[https://i.imgur.com/ES3e2SA.jpg]

And so it was that I left the land of Daded and went onto the southern shore of Lake Soddo which lay amidst three low mountain ranges and the Maragorian Sea, in the region known to my tribes as Suru.

This lake was a special thing. It was extremely salty and barely had any fish in it. Its shores were basically one long oshna, which is to mean that it was a long stretch of dead earth, with crests and heaps of white salt scattered over it.

There are many stories about this lake. We in our tribe used to say that this was where Ulnad fought the Bitumen Serpent. In Deka Valley, they said that Ulnad smeared the Serpent with salt and threw it into this valley, which at the time was part of the Maragor Sea. The Serpent's body was hot, so it vaporized half of the water and then disintegrated itself, and that was how the lake came to be.

Local people tell a different story. Long ago a gigantic creature, the descendant of primordial spiders named Tor, lived in this valley. It had eight hundred children that it was fostering on its abdomen. The children needed food – a lot of it – to grow, and so the surrounding lands were devastated, for the creature was roaming across it day and night searching for food.

The first people who lived in the Valley could not deal with the monster on their own. They asked Olde* – another giant who lived in the sky – for help, and he agreed on the condition that the people bring him their first prey after the animals return to the Valley.

So it was agreed, and Olde went around the world and collected all the salt there was. He then returned and threw all that salt at the monster. Tor could not stand the salt. It was choking on it, and it suffered unbearable pain, and its children were crying for help. It tried to fight back and wrap Olde in its web, but the Sky Giant kept throwing salt at it, making it weaker and weaker. Soon, Tor became so weak it could not fight at all, so Olde took his huge stone spear and pierced it. Then he poured water from the nearby Maragor Sea and filled the valley with it to cover the body of the monster. Tor’s children, meanwhile, being small and dexterous, managed to escape the body of their parent unnoticed by the Sky Giant.

Since then the lake has remained as it is – salty, empty, and dead. The valley around it did not replenish and stayed deserted. The first people had to go to the western plains to get their game and repay their debt to the Sky Giant, and they have to go there for hunting to this day. Tor’s children still live in the valleys and mountains around it. They didn’t have enough food when they were growing, so they remained at their child’s size, though for humans they are still quite big.

As for Tor's body itself – it became bitumen. Occasionally, it surfaces on the water; people collect it and use it to adher their instruments and seal their preserves.

***

I had visited these lands several times in the past and was familiar with the people who lived there. They weren't our relatives, and their language was unintelligible for us valley dwellers, though it sounded somewhat similar and had many familiar words.

They were peculiar people. Both men and women covered their hips with long kilts made from kam** and their upper bodies with cloaks, also made of kam. Some men wore boar hides – that was considered an honor. In their hair, they wore feathers of different birds held by headbands. To the hair itself, they paid a lot of attention, as that was where their guardian spirits lived.

These people lived all around Lake Soddo and were separated into four tribes. Each tribe, in turn, was separated into several bands. In each tribe, there was a division between two phratries – Telavia and Wirvia. Telavia wore feathers of suru pigeons, and Wirvia wore feathers of maragorian geese. Belonging to any of those groups defined who could marry who, who would share with who, who would hunt with who and when, who would give presents to who, and many other things.

They lived off hunting and gathering crops from the slopes of surrounding mountains. Sometimes they engaged in exchanges with surrounding tribes, especially with the tribes on the shore of the Maragor Sea. They gave stones, spears, bows and arrows, clothes of their own making, grains, and dried fruits in exchange for dried fish, seal meat, clams, seal fat, and bones.

I went to the settlement that stood on the eastern slope of Mount Three-Heads. I knew a man there – Liide*** was his name. I threw the black orb and approached the settlement, and Liide recognized me. I wished him well, and he was surprised to know that I spoke their language. I told him about the black orb I used, and I told him about the strange man who gave it to me. He seemed to distrust me at first but listened carefully and did not say a word of disapproval.

It was summertime then, so most of the men and some women were out in the western plains, and in the settlements were remaining women with children and those who could not hunt. Liide was one of the latter, for his left leg was injured and he limped when walking.

People here did not perform dances but sang songs to notify the spirits of a guest, so the songs were sung for me and they were sung well. We were spending time in their settlement, which consisted of several clay houses with entrances facing the central space.

Stolen story; please report.

Liide introduced me to his mother – Khakailia**** was her name. She was an old woman and oftentimes seemed to be a little out of touch with reality. Still, she had a lot of interesting things to tell, and I found myself spending a lot of time with her under the canopy of her par. From her, I heard the story of Tor; from her, I also heard a story of Dog Kirsh.

“It’s the descendant of the first Dogs,” she told me. “They had a pact with the first humans. The first humans were weak, and could not hunt for game properly, so they made a pact with a pack of wild Dogs. The Dogs would bring their game to humans, and humans would share the game with them and with spirits, and perform all the proper rites.

