She followed as Deegie walked through the encampment, heading toward the back of the hollow, looking for friends and relations, and finding out where all the various Camps were located. They passed an area where three Camps, tucked in among brush, faced a clearing. There was a noticeable feeling about the area that was different, but Ayla couldn't put her finger on it at first. Then she began to notice specific details. The tents were ragged, and not well hung, and holes were poorly patched, if at all. A strong unpleasant smell and the buzz of flies called her attention to a rotting piece of meat left on the ground between two tents, and then she noticed more garbage strewn haphazardly around. She knew that children often got dirty, but the ones that were staring at them looked like they hadn't been clean for some time. Their clothes were grimy, their hair unkempt, their faces dirty. There was an unsavory squalor about the place.
Ayla noticed Chaleg lounging in front of one tent. Her appearance there took him by surprise, and his first expression was one of malicious hatred. It shocked her. Only Broud had ever looked at her that way. Then Chaleg covered it, but the insincere, malevolent smile was almost worse than the blatant hatred.
"Let's leave this area," Deegie said, with a sniff of disdain. "It's always a good idea to know where they are, so you know what to avoid."
Suddenly there was a loud eruption of screaming and shouting as two children, a boy in his early teens and a girl about eleven years, came running out of one of the tents.
"You give that back to me! Do you hear? You give that back to me!" the girl screamed as she chased after the boy.
"You've got to catch me first, little sister," the boy taunted, holding something in her face and shaking it.
"You… Oh, you… Give that back!" the girl screamed again and ran after him with a new burst of speed.
The boy's smile made it clear that he was taking great delight in the girl's anger and frustration, but when he turned back to look at her, he failed to notice an exposed root. He tripped and fell heavily, and the girl was on top of him, hitting and pounding with all her might. He hit her in the face then, with great force, and brought a spurt of blood from her nose. She cried out, and struck him back in the mouth, tearing his lip.
"Help me, Ayla!" Deegie said, as she descended on the two children rolling on the ground. She wasn't quite as strong as her mother, but she was a tall and strong young woman, and when she grabbed the boy, who happened to be on top of his sister at that moment, there was no resisting her. Ayla held on to the girl, who was struggling to get back at the boy again.
"What do you think you're doing?" Deegie said sternly. "How can you bring this shame upon yourselves? Hitting, striking each other, and brother and sister besides. Well, you two are coming with me. We'll get this taken care of right now!" she said, as she dragged the reluctant boy by the arm. Ayla followed behind with the girl, who was now struggling to get away.
People stared as they walked past, firmly leading the blood-spattered children, and then followed behind. By the time Deegie and Ayla had brought the children to the lodges in the center of the Camp, word had gone on ahead, and a group of women were waiting. Tulie was among them, Ayla noticed, and Marlie, and Brecie, headwomen, she realized, who made up the Council of Sisters.
"She started it…" the boy shouted.
"He took my…" the girl started to yell back.
"Quiet!" Tulie said, firmly and loudly, her eyes blazing fury.
"There are no excuses for hitting, for striking another person," Marlie said, as hard and angry as Tulie. "You are both old enough to know that, and if you don't, you will now. Bring the leather thongs," she commanded.
A young man ran into one of the lodges, and soon Valez emerged, holding several straps of leather. The girl looked horror stricken, and the boy's eye widened. He struggled to get away, broke free, and started to run, but Talut, who was just coming from Cattail Camp, caught him in a quick dash, and brought him back.
Ayla was concerned. Both children needed their hurts attended to, but more than that, what were they going to do to them? After all, they were just children.
While Talut held the boy, another man took one of the long leather thongs and began to wrap it around him, tying his right arm down to his side. It was not tight enough to cut off circulation, but it held the arm immobile. Then someone brought the girl up, who began to cry when her right arm was tied down to her side.
"But… but he took my…"
"It doesn't matter what he took," Tulie said.
"There are other ways of getting it back," Brecie said. "You could have come to the Council of Sisters. That's why we have Councils."
"What do you think would happen if everyone was allowed to strike each other just because someone disagreed, or teased, or took something?" another woman said.
"You both must learn," Marlie said, as the boy's left ankle was tied to the girl's right ankle, "there is no bond as strong as the bond between brother and sister. It is the bond of birth. So that you will remember you will be bound to each other for two days, and the hands that hit each other held down so they cannot rise in anger. You must help each other now. One cannot go where the other cannot go. One cannot sleep unless the other lies down. One cannot eat, or drink, or wash, or do any personal act without the other. You will learn to depend on each other, as you must do all your lives."
"And all who see you will know the abomination you have committed upon each other," Talut announced loudly, so that all heard.
"Deegie," Ayla said in a quiet voice, "they do need help, the girl's nose is still bleeding, and the boy's mouth is swollen."
Deegie went to Tulie and whispered in her ear. The woman nodded, then stepped forward. "Before you return to your Camp, go with Ayla to the Mammoth Hearth, where she will look to the hurts you inflicted upon each other."
The first lesson in cooperation they had to learn was how to match their steps, so they could walk with their ankles tied together. Deegie went with Ayla and the youngsters to the Mammoth Hearth, and after they were cleaned up and treated, both young women watched them hobble away together.
"They were really fighting," Ayla said as they walked back to Cattail Camp, "but the boy did take something from the girl."
"It doesn't matter," Deegie said. "Hitting is not the way to get it back. They must learn fighting is unacceptable. It's obvious they didn't learn that at their own Camp, so they must learn it here. It makes you understand why Crozie was so reluctant to have Fralie join with Frebec."
"No, why?"
"Didn't you know? Frebec came from one of those Camps. All three are closely related. Chaleg is Frebec's cousin."
"Well, Frebec has certainly changed a lot."
"That's true, but I'll be honest with you. I'm still not sure about him. I think I'll hold judgment until he's really put to the test."
Ayla couldn't keep her mind off the children, or the thought that there was something for her to learn from this experience. Judgment had been swift and absolutely without recourse. They hadn't even been given a chance to explain, and no one considered looking at their injuries first – she still didn't even know their names. But they weren't seriously hurt, and there was no doubt they had been fighting. While the punishment was swift, and they were not likely to forget it, it was not painful, though they might feel the hurt of humiliation and ridicule for many years.
"Deegie," Ayla said, "about those children, their left arms are free. What will keep them from untying those bonds?"
"Everyone will know it. As humiliating as it may be to have to walk around the encampment tied together with their arms held down, it would be far worse if they took the bindings off. It would be said that they were controlled by the evil spirits of anger, that they couldn't even control themselves enough to learn the value of each other's help. They'd be shunned, and shamed even worse."