by Mark Harritt
“Did your people build this?” Everett asked.
Matki shook his head, “No, this has been here for a very long time. My grandfather told me that it was filled with dirt almost to the ceiling when they found it. They dug it out, and we use it now.”
They each staked out their sleeping spots. Rob and Mickey were griping at each other like an old married couple. Matki grabbed Tom, “Come with me, I know where we can get some food.”
Tom and Matki stepped out. Another hour passed, then Matki and Tom came back carrying fresh, butchered carcasses of small mammals, enough for everybody to eat their fill and have seconds.
Mickey looked at the carcasses, “Matki, you’ve just made me a very happy man.”
Tom tipped the brim of his hat, “And, you’re welcome.”
Mickey was confused, “What? Didn’t Matki kill them with the Atlatl?
Tom, in a good mood, wasn’t going to let him off easy, “Of course Mickey, when you don’t hear a gunshot, it has to be Matki who brings in the critters. God knows I couldn’t do it without a rifle.”
“Okay, wise guy, since you obviously have a bone to pick, and a point to prove, if Matki didn’t get them, how did you get them?” Mickey asked, the Brooklyn accent suddenly a lot thicker.
Tom pulled a sling from his pocket, and let it dangle down to the ground, “With this,” he reached into the other pocket and pulled out iron slugs, “And these.”
Rob nodded his head, impressed, “Old school. Biblical.”
Mickey hammed it up, laying the accent on some more, “Okay there, just so’s you ain’t plannin’ on playing David anytime soon. ‘Cause the only one I know around here that could play the part of Goliath, wouldn’t be too happy ‘bout it, capisce?”
Tom played his part, hick southern boy, drawling the words, “don’t you worry none there, Yankee. With that thick skull, it’d take more than a few iron pellets to dent it.”
Rob, more concerned with food than the conversation asked Matki, “What you got there, Matki?”
Matki answered, “It is a lalt.”
“Is it good?” Rob asked.
“Very good,” Matki answered, “And I found some of this out there,” Matki reached into one of the bags that he carried his tools in, “I had to walk out into one of the fields, but not too far. I was still in the shadows.” Matki pulled out a handful of grain, “It is bitter, but we can boil it several times, and it will be good to eat.”
Matki took the handful of grain, added more from the bag, and boiled it. After the first boil, he let the guys taste the water. The team’s faces looked like they had just bitten into a persimmon.
“Oh, wow, that is bitter.”
They spit the water out. Matki continued to cook. He changed the water two more times and boiled it again. When he was done, the grain had turned to mush. He held out a spoon, and they tasted it again. It was bland, but edible. Matki doled it out among the canteen cups and added some meat that had been seared in the fire. A little water and herbs were added. Soon, they had a stew boiling in their coffee cups.
----------------------------------------------------
The next day, they walked on the north side of the river, heading southeast, split evenly, three on one side and three on the other, standard patrol formation. They were on a large path shaded by trees, shielding them from the afternoon sun. Matki was in front, leading the way. Soon, though, Matki turned away from the river and started walking north. He pointed, “My tribe is there.”
The land changed. Mike could see evidence of the people that had lived here before. Like the area around the necropolis, there was evidence of terraces that had been overtaken by erosion
Mike pointed out the fields to Matki.
“Yes, they were here when my tribe settled this land. We didn’t know what they were for. It makes sense now that you told me there were people that planted fields and raised crops,” Matki answered.
“I would think that there would be some of the plants left that used to be cultivated here,” Mike surmised.
“Possibly,” Everett answered, “But they might have been crowded out by their wild cousins. Especially if there weren’t any people around to cultivate them.”
“What happened to the people?” Rob asked.
“Lot more goin’ on ‘round here,” Tom said, “you have more foliage, more animals, more water. Matki said his tribe had to clean out that stone house we stayed in because it was covered in deep dirt. We could be walking on the skeletons of the people that used to live in this valley right now and not know it.”
