Learning
The assembled group was in shock at what they had just seen. None of them were more surprised than the snake itself.
§No, this is not possible§
§The gift of speech comes from blood of ancestors§
§No, no, no, not possible§
The snake continued to just hiss and spit and mumble as best a snake could do while looking at The Giver and putting its head as close as possible to his sleeping face and tasting the air around him.
The other four signed to each other, trying to fully understand what was going on. Teacher was the first to latch on to probably the most important development in her mind.
[Harry, Talk, No Sign, to The Giver], [We, Receive, Understand] and she points to the staff, to the box of junk, to the giver, to everything around them.
Lyra spoke out loud and said, "Learn" and then combined the signs of [Receive] and [Understand] as if to receive something straight to her head.
They all nodded, and Harry translated for the snake. They continued to speak until after the sun had set and the stars could be seen and eventually went to sleep.
The Giver slept until the sun was high before waking. The snake moved cautiously toward him and asked,
§You speak?§
The Giver responded slowly
§I speak, I understand§
Harry gestured at everyone around and said,
§We need answers, who are you?§
The Giver plucked a feather from his staff. It was long with a short white base, orange midsection, and a black tip and looked incredibly soft. He walked past them and placed it in the middle of the clearing where they slept and motioned everyone to sit around it. Even the snake came all the way down from the tree and moved to stretch out all around them. The Giver lightly tapped his staff on the ground and a dark glow was emitted from the tip of the feather.
All of the sounds of the forest vanished and an eerie silence fell upon the clearing. Teacher and Charlie looked nervous. Charlie made a peeping noise and seemed happy that he hadn't lost his voice. Lyra called out but her voice didn't carry and she whispered, "No echo." The only sounds they could hear came from them and nothing carried very far anyways.
The Giver sat down in front of them and started to open his mouth to speak. He stopped and looked at Harry. He picked up his staff and poked Harry in the head. Harry reached up to where the staff poked him and remembered that's where The Giver cut off his hair. The others remembered it too. Harry just shrugged and repeated The Giver's internationally recognized sign of "Whatever, it worked."
The Giver returned the sign and began his story with Harry trying to translate it as best he could as it happened.
§I am a§ *grunting noise, three syllables long* §and I am very old§
§I knew his father, pointing at Charlie, and his father, and his father, and his father.§
§That first father I knew when my parents died§
§People, like you and the girl, came to the island,§
§Some of them were sick but after my parents healed them, they were killed§
§I ran, and I was found by the Hidden, who protected me. He gestured towards Charlie and Teacher.§
Harry translated to Lyra and the two of them rushed to translate to the two 'Hidden.' Charlie had begun to scratch at a blister on his foot that he had gotten from the amount of walking they had been doing.
The Giver continued.
§The Hidden call me The Giver, but I do more than give. I take.§
The Giver stood up and went into his cave and returned carrying a small rodent. He placed it on the ground and tapped it with the buffalo horn on his staff. The rodent was frozen in place. He walked over to Charlie and reached for the blister on his foot. The foot glowed for a second and The Giver pulled the glow away from the foot, the blister vanishing. He pushed the glow into the rodent and a large blister appeared on its back. He tapped the rodent and it ran off into the forest.
§When my parents did this for the visitors, they were killed.§
§I take not only injuries. I take skin, I take bone, I take blood, I take thoughts.§
§I do not remember all the thoughts I take, but the glimpses I take help me.§
§I use what I know to help the Hidden, as payment for saving me.§
§They bring me food and I accept it, but I would help them even without it.§
Harry and Lyra rushed to translate all of this. The Snake whispered.
§You take blood, and now you speak.§
The giver responded
§Yes, I take blood, and now I speak.§
§I took the hair of the Hidden, but it became black and can create hidden spaces, but not hide myself§
He gestured towards the inky black cave behind him
§I took the skin of the snake,§ pointing at the Usurper, §the one its mother killed, and now I can react to the quickest movements.§
He snagged a passing bug out of the air, then let it go
§I took the foot bone of the buffalo and now I can walk without blisters§
He raised his own foot and it sounded like a rock when he knocked on it even though it had a fleshy appearance.
§I haven't taken anything new for myself since the father of this one was born.§
§I saw something in you that I hadn't seen before and I thought it was worth the risk to take.§
He paused for the translation to catch up. Harry asked a question.
§What risk?§
§When I took the hair of the Hidden, I could have disappeared or been plagued by visions.§
§When I took the skin of the snake, I could have poisoned myself with its venom.§
§With the bone of the buffalo, I lost all feeling in the bottom of my foot.§ He pinched it hard with his fingers to show there was no pain.
