Interlude

The next morning two people were walking on a beach a little further away from their homes than they usually would walk.

There was nothing really special about this morning but still every morning was special to them because the sun had returned once more, and they had been allowed to wake up and live another day.

They were enjoying the first rays of the sunlight on their suntanned skin and rubbed their arms as if to get rid of the cold nightly air that had surrounded their bodies for the last hours.

That was when they saw something lying on the beach in the distance. It was dark and rather big compared to the small shells or sticks that usually got washed up. Maybe a larger piece of wood this time?

The two of them approached the thing until they could tell that whatever this was, it looked like a human.

“You think he is dead? Where did he come from?”

“Looks strange. Better don’t touch him. What if he’s got some nasty diseases? We can’t afford losing too many of our people.”

“He doesn’t look sick.”

“They never do. Also, we don’t know what he is.”

“Well, he is obviously human, isn’t he?”

“Have you seen him around here? Also look at these clothes. They don’t look like anything we produce around here.”

“Maybe it’s somebody from the mainland!”

“The mainland nobody has seen in centuries?”

“Maybe we were just not looking correctly for it.”

The one person who seemed less suspicious about the whole situation, took a look around and went to pick up a tree branch that was laying under a pine tree that was growing on the outskirts of a forest. The person returned and presented it proudly to the other one.

“That will do!”

“What will do?! What are you planning again?”

“I will just check on him. Imagine he really is from the mainland.”

The person lifted the stick to poke the person on the floor.

“What are you doing? If he was from the mainland then why should he be here?”

The other person grabbed the first person’s arm and stopped the attempt.

“Maybe he was sent to find other people!”

“We don’t need other people. We have each other! And that went well for a long time.”

“But for how long will it? Our relationship with the Madi worsened with increasing speed recently.”

“Who cares about the Madi? We still have the Sen on our side. The Madi will have to forget about their childish grudges before they are in need of fresh blood for their kin.”

“I know but…. talking about fresh blood for the kin….”

“No! Don’t even think about it!”

“He is kind of good looking. I’m sure there would be somebody for him.”

“Did you forget about the whole ‘they don’t always look sick’-thing from just a minute ago?”

“We can isolate him for a few days.”

“And us with him, I suppose?”

“Well, if that’s what it takes to save the Tolar from extinction, it’s a small price to pay, don’t you think as well?”

With these words the first person lifted the branch again and poked the stranger on the ground into the face.

The stranger twitched as if a fly landed on him. As the poking continued, he tried to brush it off with his hand, which made the first person stop.

“He is still alive. Just sleeping.”

“Obviously.”

“Maybe he got shipwrecked?”

“But what about the ship?”

“If he had encountered one of the Great Ones, there would be nothing left.”

“They indeed wouldn’t bother for such a toothpick to escape them.”

“What do you think we should do now?”

“If we just push him back into the water….”

“We can’t do that! That would be his death!”

“Keeping him here, could be ours!”

“If we push him into the sea, we would get infected as well. Thinking about it we are goners since we started this talk.”

The second person sighed. Of course, this was true, but the possibility of one’s own death was something that was never easily accepted.

“So, you say, that we take him home.”

“I think this is what Oomisi would want.”

“Why would Oomisi want that?”

“She took our ancestors with her. And now we are taking this one here with us. It’s a full circle of people doing good and receiving gratitude and then the ones who received the done good do something good themselves.”

“I hate when idealistic talks make sense.”

“Don’t you think we should ask Mika before we bring him in?”

“We can’t leave him here alone as well.”

“If we stay away for too long, they will look after us.”

“Then you go and tell everyone, and I just wait here and have a look after him.”

“What if he wakes up?”

“I can handle him. He doesn’t look like he is in the best shape.”

With these words the person lifted the branch another time and held it like a spear before laughing.

“I hope you will still be joking around when I return.”

The second person left, but not without turning around a few times and checking if the situation had changed.

The first person waited for a few moments and then sat down next to the stranger.

He was wearing strange clothes and a hat, both of the kind that the person had never seen before.

“Finally, a new face. I wonder which stories you will have to tell as soon as you wake up.”

The stranger breathed evenly but a little too shallow to not worry about his physical state.

“Don’t worry. We will help you as soon as we brought you into our village. I’m sure you will like it. We made it as cozy as possible. We even have a river. Nobody knows where it starts, but we have it. Without it we wouldn’t have anything to drink, you know? It’s a small sanctum to us. We try to keep it clean at all cost.”

In the distance the person could see a group of people approaching.

“Too bad. Apparently, Mika herself wants to see who we got here. Mika is the eldest person in our village. We trust her. She is smart, you know? I’m sure she will want to help you. But for now, our talk is over.”