The Mor'osi, in a long standing tradition of convenience, had adopted the habit naming the primary city of any given province for the province itself or vice versa. It was these circumstances which brought into being Yamar-kad standing amid the fields of Yamar-zho. And, under less well known circumstances, it had also come to pass the one Nasme Ūtum, a bright and all around agreeable girl who was 5 years of age and soon to be 6, lived in Yamar (and of course therefore in Yamar as well). And, under circumstances better known, it also happened that Nasme had stepped out to enjoy the particularly fine weather of one late February day.
It was Saturday, and as a first year student she was allowed a reprieve from schooling on both days of the weekend. She did have homework which she was supposed to, by the strictest wishes of her mother, be doing. But after a valiant 20 minute effort the drudgery of sums had simply proved too much for the young girl to withstand. So, in an unusual moment of defiance, she had snuck out from the flat and headed over to the local park to enjoy herself.
Accompanying her was as she liked to call him An-cham, who she now held lovingly in her arms while sitting on the park bench. Am-cham himself was a plush doll of an anthropomorphic fox dressed in a nàmon colored the crimson and gold of the imperial family. He was the embodiment of every emperor, past present and future, condensed into the shàuzhái form which the state's omnipresent propaganda apparatus had concluded to be the most pleasing and attractive to Mor'os youth. On the whole the Ministry of Culture was quite pleased with this particular brainchild of theirs; the word was that even adults were falling in love with the little guy. Nasme however in her childish naivety saw none of the politics An-cham embodied, only an adorable playmate. Looking into his ever smiling face Nasme suddenly found herself seized by a fit of spontaneous giggles.
"It's such a nice day, isn't it?" she asked An-chan. The fox gave no sign of any response, lying limply where Nasme held him, but the young girl went on as if she had been answered. "Certainly is. There's so much that we could go out and do. An-cham, what do you want to go out and do today, eh?"
"Hey, Nasme!" Nasme blinked, puzzled as the voice crying her name reached her ears.
"An-cham?" she inquired, now peering with particular intensity at his still passive face. As often as she may have allowed her childish imagination to ponder the possibility she was fairly certain that he was incapable of speech.
"Hey, Nasme, over here!" the voice called out once more. Now that she had had regained her wits after the shock of being surprised the voice was immediately recognized by Nasme. She looked up and to the left, where the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps could be heard.
"Shàuas!" she said as the young boy of 6 and Nasme's classmate came to a halt in front of her, panting hard from the exertion of his sprint. "I didn't know you'd be here too."
"Well, I am," replied Shàuas, still panting. "I didn't know you were here. And I ran all this way to hurry to your house."
"Why are you hurrying so much?"
"You don't know?" He gave her an incredulous look. "Well I guess that's why I was rushing to tell you. Figures, what with me being the older one," he concluded smugly. Shàuas had only just turned 6 and did not hesitate to make a big deal of it.
"Hey, I'm almost 6 too you know!" came Nasme's vitrolic retort.
"Bah, this isn't important," said Shàuas, shifting the subject. "It's all over the television, I don't know how you could miss it. Come on, if we go to my house we can make it before it's too late. Big news!" Shàuas immediately stepped into motion, not allowing Nasme any time to protest. The girl was forced to hurriedly remove herself from the bench and chase after the swiftly retreating Shàuas, with An-cham firmly in hand.
"W-w-wait! Wait for me!" Shàuas however did not let up his pace until they had reached his house.
"I'm home!" he declared as he scrambled to remove his shoes.
"Ah, welcome back," replied his mother, stepping in from the family room just as Nasme burst through the door in pursuit of Shàuas. "And welcome Nasme too," she continued, amused by the girl's disparate state.
"Good morning Mrs. Tadom," answered Nasme with a quick formulaic bow before joining Shauas in a rush to remove her shoes.
"I take it you've heard the news as well?" asked Mrs. Tadom in the meantime.
"What news?" said Nasme, looking up as her left shoe slipped off and fell on the floor. Mrs. Tadom's eyes assumed a far off and awed look as she answered with a tone of extreme reverence.
"Their Divinity," she began, seemingly on the very edge of being overtaken by tears of sheer joy. "...at long last have children! Oh..." At this point words failed her as she flooded with emotion.
"Really?" cried Nasme as she in a single excited motion kicked off her last shoe, retrieved An-cham from the floor where he'd been dropped and lept to her feet. Shàuas who had also removed both of his shoes by this point stood up as well, and his mother responded to Nasme with a nod.
"The television is already on," she said, but it was not necessary. Shàuas had already moved into the cramped family room and Nasme had followed. As promised the television, jammed in among all the other items which had inexplicably been fit into the small space, was on and already tuned to the fourth of Television Mor'os's numerous channels. On screen was a male reporter, looking out at Shàuas and and Nasme with a well practiced expression tuned to earn the respect and trust of any viewer of the news. They had caught him in the middle of an utterance, spoken with the same practiced and artificial manner for the same purpose. At the bottom the screen, alongside the logo of Television Mor'os, was the headline, which Nasme attempted to read. The voice of the reporter though broke her concentration, and she gave up in frustration and resigned herself to simply listening.
"...which the entire nation has awaited for so long," intoned the reporter solemnly, drawing attention to just how important what he was about to say was. "We now know for certain has finally arrived. For those just joining now, this morning..." he stopped dramatically, and Nasme was pulled forward from the couch and towards the television by the vacuum that his silence had created. "Her Divinity gave birth to two healthy children, a boy and a girl." At this Nasme let out an excited squeal. Every where she went this event had been talked about without and with great expectation and she had fallen in with them. The realization of her expectations now filled her with a sudden euphoria. Mrs. Tadom seemed equally overwhelmed by emotion. Shàuas was a bit more subdued, but even he showed signs of excitement.
By now the television had left both the reporters face and voice behind; Nasme had been so giddy that she had completely missed the change. In is place was now a female voice but Nasme did not bother to pay close attention to it. Instead her focus rested entirely on the image on the screen. There could be seen Empress Hanna in bed and standing at her side Emperor Osmar. Both were attempting to at once pay attention to the cameras filming them and to a pairs newborns of which each of them held one. With what she had been told now reinforced by visual confirmation Nasme began to bounce up and down where she sat. Mrs. Tadom's eyes were beginning to tear up a bit.
"I told you it was big news Nasme!" declared Shàuas proudly at being vindicated. "I told you it was important." Nasme just nodded in agreement, still transfixed by the footage on the screen. She watched it faithfully until it finally cut back to the male reporter. Drifting back from the television she now took An-cham, whom she had been crushing the life from in her arms, and held him in front of her.
"Isn't this exciting An-cham?" she asked. After several seconds without any response she continued. "I know, it is!" Mrs. Tadom responded with a small laugh before standing up.
"I believe..." she said. "That this warrants a celebration."