§I felt the potential knowledge in your scar§
§So I did all I could to remove the risk before taking it for myself.§
§I used the light of the hoohoo feathers to break its hold on you.§
§I used the venom of the snake and the poison of the fruit to weaken it.§
§I used the speed of the Creeping Death to kill it before it could react.§
§Now I can speak, but also have thoughts and ideas that I haven't had before.§
§It will take me time before I figure out what they mean.§
With that said, The Giver reached out and plucked the feather from the ground. In what sounded like a rush of wind, all the sounds from the surrounding area returned.
§Stay as long as you would like.§
§Then return to the Hidden Village.§
§I will send for you when I'm ready for you to learn more.§
He returned to the inky blackness of his cave without another word.
Harry and Lyra translated the rest of what The Giver had told them to the two Hidden, then they gathered their remaining belongings and set out for their home. Harry said goodbye to the snake and promised to return.
When the four of them were just outside their village, Harry stopped suddenly. The others were surprised and stopped as well. Harry looked at them with bright and kind eyes filled with emotion.
He turned to Lyra smiling and said out loud. "This is my home."
He hugged her and a glow emanated around the two of them. Harry turned to Charlie and Teacher and he hugged both of them. They were startled by the gesture but returned it doing the same. A soft glow pulsed around them in turn.
When they entered the village, all of their tribe came out to meet them. They didn't say anything, Harry and Lyra took turns giving each one of them a hug, the glow was given off with every embrace Harry gave to the hidden.
When Harry had finished, he looked at Lyra and said, "This is our family."
On the other side of the world, an old man was sitting in an office writing with a long feather quill. Behind him were around a hundred portraits of various men and women, most appeared to be sleeping. The edges of the office had shelves filled with books, scrolls, jewelry, weapons, and what seemed to be various pieces of junk. Some of the objects glowed, some were spinning, some were emitting puffs of colored smoke, and some of them just sat there and did nothing.
One of the pieces that did nothing looked like a disc made out of a shiny black rock about ten inches in diameter with various lines drawn in geometric patterns all over it. It was propped upright on a frame facing the old man at the desk. Suddenly, it glowed brightly then settled back down, the geometric lines on it glowed red for a few minutes before fading back to their previous mundane black.
The old man watched in fascination as this took place, and as the glow faded away, he let out a sigh of relief. He seemed to deflate as if he had been carrying a heavy load for a long time.
He spoke out loud to no one at all. "Good, the boy is loved. I was worried for so long that Minerva was right. He is safe, he is loved, and he is home."
He smiled gently and returned to his writing.
Back in the Hidden Village; Harry, Lyra, Teacher, and Charlie were very busy telling the story of what had happened with The Giver, the snake, and the Creeping Death.
The younger Hidden were more drawn to Charlie telling it, because he was more animated with his storytelling, using all sorts of props and louder noises that made the younger ones vanish for a second when he made them.
The older Hidden were drawn to Teacher in her telling, as she was more detail-oriented.
Harry and Lyra were approached by different tribe members for explanations, or to look at Harry's new scar. Since returning, the young Hidden they had named Whisper had barely left Lyra's side, often just hanging on her leg as they walked around.
A few days after they arrived back, Harry remembered his bag of fruits and unpacked it. As he did so, an unnamed member of the Hidden stopped by and watched as he picked through them. Harry recognized one of the fruits as something he had seen in the market back in England but never purchased. It was oblong and had shades of green, orange, and red on the outside. Harry dug his nails into the sides of it and ripped it open while the Hidden next to him watched closely.
The inside was orange and felt sticky. There was a seed in the center which was about as big as Harry's fist with what felt like small fibers around it. Hesitantly, he licked his fingers. It was sweet with an interesting tang to it that he loved immediately. He motioned for the Hidden that was watching to try some. He also was cautious, but stuck a finger in and licked it. His eyes widened greatly and tried some more. He danced around and had more. Then chirped loudly and danced around before coming back and trying some more. This repeated until there was only the seed left over. Harry sat in silence and tried to remember the market where he had seen it in England and remembered that this was a mango.
He looked at the hidden in front of him and pointed at the seed and said, "Mango." The Hidden pointed at himself and jumped around. Harry said, "Fine, you're Mango."
Harry took the seed and gestured at Mango to follow him. They walked just outside of the village and found a patch with little grass and just dirt. Harry pulled all the grass from the area and dug a hole down into the ground nearly a foot deep. He placed the seed in it and covered it up. He took Mango over to the pond outside the village with a few banana-leaf cones and they filled them with water then returned to the spot of the seed they planted and poured them on top. He turned to Mango and signed.
