Kiri
watched the Danai village get closer. It was not just the appearance
of the village that was strange to him, but it was also the landscape
in which it stood. The village and its small fields that surrounded
it were cut out of an immense forest of tall trees. Some of the trees
had started to change colour and these contrasted with the dark pine
trees that dotted the forest. The land was low around the village,
but soon rose to high hills in all directions. He could not see any
way to get to the village other than by sea, but he thought that
there must be paths through the forest that were hidden from his
view. The village itself was very strange: a tall fence of upright
logs set tight against each other surrounded it. The houses were all
above ground and were also made from logs. There were openings in
their walls like small doors so that the people inside could see out.
The houses were tall, and at the end of some of them he could see
openings above other openings. He remembered what he was told about
floors above floors. The houses were also very long, so there must be
a lot of people living in each one. He had never seen so much wood
used. The only parts of the village that was not made from wood were
the thatched roofs of the houses.
As the
boat drew closer to the land he could smell the smoke from all of the
Danai’s fires, but even this was a different smell than the fires
of his home. The boat entered a small bay, and he saw that there was
no beach, and the land just seemed to be growing straight out of the
sea. He saw that there were more logs set into the water with a
walkway built on to the top of them, and this was where the boat was
heading. He was standing near the bow and leaning over the edge of
the boat to get a better view of everything. Urho came over to him.
“You
had better sit down Kiri, we will bump into the dock and I don’t
want to see you go over the edge!”
He
thought he should try to remember that word “dock” and wondered
how many more new words he would soon be hearing. He did as he was
told, but the bump was not as hard as Urho seemed to think it would
be. As soon as the boat stopped, it was tethered to a log by two
ropes, and Kiri jumped to his feet again. He looked at all the people
that had come down to greet them. All these tall people with their
blonde hair were a strange sight. He saw women and girls, and
realized that he had never seen Danai women or girls before. It was
just the men that visited in their boats. Everyone was so tall. Even
what looked to be very young children were taller than he was, and he
started to feel rather embarrassed about his lack of height. He
thought about his aunt, and wondered if she was feeling very short as
well. He looked over to her, but she seemed unconcerned about
anything and was helping Urho gather some of the goods that the boat
had brought back from their trading voyage. Kiri thought that his
aunt’s short stature would not be as embarrassing as would his own:
the Danai women were shorter than the men were, and his aunt was just
that much shorter still. He would be much shorter than any girl of
his age would and this bothered him.
He
decided to put all such thoughts out of his mind and went over to
Vara and Urho.
“Can I
help carry some things ashore?”
“Oh
no!” Urho said, “You and your aunt are our guests, it would not
be right for you to do any work – at least, not today anyway” and
he laughed.
Kiri
stepped on to the dock with his aunt and Urho and all who were
waiting there were smiling at them A few of them made some comments
to each other that he could not hear and all eyes were on him and his
aunt. A girl about Kiri’s age came over to them and placed a strand
of stone beads around their necks. Kiri was very pleased to see that
the girl was hardly taller than he was, and Urho seemed to have
understood what he was thinking.
“You
see, we are not all giants!” and he laughed again.
Kiri
blushed, as did the girl.
“This
is Kala” Urho said, “I hope you two will become friends, she
lives in our house, and she can show you around and tell you all
about the village and our customs. Kala, this is Kiri, and this is
his Aunt Vara.”
There
were more greetings and introductions and then most of them started
walking toward the village entrance. Only a few Danai sailors were
left to unload the boat. It was just a short walk up a path that was
made from split logs, just like the dock. Everything was so new to
Kiri and he could not stop looking in all directions with wonder.
Kala was walking by his side.
“Is
your village very different from ours?” she said.
“Oh
yes, very different”
“I
would like to hear all about it later, perhaps after the feast if you
are not too busy.”
“That
will be nice, and you can tell me more about your village too”
They both
smiled.
As the
procession entered the village, Kiri saw another log road that looked
as if it followed around the perimeter of the village, just inside
its tall fence. The houses looked even bigger close up, and soon they
entered one of them through a big door at the end. Kiri was wide eyed
in the wonder of it all. His eyes took a little while to adjust
coming out of the sunlight. Then he saw that all of their furniture
was made of wood instead of stone, in fact, there was hardly any
stone anywhere except for around the fire in the centre of the large
room they had entered. It looked as if the forest had grown a
village.
“Kala”,
Urho said, “While we are preparing for the feast, why don’t you
show Kiri around the house. He looks eager to see it all”
“Alright,
Come on Kiri, I’ll show you where the animals sleep in the
wintertime”.
She took
Kiri by the hand and led him past a door at the end of the big room.
