Chunga in full view, often in public among the adults, just like most everything they did.
Very little convention. No shame.
Little chunga breaks erupted here and there all day long among the mated pairs, and then they went right back to their business like nothing had just happened.
Completely natural to them and all of the Tua around them.
And as with many sentients, about ten percent of the mated pairs were either male-male, or female-female. Such pairs either worked out chunga pairings to have kits of their own, or in general helped out with the other village kits as needed or to their liking.
Some pairs of all varieties even chose to have no kits at all.
But in fact, once a mated pair had a litter of kits, they didn’t get pregnant again for a long time. Iika explained that most mated pairs only had one or two litters in their entire three decade lifetimes.
And they could only mate after their coming of age of fourteen summers, at which time, most were eager and prepared to do so.
Any young adults caught sneaking off to chunga before they came of age were beaten with switches and kept separate by the Tua elders.
Somehow the population remained relatively stable around the caves, although Naero knew that other tribes of Tua existed in countless other places. And many chose to live among them.
Once all the kits were off her, she located Bahan and Iika. About sixty adult and young Tua prepared to journey with them.
Bahan explained that they were going to harvest a snoka tree after lunch.
The hunting party checked all of their tools and implements.
“We never try to kill snoka trees. They live for a very long time and provide many useful things. When one does die, many tribes come to feast off it before it rots. The snoka tree is not really a tree.”
“What do you mean it’s not a tree?”
“You shall see,” Iika said. “The snoka pretends to be a tree. It is really an animal. It bleeds. It can even move among the galu trees it feeds off of. It appears to slowly absorb them, but it is really devouring them.”
“Amazing, an animal that mimics and eats trees.”
“Yes” Bahan said. “As long as we don’t cut the snoka all the way around, it won’t die before its time. But we can take long strips off without doing much harm. The snoka will heal easily, as long as you don’t harvest the same strip on it twice. They are so large, there is is no need.”
Iika pulled out several samples of materials they harvested from the snoka. “We cure and use the outer hide for skins, sleeping hides, screens, and tents. Certain layers are perfect for making thongs, cords, and braided rope. The softer, inner flesh can be cooked and eaten, even dried into jerky. The snoka has many good uses.”
Naero pointed to some jerky. “That’s what I’ve been eating all this time? I gotta say, it’s not bad.”
Bahan nibbled on some as they went. “We try to respect the lives of the snoka, and the galu. Both have many uses, and their own ways of life. The snoka only feeds on the old galu trees that are in their decline, keeping the forests from being choked with dead wood and brush. A very real fire hazard. Snoka keep the forests healthy–even their droppings enrich the soil. And healthy forests protect the Tua from many large predators.”
“How do they do that?”
Iika sang a little bit. “Some predators, like the akakoth tunnel through the earth to get at their prey. The deep, thick tree roots block them. And many predators do not like the taste or smell of certain grasses or trees, or their roots.”
Bahan laughed. “Some snoka even do the same, to keep predators from eating them, or seeing them as food.”
Naero smiled. “I like and respect how the Tua seem to live in harmony with everything on Janosha.”
Her friends looked at her in confusion, as they sometimes did.
“There is another way to do things?” Iika asked.
Naero sighed and smiled. She did not say anything more for a long while.
The hunters came to the snoka tree that they had selected.
A towering specimen seventy meters tall, in the process of devouring a galu tree of similar size.
This snoka had been harvested many times over the years. Naero saw the patchwork of strips taken from its sides that had healed over in a matter of weeks. Never in the same place.
Her friends were right. The snoka were so enormous, taking the long strips from them would be like a human scraping an elbow or knee.
The dark brown bark or hide of the snoka was in fact leathery and even cracked and weathered in places. Yet mostly smooth. Only the slight nubs in the hide allowed the agile Tua hunters to clamber up the creature so deftly.
The Tua went to work with their stone tools. First they measured the strip precisely, and then peeled off the layers they needed, rolling them up and cutting the sheets in lengths that any adult Tua could carry.
Each layer could be used in different ways.
As they carved deeper, the snoka oozed reddish, sap-like sticky blood, which they also collected.
The sap-blood had a woody, earthy, yet pungent smell. Not like pine. More like the metallic tang of copper and wood pulp.
The harvest took over three hours of hard labor, with the Tua working quickly and methodically. They neither hurried nor dawdled. And for once, none of them stopped to chunga. Such harvests were extremely important to the tribe’s survival.
Naero marveled as she watched them achieve their tasks. Learning new respect for them the more time she spent with them. The Tua were far from being vermin or dumb brutes. They were clever and very smart after their own fashion. And they had a natural compassion for each other and everything around them that was both beautiful and inspiring.
The Tua normally seemed serene and happy left to themselves. Diligent, playful. Even funny.
Naero liked that they played cute little harmless tricks on each other and spent a good deal of their time teasing one another, telling stories, singing, and laughing.
