Just Another Day

Morning began the same as it had for weeks. Padma roused the Sylvans for an early breakfast, Yaj lead the family and guests through morning meditation, but today Salim came with a team of donkeys to fetch the Sylvans for an excursion into the jungle.

"Come, we go to the branches to fetch fruit," Salim said and passed out empty baskets.

The Sylvans slipped on the basket straps and followed Salim in the jungle. Salim lead them deep into the brush and off the trail to the unofficial orchards where the Skihva received their forest fruit. The first set was a cluster of palms that grew very tall, and were laden with fuzzy brown fruits at the top. Salim tethered the donkeys to the trunks and flew up to the canopy. The Sylvans worked in pairs to fill their baskets while high in the trees. The patient donkeys waited below, nibbling on leaves and napping. Whenever a basket was filled, it was brought back down to the donkeys, deposited into a pack on a donkey's back, and the kurach returned back to the branches. Salim lead them to many groves until the donkey packs were full and it was time to return to the village.

"I guess all of the harvest wasn't in," Shanku sighed as she trudged tiredly behind the miniature beasts of burden.

"Not as tiring as the other stuff we've been through lately," Katari remarked. "At least we didn't have to stay bent over."

"Not that dangling a half-furlong in the air is any better," Ina added.

"More like a tenth-furlong," Hilael said thoughtfully.

"It was high," Ina said bluntly.

"I'll bet they taste good," Shanku said gleefully. "It'll be worth it."

"Some of those yowling monkeys looked tasty too," Katari said. "Especially those that barked at us the whole time."

"I heard some other things barking in the distance that didn't sound friendly," Shanku said. "I don't know what those yippy things were, but I don't want to find out."

When they arrived back at the village, many other gathering parties were arriving, and the villagers were excited to see so many baskets of fresh fruit. Several baskets were taken away immediately to be pressed into juice and the scraps given to the milk goats. The kurach were given a complimentary cup of the first haul since they were the ones who went out into the jungle, after which Ina decided that perhaps clinging for dear life so far above the ground might have been worthwhile after all.

The rains had finally began to ease up and skip a few days between showers. The harvest was in, a week of foraging was completed, the crops for the coming spring were planted, and it was finally time to rest. For the visiting Sylvans. With an abundance of food available for banquets and feasts, the few thousand Skihva villagers began to marry off their betrothed couples.

"Winter time is party time around here," Katari noted to Shanku after they had attended their fifth wedding in a week.

"Where do they find so much dye?" Shanku asked, bewildered. "Or beads for that matter. You could see and hear those brides a league away!"

"I love drawing it!" Ina squealed. "I knew we Sylvans would dye and bead our feathers on our wedding day, but, oh, were all those adornments beautiful! I think I'll do some of it at my own wedding. I've been doing some sketches and I think it'll compliment Syvan weddings quite well. All the base rituals are pretty much the same, so a little extra flair can't hurt."

"And like the Skihva, Sylvans are to marry within their social ranks," Hilael added not-so-subtly. Ina frowned at him.

"It'll be another week until the next one, so why don't we go out and explore the jungle tomorrow? Perhaps even camp out for a few days?" Shanku suggested. "Now that Yaj has finished drilling us half to death, Salim is in charge of instructing us, and he is pretty busy preparing his son for his union in two weeks, so we've got some free time before lessons resume."

"What if we get lost? We haven't gone off by ourselves before," Ina asked worriedly.

"There are frequent breaks in the canopy. If we get lost, we'll just go up, look for the smoke from the village campfires, and fly back," Shanku shrugged. "Worked for me several times."

Ina just shook her head and finally consented to go on a jungle expedition.

Winter made for a very pleasant climate in southern Bhadarukia and the Sylvans were enjoying a leisurely stroll on the pathways cut through the thick underbrush. They saw many other creatures out enjoying the beautiful day too, including big, fluffy bears that clumsily shuffled along licking up bugs, but made an awful howling noise when it saw the kurach.

At midday, they scaled a large rock and sat down to eat a packed lunch of rice cakes and fruit.

"I'm starting to miss some meat," Katari lamented. "The Skihva may be fine on grains, fruits, and vegetables, but I need some real protein other than eggs."

"Yaj made it pretty clear hunting wasn't allowed," Ina said quickly. "Killing an animal was to be a last resort defensive measure if cornered, and then it laid to rest without any desecration."

"And what's the worst that would happen if we did take some game?" Katari asked grumpily.

"The Skihva themselves wouldn't take action unless it was outright horrible and abusive, but they said fate would turn a cruel trick in return," Ina replied.

"Well, I believe fate is inescabable, so if it has something unpleasant planned for me, it's going to happen anyway, and I'd rather face it at full strength. I'm going hunting," Katari said firmly. "Shanku, are you coming with me?"

Shanku looked at Ina, shrugged helplessly, and stood up. "If anything nasty comes along, you two just fly up into the canopy. You can flit to other trees faster than the climbing predators can get there. We won't be gone long." She and Katari left their packs behind as they disappeared into the thick foliage.

Ina sighed heavily in exasperation and put away the cloths that had wrapped their lunches. "I guess if I'm going to be honest, I'd even enjoy jerky by this point. The Skihva have a huge range of spices and flavors, but you just can't replace the sensation of chewing a dried stick of meat, or gnawing on a bone and licking out the marrow."

Innugati trilled a warning and curled up on Hilael's shoulder.