Gorran
It was one of Kali’s boys who first saw the strangers, so within moments, everyone knew that they had landed and were making a camp to the south of the village. I sent four watchers to go and watch the strangers and to tell the village if they left their camp.
I was with eight of the warriors, rebuilding one of the huts, which had been damaged by one of the storms, when the village council was called. Russak, our Shaman, was told and he came and sat in the circle.
My younger brother, Droig, wanted to attack them and to drive them back into the sea. There was much approval for this idea. The strangers were white-skins, and so the fear was always there that they had come to take the people back as captives.
I looked at Russak, as gradually everyone else became quiet and all looked at the old man. He had been Shaman for nearly fifty summers, as his father had been before him. He was wise in the ways of the world and the ways of the spirits.
“I saw them coming, two moons ago,” the old man said.
“Are they dangerous?” I asked.
He shook his head, his long grey hair waggling against the elaborate feather headdress. He had a bowl full of lots of little bones, so he shook them, casting them onto the ground.
“They seek only wisdom, and truth. They come not to harm, but to offer the people a hand of friendship,” he said, as he looked at the bones.
“Should we attack them?” Droig asked.
Again he shook his head.
“They are but few, six souls only. And yet one is a great warrior, so if you attack, he will destroy many of our young men.”
“What do we do?” I asked.
Russak looked me in the eyes.
“You, Gorran, will go to them, and as our best warrior, you will meet their warrior alone. He will be your friend,” he said. Then, the old man picked up his bones, returning to his hut.
Droig was not happy, but we agreed that I should go to at least look at the strangers and take things carefully.
I dressed as a warrior and smeared the mud over my skin, so I would be more hard to see, and then went to the bushes near the strangers camp. I saw they had put up three strange huts, which seemed to be very thin. But they had very bright flames in bowls on the end of poles, which made daylight come to their small hill.
There were indeed six, just as Russak had said; yet one was a female. I immediately saw which one was their warrior. He was very tall and strong, and dressed as the jungle around him. He carried no spear, but a black stick like the men from the flying machine. I remembered the stick spat flame and noise, so I fear that it also spat death.
I watched all night, and they changed the guard. I saw the warrior again later, but I sensed that he had left their camp. I checked the other watchers, yet they had seen nothing, but then I saw his tracks. I noted that he had been right into our village, yet touched nothing. He was indeed a great and brave warrior.
The next day, their warrior formed a circle on the ground and sat waiting, with an obvious peace gift awaiting us. He was a very big man, half an arm taller than I. He was also not a true white-skin, as he was the colour of a clay pot after the fire. Eventually, I entered the circle and accepted his offering. They were indeed powerful people, as they had metals and such food as I have never tasted before.
I returned and his woman came to him, and together we exchanged names. He was called Ed, while his woman was Gyl’ian. She was very beautiful, but in a different way to our women. She was thinner, but still had slim legs and firm breasts, even if they were smaller than our women’s.
There was much love between them, for they looked at each other much. They could speak together in silence, yet she was very wise. After many hours of exchanging names, she spoke in my language and she smiled. I knew then that these people were just as Russak had said; they were our friends. They were powerful, so I would hate to have them as enemies.
We held a council meeting, where Russak showed all the gifts to the council. There were beautiful pots of metal, and a metal knife, on which Droig cut himself, so sharp was the blade. There were beads, which the woman had shown me were for women to decorate themselves. Food, and a wonderful thing that enabled one to see oneself. These were not the gifts of enemies.
“Invite them to the village, bring them here,” Russak said.
There was much grumbling at this, clearly there were still those who wanted to destroy the strangers.
“Do you not realise, that we have been alone for too long? It was only a matter of time before the white-skins found us. It is far better that we find friends, who can ensure that we are not endangered. Their machines and tools are far too advanced for us, so we need friends. Believe me, these people are our friends,” Russak said.
“But how can you know this?” Droig asked.
“I know their spirits, and spirits don’t lie as men lie.”
So it was I went to their camp, and the white-skins returned with me to our village.
The woman with the hair of straw had a magic box. From this box she was able to speak to us in our tongue. Soon Russak was telling the white-skins of our history, and the evening was a long one. Food and drink was brought, while Russak spoke through the woman, telling them of our village, our people, and many of the things that had happened to the people over the years.
I watched the warrior, Ed, as he had only eyes for his woman. She was busy with her magic, so soon all the strangers were able to speak with us, and we learned the ways the world had changed since our ancestors came to this island.
Russak had been right. The world had moved on, while we had been forgotten. No longer did the slave ships ply the ocean, and no longer did the white-skins seek to take our tribes to work on their lands across the sea.
Over the next days I watched as their Shaman, Roja, spent much time with Russak, and they discussed the various remedies that Russak made from the plants and roots. One of the children became very sick, so even Russak was worried, yet Roja told Russak that it was an ‘Apindiks’.
Ed spoke on a small box, and several days later I joined him on their strange canoe as he found the gap in the rapids. We went to their bigger canoe where he collected many boxes of equipment. I met a friend of Ed’s called ‘Mikky’, who had once been a warrior with Ed. Again I was glad these were our friends, as their big canoe was made of metal.
We brought the boxes back to the village, so Roja, Ed and Gyl’ian took the child and laid him on a bench. They made the child sleep, as Roja proceeded to cut the child open and remove a small piece of his innards, and sew him up again.
Russak was so excited, so Roja told him what he was doing all the time, through the magic box of the woman. I did not like seeing the insides of the child, but Ed and his woman stayed to help, so I stayed too.
Another man, R’ssel, with his friend Syman, spent time talking to everyone, and particularly to Russak, to try to work out how our people had survived since our ancestors arrived.
They stayed with us for many weeks, and I learned many things from Ed. He was truly a great warrior, as he showed me how to fight without weapons. He showed me how to use the weight of a foe against himself, and of the parts of a man that were vulnerable to attack from the hands of another man.
Gyl’ian spent time with the women, showing them many things to make their lives easier. She started to teach the children to read their magic forms, called letters.
I taught Ed how to fish with a spear, and which fish tasted best. We went swimming off the reef, where we caught large crabs and shellfish for our feast. Gyl’ian came too, she was a good swimmer.
They were truly our friends, and even Droig apologised for wanting to kill them.