Ayla woke early the next morning, though sleep remained heavy upon
her eyelids. She noticed Daloia a short distance away, covered in leather
sheets despite the warmth of the previous night.
The woman got up to search for her firestones to make tea and fix a morning meal for her guests. The visiting tribe, the Daneludoi, was still asleep, lying in a scattered fashion around the cooking hearth of the Ninth Cave.
She found the firestones where she had left them the night before, in a small leather pouch by the fireside. The pouch was used to hold the iron pyrite nodules after an abundant supply was discovered by Jonayla near the Great Mother River many moons ago. Ayla knelt by the cooking hearth, withdrew a firestone from the small purse and found a nearby piece of flint, and within moments a fire crackled to life.
Daloia stirred a short distance away, evidently emerging from a deep, rejuvenating sleep. Ayla glanced at her, and got up to find the caches of stored dried meat. She found a particularly inviting haunch of bison and brought it back to the cooking hearth. Daloia was sitting up just as the blonde woman set the meat on the fire.
"Mmm..bison," the Daneludoi woman commented happily, noticing the roasting meat. "We saw some not far from here and tried to hunt them, but the Mother Nuda was evidently not in favor of this."
"This bison is rather old," Ayla replied somewhat apologetically. "I find it over in caches, and it was too dark to differentiate between old meat and new. Should still be good."
"Yes, it certainly smells that way." Daloia sat still for a moment, thinking. "Ayla, I was thinking last night. Where did you say you were when you lost your family, when you counted five years?"
Ayla stiffened slightly. "I not remember," she replied truthfully. "Memories before I am found by Clan are all..gone. Gone." A shadow passed over her eyes.
Daloia studied the woman. "Sometimes, when we experience something that is too painful for our spirits to handle, Muda causes us to forget them," she said wisely. "Sometimes it has been for better or for worse. My distant cousin had a daughter, then she died a few years after. The girl was old enough to know her mother and distinguish her from the other women, and when her mother died, she was devastated. If you ask the little girl about the necklace her mother made for her, she won't remember observing its construction, though she was there the entire time. However, she still has that necklace, and guards it with her life, though she doesn't know why herself."
Ayla was staring at the ground. Yes, this did seem to make sense. In all the nightmares she kept having about an earthquake, she awoke with an infinitely painful sense of loss. Why did she continue to have these dreams? Was it because she lost her family?
She looked up to see the Daneludoi studying her. "You are in luck," the foreign woman commented. "I am among the few leaders of the Daneludoi, or of any people that are the Great Earth Mother's children, who serves as both leader and Nudoi to her people. Much like a combination of Marthona and your Zelandoni," she added, referring to a conversation the two women had had the previous night about the customs, traditions, and hierarchy of their people.
"As such," Daloia continued, "I am experienced in drawing out memories long forgotten to the spirit world, especially those that were claimed by Nuda for purposes such as yours."
Ayla stared at her, suddenly frightened. Despite her immense curiosity to learn more about her past, she wasn't sure if she wanted to revisit memories causing such painful senses of loss.
Daloia noticed her apprehension. "It will be painful for your spirit, and frightening," the Nudoi acknowledged with a bow of her head. "But it is a necessary ceremony if you are to achieve your full potential as a Zelandoni after you have completed your period of time as an acolyte to the First." Ayla had mentioned the night before that she had begun a period of servitude to the First Among Those Who Served The Mother about a year and a half ago. She still had three and a half years before she would complete her training and become a fully-fledged Zelandoni.
Ayla swallowed. "What does this ceremony involve?"
"I was lucky enough to bring with me a certain type of root that is used for extreme, even dangerous, magical purposes. It was given to us by Nuda so we could remember who we are and what we are doing here. It takes us back to the very beginning, when the Mother was still creating us, still giving birth to our children. I have even discovered that, with heavy doses of this root, I think I can feel the Mother as she fights for her golden son, Sunai, just before the great void reclaims him."
Ayla shivered, remembering a similar-sounding root that she had accidentally ingested during a Clan ceremony, many years ago. "Yes, I know root like that," she agreed. "When I go to Clan Gathering - like Summer Meeting of Others - my mother, mother-woman, Iza, is too sick to go. She is sick with coughing disease.
"I am not yet old enough to become medicine-woman, but I go with Clan anyway, because Clan need me," she continued. "At first, Mog-urs..like our Zelandoni, your Nudoi," Ayla clarified, "not want me. They not want me make..ceremonial drink from sacred white root. They say I not Clan. But Creb, greatest Mog-ur of all, convince them. I am allowed to make drink."
"What were the effects of this drink?" Daloia asked with interest.
