Memories of Anamesa

I stood there, stunned. Boring name? Excuse me? 

Lily, apparently done mocking me, flicked water off her sinking boat, completely unbothered. She carefully picked it up, eyeing it and fiddling with its thick grass reeds.

I needed her on my team.

But first, revenge.

I crouched next to her, watching her attempt to patch up her leaf boat. "You know," I said, voice casual, "boats are supposed to float."

Her eyes narrowed. "I know that."

"Well, yours ...is not."

She huffed, crossing her arms. "It was a work in progress."

"Ohhh. You mean a failure."

Lily gasped, betrayed. "You - take that back!"

I grinned. "I could, but then I'd be lying."

Her face scrunched up, and I braced for retaliation, but instead, she smirked. Oh no.

"Well... I guess I'll just have to tell everyone that you made the legend up." 

Hold on. This wasn't going the way I wanted. "Woah, woah, woah. There's no need to be unreasonable. I was just teasing you. The boat is incredible. I would even call it the boat of the year. Oooh yeah that sounds nice. Lily's Boat of the Year!"

Tsk. I was being soundly trounced by a four year old. Fortunately, no one from Earth was here to see it. Schrodinger's trouncing, I suppose.

In the distance I could hear screaming. Screams of happiness.... and Eric's screams. Well, I'm sure they were also screams of happiness haha.

Lily eyed me and then smiled, "Well thank you! I'm glad you love my boat so much. I guess I'll have to keep your scam a secret... for now."

Gulp.

"But anyways, why are you collecting feathers? I don't think they'll float."

"...do you think I'm trying to build a boat?" The audacity of this girl.

"Well you look like you have nothing better to do. So..." 

Yikes, she was really hitting me where it hurt. I mean... it's not like I was jobless. Yeah, that's right. I was doing something extremely important: I was the don of the feather gatherers. And I was a revolutionary.

I crossed my arms, exhaling dramatically. "I'll have you know, I am working on something very important. Life-changing, even."

Lily looked unimpressed. She casually raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Let me guess. You're trying to build the world's biggest pile of bird feathers?"

I squinted at her. I guess I was... but that sounded uninspiring. "... Close."

She giggled, clearly enjoying herself. "Okay, so what's your actual plan?"

I leaned in, lowering my voice. "I'm going to build a bed."

Lily laughed, "A bed? Why would you need feathers for that, you silly goose?"

"Well, I actually do need gooses. But anyways, I'm thinking of building a mattress... made of feathers. It should be as comfortable as a pillow and incredibly nice to lie on."

Her expression flickered between confusion and interest. I could see the gears turning in her mind. "So.... like a giant pillow?

I snapped my fingers. "Exactly!"

Lily's eyes lit up. "Wait... that might actually not be a bad idea." She eyed me distastefully. "Shocking."

"Look... you can either join me and not sleep on straw, or keep building your boat."

Lily turned to the pond briefly, eyeing her grass boat, which was performing a rendition of the Titanic. Or, the last few minutes, to be exact.

"I am kinda sick of sleeping on the straw. It's itchy and smells weird. And it has bugs."

"I know! And no one is doing anything about it!" I threw my arms into the air, exasperated. "We could make a change! Make the world great again! And I need an assistant - ahem, a partner." I looked over at her expectingly. If I could get her looped into this, no one would discover the child labor.

Lily tapped her chin, pretending to think. "Hmmm. What's in it for me?"

I gasped. "Well, naturally, you would get access to the comfiest bed in the village. You could get it for 2 hours a day, minimum."

Lily's eyes sharped. "12 hours for me, 12 for you."

"Deal."

...

With our partnership officially sealed, Lily and I set my plan into motion. Step one? Gather the feathers.

I approached my hardworking interns, doing my best to look serious and wise. They stood proudly around their massive piles of collected feathers, grinning and having fun.

"Alright everyone!" I called out, "You've all done a great job. But..." I paused, letting the suspense build.

The kids leaned in, anticipation in their wide, trusting eyes. Gotcha suckers!

"I have unfortunate news."

Gasps.

"No one has 100 feathers."

Silence.

In the background, I could hear Lily barely suppressing her laughter besides me. Each of the kids clearly had significantly more than a hundred feathers. Well... besides Eric. I wonder why he had so few...

But, anyways, I knew something that they didn't. And that was how to count.

Eric, panting and covered in loose feathers, blinked. "Wait... but... we must have more than a hundred feathers. We've been collecting them all day!"

"I know, I know," I said, shaking my head like I was heartbroken. "But the bird spirits are very strict. They will only grant wishes if you collect exactly 100."

Mira frowned, looking at the giant mountain of feathers behind me. "How many do we have so far?"

"Ummm.... sixty."

Mira eyed me suspiciously. "So how many more do we need to gather?"

I exclaimed, "You're so close! Only forty more to go! We just need a few more! Keep it going team!"

And just like that, my foolproof plan worked.

The kids scattered, running off to find more feathers while Lily and I casually began scooping up the pile of feathers left behind.

"That was evil," Lily whispered solemnly.

"Efficiency is not evil," I corrected. "It's just good... leadership."

...

With a mountain of feathers secured, we moved on to the next step - finding a blanket and sturdy sticks to frame the mattress. 

The sticks were easy. There were plenty of fallen branches around the village, so Lily and I dragged a few straight ones back to our designated construction site near a big oak tree.

The blanket, however... was a bit trickier.

"Alright," Lily said, dusting off her hands. "So where do we get a blanket?"

I scratched my chin. "We could... borrow one from my house?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Borrow?"

"...Permanently."

....

With all the materials ready, it was time for assembly.

We laid out the blanket, placing the sticks around the edges to form a rough rectangular frame. Then, the real work began.

We stuffed the feathers inside, layering them carefully to make sure it was evenly distributed.

Lily, who turned out to be shockingly good at sewing, worked with a needle and thread we "borrowed" (again, permanently) from her mom.

She sat cross-legged, carefully stitching the edges shut, her face scrunched in focus.

"You're weirdly good at this," I commented, watching her.

She shrugged. "My mom makes me help with clothes sometimes."

"Are you… actually useful?" I gasped.

She threw a feather at me. "Shut up."

After a long hour of stitching, fluffing, and repositioning, Lily tied the last knot and sat back, wiping her forehead.

"Done."

We both stared at our masterpiece.

A real mattress.

Our very own feathery, luxurious, non-scratchy bed.

"Alex," Lily whispered, awe in her voice. "It's perfect."

I nodded. "This is our legacy."