Routines

Now that we’ve been settled in once place for a little while, and the immediate problems of establishing a semi-permanent home have been dealt with, I’ve noticed the days have developed into a fairly regular routine.

Every third day or so the hunters will hone their atlatl arrows and head out for the day. Those able-bodied adults left will go out to gather the more time-consuming and energy intensive plant foods; those that require a lot of digging or climbing. “Hunting days” are when Kohric gives the youngsters, and me, our lessons. We spend the majority of the day learning together, and then I spend a little extra time with Kohric after, and he goes over whatever vocabulary, social rules, etc with me that I have questions about.

The day after a hunting day is very busy for everyone. The previous day’s kills are cleaned and skinned. All the meat that isn’t set aside for the evening meal is smoked or set out to dry. Any plant food that is able to be preserved is set out to dry too, or is roasted, smoked, or covered in a thick, waxy, salty crust to preserve it. It’s all a lot of work, and there isn’t time for our lessons with Kohric. Every able hand is needed. The kids act as guards, keeping animals away from the drying foodstuffs. I’ve been helping them, mostly spending my time with Eyani and Oshtik, though Nandi has been showing me some of how to preserve the plants too. No one seems to want me handling the meat. I think maybe they think it’ll poison me just to touch it. It’s kind of cute.

The third day of the routine is a kind of “domestic stuff” day. There’s enough food that only a few groups go out to gather fresh crops. Everyone else is busy working at all the other chores that don’t revolve around immediate biological needs; weaving (cloth as well as baskets), stretching, tanning, and sewing animals skins into useful objects. Some make jewelry and other adornments. Wood is harvested and carved into atlatl arrows, tools, bowls, and some is set aside for firewood.

And then the next day the whole cycle starts again. It’s actually somewhat soothing to have a regular routine to count on. Everything’s been so haphazard since I’ve been here. I was beginning to think the Azu-nah were completely random with how they chose to go about their lives. I’m not a fan of working from dawn to dusk, but it certainly keeps me occupied. The Azu-nah sing while they work, and I’ve been able to transcribe a few of their most common songs. And what’s really great is that I’m getting to slowly know the whole clan. They can’t swarm me as much with their insistent questions like they used to. I can have things at my own pace, which is a big help.

The best thing about the new routine is the evenings, though. It’s slowly starting to get dark earlier, which means folks are still up and awake when it’s too dark to do much work. So the evenings are filled with stories around the fire. Some days it’s a retelling of the day’s hunt, or an anecdote of how someone saw an interesting animal behavior, or a funny story of someone being silly or foolish. But my favorite are the nights when they tell their cultural stories.

Eyani and Oshtik will pile up against either side of me, and we’ll listen to the Azu-nah myths and fables. One individual is by far my favorite storyteller; a dark, shadowy-colored male named Eraan. He even outdoes Kohric (nothing against Kohric, but Eraan just breathes such life into his tales).



He’s even telling a story tonight about how Yusa, the first female Azu, played a trick on Redeka-spirit, which somehow explains why Azus only have three hind toes. It’s apparently Oshtik’s favorite.

I can’t wait.

---

This week's cameo is Eraan, submitted by Zelandeth! Thank you for giving him such a fun character!

Beach Beast

Crap, I got so obsessed with telling the vengeance story that I completely forgot to talk about yesterday! Sorry.

So, yesterday was actually pretty cool. I had another lesson with Kohric, which was fascinating in and of itself. He taught us about the body of water we’re living next to. I know I was already talking about this when we first arrived, but to recap Kohric; it’s pretty much an epeiric sea (which, if you hate geology, means a very shallow ocean sitting on top of a continent). The water is very shallow compared to what a human would be used to, and it’s completely loaded with different living things. Kohric told us all about some of the plants and animals that inhabit the shore area, and promised to go into some of the bigger sea creatures next time. I’m excited.

But the most interesting part of yesterday came after the lesson.

I was playing around on the beach with Eyani and Oshtik. I introduced them to the art of making sand castles (though it probably was pretty stupid, since the concept of “a building” is lost kinda on them). Oshtik was quick to inform me that you don’t build things on the beach, you make pictures and stories.

She even spent a good ten minutes trying to draw me. I don’t know that my pride will hold up to much of this. Even a caricature artist never made my nose THAT big, and it didn’t help when Eyani started praising the likeness. Tee-Tee Huge-Schnoze. Great.

