The Kin (35 page)

“I am not hungry,” he muttered.

“Ko, you are sad,” she said. “What is your sadness? Tell.”

He sighed, and in a low voice, not looking at her, told her about his dream, and waking. She didn't answer at once, but took his hand in hers and sat thinking. Then, without letting go, she rose to her feet.

“Come,” she said. “Now you tell Tinu.”

“No,” he said, without moving. “I do not want this.”

“Come,” she repeated firmly. “This is good for Tinu.”

She pulled him up. Both reluctant and relieved he followed her to where Tinu was grinding grass seed by spreading it out on a flat boulder and rocking a rounded stone back and forth across it. Since the feast when Chogi had suggested that she and Nar should choose each other for mates, Tinu had been even quieter and more withdrawn than usual. Now she hardly seemed to notice as Ko muttered his story again, and when he'd finished she continued rocking the stone back and forth, and sweeping the seeds back together as they spread out, without saying anything.

“Tinu,” said Mana. “How do we kill this crocodile?”

Tinu stopped her work and looked directly at Ko. For the first time in days he saw her smile her twisted smile.

“Ko … This is … difficult,” she mumbled. “I think.”

Ko thanked her, and left her to her seed grinding.

Tinu did think, too. Ko could tell, because several times while they were foraging down at the inlet he saw her standing by herself, quite still, heedless of the cloud of insects swarming round her and crawling over her body. Then her hands would start to weave invisible shapes in front of her, and she'd frown at them and shake her head and irritably brush the insects away and go back to foraging.

This made Ko feel that he didn't need to worry about the problem for himself, so he went off into a good dream in which he, Ko, found a secret way across the marsh and led everybody over to the wonderful Good Places on the further side. Before long he was far away, enjoying the imaginary feast when they'd caught their first deer, and of all the boasts and praises round the fire none was better than Ko's, who had found the way across the marsh.

Without warning the ground gave way under his feet. He landed with a bump and shouted aloud with the shock of it. Suth, just ahead of him, turned and laughed.

“Ko,” he said. “The hunter watches where he puts his foot.”

Several other foragers had seen what happened and were laughing too. Nar was one of them. Ko scrambled out of the pit he'd dropped into—it was only waist deep—and kicked angrily at the mat of fallen grass stems that had hidden it.

“I watch,” he snarled. “See, this grass hides the hole.”

Suth laughed again and turned away. Ko was still uselessly trying to think of something else to say when Tinu came and knelt beside the hole.

Carefully she rearranged the grass stems to cover it and then scattered some handfuls of loose earth over them.

“Tinu, what do you do?” asked Ko.

“Ko … We kill … crocodile …” she answered. “You show … how.”

During the midday rest Ko watched her chip out a little circular pit in the ground, and then fiddle with twigs and stems to cover it, and finally hide it under a layer of fine earth. When she was ready, Ko fetched Suth and Tinu showed him how the crocodile could be lured onto the trap and made to fall through into the pit. She used a stubby twig for the monster and a smaller one for the person who would be the living bait to tempt it out of the water.

“Like we kill the demon lion?” said Suth. And then, smiling, “Ko, you are bait again?”

Ko scowled. This was a tease he didn't enjoy, because it was about one of his stupid-Ko times, so long ago that he didn't remember. But he kept getting told how he'd gone running off into a dangerous place, and Noli had come after him. Then this demon lion had almost caught them, but Noli had run with Ko to the trap that the men had built, which meant that someone up above could drop a rock on the lion and kill it.

When Tinu had rebuilt the model Suth fetched the rest of the men and showed them her idea. They discussed it round the fire that evening, but they weren't very interested.

“This is much, much work,” said Kern.

The others laughed, because Kern always avoided serious hard work if he could, but then Var said, “Kern speaks truth. There is food here for five days, six days, I do not know. There is no meat. Soon we must go. Do we make ourselves weak, digging this hole? I say no.”