Their forests rang with joy and laughter when they were free to be who and what they were.
Naero had the sense that the Tua knew themselves very well. and most likely, they knew Janosha and all of its ways more intimately and far better than even the Mystic High Masters ever would.
Especially the real brutes–like Vane.
Chaos knowledge was not the only knowledge that held any value, whether Vane would admit to that or not. Yes, even Naero began to see how important Chaos energy truly was. How it permeated and connected and even fueled everything.
Yet it was only one component of a greater whole. A vital component, but not the sum total of all things. Not by far.
Somehow, being around the Tua helped her put and keep everything in perspective.
The harvesting done, the Tua even covered the open wound on the snoka with great quantities of the bluish-purple healing salve that they kept with them.
“That seems like a waste,” Naero said. “The snoka are strong. Wouldn’t they heal on their own?”
Bahan explained. “We give back to the snoka, for giving us so much in return. Our precious balm heals them faster, and helps keep them healthy and strong. A healthy forest of snoka and galu is a good thing for all.”
Some of the adult Tua prepared a celebration meal for the hunters. Prime cuts of the deepest, juiciest, tenderest snoka strip, a few millimeters thick, got cubed and put in mixing bowls raw, with salt and herbs and pungent, tangy nuc sauce that the Tua fermented in skins and bladders.
Every one eagerly began to feast on the cubed snoka meat from the bowls once they were set out.
Naero tried some.
She normally did not favor raw meat dishes, but quickly found this one to be a pungent, delicious delicacy.
She smiled at her friends, wiping juice from her chin on one arm before grabbing another handful of succulent, meaty cubes.
When the meal was done, the Tua took her to a nearby stream where they bathed to wash of
f the sweat of the day and any stickiness from the meal. They cleaned their bowls and then filled them with pure sparkling water from the river.
Iika handed a small bowl of water to Naero.
“Watch us, and do as we do. We shall give thanks to the snoka and the galu for their gifts to us. We shall thank all the forest and Tua’Ka itself.”
Together they all held their bowls of water before them and went back to the snoka tree they harvested, forming a great ring around it.
Then they sang their song of praise and thankfulness.
Naero was already beginning to learn their many songs, and sang along with them.
Yah-duu Ah Shah Lah! Shah hah lah shah-dae! Yah Jhah Vah Shah-Lae. Ae duu vah. Ae duu vah shah lah!
Then a strange thing happened.
The plain river water in the wooden bowls began to glow slightly.
Naero could sense it. It wasn’t just water any more. It was fused with the Cosmic energies of Janosha.
On an impulse, she raised the bowl to her lips and drank some.
Instantly, she felt as if every centimeter of her body became electrified, charged with power from deep within.
Her skin began to glow with the same light.
Naero gasped again. So filled with power.
Was this what it was like to begin to transform into a being of pure light, darkness, and energy?
Om nearly panicked.
Naero, what is happening?
Take it easy Om. Everything’s all right. Go back to what you were doing.
The Tua glanced at her in curiosity, but kept singing.
Yah-duu Ah Shah Lah! Shah hah lah shah-dae! Yah Jhah Vah Shah-Lae. Ae duu vah. Ae duu vah shah lah!
The Tua lifted their bowls, then tipped them and poured out the glowing liquid all around the base of the galu and the snoka.
The glowing energy seeped into the rich earth, and even faded away gently from within Naero herself.
That was it. That was the answer.
They were all one. One with Janosha. One with…everything.
She felt as if she could pluck the sun from space and feast upon it like ripe fruit.
The flows of all things Cosmic streamed through her veins.
They were in fact the stars–just as Spacers believed.
And the stars and all things were them.
The Great Truth, the Great Mystery of All Things was in fact, Blazing and Blinding True.
Why did she ache that when this moment passed on, she would no longer understand these things this completely?
Naero realized that she had only known such peace and joy at fleeting times before.
In the pure love of her lost parents.
At precious moments with Gallan and her closest friends.
The Tua sang a third and final time.
Naero lifted up her voice as one with them.
Tears of joy and sorrow rivering from her eyes.
Yah-duu Ah Shah Lah! Shah hah lah shah-dae! Yah Jhah Vah Shah-Lae. Ae duu vah. Ae duu vah shah lah!
Their work done, the Tua simply dissolved their circle, collected their rolls from the harvest, and filed away quietly without so much as another word.
Soon they were laughing and playing tricks on each other again.
Mated pairs stopped for chunga breaks and then scurried to catch up.
The hunting party picked up the pace slightly to get back to the caves before dark, to share their latest bounty with the rest of the tribe.
A young hunter boy of ten or eleven fell wrong and broke an ankle.
Once his ankle was tended to and wrapped, Naero offered to carry him on her back. The Tua thanked her profusely.
The boy beamed all the way home and finally fell asleep with his head lolling on her shoulder.
