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random_nanorimo_stuff2012-11-27 09:44 pm
random_xtras) wrote in random_nanorimo_stuff2012-11-27 09:44 pm
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Other Trails Chapter 1
In your mind's eye imagine a world. Off the major byways and largely left unmolested by those in favour of "civilizing" the known galaxies. A quiet world, low on mineral wealth, but covered over most its land surface by forests such as one might have found thousands of years ago on the now legendary world known as Earth. Forests of the sort that Robin Hood might have known, had that storied outlaw ever existed. Trees very like beeches and oaks spread their mighty limbs there, overshadowing the tangle of fallen logs and orange wild roses below. The air is warm and still, scented by the roses and by the little white bell flowers that peep from among their sword shaped crimson leaves on the patches of barren ground where the occasional mighty conifer has sucked the moisture away. Birds call and hop; small animals scurry, and the occasional predator stalks through the tangles and deadfalls, or sits in some sunlit clearing while youngsters chew on its ears. There are no towns here, no immediate sign of intelligent life besides the tiny space port that sits, mostly forgotten, near one ocean shore.
But this world is not devoid of people.
There are trails through the underbrush here and there. Strange trails that would barely register as such to the human eye, so light are they, and so devoid of cleared away obstacles. The people of this world have no need to change the forest to suit them, they are more than capable of suiting themselves to the forest. Beneath the warm kiss of the yellow sun, and the fainter one of the pale night sun there is never any true darkness, though the shade may lay deep in places where the trees are too thick and greedy to let the light down to the forest floor.
It was in honor of those quiet, defiant little pools of darkness that one of Swordleaf Strongherd's eldest daughters was named, and the girl fit her designation. Shade was quieter than her sisters and the other women of the herd, more given to standing and watching the goings on or chasing her brothers around than to chatting and singing while weaving or tending the herd's antelopes. And her sleek short fur and the mane that fell down her back, long and uncut for her entire seventeen years, were of a blackness rarely seen among the people. She seemed to vanish among the shadows at times, with only the watchful movement of her ears and tail, and the pale glimmer of the sister at her side, to give away her position.
That sister too bore colouring of an unusual nature. Born the same day as Shade, from a mother who was twin sister to Shade's mother, Mist was as pale as her sister was dark. Soft white fur accented the startling blue of her eyes and seemed to shimmer when it was touched by the sun. Despite her colouring though Mist seemed even more invisible than Shade, because her ears and tail never moved. Indeed, the only hint that the girl lived and wasn't carved from the heart of some storm blasted tree was given by the turning of her eyes and the strange, quick movements of her hands as she spoke to her sister. Bird calls, antelope cries, the laughter of her mothers and her sisters and brothers brought no response from the white girl and never had. Mist didn't know about those sounds. She'd never heard them, and Shade had never, after the first time when they were both just learning language, bothered to try and explain the puzzling concept of sound to her sister. Instead, it was Shade who listened for danger or joy, and transmitted it to Mist with those flicking fingers. And Mist in her turn would lay a hand on her sister's arm, or give the quick double stamp of alarm, far more quickly than even the sharpest of her brothers as her quick eyes detected the irregular movement of leaf or twig, or the startled freezing of birds in the underbrush.
The people loved to tell stories. Mist had no idea that the story about herself and Shade told that their identical mothers were really two copies of one person, and so they had given birth to the two halves of one child. Shade heard the stories and wrinkled her nose, but didn't contest them. It would be a lie to do so, whatever the physical truth, when she knew that to lose her sister would be to lose part of herself.
Which is why she stood one spring day in front of her astonished and utterly confused father and told him that she was leaving the herd.
"Leaving? But why? You don't have to leave. No one's been able to get past your brothers and me to take you." He reached out gently to touch the hair that fell past her waist, badge of the length of time that she had stayed with this, her birth herd.
"I know, Dat. But some day someone will get past. My brothers won't want to stay around and stick up for their mothers and sisters forever. They'll want to go find wives of their own, and then we women will be harder to protect."
Swordleaf let his perplexity show. "You don't want to belong to another herd? You would have your own antelope. And didi-babies."
