Silence of Bordervale

Part 1: The Human Stray

“Other races have the gift of a fully spoken language. Our patron god chose to withhold this gift from us, but we must not be envious about it. Surely, the withholding has worked to our benefit, compelling us to learn the value of patience and discretion.”

Alacrity Brightquill, Priestess of Lissik, “Blessings and Virtues”

Patience Truthseeker had never been good at living up to her first name. Never mind the fact that she had never raised her voice to her son before; it was only because she had no voice to raise. There were plenty of times she would have filled the air with colorful verbiage if her kind had possessed the gift of speech.

The day she caught her son leading a human child home was one of those times.

The tribe’s unofficial expert on humans was a merchant named Longtooth. It so happened that he was alone, picking berries from the bushes that grew around his dwelling, when Patience found him. Once he caught sight of her, with a frown on her face and a small human in her arms, his eyes grew wide and the spines on his head stood up.
Patience plopped the child on the ground and signed a hasty explanation.

“My son found a stray. I was hoping you could help me return it.”

Longtooth’s eyes went from Patience to the child and back again as the spines on his head lay down. He  signed, “Getting straight to the point, are you? You always did have trouble living up to your name.” Then he reached into the woven basket by his side and offered a handful of berries to the human.

“I live up to my second name well enough.” signed Patience, watching the girl gobble up the berries. “So, can you help?"

“That depends very much on how your son found her. This girl cannot be more than one or two years old, so I doubt she could have traveled any great distance by herself."

Patience turned to look over her shoulder. Her son had followed her to Longtooth’s dwelling, though he had kept a safe distance. He had deep blue scales and a guilty expression. A string of glass beads hung around his neck. “Lark?" Patience signed. “Tell us what happened.”

It was with some hesitation that the blue-scaled one stepped forward. "A man was with her who knew our language. He said the tribe had helped him several years ago and now he wanted to pay us back. He gave me some money and a necklace. Told me to bring them to the chief."

Longtooth let out a sigh and slowly shook his head. He signed, "Let me guess. The man disappeared and the girl started following you?”

“How did you know?” Lark asked.

“It is an old trick. Train a child to follow a small item, like a bracelet or a necklace, then make up an excuse to pass the item off to someone else.”

“Is that why she brought it back when Mama threw it away?”

Now Longtooth chuckled. “The person who taught her must have made a game out of it.”

“Why would someone do that?”

“To get rid of an unwanted child, of course. Humans often produce more than they can handle. Leaving one with a member of another species, though? That takes a special kind of audacity.”

Patience took a moment to thank her god, at least in her mind, for making her a keltarek instead of a human. The tribe saw parenthood as privilege that had to be earned. Likewise, all hatchlings belonged to the tribe and only suffered want if the tribe suffered with them.

"What kind of audacity would it take to send her home?” Patience asked. She had begun to feel sorry for the wayward brat, but not sorry enough to keep her around any longer than necessary.

“I have contacts on the other side of the river.” Longtooth signed. “I could reach out to them and ask if anyone is missing a child. But if her family does not want her..."

Having realized that her chances of returning the stray had grown slim, Patience began to get angry. “Do they think we want her? I already have one child, thank you.”

Longtooth pulled a few more berries from the basket and offered them to Lark. “You would not be the first of our people to keep a human child. There are verses in our sacred writings that encourage bringing people of other races into the tribe.”

Now Patience squinted at Longtooth. She had meant for her question to be rhetorical. She had not expected an answer at all, let alone a serious one. “Enslaving them, you mean.” Patience signed after a moment. “But slavery is frowned upon these days.”

“There are limitations, of course. A human must follow additional rules and can only perform certain roles in the tribe. But any soul who wants to serve Lissik may do so in their own way.”

Patience did not like where this conversation was going. “Be honest, Longtooth. What would you do if one of your children brought a foundling home?”

Longtooth raised an eyebrow. “I am surprised you need to ask. Are you not the same person who earned the name ‘Truthseeker’ all those years ago?”

Patience temporarily forgot her frustration as fragments of a memory fluttered through her mind. She remembered the soft beat of drums, the smell of incense, and the flickering of firelight. She remembered the sparks of hopeful anxiety that had danced in her chest as she stood before the Elders. But the memory was an old one, and Patience had no problem brushing her feelings aside like fallen leaves. “What does that have to anything?”

“You could think of it as a learning opportunity. Keep the child around just to see how it goes. Human beings are like trees, after all. They can be made to grow in any direction as long as you get to them while they are young.”

“How young did you say this one is?” Patience asked with some reluctance. Longtooth had managed to pique her curiosity, if only a little.

“One or two years. She has plenty of time to grow into something useful.”

“And if she does not?”

Longtooth’s reply was stoically brutal. “Nature has a way of dealing with creatures who fail to adapt.”

Patience took a good look at the foundling. It was wrong for the humans to leave her. It was wrong to expect the tribe to look after her. Yet the child would die without a guardian. Perhaps it would not hurt to keep her around… temporarily.

"I will take care of her until better arrangements can be made.” signed Patience bitterly. “Give me the necklace, Lark.”

Nearly every aspect of keltarek culture showed their respect for the natural world. They built structures of unrefined stone instead of bricks. They bent saplings into various forms and used the older trees in place of bridges and stairs. The streets were paved with river rock and followed the curves of the mountainside.

This posed a problem for the human child, who seemed unaccustomed to climbing trees. Her shoes slipped on the bark, and her small hands struggled to find a grip. Patience held onto the back of her shirt to keep the clumsy brat from falling.

“She will need new clothing.” Patience realized. “And better shoes. Maybe gloves to protect her hands.”

Patience felt terribly conspicuous as she herded the child in the direction of her dwelling. Her first impulse was to conceal the new addition to her household, but the smell of stewed meat and vegetables told her it would soon be time to gather for the evening meal. Everyone would be there. Everyone would notice.

Patience could already imagine it. The awkward stares. The unsolicited opinions. Several tribemates already judged her, if politely, for refusing to take another mate after the death of Lark’s father. They thought it was her duty, as a healthy female of childbearing age, to produce more children for her tribe and her god. What would they think about this bizarre new project? How might she justify her decision to them? Should she even try?

Something must have struck the human girl as funny in that moment, because she let out a squeal of joy and started babbling again. It was a very human habit, but not one the tribe would encourage. “Her name is Silence.” Patience told her son. “Let us pray she lives up to it.”

***
MLR