The path widened. They rounded a bend, and up ahead, they could see three figures walking towards them, two men and a boy. The men and boy stopped as soon as they saw the strange procession heading towards them. One of the men said something, and the boy turned around and took off running, away from the team, back towards Matki’s village.
Matki stopped and held out his arm, indicating that the team should stop. Matki yelled out a greeting to the two men. One yelled back the same greeting to him. The men started walking toward them.
Matki turned to Mike, “I am going to walk forward and talk to them. Stay here, and I will come back for you.”
“Sure, Matki. It’s your village, your people. We’ll be right here until you come back,” Mike answered.
Matki smiled at him, turned and walked to the two men. He walked up to them and embraced them both.
“What do you think, Mike?” Everett asked.
Mike looked around at the team, “Keep a sharp eye out. We don’t know how this is going to turn out.”
“Think Matki might sell us out?” Rob asked.
Tom spit on the ground, “Stranger things have happened.”
Mickey didn’t say anything. He just turned around to watch the team’s six. The rest of the team faced out to make sure trouble didn’t try to sneak up on them. Mike watched Matki with his friends. He watched their body language closely. In Mike’s experience, the body gave away what the mouth tried to hide.
Matki and the men talked animatedly, with a lot of hand gestures. Matki sometimes looked back at the team, or gestured towards them. The men reached out to touch Matki’s clothes, to feel the strange fabric. Mike didn’t see anything that indicated bad intentions. Their body language was guarded, but relaxed.
Finally, Matki pointed back at the team, and motioned for the two men to join them. He turned and started walking back towards Mike. The two men fell in behind him. Mike studied them. Aside from their clothing, they were almost indistinguishable from Matki. Their clothing was similar to Matki’s normal attire in cut, but much different in color. Matki’s hunting clothes were designed to help him blend into the forest. These two had clothing with more vibrant colors. Their clothing had been dyed with blue, red, and orange colors, making a geometric pattern. Mike wondered where they had gotten the dyes from.
As they walked forward, Mike bowed and then said, “Ashwah sonim durh,” which meant, ‘May the sun shine on you.’ After the last meeting with Matki’s people, Mike had been practicing.
The two men stopped behind Matki. Matki introduced them, “Mike, this is Narufi, and Jeswa, cousins of mine.”
Mike bowed again, and said, “Narufi, Jeswa, bedi dom nat.”
They bowed and repeated the phrase back to him, “Bedi dom nat,” or, “Welcome to our fire.”
Matki introduced them to the rest of the team, and the ritual greeting was repeated.
Jeswa, the younger man, started talking first, “Thank you for bringing my brother, Matki back to our tribe.” Once again, Mike could understand, but Matki had to translate Mike’s words for his cousins.
“Believe me, it is our pleasure. Matki is very important to us. Without him, we would not have survived this long. He is a very knowledgeable man.”
Narufi spoke next, to preempt more talk, “Matki, Mike, I think we should start back to the town. I know that Balia will be coming out here to see if Matki is back. Maybe we should make sure that
she doesn’t need to walk so far.”
Matki bowed, “Narufi, you always speak words of wisdom.”
Matki, Narufi and Jeswa talked as they turned, and started walking, gossip about Matki’s tribe interspersed with laughter.
Mike looked at the team. Everett nodded. Mike turned to follow the three men, and the team fell in behind him.
“So far, so good,” Everett said.
Mike nodded, “Yeah, but we know how quickly that can turn around.”
The team kept their guard up, not knowing what might happen. Matki had interacted with them for a year, and during that time, he had not given any reason to mistrust him. It was very unlikely that Matki would turn against them. Still, Mike knew from past experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, tribal politics sometimes trumped a perceived friendship. They trusted Matki, but his tribe, not so much. Plus, Matki wasn’t even technically human. A different human species, yes, but still not human. Better to keep their guard up.
They followed the three. The team was quiet as they scanned the area around them.
“Look up there,” Tom said, pointing past Matki and his cousins.