Shade blew through her lips softly with amusement at the big man's lack of knowledge about what women wanted. "I don't care either way, Dat. But I don't want some stupid man to take Mist and then hurt her because he can't understand her."
Swordleaf's eyes widened, and he looked toward where Mist crouched on her knees and milked the antelope that another sister held. "I never thought of that. She can only talk to you and your and her birthing mothers, and a few of the boys."
"Exactly." Shade frowned. "So I'll steal her. And then we're leaving the planet."
"Girls can't stea... what??" Swordleaf stared at her with shock. "What did you say, didi?"
"I'm not a didi anymore, Dat. And I said that Mist and I are going to the space port, and getting on one of the ships, and leaving. We'll steal ourselves. I don't need didi-babies or antelope. I want to see other forests and other trails. And I want to keep my sister from being stolen by some idiot who could never understand her as much as we do."
"I'm not sure there are forests and trails out there. I mean... the other stars have worlds. But if the people look so different from us, wouldn't the worlds be different too, didi?" Swordleaf scowled, his small pointed ears twitching with the force of his distress and concern for his children.
"They can breath the same air we can, most of them. And we can eat some of the food they bring. There are plants and milk on other worlds, Dat, remember? That's all we need. Air, food, and milk." Shade reached to lay her hand on the center of his chest in a reassuring gesture that he had often given to her when she and Mist were little stumble hooves playing around his legs as he stood watch or collected fruit or branch bark.
"You need a herd too," said her father softly. "I don't want you to be out there with no one to protect you."
Shade blew through her lips again, her eyes twinkling despite the sadness in them at the hurt she was causing Swordleaf. "Mist and I know how to run. And I know how to chase things away, too. Did you think I stood around by the boys because I thought their talk was funny?"
Her father closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them again to look at her earnestly. "Herds don't just protect you from predators and stray men, didi. They protect your heart, too. And they keep you warm."
"Dat, we'll be alright." Shade reared to put her front hooves onto his lower shoulders so that she could reach his face, then gently smoothed the fur on his cheeks with her middle fingers. "Stop getting so ruffled. You're going to scare the didis."
He snerked despite himself at her humorous fussing, then put his hand on her chest. "I'll pray. I'll ask the World Weaver to be your herd master."
Shade smiled, giving the little trill that meant that she thoroughly approved of what her father said. "If He's protecting us, then anything that happens is supposed to happen, and no one can mourn from anything but jealousy."
"You're a brat. I don't know how I produced such an out of line and rude daughter." Swordleaf pulled her close in a hug, crooning softly. "My beautiful dark coloured baby. The herd will be plainer without you and your sister in it. Are you sure I shouldn't ask your birthing mothers to give you some antelope?"
"I'm sure, Dat. I've never seen any antelope on the ships. I don't think they'd like it, and they need a lot more food than we do, even if they are such tiny things." She leaned back to smile up at him, then headbutted him gently in the face.
"Hey! You're not a boy. Don't talk to me like a boy." Swordleaf laughed and pushed her away, though he was clicking quietly in the mock challenge that he gave her brothers when they play fought with him.
Shade danced back on her hind legs, and then let her forehooves drop back to the loamy soil, her cloven hooves flexing slightly as she unconsciously checked her grip on the ground so that she'd be able to start away in any direction at any speed that she needed to. Slender hands with four digits also flexed as she continued the play challenge.
"You don't want to leave right now, do you?" He swatted at her, and then gave her mane a very gentle tug.
"No." She laughed and came over for another hug and some parental fussing.
"Then stop daring me to chase you away." He chuckled, then crooned to her some more before looking up to see where Mist was. Spotting her herding over the youngest babies his grin widened and he let go of Shade in order to drop to his knees and greet the tiny ones.
[All walk away words given?] asked Mist, her feet dancing slightly as she watched the babies try to dance for their father.
[Given.] Shade nodded and sighed. [We can walk away in days coming. When a ship comes.]
[Yes. When a ship comes.] Mist turned her head to watch something, then turned back to the babies, who had been joined by a brother a little older than herself and Shade who tended to be attracted to clusters of babies the way that shed fur stuck to woven antelope wool. [Greatheart funny.]
