Chapter 15
- Crat'ax -
Callie saunters towards me with her interesting gait, made the tiniest bit awkward because her hips are so wide. It all makes my chest ache.
I take the little wad of compressed seaweed out of one ear.
“These will be hooks,” I tell her, and lift one red-hot piece of iron with the tongs.
“For the splix run. Later I’ll make blades for another spear for some brave tribesman to use.
Maybe it will be a boy. The older men do seem to prefer the hooks and lines for catching splix.
And this…” I pick up the blade, “will be your knife. Later I will attach a handle to it. Don’t touch it, it’s still hot. ”
Callie studies the blade. “It’s very long.”
I put the blade back on the work table. “It’s the right length for you. I will make the handle thin, to fit your hand. I will also make it so that the knife can be attached to a spear. You can take part in catching splix with it.”
“You think of everything,” she says, and looks at me in a way that makes me forget where I am.
“I… yes,” I manage, as memories of her naked body flash in front of my eyes.
“I wonder,” she goes on. “The splix. They are about this big.” She shows the length of a splix with her hands. “Do they bite? Are they venomous? They have spikes?”
“I’m sure they’ll bite if they get a chance,” I tell her as I pick up a piece of iron in the tongs and stick it in the glowing charcoal.
“They do have teeth, but only small ones. Their spikes are soft, and they are not venomous. They’re harmless, part of the great bounty that the Deep grants us. Why?”
“Because I talked to Gren’ix about farming, and then I thought about other things from Earth. Like fishing.”
“Feeshin,” I repeat thoughtfully. “I see.”
“And the way on Earth,” she goes on, “is to catch fish with nets.”
“Very wonderful on Earth,” I state. “Feesh and nets.”
“Yes,” she agrees cheerfully. “And I think, why not make nets? Is maybe easy!” She goes on to explain to me what those nets are, and they do seem to make a lot of sense.
I take the piece of iron out of the coals. It’s starting to glow, but I want it hotter, so I put it back in. “So you’ll need thin, but strong ropes for the net. What if you make a net yourself?”
“I was going to ask,” Callie says. “I try to make nets. I know there is rope in that hut.” She points to a storage shed. “Can take thick rope apart, and make it thin. Then turn it into net.”
I take the iron out again. It glows a bright, orangy red. “Go and do it. And stay at a distance from me. The hammering is not good for your ears.” I put the wad of seaweed back in my ear.
She smiles and hurries over to the hut while I keep hammering.
I smile to myself. Such a wonderful woman. Surely they can’t all be like her. Certainly they must be as different as one tribesman is from another. But I will probably never know.
As I keep working, I also keep an eye on Callie. She sits down on the planks and leans her back on the storage shed while she unravels the ropes and starts to make her nets. Once in a while she’ll lift her gaze and look over to me, then look back down with a beautiful little smile on her full lips.
No one troubles her. No one questions why she sits there, unravelling rope on our platform as if she has always done so.
The boys pass by her without staring, the men step around her work with quick glances, but without comment.
I feel something settle in my chest at the sight.
This is how it should be. She is here, and the day bends itself to make room for her.
I find myself listening for danger without knowing why, alert in a way I usually am only in the jungle.
I can’t remember having ever been this happy before. Between each iron piece I hammer into something useful on my anvil, I look down at the ocean, and send the Deep a prayer of gratitude.
I wave a boy to me, and tell him to bring Callie food and drink. I know what she likes now. When he delivers the food a while later, Callie looks over at me and mouths ‘thank you’.
I just grin, sheer bliss filling me to the bursting point.
We both work until sunset. I leave the forge to cool down, and walk over to Callie.
She holds up her net. “Is small now. But I make it bigger. As big as this platform.”
The net is actually bigger than I thought, and now that I’m looking at it, it looks like it might work.
“So the splix come swimming,” I sum up as I examine the net. “And they swim towards the net. And they try to swim through. But then they get stuck.”
“That’s how it works,” Callie beams. “I think,” she adds, “I’ve never actually seen it myself.”
“Perhaps we shall try it first,” I suggest. “Not in the bay, but out on the ocean. On a day when there’s nice weather, and small waves only.”
Callie looks out towards the horizon. “That would be nice. Perhaps bring furs and skins in the boat.” She gives me a look.
There’s more pressure in my crotch, because I think I know what she means. And indeed, Mating with her in my boat, under the open sky, far away from Bigs and tribesmen, seems like a fantastic idea. “Tomorrow,” I decide immediately. “I will help you make the net.”