All of the other children grew jealous of him once they got back.
For the first time since she arrived on Janosha, Naero went to sleep and slept peacefully that night.
When Khai contacted her via the astral crystals, she told him about her day with the Tua.
Even Khai had never had such an experience. But he was extremely interested.
They discussed her energy transformation in great detail.
Khai seemed very impressed and claimed to have gained several important insights that might actually help him in his efforts.
After that, Naero decided to tell him a story.
They had all night while they slept. Plenty of time.
Khai made no protests.
“When I was little, my earliest memories were of my parents. Of course, we were always on one of their ships, going here and there. Both of them trained me…from the moment I could float.”
“Go on,” Khai told her.
22
Her mother was her sun and love.
Her father was her ship. Her courage and adventure.
Naero’s parents taught her everything, from the moment she could start learning.
With their fighting careers behind them, and still being very young, they were used to spending lots of time training and sparring.
Naero practically grew up in practice rooms.
Her parents doted on her, sharing all their experience and knowledge with her. In her love for them, she wanted to be just like them. She practiced and trained very hard.
First she mastered individual techniques. Punches, strikes, kicks. Throwing. Grappling. Then every combination.
She practiced all the Spacer fighting forms before the age of five.
By the time Jan came along and joined them, she had already been sparring with her parents, for years.
It was cute and funny at first. Her totally serious. Going on the attack, against two of the fight circuit’s greatest champions. Shouting her battle cries in her little voice.
Her mother blocked and deflected her tiny blows with the precise, flashing palm of one small, hard hand, giving her pointers on speed, timing, and strategy all the while.
Her dad was so big, that when he did the same thing, he intercepted her attacks with the deft tips of one or two fingers. Naero bounced off of him as if she were attacking a solid wall.
Yet their favorite thing was for him to pretend to give ground, and act like she was driving him back with her miniature onslaughts. Her dad was a great actor and showman, even better than her mom.
She would laugh so hard, knocking him around. As if any of her little hits could really damage a giant like him. Finally she would use one of her mother’s flashy finishing moves, a spin, flip, or whirl kick. Or even one of the few she made up herself.
Naero weighed next to nothing as a little girl, and being utterly fearless, she could practically fly through the air, and literally bounce off any available walls, ceiling, or floor like a rubber ball.
She would ‘finish’ her father off and he would fall back, pretending to be knocked out.
Then Naero would jump on top of him, plant her feet, and strike a victory pose. At which point her father would scoop her up, give her hugs and smoochies, and tickle her nearly to the point of hyperventilation.
She and her mom and then Jan would laugh so hard, and often join in the tumbling match until they were all exhausted and happy.
Then her parents would eventually kiss each other quite differently. They’d give one another a certain look. One or both of them raising eyebrows at the other or winking. Actually, they looked kind of weird and stupid when they did that stuff.
Her and Jan didn’t know what that meant, at first.
But they eventually figured it out, as they got older and saw the pattern repeat.
Within several standard minutes, both their parents would get someone to watch them and slip away for some alone time.
Now that Naero was of age, she was happy that her parents had loved each other so keenly, and took their fun when they could.
While they could.
They were always busy. As their merchant fleet grew, they began planning the construction of their exploration fleet to explore
the Unknown Sectors. What became their shared dream together.
Yet they still spent lots of time with her and Jan, and oversaw their training, teaching them what they knew about fighting and about life.
Once she and then Jan reached their teens, they began becoming their own persons, with their own forces of will and personal interests.
Jan, more of a scientist, a math nut, and a navigator.
Naero a pilot and warrior, but with heavy interests in history and galactic anthropology. Like her parents, she caught their love for exploration and adventure. The business savvy of her mother. Her father’s people skills and love of poetry and philosophy.
She truly inherited the best from them both.
The teen years also brought out her and Jan’s strong-willed, cocky, and rebellious sides.
Naero recalled the few times she thought she was going to actually defeat her parents. For real.
Not comprehending what it meant that both of them had trained with the Mystics.
Like Baeven now, either of them could have destroyed her a dozen times over at any point. But of course they weren’t going to kill their beloved children. Just because they got full of themselves and started acting like a puffed-up snotheads who could lick anyone.
Both her parents used just enough speed and power to let her and Jan know what the deal really was.
Leaving them winded and slightly bloody on the mats.
She and Jan more or less went through the same thing. And suffered the same fate.
Then their parents would hug them and get sad. Holding onto them without letting them go. No matter how angry they got, or whatever nasty things they blurted out in their rage–at their own mom and dad.
Once her father started crying.
It made a big impression on Naero.
“Naero honey, you might not understand this right now. But don’t be so eager to fight and crush others. To see the dark and vile things in the universe in others and ourselves. You don’t know how bad things can get. All the wars and killing and death that our people have suffered. It’s all still out there. Just waiting. We must use our skills to defend what we love, and still remain the people we want to be.”
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 16