[Greatheart always funny,] agreed Shade, grinning.
"Hey! I saw that." The burly tan Greatheart blew at his sisters, and then laughed and crooned to the long legged tinies dideeing around beneath his lower belly. "Aww. Look at you. You guys are so big and strong and sleek."
Shade trilled, and then laughed a belly laugh that echoed her father's as she danced to show her baby brothers and sisters how it should be done. Beside her, Mist mirrored the steps in smiling silence.
But this world is not devoid of people.
There are trails through the underbrush here and there. Strange trails that would barely register as such to the human eye, so light are they, and so devoid of cleared away obstacles. The people of this world have no need to change the forest to suit them, they are more than capable of suiting themselves to the forest. Beneath the warm kiss of the yellow sun, and the fainter one of the pale night sun there is never any true darkness, though the shade may lay deep in places where the trees are too thick and greedy to let the light down to the forest floor.
It was in honor of those quiet, defiant little pools of darkness that one of Swordleaf Strongherd's eldest daughters was named, and the girl fit her designation. Shade was quieter than her sisters and the other women of the herd, more given to standing and watching the goings on or chasing her brothers around than to chatting and singing while weaving or tending the herd's antelopes. And her sleek short fur and the mane that fell down her back, long and uncut for her entire seventeen years, were of a blackness rarely seen among the people. She seemed to vanish among the shadows at times, with only the watchful movement of her ears and tail, and the pale glimmer of the sister at her side, to give away her position.
That sister too bore colouring of an unusual nature. Born the same day as Shade, from a mother who was twin sister to Shade's mother, Mist was as pale as her sister was dark. Soft white fur accented the startling blue of her eyes and seemed to shimmer when it was touched by the sun. Despite her colouring though Mist seemed even more invisible than Shade, because her ears and tail never moved. Indeed, the only hint that the girl lived and wasn't carved from the heart of some storm blasted tree was given by the turning of her eyes and the strange, quick movements of her hands as she spoke to her sister. Bird calls, antelope cries, the laughter of her mothers and her sisters and brothers brought no response from the white girl and never had. Mist didn't know about those sounds. She'd never heard them, and Shade had never, after the first time when they were both just learning language, bothered to try and explain the puzzling concept of sound to her sister. Instead, it was Shade who listened for danger or joy, and transmitted it to Mist with those flicking fingers. And Mist in her turn would lay a hand on her sister's arm, or give the quick double stamp of alarm, far more quickly than even the sharpest of her brothers as her quick eyes detected the irregular movement of leaf or twig, or the startled freezing of birds in the underbrush.
The people loved to tell stories. Mist had no idea that the story about herself and Shade told that their identical mothers were really two copies of one person, and so they had given birth to the two halves of one child. Shade heard the stories and wrinkled her nose, but didn't contest them. It would be a lie to do so, whatever the physical truth, when she knew that to lose her sister would be to lose part of herself.
Which is why she stood one spring day in front of her astonished and utterly confused father and told him that she was leaving the herd.
"Leaving? But why? You don't have to leave. No one's been able to get past your brothers and me to take you." He reached out gently to touch the hair that fell past her waist, badge of the length of time that she had stayed with this, her birth herd.
"I know, Dat. But some day someone will get past. My brothers won't want to stay around and stick up for their mothers and sisters forever. They'll want to go find wives of their own, and then we women will be harder to protect."
Swordleaf let his perplexity show. "You don't want to belong to another herd? You would have your own antelope. And didi-babies."
Shade blew through her lips softly with amusement at the big man's lack of knowledge about what women wanted. "I don't care either way, Dat. But I don't want some stupid man to take Mist and then hurt her because he can't understand her."
Swordleaf's eyes widened, and he looked toward where Mist crouched on her knees and milked the antelope that another sister held. "I never thought of that. She can only talk to you and your and her birthing mothers, and a few of the boys."
"Exactly." Shade frowned. "So I'll steal her. And then we're leaving the planet."
"Girls can't stea... what??" Swordleaf stared at her with shock. "What did you say, didi?"
