Chapter 4
Grandpa’s Diary
“AAHHHH!!!”
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stumbled and fell backwards in terror.
A huge, black scorpion. Twice the size of a full grown man was in front of me.
It stared at me. I stared at it. Its eyes were black as midnight and it reflected the glares from the sun.
‘Am I going to die here? Is this how I, Robert Ladin am going to perish? I should have gone to Harvard, like my parents told me to.’
I heard laughter behind the humongous scorpion and a figure came up from behind. It was Adira.
She stifled a giggle as she saw me once more and I looked down at myself and saw my miserable face.
“There’s no need to be afraid Robert. Aboo is a kind soul. Isn’t that right Aboo?” Adira said as she pet the scorpion on its head.
It was like the scorpion actually knew what she was saying, as it stridulated and shivered under her touch in happiness.
As she was petting Aboo, I noticed that Adira had an incredibly intricate tattoo of a scorpion on the back of her right hand.
(stridulate: to make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together special bodily structures; because most scorpions don’t make noises from their mouths.)
“Come, follow me. My father wishes to meet you.”
I got up, patted the sand off my butt and followed Adira.
Adira led me across the camp and I saw scorpions. Lots and lots of scorpions. It turns out that Aboo, Adira’s scorpion was actually one of the smaller ones around and most of the ones that I saw were as large as half a school bus and some were a bit bigger.
There were males and females that were going on about in their daily business, while the children were running around and having fun. I swear, most of the males were on steroids, because they were all buff and shirtless, with their shredded six-pack abs.
Their sweat covered bodies gleamed in the sunlight and I was kind jealous of them, to be honest.
The tribe members stared at me as I followed Adira but they mostly ignored me after giving me curious glances and went on with whatever they were doing. Some of the naughty children followed us from behind, probably trying to prank us or they were curious because I was probably the only white person that these children ever saw in their life, so I didn’t really mind.
We reached a large tent that was the size of about the average house, with the square foot of roughly 2,000 square feet. It was the largest tent in the entire camp.
“Before you meet my father, it is common to show respect to the chief of a tribe by kissing his hand and bowing your head. And do not lift your head until he says so.”
“Eh, Thanks for the advice.” I replied as I entered the tent.
The inside of the tent was huge. I did not expect this. It didn’t even look like we were inside of a tent but a large room that was meant for council meetings for politicians. I was half tempted to go back outside and check to see if my eyes were playing tricks
on me.
But I looked ahead and there was 12 people sitting in a semicircle. The guys on the right were all old men with wrinkles, but you could see the wisdom in their eyes. And the guys on the right were all body builders that made my school football players look like skinny nerds.
And finally, the guy in the middle was most definitely the best looking out of all of them. He had a sharp nose and high cheekbones and had eyes that were similar to Adira.
‘So that’s who she gets her looks from.’
I went up to him and kissed the back of his hand that he held out for me and bowed my head.
“Rise traveler.” The chieftain said in a deep, masculine voice.
“We welcome you to our tribe and partake in our hospitality. But first we must ask, how did you get here Robert?”
‘Wait… how did he know my name?.... oh right. Adira. Hold on… am I supposed to tell him I fell in a hole and traveled through
time and space and just fell into the desert? No way. He wouldn’t believe me. Although there are some strange things here, I doubt that he would believe my story. I better come up with a convincing lie.’
“I uh… come from the far north in the kingdom of… uh… California. I’m a writer and I wanted to go on an adventure to write an epic tale, but… um… I got lost. I don’t even know how to get back.”
“Tell me Robert the Writer. What exactly does a writer do?”
“Well, sir… I’m basically a story teller and hope to make my fortune by writing stories.” Several of the buff guys on the right
chuckled at my response and it kind of ticked me off. What’s wrong with being a writer?
“Hmm… an interesting concept. Are there many writers in your kingdom?”
“Yes sir. There are many writers. Although not all are successful and become famous.” I replied.
“Would you grace us with one of your stories? I am interested in hearing a good story right now.”
I couldn’t tell if he was humoring me or being sarcastic. But I knew that if I wanted to make a good impression then I better tell a good story.
I wracked my brains to think of a story that I knew well.
The chief must have noticed my hesitation because he said, “If you cannot tell us a story now, then you can tell us one later during the feast for you. I hope that will give you time to think of a story.”