The big room went all the way up to the roof, but when they passed
through the door, that part of the house was much lower. He looked up
at the wooden planks above his head, and then down again to the
straw-covered floor with stalls for the animals. Although it was not
yet winter, there were a few sheep inside. Kala explained that some
of them were lame and had been found almost dead from hunger. She
told him that a few might recover, but the rest would be brought
fodder to fatten them up and then they would be slaughtered for their
meat and skins. He asked what was above this part of the house, and
she led him to a ladder and they climbed up through an opening in the
planks. There was a smaller room than the one that they had entered
downstairs, and it had a small fireplace in the centre. On the two
long sides of the house were very small rooms with clean straw on
their floors. They all had three walls and were open to the main
room. They had various furniture and boxes inside, and a few had
warm-looking blankets over part of the straw-covered floor
“These
rooms are comfortable for most of the year”, she explained, “but
we all sleep around the big room during the winter. We have saved
this one for you, It’s next to mine.”
She
showed him a cozy little room that had lots of blankets, neatly
folded, on a shelf.
“You
should find everything you need in the boxes over there”, she said,
pointing to one of the corners. “I just got my own room last year.
My parents were killed when a sudden storm capsized their fishing
boat, and then Urho took me in. My mother was his cousin.”
“That’s
sad”, Kiri said, “I mean, about your parents”.
“I
don’t like too talk about it much” she replied.
Kiri
fell into an awkward silence.
“Come
on, Kiri, let’s see if the feast is nearly ready. Do you eat the
same sort of food that we do?”
He
remembered that the Danai liked his aunt’s dried venison, and he
knew that they also ate fish like them, and had sheep, but he had
never been to a Danai feast before.
“I
think so”, he said.
“Good!
I’ll make sure that you get a big bowl of roasted mice then!”
“You
eat MICE?”
“No!”
she said, “I’m just teasing you”
She
laughed and ran back to the ladder and climbed down.
The
feast was wonderful. Kiri especially like the roast boar. He had only
ever tasted it once before, because his own people rarely went deep
enough into the forest to find it. The Danai did not seem to be as
scared of the forest as his own people, probably because their lives
seemed to be so connected with it. He wondered if he would get over
his fear of it too. He was almost living in it now. There were a few
dishes that he found a bit strange. The Danai ate a lot of their fish
raw and he was a little surprised how good some of it was. They also
ate a lot of different birds, and that was new to him. He asked if
any of them were the white sea birds and everyone laughed.
“We
can catch you some if you really like them,” said one old man, and
everyone laughed again.
After
the meal came the music. Kiri found this strange as well. A number of
the Danai men all sang together and their voices were even deeper
than Urho’s. It was a strange sound, something like thunder,
something like the wind during a storm, but it took on a steady
rhythm and was accompanied by a lot of drumming. Most of the Danai
owned their own drums and they joined in. Kiri found himself banging
the floor with his fist as well. The house echoed with the sound. It
went on for a long time and Kiri noticed that strange visions and
feelings started to come over him. He looked around and saw what
might be the same thing happening on everyone’s face. He felt part
of it all, yet it was still strange to him.
He
was hoping for some stories, but the music went on for a very long
time. He found himself getting very tired and Vara noticed this,
nudging Urho.
“Kala”
he said, “Show Kiri where he will be sleeping. It has been a long
day, he needs his rest”
Kiri
opened his mouth to say that she already had done this, when Kala
quickly answered.
“Yes,
Urho, I’ll take him up there right now. I am very tired myself.”
She
led him back up to his small room and as he was about to go inside
she kissed him on his cheek.
“I’m
very happy that you came here Kiri”.
“I
am too, Kala” and he kissed her cheek.
He
covered his straw bed with some blankets and lay down. The house grew
quieter as the night closed in and Kiri smiled to himself and then
drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
John's Coydog Community page
This chapter enables the reader to understand the different physical worlds the two groups live in and introduces a special new character the girl. She seems to want to cultivate a caring relationship with Kiri. How will this relationship develop?
ReplyDeleteEven though I have a clear picture of the Danai' s physical world. I have a feeling all is not as it should be.
The differences in the two worlds becomes apparent, for Kiri, in the next two chapters. He has to grow up a lot in very short space of time, but an even bigger adventure awaits him...
ReplyDeleteI noticed that I had reverted to my original use of tabs instead of indents for the first part of this chapter so I corrected that in html. Hopefully, I eventually stayed with the indents! I was not (nor am I still) a very advanced Microsoft Word user. I'm going to download a trial of a new word processor that looks very good. I think it might make my subsequent production a lot simpler, at least I'm hoping it will!