11
Helena had warmed up and the rain was slowing, so Mawei decided to get to the giant pine forest south of the creek to wait for her uncle. She hadn’t seen the twins since they passed and although it was still hard to smell much, she figured they would be far away by then. She held Helena under her arm and climbed down, jumping the last twelve feet or so. Having been followed made Mawei nervous, and her senses were more alert to her surroundings than usual. She was thinking about those twins and what they would do when they realized the trail had gone cold. If they were good trackers they would loop back around, so she still had to be careful.
The creek was swollen with rainwater, and Mawei put Helena on her shoulders to cross. Even as tall as Mawei was the creek was up to her armpits, and when Helena’s toes touched the water, she shrieked and clutched at Mawei’s head. On the far side Mawei scolded the child. “You can’t scream little one, we’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves.”
“I don’t care,” she said.
Mawei saw something out of the corner of her eye, some movement on the other side of the creek, but when she looked there was nothing there but rocks. She wished she’d stayed in the tree where at least she was hidden.
She moved fast, and soon she was in the woods among giant pine trees that loomed high above her. She hadn’t been around trees that size since she had gone with her father to see the redwood forest many years before. She suddenly felt small, which made her think about the child she was carrying. Smallness was a strange feeling and she wondered if the child felt that way all the time. The large trees provided some protection from the rain, and Mawei travelled into the breeze for a while so her uncle could find her. She hoped he would pick up her scent before the twins.
She sat on a rock with the child on her lap and thought about what a strange Gather it had been so far. In the past she had always gotten a special feeling at a Gather, like a warmth that went all the way through her, from the tips of her claws to the crown of her head, but it had been absent that year. Watching Sorchel give the Chronicle had almost brought it back, but she had to admit to herself that the feeling wasn’t quite there. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older she thought. A shiver went down her back and she squeezed Helena close.
Rei came up fast, flaring his nostrils. “Who’s here, is someone with you?”
“No uncle, the snow-yeti twins were chasing me but they passed in the downpour. Someone must’ve sent them after me, did you manage to shake your pursuers?”
“Yes,” he said, “thanks to the storm. I had no idea the council would be so hostile. They attacked me for merely comparing our culture to the human’s. Imagine if they found out about our little bird?”
“They know.” Mawei said. “Bobber saw you with the child on the other side of the west mountain range. The whole Gather was talking about it.”
“Bobber? She couldn’t have seen me,” Rei said, “if she was close enough to see me I would’ve known she was there. Anyway she’s a gossip, no one pays any attention to her.”
“But why did you bring the child here? You were supposed to take her to a human village,” Mawei curled her upper lip at her uncle. “She nearly froze up in that tree.” Helena let out an annoyed groan and threw her body forward, making Mawei reach to catch her. She put the child back on her lap. “The twins could come back at any moment, we have to get her out of here. It was stupid to bring her so close to a Gather.”
“But Mawei, she has every right to be here.” Rei said.
“What?”
“She has every right to be at a Gather.” He said.
“And why is that?”
“When this human began speaking something became clear to me. I had been on the verge of understanding a deep truth about the humans, and after two days with the child it’s become obvious. In fact it’s so obvious that I don’t know why I never thought of it before.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“What became clear to me is this: human beings are yetis. They are the fifth tribe! Don’t you see? Humans didn’t kill off the longhaired plains-yetis, the longhaired plains-yetis became human.”
Mawei looked at the child who seemed to be thinking of something far away from her present circumstances. “Because this human can speak yeti, you think she’s one of us?”
“No, not one of us exactly, but a distant relative. Down on the open plains the longhaired yetis would’ve been exposed to constant sunlight and moonlight, and everyone knows that celestial light has transformative qualities. Look at what sunlight does to a seed, or moonlight to a vine-flower. The yetis living on the plains would’ve been exposed to far more sunlight and moonlight than yetis living in caves or in the forest. That kind of constant exposure, through many generations, over thousands of years, would certainly have changed the way they look.”
“But humans are smaller than yetis and the sun makes things grow, not shrink.”
“When it comes to plants maybe, but an animal is different,” he said, “every animal that lives in a desert is small isn’t it?”
“Maybe you’re right, but we still have to decide what to do with the human.” Mawei said. Helena had drifted off to sleep.
“You are the only one I can talk to about this. Can you imagine if I were to explain to the council that humans are the tribe they are thought to have slaughtered? They would certainly condemn me. They already accused me of offending our ancestors.” Rei sat down. “Oh the report was a disaster wasn’t it?”
