Post by Prints le Some on Jun 30, 2008 10:19:49 GMT
The woman cried out in the night. Her dreams had frightened her and she was alone. The dark seemed to be impenetrable. Yesterday men had come and killed most of the people of her village, she and a few others had survived because they were in the forest gathering food when the noise of the killing started. They hid as their friends and families died. Even though they were in the thick forest some were still found. The men searched, slashing at the undergrowth with large knives and found a few of the hidden. They killed them with the large knives. The woman had seen one of her friends, Juno, dragged out of his hiding place and cut down. A soon as the men were out of sight she ran as fast as she could. Now she awoke from sleep, not knowing where she was nor if there was danger here.
She lay under some low bushes where she had crawled when exhaustion had taken her some hours before. It had still been light then and she had been moving away from her village as fast as she could travel for many hours.
She awoke in terror, the noises of the forest night were all around. Normally these would have not frightened her for she had always lived here. As a child she often went out on journeys with her father and they lived from the forest. Her father taught her where to find food and water from the plants around, how to find safe shelter at night, how to survive. Tonight the noises seemed to be looking for her, she heard the familiar sound of a small creature moving through the undergrowth and imagined it was a man with a knife coming to kill her. She could not still her panic. Her father had taught her to be calm, taught her to listen and to understand all that was around, tonight she could do nothing but be afraid. She heard danger in every sound, she expected to be killed at any minute. She lay like this till the first light started to filter through the high trees, when she was able to see around her she felt a little better. At least she would know if she was about to die.
She crawled out of her hiding place and moved on again, always moving away from her village. Instinct took over and guided her in the direction of safety. She had thought to go to the village that her father had been born in. One of his brothers still lived there and she needed the protection of others around her. She thought of all the people she had lived with since birth. Her friends, her family, cousins, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and the other people who had come to live in the village over the years. People like Septo and his wife with their children who had survived an illness that killed most of their people and who had moved alone through the jungle for many weeks before her father met them and brought them into the village. Then there was Juno, a young boy who had lost his family somewhere in the journey to a new place and who had been found almost dead by her cousin on a hunting trip. Her father had told her that they must welcome new people into their lives when they could. Not only did new people bring new blood but new ideas and ways that would make the village stronger. In all, her village had numbered around fifty people who lived together and shared the burdens of life with each other. Now she did not know if any of them still lived. She thought of her little girl, she had become close to Juno and they had a child. She had left her baby with her own Mother, who was still suckling her own new child, when she had set out to gather food, now they were all gone.
As she walked she tried to make some sense of what had happened, why would men come to her home and kill her people. They lived in peace with the world, they bothered no-one, and yet this had happened, why?
She remembered that a few years before, her father and some of the men had gone out to defend the village against some people who wanted to take over their place. If the people had wanted to join the group they would have been welcome but instead they had wanted to take the place from them. In the many years they had been in their place they had planted some of the eating plants and gathered some wild pigs into pens so that there was a ready supply of meat, the other people had wanted these things. Instead of making their own place with shelters to live in they wanted to steal her peoples place. One of her cousins had been killed and her father said they had killed three men in the other group. Surely this could not have caused the men to come, she did not know.
She walked on, soon she must eat and drink.
Two more nights were spent in terror under bushes, every sound brought a new fear. Sometimes she slept but with sleep came the dreams. Three more days of walking, only stopping to find food and water when she could.
Once she heard voices but they were not of her language and she knew there was danger so she moved away from the sound as quickly as she could.
She knew she could not carry on for much longer, her body was beginning to let her down. Her legs would not hold her up for much farther. She was now not sure if she was heading in the right direction, a couple of times she had lost her sense of where she was and this should not be ignored. Her father had spent much time showing her how important this sense was. At all times you need to know where you are in the world. Which direction was home, which direction you should travel to end your journey. If just once you lost the knowledge of position in the world you could wander forever and never end your journey. Her father had explained that this is what happened to Juno, he had left his father's camp and allowed his mind to lose the picture of the world around him. That one mistake meant Juno could never get back to his people. She had thought a few years later as she and Juno made a child together that this was not such a bad thing. She changed her mind as the pain of the baby coming took her, she promised herself that nothing would ever enter or leave her body in that way again. She had forgotten this promise soon after when Juno crept into her shelter at night and only a few days before the men came and killed her village she had realised that she had missed her blood time, she was please by this. The promise and the pain would be forgotten, until the next baby came.
