It was a few days before Sio was given the all-clear to move about the village, just in time for the festival. As people were setting up for the evening, Sio took this opportunity to finally take care of herself. She walked from the clinic to a shell-unit a few minutes away, covered in elaborate tapestries, weather-worn from being outside. Sio got a sudden feeling of nostalgia. This was her house for the past ten years. She grew up here. Had youthful arguments and grown-up discussions with Dr. Tausidi here. It was home.
She passed the vases and frayed rugs to enter a cozy, well-kept unit with warm colored furniture. It was like the various desert marketplaces Dr. Tausidi always talked about. She often joked her shell-unit brought heat to this tundra with all of its Tau Jaran trinkets. For Sio the warmth was welcoming and strange to return to. After months out in the tundra of Helix-One, Sio was used to feeling a chill in her bones from morning through the night.
She undid her shell-suit and beelined it to the washroom, placing her thermal suit in the sanitisation chamber as she did so. The pulse-shower did its work of washing away days worth of sweat and muck in minutes. Sio sighed in relief. She stepped out of the shower and dried off, then dressed herself in a freshly sanitized thermal undersuit and went to find any kind of snack in the kitchen. She missed being able to freely grab a treat from the fridge unit. Dr. Tausidi, being a reptilian, preferred to keep dried goods from Tau Jara handy at all times, and being from Tau Jara, much of the food preserved was saturated with medleys of spices. Some spices were savory and strong, others sweet and subtle. Sio's favorite was the sweet and spicy dried fruit chewies that Dr. Tausidi kept stocked in the summer.
Sio searched for them in the upper cupboard, which used to be such a struggle when she was ten, but being twenty and 5'9 made it a lot easier. Still, the Tau Jaran people were a tall race, the average female Reptilian was 6'4. Dr. Tausidi was below average for her people, but only just. Sio would always feel like Dr. Tausidi's small child, she supposed. She reached for the chewies, and grabbed a handful, and placed the container back in place. Popping one in her mouth, she hummed satisfied with her snack of choice. It was good to be home.
But Sio was restless after spending the last few days immobilized. She was especially restless because she had gotten used to always being on the move during the Stride. She didn't want to think anymore, and got to work on repairing her shell-suit, which suffered major damage from facing that Catlani Sphinx. There was a long gash across the chest and a few gashes on the arms. The knees were also worse-for-wear, and she finally understood why she felt such a chill in her bones while on the journey back. The inner seals were damaged. Sio got to work in her room, where there was a shell-suit workbench. She was glad to see everything in place as she left it. Dr. Tausidi must have dusted the room a few times and changed the bedding as well because it smelled fresh rather than mucky.
She patched up what she could and then admired her handiwork. It wasn't a tailor's job, but it sufficed. She stood and went to the mudroom to place her suit back on the sanitization unit. There was a kind of pride in looking at the patched work of her shell-suit, not because she did a quality job, but rather she felt she earned those tears. She suffered some scarring on her hands, forearms, and feet because of the journey, scars that she opted to keep. She wondered if any of her peers felt the same.
She would soon find out, she supposed. As the festival would be underway in a few more hours. She looked at the setting sun from a window, rather than a clock. How interesting it was that she formed such a habit outside civilization, she mused. She wondered if she'd ever get used to things again. She was certain something had changed in her from the Stride; she wondered if others saw it too. She felt more certain of herself, a little more mature, a little more aware of things around her. Perhaps that was why the Stride was so important for young Dunestriders. They earned respect amongst their peers and respect amongst their elders.
Sio opted to get ready early for the festival, donning her shell-suit and tying ceremonial talismans to it as was custom. Dr. Tausidi said she would meet Sio at their table during the festival. Work never ceased for the good doctor, for certain, but she made sure she was there for Sio when it mattered. This festival mattered much. She donned her festival mask, which was both ceremonial and functional. It was carved to resemble a young face to be swapped for another mask during the rites of the ceremony. She wondered what kind of mask she would get. As Dunemaster of the most recent Stride, her responsibility was great. The elders would have interviewed all of her kin to see what kind of Dunemaster she was, kind, strict, negligent, or other. She hoped she had done enough. It was difficult to take charge of young people, being a young person herself, but most difficult of all was leading them in a way befitting an elder. But Sio put those thoughts to rest for now. It was time for the festival.
