Sorry for the short chapter. I'll post another one tomorrow. It was going to be longer, but I realized that the next bits are important and you guys need to read that without this cluttering it.
But yeah. It's ending in about *counts* three chapters. Peace out! This is the last chapter with any history! Now I'm just BS'ing!
Soon the silver-tongued one was stirring up her lands. He had a firm foothold on her land now, after she'd tried desperately to destroy everything he'd erected. He'd founded a city- Quebec, that was what he called it- and now he'd allied himself with some of her tribes. He'd even seen Kajika. He called Kajika by a different name. Canada. He still didn't have Kajika. All he did was trade with her people.
Gaho had no choice but to accept it. She had some of her people learn the language so that she could understand what he said. They learned and said that his official (official? That reminded her of her sister, and it ached) name was France. His given name was Francis.
That confused her. This, this France, had two names? What was the purpose?
She decided to talk to this France.
When they met again, face-to-face, she made sure yet again that her boys were hiding. If France stole one of them, she knew instinctively that the land would be his forever.
Her poor boys. Helaku's strange transformation seemed to have stopped, but now Kajika was almost entirely pale and his hair was already changing.
"Who is this demon who terrorizes my lands and my sister to the south?" she demanded first. The translator got an answer from him, and France's face was darkened as if by memory.
"Gaho, he says the demon is named Espagne. He is not usually a demon. He has two faces; a bright and sunny one that is gentle, and one that is the demon you saw."
"Ask him what has happened to my children to the south."
The translator-Hassun, she remembered-looked scared. "But, Gaho, can you not go-"
"No. He blocks me." she fingered her ribs-scars crossed it when his iron-toed boots had cut- and counted herself lucky that the man only broke one at a time, and did not actively seek her out. She also traced the scar that crossed her arm.
France noticed the motion and surmised that Espagne had cut her and at least bruised her in the ribs. These people might have been savages, but what Espagne was doing in the south put a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Qu'est-qu'elle a dit?" he asked.
Kes kelladi? What could that mean? wondered Gaho. The translator started talking to France in his language.
He talked back.
She sat there confused at the exchange of gibberish.
"He wanted to know what you said. He also wants to know who Canada is."
Gaho sucked in her breath. "I know of no such Canada." she said fearfully. When the man's eyes darkened at her answer, she pushed away from the table and spoke to him with flashing eyes.
"I do not care what you do-you will trade, bargain, I do not care. But if you lay a finger on my people, I will tear you limb from limb."
She ran out of the room, the strange cries of France following her, all the way to the hiding place. She buried her face into the hair of her boys, and simply stayed that way.