A procession of people were walking down the path toward them. The team tensed up, not knowing what was about to happen.
A large crowd like that mad Mike nervous, “Tom, do me a favor and check out the crowd with the ‘scope.”
Tom lifted his rifle and looked through the ‘scope, “They have women and children with them.”
Unless Matki’s people were radically different than Mike’s, it was doubtful that they’d bring children to a fight. Two of the children broke away and ran towards Matki. As they got closer, Matki called out their names, “Olmla, Desci.” He held out his arms and the children ran into his arms. He hugged them close and bent down to kiss their faces and heads. The boy was about nine in old Earth years, all knees and elbows, skinny as a rail. The girl was older, about twelve, lovely with dark brown eyes and long black hair. They were speaking too quickly for Mike to understand what was being said, but he could imagine.
Matki let go of the children and took their hands. Matki started walking and his two children hung onto him, like they feared he would disappear if they let go. The crowd surround him. Two more people came to him, an older boy, and a woman that had to be Matki’s wife. Matki took her in his arms and held her very tight. Matki held out his arm and ruffed the older boy’s hair. The two youngest hugged him from behind.
It was a touching scene, and Mike could fell his eyes getting wet.
“Getting a little emotional, are we?” Everett asked.
“Allergies,” Mike replied.
“Yeah, I have some allergies goin’ on over here as well.”
Mickey coughed, “Must be a high pollen count today.”
“Yeah, probably ragweed,” Rob opined.
Matki hugged his family for a good, long time. Then, as if he had just remembered them, he led his family over to the team. He was talking continuously as he walked. He brought his suddenly shy family over and introduced his wife and oldest son, “This is my wife, Balia, and my oldest son, Jendi.”
Balia was lovely, with dark hair and a gentle smile that framed her face. Jendi was the splitting image of his father, though shorter. He had a twinkle in his eyes and a wry smile on his lips. Mike had the feeling that this one was probably the joker of the family.
Mike bowed to Balia. He didn’t trust his poor grasp of Matki’s language, “Please tell your wife that we are very pleased to meet her, and that we are extremely grateful that she was willing to share you with us for so long. Please ask her to forgive us for not bringing you back here sooner.”
He held out his hand to Jendi, who was startled, and stared at the proffered hand. Matki spoke to him, and grabbed Mike’s hand for the shake, demonstrating to Jendi how to shake hands. Mike shook Matki’s hand, then offered it to Jendi again. Jendi took it in a relaxed grip. Mike’s eyebrow went up, a mischievous smile on his face. He slowly increased the pressure of his grip. Jendi’s eyes opened wide as the pressure increased, not sure what was happening. Then he saw Mike’s grin. He matched Mike’s grin and started increasing the pressure of his grip as well.
Mike held the grip for a few more seconds, then pulled his hand away and shook it with a mock frown, intimating that Jendi’s grip was very strong. He leaned over and put his hand around Jendi’s bicep, and squeezed. Mike stepped back with wide eyes and nodded like he was impressed.
This played to the crowd. They were all laughing by the time Mike was finished. They got a kick out of the idea that this gangling boy would be strong enough to hurt the giant’s hand.
Matki took Mike’s hand, walking deeper into the crowd. The crowd parted before them, and Matki led him to an older man. The man had a sour expression on his face. Matki bowed deeply before him. Mike followed suit. Matki turned to Mike, “Mike, this is Owlt Joacar. He is the head man of our village.”
“Time to kiss a little ass,” Mike thought.
Once again, Mike relied on Matki to translate. Mike bowed to Owlt Joacar, “Please tell him that I am honored to meet him. I hope that my people and your people will have a long and profitable relationship.”
Matki translated, and Mike saw the calculation in the head man’s eyes as Matki mentioned profit.
“Things never change. Money makes the world go round. Choke on that Marx.” Mike thought.
Mike turned to Everett, “Everett, can you find the head man’s knife?”
