Curious about this camp, she let the subject go to look around before she lost her chance. What was this structure? At times smooth and others rough. They walked by cabinets in the walls. He stopped opening one, pulling out a dark black and brown fur. Tanned by an artisan’s hand, it was soft as butter. Cream. The prime fur, from an animal she had never seen, was silky under her fingers.
She realized this natural structure was a giant hollowed-out tree. Their bed was off to the side in a deep indent. The grand scale of the sight in front of Annabell challenged her perceptions and understandings about trees and space. Huge. It was huge. With a smoke hole above, tiers wound down to a center circle where a large fire burned. With shallow, carved-out resting places for beds in the upper level, there was space inside of the tree for many more than the twelve Orki of a single hunting party. Since it was daylight now, it was the Orki night. She could hear the moans and cries of other women. It was impossible not to let her eyes fall where she heard them loudest. Orki males gathered down by the large circle of the fire pit around a blonde woman. Carried quickly to the exit, forbidden to see any other Orki or people, Doku-ni gave her no chance to understand what she saw.
"Annabell join the community fire and watch?" he asked. He knew she had been looking around.
Shifting her attention, guilty, she lowered her eyes, afraid to look at him. Every time Annabell attempted to see her surroundings and other Originals were in the way, he turned her face into his chest, refusing to let her see. Now she had permission to look around? "The woman with the yellow hair is my sister by marriage."
"Yellow hair is succor. Anna wish to join the fire?" His question was low and gruff.
"Is she alright? What is succor? Can I go talk to her?"
He stopped, turned her to face the center of the structure where the fire burned and she could see Lurann. Not just at the fire, but engaged in a complicated sex act with two Orki at once. "Join the fire?" he asked.
"Join them? No. No. Is she a bride? No. I don't want to… join them."
Turning away from the scene, he said, "See community fire. Fire cooks ni-Orki food, warms ni-Orki, shares life ni-Orki. In the fire, we are ni-Orki. Out of the fire, we are Orki-ni. Orki group, but we are not the same. Orki-ni individuals. The fire is community, ni-Orki. Anna sees the community. Anna-Doku-ni-Orki. All invited to the fire, food and company."
His strides ate up space to the exit. Outside, the forest greeted her with more green hues than she had ever seen. In the vague memory points of her journey, she had noted the difference in the terrain and plant life, but this, by far, was the most wooded and succulent. One moment they were in a mote of daylight, the next, they were in the shadows, following a dark corridor of a path between the trees. The tree with the camp inside of it was not the only mammoth grower. This forest was a city of them, growing so tightly together that the path was in shadows that mimicked nighttime. Even on scale next to the Orki, the trees were huge.
Following behind them, silently, catching the light on their gray skins, were three Orki. Annabell saw them over Doku-ni's shoulder. Glancing away, she pretended she saw nothing.
"Eyes on Doku-ni, Annabell. Glass water dangerous, but good for washing. Doku-ni strong but not stupid. Brothers will help to protect my redress woman."
"What is dangerous?"
"Glass water has sisskot kru," he informed her.
"Sharp fish," Annabell translated.
"Armored fish with sharp teeth," he said.
"And that is where we are washing?" She heard her voice rise in pitch at the idea.
A grunt answered her that Annabell took to mean yes.
He carried her to the 'glass water' the entire way. Keeping her eyes ahead of them, she wondered at the different kinds of foliage. Moss and ferns grew in abundance here, all different varieties, and colors of green, over rocks and up the sides of trees. Some mosses were decorated with gold mushrooms. Other mushrooms grew on the trees, big, black hooded things, with white spots that looked like something found them delicious. She noticed round-headed red ones, flower-like with lacy edges, in tight clusters.
There were bushes, with leaves she recognized, that grew along the Peace River, and other plants she didn't, like the delicate star-shaped flowers growing in bunches under the shade of tall, leafy plants with broad spade-shaped leaves. The place was beautiful.
As she had in areas during their travel, she heard the chittering of birds and tree critters. She smiled, catching sight of the back end of a black and white speckled animal, its long tail fluffing big as they approached, before turning sharp and whip-like as it dashed away.
The path led to a bank and a thin beach of round, dark blue river stones. Annabell twitched to get down out of Doku-ni's arms and examine everything about this different forest.
Passing them, the three other Orki sentries spread out on either side and went down to the beach. Holding long spear-ended poles, she saw them poke at bushes and the tree line, as if stirring a pot. Did the armored fish like to sleep on land? Catching her looking, Doku-ni shook her in his arms, giving the low grunt in his chest, which vibrated through her sharp and hard.
The reprimand stung. "I only see you."
"Do not look at brother. I have said."
"Yes. But it's very difficult not to watch my surroundings."
"Doku-ni watch. Keep Anna safe. Brothers watch. Keep Doku-ni redress safe."
Turning her face into his chest, she kissed him.
His answering grunt was softer now. That strange metal and wire had been around his neck for a long time. It baffled her how it worked that he could breathe and eat but not talk, his ability to communicate so many things with that one sound was rather remarkable.
The other Orki must have checked everything. She heard them use a word that she thought meant "clean."
