Author's Note: This one starts a teeny bit darker than many other tales from the Toofyverse. Don't worry, it picks up... But not this chapter.
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"My dad was a whether! I swear by Green Goddess."
Valai ignored the latest crap from her best friend and stuffed a large green leaf loaded with nuts into her mouth. Rolling it around and tasting the creamy sauce that had been drizzled over it by her very own self.
The two of them were about as different as you could get, among domba. Whilst Valai was highborn, meaning that beneath her white curls her skin was as dark as the night sky, Dolly was a lowborn cud-eater. She was pale as pale can get, especially when she got around to sheering her fleece.
That Dolly really was lowborn, was a source of constant angst for the domba. She was treated poorly by just about everyone, most feeling the need to insult the woman by saying that she didn't know who her father was.
The truth if which, just made things worse.
For such a tribal people, not knowing who your parents were, was a constant source of antagonism that jabbed into Dolly every single day. It made her come up with the most outrageous lies, as she just tried to find a way to fit in.
Valai, on the other hand, didn't have a hope in the void of ever fitting in. Her dark skin screamed that she was royal born in a way that was so distinctive that you could pay a succubus to duplicate it, when you felt like having your way with a princess.
Now and then, when strangers passed through their little spit of farming land, she did get mistaken for one of those. Usually followed by a short and sharp headbutt, with enough force to crack a human skull.
Despite being so obviously royal, Valai shared a lack of knowledge with Dolly. Both of them knew who their mothers were, but neither of them had a single clue who the father was. In Valai's case, it wasn't possible to be anyone who lived in the tiny village.
She was the only highborn domba in the town.
"Valai!"
She glanced at her friend, rolled her jaw, and then gave a meaningless shrug and went back to eating. She'd spent the last three days gathering the ingredients, and she wasn't going to give up a decent feed just because her friend had a new shiny aspect to her justified persecution complex.
Dolly gave a small pout, and then kicked out her legs. Stretching on the picnic rug, and looking down at their quiet village. Glowering at all the other people rushing around and living carefree lives in a way that the two of them simply couldn't.
"Actually I... I think he was human." Dolly whispered shamefully.
Valai choked and regurgitated her food, looking over at the woman, "You actually found something?"
"Love letter. In Common." Dolly whispered, "It... Nothing exactly gets said... But I think... He might have been a trader."
There was no way to confirm that, unfortunately. Domba don't live long. Both their mothers had moved on before they had come of age. A fairly harrowing experience in a town that acted like it was just waiting for you to die.
Love letters were also not a normal thing, for her short-lived people. They didn't make much sense when you only got to live six years after your hormones came barrelling in and made rams actually interesting. Not that it reduced how much of a jerk that they were.
"At least you know he loved her." Valai tried to sound sympathetic, reaching over and squeezing her friend's hand, even as her own heart completely broke.
She'd never found a single trace of her father.
Dolly let out a pathetic bleat and collapsed onto the picnic blanket. Sniffling even as she clung harder to Valai's hand. The dark-skinned domba brushed her friend's hair gently with her other hand, and began to hum their song. A little pointless ditty, that the two of them had always shared.
They'd grown up together, as outsiders. Two sides to the same coin, in a lot of ways. Best friends in a way that no one had ever been able to ruin. There had been a ram, once. That had been a close thing, but eventually Dolly and Valai had sworn off Derby together.
Arrow dodged, in the case of that particular ram. He'd taken his broken heart, and hidden it away behind a battleaxe. Joining the Empress' Guards for a year, before returning to the village as a fully fledged soldier with little tolerance for civilians and living life without an actual goal.
As Valai hummed, the sun in the sky slowly moved, marking the passage of time. Despite how young most domba died, compared to other races, Valai felt no urgency. She never really had. Life was for living, not for the mess of anxiety or fighting challenges you were probably going to lose.
She was happiest when she lay in the field, smelling the daffodils, and eating buttercups. And anyone who thought that was a crap way to live, would get a swift kick between the legs.
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Valai woke up with a groan and murmur, opening one eye slowly to glare around the dark. A hand quickly went over her mouth, and she found Dolly lying practically on top of her, staring off and looking utterly terrified.
The smell of ash was on the wind, and she could hear the crackle of a bonfire. Her ears tightened and goosebumps popped out on her skin as she heard voices. Ones that she didn't recognise.
Her eyes went wide, and she joined her best friend in staring off into the dark.
There was a whole caravan in the nearby field. A dozen horses and almost as many carriages. All arranged in a neat little circle around which a huge pyre was burning. Entire trees dragged from the nearby forest, cut down and now up in flames.
Around the fire itself were some kind of creatures, but as no more than silhouettes, Valai couldn't tell what they were. As much as she disliked mongrels, she'd do anything for one of their noses, right at this moment. The range of exotics it could be, frightened her.
Even worse, it could be a group of humans. The kind that still went around, believing themselves to own the place. Travellers, because staying in the cities meant being forced to see all the statues to the nekan empress. The Grand Devourer, Toofy herself.
Letting the image of Toofy drift over her mind nearly made Valai bleat in terror.
Beside her, Dolly didn't look like she was doing much better. The domba was ashen, and almost looked like she was trying to peek from behind her hair, as if that would somehow make the scene in front of them less intimidating.
Valai shook off her fear.
One of them needed to take charge, and it wasn't going to be Dolly. She took her friend's hand, and slowly started to creep backwards in the grass. Her foot knocked their picnic basket, and the blanket rubbed at her knees, as she clumsily made her way.
Dolly was even less coordinated, but at least there wasn't anything around to make any noise. They hadn't pulled the glasses out of the basket, or anything like that.
Valai pointed to the fenceline, and as her friend made a dash for it, started to quietly put away their plates. Then with excruciating slowness, she rolled up the picnic blanket, and slipped it under the handle of the basket.
