Pretty Shield takes the tears from Nile’s eyes and flicks the water into the flames of the fire.
‘Warmer?’
she asks in a whisper.
Nile
burrows himself into the folds of her clothing, hiding his face from the other
people gathered around the camps shared fireplace.
Tharwa
pats Nile on the back. ‘I’ll help you make a new one,’ offers Tharwa, ‘tomorrow
before your Father gets back.’
Nile,
with his face still buried, nods. His Mother squeezes him reassuringly.
~
Once
they were both satisfied with their positions in the tree, they quietly enjoyed
the view of the heathland from their newfound perch. A shallow freshwater river
was sparkling nearby, its bottom lain with smooth stones. Dry grasses littered
the sandy bank of the stream on their side and hot red rocky cliffs rose up all
around them towards a clear blue sky above.
‘Look,
over there,’ said Que as she pointed towards a lone tortoise inspecting a log
under the water as two fish passed one another mid stream. They both smiled.
‘I
should catch it!’ said Nile.
‘No!’
said Que. ‘Don’t hurt him!’
‘I
won’t, I promise I’ll put him back. I just want to get a look at him,’ insisted
Nile.
‘Hey!’
interrupted a close voice, making them both jump. ‘Get out of there please,’
said Tharwa, speaking quieter than usual.
Young
Que and Nile hastily clamber back down the tree, half falling onto the ground.
Tharwa stands over them, regarding the tree no taller than himself they had
climbed.
Que
and Nile flinched as Tharwa’s towering figure leaned down and swept them up
with his sturdy arms. Without another word, Tharwa carried Que and Nile swiftly
up the bank towards a cave behind a tree.
In
the river behind them, the log that the tortoise had been inspecting moves
forward and an ancient reptile slowly opens its gaping maw to the sun. A bird
flies down to clean the crocodile’s teeth.
The
pleasant sting of full sunlight vanished as Tharwa entered the rock and dropped
Nile and Que in the shadows several metres away from the entrance. ‘Wait here,’
ordered Tharwa in a low voice. He turned and left them, then grabbed a spear
that been sitting by the opening and quickly began to jab at the ceiling. Rocks
started to tumble across the opening, sealing it off.
Nile
and Que looked at one another, wondering how much trouble they were in for
sneaking off outside.
Once
there was no light coming in from outside, Tharwa placed the spear aside,
turned and again picked up Nile and Que. He began walking through the darkness;
Que could barely hear his footsteps. After a few moments, dim light from
somewhere further in the cave began reflecting off dry walls of stone.
The
whispering of voices grew louder.
As
the flaming light of a torch held by the silhouette of Aigel the healer shaman
came into view, they heard Urik’s urgent voice saying, ‘If it’s a scout, the
rest of them wont be far behind. We have to move; if we slay the scout, they
will know and more may come running.’
‘Let’s
go,’ said Tharwa loud enough for everyone to hear as he approached with Nile
and Que in his arms.
The
forty or so Tekah Ahn that had silently gathered inside the cave began walking
away as Pretty Shield came forward to take Nile from Tharwa’s arms. Urik,
younger than Tharwa, stood his ground and turned to wait for Tharwa.
Que
watched people’s shadows moving and bending along the walls as they clambered
over a patch of rocky cave floor and began helping one another down a steep
ledge into a flooded underground canyon. The sharp clicking of cave crickets,
the dull sounds of rocks being disturbed underfoot and the lapping of water
against the canyon walls made by people slipping into the water, echoed gently
in the humid underground air.
Tharwa
placed young Que on the soft muddy ground and looked down at her. ‘I need you
to keep your feet, can you keep your feet for me?’ he asks quietly.
Young
Que scowls indignantly as she looks up at her Father, ‘Of course I can!’ she
replies, hardly whispering. ‘I’m a wren see.’
‘More
like a lapwing,’ teased Pretty Shield gently.
‘I
want to be a king-fisher,’ exclaimed Nile as he wriggled free of his Mother’s
arms to stand beside Que.