“It wasn’t good.” Mawei said.
Rei put his head in his hands and Mawei looked at her uncle’s despair for a moment and then reached over and nudged him. “Don’t turn glum on me.” She said.
“I can see now that my whole life was leading up to the moment that child spoke to me.” Rei said. “It was like everything I had learned, everything I had observed, all suddenly lined up and I knew: this is it. This is the thing I was working toward without even knowing it. I’m supposed to bring this one truth to light -that human beings are the fifth tribe. The proof is right there in your arms. It will take years to convince others though, they aren’t ready. If they knew she was here now they would just kill her and shun me.”
Little Helena shifted around as if she’d comprehended Rei’s words in her sleep somehow. “They must know that humans are different from other creatures.” Mawei said. “A mountain lion is deadly too, but they don’t go killing mountain lions.”
“Yes,” Rei said, “when a mountain lion kills they don’t see it as evil, but they do with a human. They hold the humans to a yeti code of morality, so they must know on some level that a human is closely related to a yeti. I can’t spring the truth on them when they’re in a group, it’s too dangerous, but maybe I can change their minds one at a time. I can invite certain influential yetis to my wild to interact with the little human. Word will go around and more yetis will come to see a human raised as a yeti, functioning as a yeti, speaking as a yeti, and when they see that they will be easily persuaded that she is a yeti...”
“You’re going to keep her?”
“Then seven years from now at the next Gather I will make a special report and the elders will have to agree that I am right. By then everyone will know about the human and no one will be shocked –they’ll all want to meet her.”
“You’re really going to keep her?” Mawei asked.
“She’ll become an emissary between the world of the humans and our world. She could usher in a new era of understanding and cooperation. The humans will see that they have a forgotten history and we can help them remember their language and culture. Perhaps in time there will even be intermarriage. Just think of it Mawei…”
“Uncle!” Mawei said. “You can’t keep her!”
“Why not?”
“She should be with her own kind.” Mawei said. “She must have family.”
“Haven’t you been paying attention?” Rei asked. “She is with her own kind. We are all of the
same kind. Mawei the child’s parents are dead, you said so yourself. We can’t just drop her in a human village, she would be ignored.”
Mawei thought about the cars driving by the child without slowing down. “They would just ignore her?” She asked.
“Yes, humans can be very cruel.” Rei said. “In the place where I hid within the village there were humans who lived outside of dwellings. At first I though that they had just chosen a more sensible lifestyle, but for some reason they were all miserable. Their posture was defeated, as if they’d been robbed of their dignity. These people were a puzzle to me until I finally realized that they had no families, so the other humans acted as if they didn’t exist.”
“But everyone has some family.” Mawei said. “Those humans must’ve had cousins or aunts and uncles.”
“I’m telling you Mawei, humans are cruel to one another. These people had no one. This child could end up unloved and alone. Mawei, she has more, right here in these woods, than she has in the whole human world. I can raise her as my own, in the proper yeti manner.”
“I don’t know uncle Rei, your plan seems a little too hopeful.”
“Well this is the course I’ve chosen,” Rei said, “and I wish you would support my decision because I need your help raising her.”
Mawei thought for a moment. “You need my help?”
“Yes, I couldn’t possibly do it without you.”
“And you’ll care for the child as if she were your own?” Mawei asked.
“Yes,” he said, “the little bird means so much to me -she could be my legacy. She’ll help me expose the truth of our history and prove the elders wrong.” Rei stood up now, invigorated by his imaginary future redemption. “Don’t you see Mawei? We’re on the road to greatness. Someday they’ll ad our story to the Chronicle. We’re advancing yeti culture with this step. The child is our savior.” He shook Helena awake. “Henana,” he said, trying her sound-language name, “you mean everything to me, do you know that?”
Helena looked at Mawei and back to Rei. “No.” She said. “I don’t even care.”
“You will, my little treasure, you will.” He took the child and put her up on his shoulders. She grabbed onto the fur on the top of his head. “We should get moving, it’s a long journey to my wild.”
“Rei, many suspect you are in contact with a human. You must be extremely careful.”
“Don’t worry yourself Mawei, no harm will come to her. Say goodbye now.” He leaned over so Mawei could be at eye level with Helena.
“Be good for Rei,” she said, “I’ll come visit you soon.”
Helena looked worried.
“Don’t tell a soul about the child,” Rei said, “not even your mother. I need time to yetify her.”
Mawei tried to remind him to keep the child warm, but he was off, into the woods. She watched until she couldn’t see them anymore.