She began to feel calmer. The bad men were no longer a worry to her. The pain of the loss of her village was still with her but she knew her survival was more important. She had a life inside her and that too was important. That afternoon she found some shelters that had been made by hunters on their journey and she found some food and water plants close by. She was not hungry nor thirsty and her fear was less now. That night she slept more than before, she woke a few times but not in panic. Next morning she did not set out on her journey when she awoke, instead she gathered some food and sat outside her shelter to eat. She stayed in that place for a few days and her strength returned.
She accepted she did not know where she was, now everything from before had gone, the people, her place, she knew she was here but this here was unconnected with any other. This was not somewhere she could stay, the shelters were not strong, she had no-one with her. When the baby came she would die. Without men to build shelter and women to make the baby come as it should there was no hope.
Her Father had told her that it is best to see your journey in your mind before it begins, know your road and remember the picture of your journey so that you get to the place you want. She began to see a journey. Some things were needed if she was to survive. A group of people and a place were important. The people must be of her language, they must live in the way she had lived with her people. There must be children, her Father had taught her that people without children are not to be approached. Even if they had women with them the absence of children meant all was not right. The men who killed her village did not bring their children.
The picture of her journey was now complete, all that was left was to decide on a direction to travel.
There were no clues to this, nothing her Father had taught her showed her the best way to travel to find a place. Remembering the people who had arrived at their village she realised that her people had found them, they had not found her people. To be found you must be in the place that others are looking. No one had found her here so it must be this was not a place where people were looking. How could she know where there were people, another lesson from her father, there are some things you cannot know, the lesson was to recognise these things and to accept they were unknown. To spend a minute of your life trying to know something you could not know was a waste.
She decided that the best thing to do was to move to as many places as possible so that eventually someone would find her.
The next day she began. In the picture of her journey she had seen a basket in which to put food she had gathered as she walked. Before she left the shelters she found the special grasses and made a basket. This was slung over her shoulder when she left.
As she walked she collected food for that days meal. She stopped to drink when she saw the water plants.
The journey was hard but she was strong and was able to cover many miles in a day. She moved in a circle never a straight line. Her father had told her that if you walk for enough time in a straight line you come to the end of the world. After the end of the world there are no trees, the people are not humans as her people. Not only were they not of the language but they were a different colour and they led completely different lives.
Being not of the language, her Father told her, did not make people inhuman just different. Some people were even of two languages, she could not believe this but he swore it was true. “What makes people inhuman”, her Father had said, “was not being of the forest.” Without the forest to give them life they had to get life from the earth. This made them unlike the people in all ways, so, inhuman.
After many weeks she came to a place were she saw signs of people. As she stood in a clearing looking around her she could see new footprints. Some grass that had been made into a mat for sitting on was laying by a tree. Standing very still she listened for sounds of people, from the distance she heard the sound of children laughing. Then from behind a tree someone called out to her. “Are you of the people?” said a man's voice, “I am of the people.” she answered.
A young man appeared from behind the tree. He walked toward her and again spoke to her, “How do you come to this place sister?” She answered “Some men came to our place and killed us, I ran from them and journeyed here.”
The young man was the normal height for her people, he had strong arms and broad shoulders. The woman looked down quickly, he is longer than Juno she thought, But, as one of her aunts who had knowledge of these things had told her, that was not always a bad thing.
The man said “Come sister, come to our place and make it yours.”
The man took her to a village not unlike her old village. He guided her to a shelter in which she could see a woman preparing roots for eating. The man called to the woman in the shelter “ I have found a sister in the forest.” The woman looked up from her work and said to the man “Bring in our new sister, she looks ready for sleep.” The man looked at her and said “ Rest in my mothers shelter, I will speak to my Father and we will make a shelter for you.”
The man's Mother spoke again. “ What is your name my little sister?”
She answered the woman,” My name is Jolan.”
“Jolan, and you have a child with you?”
“Yes,” replied Jolan, putting her hands on her stomach, “ I have a child with me.”
“When will your child live?” Asked the woman.
Jolan held up seven fingers and said “These moons.”
“ My sister, how do you come to us, tell me your story.”
Jolan told her of her village and family, of her Father and Mother. The men who came and killed her village.
She told of her long journey to this place, all that had happened to her on her journey.
“And you have the picture of your old life with you.” Asked the woman.
“I have the picture,” Jolan answered.
“That is as it must be,” said the woman,”all your children must know of their mother's story. You must pass it to them”
“And now little sister,” the woman said in a soft voice, “ what of the picture of your life now?”
Jolan answered, “ I do not see a picture my sister.”
“Will you be of our people?” Asked the woman, and then,“will my son be the child's father?”
“If it is your wish.” said Jolan,
“Yes my daughter, it is my wish.”
