Chapter 2

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Koane Talenekta

Chapter 2

Perhaps it was the ten years of cryosleep, or perhaps just stress, but there was no rest for anyone that night. We all huddled together as it grew darker and the temperature dropped dramatically. I understood then why the Eripah, who were supposedly fond of the cold, would come up near the surface at night. It wasn't a lie that the nights were longer, either; it seemed as if many hours had passed without a hint of daybreak reaching us, though the time might have been lengthened by our anxiousness. I caught glimpses of flashing lights rushing through the waters, but by the time I focused on their locations they were gone.

It became apparent just how wound-up we all were when a single soft splash had us all nearly jumping out of our skin. It took just one glance, though, before we all relaxed slightly; it was just Samuel, though the look on his face was unnerving.

“What happened?” Emily demanded, standing firmly on the edge of the 'floor.' The other captain's frown was enough to answer our questions.

“They won't be killing you, at least, and they almost seem somewhat open to working together, but... They don't want to let quite so many of you into their culture just yet.”

“And how many are-” Her question was cut off by another splash several metres away. We all snapped toward it in an instant, but were surprised not to see one of the Naviganti crew members. My breath hitched in my throat at the finned form pushing itself onto land: it had to be an Eripah.

It undoubtedly had a human form, but the cerulean skin was slightly scaly. Its four-fingered hands were unusually long, with webbing between each finger, and its feet resembled that of a water fowl's. Large fins protruded from each side of its calves and forearms, and from what I could see from its slightly angled approach, there was a large spiked fin running from the top of its head all the way down its back, poking through the long black hair that reached just as far. Beneath it twitched a long, thin tail that spread out into a full fin at the end. It was shirtless, which easily revealed this was clearly a male; at least, if their genders were congruent with human ones. He was also wearing what appeared to be long shorts, but most unusual was the sort of reverse hood that covered his face and hooked behind his ears (which were basically just more long fins), the rest draping down to wrap around his neck and shoulders. I wondered briefly how he could see through it, but just assumed that it was a sort of one-way material.

Samuel himself seemed displeased with his presence, but his frown was the only thing that betrayed so. He nodded respectfully toward the mysterious creature, who did the same before turning toward us. Though I could not actually see his eyes, I got the feeling that he was examining us with piercing intensity. Slowly, one of his hands rose and a single finger pointed towards us.

“Which of you speaks the many languages?” His voice was exceptionally high-pitched, to the point it almost hurt, but something about the way he spoke was distinctly fluid and somehow clearly male. Hesitantly, I began to stand, though Emily suddenly grabbed my arm and dragged me to her side with a lot more haste.

“This is him,” she answered for me, seeming as if she were gauging the Eripah's reaction. Yet his only movement was to drop his hand, and without seeing his expression, she couldn't possibly tell what he thought.

“Then he is the one we will teach our language and culture, but only him. We will let him decide if we can work together and how we might do so. Is this acceptable?” I glanced over at Emily's thoughtful face, and wondered why she even had to consider this. This was the best possible situation; if they were only working with me, then they might learn to trust me more so than if they had to trust an entire group. If they could accept me, it might even be possible for me to reason with them on our terms.

“That is acceptable,” I answered, stepping down from the ship into the water. I caught of glimpse Emily reaching out to stop me for a moment, but she clearly thought better of it. The Eripah nodded, turning slightly and dragging his tail through the shallow water behind him.

“Come, then. We will begin now.” I threw one last glance over my shoulder at Emily as I very hesitantly followed, but she just smiled and ushered me on. In our year of training, we had all come to accept her as the leader and trusted her with our lives. It was with that trust that I dove into the black waters of the ocean behind this unknown Eripah.

It was pitch black at that time of night, and I could no longer see the form in front of me, but instead feel the wake he left behind. I could guess that he would be able to move much faster than me, but he was kind enough to keep relatively slow so that I could keep up. I nearly lost him when he suddenly doubled back, diving into a crevice in the rocks that was just barely lit by a single lamp. It gave me enough light to see the creature as he nestled into a corner of the space and signalled for me to do the same.