Ayla's forehead became creased with concern, and shame. "I not supposed to drink liquid, is too sacred, woman not allowed in mog-ur ceremony." Without realizing it, she had lapsed into her old manner of speech, which included making noises similar to those used by the Clan. Daloia noticed how Ayla had trouble creating certain sounds, and the guttural nature of her words, as though she swallowed the syllables as she spoke them.
"I swallow by accident, I not mean to," Ayla explained earnestly, as though she did not want Daloia to form a disapproving opinion of her. Daloia discerned that Ayla's actions had broken a very strong taboo among her Clan.
"After I drink liquid, I become..confused. Dizzy," the Zelandonii woman continued. Daloia nodded, remembering similar effects brought on by her own similar root.
"I find small cave, follow lights," Ayla prolonged. "Mog-urs are having ceremony, they not see me, but Creb knows. He feels me. Suddenly I am falling, I am in deep black void. Am frightened, would be lost. But Creb is very powerful Mog-ur, he save me, he take me on Journey through.." Ayla stopped, abruptly unsure as to how to continue. She did not understand how to explain the path she had taken, how to describe her exploration to the beginnings of life on Doni's Earth, to the very creation of primordial existence. After a moment, though, the words found her.
"Creb take me through time," she said softly. Daloia's eyes widened in surprise. She, too, had always been at a loss as to how to explain the experience following ingestion of the numinous white root. "I feel cool shade of thick forests, taste ancient red loam, feel salty white foam of sea. I think I am in beginning of time."
"Yes, Ayla," Daloia interrupted quietly. "Those are the effects of the root I have consumed, too. The two plants must be very similar in character to have such similar results on both the children of Nuda and the..Clan. However, though I don't doubt the spiritual power of your Mog- ur, I have a feeling that, due to the Clan's inherent inability to know the Great Earth Mother, his aptitude with the root must have been limited. How could one who does not understand Sunai, or Lun, Duna's pale, golden lover, be able to travel back to the ages when Duna fought for her child, Sunai? How would they understand the great Void when they do not know its nature? Ayla, I believe our two roots are very similar in nature, and I think we should compare their properties to determine their differences. Nuda only exposes us to such sacred magic for very strong purposes."
Ayla nodded once in acquiescence. After turning over the stick of meat that lay over the fire to make sure it cooked evenly, she retreated into her screened dwelling and returned with a strange pouch constructed of a single, hollowed otter hide. Daloia observed it with interest.
"This is medicine bag of Clan," Ayla explained. Daloia nodded, suddenly understanding. "And this," she continued, reaching her hand into the sack, searching, and retrieving a small, red-dyed leather pouch, "is sacred root. Zelandonii word for root is datura."
"Hold on, let me find my medicine belt," Daloia replied, and stretched her arm to salvage the traveling pack that lay a few feet away. "It's in here somewhere.there it is!" She withdrew a belt that was constructed of a wide-cut thong, and included several large leather drawstring pouches that had been sewn on. Ayla noticed the narrowed ends of the belt, and observed an intricate arrangement of colorful beadwork.
"We tie the belt on by this red fringe," Daloia explained, pointing out a characteristic that Ayla had previously missed. "This beadwork symbolizes the many medicinal plants and herbs bestowed upon Nuda's children. Its colors represent the innumerable types of vegetation available to us, and the complex arrangement demonstrates the many intertwined uses for each plant or herb."
"This is..how you say it..ingenious?" Ayla was obviously struggling to find the correct word to describe her admiration for the Daneludoi people's insightful use of beadwork decorations.
Daloia smiled. "I did not design this belt, so I am inclined to agree with you. But this is what I find cleverest: if you look on the inside of the belt, you will see the leather is dyed red. And do you see this carved ivory disc?"
Ayla examined the belt carefully, discovering the existence of a small piece of ivory carefully sewn into the leather. "Yes, I see."
"Let me show you its use," Daloia replied, smiling mysteriously. She pulled at the disc just enough to twist it sideways, and pushed it through what turned out to be a small slit in the leather. She pressed the piece forward just enough to completely extract it from the horizontally cut hole, and Ayla discovered that the ivory served to bind an inner layer and outer layer of leather shut. Her eyes glowed with the innovative concept.
"This method was only invented recently," Daloia explained proudly. "It is a technique distinctive to my people. And let me show you what is inside this belt, that must be stored so protectively." She dipped a forefinger and a thumb between the two layers of leather, and withdrew a white root pinched between her two fingers. "Does this substance look familiar?"
Ayla's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the unmistakable shape. Deftly, she untied the complicated knots holding her own red drawstring pouch closed, and withdrew an identical herb. The colors, the texture, even the scent, still pungent after years of storage, were identical. The hallucinogenic root of the Clan and the special root of the Daneludoi, the Others, were one and the same!
