The weekend after Sir. Lou’s return and conversation in the garden, the Eigeroy family returned again to their island. Arlendr had arrived in an exultant mood because he had driven the boat all the way from the mainland to Molil. He had been practicing boating from time to time, but the father had trusted him to do the whole journey this time. He was ready to take on the world.
As soon as he and Solveis entered Molil though, they encountered an atmosphere of change.
Arlendr and Solveis saw building materials in the trees of the west hill. They immediately feared that the B family was building a new abomination. Arlendr’s mood went from exultant to concerned.
“Another head pike,” Arlendr growled at his sister. “Not this time. This time, I stop them.” He punctuated his statement with a hoof shoved into the earth.
Solveis glanced at her brother in agreement.
Upon further investigation, they found that the wood and tools piled up were not nearly as offensive as those of the head pike. They were of a beautiful kind of wood that didn’t seem to disturb their surroundings so much.
As soon as the siblings passed the piles of things, going deeper into the trees of the west hill, they heard noises, voices, and light trampling of earth. Solveis paused in fear. Arlendr paused in anger.
Before either of them could do anything in reaction, the large irdie (the one who had fallen out of the tree) flew near to them. The irdie was followed by Sir. Lou, walking toward them from the direction of the commotion.
“Greetings! I see we have made you nervous. My apologies. I assure you that I, and my friends, are here with the permission of your parents. – We are going to host a little wilderness skills retreat here. The rugged beauty of your mountain was the perfect place for some interested folks to come and learn some life skills. Please come meet my friends. This is Havel.” The old man gestured to the swaying irdie.
The irdie spoke to the children. It took them a moment to realize that they were being spoken to. Irdies’ voices were just so unlike any humanus voice, that if you are not accustomed to it, you almost can’t distinguish that words are being spoken. “Hello! Hello! I am Havel, as he has said. I am frightfully excited to meet you both. I have a thousand questions for you. This is my first time in a place of all humanus. And being on your island is a great honor. Can you give me a tour sometime?”
Solveis was startled by his excitement. Arlendr was conflicted between annoyance that Havel would dare be here at all, and pleasure at being treated with such authority.
“You may have a tour, if you are good.” Arlendr spoke commandingly.
The irdie, not knowing much of faun, or even of general humanus culture, didn’t know how strange and rude the faun boy had been. He hopped for joy. “Can I show you what we’ve done so far? I so hope you approve. Follow me!”
The large irdie led them deeper into the west of the island, to a spot of relatively sparse trees. A dozen or so people were walking around setting up their environment. The main task seemed to be putting posts into the ground to build some kind of rectangular building. There were some trees near the area though, so Solveis couldn’t see a way for them to completely build a building without weeks or even moons of tree removal and foundation laying.
“We’re building the mess area. You know, for food and stuff. And all the humanus are making tents all over. I can introduce you to some of the people here. More are coming, but we’ve got a good group already!” Havel spoke at the fauns.
They were approached by another large irdie. These two irdies seemed to be the only ones at the camp, but Solveis remembered what Sir. Lou had said about smaller ones blending with normal birds.
“Greetings,” the other irdie said in a much smoother, calmer, lower, warbling voice. “I am Paskal. Havel and I are to be sort of ambassadors to you inhabitants. Please let us know if there’s anything you’re curious about.” He spoke to them matter-of-factly, almost sounding bored. He seemed so mature as to be quite done with everything.
When the siblings didn’t respond to him, he said, “Ok. You’ll find me around.” Then he flew off.
As Paskal flew off, Havel flapped in excitement. He flew past the siblings toward an excited Livia who was coming their way.
“Your the-parents told me you were out here exploring a FORT! A real fort! Wowow!” Livia shouted toward her two friends.
Havel introduced himself to Livia, but she was too excited, and unfamiliar with his accent, to understand him.
Solveis translated, “This is Havel, he was about to show us around.”
“Wowow!” Livia vocalized.
Havel greeted Livia again excitedly, “The particular friend of the inhabitant! It’s an honor to meet you! I hope we will be friends too!”
“We’re already friends,” Livia said frankly.
Havel looked like he was about to cry for joy. Solveis wasn’t sure if irdies could cry tears.
Havel then flew a little distance away, toward the working folks. He glanced back for the kids to follow.
