30. Niran, in the Last Days of Indigo Cloud's Eastern Colony, Part 2

(This is Part 2 of the Niran story: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20-niran-in-last-6645787 )

Niran had tried to help Blossom and Rill build the cooking pit for the preparation of the ingredients for Fell poison the Arbora had gathered, but Rill had gently explained that he was interfering with Blossom's artistic vision for the site, so he sat down on a log to watch.  The three of them were alone in the glade for now, under the heavy canopy, with the birdsong and the hum of insects and lizards.  The pile of plants ready to be made into the poison sat nearby, gathered throughout the morning.  He knew the privacy was an illusion, since there were warriors up in those trees, Arbora tending to Stone, the injured line-grandfather in the blind, and more hunters in the brush collecting more ingredients. But he thought this was a good opportunity to speak, and he said, "I don't understand why Moon is considered an outcast."

The construction of the pit, now that Niran wasn't trying to help them, was much faster. Blossom sat back, her head just above the ground. Surprised, she said, "He's not an outcast."

After having spent so much time with Blossom and Rill, Niran knew he could speak honestly. "He's treated like one," he said.

"He's just new to the court." Rill was choosing river rocks from the pile Niran had helped gather. She picked one up, examined it, then rolled it over to within Blossom's reach. 

Niran lifted his brows. "Do you treat all newcomers that way?"

Rill threw a clod of dirt at him. Niran was so covered with dirt already that he didn't bother to duck. Blossom stretched to grab the new rock and said, "It's complicated. Why do you want to know?"

"Moon saved my family," Niran pointed out.  "He warned us, had the idea to take one wind-ship back and made it look as though all the crews had fled on foot. That's why I'm here."

Blossom twitched her spines at him, more slowly than she would for another Raksura. The Arbora had taught him, or tried to teach him, the rudiments of the language of their spines. Niran obliged them by trying to learn, though he still found anything but broad gestures hard to read and felt he wouldn't be able to retain what little he did know for long; the language was simply too alien. Blossom said, "You said you stayed to make sure we didn't steal your boats."

"That is not what I said and you know it, though I did imply it." After his time here, Niran knew the Arbora were capable of sustained arguments that would exhaust even the scholars' colloquium of the Golden Isles. The trick was not to be sidetracked into a debate that was by definition unwinnable by either side. Niran added, "But I stayed because a Raksura acted to save my family."

Rill rippled her spines, and went back to selecting rocks. "Why was that a surprise?" She sounded curious more than anything else. "Because everyone thinks we're like the Fell?"

Niran didn't like to admit that now. Having lived with Raksura, particularly Arbora, it now seemed a ridiculous idea. The structure of their society, so apparent even in this small camp, the kindness of the Arbora and even of some of the warriors, it was nothing like the Fell. Grandfather's theories about the Raksura had been right all along and Niran would never hear the end of it. "In such a crisis, with all your people threatened, under attack, you might be forgiven for forgetting us, until it was too late."

"I don't know about the forgiven part," Blossom said, lifting another rock. "The court was already caught, it wasn't going to help anything if your family got killed too."

Niran was well aware that the two Arbora had turned the subject. "So we aren't allowed to discuss why Moon is treated as an outcast?"

Rill hesitated over the next rock. "Not all of us treat him that way."

Blossom flicked dirt out of her frills. "He was a feral solitary. I don't think groundlings have those."

Niran said, "He lived alone before coming here. That is such a terrible thing?"

Blossom placed another rock and smiled with her spines. "Not when you put it like that."

Rill added, "It's because usually someone is only a solitary because they got thrown out of a court for doing something terrible." She straightened up, shaking mud off her claws. "It's obvious Moon was alone since he was a fledgling, that he didn't do anything wrong, but some of the others just have trouble believing that."

"How is it obvious?" Niran asked.

"He doesn't know how to live in a court, to be consort, and his..." Blossom hesitated, placed another rock, then finally said, "His signals are all wrong. Does that make sense in Altanic?"

"It does." Niran rubbed sweaty dirt off his forehead. "Is there no solution for him?"

Rill shrugged her spines and shook her head. Blossom said, "I think first we need to kill a bunch of Fell." She hopped out of the pit. "I think that's it," she told Rill. "Find Flower, I think we're ready to start filling it."