"I'm not a didi anymore, Dat. And I said that Mist and I are going to the space port, and getting on one of the ships, and leaving. We'll steal ourselves. I don't need didi-babies or antelope. I want to see other forests and other trails. And I want to keep my sister from being stolen by some idiot who could never understand her as much as we do."
"I'm not sure there are forests and trails out there. I mean... the other stars have worlds. But if the people look so different from us, wouldn't the worlds be different too, didi?" Swordleaf scowled, his small pointed ears twitching with the force of his distress and concern for his children.
"They can breath the same air we can, most of them. And we can eat some of the food they bring. There are plants and milk on other worlds, Dat, remember? That's all we need. Air, food, and milk." Shade reached to lay her hand on the center of his chest in a reassuring gesture that he had often given to her when she and Mist were little stumble hooves playing around his legs as he stood watch or collected fruit or branch bark.
"You need a herd too," said her father softly. "I don't want you to be out there with no one to protect you."
Shade blew through her lips again, her eyes twinkling despite the sadness in them at the hurt she was causing Swordleaf. "Mist and I know how to run. And I know how to chase things away, too. Did you think I stood around by the boys because I thought their talk was funny?"
Her father closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them again to look at her earnestly. "Herds don't just protect you from predators and stray men, didi. They protect your heart, too. And they keep you warm."
"Dat, we'll be alright." Shade reared to put her front hooves onto his lower shoulders so that she could reach his face, then gently smoothed the fur on his cheeks with her middle fingers. "Stop getting so ruffled. You're going to scare the didis."
He snerked despite himself at her humorous fussing, then put his hand on her chest. "I'll pray. I'll ask the World Weaver to be your herd master."
Shade smiled, giving the little trill that meant that she thoroughly approved of what her father said. "If He's protecting us, then anything that happens is supposed to happen, and no one can mourn from anything but jealousy."
"You're a brat. I don't know how I produced such an out of line and rude daughter." Swordleaf pulled her close in a hug, crooning softly. "My beautiful dark coloured baby. The herd will be plainer without you and your sister in it. Are you sure I shouldn't ask your birthing mothers to give you some antelope?"
"I'm sure, Dat. I've never seen any antelope on the ships. I don't think they'd like it, and they need a lot more food than we do, even if they are such tiny things." She leaned back to smile up at him, then headbutted him gently in the face.
"Hey! You're not a boy. Don't talk to me like a boy." Swordleaf laughed and pushed her away, though he was clicking quietly in the mock challenge that he gave her brothers when they play fought with him.
Shade danced back on her hind legs, and then let her forehooves drop back to the loamy soil, her cloven hooves flexing slightly as she unconsciously checked her grip on the ground so that she'd be able to start away in any direction at any speed that she needed to. Slender hands with four digits also flexed as she continued the play challenge.
"You don't want to leave right now, do you?" He swatted at her, and then gave her mane a very gentle tug.
"No." She laughed and came over for another hug and some parental fussing.
"Then stop daring me to chase you away." He chuckled, then crooned to her some more before looking up to see where Mist was. Spotting her herding over the youngest babies his grin widened and he let go of Shade in order to drop to his knees and greet the tiny ones.
[All walk away words given?] asked Mist, her feet dancing slightly as she watched the babies try to dance for their father.
[Given.] Shade nodded and sighed. [We can walk away in days coming. When a ship comes.]
[Yes. When a ship comes.] Mist turned her head to watch something, then turned back to the babies, who had been joined by a brother a little older than herself and Shade who tended to be attracted to clusters of babies the way that shed fur stuck to woven antelope wool. [Greatheart funny.]
[Greatheart always funny,] agreed Shade, grinning.
"Hey! I saw that." The burly tan Greatheart blew at his sisters, and then laughed and crooned to the long legged tinies dideeing around beneath his lower belly. "Aww. Look at you. You guys are so big and strong and sleek."
Shade trilled, and then laughed a belly laugh that echoed her father's as she danced to show her baby brothers and sisters how it should be done. Beside her, Mist mirrored the steps in smiling silence.