Compis: Five Tribes (20 page)

“I'll take it from here, Hama,” she said, foregoing his proper title. Duor Hama seemed to take it in stride, bowing and giving Luka a pat on the back as he left.

“Now, Luka, let's go have some lunch and a nice long chat,” she said.

He felt a cold nose against his cheek, waking him from a sound sleep. He jumped when his eyes opened and he saw he was looking into the face of the little fox he had talked to in his dreams.

“You
are
real!” he said and pushed up to rest his weight on his forearms.

“Don't be foolish, Fire Child. Now, up, up—we need to get moving.”

“Wait a minute,” he said, and scrambled out of his sleeping cot, feet tangling in the blankets. He pulled on his clothes, and took a small pack with flat bread, cheese, and a flask of water to drink along the way, then followed the vixen along through the woods.

The forest seemed alive in the early morning light—he heard sounds that he hadn't heard since entering the forest. The clamor was almost terrifying in comparison to the quiet of yesterday. It made him nervous and jumpy—every sound was a new thing.

The vixen was surprisingly fast, pacing through underbrush, ferns, dead branches and every other type of forest detritus over the ground. She ducked around trees, scampering with lightning speed, and he was hard pressed to keep up with her. He had no idea where they were going, and almost no idea what direction they were heading in. The sun overhead was dim through the filter of the trees above.

“Quickly, Fire Child,” she called back, craning her head to see him.

“I'm going as fast as I can,” he said.

She slowed, and looked up at him with reproach.

“I remember when your tribe were like the mists of the forest, curling and floating through the brush, without noise. Listen to you, stumbling like a little kit,” she said.

“I'm doing the best I can,” he grunted, jumping over a log. He wished, as he landed, that he had her size and nimble feet.

After a long enough time moving through the woods that the sun had almost reached its zenith in the noonday position, the sweat was falling in generous rivulets down his forehead, neck, and pushing down his back. Still he pressed on, unwilling to let the vixen mock him any more than she already had.

Finally, he started to hear a rushing sound, indicating there was water nearby. He felt an almost palpable relief, and started thinking about how he was going to plunge his entire body into icy cold water. It was a fantasy so appealing that when she brought him to a halt near a small pool of water, he almost plunged headfirst into the soft ripples.

“You must wait, Fire Child,” the vixen stared up at him. “I am to instruct you.”

He collapsed on the ground, without bothering to hide his fatigue. Laying back, he stared up at the spreading branches and said, “What are you going to instruct me on?”

“Sit up and pay attention, kit, these are deep words, important to saving your tribe and its magic,” she said and sat on her haunches, looking down at him.

He rolled over onto his side and considered her words. Then he sat up, legs crossed, and said, “Instruct me then, vixen. What do I need to know?”

Jerking her head, she indicated the pool. He looked at it with care for the first time. It was small, as he had seen before and about an arm's length from him. Causing the rushing sound was a waterfall that was about two hands across, not large at all. The waterfall came from a ledge that was a man's height above the water. Once again, he resisted the urge to plunge into its soothing cold stream.

“This pool is a sacred place, can you guess why? Probably not, since you are so hard in the head, like old wood.”

He glared at her for a moment, then closed his eyes trying to feel something. All he felt was
other
.

“It feels entirely foreign to me. So different I can't understand it.”

She barked. “You do not know how true your words are,” she said, approving. “This place is special because it is where the sacred element, water, was created. Take off your clothes and step into it.”

He was never so happy to follow her instructions. He felt strange undressing before her, but perhaps she just thought of him as an ugly human lump anyway. When he was naked, he plunged into the water, catching his breath at the cold. He ducked his head under and stayed as long as he could without taking a breath, then waded out to where the waterfall flowed. The water was up to his chest and he stood directly under it, relishing the flow and crash of it over his head.

“It feels wrong, touching this sacred place, especially bathing in another tribe's element,” he said, after a while.