Anyway, I was absently sitting down, doodling a happy face, when Oshtik became very excited and came slinking up next to me, pointing. She was whispering in that excited hush type of voice, like a pro bird watcher who’s spotted the rare Orange Spotted Chocobo or something.

Picking its way carefully through the shallow water was—something. Seriously, I defy you to put this thing into Earth taxonomy. It moved vaguely like a wading bird; carefully and deliberately lifting each foot and then placing it down again without disturbing the water much more than a ripple. But instead of having a long bill down in the sand, it would rest its “forehead” against the water and unroll this long trunk-thing down to the seabed. Every few minutes the trunk would come back up clutching something, and it would shove whatever it had found behind the crescent-head. When it moved closer I caught a very quick glimpse of its mouth as an object was brought up to the head. Its mouth was like a squid, only with far more “teeth.” It was a little intimidating to hear it crunching away at whatever morsel it had picked up.

Oshtik insisted I keep very still, and stay low and quiet. She explained that seeing a ba’oh is very good luck, but only if you do not disturb it. It isn’t something the Azu-nah hunt, apparently. They see it as a guardian of the beach. Through the entire whispered explanation, Oshtik was making these slow gestures; I couldn’t help but imagine her dressed in khaki and talking with a British accent, like one of those video nature guides. It was cute.

The ba’oh (which I keep thinking of as a beach beast) spent perhaps five minutes in our presence, tops. It crunched up several unfortunate sea creatures and then disappeared into a cluster of bushes without a sound.

I like it. It’s nice to see a completely benign creature like this, and get to see it with completely natural behavior. It was very, very cool. I hope I can see another one someday.

---

Author's Note:
Because of the time of year, O faithful readers, I am going to be very, very busy. I hate delaying posts or putting them off, which is most likely what would happen a lot over next two weeks. So instead I'm going to put the blog on a mini hiatus. There will be no official update next week or the week after, and I will pick up again starting the 4th of January. I will very likely post a piece of art or two to keep dust from accumulating, but we won't hear anything from Tee until the new year. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday of choice, and that you all have a Happy New Year!

Like Little Girls

It took me a good twenty minutes of pacing up and down the beach before my face stopped burning, and I stopped trying to think up patterns for Ikaylay pelt coats and Soto shoes. Nohwasi would make an excellent rug. I wanted to tie their tails together and then chase them through a very dense forest.

But eventually my humiliation cooled and I was back to where I’d been before running into the Trio. I paced slowly along the water line, picking at interesting shells and whatnot. Or, at least, I call them shells. Many of them are flexible as if they’re made of keratin or some other protein instead of the usual calcium carbonate of Earth shells.

They were interesting enough, but without any kind of frame of reference it was difficult to learn much from them. Was this conical thing a shell for some kind of Minervan cephalopod thing? Or was it only a tiny piece of armor from something bigger? A shed claw sheath, perhaps? There was no one around to tell me. So I gathered up a handful of the most interesting ones to ask Kohric about later, and continued.

Not long into my walk I noticed I wasn’t entirely alone. One of the little flying creatures happened to dart past me, and as I turned my head to follow it, I happened to catch sight of a yellow tail and a suggestion of long ears. It was only the motion of the tail that alerted me. I’d never have seen it if not for turning my head just at the right second. For a panicked half second I thought it was Ikaylay, and the other two were about to descend on me from behind and scare the crap out of me.

But then, seeing he’d been spotted, the Azu raised his head and I saw that he was clearly not Ikaylay. The stranger carefully showed his palms in greeting and bobbed his head. It’s a wonder I ever saw him. His tawny hide and green markings blended beautifully with the grass. He looked faintly familiar; one of D’Keda I’d never talked to. But I remembered his green curlicue markings from seeing him with the hunters.

I greeted him back, and asked his name.

He seemed very shy. He kept turning his muzzle a little to the side like I’d seen some of the youngsters do when they were unsure of themselves. It was oddly comforting to see someone feeling as awkward as I was.

“My name is Slaasek,” he said, and slowly came to sit nearby. “You are Tee-Tee.” Again that muzzle turn, but his eyes were always fixed on me. “I watched when the three played their trick.”

“They have played two tricks now,” I explained to him. “I want to make them stop. I want to trick them too.”

