Even though I went to bed kind of late, I sleep relatively well, only waking a dozen times overnight. I guess having a friend close by helps somehow. I just... don't feel quite so alone. In the morning, I'm not terribly tired. I say good morning to everyone, and head down to breakfast with Emily. Holding hands is nice and I can get down the stairs much more easily when we're together.

In the dining room, I see some of her friends, but after what she told me, I keep my distance. She said she would think about what I said about getting close to people, but I don't want to push her or anything. For now I'll just stick with her and she can decide what to do herself. We sit at the dining room table, waiting for breakfast.

"Is it ok if I ask some more questions?" I ask.

"Sure, I want to teach you all sorts of stuff." She grins as she answers.

"Thanks a lot. So what I'm wondering about today are the gods. It sounds like they're common knowledge, so I want to know about them." Emily throws in a brief comment that everyone knows them, so I nod and go on. "We covered the basic idea and the one thing the head priest went over in church yesterday. Today, I'd like to go over who the gods are. I've heard of Arcanas, Shana, and Rostor so far," I note.

"Ok, that's a pretty good place to start." Emily clears her throat and sits up a little before she begins. "There are twelve gods and goddesses." A goddess would be a female god then? "In order, they are Arcanas, Venar, Herat, Saras, Hurena, Shana, Firos, Nuvo, Rostor, Lila, Baro, and Reena." She recites the names one after another. I try to keep up, but it's way too many to take in at once.

"Sorry, sorry, that's too many. I don't think I can remember so many so quickly."

"Hahaha, you're right." Emily shakes her head at herself. "Of course that's too many when you're just hearing them all for the first time. Let me go over each one in a little more detail, maybe that will help." She puts up a finger and says, "First, there is Arcanas, Goddess of Creation and Order. Arcanas is the first god, who created existence itself. She also rules over order; she is the goddess that commands us to maintain order by acting according to our stations, like we talked about yesterday." I nod along. It's a mixture of pieces I've picked up before, with some new information. 'Creation and Order' was it?

"So, when you say that Arcanas is The Goddess of Creation and Order, what does that mean exactly? Does her power over the world relate to creation and order in some way?"

"Pretty much. Arcanas has the power to create anything. She is the only god that can create something from nothing. And she uses her power to enforce order."

"Umm, what does order mean here exactly? Like keeping things organized?"

"That's... actually a good question." She clearly doesn't have an answer, and thinks about it for a bit. "Well, the priests always say stuff like she wants us to keep our social classes in order, more or less... So I guess it's something like that. Keeping the peace by not having all the different social classes fighting." That's pretty vague, but I guess it works.

"Anyway," her tone becomes more sure again. "Arcanas gives her name to the first day of the week, Arcaday, and the third month, Arbor." I've heard her mention the day before, but month?

"Wait, the months have names too?" I ask, surprised.

"Yes?" Emily responds, also surprised. So not only the days of the week, but the months of the year all have names. Following that pattern...

"Is there any grouping of years that are given names, that I should know about?" I ask, just to be sure.

"Uhh, no...? I don't think there's anything like that..." She scratches her cheek a little as she answers uncertainly.

"Ok, so it's just the days and months." That's a relief, memorizing all of this is already going to be hard enough. "But, if Arcaday the first day of the week, why is Arbor the third month of the year?"

"It's because Arcaday is like the creation of a new week. For Arbor, it's when life and creation begins to return to the world after winter." She tries to get back on track.

"Oh, right, winter!" I exclaim when she says the word. Mister Fredricson told me I needed to help with winter preparations, but I forgot to ask about it with everything that's been happening. "Mister Fredricson mentioned winter, what is it?"

"What's winter?" She blinks a couple more times as I completely derail our conversation. "It's the time of the year when it gets really cold and snows a lot." I feel like there were various times when it would be more hot or cold in the past, but it was never very pronounced inside the building we lived in. As for the last part, I can't guess what it means without context.