There was an awkward moment of silence before the creature held out its peculiar hand expectantly. I just stared at it for a moment, unsure of what he was expecting.

“Your people shake hands with strangers, yes?” His hand stretched forward just a hair more, and I hesitantly took it, surprised by how the scales felt like a taut skin. His voice had me taken aback as well, and I hardly even processed his words. Above water, his speech was painfully loud and high, but its sound now was entirely different. It was deep and... musical, almost. Perhaps it was simply his accent, though, which made me think of a cross between African and Latin.

When he spoke again, I was sure that I heard a smile in his voice, though I still found it disconcerting not to be able to see his face. “Try not to be nervous. I am not your enemy, and I am not here to patronise you. You have nothing to fear.” One of his fingers tapped one of my hands, now resting on my lap, lightly. I looked down and was vaguely shocked by their undeniable shaking. Yet my gaze returned to him with a small smile.

“I'm not afraid, honestly. I'm excited. No other cultural anthropologist has ever gotten this kind of opportunity.”

“Then I am glad. May I ask your name, sir?”

“Damian McConnell. And you are...?”

“Taanezi. My people do not have family names as you do.” In the moment of silence that followed, I quickly thought of my first question. I would likely have many in the next few weeks, but it seemed like I had to ask the most obvious now.

“How do you speak English so well?”

“We learned at first from the Naviganti members. Now almost all of us know basic English, at least. It allows us to maintain some contact with them, when necessary. But I am... a special case. Perhaps if I were on Earth with you, I would be a cultural anthropologist as well. I stayed nearby and simply listened and learned, and they told me when I didn't understand a word. Within a few years, I was quite fluent. Of course, my own people do not like my closeness and banned me from interaction with them...” His tone dropped for a moment, but it picked right back up again like the cheery man he clearly was. “But I am the only one fluent enough to teach you our language, just like I taught the Naviganti, as I am the only one with enough patience to teach you of our culture. The others are not very friendly with outsiders, you see.”

Without giving him a chance to continue that explanation, I interjected one more important question at the top of my mind. “What is it you're wearing over your face, then?”

This time, his response was not immediate, as if he were weighing whether or not he should tell me. Clearly, though, he decided to go with the obvious choice, since he was supposed to be telling me everything anyway. “It is something within our culture. Your people do not show their bodies to anyone they do not trust. Well, we are not particularly caring about that. Within our culture, the face is... sacred. Generally, the only people to see our faces are immediate family members, such as parents, or mates. It is considered... improper to show your face to those you would not trust your very life to.” His voice had taken on an eerily dark tone, and it worried me. Clearly this was one tradition that could not be trifled with, and was obviously quite important to their culture. I guess it's not very different than a human walking through town naked... I thought seriously. Yet still another thought came to my mind before we moved away from the subject, and I touched my own face lightly.

“I'm not going to have to wear one, right?” It was said lightly, but I was honestly a bit concerned about that. It wasn't worth risking our shaky relationship with the Eripah, but it didn't seem particularly comfortable... Luckily for me, my question was met with beautiful, melodious laughter.

“Do not worry, Damian. My people may not be very accepting of outsiders, but we can at least respect them. We would not force our own culture upon you.” I smiled a bit to myself, glad to hear such, but before I could get another question out, there was a loud screeching somewhere outside of our little cave. Taanezi was at the opening long before I could get there, and he was already answering my unasked question as I stared into the complete darkness of the water. “That was an aenry, something like a very large bird. Captain Samuel said that they look your ravens, though they are much larger. Each one is large enough to feed a village, about twenty families, so they are one of our main food sources.” As if to validate his explanation, another horribly loud noise pierced the water, though this time is was more desperate. “They are hunting now,” he said quietly, his voice reflecting the strange sense of apprehension I felt at this.

I solemnly moved back to my former seat, feeling the strange water around me displace as he did the same. “Back on Earth, people used to hunt almost everything that moved. Birds and land animals, fish, everything. They ate meat at nearly every meal, but the planet became over-populated. Before they knew it, most of the animals were gone, and they had to resort to artificial means of food.” I looked up at the masked boy with a sad smile on my face. “It's funny how I can look back on our own past and not be bothered, how I can know that hunting is natural and accept it, yet feel so... hollow when confronted by it.”