The woman got up to search for her firestones to make tea and fix a morning meal for her guests. The visiting tribe, the Daneludoi, was still asleep, lying in a scattered fashion around the cooking hearth of the Ninth Cave.
She found the firestones where she had left them the night before, in a small leather pouch by the fireside. The pouch was used to hold the iron pyrite nodules after an abundant supply was discovered by Jonayla near the Great Mother River many moons ago. Ayla knelt by the cooking hearth, withdrew a firestone from the small purse and found a nearby piece of flint, and within moments a fire crackled to life.
Daloia stirred a short distance away, evidently emerging from a deep, rejuvenating sleep. Ayla glanced at her, and got up to find the caches of stored dried meat. She found a particularly inviting haunch of bison and brought it back to the cooking hearth. Daloia was sitting up just as the blonde woman set the meat on the fire.
"Mmm..bison," the Daneludoi woman commented happily, noticing the roasting meat. "We saw some not far from here and tried to hunt them, but the Mother Nuda was evidently not in favor of this."
"This bison is rather old," Ayla replied somewhat apologetically. "I find it over in caches, and it was too dark to differentiate between old meat and new. Should still be good."
"Yes, it certainly smells that way." Daloia sat still for a moment, thinking. "Ayla, I was thinking last night. Where did you say you were when you lost your family, when you counted five years?"
Ayla stiffened slightly. "I not remember," she replied truthfully. "Memories before I am found by Clan are all..gone. Gone." A shadow passed over her eyes.
Daloia studied the woman. "Sometimes, when we experience something that is too painful for our spirits to handle, Muda causes us to forget them," she said wisely. "Sometimes it has been for better or for worse. My distant cousin had a daughter, then she died a few years after. The girl was old enough to know her mother and distinguish her from the other women, and when her mother died, she was devastated. If you ask the little girl about the necklace her mother made for her, she won't remember observing its construction, though she was there the entire time. However, she still has that necklace, and guards it with her life, though she doesn't know why herself."
Ayla was staring at the ground. Yes, this did seem to make sense. In all the nightmares she kept having about an earthquake, she awoke with an infinitely painful sense of loss. Why did she continue to have these dreams? Was it because she lost her family?
She looked up to see the Daneludoi studying her. "You are in luck," the foreign woman commented. "I am among the few leaders of the Daneludoi, or of any people that are the Great Earth Mother's children, who serves as both leader and Nudoi to her people. Much like a combination of Marthona and your Zelandoni," she added, referring to a conversation the two women had had the previous night about the customs, traditions, and hierarchy of their people.
"As such," Daloia continued, "I am experienced in drawing out memories long forgotten to the spirit world, especially those that were claimed by Nuda for purposes such as yours."
Ayla stared at her, suddenly frightened. Despite her immense curiosity to learn more about her past, she wasn't sure if she wanted to revisit memories causing such painful senses of loss.
Daloia noticed her apprehension. "It will be painful for your spirit, and frightening," the Nudoi acknowledged with a bow of her head. "But it is a necessary ceremony if you are to achieve your full potential as a Zelandoni after you have completed your period of time as an acolyte to the First." Ayla had mentioned the night before that she had begun a period of servitude to the First Among Those Who Served The Mother about a year and a half ago. She still had three and a half years before she would complete her training and become a fully-fledged Zelandoni.
Ayla swallowed. "What does this ceremony involve?"
"I was lucky enough to bring with me a certain type of root that is used for extreme, even dangerous, magical purposes. It was given to us by Nuda so we could remember who we are and what we are doing here. It takes us back to the very beginning, when the Mother was still creating us, still giving birth to our children. I have even discovered that, with heavy doses of this root, I think I can feel the Mother as she fights for her golden son, Sunai, just before the great void reclaims him."
Ayla shivered, remembering a similar-sounding root that she had accidentally ingested during a Clan ceremony, many years ago. "Yes, I know root like that," she agreed. "When I go to Clan Gathering - like Summer Meeting of Others - my mother, mother-woman, Iza, is too sick to go. She is sick with coughing disease.
"I am not yet old enough to become medicine-woman, but I go with Clan anyway, because Clan need me," she continued. "At first, Mog-urs..like our Zelandoni, your Nudoi," Ayla clarified, "not want me. They not want me make..ceremonial drink from sacred white root. They say I not Clan. But Creb, greatest Mog-ur of all, convince them. I am allowed to make drink."
"What were the effects of this drink?" Daloia asked with interest.