I sit down and have her show me how it works. I call for some boys to help us, too, and then we work and chat until the darkness makes it too difficult, and the smell of food being cooked becomes impossible to ignore.
Callie stands up and checks the net. “Very nice. I think usually the holes are the same size, but maybe the splix have different sizes. It’s ready to test.”
Indeed, the mesh is quite uneven. With their smaller hands, Callie and the boys have tied their parts of the net with smaller holes, while my part has holes three times as big.
“I prefer big splix,” I lie. “I hope we catch many big ones.”
“But the big ones don’t taste good,” a boy says, frowning. “They’re sour. And their meat is chewy. We’re always told to throw them back!”
“Yes, yes,” I grumble, annoyed. “Run along now. Prepare a place at the common table for Callie. Small splix only for her, please.”
“And a big one for you?” the boy asks.
Damn these boys and their wide-eyed innocence! “No, I’ll also have small splix. So Callie won’t feel alone.”
“So you prefer big splix,” Callie says as the boys leave. “I will keep that in mind.”
“Silly boys,” I grunt. “They don’t know anything about nets.”
“Oh, did you know about nets already?” Callie asks with a little smile on her face.
“Well… not for this purpose, perhaps,” I admit. “But there must have been nets in the village before. For keeping things in. I’m sure I’ve seen some.”
We wander over to the common Circle. The chief is wearing his headdress again, but this time I don’t think it’s just to impress Callie.
After the meal, he will cast Sprub’ex out.
I’ve heard the men talk about it. Most are in favor of that, but some are not.
There will be a lively discussion, I think.
The evening meal goes very well. The men are getting used to Callie, and she speaks so well now that she tells everyone about her abduction from Earth. I notice she doesn’t mention the friend that she talked about before, but of course she doesn’t want anyone to know about her.
The mood is friendly and relaxed, and the tribe clearly sides with Callie and me over Sprub’ex and the Adropo men.
After the meal, some boys shyly approach, wanting to show Callie the boat they’re building, modelled after mine.
“I’ll take a look,” she says and gets up. “I usually learn a lot from the boys.”
“They do seem to be good teachers,” I agree.
“And so are you. About other things.” Callie briefly strokes one hand along my shoulder, a tender display of affection that makes me unspeakably happy.
“She speaks well,” Veret’ax says as he pours more frit for himself. “In the beginning, she could barely say a word. Now, there’s never any doubt about what she means.”
“It’s the tribe,” I say, feeling magnanimous. “It has welcomed her, and made her a part of it in a short time. I thank you all for that.”
“Not all,” someone mutters. “Sprub’ex did his best to steal her.”
“To think that he prepared the hole in the hut,” the chief marvels. “While building the hut! He was planning the abduction in advance. What got into him?”
“The woman, of course,” Mek’tor says. “She got into him. Surely we were all shocked to suddenly have a woman among us? In the tribe? A woman! Which of us ever thought he’d as much as see one? And here is one now, as alive and different as a… a rekh.”
“We were all shocked,” another agrees. “Sprub’ex was more shocked than anyone, I suppose. Shocked to his very core. I must admit I was, too.”
“Callie’s not the only strange thing that’s happened in this village recently,” I point out, and look towards the lone platform. “Why don’t we blame that?”
“That is in a cage, and can’t ruin things for us,” Port’iz says. “No, Sprub’ex only changed when the woman arrived. From the first moment, he was suspicious. And was he wrong, Crat'ax? You yourself admit that she was brought here by the Plood. The evil Plood, the servants of the Darkness.”
“He was wrong to think that Callie was evil,” I state calmly.
“But that was his own business. He was badly, and dishonorably, wrong in trying to take her. Against her will, and against mine. He allied with the Adropo tribe to steal a woman from our village! If anything was ever treason, that was it.”
“I have considered casting Sprub’ex out,” Chief Brun'ax says, still clearly unsure. “On one hand, his action was treasonous. About that, there can be no doubt. On the other hand, things have changed a great deal in the village, and in the jungle, too. There are now round, white bulbs everywhere. They were never there. Then there’s that.” He nods towards the platform.
“And then the woman comes. It’s enough to make anyone go mad. ”
“Sprub’ex was a good tribesman,” Port’iz goes on. “All his scars were a sign of it. He would often go to the jungle to hunt when needed.”