The aliens moved with slow solemnity, seating themselves in a large circle around the tree crotch. Then another group of slightly smaller aliens followed them out of the hollow tree, their bodies plain and undecorated. Each one sat behind and slightly to the left of the decorated aliens.
Finally, Spiral and Ripple came out of the tree, seating themselves in the gap made by the others, in a slightly higher and more visible spot. The other villagers turned to look at them as they arrived. The huge, unfinished basket was set before Ripple. Clearly, he was the guest of honor. Spiral beckoned Juna over to sit with them.
If this was a celebration of Ripple’s recovery, it must be an important event. The entire village was present, almost eighty adults, with a dozen or so workers busy serving them. Brilliant patterns flickered over the aliens’ skins—blues, greens, and softer pastels occasionally muted with grey.
Something strange was going on. Ripple wasn’t eating. Spiral seemed withdrawn and remote, picking at its food, despite Ripple’s obvious en-joinders to eat. Though they were guests of honor, neither of them seemed very happy.
After the aliens were sated and the workers had cleared away the remains of the feast, Ripple rose and addressed the assembled villagers. The brilliant, flowing patterns were extremely lovely, even though Juna couldn’t understand any of it.
When Ripple finished speaking, each of the decorated aliens stood up and addressed the gathering, then came forward and laid its decorations in the large basket in front of Ripple. Halfway through the speeches a soft rain began falling. The aliens ignored the rain and went on speaking.
The speeches went on for most of the afternoon. Juna sat there, warm rain drumming on her naked skin, bored out of her skull by the endless, incomprehensible ceremony.
At last every decorated alien had spoken. Ripple rose again, beckoning Spiral to its side. Another speech ensued as Juna sat shivering in the rain. Then Juna was summoned forward and displayed to the assembled audience. When the speech was over, Ripple walked out onto a high branch and jumped off. Juna heard a distant, wet thud as the alien’s body struck the forest floor far below.
Numbed by hours of boredom, Juna stared at the spot where Ripple had stood, unable to believe what she’d just witnessed. She peered down at the distant forest floor. Ripple’s mangled body lay there, a bright splash of red beneath it, its limbs twisted, its head at an impossible angle. Swallowing hard, Juna looked away. Spiral sat hunched and grey beside her. The other aliens sat, watching Spiral expectantly, ignoring Ripple’s fallen body.
After several minutes, Spiral rose and addressed the assembly in somber tones of grey and black. When Spiral was done, the enormous unfinished basket full of decorations was set in a sling and lowered to the ground. The villagers and Juna climbed down and stood around the corpse and the basket. They watched as Spiral cut open the dead alien’s stomach and placed a dark brown, fist-sized lump inside it. Then Spiral gently placed the mangled corpse in the basket, on top of the decorations. The alien covered the corpse with fern leaves, and methodically wove the basket shut.
The other villagers had known that Ripple was going to die. The whole ceremony had been in honor of Ripple’s suicide. Juna sat down heavily on a tree root. First the death of the worker, and now this. She felt suddenly very alone as she realized how deep the gulf between her and the aliens was. Juna felt a sudden, fierce longing for the safe familiarity of home.
Chapter 5
Ani finished weaving the basketwork coffin shut and stood up. Four villagers slung the coffin between two stout poles and began carrying it away. Ani followed behind the casket, and the rest of the village fell into procession behind her, walking through the forest to the site where Ilto would be planted. The villagers set the coffin down near the hole that had already been dug to receive his corpse.
Beside the hole lay a huge pile of leaves, branches, and rich black humus. She watched as the other bami lined the bottom and sides of the grave with the leaves and compost, then laid the coffin in the trench. Once the coffin was settled in place, the villagers defecated on it, leaving a last bit of fertilizer to help the sapling that would contain Ilto’s spirit. Then they covered the coffin with more humus and rotting leaves, piling branches on top of the low mound to anchor it in place.
Ani stood numbly by as the others piled branches over the grave. The coffin was beautiful, woven tightly and well by hands that had known him. Ilto himself had worked on it. At the farewell banquet, Ani had sat quietly through the memorial speeches and the presentation of the death gifts. She made the required speeches, and gave the required gifts. She planted the na seed in Ilto’s stomach. All of it was done properly; none of it comforted her.
There was an empty place inside her now that nothing could fill. Next year a pale green na seedling would reach toward the canopy from Ilto’s grave, holding his spirit inside it. Someday the tree would shelter her narey, and those of her bami, in its cavity. In seven or eight generations, it might shelter the entire village. Thinking about that was supposed to comfort a bereaved bami. It didn’t. Ilto was dead. Ani would never feel his presence or see his words again. The future stretched before her, grey and empty. A seedling na tree was nothing beside that.
Someone touched her shoulder. Ani looked up. It was the new creature. Unable to contain her anger at it any longer, Ani flushed red and hissed at it. The new creature backed away and Ani slipped back into numbness. Then Ninto was at her side, reminding her that the rest of the village waited for her to pile the last few branches on Ilto’s grave, bringing the funeral to an end. Automatically, she completed the ritual. Ninto led her away from the grave, and escorted her back home. She followed, lost in her grief.
When they arrived at the village, Ninto led her back to her room. A third bed was laid on the platform.
“You should stay with me until you are through werrun,” Ninto told her.
“Thank you, Ninto,” she flickered, grateful that she would not have to face the empty room where she and Ilto had lived for so many years.
“Go rest,” Ninto said. “Tonight you will begin werrun.”
“So soon?” Ani asked, surprised by how quickly things were happening.
“The village will be in ming-a until the empty place among the elders is filled,” Ninto said, “It’s best not to wait too long to bring things back into balance. Now get some sleep.”
Ninto ordered her to bed as though she were a very young bami. It reminded her of her first days with Ilto. The memory sent fresh arrows of grief through her. Ani burrowed into the fresh bed of leaves. She wanted to go to sleep and wake up and find that Ilto was still alive and that the new creature had never arrived. Ninto squatted beside her and grasped her arm.
“Do you want me to help you go to sleep?”
Ani ached to feel nothing for a while.
“Yes.”
There was a faint prick as Ninto made the link, then sleep blotted out the world. It seemed only moments later when Ninto shook her gently awake.
“Ani, it’s time,” Ninto said as she sat up. Ninto helped her up, and escorted her to a waiting group of bami. They led her to a quiet pool in a nearby stream, and bathed her. Ani remembered bathing Kirito’s bami only a month before, when he underwent werrun. They had laughed and splashed, and been full of joy for Kiha, who had sat gravely during their celebrations. Ani had joked about mating with Kiha when she became an elder, and they had laughed. Kiha was the elder Kiha to now. He had become stiff and formal after werrun and their friendship had faded. Now it was Ani’s turn. She sat there like a stone, unable to share in her friends’ joy at her upcoming transformation. The openness of her grief shamed her, but each moment that passed took her farther from the happiness she had known as a bami, and moved her toward a difficult and lonely future.