There was a very long period of silence, and when I at last looked up at Taanezi, I was surprised to him staring out at the lights now rushing past in the distance, undoubtedly taking their kill home. I would've expected such to be the norm to him, but his sad tone of voice told me otherwise. “I understand your meaning. I was raised and fed by this, but something about it feels strange to me. You are correct to say that it is natural, for the strong always hunt the weak, but I do not think it right that they kill every night just to gorge themselves at every meal.” He turned back toward me, and though I could not actually see him, I got the idea that he was staring at me intently. His voice held an odd tone that I was not familiar with, and it unsettled me slightly. “The Eripah are a very relaxed people. There is little that they care about, other than their few strict traditions. As a result, curiosity does not really exist, and they do not consider their actions beyond immediate results. Perhaps there will come a day when humans can teach them, from experience, what will happen if they continue.”

“Is that your hope for this connection we wish to establish? That you might teach your people to be wiser in their actions, or perhaps just curious enough that they will pay attention?”

“Yes, it is.” The seriousness in his voice startled me more than it should have. Though I had asked it, I didn't honestly think that he was so determined in his goals. Yet I couldn't help but smile a little for myself, resisting the urge to laugh at the irony of it all.

“My hope was to teach humans how to be a little more in touch with nature, so that we might leave our artificial cocoons and be a bit more relaxed in the world. Perhaps we will both achieve our goals.”

I couldn't see it, but the smile in his voice was undeniable. “Yes, I think that we will. Now, we won't get anything finished if you don't learn how to speak the language. Teaching you our culture would be difficult without the basis of our speech.”

I had been right in saying that their language was a cross between African and Latin, yet the syntax resembled Japanese and Spanish combined. I was both surprised and glad that it resembled things on Earth; my concern had been, from the very beginning, that it would be completely out of my comfort zone. I think that I surprised Taanezi by grasping everything he taught my so quickly, but by the end of what felt like a fifteen hour night, I was at least about to say phrases. The words were simple, single words summing up things that would take an entire book to explain in English, but the grammatical rules were so complex that I had difficulty keeping up. The slightest mistake in the order of words could easily make a sentence not only entirely different, but also rude. It was stunning how easy insults were to accidentally make in Erminí.

I was trying to be aware of the time, but I honestly did not even consider the coming morning until a bit of light just barely illuminated the water around us. Taanezi was quick to swim out of the cavern and look up, before he turned back to me.

“It is later than I thought. I must return home, and you must return to your crew. At sunset tomorrow, please wait near the place we met today. When the sun begins to go down, make sure that you are not in the water.”

“Why shouldn't I-”

“Goodbye, Damian.” Without any regard to my attempts to ask him what he meant, he darted downward and disappeared long before I could get an entire sentence out. It seemed I had also been correct to guess that he could move faster than he had earlier. In just a few seconds he was so far away that the only hint I had to his location were the bubbles in his wake.

Without much else to do, I swam toward the surface. It seemed that the moment I managed to cough up the water in my lungs and regain my composure, the entire crew of the Sectator was balanced on the edge of the “land,” staring at me with wide, expectant eyes.

“What is your report, Damian?” Emily demanded, breaking through the crowd and helping me crawl out of the water. It was harder to stand than I would've expected, so instead I stayed cross-legged on the ground.

“There is little to report, Captain. It seems that I'm not going to learn much of anything about their culture until I learn their language, and that might take a while. I would estimate about a month, at this rate.” She nodded, seeming content with that answer. Clearly, though, the others were not. One of the scientists, a quiet girl named Amanda, stood taller as she asked her own question.

“What was that thing on his face?” There were agreeing murmurs throughout, and I guessed that she wasn't the only person wondering. I had been wondering myself at first.

“It's not like anything I've seen before. They consider the face to be sacred, something you wouldn't show to anyone other than your parents or a... anyone you would trust your life to. Otherwise, it's inappropriate. He compared it to the way that we don't like to show our bodies to anyone we don't trust completely.”

