The Color of Distance (41 page)

Miato flickered acknowledgment, and Anito rose to speak. “I ask for understanding. Eerin is new among our people and does not know our ways. Teach her, and she will not trespass again. Teach her, and she can teach her people when they return. They will cause less harm, and will behave better if we teach Eerin our ways. This will help all Tendu.”

An elder rose to speak. It was Omito, one of the senior elders who was passed over when Ukatonen chose Miato to be chief. “Why should we care about what is good for all Tendu? We are Narmolom. Here in this council, we must decide what is good for Narmolom alone. Our previous chief elder saved the new creature’s life. It killed him. It has adopted a bami, even though it does not know how to raise him properly. Our bami have learned strange skin speech and stranger ideas from the new creature. Who knows what will happen if this goes on?”

Moki darkened in anger and shame. Juna gathered him into her arms, but she couldn’t shield him from the pain of Omito’s cruel words. Because she had adopted him, Moki would always be different from other Tendu, but at least he was still alive. Only time would tell whether she had acted wisely.

“This strange animal is violating the structure of our atwa,” Omito continued. “This is wrong, and we should exile the new creature from Narmolom before it causes more harm.”

Omito sat down amid scattered ripples of applause. Most of the villagers looked surprised, but some were looking at Juna closely, their skins ochre with concern.

Hanto rose to speak. Miato flickered acknowledgment at her.

“You claim that Anito’s sitik was killed by the new creature. However, I was there, linked with him, as he purged the taint of the new creature’s blood from his body. He chose to die because he felt that it was time for Anito to become an elder. Saving Eerin’s life was his last and most impressive feat. He did it because he saw something in the new creature that was worth his life. I think we should be patient with her, out of respect for our former chief elder’s sacrifice.”

Anito stood.

“It is true that in this council, we decide what is good for Narmolom. But sheltered as we are, the wider world affects us. Exiling Eerin would only tell the world that Narmolom is afraid. I know Eerin well, I have seen what her people can do. They are powerful and intelligent people, with much to teach us. They travel between the stars in the sky the way we float down a river. I say that it is not wise for Narmolom to turn its back on such people. They can teach us a great deal, if we are willing to learn.”

Juna rose to speak. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw alarm flare on Anito’s skin.

“I wish to speak about my bami, Moki. Ukatonen formally approved of my adopting him. I am learning how to be a good sitik to him. With the help of the people of Narmolom, I will learn more quickly. I am learning the ways of Narmolom as fast as I can; I beg for your patience and help.”

Another elder rose to speak. “What can the new creatures do to help us? What can they do for Narmolom? There is nothing that we need from them!”

Juna rose again, and Miato acknowledged her. “I believe that there is a great deal that the Tendu and my people can do for each other. I cannot say exactly what that will mean. I hope that Narmolom will not turn away from me and my people before we fully know each other.”

Other elders rose to speak, arguing for and against Juna. The weight of village opinion was on her side, but the opposition was determined. She noted which elders opposed her. If she could prove to them that she was not a threat, then her acceptance in Narmolom would be assured.

At last Miato rose to speak. “Thank you, elders of Narmolom. It is time for the council to deliberate. We will let you know our decision tomorrow night.”

The elders filed out, except for the village council. Juna recognized several of them as having spoken against her, but there seemed to be as many who had supported her right to remain. Ninto, their strongest ally on the council, flicked an ear at them as they left.

“What do you think?” Juna asked Anito when they were settled in their room.

“I don’t know what will happen,” Anito told her. “I expected more discussion about repaying Johito. That could be very bad, or it could be good. We’ll have to wait and see.” She touched Juna’s knee. “Get some sleep. It will make the time pass.”

Anito walked into Miato’s room with Eerin and Moki behind her. The village council waited for them, seated in a semicircle around the raised edge of the sleeping platform. As she sat down, Anito’s eyes were drawn to a familiar irregularity in the bark of the tree. It reminded her of a face. She had spent many hours staring at it when she lived in this room with Ilto; daydreaming while Ilto dealt with the boring minutiae that made up much of a chief elder’s day. It reminded Anito of how much her life had changed. She felt a sudden longing for the simplicity of those earlier times, when Ilto took care of the difficulties and she took care of Ilto. Now Eerin and Moki were under her care. She was responsible for whatever trouble they caused. She hoped that the village council’s decision wouldn’t be too harsh.