Everett nodded and dropped his back pack. He opened it and dug around inside until he found the knife. The techs had spent a lot of time getting this one just right. The blade was a Bowie design, nine inches long, with a crescent guard and a polished bone grip. The leather of the sheath was thick, made of dragon hide with a stylized Draco Medusa face stamped into it. Fringe dangled from the edge of the sheath. Everett stood up with the knife, walked to the headman and bowed as he presented it.
The crowd gasped as they realized the riches that had just been presented to Joacar. He pulled the knife from the sheath, and the polished blade glinted as the light played across it. Oohs and aahs sounded as he showed it to the crowd.
Joacar smiled at Everett and Mike. The sour expression was gone. He started talking to Matki. Matki answered, pointing at the teams’ guns and equipment. The head man smiled again, and then nodded at Mike. He said something to Matki, then turned and headed back towards the town.
Matki turned to smile at Mike, “You and your team are very welcome. He told me to make sure that you are comfortable while you stay with us.”
Mike grinned, “Good thing. I’d hate to think we have to go back without getting a deal.”
Matki put his hand on Mike’s arm, “I don’t think you have to worry about that, Mike. Owlt Joacar was quite impressed with your gift.”
Matki’s people started walking back to their village. Matki motioned for the team to come with them. He put his arm around his wife, his daughter holding his hand as he walked. His eldest son walked with his back straight, determined not to embarrass his father in front of these strangers. The younger boy didn’t waste time to claim his new status with his friends. He ran to them and stuck his chest out, proud that his father dealt with dragons and giants.
Everett grabbed his backpack and put it on. The team followed Matki and his family. Other children were followed the team as they walked. The children wouldn’t come any closer, but they kept asking Matki questions. One of the boys was braver than the others, and he walked up to Everett and stared at him.
“Hey, Matki, what’s up with this one?” Everett asked.
Matki talked to the boy, “He has never seen a person as dark as you are, Everett.”
Everett chuckled, “Good thing we didn’t bring Murph or Smith out here then.”
“Yeah, Latricia would draw some stares as well, I think,” Tom drawled.
“What, from these people, or from you?” Mickey asked.
“Well, she does get a lot of looks fro
m me, that’s for sure. Especially when she’s walking away,” Tom replied.
Everett motioned for the boy to get closer. When the boy approached, Everett pulled his sleeve back and held out his hand so that the boy could look at it. The boy walked up, and touched the back of Everett’s hand. He ran his fingertips over the skin. He yelled to his friends.
“What did he say, Matki?” Everett asked.
“He told the others that you aren’t burnt.”
“What, like overcooked?” Everett asked?
Matki grinned, and nodded, “Exactly like that.”
“I guess there ain’t no black people ‘round here,” Everett mused.
“Goes to figure. High in the mountains, northern latitude. Most people up here are probably have lighter skin,” Mike observed.
“Still, they’re darker. Brown, like Rob,” Everett noticed.
“Sun’s getting stronger as it burns away the hydrogen and helium. That might account for it.”
“What, no more white people, say it ain’t so,” Rob teased.
“Well, when it comes to race, there’s only one, the human race,” Mickey pointed out. He thought about it, and then amended his statement, “Or, at least in our time there was only one race. That black, white thing was purely an artificial construct defined by culture and geography. If animals can reproduce viable offspring that can also reproduce, then those animals are the same species.”
Everett raised his hands up, palms toward the sky, pumping them up and down, “Preach the truth, Professor D’Inazio! Can I get an Amen?
“Hang on there, hermano. Not sure I want to be called an animal,” Rob said.
“That’s not what I heard, sexy,” Mickey replied.
“Dude, once again, do you hear what comes out of your mouth?” Rob asked. “In case you didn’t realize it, you and I, we ain’t datin’.”
“Yeah, but you two sound like an old married couple,” Everett pointed out.
The boy was holding Everett’s hand like they were old friends. “Hey, Matki, what’s this boy’s name?”
“His name is Naen.” The way Matki pronounced it, the boy’s name sounded like ‘nine.’