Chapter 30
GRIGHRI
The Sky God had led us to one of their own metal grak.
I exchanged glances with my fellow hunters and Healer Grokah.
They all looked as wide-eyed with shock as I felt.
When the Sky God told us to climb inside and use the strange fasteners to tie us to the long benches inside, I pushed down the unease I felt and led our party inside to do just that.
The hoomuns looked wary, but unafraid, and my Rah-bee did me proud by engaging the Sky God in conversation.
My Rah-bee was a leader in the making; I had no doubt of that.
One day, when he had learned our words, I would petition our Chief to give him a position as a junior clerk to our council.
“What do you think they are talking about?” Hroash asked me.
“Sky God business regarding the demons,“ I replied, basing my guess solely on hearing the Sky God name for the Sky Demons.
“Hmm,” he replied, with a sidelong glance at Sahm, who, like the other hoomuns were listening avidly to the discussion going on.
Whatever was being said had them all looking both angry and sad at the same time.
Rah-bee’s tone had become indignant, then a look of resignation crossed his face, his shoulders hunching inwards.
I touched his fingers with mine, letting him know I was here, and while I couldn’t understand what the Sky God had said to garner these reactions from Rah-bee and his fellow hoomuns, that it was going to be alright.
We could trust the Sky Gods. Their ways were strange, and they didn’t always give us what we wanted, but they always turned out to be right and were the reason our peoples had survived the Great Cold Season and the Sky Demons.
This was well established fact. All of our books and lore told of how they revealed themselves during a battle with another race of Sky Demons.
They freed the clans of the forest and sea, growing the mighty frozen trees that made the lights glow in the tunnels their great metal beasts chewed into being.
The new clans began to trade with us, and in turn, the Sky Gods began to gift us with bound books and guidance, impressed with how our village had survived the Dying of the Suns’ Love.
Our world had always had the snows, but once, it had been far more hospitable.
Then, the suns began to dim as the Great Cold came upon it.
My people retreated into the warmth of the mountain, and our lore says that other villages did as well, but never in the memory of anyone living had we met another of our kind.
There was just us, and later the two new clans.
And now, the hoomuns who could be mates with us, unlike the other two clans.
“We have arrived,” the Sky God said, rising from his seat. The grak’s belly opened once more to allow us to exit its body. What I saw took my breath away. More metal graks sat inside a large metal cave flooded with light.
“This way,” the Sky God said, and Rah-bee grasped my hand, this time seeking to reassure me.
It was a sweet gesture, and for a moment I felt shame.
I was a hunter, tasked to go out into the deepest of snows, to track and trap what game there was, and if we were lucky to come across a herd of Kilon, to join in a hunt to bring down the slowest adult one or an injured young one so that the village could eat the meat, tan the hides, and carve the bones into useful items like the needles the tailors made our garments with.
Other Sky Gods scurried around us, tending to the other sleeping grak. They seemed disinterested in us for the most part, ignoring our presence as they focused intently on their tasks.
It was unsettling. Did they not see how important our presence was?
This was the first time any of my people had been brought to their dwelling in the Beyond the World.
Surely they knew how momentous an occasion this was.
The Rule had been cast aside - that the Sky Gods could advise while in our World, but those who dwelt there were to remain with our feet firmly upon the frozen ground.
“We are inside your sky cave,” Rimbet said as we trailed behind the Sky God like obedient younglings.
“Our ship, yes,” came the reply.
“We are on water?” Hroash asked.
“No. You are correct in that we are above your sky. But this is not a cave. It is a ship, but one that sails among the stars.”
That made sense. They and the demons came from the stars, flying down into and across our skies in their metal graks. No, not graks - ships.
“Ships,” Rimbet repeated.
“Yes, now hurry along. We need to fit the hoomuns with tranzlaytuhrz.”
“What are tranzlaytuhrz?” Rimbet asked.
The Sky God opened a door that led to a metal tunnel, lit just as brightly as the space we were leaving.
“It’s something our healers will give them so they may speak with you all.”
My steps faltered for a moment. The hoomuns would be able to speak with us, with full understanding?
This was miraculous! They truly were like the gods they insisted they were not.
They would give this thing to my Rah-bee, and he would just know all of our words, unlike the painfully slow progress we’d achieved using the primer.
My heart sang, and I started forward again, Rah-bees hand clasped in mine. The moment was nearly upon me, when I’d be able to explain to Rah-bee that he was my mate and all that it meant.