Just then, the siblings (and maybe Livia as well) surveyed the people walking around. It was a strange and diverse group. Just like at the fair, every people group was represented, except frople, of course. They were mostly on the younger side though.
Havel first introduced them to an atto lady. Solveis, Livia, and Arlendr were all struck dumb. They had met very few attos in their life. Attos were known to be nationalistic, to prefer not to leave their own borders and live among others. They were also generally posh. The few who had been widely known outside their own lands were all very important people: actors, heads of corporations, scientific experts, etc. To see one, ready to introduce themselves to you, was an unusual experience. This one, too, was a young, beautiful woman. She had the deeply slanted eyes that demanded all your attention. She was short, extremely petite, and looked like she kept herself physically active. She had brown skin with a sort of orange undertone, elvish ears, and a thin smirking mouth. She wore her brown hair braided with the braids pulled into a perfectly tidy bun. Solveis would later learn that her braids were not the kind that were styled daily, but rather were the sort that were done only occasionally, and made very tight. As the atto lady stood, her ears flicked disinterestedly.
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“Yes. – Children. – It’s impolite to stare, you know. I know it can be hard to look away, so I forgive you, but even so. Close your mouths.”
Neither of the faun’s mouths were open, as they were not the type to open mouths in surprise, but Livia did have to forcibly shut hers.
“This is Patra.” Havel introduced her to the children. “She and her brother are experts in particular weaponry, staffs and the like.”
Patra’s brother, Van, approached.
“These are the children who call this place home. Well, the two similar looking ones are. The other one is, I suppose, a friend,” Patra explained to Van.
“The particular friend,” Havel protected Livia’s honor.
“Right,” Patra said, glancing at Solveis, seemingly questioning her on her choice of friends.
“I think they are mutes, or maybe totally dumb?” Patra informed Van.
“Forgive her, my sister likes to uphold the worse reputations of our people.” Van apologized for his sister. Then, he did the faun handshake with the three children.
Van was like a scaled up version of his sister. He was taller. He looked very strong. He had similar coloration to his sister, except slightly duller. His brown hair was short on the sides, and the tops was braided into tight braids which were folded into a single loop at the top-back of his head. His eyes were also slanted and mesmerizing, but had a less piercing quality than Patra’s.
“Greetings. You are proud of your weaponry?” Arlendr asked the young atto man.
Hopefully Van was also unfamiliar with normal faun social behaviors, so he could overlook this rudeness.
Van answered, “I suppose I am. I have heard you have a little mania about weapons.” Van looked the defiant boy right in his eyes, almost challenging him.
Arlendr asked Solveis, in their secret language, while still staring at Van, “Is mania bad?”
Solveis tried to explain on her brother’s behalf, “I hope a mania doesn’t make him bad. He taught us all about slingshots and stuff.”
“Maybe I’ll have something to teach him as well,” Van answered Solveis.
“I want to know all the weapons. It’s ok if you teach me,” Arlendr told Van.
“That is not a request. I’ll just have you know,” Van answered.
Solveis was beginning to see that Van was just as much atto as his sister, even if he did come off more friendly.
Havel was deeply entranced in the interaction. He was soaking up every individual person and every interaction.
Livia squirmed from boredom. Havel noticed and redirected the children.
He brought them next to a group of people getting refreshments. Two aepsis, a horse-hu, a deer-hu, and a gazelle-hu were standing around chatting and eating fruit.
Havel introduced them in order, “Children, meet a few of our recruits: Stefanie, Marty, Ranulf, Melisande, and Nathan”
All five of the young adults looked at the kids in friendly interest. Stefanie, the short blonde aepsis girl, smiled in the polite aepsis way. Marty, an aepsis guy of medium height, with burly features, light skin, and curly hair, also wore a polite smile. Ranulf, a horse-hu guy of big stature, and brown skin, hair, and eyes, stood tall and strong, but not as stern as most horse-hu. Melisande, a gazelle-hu woman (who was often mistaken for deer-hu because deer-hu looked similar to gazelle-hu but were more known), looked femininely and gently interested in the youngsters. She had deep brown eyes and medium skin. She had a streak of light coloration down the center of her face and hair (this coloration was a distinguishing element for gazelle-hu). Lastly, Nathan, a deer-hu guy with tan/gray coloration, yellow/brown eyes, very short dark hair, and tan horns (one of which was crooked at its tip), stared awkwardly off to the side, and held his food, half eaten in one hand.
