Tails in the water

That evening the village held a small celebration. I was told that they didn’t just always celebrate, but they carefully considered if even the smallest event was worth to be celebrated.

Catching a big fish, was considered one of those occasions for more than one reason. First: it was rather rare to actually find one of those and trick them into taking the bait. Second: if somebody caught such a big fish, it was usually too much food for one person alone and also too much to prepare for a long-term storage, which usually meant it had to be eaten the day it had been caught.

That was how I found myself being at a Party I would consider to be kind of different from everything I have ever seen before.

Of course there was food, since today’s occasion was the caught fish that had to be eaten, everything else would have been strange. For drinks they served water that was taken from the small river flowing through the village which then in turn could be prepared with some berries, either fresh or fermented, to be turned a little more interesting.

The fish had been sliced into many small pieces and covered in different herbs before it was placed into an oversized frying pan and placed above a campfire to fry.

The younger people were lightly chatting, while the older people yet again made the appearance of offering their kids.

“Such a tall young man, isn’t he?”

“Tall, indeed.”

These words were spoken more than once. Sometimes they didn’t talk about the height but about how smart or beautiful somebody was, but in the end the talk among the older people stayed the same.

“We have a small population of human on this island. That makes genetic variety not only important but difficult. We are barely enough people to prevent from getting children with too close relatives. That’s why everybody is so eager to get their children a partner as far out of the family as possible.”, explained the old woman, who appeared next to me without my notice.

“Is that so?”, I asked.

“How many people do you think live here?”, she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe 50 to 80?”

“71. And about 200 more in other villages. We have some struggles with them but if it comes to this topic, we somehow manage to get along well enough since its profitable for both sides anyways.”

“So that’s what’s left of humanity? About less than 300 people, bound to be wiped out in an instant?”

“Do you now understand why we live the way we do? The extinction of humanity has happened generations ago, just our species is too stubborn or too stupid to understand it. Maybe there are others out there but I have given up on this thought long ago. And there are only two possibilities for those who remain: losing yourself in despair or accepting that you still exist and that you should live your life without regrets. Because death is inevitable. Just nobody knows when, where and how many of us he will take with him.”

She patted my shoulder.

“Enjoy the time.”

She left with these words as quickly as she had appeared.

As I started to feel hungry, I went to get a piece of the fish. The fish tasted dry and somehow bitter, the herbs used on it made it somewhat edible, but I guess that this as well fell under the category of being happy to live at all. Or maybe they actually liked this or were just used to it.

The fish came along with some sort of bread that itself also was a little bitter in taste. On the other hand, sweet bread would only make the fish taste even more bitter. There were many options to view different things.

But if the whole point of this was to enjoy life, the food might just taste a little better., I thought to myself as I chewed on the fish. If I hadn’t felt hungry after basically working all day long, I would have preferred not to eat it. Now it was necessary to eat this thing.

Meanwhile the mood among the people started to lighten up and some people brought instruments.

It was nothing special, but they gave a rhythm for the people who wanted to dance. And there were many of them.

“I saw one!”, screamed a man who came running towards the village.

The old woman walked towards him and looked into his eyes while holding both of his arms in her hands to stop and calm him.

“What did you see?”, she asked in a soothing tone, almost too quiet to be heard by the people around.

“A huge tail. In the water. Likely even larger than Oomisi. If it had put some force into it the wave the thing would have caused while entering the water could have sunk us already.”, he said. What he had seen had clearly shocked him more than anything else in his entire life.

“So, the sounds I heard back then actually came from one of those big fish.”, I mumbled to myself. There was no need to tell anyone. Otherwise, they might think I guided it to them and burn me in the campfire or something like that. People in panic can do crazy things. So can groups of people. So, if a group of people gets into a panic, you don’t want to be the first to stick out of the mass.

“Don’t worry. How far away was the tail you saw?”, asked the old woman.

“It could be clearly seen against the setting sun.”

“Maybe it didn’t recognize us or just didn’t feel hungry at the moment. We can’t do anything about it anyways.”

“I wish we could.”

“But some things can’t be changed. And others can. So, let’s work on the things we can change.”

Her attempts to distract him started to slowly melt his panic away, but it was clear that she herself would have preferred if this day would never come or if she could prevent it from happening. But to kill something big enough to swallow a turtle the size of an island, would likely require nuclear weapons or something just as or even more destructive. The only other solution would be solid ground. A large landmass, which nobody had seen for generations. Great outlooks on the future of these people.

I somehow got the feeling it really might be my fault that this thing appeared. I still didn’t know how much power these voices possessed, but it might be within their abilities, to guide these creatures into somewhat accurate directions to come and kill me another time.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”, I said to myself.