Kollossel: Chapter One

     My feet just might fall off. I have been standing here forever! Literally. Okay, well, maybe not literally, but 16 hours feels like forever. This line is endless. How am I supposed to get to the front before the next sundown if I cannot even see the end that I was standing at, or the beginning where I want to be? Actually, I'm pretty sure that the line only got longer because people got here after me, and I haven't actually moved at all. My mom says that we have moved five feet in the last 30 minutes but it's hard to believe her. 
     On top of all of this, the weather is punishing. This morning it was 100 ticks with the wind blowing at 50 knocks, which makes the sensory strands on my head blow everywhere, and now its -40 ticks and the fog is rolling in like a wall, soon I won't be able to see at all. My weather adaptive clothing is not shifting as well after going through 20 shifts while I've been in line. 
     Luckily it's almost time to go to sleep. After standing here for four hours, the next two will seem short. Hopefully. I never knew that our short 6 hours of sunlight could feel so long, or that our 6 hours of rest could feel so short. I've always felt that they were the same length, twelve hour days split in equal halves. But then again, nothing on Kollossel is as it seems. 

......

     As kids on Kollossel everything seems to fit together like perfect puzzle pieces. As we grow up, about a third of the way through our lives, we start to realize the little things that are off in the world. The first thing I noticed was that they taught us what the color red should look like, but there wasn't anything red anywhere. I looked. The next thing I noticed was that there were no birds. Or royal family. My teachers were telling the class about a beautiful parade in which we would be able to see the royal family. After hearing this every year, and every year being disappointed when I would be told an excuse as to why it wouldn't happen, I began to think there wasn't a royal family at all. And I was right. That's why I'm standing in line with all the other 12th cycle students and a parent of their choice. I'm waiting to be told why. And I'm starting to think that even this is something wrong. because that tree moved five feet, not me. My foot has been crushing the same oroboro flower since I got here. 

......

     "Koni, we're moving up again!" Every parent in line says something just like this to their own child. And just like me, every other kid in line looks down at their un-moving feet, and then back at the trees to watch them move past. In my eyes, my mom looks ridiculous, with her four marching tentapods, as she pretends to move in line and yet move nowhere. How is she blind to all of this? 

     When I first started noticing that things didn't quite line up, my mom told me that she went through the same thing at my age. She told me that she would wait with me in line, and that when we got to the end together, she would be able to explain everything. That I would finally see the birds, and the color red, and the royal family. Now as I stand here in line, I'm getting more and more hesitant. Not only because this could be just one more thing wrong on Kollossel, but also because, what if how my napi explained everything to my mom won't work for me? What then? Will I become a Cantava? I do not want to be a Cantava. 

......

     When my friend Classi told me about the Cantava, I thought he was messing with me. Then my parents told me that they were real. The rejects who live in the wastes and roam the blakm forest. Growing extra eyes, because five isn't enough for them apparently, and a tail. It is said that the Cantava need them to be able to survive in the wastes and forests. I wouldn't mind having a tail so much, but I really do want to see the color red. I want to hear a bird sing and see the Klarapa family that supposedly rules over our planet. 

     If I ever told my mom my inner musings, she would tell me the same thing she always does, that I need to trust in the system and that in all due time the acklells will align and I will know. What I want to see most though, is if there is a red moon hanging in the sky among the acklells that I've never seen because I can't see the color red. I can see the blue, green, lavender, and black moons just fine, so what if there is a red one? 

     I guess I have till sundown tomorrow to make it to the front of the line and find out. Hopefully, then my mom will tell me.