Net said, “I say we fetch salt. Some fetch salt. Some journey west. They look for a new Good Place.”

They discussed it to and fro, but decided in the end to spend next day gathering extra food for the two expeditions to take with them, and then to set out on the day after that. If the group exploring the edge of the marsh came back without finding a fresh source of food, then they would think about trying to kill the crocodile.

That night Ko had his nightmare again, just as bad as before, only this time he was by the inlet and the crocodile was coming and cleverly he was running towards the trap the men had dug … but they hadn't, they'd gone to fetch salt instead, and Ko was alone, alone in the dark desert, lost, and his legs wouldn't run, and the horrible thud was coming nearer and nearer …

This time when he woke Noli didn't stir. It was the same again next night. He was too terrified to get back to sleep, so he crept out of the camp in the dark and made his way up to the ridge, and settled down there to stare out over the marshes.

During the night the heat haze cleared away, and bands of pale mist formed, very beautiful under the setting moon. Then, just as the sun rose, these too cleared, and for a little while he could see the whole marsh, reed beds and mudbanks and water, with fair-sized islands here and there, some of them with real trees on them. Ko would have liked to stay on and search for signs of a path, but by now the camp was stirring, and he didn't want to answer questions about where he'd been, so he slipped back and joined the others.

He was afraid of the crocodile during the day too, but it was a different kind of fear, the same as everyone else's. They all stayed well clear of the water whenever they couldn't see the monster basking on one of its islands, but most of the time it was no worse than a serious nuisance. Only when the call went up from one of the lookouts to warn everyone that the crocodile had left its island, did Ko feel a shadow of his night-time fear. Then he would gaze out across the peaceful surface of the inlet, and know that the monster was hidden somewhere underneath, almost certainly coming nearer and nearer, trying once more to catch somebody being careless …

As soon as the men had set out on their expeditions Chogi called the women together.

“Hear me,” she said, in her solemn, anxious manner. “I, Chogi, say this. The men are gone. Now we women dig the pit. The men come back. It is done. The men kill the crocodile. We have meat. We reach more plant food. We stay here ten days, and ten more. Noli's baby is born. It is strong. We are strong. We gather food. We store it. Then we journey on, far and far. Is this good?”

They all agreed, and started as soon as they had found enough food for the day. They chose a spot about twenty paces up one of the patches of open ground that sloped down to the water, cut themselves digging sticks like the men's, and started to dig.

Meanwhile the older children, Ko, Mana and Nar, broke branches off bushes and built a low barrier between the shoreline and the pit, so that they could keep watch without the crocodile being able to see them so dangerously close to the water. When the barrier was ready, the three of them spread out along it, crouched down and stared across the still waters of the inlet. Each of them had a pile of stones beside them, ready to throw.

It wasn't long before Mana called softly and pointed. Ko stared. Yes! There! A dark shape like a piece of waterlogged wood just breaking the surface, but moving very gently, closer and closer …

Nar was at that end of the barrier. Mana and Ko ran to join him. As soon as the crocodile was in range they stood up and flung their stones. They'd all been throwing stones at targets almost since they were babies, because that was one of their vital skills. A good hunter would expect to knock a bird out of a tree at least one time in three if he got a clear shot at it. Now a shower of rocks rained suddenly down around the monster's snout. At least one scored a direct hit. There was a violent swirl in the water beyond, and when the surface settled the crocodile was gone.

Ko went back to his place and crouched there with his heart pounding. Time passed, and then he and Mana both saw the same dark patch some way out, again coming slowly shoreward. This time it vanished below the surface before it came in range, but the inlet was so still that Ko could see the faint ripple made by something large, moving just below the surface, aiming for his end of the barrier. He called, and the others ran to help. When the ripple was near enough they showered the place with rocks, and again there was that sudden heavy swirl in the water as the crocodile turned and fled.

It tried once more that morning before it gave up and returned to its island. It stayed there, basking, through the hottest part of the afternoon, so Ko and Nar went to help carry soil away from the pit, while Mana kept watch alone.