Ranulf put one firm hand on Arlendr’s shoulder and spoke, “Greetings children. I hope we will cohabitate well. You seem like good little people. Weren’t there a few more young ones though?”
Havel answered, “There is a younger sibling of the inhabitants. Also, there is another family who comes often, with two such youths of their own. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were here now. Perhaps I’ll fetch them.” Before Havel could be prevented, he shot a sentence back to the five adults and then flew off, “Can you entertain these youths for a moment?”
Stefanie seemed to lead the way in socializing, “Hey! It really is nice to meet you all in person. We’ll be around quite a lot, so I hope we all make friends. We’d love to hang out with you guys. If there’s anything we can teach you all?”
Nathan, coming back to himself, teased his friend lovingly, “Are you doing the teaching?”
Stefanie blushed. “No. I know. I didn’t bring any teachable skills. I guess I’m just a learner.”
Marty comforted Stefanie, “Don’t worry, Stef. We’re all learners.”
“You all have a mania for teaching?” Arlendr accused the strangers, attacking them with the word which he had recently learned. He really was curious why they all kept talking about teaching. They were here for a wilderness retreat thing. Isn’t that learning or experiencing, not teaching?
Solveis had similar questions, and wasn’t sorry that Arlendr asked about it, even if it had been done rudely.
Stefanie answered, “Well, we are all here to learn from each other.” Then, she glanced at Ranulf, as if she needed help remembering the next line of the script.
Ranulf picked up where she left off, “We are training wilderness skills, for mutual improvement and a sense of community.”
Stefanie took another turn explaining, “We should introduce ourselves. We are friends of old Tin. We five were all sort of students of his. He had some nieces and nephews at our school, so he was around a lot. – As for me, I cam here because I’m young enough to drop my life and do this for a while. Besides, if Tin thinks it’s a good thing, then I’m sure it is.”
“Well said,” put in Melisande. “I hear you kids are friends of old Tin too. Has he worked on your young minds yet?” she asked laughingly.
“You’re so pretty!” Livia told Melisande, not keeping on topic. “I love your stripe!” she complemented, referring to the streak of light coloration.
All Mel’s friends laughed.
“Why thank you,” Mel herself accepted the complement. “It runs in my family. And, it’s not uncommon among gazelle-hu.”
Solveis had thought that she had been a small statured deer-hu. But her being gazelle-hu made sense. Solveis was glad she had been told the reality before she had embarrassingly verbalized her misconception.
Livia apparently knew no embarrassment, “I thought you were deer-hu, like the neighbor island.”
Mel’s friends laughed again.
“Everyone thinks that. Poor Mel.” Nathan explained their laughter. “I think I see Havel on his way back, and with a few kiddos.”
Havel was flying low, beside Oskar. He seemed to be trying to hold hands with him, which was delightfully awkward. Girselle and En were following beside the irdie and the little kid.
Oskar, upon entering the fort area, immediately got dirt all over his clothes. He also began to get into the peoples’ boxes and things. It was a bad idea to bring him out here, but at least no grown ups had joined them.
Solveis picked him up and tried to entertain him. Unfortunately though, he caused her to miss the rest of the conversation between Lou’s five students and the child inhabitants of the island.
Girselle, joining in the group, took control and led their way toward Patra and Van.
“I didn’t get to meet the attos. We’re going back,” Girselle commanded as they walked toward the atto siblings.
As soon as Patra saw the little troop of kids, she stood still and focused on Girselle. She pursed her lips cruelly, and stared. “So this is the true dominant female of the litter?” she said to no one in particular, about Girselle. She and Girselle seemed to exist together on a plane separate from everyone else. Patra behaved vaguely upset, but her face held a look of disinterested disdain. Girselle stared back at the adult with proud defiance.
Patra finally spoke, “You’re not as pretty as you think, you know?” she told Girselle this matter-of-factly.
She had said the right thing to provoke feelings in Girselle. Girselle ground her teeth and froze up. She didn’t seem to know what to say.
Van tried to smooth it over. “That’s an unkind thing to say to a child,” he scolded his sister. “I apologize. She hasn’t assimilated to the rules of politeness here. She’s just trying to get a reaction out of you.” Then, he directed his sister, by her shoulders, away from the group.
Girselle stared off after Patra. It would take her a moment to recollect herself.