Callie looks down into the depths. “Are there monster?”
“No, no. There are no krai here.” I reach one hand out. “But there are in the jungle. You should come here before… oh no, is that a rekh?” I look past her.
She squeals and takes my hand, stepping quickly into the canoe without looking behind her. The canoe wobbles as she sits down and turns her head. “Where is rekh?”
I start paddling with the small oar. “I must have seen wrong.”
She snorts. “You not even looking. You know is no rekh. You trick poor small woman, get her in silly boat.”
“Yes,” I admit. “To my credit, it worked. Now, I should tell you about the lake monster.”
She pulls her feet close in alarm. “What?!You said no monster in lake!”
“I said no krai,” I point out as I slowly paddle us towards the island. “Which is true. But many would call the lake monster worse.”
“Worse than akrai?Can we go back now, please? I forgot my… stick.”
“The lake monster is… well, it’s not as big as the krai. Some say it comes from far away. And it looks very nice, so many don’t understand how dangerous it is. It will talk to you, and make you like it. It seems completely harmless. Then it will get you naked and do nice things with you. And then it falls asleep. Very terrible monster.”
Callie frowns, then lightly slaps my shoulder. “That isme!No, it isyouwho is terrible monster. Kidnap small woman from beach, and force her to eat splix.”
I grin and open the pack I brought. “I thought you liked splix.”
“Well, yes,” she sniffs. “I like it very. But what if not? What you do? Only monster force woman.”
I hand her a juice pot, smoked splix wrapped in seaweed, and half afinatfruit. “Perhaps we’re both monsters. But monsters need to eat, too.”
She accepts the food and digs in right away.
My heart swells at the sight, but I’m not sure why. She must be at least part monster, giving her this power over me.
The canoe bumps against the island, and I carefully stand up in the wildly unstable vessel, then pull it halfway onto shore with Callie still in it. “Now we monsters can get ashore.”
She takes my hand and steps out. “They are Lifegivers?”
The boys are grown in four Lifegivers here, one resting and three in various stages of the growth process. “That’s how our boys are born,” I tell her as we walk up to one. “I was grown in that one.” I point to the resting pod. “Another boy was taken out of it a few moons ago, but it will soon be ready for a new one. This one has about one moon left.” I gently lift the outer leaf so the boy inside can be seen.
Callie’s mouth hangs open. “That is a baby!” She kneels to get a better look, giving me a great view of her rear.
Oh, mighty Deep… “Yes… baby…” I pull myself together. “If you want, you can watch when he’s taken out.”
Callie stands back up. “Mmm. It is a strange thing.”
I let the covering leaf fall back into place. “It’s how we keep the tribe going. And it doesn’t look like the Adropo have been here. I was worried they might have wanted to avenge their dead tribesman by attacking our Lifegivers. But that would mean war.”
Callie goes to the bank and looks down into the water. It’s clear all the way to the sandy bottom. “Is there a monster or not?”
I get my spear out of the canoe. “There’s no monster except for us two.”
She looks around at the jungle separated from us by the pond. “Will men from the tribe come?”
“Usually some boys come here at noon, and sometimes old Gren’ix comes with them. Today Gren’ix knows I’m here and will probably not send any boys.”
She walks around the edge of the island, checking for monsters all around it. “Is the water clean?”
I kneel down and scoop a handful of water into my mouth. “Tastes clean. If you’re thirsty, we have more juice.”
“Not thirsty,” she says and stares across the pond to the place we came from. “But I feel dirty.” She reaches to her neck and loosens her garment.