Ayla's forehead became creased with concern, and shame. "I not supposed to drink liquid, is too sacred, woman not allowed in mog-ur ceremony." Without realizing it, she had lapsed into her old manner of speech, which included making noises similar to those used by the Clan. Daloia noticed how Ayla had trouble creating certain sounds, and the guttural nature of her words, as though she swallowed the syllables as she spoke them.
"I swallow by accident, I not mean to," Ayla explained earnestly, as though she did not want Daloia to form a disapproving opinion of her. Daloia discerned that Ayla's actions had broken a very strong taboo among her Clan.
"After I drink liquid, I become..confused. Dizzy," the Zelandonii woman continued. Daloia nodded, remembering similar effects brought on by her own similar root.
"I find small cave, follow lights," Ayla prolonged. "Mog-urs are having ceremony, they not see me, but Creb knows. He feels me. Suddenly I am falling, I am in deep black void. Am frightened, would be lost. But Creb is very powerful Mog-ur, he save me, he take me on Journey through.." Ayla stopped, abruptly unsure as to how to continue. She did not understand how to explain the path she had taken, how to describe her exploration to the beginnings of life on Doni's Earth, to the very creation of primordial existence. After a moment, though, the words found her.
"Creb take me through time," she said softly. Daloia's eyes widened in surprise. She, too, had always been at a loss as to how to explain the experience following ingestion of the numinous white root. "I feel cool shade of thick forests, taste ancient red loam, feel salty white foam of sea. I think I am in beginning of time."
"Yes, Ayla," Daloia interrupted quietly. "Those are the effects of the root I have consumed, too. The two plants must be very similar in character to have such similar results on both the children of Nuda and the..Clan. However, though I don't doubt the spiritual power of your Mog- ur, I have a feeling that, due to the Clan's inherent inability to know the Great Earth Mother, his aptitude with the root must have been limited. How could one who does not understand Sunai, or Lun, Duna's pale, golden lover, be able to travel back to the ages when Duna fought for her child, Sunai? How would they understand the great Void when they do not know its nature? Ayla, I believe our two roots are very similar in nature, and I think we should compare their properties to determine their differences. Nuda only exposes us to such sacred magic for very strong purposes."
Ayla nodded once in acquiescence. After turning over the stick of meat that lay over the fire to make sure it cooked evenly, she retreated into her screened dwelling and returned with a strange pouch constructed of a single, hollowed otter hide. Daloia observed it with interest.
"This is medicine bag of Clan," Ayla explained. Daloia nodded, suddenly understanding. "And this," she continued, reaching her hand into the sack, searching, and retrieving a small, red-dyed leather pouch, "is sacred root. Zelandonii word for root is datura."
"Hold on, let me find my medicine belt," Daloia replied, and stretched her arm to salvage the traveling pack that lay a few feet away. "It's in here somewhere.there it is!" She withdrew a belt that was constructed of a wide-cut thong, and included several large leather drawstring pouches that had been sewn on. Ayla noticed the narrowed ends of the belt, and observed an intricate arrangement of colorful beadwork.
"We tie the belt on by this red fringe," Daloia explained, pointing out a characteristic that Ayla had previously missed. "This beadwork symbolizes the many medicinal plants and herbs bestowed upon Nuda's children. Its colors represent the innumerable types of vegetation available to us, and the complex arrangement demonstrates the many intertwined uses for each plant or herb."
"This is..how you say it..ingenious?" Ayla was obviously struggling to find the correct word to describe her admiration for the Daneludoi people's insightful use of beadwork decorations.
Daloia smiled. "I did not design this belt, so I am inclined to agree with you. But this is what I find cleverest: if you look on the inside of the belt, you will see the leather is dyed red. And do you see this carved ivory disc?"
Ayla examined the belt carefully, discovering the existence of a small piece of ivory carefully sewn into the leather. "Yes, I see."
"Let me show you its use," Daloia replied, smiling mysteriously. She pulled at the disc just enough to twist it sideways, and pushed it through what turned out to be a small slit in the leather. She pressed the piece forward just enough to completely extract it from the horizontally cut hole, and Ayla discovered that the ivory served to bind an inner layer and outer layer of leather shut. Her eyes glowed with the innovative concept.
"This method was only invented recently," Daloia explained proudly. "It is a technique distinctive to my people. And let me show you what is inside this belt, that must be stored so protectively." She dipped a forefinger and a thumb between the two layers of leather, and withdrew a white root pinched between her two fingers. "Does this substance look familiar?"
Ayla's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the unmistakable shape. Deftly, she untied the complicated knots holding her own red drawstring pouch closed, and withdrew an identical herb. The colors, the texture, even the scent, still pungent after years of storage, were identical. The hallucinogenic root of the Clan and the special root of the Daneludoi, the Others, were one and the same!