She headed out of her shell-unit and headed toward the sound of drums and strings. There on the way to the town center were lanterns of all kinds displaying the ancient history of the homonae. Banners of all sorts illustrated the rise and fall of the giants of old, and the roles the early humans had taken to lead humanity to the stars. As she got closer to the source of the sound, the banners displayed the more recent histories of humanity. She saw the Pact of Stars between the Rai Kiri, the Geminidi, and the Homonae. She saw the history of Helix-One and the Symphony's displeasure with human terraformation.
Finally, she saw the crowd part ways for her and her fellow Dunestriders as the elders processed first, wearing their earned masks, and the younger ones wearing their young masks. Sio saw Odessa stick out like a sore thumb because of the colorful patches on her shell-suit, but she was really the only one Sio could recognize. After reuniting with their families, some either received new shell-suits or patched up hand-me-downs from their family. Sio only recognized some family markings on the masks, ones that had been used for generations. Lee was wearing such a mask and an old shell-suit from his father. She recognized the symbol right away, a swirl with two marks through it. It was the family crest of Laura's husband. Other symbols she could not guess, as it was not customary to wear them except for this time of year when the Stride was completed.
The elders and young were led to the center of the round stage surrounded by drums and stringed instruments. Each took their place behind the elder who taught them their trade. Sio found Auburn wearing his symbol a triangle with three lines struck through, and sat behind him. It was customary to enter silently without interacting with the elder until the ceremony concluded. So Sio sat and waited as the others filled vacancies. Sio noticed an elder sitting without an apprentice sitting behind him. Sio knew this symbol well. A circle with one line etched through it. It was Ikima's family symbol. A sadness washed over Sio then.
Her mind wandered to the dream she had. She wondered if it could have been Ikima's ghost accusing her of negligence. She saw Tomak address the crowd, and the drums rumbled until a silence fell over them. Tomak began a customary speech, addressing the elders and young by name. Each Dunestrider was called out. Odessa and her mother rose, then Lee and his father, so on and so forth until Sio and Auburn were called. All were standing facing the town centre's sundial, and then Tomak cried out.
"Elders of the Stride, bear witness to your young. Have they completed their tasks with reverence, with dedication, with diligence?"
"They have." Replied the Elders.
"Have they followed the Ancient Rite, the Paths of their Ancestors?"
"They have."
"Then today give witness to the stars, what is their path?" At this, all elders and their young sat except for one pair opposite of the stage to Sio and Auburn. It was customary for elders to give masks designed after the Ancient Rites. Those being The Messenger, The Architect, and The Engineer. Most Dunestriders would follow the way of The Engineer. The other two, The Architect and The Messenger, were family Paths. The first pair, Lee and his father, gave the Rite of The Messenger, and the second pair, Odessa and her mother, gave the Rite of The Architect. At each unmasking and masking, loud cheers erupted from the crowd. The ceremony continued. Twelve more were assigned to The Rite of the Engineer, and finally, the rite reached Sio. Auburn stood, and Sio followed.
"Sio, Dunemaster of the Stride, have you followed the Way of your Ancestors?" It was odd that Auburn phrased it in such a way. Should it not be the Path? Sio didn't have time to think it over as she replied.
"I have." Tomak, who had been handing out each mask to each elder, came over and handed Auburn a mask to which he held up to the crowd. All cheered and cried in a loud voice.
"Then bear witness to our choice." Cried the people.
Sio didn't know what was going on until Auburn unmasked her and said with the loudest voice she had ever heard from him.
"We grant you the Rite of Waymaker."