I guess that answer alone satisfied them, as they suddenly burst into conversation about all kinds of ridiculous (and hardly even related) things. I was glad for the small niches in the crew for the first time ever; it allowed me to leave and go sit with Emily, who had been staring at me with that look that meant she wasn't quite done with me yet. She always seemed to know when there was more to be said.

“Are the others going to be a danger to us?” she asked darkly, before I could even sit down. I didn't answer immediately, instead pausing to take this into consideration.

“I don't think so, as long as we stay out of the way. Taanezi told me not to be in the water when the sun starts to set, so I'm going to guess that it applies to everyone.” The Captain gave me a strange look, and I explained before she could even get the question out. “Taanezi is that boy who came to greet us, if you could call it that. He ended up getting pretty fluent in English, so he's in charge of teaching me their language, Erminí.” She nodded her quiet approval and went back to staring out at her excited crew, lost in her thoughts, though not for long.

“The others were asleep after you left, but I heard something out there... Some kind of screaming. It didn't sound very loud up here, but it didn't sound good either. Do you know what that was?”

“An aenry,” I answered without hesitation, before explaining. “They're like... giant birds, really. Captain Samuel compared them to ravens, though I didn't get to see it. The Eripah...” I trailed off, once more bothered by the concept, just as I knew Emily would be. “The Eripah hunt them for food. One is big enough to feed about twenty families, so they are a primary food source.”

“Barbaric.” was her stern reply, and I knew from her tone that the conversation was over. Though Earth seemed like a utopia, it was almost entirely an artificial ruse to hide that fact that we destroyed the planet's natural resources. Out cities were built high above the ground, with artificial sunlight shining on the thousands of plants and animals we were attempting to save.

But perhaps save isn't the right word for that. It was more like re-growing. It had been about two hundred years ago when a nuclear war wiped out nearly all life, aside from humans. We had been lucky enough to have the technology to make food substitutes from almost anything, even the rocks and dirt that had barely survived. We lived underground, then eventually built above ground. It was then that genetic research began. There were records of the DNA of animals and plants from before they were destroyed, and it was with those that thousands of new ones were created and planted on the surface.

To say that the project was a failure would be completely false, but it didn't achieve what they had originally hoped for. Aside from the fact that the man-made creatures couldn't make up for hundreds of years of evolution without hundreds more, people had become too accustomed to their lives on their own. To like the animals too much would leave you labelled as an animal yourself, and to hunt or kill the animals would have you branded as a barbarian, or worse. Though the plants had been cultivated for farming, farming had somehow become an act of damaging the Earth.

With a hundred years of that leading up to our journey, it only made sense that a more primitive people's ideals would seem horrendous to us. I had said that I wanted people to leave their artificial cocoons, and that was true; but I was afraid of what they might find when they did. Our entire civilisation was based upon living without any dependency on nature, and I feared that if people could see even a hint of how wonderful nature could be, they would take it for granted just as they did so many years ago. To even think of such a tragedy happening again was almost-

“Damian!” My eyes snapped open and I turned toward Emily and her worried expression. “You've been up all night. You should get some sleep during the day. It looks like you're going to need to be nocturnal yourself.” She smiled at me gently, that motherly look in her eyes once again, and I couldn't help but smile myself. With a nod, I crawled into the only partially-covered part of the Naviganti's hull, only realising how tired I was when my eyes decided to try and close of their own accord. “We'll be moving the Sectator closer soon, so in a couple hours you'll have an actual bed.” I nodded one last time at Emily, glad to hear that but suddenly not feeling as if I could even wake up long enough to crawl into the ship. It had been a stressful day and a long night, and exhaustion was catching up with me. Enough so that the metal floor seemed oddly comfortable, and I feel into a deep sleep before I knew it.

Author's Note

Again, the characters ARE underdeveloped. I'm aware of the fact. Honestly, they weren't the focus of my attention when I started this, and they probably won't be for several more chapters.

Please pardon the awkward dialogue about their view of hunting and whatnot. I was trying to convey their views through dialogue, which requires a lot of refining. I will DEFINITELY be editing that one big time, though I don't know if I'll post the edits here.

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