“Yes, I watched the trick-in-the-water,” he said. “The three think they are more clever than Tee. This makes Tee sad, yes?” At this I wasn’t sure whether to be comforted or creeped out at the suggestion that this fellow had been watching me since we’d arrived at the beach.

His kind eyes decided me on “comforted.” “Yes,” I said. I debated the merits of revenge versus taking the higher ground. Then I thought about Ed having trouble getting taken seriously. Ah screw it. “Can you help me trick the three?”

Now he faced me a little more directly, and his mouth gaped in a feral grin.

“Yes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hardly saw him the next day, and the morning after. It wasn’t until the second afternoon that he approached me again, still doing that shy muzzle-turn. He had another Azu-nah with him, a gray fellow with a thick, fluffy mane and beautiful tattoos. Slaasek introduced him as Duryl, another hunter.



Together we sat and I watched as the two of them hatched a simple plot that would put the Terrible Trio in their place. I admit, I may have cackled once or twice.

Late that same evening, just as it was growing dark, we put our plan into motion. Slaasek lead me to a big, gnarled tiger tree that leaned over a small hillock. Sandwiched between the sloping roots of the tree and the hill were a thick cluster of short little plants. They hugged the ground like strawberry runners, and had delicate little fruits growing along the underside of the leaves. Slaasek had explained earlier that these were one of the Trio’s absolute favorite foods. They had cleared out the obvious caches days ago, and had been complaining at evening meals about not finding more.

Duryl was already waiting for us, lazing happily in the thick branches of the tree several meters above. Slaasek joined him and gestured for me to start.

I wandered in a wide circle around the tree, searching for the three little buggers, and finally spotted them chasing each other a little way off. I shouted to them as Duryl and Slaasek had said. “I have found a mystery!”

The Azu-nah are apparently more curious than any ten cats.

I almost didn’t have time to blink before they were swarming around me, asking what I’d found. I directed them to the fruit and asked them, innocent as a newborn calf, if they were something edible, or if perhaps they were horribly poisonous?

Speaking of cats, have you ever seen one looking particularly smug? Yeah. I half expected Sodo to start licking a paw.

So Ikaylay, also smug as hell, started in about how these were very dangerous, and that I should probably go away right now and warn Eyani away from the area, so he or another youngster did not think to eat them.

He was taking a breath to go further, when from up in the tree came a horrible scream, and a big gray shape dropped from the tree right on top of me. I didn’t have to act my part. I shrieked in genuine surprise and had the breath knocked out of me; Duryl was supposedly going to land next to me.

But all of that was drowned out the howls of fear that came from the Trio. I barely had a chance to register the looks on their faces before they’d flailed and skittered a good half dozen meters away, bouncing from forelegs to hind almost like startled puppies. Sodo practically disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Slaasek and Duryl sat on either side of me, loudly “kheee-ing” their amusement.

Sweet vengeance!

---

This week's cameos are Slaasek and Duryl! Submitted by Prannon and Doran respectively! Thank you for submitting them!

I also just noticed just now that I forgot to include everyone's tattoos in the images. I'll be tweaking them tomorrow or Thursday. Sorry about that!

Delay

Yes, another delay. Update Thursday when things have calmed down.

Update: To add to the joy of mandatory overtime at work, the most recent strain of influenza is circling me like a shark. I've been keeping it at bay through pure willpower and a crapload of tea. I think this week I'm going to choose extra rest and hopefully stave off the Dreaded Lurgy instead of writing the entry. The positive is that now I can spend a little extra on this week's art.

Thank you for not killing me.

Attack of the Legumes

While talking to Ed and Doc Sutherland was wonderful, I ended up feeling a bit lost after I signed off. I missed them. I missed other humans. Hell, I missed just eating a normal meal and sleeping on more than a pile of grass in a cave. But I was also grumpy with myself for feeling that way, and I was more than a little nervous I would start sliding back toward that hopeless, miserable place I’d been a few days before. I thought back to Eyani’s expression when I’d snapped at him.

No, definitely not going back to that.

I wanted to feel comfortable with the clan. They’re people too, dammit, and there’s no reason why I couldn’t find solace for my loneliness by spending time with people. Even if they do have four legs.

A very old friend of my family always told me the best way to avoid feeling down was to “get up and move.” So I put my computer away, gathered up the solar charger, and set off to find something useful to do.