“And this is what you are to learn, Fire Child. The elements were made for
you
, not for Iam. To the Five Tribes, were given the Five Sacred elements. To the creatures, were given the common magics. The people of the Five Tribes share in the common magics so they will always be connected to Iam's creations.

“In order to understand what happened to your own tribe's magic, you must first understand all the elements and their purpose. You need to know why they were created and why they are important. The Five Tribes are all the same, but you have been separated for so long you forget that.”

“So, water was created for all of us,” he said, following her words down their logical path.

“Water gives life to us, it keeps our bodies from shriveling upon our bones. Water grows the plants that nourish us and shelter us. That is water's purpose and those that wield it have a sacred duty to use it for the good of all. Are you starting to understand?”

“Maybe,” he said.

“Good,” she said, “Then wake up!”

He sat up and realized that he was still in his tent, and had dreamed yet another dream about the vixen. What was Iam trying to tell him?

That evening was cold and moist, but they built a fine tent in the midst of the drizzle that insisted on infringing on their merry jaunt. It echoed Nikka's own feelings, for ever since seeing Jerem act that way toward the timid Joaga, she felt as though a dark cloud had descended on her mind and she was finding it hard to act towards him as she had before.

Sending her puzzled glances over the fire that went up through a conveniently placed hole in the roof of the tent, he continued to act like his charming self. The problem was, she couldn't tell which Jerem was real—the one who had been harsh or the one that had befriended her so many weeks ago.

For the first time since she had become Compis, she realized how hard the next year of life was going to be. In every tribe, she was going to have to act one way and feel another, and now she knew that sometimes, she would have to disguise revulsion in a pleasant face and manner.

She knew it might awaken Jerem to knowledge of his earlier slip, but Joaga wasn't around now to give her away and she wanted to know more.

“Why do you keep the Sea Mothers and Fathers?” she asked, shivering. “They are so ugly and shrinking. They make my stomach turn whenever I'm around them. I don't know how you can stand it, they are so...
alien
. If I lived among you, as I might have the chance to, I would insist on living without one, yet you all seem to do it.”

She hoped she was able to convey enough dislike that Jerem would find her a sympathetic audience to his own leanings.

“They've always been with us, so I suppose we're used to them,” he said with a shrug. “You have to understand, Nikka, they're creatures of common magic. You're right to call them alien. They don't think as we do at all. They enjoy serving us, they live for it.”

“They're not very bright, poor creatures,” said Luba. “We have to be like shepherds for them, they would be lost otherwise.”

“Weren't they sea animals at one point?”

The two looked at each other.

“Where did you hear that?” asked Jerem.

“Well, it's there in the name, isn't it?” she said, confused and a little afraid that she might get Joaga into trouble if she confessed that he was who had told her.

Relief washed over Jerem's face.

“It's true,” he said, calm and informative, back to his charming self again. “Eons ago, it's said, they lived in the sea, like fish creatures, eating and living among the other dumb animals. We don't really know when that changed. There are stories we tell the children, because they ask, too, where the Sea Mothers and Fathers came from.”

“Oh,” said Nikka, pretending excitement. “Tell me one of your stories!”

“You should, Jerem, you do it so well,” said Luba, caressing him with her eyes.

“All right, I will,” he said, then sat up and passed his hands over the flames to warm them.

“Ages ago, when humans didn't exist, Iam experimented with the other creatures of the land, wanting to make companions to dwell in the lands made to house them. Of all the creatures, the closest to humans, in the sea, were the Sea Mothers and Fathers. But when they were created, they realized they weren't meant to dwell in the sea anymore, for they had been changed during Iam's experiment.

“So they went to Iam and said, 'Please, let us leave the sea behind and dwell on the land, for our minds have become wiser and we want to build and create and use the magic you have given us.'

“Iam took away their pelts and flippers and gave them legs to walk upon. They built houses and made tools, but their lives were still empty, for they longed for someone to share knowledge with. Again, they went to Iam and petitioned, this time asking for someone to share their houses and tools and magic with them.