‘Shh!’
hushed Urik. ‘We need bats not birds right now,’ said Urik darkly. ‘Or be
snakes if you must. We have many miles to go before we see sunshine again,’ he
mumbled more so to himself.
‘Then,
I’m a water snake for now,’ said Que, ‘but I’m still a wren.’
‘A
water snake with wings?’ quipped Nile.
‘No
talking anymore,’ said Tharwa firmly.
‘Here
try this,’ said Shield quietly as she picked up two rocks from the floor. She
closed her eyes and held them to her forehead very briefly, then waited until
Que and Nile were watching her before striking them together. Nile and Que
followed the sharp noise as it stroked the rough stonewalls around them and
returned to them in a series of warm inflections.
‘No
talking. Like this,’ repeated Pretty Shield, miming the action of speech as she
handed the rocks to Que.
With
Nile beside her, Que took the rocks and firmly tapped them together, together,
they moved forward through the echoes.
~
Little
Que can hear the low and mellow sounds of a shakuhachi over the gentle swish of
water as she creeps through the tall stalks of reeds at the river’s edge. White
dandy seeds float away in the wind overhead, patches of soft cottony white
dispersing against a blue sky.
Between
the green stalks ahead she spies a crown of gold, it’s Pretty Shield’s fair
hair as she crouches in the water with her back to Que.
Que
creeps closer, smiling mischievously and preparing to ambush her but as she
nears, between the low notes of the flute, she hears stifled sobs.
Now
Que stands amongst the reeds, gazing at Pretty Shield’s weary face as her body
weeps; water streams down her arms, over her wrists and palms, dripping from
her fingertips, rivers of red to calm.
‘What
are you looking at?’ came a quiet voice behind Que.
She
spun around to see Nile, Pretty Shield’s son. Quickly, Que moved towards him
and bore him away so that he would not see.
~
Utnap
was styling her hair with clay beside the unlit fireplace talking to Iris as
Escha meandered over to poke at the ashes.
‘Bad
dreams last night,’ said Iris.
‘Me
too,’ said Escha. ‘Beings?’
Iris
nodded.
‘I
think it’s the sadness here,’ said Escha looking around, ‘shaped for you to
see.’
Iris
looked troubled, ‘it was scary.’
‘Don’t
worry, it’s a good sign that you can read space. You can shape things that move
through your field of power.’
‘But
what if those things change me?’
Escha
pokes the ashes with her feet.
‘That
is a possibility, always a wonderful possibility.’
‘Are
there enough of us to heal this land where we are now do you think?’ asked
Utnap.
‘Of
course,’ smiled Escha, ‘If we walk with feeling. I feel it is good we have
become nomads, as we are covering more area and leying lines that may expand
after we have passed.’
Utnap
brought her hands down to a bowl of grey, collected some dust and dripped some
water from a gourd on it to make a little more clay for her hair. She sat
feeling it on her hands for a moment, before carefully drawing a small circle
on her belly.
‘Mind
your dreams,’ said Escha as she began to wander away.
‘I
dreamed we were together trapped,’ said Utnap quietly.
Escha
paused, deliberating. ‘A fear, no doubt,’ she said dismissively.
Lei’s
voice called out for Utnap, she excused herself from Escha with a look.
‘Together…’
called out Escha as Utnap and Lei joined one another.
‘You
did say together.’
~
The
body he had seen had frightened him terribly. It was so large and bloody as
they carved its flesh. He had arrived to find them filling in the hole in which
its severed head, almost as large as a man, had been rolled into and buried. He
couldn’t stop himself staring in mute horror at the giant ear in the sand.
‘What
are you doing here?!’ Urik had yelled. ‘Boy! You should be at home, why are you
here?’
Nile
could hear wild desert dogs baying somewhere in the distant dark.
‘We
should bury the feet too, it’s only proper,’ said Handel.
‘We
should hurry in case whoever killed him returns and finds us,’ said Morcome.
Nile
spun around, looking out into the darkness, as if expecting to see more giants
approach.