She looked at the council, hoping for some clue to Miato’s decision. Johito looked pleased. Her concern deepened. If Johito was happy with the decision, it probably wasn’t good for her. She glanced at Ninto, ears wide. A deep blue shadow of reassurance passed over her tareena’s body, like the shadow of a cloud on the ocean.

“We have discussed the problem of the new creature,” Miato said, once the preliminary courtesies were dispensed with.

“I have decided that Eerin and Moki must work with Johito to learn about her atwa for the rest of the month. If Johito believes that they have learned enough by the end of the month, then they may remain in Narmo-lom. If they remain in Narmolom, then Eerin and Moki must spend time learning each atwa. They may not hunt until Johito has approved them. Once they have completed their time with Johito, they may hunt, if Anito or some other elder is present.”

Anito looked down at the ground, trying to hide her disappointment. No wonder Johito looked pleased. Everything depended on her approval.

“Thank you for your decision, kene,” Anito said, her skin feeling tight and dry as she depicted the intricate patterns of the polite formula.

Perhaps it would be better to just go ahead and leave now, before Johito forced them out, Anito reflected as they left the council. It might be better to accept exile and dishonor, and begin her training as an enkar half a year early. Narmolom was only one village out of many. As an enkar, her ties with Narmolom would be severed anyway. Several generations might pass before she saw the village again. If she visited them, it would be as a stranger.

Still, she wanted very much to leave Narmolom with her self-respect intact. It was the only home she had ever known. If only Ukatonen were here to advise her. She was too close to the situation to see it clearly.

They returned to their own room. Moki served them honeycomb and gourds of fruit juice.

“Well,” Eerin said. “At least we get to stay for another month.”

Anito rippled agreement tinged with doubt and caution. “If we decide to stay.”

Eerin’s brow wrinkled and she turned pink in surprise. “Why would we want to leave now?”

“It might be better to leave now instead of being exiled in a month. If Johito doesn’t think you’ve learned her atwa well enough, we’ll be forced to leave.”

“Is it that hard to learn?” Eerin asked.

“It isn’t whether you can learn,” Anito explained. “It’s whether Johito approves of you. Even if you understand her atwa as well as she does, she can still say it isn’t good enough. If she doesn’t want you in the village, we’ll have to go.”

“Then I’ll have to get her to like me, as well as learn her atwa,” Eerin said.

“It won’t be easy,” Anito told her. “She’s afraid of you.”

A polite chirring at their door interrupted their conversation. It was Ninto.

“Please come in!” Anito said. “I was just explaining the situation to Eerin.”

“What I don’t understand is why we should leave now,” Eerin said to Anito. “You want to stay in Narmolom, and I want to try to convince Johito that I’m not a threat.”

“Leave?” Ninto said. “Why should you leave?”

“Johito has already decided that Eerin doesn’t belong here,” Anito explained. “I don’t think we can change her mind.”

“It’s no harder than what you did at Lyanan. In fact it’s easier. You only have to persuade one person, not an entire village.”

“I want to try,” Eerin said. “Even if I fail, I will have learned more about the Tendu than I know now. At least I will know what doesn’t work.”

“I don’t want to leave the village in dishonor,” Anito protested.

“If you leave now, you will be leaving in dishonor,” Ninto told her. “Stay and make the village’s harmony include Eerin.”

Eerin touched Anito’s arm. “You’ve done so much for me. Let me pay back some of that obligation. I want the chance to win the right for us to stay here as long as we can. Please, Anito,” she said, coloring pink with urgency. “Let me try.”

Anito looked from Eerin to Ninto. She doubted that they would win this battle, but they still wanted to fight it. It would gain her an extra month at least, and she could use that time to say goodbye to Narmolom.

“All right,” she said. “We’ll stay.”

