The Mender

#5 AGREEMENTS - Pledging Smiles

Finding Sela and Muni spurred a desire in Flat Rocks to send out more scouting parties to search for survivors of the Ash Rain, and find and free anyone who was enslaved. Many opinions were voiced and options discussed about what to do. Should they look for survivors and try to avoid Violent Ones, or try to kill any Violent Ones they found and get rid of them?

Nagar, as much as her health would allow her, and Zura spoke passionately against violence, that it would only bring on more violence. They wanted Flat Rocks to continue to be a place where doing violence to others was not tolerated. Even those most in favour of killing Violent Ones had to agree that what they had at Flat Rocks was a good way to live.

The stories and songs told and sung around the bode fire every night were an inspiring reminder of what they had all been through, how they came together, and the ways of the new bode that they were forming. Though they had only lived together a short time, they already had a sizable repertoire of stories and encouraged new additions. They talked and sang about Tars finding Zura, Dagan, and Esri; finding Barsa and the group's long walk to Flat Rocks; the birth of Wilki-Dumu; Grilu's naming; and the first big, successful eland hunt, which generally prompted an extended retelling with many participants.

Some stories were repeated often and some more rarely, depending on the mood of the teller or the mood of the listeners. Some nights the stories were funny – Kai and Esri were particularly gifted at playing off of each other and giving animated, comical twists to their interactions, such as Kai taking and returning Esri's Huti stone, and their first antelope sighting and successful hunt.

Sometimes the bode spoke of the sad times, such as Dara's death and honoring others who had died and how they came back in dreams to visit. Zura encouraged remembering what gifts those people left behind. It might be knowledge, an object they made, or a story or song that was theirs.

Grilu began telling the story of losing his eye. At first he only spoke a few sentences. As he listened to others' stories, and thought about everything that had happened to him and what it might mean, the story grew longer and more elaborate. In time, it became a favorite at the bode fire. Hearing how Grilu's ghost cat saved his life enthralled listeners. It was a story Grilu would tell until he was old and in his End Days, and then it was retold by others long after he was gone.

Everyone was encouraged to start a new story or song, even the children and the newest to join the bode. One night, Sela spoke. "I want to tell a story."

She and Muni didn't run away anymore but they remained withdrawn and, since their first days at Flat Rocks, never spoke further about what they experienced with the Violent Ones.

Sela held Muni's hand. "I want to tell the story of how Muni and I ran away from the Violent Ones." Like Grilu, the first night she spoke, her story was short. But those first sentences were not about frightened children. It was a story of bravery and gave a glimpse of the spunky girl who, up until now, had been hiding from them.

The bodefire stories and songs spun the story of Flat Rocks. A bode where neither violence nor slavery were tolerated. All of the people had passed through difficult times, losing many loved ones. The bode they were rebuilding out of the remnants of the Ash Rain gave them hope. Living was difficult but less fearful and more joyful. It was a new start. In some ways, living was even better than before the Ash Rain. No one wanted to lose that. And most understood how much they owed to Zura and Nagar for how they began forging together their different bodes.

The bode decided that killing people, even Violent Ones, would not happen. They would look for other survivors, and free any they found who were enslaved. In particular, they wanted to find the two children who were taken from Sela and Muni's bode. But how to deal with Violent Ones? How do you stop people who only know violence?