“But then things changed. Droughts came into the lands and the game became scarce. Humans, however, became proper hunters and good fishers and also learned to eat grasses and cook roots. So now it's the Dogs who asked the Humans for assistance, and the Humans agreed, but they had only so much at their disposal. So they took in ten Dogs, and one Dog was left out. That was Dog Kirsh, and since then it seeks revenge on us and our dogs. It can get you anywhere: it can get you in the fields, it can get you at creeks, it hunts you at night, and most often it hunts you behind houses. So don’t walk behind the houses! ”

“But I haven't seen anything there,ˮ I said in response, having been behind the houses just prior on some personal errands.

“Yeah, of course, you haven't. You never see it until it shows itself to you, and when it does – it's already too late. Don’t walk behind the houses. And certainly don’t show it your gizhia*****! ˮ

I promised to not do it. Meanwhile, the strange similarity of the story to some of the legends from my tribe spurred my interest. I waited for her to send off some kids who came up to us and asked her,

“Can you tell me something about Dog Bri? ˮ

“Who is this? ˮ

“It's one of the ten Dogs. At least that's how we tell it in our tribe. ˮ

She pondered a little, but then said,

“No, that can’t be one of the ten dogs. This name doesn’t even sound Surian. “

She made another long pause and then added,

“Bruilie. Did you mean Dog Bruilie? ˮ

“Maybe. Tell me about Bruilie! ˮ I urged her.

“Oh, it was the lovely friend of Onjiide. They hunted together, they lived together, they went on envoy trips together. One day they were walking back from hunting, and their band went ahead, and they were aback. A lion attacked and tried to kill them, but Bruilie defeated it; Onjiide then killed it and was glorified for that afterward. Bruilie, however, was injured really badly. Onjiide did not want to lose his friend, so he went to the very end of Dry Mountains, where gembil grows all year. He made this dangerous trip and brought her to the end of the Dry Mountains, and bathed her in the morning dew there. The morning dew there has exceptional power. Bruilie healed but turned into a woman and a beautiful one for that. So, Onjiide married her, and they lived… lived a long life together – get off! Sowa! ”

A wasp visited us as she was finishing. It tried to touch her hair, and she was waving it off, saying “Sowa!” and knocking on a wooden plank that lay beside her.

“Why do you do this? ˮ I asked her wondering when the insect left.

“What, should I have shared my flesh with that little monster? “ she asked irritatedly.

“No, I meant the knocking.”

“It’s cedar, ˮ she said. “Our phratry’s guardians live in it. I'm from Telavias, our guardians live in that tree. We knock on it to call them up for our defense. ˮ

“Isn't it disrespectful to call them against such a little thing as a wasp? ˮ

“Disrespectful? I was in danger, how was it disrespectful to call up my guardians?”

“But that’s just a wasp,” I said with a smile.

“Stranger, you know nothing about the wasps! ˮ she said. “You know the story about Onjiide’s gizhia? Once Onjiide went out into the bushes to relieve himself. A wasp flew up to him and stole his gizhia. Onjiide had to run after it all around the lake to get his gizhia back. Don’t underestimate the wasps. And don’t show your gizhia to wasps! Or Kirsh. Or anybody!”

I heeded and promised to never do it.

***

I spent that night with Liide in his par. We conversed about my mission and talked over some stories I’d collected so far. Among other things, I asked him for some details about Oniide’s gizhia, but he laughed in response.

“Did Mother tell you that?”

“Yes. Why do you laugh? ”

“Oh, it’s nothing. She made it up, that story. She’s afraid of wasps is all, and tries to justify this fear of hers by making up anecdotes.”

After some more talking, I managed to divert him towards a topic that had been disturbing me since I'd left Daded. I told him the story about the hunter who was burnt in the name of the Fiery Antelope and asked him straight whether people around here did such things. His face darkened upon hearing it, and for some time he was silent.

“There are some people who do this,ˮ he eventually said. “But they are anyaanes******. They do all these rituals to please the Serpent and tell fake myths to justify their practices. It is not endorsed on our side of the lake, though, so don’t worry. ˮ

“The Serpent?” I asked carefully. He moved a smoldering twig back into the fireplace and, after a pause, said looking straight at me,

“Tomorrow, I will take you to Pashaide. He lives on the other side of Three-Heads. He is a shaman of our tribe and knows a lot. He will tell you everything you need to know. ˮ

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Footnotes

* - /ˈoldɛ/

** - /kæm/ - another made-up species of grass from the world, akin to flax.

*** - /liˈidɛ/

**** - /kakaiˈliə/

***** - /giˈʒiə/

****** - /aˈnjaːnɛ/ - literally means "splitter".