Here you go, guys. Next chapter's going to be about...something XD. Oh, and foreshadowing is rampant.
Gaho wanted to run as fast as she could to the place, but to conserve her strength for whatever was still there, she walked. Very fast. The twins kept up admirably-Helaku in particular. He was very strong for one who looked two winters old. Kajika she carried from time to time as an unspoken arrangement-she knew that Kajika felt badly for not being as strong or boisterous as his elder brother.
After two days of walking, she felt frustrated. She sought out a tribe and told them curtly that something of great importance had happened and that they needed to take her things. Astounded, they did, and Gaho took the two little ones aside after walking out a few feet from the tribe.
"We are not regular human beings. You two know that," she looked deep into their eyes. They nodded with fear in their eyes. "Eating and drinking is something we can do without. It will make us hungry, but the only time I had felt faint from hunger was when my people are hungry. Well, I was hungry the day after birthing you too, but that was because I needed to build up my fat."
Kajika's eyes were widening and she could see that he already knew what she was going to make them do. Helaku didn't piece it together yet, though.
"Gaho, what are we doing?" he asked.
She smiled grimly. "We are going to run like coyotes are on our heels thirsting for our blood. And we will only take breaks to sleep."
"But I can't run as fast as you two." Kajika whispered softly.
"I will take you on my back. We must make haste!" She scooped up Kajika onto her back and started jogging. Helaku followed, stumpy legs working quicker than a true child's should.
The way was hard. Every day, they would rise with the sun and run until the sun was climbing down towards the horizon. They were not weak from hunger, just like she had predicted; instead they were tired. Usually when they woke up in the mornings, the three could draw strength off the people. Some days they just rested in the same spot, absolutely drained.
The next day after a rest Gaho would run a little faster than usual, to make up for lost time. She alternated twins, as well. Every two days she would take Helaku as her burden and Kajika would be the one pumping his little legs. He tired far more easily then Helaku, but he didn't complain, even when his feet were cut open from nettles.
It took them a little over a moon to get there, and the twins fair collapsed when they finally reached her destination. She didn't make them get up, but instead sought out a tribe closest to the shore.
"What is this? I have heard news of strange canoes that are ashore the islands." she said curtly.
"They are. The tribes there are committing suicide then to bend to their ways." Gaho put a hand to her mouth. The creatures were bad indeed if the tribes on the islands preferred death.
"Are they hooved? Clawed? Beaked? Or with fur, feathers? Wings?" she demanded.
"No. They are men from across the sea, and they came in gigantic canoes."
She reeled, her thoughts going in all directions. Men from across the sea? The sea extended to the end of the world, she'd thought! How could these strange men cross it? With the canoes with white wings? And how badly did those men rule and conquer if they drove tribes to suicide? Surely they did not wish to anger the gods by harming people for no reason!
"There is one more thing." The chief broke in on her thoughts. "These men…their eyes are blue, green, and grey, and their skin pale as the moon. And one had golden hair!"
That made her laugh, finally. It was too fantastical-men from across the sea with moonfaces and blue eyes and sun-hair, with canoes and wings! Things like that were children's stories. She felt a flash of fear, however, when she remembered Helaku's eyes.
"It is true!"
She knew this man. Ten winters hence, she'd gone into the camp and seen him as a young brave. He was a solid, no-nonsense youngling and as a chief was the same. She could ill afford to not believe him. Her merriment subsided.
"If even half of your stories are true, then we cannot make enemies of these things that wear men's faces. Do not go to war with them yet."
"Aye." said the chief. Then he said, "You look hungry, Gaho. Eat, and rest."
She smiled wanly. "Me and my boys have been running non-stop for a moon to get here. We'd enjoy your fish."
Gaho didn't wake the twins, but carried them to the camp. They'd grown little over the past eleven years; she feared they never would.
When she'd laid them on the ground beside a cook-fire, however, they woke up at the smell of cooked fish, which the women gave to them. Kajika swallowed hard, wanting to appear strong, and forced himself to eat slowly, but Helaku had no such qualms. He fell upon the fish hungrily and ate three in the time it took Kajika to eat one. Gaho, like her quiet son, ate neatly and didn't spare a single bit of flesh on the fish. She only ate two. The twins ate nine between them. The children gathered around, curious at these three visitors who were allowed to eat so much.
Gaho paid them no mind, but Helaku held out a fish to one of the children, a girl. Kajika immediately did the same to another. The small ones saw that they were willing to share and soon they were chattering amongst themselves and sitting with the strangers.
"We ran for moons and moons! Almost a season!" boasted Helaku to his captivated audience. "And we were chased by wolves and bears and crocodiles and alligators and-"
"It was hard doing it, but we ran for a moon." Kajika said shyly to a girl not much older than himself. "Gaho was the best though. She carried me and my brother from time to time."
Gaho smiled. This was the first time she'd let her boys talk without her and they seemed to be accepted easily. She rested her back against a tree and closed her eyes, glorying in food and not having to keep moving.
She'd offered to hunt for fish to make up for what the twins had eaten the next day. She was waved aside, laughing.
Afterwards, she doubled back to get her things and continued to go through her terrirories, secure in the fact that her people could survive this threat. They were no island, easily conquered.
Or so she thought.
When she was scrubbing Helaku and Kajika's skins, she noticed that they were a few shades lighter than her own. She almost panicked, but reminded herself that the dirt of their travels stained them much darker than they normally were, and her own skin was not cleaned yet.
One day, Kajika wanted to know what the desert looked like.
"Can't you remember?" laughed Gaho.
He looked seriously at her. "No."