Logan could read a wide range of responses within the faces and eyes oriented towards the seven strangers. Mistrust, apprehension, hostility, and even some smatterings of welcome were displayed in the variety of expressions in view around him.
The diverse reactions left him in a more uncertain state, after having just gained a little more confidence while traveling along with the war party. Though Ayenwatha had treated Logan and the others politely enough, it was now very clear that the seven were still facing a very unpredictable situation.
“Prepare now for the welcome, with meat and the sweetness of the maple,” Ayenwatha then announced, his words bringing a little of the former levity back to the atmosphere. Though many of the tribal people continued to stare at Logan and the other newcomers, Ayenwatha’s words were greeted with considerable enthusiasm.
Logan looked to the sachem for some indication as to what was to come next. Ayenwatha’s eyes roved across the faces of the crowd, and looked well beyond the gathering, as if searching for someone in particular.
Ayenwatha then turned and conferred in private with some of the warriors that had initially come out of the village to greet them. All that Logan was able to gather were some passing references to a person named Deganawida. From what he could glean from snippets of their conversation, the desired individual was not currently within the village.
Ayenwatha looked visibly displeased at the news of the person’s absence, and Logan found himself wondering who the sought individual might be.
The sachem then turned his attention back to the seven exiles. He gestured for them to follow, as he stepped forward and guided Logan and the others onward, heading deeper into the village. The crowd dutifully parted aside to allow all of them a channel to pass through, and Logan could feel the heavy stares that lingered to his sides and back as they proceeded through the congested assemblage.
Ayenwatha, a few escorting warriors, and the seven foreigners passed deep into the midst of the elongated structures. They finally drew near to the cluster of greater longhouses that Logan had espied earlier, in the village’s center.
The sachem led them straight towards the end of one of the extensive longhouses. Ayenwatha did not break stride as he pushed aside a hide flap spanning the sheltered opening and proceeded inside. As he passed just beneath the bark panel suspended over the entryway, Logan carefully eyed the symbol depicted upon it.
The symbol was that of a very unusual, six-legged beast, sharp of fang with decidedly cat-like features. He hoped that such an unusual creature was just a mythical depiction, a construct of tribal imagination, and not any actual representation of what lay out in the surrounding forest; the forest which Logan and the others had just been walking through.
Passing under the sheltered porch-entrance, the group filed through the hide-draped opening into a sort of vestibule. It held within it a number of barrels fashioned out of bark sheaths, as well as a quantity of corn-husk baskets and pottery containers. The object of greatest abundance stored within the space was firewood, the sections of which had been collected and piled into many sizeable stacks.
The group did not linger within the storage area as they headed straight through another opening a few paces immediately ahead, similar to the entryway behind them. Once through it, they found themselves within the first interior chamber of an inhabited longhouse.
Ayenwatha drew to a halt within the chamber, as if to indulge the visitors’ curiosities. Logan was grateful for the pause, as he gazed around at a fully finished living chamber. It was a segment of the same type that he had just seen in the process of being crafted outside, the extension to the mid-sized longhouse near the village entrance.
To each side of Logan’s group were raised, bark-covered platforms, set at about a sitting level for an average adult. Upon the platforms were long corn-husk mats and several animal skins, both of which Logan figured were used for sleeping at night.
Over their heads, running along each side of the chamber, and also constructed of thick sheets of bark, were shelves being used for the storage of foodstuffs, tools, weapons, hides, and other various items. Some of the implements in view were very interesting in appearance, catching Logan’s attention momentarily. One of these items looked like a racquet of some type, perhaps giving a hint as to the kind of sport engaged in by the tribes. Nearby was a pair of matching objects that featured latticed, broad bodies, looking distinctly like a set of snow shoes.
Logan could see the edges of shallow pits that had been dug out directly beneath the lower sleeping platforms. The pits also appeared to be for storage, as he could see the dark shapes of objects contained within them, though their specific forms were shrouded in deep shadow.
A few feet of open space extended along the side walls from each end of the lower platforms, the small areas holding more bark barrels, as well as a few stacks of firewood. A bark-panel wall, pierced by a narrow opening, divided the living chamber from the next compartment in the longhouse sequence.
While the upper and lower platforms arranged on each half of the chamber, as well as the storage spaces, inherently mirrored their opposite sides, not everything within the section was duplicated. Set into the middle of the compartment was a singular fire pit, which was presumably shared in common by the occupants of the two analogous living spaces.
Farther above Logan, hanging from the elm-pole rafters of the ceiling, were what appeared to several braided bunches of corn, as well as long strips of some type of dried meat or fish. There was also a small hole in the ceiling that was positioned directly over the fire pit, presumably for the escape of smoke.
Despite the smoke hole, Logan could quickly see that ventilation in the chamber was very limited, and that any fire burning in the hearth pit would quickly render the room congested and hazy. Even without an active fire burning the air was thicker to the lungs, and heavily laced with strong, musky scents. Logan surmised that it would not take very much to make the interior conditions unbearable to his own senses.
“There are two families to each chamber, one living on each side,” Ayenwatha explained, as Logan and the others continued to gaze around. “For now, you will be staying in this longhouse, which is of my own Firaken Clan, for I am responsible for your presence in the village. Now, come forward with me, and I will take you to your quarters.”
Ayenwatha led them onward, across the chamber, passing through the next opening and continuing through the midst of several more similar dwelling spaces until they finally came to one that had very few signs of habitation. If anything, it appeared to be wholly abandoned.
The chamber’s upper shelves, rafters, hearth pit, and open spaces were largely barren, save for a few mats, hides, a couple stacks of firewood, and a few other elements.
Ayenwatha drew to a stop in the chamber, and turned to face the group as they gathered around him. “This chamber is where you may rest amongst yourselves for now. It is not being occupied at the moment. A terrible sickness claimed many from the village a few seasons ago, and not all chambers in the great longhouses have been reoccupied. I must go now, to tell the others of everything that has happened, and of you. I will return for you when I am finished.”
Ayenwatha then walked through the middle of the group and made his way out of the chamber, heading back the way they had come, leaving the seven exiles all by themselves for the first time since they had been surrounded. A few moments after Ayenwatha had left, the group began to quietly spread out within their assigned living quarters.
Logan walked away from the others, heading towards the lower platform that was set to the right side of the opening through which they had entered the chamber. Antonio followed after him a few moments later, and the two friends sat down side by side upon the platform’s edge. Feeling the rough, uneven surface beneath him, Logan knew that it would take some time getting used to the furnishings.