It was heavy work. Tinu had woven mats from reeds. Two of the women loosened the earth with digging sticks. Four others scooped it out onto mats with their hands, and the rest dragged it clear on the mats. After a while these fell apart, but there were plenty of reeds, so Tinu was kept busy weaving fresh mats. Any stones they dug out they put aside, the smaller ones for throwing at the crocodile, and the big ones for the men to use later, when they'd caught it.

After a while Mana called to say that the crocodile had left its island, so Ko and Nar ran to help drive it away. Four times more that afternoon the enemy came nosing in, each time seeming bolder, getting nearer, and staying longer. The last time, instead of heading back out of range, it turned along the shoreline, as if it were searching for a way past them, while they followed it, yelling and flinging their stones, until it disappeared beyond the thicket that lay along the water's edge.

By now it was getting dark, and they could no longer keep watch in safety. The diggers were exhausted too, so they gave up and trooped back to their camp. On his way, Ko jumped into the pit and found it was already waist deep.

He lay down that night feeling pleased and cheerful. With a little help from Mana and Nar, he, Ko, had kept the demon crocodile at bay all day. He'd beaten it. If he could do that once, he could do it again. He could do it in his dreams.

But no. The daytime triumph made no difference to the night horror. He was crouched behind the barrier, watching with the others, but then he was alone, and it was dark, and he was staring out over the moonlit inlet, waiting for the attack, and the rocks that he'd piled ready were somehow gone, and the monster was already ashore, behind him in the dark … and now the thud of that terrifying charge began …

He woke then as usual, and crept out of the camp and up to his watch point, where he sat staring over the dark marshes, waiting for sunrise.

The next two days were much the same. At some point the children must have scored some good hits on the crocodile, which had hurt it even through its armoured hide. At least it seemed warier for a while, turning away as soon as the first rocks splashed down. But it didn't give up.

Meanwhile the women kept digging. The work became harder as the pit got deeper, and by the time the men returned with the salt on the second afternoon, the sides had to be shored up with branches to stop them falling in. Half teasingly, the men praised the women, but they didn't stay to help. Their excuse was that on their way back, already laden with salt, they had found a place where there were good cutter stones, so next morning they set out to collect them, leaving the women to work on alone.

On the fourth day there was a change. The crocodile wasn't on its island, and when they reached the inlet they found to their alarm that it had been ashore in the night. The barrier had been pushed aside in two places, and they could see the creature's huge footprints and the dragging groove of its tail all over the area around the pit. They rebuilt the barrier and Ko and Nar crouched tensely down to watch while Mana went to collect more rocks.

Almost at once the crocodile attacked. It came in a single rush, without warning, straight out of the water, lashing the surface to foam and beginning that awful pouncing leap as it burst through the middle of the barrier with the water still streaming from its dark scaly flanks. If Mana had been at her place it would surely have got her.

Ko had a stone ready in his hand. He yelled and flung it, and raced up the slope. The women were helping each other scramble from the pit, and then they were all fleeing from the attack. At the top of the slope they turned and watched the monster snuffling frustratedly around the pit, smelling the traces of the good fresh meat it hungered for.

Ko studied it, shuddering. Sometimes, when he was only thinking about it, he wondered if he wasn't making it even bigger in his imaginings than it really was. But he'd been right. It was massive and horrible. He wondered if the pit was going to be big enough to hold it, supposing the men could lure it into falling in. At last it gave up and dragged itself back to the water and disappeared. When they saw it climb out onto the nearest island they went back to work, with one of the children to keep an eye on it.

Twice more that morning it attacked, but it didn't seem to realize that the watcher could see when it left the island, so everyone was safely out of reach by the time it came ashore. The interruptions were maddening, because the women were determined to finish before the men came home that evening. So they worked on through the dense, steamy heat of midday, with the sweat streaming from them and a cloud of insects as thick as the marsh haze swarming around them.