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Several of the men on the left laughed again, teasing me and my face turned red. The chief dismissed me and I bowed and exited the tent.
Adira smiled at me when she saw me and I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her beauty.
She didn’t ask what we talked about and instead showed me around the camp.
“How are you able to tame the scorpions?” I asked.
“Long ago, our ancestors formed a covenant with the Great Scorpion and in exchange for our offerings she grants us protection and power. Every three years go to give sacrifice and honor the Great Scorpion. That is where we are going right now. It takes about 2 weeks of travel to get to Scorpion Mountain, where the great Scorpion resides.”
While exploring the camp I saw many strange things and Adira explained them to me, but I noticed that some people were different.
“Why are there some of your people that have those marks on their foreheads?”
“They are slaves, that our warriors captured from neighboring tribes or they are those that have fallen into debt and sold themselves to pay off their debt.”
“You guys permit slavery? Isn’t that…. inhuman?”
“Do you not have slavery from where you are from Robert?”
“Well… we used to… but we abolished it about a hundred years ago.”
“Why did your country get rid of slavery? How does your country function without slaves?”
I tried my best to explain to her about our history of how it was dehumanizing to treat another human being as property, and that every human as inherent rights that should not be infringed upon and the right to happiness.
“How would you like to be a slave? That was a rhetorical question, no need to answer it. My point is that no one wants to be a slave. Where I come from, we have a golden rule: “Treat others as you yourself would like to be treated.”
“I would accept my fate of being born from a weak tribe, or that it was my fault for breaking my promise and not paying back my debt. Anyway, you come from a strange land Robert, but your philosophies interest me.”
I knew this would probably lead to nowhere so I changed the subject.
“How many tribes are there in this desert? How big is your tribe compared to others?” I asked.
“There are many tribes. Even I do not dare say that I know of every single one. But compared to others, we are a mid-sized tribe of about 8,000 members, not including the slaves of course.
The Brown Hawk tribe is acknowledged as the largest and biggest tribe. They have over 20,000 tribesmen and their warriors are the fiercest. And the Devil Lizard Tribe is closely behind them in terms of strength.
We are allied with the Poison Toad Tribe, Divine Tortoise Tribe and the Red Centipede Tribe.
Our sworn enemies are the Star Cobra Tribe, Moon Owl Tribe and the Sand Baboon Tribe.”
“Wait. Baboons live in the desert? And why is every tribe named after some sort of animal?”
“We name our tribes after our patron Godbeasts. Almost all tribes make a covenant with a Godbeast in order to become stronger and fight off other tribes. Those that don’t are far and few in between and are small tribes that never last long.
But the Red Berserk Tribe is one of the exceptions that was able to become a mid-sized tribe without a patron Godbeast, by relying on their own strength. Their warriors individually are acknowledged as the strongest warriors in the Atacma Desert.”
“Hold on. Sorry to interrupt again, but what are Godbeasts? And from your information, your tribe is allied with three others, while your enemies are only three tribes, which means that you outnumber them, 4 tribes to 3. How come you don’t get rid of them?”
“You are full of questions Robert. But I suppose I like that about you.”
‘Did she just say she liked me?’
“Godbeasts are magical creatures. They are our gods. Our ancestors from long ago discovered that they can make contracts with the Godbeasts in order to gain power to strengthen and protect their tribes. In exchange for our worship and sacrifices, they give us protection and power to help us survive in the desert.
Although we might outnumber our enemies there are other factors that we must put into consideration. Our enemies have 2 large-size tribes and one mid-sized tribe. While our alliance has 1 large-sized tribe, 1 mid-sized tribe and 2 small-sized tribe.”
“What is the number required for a tribe to be considered large?” I asked, hoping that my curious nature will make her like me even more.
“15,000 tribe members or more, not including slaves is what we consider a large tribe, mid-sized tribe is anything from 5,000 members to roughly 14,000, and a small-sized tribe is anything under 5,000.
I hope that answers all of your questions, because I must leave you now, for I have to assist with the banquet in honor of you. I trust you know how to find your way back to your tent?”
I nodded dumbly and she left.
Turns out that I didn’t know the way back and I spent an hour looking for it until a kind little kid showed me the way back.
While I lay sat on the ground going over everything that happened today, I decided to write down all the events that occurred today in my journal.
***
I look up and see that we arrived at our destination. Jacob is lying on the window drooling. Eww.