"What does 'snows' mean?"

"It's when snow comes down from the sky. Like rain, but it's white, puffy, and cold?" She asks it like a question. Like she expects me to know it once she describes it. When she sees no recognition on my face, she continues, "It's everywhere, all winter, every year. There's no way you haven't seen snow before. Aren't you seven?" Somehow, she looks beyond shocked.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I have," I shake my head.

"But that's impossible..."

I look to the side, not meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry... I-"

"-can't talk about it, right?" Emily cuts in while turning away.

"Yeah..." She takes a deep breath. I can see her forcing herself to move past it.

"Anyway. That's what winter is like. You'll just have to see it with us this year."

I don't respond. I'm not going to live that long.

"Back to what I was saying, Arbor is the first month that follows winter, when the world begins to spring to life." Unlike earlier, she says it with a bit of a huff. "So it's the first month of spring."

I force those thoughts from my mind to get back into the conversation. "And spring is...?"

It looks like she's given up and decided to just explain this whole topic. "One of the four seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter." Oh right, she mentioned that seasons were three months long before, didn't she?

"So the months are grouped up like that..." She said winter is when everything gets cold, and spring is when everything comes to life. That just leaves summer and autumn. "So what are the others like?"

"The days are long and hot in the summer. It's summer right now, that's why it's always hot out. Even nights are pretty warm, you know? In autumn, it starts to get colder, and the days get shorter. All the leaves change colors and fall off the trees. So we go through spring, summer, autumn, and winter every year." I nod at her explanation.

"So Arbor is the first month of spring, got it." I finally bring us back over to our original topic. Emily nods a few times, clearly glad to get back where we were going. It did take all of that for her to explain one god...

She clears her throat, then continues on. "After Arcanas is Venar. Venar is The God of Time and Change. Venar rules over the passage of time, which causes all change. Venar gives his name to the second day of the week, Venaday, and the first month of the year, Vent." I listen intently, trying to absorb all the new names. They come one after another though, so it's pretty hard to remember all of them.

By this point, breakfast is served, and we begin to eat while we talk. "So Venar rules time..." I think aloud, "and all change happens over time, so he gets change too." I go over the names again. Venaday, and Vent.

"Vent is the first month of the year because it is the turning point of winter, when time begins to flow again and we move into a new year, bringing the change that leads to life in the world," Emily explains, clearly still reciting what she's learned. I nod a few times as she goes. "The next is Herat, The God of Chaos and Disorder. He stands against Arcanas, and creates chaos and disorder to disrupt all the order of the things in the world."

"There are gods that work against each other?" I'm surprised, the priest made it sound like all of the gods work together. If you're supposed to keep order to please Arcanas, and create chaos to please Herat, how does that work?

"Normally no. Most of the gods work together to keep the world in peace. Herat is the one who's always trying to mess it up."

"I see..."

"The second month is named Herst. It's the month of chaos, when there are bad storms and it gets hot and cold all the time. It's the most dangerous month, at the end of winter, before the month of Arbor comes and order is restored."

"Oh, so Herat is kind of a bad guy then?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure. It kind of seems like it, but the church never really says anything about that. I guess some chaos is needed in the world too?"

"Huh..." I don't exactly understand. Everything she told me about Herat sounds like he just wants to mess things up. Maybe there's more to it than that? I go back over them in my head. Arcanas, Venar, Herat. Creation, Time, and Chaos. Those are the first three at least. We're finishing up breakfast, so our time is up.

As we go to put our bowls back, Emily says, "I guess that's it for now. We can go over the others later."

"Sure, thanks for teaching me more."

"You're welcome." We both smile at each other before heading our separate ways for the day.

As we all go out to the forest at the third bell, I think that I'm about done staying with the little kids. I know most of the common plants now, so I should probably head deeper in the forest soon. Throughout the day, I gather firewood, various plants and herbs from the ground, mushrooms, and other things I've learned we can use. By the time we head back, I'm more certain of my earlier thoughts. At least in the area around the clearing we cover every day, we don't come across a single new plant today.