[Day, Water, Water, Grow, Tree, Large, Berry, Eat]
Mango's eyes widened like they had when he ate the fruit and stuck a finger in his mouth signed [Large, Berry, Eat] and then danced around like he had when he ate the mango. Then he ran off. He came back with a few other Hidden and appeared to be explaining what was going on. They all stared at the ground expecting something to happen.
Harry waved his hands and signed. [Moon] and placed his hand just above the soil. Then repeated [Moon] and raised his hand a little each time. [Give, Water, Day]. The assembled group of Hidden sat down. One of the others walked over a little further and dug a hole in the earth and pointed into it, then did it again.
Harry was shocked, were the Hidden understanding agriculture? Such an undertaking would take years. Harry didn't even know if he could get them to understand the concept of years. He tried to explain it. After getting Mango's attention, he showed him again how long it would take just for the seed to sprout. He just couldn't find a way to explain it, so he just pointed as high as he could and signed [Moon] from the ground up higher and higher. They all looked confused, maybe it was too complex to explain, so he just hoped they would have patience. Starting again, he signed [Tomorrow, Bring, Large, Berries]. That seemed enough to make Mango happy. He danced and repeated the signs to the other Hidden.
He spent the evening with Lyra, trying to explain what had happened. She seemed to agree with him about how complex it might be.
"The Hidden might understand moons or seasons, but I'm not sure how to describe a whole year to them. It feels like the end of summer here, but I've lost track of how long it has been since the ship. Maybe four months?"
Harry sighed. "I know I said this is home, but this does feel like home now. Even if the Hidden won't understand a year, we do. We need to start thinking in years instead of tomorrow or next week."
Lyra hugged Harry. "Then the trees are a good idea. You told me you liked plants back home." She gestured all around them, "this is your garden."
Harry smiled. This was his home and this would be his garden.
The next day, Harry gathered Mango and a few others who wanted to explore and started the trip toward where Harry found the mango trees. It didn't take them long, but Harry also collected many other fruits along the way. Most of them he already had, but he wanted more.
When they found the trees, Mango did his happy dance and immediately climbed up one and brought one of the fruits down. The other Hidden clustered around him and poked and sniffed at the fruit. Mango put his nails into the fruit and split it open then scooped out some of the meat and licked it off his fingers, then motioned for the others to do the same. Soon the area was filled with dancing hidden as they finished the rest of the fruit in moments. They proceeded to climb other trees and pulled more fruits down. After each of the four Hidden had eaten one fruit of their own, Harry gathered the seeds and had each Hidden bring two more mangoes back to the village.
When they returned, they shared the mangoes with the rest of the village, to everyone's delight. Lyra in particular had never had a mango, and her face lit up with happiness when she tasted one.
They returned to the spot where the first seed had been planted. There was some grass growing in the area. Harry reached down and pulled the grass from the ground, all the way to the root. He held it up so the other Hidden on the mango project could see, and he pointed at the entire area they were in. They immediately jumped into the activity, pulling all the grass from the area until they had only bare soil around them.
Harry picked up a stick and drew a line in the ground, starting at the first seed to the end of the field. Then he did it again for two more parallel rows and marked spots on each row for seeds. He dug at the first spot and placed a seed, before burying it. Harry tossed seeds to Mango and another Hidden. They each dug at a marked spot, dropped the seed, and covered it. The other tribe members all grabbed seeds and worked until they had eighteen seeds planted in their mango fields. Harry showed them to water each with two cones of water every morning. He suspected that they didn't need much water in the humid atmosphere where it rained often, but it couldn't hurt.
Harry returned to the village to find Lyra spending time with Weaver, who was braiding more of her silver hair in with Lyra's. The combination made her hair shine even more than it did already, making her a platinum blonde with lengths of silver highlights. Weaver saw Harry approaching, got up, dragged him over, sat him down, and started to repeat the process with his hair. The little bit of hair that had already been woven in had remained in good condition; Weaver continued to braid more and more into his head that day until he looked like half of his hair was white and the other half black, though it was still messy, and would not stay flat.
The Hidden were very diligent with watering the mangos; however, they had a rodent problem. During the night, one of the seeds was dug up, then another. Each time, Mango and some others would make the trip back out to the trees to retrieve a replacement.
With the other fruits that Harry had gathered, they cleared a few other small fields near the Village and planted other fruits. The bushes that grew the berries that had become a staple of their diet got a larger field and Harry simply transplanted bushes from further away to continue growing closer to the Village.
