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Rukhar and Pak find this hilarious.
“It’s not that funny,” I protest, chuckling despite myself. Oh to be so young and so easily amused. “It looks like a flying saucer.” I stick a finger through the hole in the center and wiggle it. “And right here is where the alien can go.”
“No human fits there!” Pak declares gleefully.
Oh, right. Because humans are the aliens. That adds a weird angle to things. I just shake my head at them and hold the shell out. Rukhar takes it under his arm and then gestures down the beach. “Look. Is that one of the ancestors? Can we go talk to him?”
I turn and look to see where they’re pointing. Sure enough, one of the ancestors is sitting alone on the beach, his arms resting on his bent legs as he stares out at the ocean. Tal’nef, I think, if the lion mane is any indication. He looks sad and a little lonely, and I feel responsible for him, and a bit like he’s a kindred spirit. He’s a newcomer to all this, too, but at least I can speak the language. Poor guy.
“Why don’t you two go play nearby and I’ll have a chat with our friend,” I tell them. “Stay close.”
Rukhar just gives me a funny look. “He doesn’t speak our words.”
“I know. We’ll manage.” I make a shooing motion. “I’ll be back in a moment, I promise.”
Rukhar nods and puts a hand on Pak’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find another shell to match this one.” He pats the “hubcap” and then they trot down the beach.
I make sure they’re staying close, and then I approach Tal’nef. I’m pretty sure the boys are all right on their own since their mothers let them play alone, but just to be on the safe side, I keep an eye on them. But Tal’nef? Tal’nef looks like he needs a friend.
He glances up as I approach, a look of worry on his foreign face. He glances around and then shakes his head as I sit on my heels next to him. “Noj’me the Attendant is following the fire-hair. She is not around to translate.”
Fire-hair must be Harlow. It’s no secret that Noj’me has been pestering Harlow about going to the Elders’ Cave, as they call it, and seeing all the technology. She’s clear in her wants, and I think it’s cute. Noj’me is a bright sunbeam of happiness, wanting to soak up all the learning she can. Set’nef has been approaching things with grim determination, R’jaal tells me, wanting to learn how to hunt and fish above, and has been shadowing hunters. Rem’eb has been at Tia’s side constantly.
Tal’nef looks lost, though.
So I smile at him and touch his arm to let him know that I’m here to talk with him as best I can. “Tal’nef happy?” I put my fingers to the corners of my mouth, indicating a smile. “Happy?”
His expression is crestfallen and tells me everything. He gazes out at the sea, at the rolling, sometimes violent waves, and the distant glaciers that float in the icy cold waters. “My brother has always had the wandering foot of our father. He has always dreamed of learning the above. Of seeing the endless water that the old stories talked of.” He gestures at the tide. “This, I think, feeds his spirit.”
“And you?” I ask, and then try again, since he won’t know those words. “Tal’nef?”
He grimaces, looking very alien as he does. “I worry I made a mistake in following him.” He glances over at me, his expression full of chagrin. “No, that is not quite correct. Set’nef is the only family I have left. Wherever he goes, I go as well. But now that we are here, we are polluted by the above. Cursed, my people would say.”
His people are big on curses, apparently.
“And my brother finds a purpose, with new mountains and this great water to wander over. And Noj’me the Attendant finds herself a purpose. And Rem’eb the Fist has a mate, and she will bring him purpose. But I am not sure what purpose I serve…and thus my heart is troubled.”
Oh god. He sounds just like me.
I reach out and give one of his arms a sympathetic pat. “Did you leave someone behind? A sweetheart? A mate?” I gesture at myself, and then my heart, indicating resonance. When his expression remains confused, I grab my boobs and jiggle them, then pat my chest again, indicating resonance.
It takes a moment for it to dawn on him. “A mate? For me? No. I am not permitted to walk past the wall.”
“The wall?” I try to repeat the words in his tongue, because I’m confused by what he means.
He nods. “A generation ago, our people were decimated by a sickness that struck the khui inside.” Tal’nef touches his chest. “Females were especially vulnerable, and many of them died. It was decided that the remaining females would be protected. They live in a different part of the village, protected by a wall. A male who proves himself worthy is allowed to walk past the wall, to see if he resonates to someone on the other side. If he does, he is allowed to visit her until she is with child, and then again on feast days to see if they produce another child. But I have yet to prove myself, so I have had no opportunity to walk past the wall.”