After Emily wakes me up for dinner, I decide to ask her about it. "So how does gathering on my own work?"

"What, are you going to leave the group with the kids already?" She looks kind of surprised, then, "Well, you are older than they are... I still have trouble thinking of us as the same age when I look at you," she laughs.

"Hey, I'm just little, I've already learned lots about the plants in the forest!" I feel a kind of defiant when she laughs about my size. My response just makes her giggle a little though.

"Well the next thing you should do is ask one of the big kids to go in with them. You'll find more further in, and they can help keep you out of trouble. That's... probably especially important for you, Aria." It seems that even considering me going deeper into the forest worries her.

"That's a good point..." I mutter into my food. It worries me too. Well, nothing bad happened that time I went with Marrianne, right? I thought we went pretty deep into the forest that time, didn't we? No, I realize. I have no point of reference for what's far, and I don't even know where I went with her. All I know is that the clearing right at the entrance isn't far, which really doesn't give me anything useful to go on.

"Well, before I go there, are there any things about the deeper areas I should know?"

Emily thinks for a bit. "When you get further in, the trees block a lot of the light, so it can be kind of hard to see. Tripping in the dark can actually end up getting you really hurt if the ground is uneven or you land on a rock." She pauses to think about the next one. "Most areas are fine, but there are a few places with a lot more dangerous plants and stuff that you want to stay away from. The big kid you go with will stay away from those areas though, so you shouldn't have to worry. Sometimes there are wild animals too. Some of the bigger ones can be dangerous, like bears, but most animals try to avoid people. You only see the really dangerous stuff if you go really deep in, but we don't go that far while gathering, so you shouldn't have to worry about it."

I nod. So I guess there are more animals outside of the city, ones that people don't use for things like they do with horses and the other few animals I've seen. She briefly describes some of the more common, or possibly dangerous animals like bears, deer, and boars. At least the few that I might see in the areas we gather.

"Finding monsters is probably the most dangerous," she says seriously. "They also live in the deep forest. It's rare, but sometimes they'll wander into the areas we gather in. They're more aggressive and deadly than animals, so you have to avoid them. You probably won't see them very often, but when you do, stay quiet and don't get too close to them. Just hide and wait for them to go away." I nod again, her description alone makes me nervous about them.

Then I count off on my fingers. "Watch out for bad lighting, dangerous plants, dangerous animals, and monsters, got it. What kinds of plants are dangerous anyway?"

"Some of them have little spikes on them that really hurt if you walk into them. I guess I wouldn't say those are all that dangerous themselves, but there are some other kinds that will wrap all around you if you get too close, and some are poisonous. They numb wherever they stab you and can make it really hard to walk. Other plants cause rashes or other problems if you touch them."

"That one sounds scarier than everything else!" I cry at her descriptions.

"It's not that bad," she giggles, waving off my concern. "Most of them can't move, so as long as you know what you're looking for, you don't have to worry about them much. Not like the stuff that can wander around on their own, so you just run into them with no warning." I guess she has a point there. "The last thing is just falling. There are some places with hills and cliffs. Just... don't walk off a cliff and you should be fine." I nod emphatically. Walking off cliffs is dangerous, I'll remember that.

We finish our meal shortly after. I've ruled out a few more vegetables today. We return our bowls and head upstairs for bed. Since I'm going to need all of my energy for going into the forest tomorrow, I don't ask Emily any more questions at bedtime and just lie down to go to sleep.

I quickly start to drift off. My thoughts wander happily. I'm glad I actually got a head start and know some things before I go walking blindly into a new situation again. I smile, my mind going fuzzy with the last trickle of thought as sleep takes me.

She only taught me about the dangerous parts and nothing else. Why is that?