Lyra had another idea that took the whole village to accomplish. The bugs they all ate tended to live under certain fallen trees. On the other side of the village from where the fruits were growing, they all dragged dozens of toppled trees from wherever they found them and within a few weeks, they had a grub farm and a steady source of food.
The days were getting colder, but Harry remembered that some days in the English summer were still colder than nighttime wherever they were now. Regardless, the attitude in the Hidden Village became a bit more subdued with the change in weather. That changed shortly; one morning, when Harry was gathering some bugs, he heard shrieking from the Village. Harry sprinted back, climbing up a small tree as he approached, in case of danger. He arrived just in time to see Mango dragging Lyra off towards the fields. Upon having caught up with them, Harry watched as Mango held his head flat against the ground, gazing intently at a small green stem with one leaf poking out of the ground.
Harry himself was surprised, as it had not even been one cycle of the moon. Lyra stood up with Mango and gave him a big hug, which he returned. The other Hidden who had planted seeds started putting their heads on the top of the soil to see if any of the others had sprouted. The tribe quickly found out that they hadn't. However, a few days later there were more shrieks of joy, celebrating the sprouting of more mango trees.
A few weeks later, Charlie came to Harry and Lyra while they were eating a breakfast of berries and juicy grubs. Harry would later look back on this one day and feel strange at how normal such a day was. Charlie had a look on his face that suggested that he wanted to do something other than just eat, climb, or play. More than any of the other Hidden, Charlie would take the initiative and do things that would benefit the village, so Harry and Lyra wanted to know what he was thinking today.
Charlie signed to them [The Giver, Gather, Give, We Travel, Gather]. The two of them were confused. They were to travel to give something to The Giver? Charlie saw their confusion and signed stirring a cup followed by [Parent, Good, Good, Good].
Lyra understood, with Harry catching up after, and signed to Charlie, [Go, Now?]
Charlie gave one of his trademark smiles and went to his nest to grab his satchel. Having no idea what they were going to find, Harry took a backpack and a satchel to wear on his chest, while Lyra simply took her backpack. They hiked to the lake and the hot springs and drank water before continuing North. Harry suddenly realized that they were heading towards the Creeping Death when Charlie turned down the hill and headed towards the coast. They continued heading downhill until they got to a beach. Harry's eyes widened at the sight before them.
Garbage. This entire stretch of beach was covered in garbage. He wasn't sure why this side of the island was strewn with flotsam and refuse, while the beach they washed up on had none, but it was here. Charlie bounded down the hill and started digging through a pile. Lyra looked around too and started looking through a pile with Harry.
For Harry, everything here was a treasure. Immediately, he found garbage bags and sorted through them, putting ones that didn't have holes to the side. Then, he found plastic bottles and put them in the bags, along with as many lids and caps that matched the bottles as he could find. Lyra picked up the bags and bottles with a confused look on her face.
"These are bottles, but what are they made of?" She asked Harry
Harry responded, "They're plastic, pretty much everything comes in plastic." Lyra squeezed one and dropped it when it made a crackling noise. Harry picked up the bags and said, "These are also plastic. Pretty much everything on this beach is plastic. It can be made into pretty much anything!"
"Why is it here?"
"I don't know, I put plastic in the trash when I used it. I don't know how it would get here, but it's ours now. We will be coming back here, but we can take a lot of it back now. Pull out bottles and caps like these." Harry showed Lyra how to see if bottles and caps matched each other, then went to explore other piles.
Harry found another large garbage bag without holes and started to pull out plastic boxes from take-out food, checking carefully if they would still close properly and if they had any cracks or holes in them. The backpacks and the satchels were useful, but they were flimsy, leaked, or broke down over time. Plastic was much more reliable. This discovery would change everything.
Half an hour later, Harry and Lyra each had two garbage bags each full of take-out containers and plastic bottles with matching caps. Not being able to carry back much more, they went to go look for Charlie. They soon were able to follow the sounds of rummaging to reach him. Charlie wasn't going for functional finds, just things that seemed interesting to him, and which were therefore likely to be interesting to The Giver. He was in his element. Charlie started to lay out what he had gathered so far. He had found:
2 children's dolls: one which was probably once a barbie doll, though most of its face and hair were gone; the other was fatter and supposed to represent a baby.
A toilet seat
A sealed carton of cigarettes
A tennis ball
A construction hat
A potato sack
Harry smiled at everything as Charlie attempted to parse out how things might be used. He got most of it correct, though he did hang the toilet set around his neck, and simply threw the cigarette carton in the air over and over. Harry laughed at the toilet seat but then, upon spying a roll of stickers in a pile, so he peeled one of them off and stuck it to Charlie's toilet seat on his neck, like a medal. Two minutes later, the seat was covered with stickers.