“Thank you my Mother.” Jolan smiled at the woman.
The man returned and his mother said to him,“ This woman carries a child for you to be a father to my son.”
In the way of the people a man will be a father to a woman's children even when he had not helped her make the children, if his people wished it. The man looked first at his mother then at Jolan, he said, “ My mother speaks good words. Come my sister, we will find a place for your shelter.”
She lay under some low bushes where she had crawled when exhaustion had taken her some hours before. It had still been light then and she had been moving away from her village as fast as she could travel for many hours.
She awoke in terror, the noises of the forest night were all around. Normally these would have not frightened her for she had always lived here. As a child she often went out on journeys with her father and they lived from the forest. Her father taught her where to find food and water from the plants around, how to find safe shelter at night, how to survive. Tonight the noises seemed to be looking for her, she heard the familiar sound of a small creature moving through the undergrowth and imagined it was a man with a knife coming to kill her. She could not still her panic. Her father had taught her to be calm, taught her to listen and to understand all that was around, tonight she could do nothing but be afraid. She heard danger in every sound, she expected to be killed at any minute. She lay like this till the first light started to filter through the high trees, when she was able to see around her she felt a little better. At least she would know if she was about to die.
She crawled out of her hiding place and moved on again, always moving away from her village. Instinct took over and guided her in the direction of safety. She had thought to go to the village that her father had been born in. One of his brothers still lived there and she needed the protection of others around her. She thought of all the people she had lived with since birth. Her friends, her family, cousins, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and the other people who had come to live in the village over the years. People like Septo and his wife with their children who had survived an illness that killed most of their people and who had moved alone through the jungle for many weeks before her father met them and brought them into the village. Then there was Juno, a young boy who had lost his family somewhere in the journey to a new place and who had been found almost dead by her cousin on a hunting trip. Her father had told her that they must welcome new people into their lives when they could. Not only did new people bring new blood but new ideas and ways that would make the village stronger. In all, her village had numbered around fifty people who lived together and shared the burdens of life with each other. Now she did not know if any of them still lived. She thought of her little girl, she had become close to Juno and they had a child. She had left her baby with her own Mother, who was still suckling her own new child, when she had set out to gather food, now they were all gone.
As she walked she tried to make some sense of what had happened, why would men come to her home and kill her people. They lived in peace with the world, they bothered no-one, and yet this had happened, why?
She remembered that a few years before, her father and some of the men had gone out to defend the village against some people who wanted to take over their place. If the people had wanted to join the group they would have been welcome but instead they had wanted to take the place from them. In the many years they had been in their place they had planted some of the eating plants and gathered some wild pigs into pens so that there was a ready supply of meat, the other people had wanted these things. Instead of making their own place with shelters to live in they wanted to steal her peoples place. One of her cousins had been killed and her father said they had killed three men in the other group. Surely this could not have caused the men to come, she did not know.
She walked on, soon she must eat and drink.
Two more nights were spent in terror under bushes, every sound brought a new fear. Sometimes she slept but with sleep came the dreams. Three more days of walking, only stopping to find food and water when she could.
Once she heard voices but they were not of her language and she knew there was danger so she moved away from the sound as quickly as she could.
She knew she could not carry on for much longer, her body was beginning to let her down. Her legs would not hold her up for much farther. She was now not sure if she was heading in the right direction, a couple of times she had lost her sense of where she was and this should not be ignored. Her father had spent much time showing her how important this sense was. At all times you need to know where you are in the world. Which direction was home, which direction you should travel to end your journey. If just once you lost the knowledge of position in the world you could wander forever and never end your journey. Her father had explained that this is what happened to Juno, he had left his father's camp and allowed his mind to lose the picture of the world around him. That one mistake meant Juno could never get back to his people. She had thought a few years later as she and Juno made a child together that this was not such a bad thing. She changed her mind as the pain of the baby coming took her, she promised herself that nothing would ever enter or leave her body in that way again. She had forgotten this promise soon after when Juno crept into her shelter at night and only a few days before the men came and killed her village she had realised that she had missed her blood time, she was please by this. The promise and the pain would be forgotten, until the next baby came.
She began to feel calmer. The bad men were no longer a worry to her. The pain of the loss of her village was still with her but she knew her survival was more important. She had a life inside her and that too was important. That afternoon she found some shelters that had been made by hunters on their journey and she found some food and water plants close by. She was not hungry nor thirsty and her fear was less now. That night she slept more than before, she woke a few times but not in panic. Next morning she did not set out on her journey when she awoke, instead she gathered some food and sat outside her shelter to eat. She stayed in that place for a few days and her strength returned.