Urik
grabbed Nile by his skinny little arm and started walking away with him. ‘We
need this meat if we’re going to have enough energy to keep going,’ said Urik.
‘We haven’t found proper means in months and this looks like better meat than a
dragon’s hide.’
‘Maybe
he got sick and his tribe left him here,’ suggested Handel.
‘Surely
they would of buried him. Who knows why he was left out here alone… maybe he
did something too terrible for them to keep him in the tribe,’ said Morcome.
‘Bad
enough not be given proper rites to the other side? No it must be something
else,’ said Handel.
‘Or
maybe this is their way…to leave them out in the open. How can we know?’
Nile
gasped loudly as he tried to bolt free of Urik’s grip.
Everyone
turned to look.
There
in the darkness were the silhouettes of five towering giants against the night
sky, watching silently over the scene below.
The
Tekah Ahn looked like insects, dismantling a carcass by their ingenious little
firelights.
Handel,
Morcome and the other eight men started running around, picking up weapons and
taking positions behind the dismembered body.
One
of the giants raised a hand in the air and the other four began to slowly walk
backwards; one of the four who retreated spoke.
‘Ah
ni so ru,’ said a calm feminine voice. ‘Eh ni ma so. Ye tsan so a la ih, ke yah
da na lhe il day.’
Then
the front figure stepped backwards and together they all retreated into the
darkness. Unmoving, every last Tekah Ahn tensely watched the silhouettes of the
giants against the twinkling dark blue night sky shrink into the distance and
disappear.
When
Urik finally gathered himself in the silence to turn to the other men, he
realised young Nile had already gone.
‘Nile!’
bellowed Urik. ‘You’ll get lost boy! Come back!’
~
+Leaning against a
termite hill in heathland, Nile and Iris were sitting together gazing up at the
stars and sharing constellations they had learned. They were debating the path
the tribe had travelled when they heard Tharwa and Urik conversing nearby.
‘This
time they didn’t even stop to say anything at all,’ said Urik. ‘They were
running, nineteen we counted, and we know they saw us, but they didn’t care for
us. It bothers me, not knowing.’
‘Are
they talking about the giants?’ whispered Iris. ‘Didn’t you see some when you
were little?’
‘Yes!’
shushed Nile.
‘Oi,
what are you children doing over there?’ said Tharwa.
‘Looking
at the stars!’ said Iris.
‘And
we’re not children!’ said Nile.
‘Well
you’re sure acting like it,’ said Tharwa, ‘get over there and dance for Eva’s
birthday, don’t be alone from us, celebrate with us.’
Iris
stood up, followed by Nile.
‘It
hasn’t started yet,’ said Nile.
‘Then
get it started,’ said Tharwa.
‘Go
on,’ encouraged Urik as he pointed towards the communal fireplace that had been
built especially big for the night and was surrounded by nearly everyone.
‘Hey,
did you find Nile?’ yelled someone from the gathering as they held up a drum.
~
‘Are
they making a firepit for cooking?’ asked Iris, pointing to someone laying two
branches over a recently dug hole in the ground.
‘Ngy,
that going to be a toilet,’ laughed the fair haired and freckled Aaron. Over
there, that is a bed for coals.’
‘What’s
to eat, to feed so many people?’
‘Small
creatures, birds, but we have special plants, many grains.’
Someone
with many different bags of spices passed them, heading for the coal pit.
‘How
old is this city?’ asked Iris.
‘One
day,’ beamed Aaron. ‘It’s more like a moving village really.’
Aaron
passed a baton wadded with a ball of soft cloth on the end to Nile. He glanced
Nile’s other arm, missing from the elbow down, and so offered the companion
stick to Iris.
‘No!
A day old?’ said Iris in disbelief as she took the drumstick and looked around
at the hundred or so people in sight through the trees, trying to imagine more
beyond.
There
were groups of people conversing, a cluster of children woodcarving, people
milling flour, others inspecting and trading different types of seeds on a
large mat. Some round thin white seeds like discs Iris hadn’t seen before were
being scattered by a gentle breeze, and someone was decorating a four stringed
ud beside another weaving string onto a pair of naqqara.