Harry led Charlie and his sack of treasures back to where they had left their bottles and containers. Charlie was very curious as to why they had taken so many of the same exact items, but he didn't prod too much as they hiked back to camp.
At about the halfway point, Charlie's eyes glowed and his body vanished. Lyra and Harry immediately started looking around.
Harry heard the whisper of a snake, but it wasn't the Usurper.
§Prey has come. Come to my nest.§
§I cannot see, but I can smell.§
Harry called out in the direction of the snake
§Stay back!§
§We are not prey§
From the tall grass, a snake raised its head, so it was maybe three feet over the ground. When it saw Harry, its hood flared out.
§You are in my nest, and I am king of my nest§
§You are prey for the king§
Remembering what the Usurper said about arrogant snakes, he tried to intimidate it.
§You are dangerously close to the nest of the Usurper, the kingsbane§
§Leave now and I will not call the Usurper to take your false crown§
The hood of the snake immediately withdrew
§The Usurper still lives? I heard tales of such a creature, but did not believe it§
The snake lowered itself into the grass and could be heard moving away.
Harry did think that knowing another snake would be good, so he ordered it to stop, hoping that it would follow his command.
The snake's head reappeared above the grass, and Harry asked
§Is this a good hunting ground? Is there good prey here?§
The snake replied
§Prey is more plentiful on this side of the mountain§
§No other snakes to compete with.§
Harry wanted to see if he could forge an alliance.
§I will speak with Usurper to see if you may create a nest on this side of the mountain§
§Go back to your old nest and return here in one moon. I will have an answer for you then.§
§If you taste the scent of any prey like my friends here, you are forbidden from eating them.§
§I will call the Usurper to your side of the mountain to deal with you if you disobey§
Every time he mentioned the Usurper, the hooded snake seemed to tremble a bit. He replied,
§I understand, I will return§
The snake departed; after a minute, Lyra and Charlie reappeared next to Harry. He explained what happened to Lyra, and then the two of them tried to explain to Charlie. Though Charlie did not like it, signing back just [Big, Ear, Snake, Bad, Bad].
When they got to the hot springs, Harry showed Charlie what the bottle did. He filled it up, tossed it around, turned it upside down, and threw it across far away. Lyra picked it up and threw it back. He opened it up and drank from it. Then, Harry repeated the process with the cone of banana leaf. It didn't pass the first test. Charlie understood immediately, though it took him a few tries to learn how to put the cap onto the bottle. They each filled up just one bottle and headed back to the village.
Upon arriving, Charlie immediately approached Chief and showed him the bottle and how it worked, repeating Harry's comparison with the water cone. Chief looked at the bottle in amazement and placed the bottle in a notch of one of the larger trees that others had set up camp in. Lyra ran up to Chief with her garbage bags and opened them to reveal dozens and dozens of bottles in the bags. She had interpreted that Chief had thought the bottle to be one of a kind and was trying to keep it safe. Harry pulled out an empty bottle and gave it to Chief, then left the two bags open by the tree.
Next, Harry took out some of the take-out containers and demonstrated their usage to Charlie and Chief, filling them with berries and bananas and then setting them aside. This was also met with great enthusiasm, though Charlie immediately pulled out his sack and started to show off his other finds.
He took out the toilet seat covered with stickers and hung it over his neck, then took the tennis ball and bounced it off a tree. Whisper jumped out of the tree and took the ball, to begin to play with it, throwing it around. The dolls were shown off and Charlie appeared to be comparing them to Harry and Lyra, but for whatever reason, neither of them could tell.
Harry observed as Charlie showed off all of his finds, and when he was done, Charlie simply stared at Harry, waiting for him to do something. When Harry did nothing, Charlie raised his hands above his head and gave a screech.
Always quicker on the pickup, Lyra whispered in Harry's ear, "He was competing with you, showing off to Chief."
Harry was confused, "Why would that matter? Besides, I found the bottles, not him."
Lyra laughed and said, "Now who's being competitive?"
Harry laughed as well, "Well it doesn't matter to me. Though we do need to go back. Maybe sometime after we visit The Giver."
Author's note: I found out after I wrote this chapter that mangos wouldn't be ripe in the late fall period in this part of the world. I'm choosing to overlook it simply because Harry wouldn't have been able to recognize any other fruit that is native to the area as they wouldn't show up in a supermarket near London in the 1980s. Even mangos are a bit of a stretch. I like mangos and whenever I think of them, I think of Chris Kattan's character on SNL and have myself a chuckle. So this island that's already full of magic has ripe mangos in the late fall.