Nandi and Eyani were both sitting in the shade of a tree a few meters away. They looked suspiciously preoccupied with a leaf Eyani was holding up. But I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it was a very interesting leaf.

I asked Nandi if there was anything I could do. He wasn’t terribly helpful.

“There is little to be done that Tee knows,” he said, almost seeming apologetic. “Tee cannot carve, and Tee cannot hunt. Tee does not know what plants heal hurts.” I tried not to look too deflated at this. He seemed to understand, though, and tried to cheer me up by telling me I’d probably be able to help with these tasks someday. Or, as he put it, “Under one tomorrow’s sun.”

So, without any real direction, I wandered off to find something to do. Eyani was supposed to be guarding meat, which sounded pretty boring, and Kohric needed Nandi for some unknown task. So I puttered around the shrubby area between the plains and the beach, looking for interesting plants and animals.

I didn’t get terribly far before I ran into the Terrible Trio. I’m beginning to think the three of them are joined at the hip, because I never, ever see them apart. I made the hand-greeting gesture at them as I approached, and was rewarded with funny, teasing faces and an offer to go swimming again. I stuck my tongue out at them.

Little buggers.

I was dying to prank them back, but I couldn’t decide what to do. What if I went too far and did something damaging? I didn’t want to hurt anyone, or violate some taboo. So instead I tried for a more neutral conversation, and asked them about what things were good to eat, like the koh fruit, and whether there were any dangerous creatures.

Nohwasi eyed me suspiciously, clearly scanning my frame for a hidden biofoam canister, and then settled to help his cohorts answer my questions. He still hasn’t quite gotten over his first experience with my, apparently.

They went on at length about what things were good to eat, and even began a short-lived argument about what the best fruit was in the area. But their attention soon turned to the wildlife. They told me it was unwise to wade out too far into the water, as there were many aquatic predators that prowled the deeper areas. They also told me how to watch out for some of the flying creatures when they were breeding on the beach, as brooding parents would come screaming and biting at you in a protective rage.

Then they began telling me about the most dangerous creature; a tiny, green, caterpillar-shaped creature the size of a thumb, called a “langu”. It was apparently deadly poisonous, and would crawl onto you if you sat still too long. I’ve always been the type that immediately starts feeling a creature crawling on me if someone’s talking about it, and the grass gently brushing my exposed legs was starting to make me twitchy

Just as Ikaylay was finishing his description of the creature, Sodo suddenly leapt to his feet, yelping and scrabbling at his hind leg. The other two quickly jumped away in terror. Sodo brushed furiously at his thigh, sending a small green object flying in my direction.

“Langu!” Ikaylay shouted.

I couldn’t help it. I produced a yelp almost as good as Sodo’s and scrambled away from the thing as it came at me.

It landed at my feet and didn’t move. I hesitantly peered down at it, and realized not only wasn’t it moving, but that it had no legs. Or a head. Or any other visible body parts. It looked like a funny shaped bean, honestly. Then I realized the three little buggers were making the keee-ing Azu-nah version of hysterical laughter.

Hell. I walked right into that one.

I picked up the dread langu bean and threw it at Sodo, glowering. He and the others pranced out of the way and wandered off, laughing.

I’m so getting them back now.

Eavesdroppers

Much as I was looking forward to my next set of lessons, it appears they don’t happen every day. I figured they would be a new daily routine. But when I went looking for Kohric this morning, he told me there was too much work to be done, and lessons would be tomorrow.

I’m still not used to this society’s norms. Children are expected to work. Schooling is considered secondary to basic survival. And when I stop and use my head for half a second, it makes sense. I mean, D’Keda is supposedly a fairly well-off clan (at least all of D’Keda thinks so), but they still struggle to survive. Prey animals must be carefully managed to avoid over hunting, which means the clan hunters only go out every few days. And even when they do go out, it’s no guarantee that they will return successful. Even the gatherers can have bad days. So despite the fact that a good two thirds of the clan spends much of their days just trying to feed everyone, there are times when they still go hungry. Those that are too young or too old to hunt or carry a heavy gather-basket are required to take up all the other chores of the clan: making baskets, carving tools and weapons, weaving cloth, tending the fires, harvesting medicines, scouting for predators, etc.

