Walking A Large Border Part One
Sometime in Prarownthistory...
She kept her eyes on the horizon, watching for an enemy, or potential enemy. This was a Grandmother's duty, to walk the territory and ensure that she understood everything that happened inside it.
And these newcomers that came in metal boxes that burned the sky left her painfully uninformed. How could something built by a hand rise so high? Some Rownt claimed to have then seen them vanish out of the heavens as if the old gods had plucked them out of existence.
Impossible.
More concerning, the people had started to think of these odd sights as normal. Many in the younger ranks dismissed the sights as unimportant, but she remembered when the strangers had first come and Grandmothers had walked out with weapons to watch for enemies. She remembered a time when there was no burning above them, when there were no strangers with their misshapen bodies and unintelligible words.
She remembered when Prarownt had been filled with nothing more than the Rownt who had always lived here. And if these strangers with their strange boxes wished to come into her territory, she had a sacred duty protect her people. That was the vow she had taken as a Grandmother.
She walked with a reialet in her hand, the spiked edges pointed toward the ground in a gesture that, if these beings were rational, they would understand meant that she did not seek battle. But she carried it openly in a sign that she would happily engage in it anyway.
Considering that these strange creatures had the ability to rise into the air, she was not convinced that her reialet would save her if she found a battle, and she was not even sure that the high-energy projectile weapon hidden about her person would save her. However, if she died in battle, perhaps then the other Grandmothers would understand the danger in allowing strangers to walk unchallenged on Rownt land. As far as they were concerned, as long as the strangers did not move into the towns themselves, it was not the business of any Grandmother to interfere with them.
She disagreed.
She reached the top of the hill and looked down to the valley where travelers reported that the strangers had landed their flying carts and set up a village. The sight horrified her. Some great monster had cut the earth until it bled.
Unnatural pools of red and black water stood on the edge of giant machines that resembled oversized insects infesting a field. Piles of rocks were flung about and the land had been ruined for both hunter and prey. Her nose tightened in disgust at the sheer waste laid out in front of her. What benefit did powerful beings gain from damaging the planet? It made no sense to her, and there was a small part of her that wished to deny the existence of that which made no sense. But she was a rational creature, a student of calti—the belief that all things made sense if one only had enough information. She had to believe that these monsters who had invaded her world had some logic beyond the illogical desire to ruin what others used.
She headed down the steep slope, her fingers tight around the handle of her reialet. Others believed she was too quick to take alarm, but even the calmest of Grandmothers would feel the horror of this moment. She searched for some sign of life other than the machines that appeared to function without any to handle them. Some part of her had to admire the creators of such wonders, but why would they use such talents to create such harm.
It made no sense, and once again she vowed to herself that she would lay no more eggs until she had found a way to make sense of the world once again. A door opened in what she had thought was a solid wall, and a creature appeared. She had seen strangers like this one before, but from a distance. It had legs like a prey animal, but the two front ended in formidable weapons—claws that made her wary of the creature's intentions. Very little scared her. She had fought kawt and won, and few things were more dangerous than a hunting kawt.
However, up close, these strangers made her doubt her ability to take care of herself. The creature appeared fragile with long, insubstantial legs. But then it slammed those claws down, and the ground trembled. It had power.
It also had hands tucked up under the belly, and it clutched tools or weapons of some sort. She wondered what sort of weapons might be made by creatures with the power to make houses fly into the sky.
The creature lumbered closer, stopping outside attack distance. Then it squatted with the huge back legs folded under it. It had hair like a prey animal, but it was as thick as grass, and much the same color.
She stood taller. “I am the third eldest Grandmother of the town of Prabrateakil, a hunter of kawt and trader of kawt skins. I am the chosen acolyte of the eldest Grandmother of Pratoalta and one respected for my study of biological systems.”
She stopped, not sure what to add. Her horror would have her demand for an explanation for the carnage all around her. Her training in calti would tell her to ask these strange creatures for answers until she understood what purpose they could have in doing such harm. Her duty as a Grandmother made her fear that anything that could wreck such havoc posed a danger to her town.
Unable to choose a course of action, she remained silent and waited for some sign that these strange creatures understood her. For all she knew, she could be talking to the equivalent of a domesticated beast of burden. The creature shifted with its too many legs. Those limbs bent at angles that made her worry about their ability to strike an enemy. Or perhaps she should worry more about the hands along the creature's belly, hands that grasped strange tools that she could not understand.
Finally, the creature spoke. “You are one who breeds.” The Rownt words came out of the machine at the creature’s feet. It was an accurate description, if inexplicable. Every Rownt could breed. She was not unique in that. However, the words were true. “Yes.”
The creature chittered. “Why do you come here and here?” it asked.