“Iam experimented again, this time with land creatures, where the Sea Mothers and Fathers were now living, and made the humans and gave them their own magic. Practice makes perfect, and the humans were smarter and stronger than the Sea Mothers and Fathers. Unlike some who are strong, they did not lord over the weaker creatures. Instead, they were loving and giving and inspired such devotion in the hearts of the Sea Mothers and Fathers, that those grateful creatures, realizing their inferiority, gave up their own concerns to look after their created companions.

“How long this has been going on, we are not sure, but what we do know is, it has been so long since that time, that none of us remember a time without our gentle, timid friends.”

“That was a beautiful story,” said Nikka, hoping her voice sounded sincere. In reality, it was a horrible story, full of arrogance and condescension. It was no wonder Agga called Jilli, “Herself,” if that was how she acted towards the creatures. On the other hand, and with no little shame, Nikka recalled her own behaviors towards the Sea Mothers and Fathers, having been led by Jerem and the others to treat them with the same motherly derision. She flushed with shame over how she had bossed around Agga, even though she had never raised a hand to her, as Jerem had done with Joaga.

“That is the version we tell the children,” said Luba, with a frown. “The reality is much different.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nikka and noticed the glare Jerem sent Luba.

“They were dying, until we came along,” said Luba. “The poor dumb creatures couldn't fashion tools and their magic is minimal at best. We took them in, caring for them, giving them shelter and food and in return, they work for us.

“We don't know why they left the sea, but it made them weak. We are the only thing standing between them and starvation.”

Luba sounded as though she believed what she'd just said, but Nikka knew it wasn't true. Agga was one of the most powerful beings she'd ever met, and certainly capable of making tools, catching her own food, and taking care of herself, not to mention Jilli and Nikka. Was the girl deceived? Did she really believe the Sea Mothers and Fathers were inferior? Or was she trying to convince Nikka that their societal division was worth maintaining? Nikka fell asleep wishing she had a better perspective to the puzzle of the Aquis.

~~~~~

The sea was a foaming, frothy mess from the surface, waves crashing up and over any barrier: beach, cliff-side, scattered mounds of rocks along the shore. Underneath, however, was another world, dim, but lit by the stormy sky above. A curious calm pervaded the weightless world beneath. The kelp, seaweed, and other sea plants wafted back and forth in the gentle current of the tide. Darting to and fro, fishes found meals, fought small battles for dominion, and became meals themselves.

With every meter gained from the shore, the ocean became a wilder place, full of creatures and fish who were unknown, large water beasts with gaping mouths of teeth and delicate dark creatures who zipped beneath the rocky outcroppings, hiding from predators. It was a jungle of flora and fauna, and throughout it all, there was a magical force watching and waiting.

Suddenly, a soft furry creature, with water-smoothed skin flew past, clutching at a fish, who happened to be swimming too slow and then it was lunch, popped into a mouth full of short sharp teeth. The crunching of its feasting couldn't be heard in the muffled underwater world, but the blood and guts that drifted away from the scene of carnage conveyed a “stay away” message that was effective enough.

The seal turned, looking out toward the water, feeling the edginess of eyes watching it. Its own visual orbs were dark and large, to help with visibility in the murkiness of the underworld. Zooming away was not sufficient, for as so many other of the sea's victims, it had not been fast enough. Instead of a large mouth, it was encircled by a twining, tangling net and though it squirmed, bit and thrashed, the seal was unable to free itself.

Rising up, up, up, above the kelp and above the frothy white peaks of the waves, the seal was lobbed on the wooden deck of a boat, something it had never seen before. It landed with a wet splash and as the sun rose higher and its pelt dried off, a curious thing began to happen. The seal changed, flippers forming short stubby feet and arms. The fur left its face and legs and retreated to form a robe of sorts, that wrapped around a small, gray-skinned creature with a flat face and sad eyes.

It looked around at the astonished faces of the fishermen and women and with a pleading voice said, “Help me!”