going to have a panic attack, so she tried to stay focused on making dinner. She went to cut the meat and saw her hand trembling. She didn’t know why she was having this episode but it wasn’t unusual. Whenever she thought about being alone or Alice leaving her, it brought her to a dark place, and it would often escalate quickly from there. Olivia never wanted Alice to know these thoughts were because of her, she didn’t want to be a burden on Alice’s life more than she already was. Olivia’s hand began to tremble more, she tried desperately to hold the knife still and play it cool but she felt like the room was shaking and spinning and creating a vortex that was sucking her in slowly until she could no longer grasp onto anything latched to the ground and it the world was engulfing around her. And then…she felt a tap on the shoulder.
“RAAAAWWWRRRR!”
Olivia turned to see Alice wearing a mask made of reptile skin, flailing her arms in a poor attempt to imitate a monster. Although she was just on the verge of tears, Olivia broke out laughing. Alice continued to impersonate a reptile monster while Olivia wiped her tears away, she always knew how to keep Olivia grounded.
“Why don’t you let me cut the meat,” Alice said, taking the knife with one hand and placing the other on Olivia’s shoulder. “I mean I am better with a knife.”
“Who told you that?” Olivia said, chuckling and still wiping her eyes.
Alice snickered and took over the meat. Olivia watched her cut the alligator quietly, she thought about how long they’ve been together and how many times Alice saved her from some sort of mental breakdown. She couldn’t be more grateful, yet was at a loss on how she could ever make it up to Alice.
“Hey Alice, I think I know what I want to do tomorrow.”
“And what’s that?”
“Been a while since we played tag, hasn’t it?”
Alice spun around and locked eyes with Olivia, heat glowing from her retinas and a smile reaching across her face.
“Olivia, you sweet baby angel stolen from heaven, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
Olivia laughed and Alice got back to cutting the meat. They wanted to make sure they had a big meal for the day ahead.
The next morning Olivia woke up at sun-rise to prepare their backpacks for the day, but saw that Alice had already prepared them and was in their crafts room. She was busy at work when Oliva walked in.
“Morning sleepy head” Alice said, pedaling over their miniature spindle.
“You never get up before me, and what’s all this?”
“This, my tired, dreary-eyed friend,” Alice said while lifting up her work to display, “is how we’re going to make this game official.” Alice held up bracelets and armbands. “We’ll wrap them around our arms, and when you rip one off the other person it counts as a tag. That way we don’t repeat the whole beehive incident.”
“I love it Alice, it makes the rules much more clear. But I was thinking today we won't go near the beehives.”
“Oh you want to go by the caves then? It’s fun but the last time we went there the bats had a frenzy on us.”
“No.” Olivia said. “I was thinking we would go somewhere new today.”
They arrived at the top of the hills, it was beyond the forest where no game lived so people never went there. Another reason the hills did not get many visitors was due to its terrain. It was a very rocky area that went down all the way to the river on one side. The river was low down and moved rapidly so no one could fish in it.
Alice and Olivia scoped out the area, cautious of where it became too steep. “This is going to be fun,” Alice whispered. Olivia couldn’t help but feel anxious, it was her idea to come out here, but she was just trying to play it cool in front of Alice, she wanted to make Alice think she still had some adventure in her. In actuality she was terrified of this new terrain, but the look in Alice’s eyes gave Olivia courage.
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