Several of the children had been called away on predator watch today; the hunters had had a very successful day yesterday, and much of the meat had to be laid out and dried to be saved for later. Small carnivores and aggressive scavengers are attracted to all that food out in the open, so the kids were armed with big, brushy sticks and told to scare away anything threatening the drying meat. They looked pretty funny with a tree branch in their tails, flailing and squawking at everything that moved. I went a little way off to find a quiet spot on my own.

It was for the best that I had time to myself today. As it happened, today is the thirtieth day I’ve been on the planet; check-in day.

You see, my computer automatically uploads all my information on a daily basis as a safety precaution. I have to log every day I use my chlorine reagents, for example, and then every evening that and all my the other information I log is sent via satellite to Ground Zero Station. This way they know I’m not dead, and I don’t have to have a mental breakdown about losing all my notes if something eats my computer (I’d have to bust out the “Oh Shit Box” and send an emergency beacon, but at least my notes would be safe!).

Anyway, while the uploads keep GZS updated, they don’t give immediate access to more subtle things like, say, mental state, physical problems, etc. So Ed, Dr. Sutherland, and I are required to check in with each other every 30 days. It gives us a break from puzzling out Bhukaosi for one thing; and if any of us seems to be going off the deep end, one of the others can flag the station and get the nutjob pulled out before any permanent damage is done.

So I unfolded my little solar array to get a nice, fat charge, plugged in my computer, and pinged Dr. Sutherland.

He was entirely uninterested in talking, which is to say he was acting perfectly normal. For him. The first thing out of his mouth was “You’re still sane, right? I’m too busy to haul crazies away today.” Ah, Doc. I feel the love.

So, yeah, my chat with him lasted all of two minutes. I tried to ask him about his clan, D’Moru; one of the desert tribes. He muttered something about them being very “fierce,” and was then immediately on about some of the creatures he’d encountered. Apparently there’s an animal living out in the desert that can photosynthesize sugars. But before I could grill him about that little nugget, he was off about a bunch of other plant species. As he rambled, there seemed to be something that resembled an Azu-nah nose that kept peeking into his camera’s line-of-site, but he kept shoving it away so I’m not sure. The “conversation” was pretty much over when ended his little ramble and said he had to get back. Then he cut the link without waiting for me to respond. Sigh. Typical Doc.

Thankfully Ed was better company. He also had company; there were a good three or four Azus with him that were absolutely fascinated by the “hyooman in your light-box!” They kept peeking over his shoulder or shoving past it to get a better look at the computer. They all had very bright colored tattoos, and one was a brilliant green; much more colorful than D’Keda. I waved at them. This made them worse.

Ed’s looking a bit frazzled and ragged, and he was clearly annoyed with his eavesdroppers, but he seems like he’s thoroughly enjoying himself. He says he’s had a terrible time getting taken seriously until the last few days. His clan is almost exclusively arboreal, living in the huge trees of their temperate rain forest.

“I haven’t been on the ground more than twice in the last month,” Ed said, grinning. “There are some interesting predators on the ground, so they stay up here. I had a hell of a time getting used to the height, and jumping around tree branches. Excuse you!” He paused to shove another face out of the way.

“They treated me like a baby. But a couple days ago they had a series of games, and I actually won one of the races!” He gestured to a dyed pattern across one eyebrow and down his cheek. “They gave me this as a kind of trophy. It’ll wear off in a day or two, but now they act like I’m actually a member of D’Sokati. Er.. Well, maybe not a member, but I’m not a todd--Keshay, go away!” Poor Ed.

It’s been really good talking to him. I’ve missed human company. Much as I’m growing to love the Azu-nah, it’s been lonely being the only one of my species for a thousand kilometers. We chatted for a good hour. It was a huge relief to speak English for a while, and talk to someone else who understood my experiences.

“Next time, you may want to hide somewhere!” I teased him as we were saying goodbye. “Or you’ll probably have an even bigger crowd.”

“Shut up, and be glad yours are quiet,” he grinned, and we signed off. I’m looking forward to our next check-in.

I wonder what he means about “yours are quiet?”

Attack of Reality

Unfortunately, there will not be a blog entry this week. I'm sorry to disappoint, but a series of real-life difficulties have dropped into my lap and I just don't have time to make a quality entry this week. Believe me, I wish circumstances were opposite.


I will do my best to make next week's entry worth the wait. Hope you guys have a great week!