✦ ✦ ✦
Ai Fa pulled her hand back, frowning in displeasure. She looked shockingly adorable as she glared at me with upturned eyes.
“At any rate, I am certain she would never harm us. It is fine for you to believe that as well, but don’t allow yourself to grow too attached to someone who is not one of our people, all right?”
“I know. She isn’t even a westerner. But I can at least share food with her, right?”
“Yes, I suppose it would be bad to leave her unfed until tomorrow morning.”
With that, the two of us returned and found Tia sitting in the exact same position she had been before. Brave, Jirube, and Gilulu were all lying down by the entrance like normal too.
“Okay, time to eat. I prepared a portion for you too, if you want it,” I said to her.
Tia shot me a suspicious look. “You not only aren’t going to kill me, but you’re even going so far as to give me food? It is certain that my life will be taken soon, so that’s just a waste of supplies.”
“We don’t know what’s going to happen yet. I’m not sure if it’ll be to your tastes or not, but please, feel free to have some,” I said as I served up some giba soup with tau oil from the pot and placed it in front of Tia. She gave it a sniff and then scrunched up her face in a way that reminded me of an animal.
“It has a strange smell.”
“I didn’t use anything that might be bad for you. And I flavored it lightly just to be safe.”
Since her people lived on the mountain, she probably didn’t have any experience with seasonings, so I had decided to go with a simple giba soup that didn’t have too strong of a flavor.
After accepting the wooden dish, she gave it another doubtful sniff. Then her long, narrow tongue poked out of her mouth toward the surface of the soup. She lapped up a bit of it without using a spoon, and her eyebrows drooped. She looked rather troubled.
“It’s like I’m drinking peifei pee. You’re bad at making food, Asuta.”
All I could do was laugh in response to that.
As for Ai Fa, she stamped her feet while still remaining seated. “I really can’t stand this girl! Why do I have to let someone this ungrateful stay here in the Fa house?!”
And so, the twenty-fifth of the green month came to an end, but the commotion surrounding the daughter of one of the chieftains of the red people, Tia Hamura Namukal, was only just getting started.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was now early in the morning of the following day, the twenty-sixth of the green month, and we had a visitor. Ludo Ruu had come to the Fa house as we’d been handling prep work for the stalls, acting as a messenger for his father, Donda Ruu.
“Ooh, so that’s the red savage? Sure enough, she looks totally human,” he said.
Tia was currently making herself small in a corner of the kitchen. She remained silent as Ludo Ruu looked her over with his arms crossed, her red eyes shining back at him.
“But why are her face and limbs that red color? They aren’t naturally like that, are they?”
“This is proof that I am one of the red people. Once a year, when the great god’s eye blinks directly over Morga, the red people cleanse themselves in holy water.”
Ai Fa and I had asked her the same question last night and learned that what she called holy water was some kind of concoction made by grinding up a bunch of different kinds of flowers, fruits, bark, and stones. They coated their bodies in it, which dyed their hair and skin that distinctive color for a full year, apparently protecting their people from many types of misfortune. As for the patterns on her cheeks and limbs, those were apparently something similar to tattoos and were meant to indicate her bloodline.
“I don’t really get it, but whatever. My old man asked me to deliver a message to the Fou clan head, and now I’m here, since this is where the red savage is staying. Where’s Ai Fa?”
“I’m right here. Tell me, what decision did the leading clan head and Duke Genos come to?” my clan head called out as she stepped into the kitchen behind Ludo Ruu. She always had some kind of chore to handle out behind the house after she was finished with collecting firewood.
“Well, it’s turned out to be kinda complicated. The leading clan heads are gonna have to get together and discuss what to do with her.”
“What? What did Duke Genos say?”
“The lord of Genos said he’d leave it to us people of the forest’s edge to make a decision. The law says we’re free to deal with any of the three great beasts who leave Morga however we please, after all.”
What part of that was complicated, exactly? That was what both Ai Fa and I were probably thinking as we waited for him to explain further.
Ludo Ruu joined his hands behind his head before continuing. “But the duke apparently didn’t know that red savages looked like humans either, so he handed down two conditions.”
“Yes? What are they?” Ai Fa asked.
“The first is that she’s not to be allowed to go into the town of Genos, no matter what. The townsfolk fear the three great beasts of Morga even more than giba, so he wants to prevent any trouble from being stirred up.”
“That is only natural. What is the second condition?”
“The second one was that we are absolutely not to accept her as a person of the forest’s edge. Forming blood ties is out of the question. And apparently, he said that if at all possible, we should chop her head off at the first sign that she might start causing trouble.”
I gulped, and Ai Fa deeply furrowed her brow.
“Naturally, I have no objections to the order to not make her one of our people. But does he truly mean that we should take her life just like that without even talking to her?”
“I can’t say I really get it, but supposedly, there’s something about her that the four great gods can never forgive, so even if she looks like a human, we should treat her the same way we would a wild animal like a varb wolf or a giant madarama snake.”
“As long as they don’t bare their fangs at us, we wouldn’t needlessly kill a varb wolf or a giant madarama snake either. It’s true that she once tried to harm Asuta, but she has been behaving herself perfectly ever since she realized her mistake.”
“Well, truthfully, the lord of Genos doesn’t even know that she tried to strangle Asuta yesterday. I only heard about it myself when I was at the Fou settlement just now.”
That certainly made sense. After all, the Fou’s messenger had left to deliver the news to the Ruu before Tia had woken up. That also meant that Marstein probably also wasn’t aware that Tia could speak the western tongue.
“Is Marstein under some sort of misconception, then? If he knew how human Tia actually is, he wouldn’t tell us to kill her so lightly, and—” I started to say, before Ludo Ruu cut me off.
“No, he said that no matter how human she may seem, she should not be treated as one. The three great beasts of Morga are not allowed to live outside of the mountain, supposedly.”
I was left at a loss for words.
Tia rose to her feet, using the wall to support herself. “That is the correct decision. It is forbidden for people from the outside world to set foot on Morga, and the same is true for those from Morga who would go to the outside world. Our peoples made that agreement with each other, and we now live as children of our own respective gods.”
“Hmm. We’re children of the forest and the western god, but what do your people consider to be their god?” Ludo Ruu asked.
“Our god is the world itself. Until the great god awakens, we are to protect Morga and our bloodlines. Those of you from the outside world are living fleeting lives on top of the body of the sleeping great god.”
Those words strongly resonated with something in my memory. “Tia, is the great god’s name Amusehorn? Supposedly, our western god Selva is the child of the great god Amusehorn.”
“The great god is a singular entity and has no true descendants. If I had to say that anyone was a child of the great god in that way, those of us who protect Morga come the closest.”