Juna peered at the flickering display on her computer. It was low on power. She was going to have to leave it out in the sun to recharge tomorrow. As soon as Anito agreed to stay, Juna had set to work, quizzing Anito and Ninto about atwas in general and Johito’s atwa in particular. They were asleep now, and she was reviewing what she knew.

An atwa, to the best of her knowledge, was a clan affiliation responsible for the management of a portion of the ecosystem for the benefit of the village. Most atwas were based on location. There were clearly defined layers of the jungle: ground-based; mid-trunk level; lower, middle, and upper canopies, as well as rivers, streams, ponds, and marshlands. Other atwas were based on important food or shelter commodities: tree ferns, pollinators and pollen sources, game animals, the na tree and its dependents, and different kinds of fruit trees. Generally the species-specific atwas were coordinated by the location-based atwas. When there was a conflict between two atwas, the village elder resolved things, usually with the help of the village council.

Juna smiled. She had already been through such a conflict resolution. Her admiration for Miato, the current chief elder, had increased. It wasn’t an easy job. She hoped that most of the differences that arose were easier to resolve than hers was.

Johito was responsible for eight different varieties of fruit trees. This meant that she also monitored the animals that pollinated them, as well as the animals that fed and nested in them. Since these fruit trees fed a number of important game animals, those animals also fell under her atwa, though they overlapped into several others as well. After that, An-ito’s explanations had gotten too complicated to follow.

The ooloo, it transpired, were an important distributor of the seeds of several different kinds of fruit trees, and a pollinator of another. Their population had fallen off due to excessive predation. Until their numbers rose to an acceptable level, hunting them was prohibited. Juna had killed a young female, just about to begin her breeding cycle. This was worse than killing a male, but not as serious as killing a pregnant female, or a mother with young.

Juna rubbed her tired eyes. Her notes on the plant and animal species in Johito’s atwa were very sketchy. She could identify most of the fruit trees involved, but she knew absolutely nothing about the insects, birds, lizards, and other-plants that interacted with them. She scanned through her meager notes one last time, and shut the computer down. She rested her head against the wall, and closed her eyes. Here she was, humanity’s sole representative on the planet, in danger of being kicked out of the village for killing a lizard. If the implications of it weren’t so serious, it would be funny.

The tree creaked faintly as it swayed in the breeze, the only sound in the late-night silence. She should get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be difficult.

Anito woke her and Moki early. After a hurried breakfast, they met Johito at the top of the tree. Johito led them through the forest to a tree covered with ripe fruit, and alive with feeding birds and lizards. The feeding animals scattered at their approach. Johito pointed to a wide branch in the midst of the tree.

“This is a gauware tree. Sit there. Be still. Watch. I will return for you later,” she told them and left.

Juna stared after her, ears wide. Then she looked at Anito, her skin purple with puzzlement.

Anito flared red. “She’s not going to teach you anything!” Her patterns were jagged with anger.

Juna rippled a shrug. “It’s only the first day. Let’s do what she says. There’s a lot that can be learned just watching.”

“I’ll watch with you. Maybe I can help,” Anito said.

Juna hung her computer up in the sunshine at the top of the tree to recharge. Then they settled themselves in the gauware tree and waited. Soon the birds and lizards returned and began to feed. Juna watched with a trained biologist’s eye, noting which species were feeding, and how they interacted. Occasionally, when something startled the feeding animals, and they fled, she turned and asked Anito for the names and habits of the animals she didn’t know. By mid-morning, when the animals faded into the brush, Juna had identified twenty-five species. Some had only stopped to perch for a moment in the tree or to display and court in the top branches. Some had come to feed, and others to prey on them.

Juna fetched her computer from the treetop. She and Moki set to work cataloguing all they had observed. She had Moki depict the animals on his skin so that she had a visual record of what they looked like. The pictures were recognizable, though lacking in fine detail. Still, they would do for a beginning. She had a feeling that she would have lots of chances to get pictures of the actual animals over the next month. The cataloguing took until well past noon. Anito went and gathered lunch for them.