‘That’s
right, we moved here yesterday,’ repeated Aaron.
There
was a commotion of excited voices a distance away from them where a man and
woman were being openly praised.
‘What’s
that about?’ asked Iris.
‘Oh
she’s the fastest woman in the world and he is the highest and farthest
jumper.’
‘In
the world? How can you know this? And Jumper?’ said Iris.
‘Well,
our world. And yes, jumping. From here to say over there, and he could jump
right over you.’
Nile
burst out laughing. ‘I could jump over you,’ teased Nile as he stood on tiptoe
to accentuate his height over Iris, she blushed.
‘But
see that guy over there,’ pointed Aaron to an inconspicuous looking onlooker on
the edge of the cheery group.
‘That’s
a magician I tell you. They say seeing is believing, but I tell you, you will
see and you wont believe!’
Iris
and Nile strained to see their face before they wandered into the crowd out of
sight.
‘I
didn’t get a look at them,’ said Iris.
‘Me
neither,’ said Nile.
‘Don’t
worry, you’ll see. Come now,’ said Aaron to Nile, ‘it’s custom to let everyone
know how many have joined us. One beat for every person.’
Nile
nodded and gripped the drumstick firmly.
‘Loud
now!’ sang Iris.
‘Why
don’t you go first?’ asked Nile.
Iris
shook her head. ‘I want to see you do it,’ she smiled.
Nile
drew a deep breath as he hefted the drumstick into the air, shifted his weight
back and paused to beam at Iris’s excited expression.
Nile
relented and vigorously struck the immense membranophone. A yawning boom
resounded from the wooden drum, seeds inside shook and jingles strung at its
rim quivered and tinkled. As Nile pulled away and struck again, eight more
drummers joined in on the same immense drum with smaller drumsticks to create a
rhythm. Behind them, from two long horns held aloft by several people, two
sustained harmonic notes sounded out into the land.
~
Urik
waves to Katherine standing beside a group of four Tekah Ahn, several metres
away from himself and Jullee. They are waiting by the cave entrance through
which the rest of the Tekah Ahn has already passed into camp.
At
once, Nile, Iris, Handel and Kyle lift up a large enclosed case and begin to
carry it forward.
Nile
can hear that quiet rythmic knock of metal against metal coming from somewhere
inside again, he avoids showing how nervous it makes him feel in front of Iris.
Handel
and Kyle exchange glances behind Katherine, they can hear it too.
Jullee
gets to her feet and waves at them to halt as she comes to them. Urik follows.
‘An
ark?’ speculates Jullee once upon them.
Iris
unfastens its latches before Nile lifts the lid.
Jullee
gazes upon the at once familiar yet unfamiliar object, resting in the weave. It
appeared metallic and two long threads, which the Tekah Ahn have carefully
coiled, came out of each end of its irregular-rectangle shape.
‘We
found it…here,’ said Urik holding his hand to his chest. He leaned down and
lifted some wooden sticks from inside, ‘And we found these,’ he said, pointing
to the intricately carved drawings on the sticks. ‘Here and here,’ he explained
pointing to his arms and legs respectively.
‘We
turned those into these,’ said Nile as he held forth an elaborate device of
wood and metal. It looked like an Ashen ballista.
‘We
don’t want any weapons here,’ said Katherine tersely as Jullee took a step back
and looked around at each of the Tekah Ahn again.
‘But
this is not a weapon,’ remarked Jullee, dropping the picture sticks to her side
and surveying the object of their ark more closely.
‘In fact, one of our own possesses such a device,’ smiled Jullee. ‘You
may keep this find, but I’m going to ask if you will allow us to reuse that
metal,’ insisted Jullee refering to the device in Nile’s hands. ‘Then you are
welcome to join us, for tomorrow we move on Asher.’
Helios, Every Hair on Your Head Helios, Unleft. Tycho, Dive.
