Sunlight-Dances was alone when she awoke. She blinked, and sat up, finding herself once again lying on the soft grey thing. She moved experimentally, but there wasn’t a single twinge of pain, not even from her leg.
She looked down. The bandage was gone. The only sign that she had been injured was a disarrangement of her scales. She wasn’t scarred that badly, really. What had the Newcomers done? This was powerful magic. Slowly she pulled herself upright.
As soon as she stood up, the animal appeared from some bushes, wagged its tail at her, and barked once. It came up to her, and thrust its head under her claw.
Bemused, she scratched it carefully, and looked around. The Newcomer’s personal bundle sat beside the grey thing, but this was not the same nest-place as before. In fact... She froze, then turned slowly. This was her nest-place!
Any sign of her nest was gone, of course. Even the remnants of the egg-shells would have been carried off by something long ago.
She couldn’t help herself, and walked over to where the nest had been. Here, her dreams had been shattered. She would have to find a new dream, one more practical than her rather childish musings of the night of the Drummers. It wouldn’t come easily, but there would be one, some day.
The animal followed her, still wagging its tail. It was happy. She envied it having a place it belonged. She reached up, and fingered her clan-beads. Once they had symbolised the length and breadth of their land - dried mud from the ancestral places baked hard in the sun. How much did they really mean, now? The Green Hill territory had been taken by the Blue Water tribe, bit by bit, as the Green Hill numbers had dwindled. Some of her beads were Green Hill, some Blue Water.
One crumbled under her touch. Evidently, some had been damaged in the fighting she had done. She picked at the knot with the tips of her claws, and untied it.
The animal barked again, facing away from the nest-place, and the Newcomer’s voice answered. The animal leapt around it as it emerged from the tall grass into the small trampled clearing. It bore game with it: two small animals hung from its belt, already cleaned and skinned. Sunlight-Dances watched it, and tilted her head as the Newcomer beckoned to her.
It offered her one of the carcasses, and her stomach growled in response to the smell of the meat. She stepped forward, and took the food gratefully, clutching her beads to her chest.
The Newcomer made itself busy sectioning the second prey-animal with a metal claw, and tossed half of it to the animal. The other half was added to Sunlight-Dances’ portion.
It dug the wooden bowl out from its belongings, and filled it with water poured from a bulging bag.
Sunlight-Dances finished the meat quickly, and accepted the bowl, holding her beads carefully as she drank. She looked up to see the Newcomer folding the grey thing, and putting it away. It slung the bundle on its back, picked up its weapon, and called to the animal. It was leaving. It faced Sunlight-Dances for a moment, put its hand on its chest, and bent low at the waist. It was an oddly formal gesture. A respectful gesture. Sunlight-Dances guessed what it meant. She replied with the formal motion of her own, bowing herself forward and arcing her tail high.
Their debts to each other were paid. And saying ‘thank you’ was a thing that people did to other people. Thank you, and goodbye.
The Newcomer straightened, then turned, and began to walk away from the clearing.
Sunlight-Dances lifted the bowl she still held, in confusion. Was it a gift? This treasure of a bowl? Sunlight looked down at it, and turned it in her claws again. No. She couldn’t accept this. It was too special. It tipped her into debt again. She took a few quick steps after the Newcomer, and hissed to get its attention. She tried to return it.
The Newcomer’s stance changed. It closed its arms, folded them tight against its body, and made the ‘no’ gesture with its head, shaking it from side to side. It followed this by pointing at the bowl, then pointing at her, Sunlight-Dances.
It was obvious that it didn’t want the bowl back.
Sunlight-Dances lashed her tail once. She had nothing to offer in return. Certainly nothing with the same status as a gift like this. Her eye fell on her beads. She set the bowl down. Perhaps... Carefully, she slipped them from their cord, and examined them. One more was damaged, and she set it aside. The rest, she separated into two piles, and re-strung half of them on her cord, in a pattern that seemed pleasing. She plaited a second cord from a handful of the tall grass, while the Newcomer stared at her in amazement. Sunlight-Dances hissed in laughter. Where did it think The People got their cords from? That they fell from the sky? Maybe the Newcomers thought the same about the feathers, and arm-wraps. It would explain a few things.
When she was done, she had two matching necklaces. She picked one up, and stepped forward, to offer it to the Newcomer. As a gift, it once meant far more than now. The Green Hill tribe was no more, but the symbol was there. She gave the Newcomer the right of her territory.
The Newcomer stared at her for a long time before reaching out to accept the gift. But it accepted it. It stared at the beads in its hand, looking from them to her, then took its bundle back off, and set it down. It put the beads down on top of the bundle.
While Sunlight-Dances watched, head tilted in wonder, the Newcomer removed a necklace of its own, that had been hidden under the clothing it wore. It untied it carefully, and separated out some of the beads. It held them in its hand, then pointed at the second necklace.
Sunlight-Dances stopped breathing. Did the Newcomer know what it was doing? It couldn’t.
The Newcomer pointed again. Slowly, Sunlight-Dances extended her own necklace, her heart beating like one of the Drummers’ instruments.
As she watched, the Newcomer re-strung the necklace again, its own beads mixed together with the clan-beads, in a simple but attractive pattern. It handed the necklace back, before unstringing the other beads, and mixing them together in the same way. It examined the now empty plaited cord with extreme interest, then tucked it away in the bundle. The necklace of mixed beads it tied back around its neck.
Sunlight-Dances slowly lifted her own necklace to her throat, and tied it in place. The Newcomer could not know what this meant. Could it? She wished she could ask; wished she could explain.
She looked up again, and the Newcomer had not moved, although it had put its bundle back on its back. It still stood there, leaning on its weapon, watching Sunlight-Dances with measuring eyes.
The animal whined, and the Newcomer glanced down at it. It spoke, and jerked its head, and the animal happily went trotting off ahead. Deliberately, the Newcomer turned to Sunlight-Dances, and made another gesture - one easy to understand. The word that accompanied it she put to her memory. One more word of the language she would have to learn, she knew.
“C’mon.” The Newcomer turned, and began to walk away again, looking back at her.
Sunlight-Dances bent and picked up the bowl, and took a few tentative steps after. Any doubts she had were washed away as the Newcomer waited for her to draw alongside so that they would walk together.
Together.
It was good to have a tribe again. Now, she just needed to figure out how to trade names with her Tribe Leader.
It would come. She had all the time in the world.
Fin
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