She accepted she did not know where she was, now everything from before had gone, the people, her place, she knew she was here but this here was unconnected with any other. This was not somewhere she could stay, the shelters were not strong, she had no-one with her. When the baby came she would die. Without men to build shelter and women to make the baby come as it should there was no hope.
Her Father had told her that it is best to see your journey in your mind before it begins, know your road and remember the picture of your journey so that you get to the place you want. She began to see a journey. Some things were needed if she was to survive. A group of people and a place were important. The people must be of her language, they must live in the way she had lived with her people. There must be children, her Father had taught her that people without children are not to be approached. Even if they had women with them the absence of children meant all was not right. The men who killed her village did not bring their children.
The picture of her journey was now complete, all that was left was to decide on a direction to travel.
There were no clues to this, nothing her Father had taught her showed her the best way to travel to find a place. Remembering the people who had arrived at their village she realised that her people had found them, they had not found her people. To be found you must be in the place that others are looking. No one had found her here so it must be this was not a place where people were looking. How could she know where there were people, another lesson from her father, there are some things you cannot know, the lesson was to recognise these things and to accept they were unknown. To spend a minute of your life trying to know something you could not know was a waste.
She decided that the best thing to do was to move to as many places as possible so that eventually someone would find her.
The next day she began. In the picture of her journey she had seen a basket in which to put food she had gathered as she walked. Before she left the shelters she found the special grasses and made a basket. This was slung over her shoulder when she left.
As she walked she collected food for that days meal. She stopped to drink when she saw the water plants.
The journey was hard but she was strong and was able to cover many miles in a day. She moved in a circle never a straight line. Her father had told her that if you walk for enough time in a straight line you come to the end of the world. After the end of the world there are no trees, the people are not humans as her people. Not only were they not of the language but they were a different colour and they led completely different lives.
Being not of the language, her Father told her, did not make people inhuman just different. Some people were even of two languages, she could not believe this but he swore it was true. “What makes people inhuman”, her Father had said, “was not being of the forest.” Without the forest to give them life they had to get life from the earth. This made them unlike the people in all ways, so, inhuman.
After many weeks she came to a place were she saw signs of people. As she stood in a clearing looking around her she could see new footprints. Some grass that had been made into a mat for sitting on was laying by a tree. Standing very still she listened for sounds of people, from the distance she heard the sound of children laughing. Then from behind a tree someone called out to her. “Are you of the people?” said a man's voice, “I am of the people.” she answered.
A young man appeared from behind the tree. He walked toward her and again spoke to her, “How do you come to this place sister?” She answered “Some men came to our place and killed us, I ran from them and journeyed here.”
The young man was the normal height for her people, he had strong arms and broad shoulders. The woman looked down quickly, he is longer than Juno she thought, But, as one of her aunts who had knowledge of these things had told her, that was not always a bad thing.
The man said “Come sister, come to our place and make it yours.”
The man took her to a village not unlike her old village. He guided her to a shelter in which she could see a woman preparing roots for eating. The man called to the woman in the shelter “ I have found a sister in the forest.” The woman looked up from her work and said to the man “Bring in our new sister, she looks ready for sleep.” The man looked at her and said “ Rest in my mothers shelter, I will speak to my Father and we will make a shelter for you.”
The man's Mother spoke again. “ What is your name my little sister?”
She answered the woman,” My name is Jolan.”
“Jolan, and you have a child with you?”
“Yes,” replied Jolan, putting her hands on her stomach, “ I have a child with me.”
“When will your child live?” Asked the woman.
Jolan held up seven fingers and said “These moons.”
“ My sister, how do you come to us, tell me your story.”
Jolan told her of her village and family, of her Father and Mother. The men who came and killed her village.
She told of her long journey to this place, all that had happened to her on her journey.
“And you have the picture of your old life with you.” Asked the woman.
“I have the picture,” Jolan answered.
“That is as it must be,” said the woman,”all your children must know of their mother's story. You must pass it to them”
“And now little sister,” the woman said in a soft voice, “ what of the picture of your life now?”
Jolan answered, “ I do not see a picture my sister.”
“Will you be of our people?” Asked the woman, and then,“will my son be the child's father?”
“If it is your wish.” said Jolan,
“Yes my daughter, it is my wish.”
“Thank you my Mother.” Jolan smiled at the woman.
The man returned and his mother said to him,“ This woman carries a child for you to be a father to my son.”
In the way of the people a man will be a father to a woman's children even when he had not helped her make the children, if his people wished it. The man looked first at his mother then at Jolan, he said, “ My mother speaks good words. Come my sister, we will find a place for your shelter.”