A Wider Border (Patreon)

She stood on the hill and waited for the Imshee to come out of its ugly ship. Tuk and even ka-ranked traders could deal with the difficult strangers at this point, so she resented being summoned as if she were a youngling being asked to come to the temple. She was a Grandmother, one respected for her ability to negotiate with others. She was far too busy to deal with the trading needs of the strangers. And she greatly questioned the intelligence of traders if they could not understand the needs of one stranger.

The Imshee came down the ramp from its strange conveyance, its many limbs moving in that jerky motion that she found so distasteful. She struggled to identify any markings that would make one Imshee recognizable from another, so she suspected they may have equal difficulty recognizing Rownt. To save the stranger the embarrassment of asking for a Grandmother who stood in front of it, she started down the hill to introduce herself.

In the seasons since they had begun to trade with the Imshee, the world had changed at an uncomfortable pace, and she held the blame for that. If she had not insisted on walking the border and understanding these strangers, she would not have opened the door to trade. 

When she was halfway down the hill, she called out. “I am the Grandmother you sought.” She reached the bottom of the hill and waited for the stranger to approach her.

It stopped a good distance from her. “We and we greet to Grandmothers,” the Imshee's translation machine offered.

She wasn't sure whether the Imshee were incapable of using singular pronouns or if they wished to send greetings to all of the temple Grandmothers. With strangers it was difficult to tell. She found she missed the days when all of the creatures with whom one could have a conversation were Rownt. She waited until the Imshee said something which was worth responding to. The traders had suggested that the Imshee wanted something, but they had been annoyingly silent on what that might be.

The stranger tapped the ground with its front claws, possibly reminding her of those formidable weapons. She had never seen an Imshee hunt, but she was old enough to respect the danger of the possibility even without seeing it with her own eyes. “We and we and other we send invitations to you and many yous whom hunting you.”

She widened her eyes. Perhaps the traders had some cause for confusion if this was how the Imshee were communicating. “I do not understand.” Hopefully that would be enough to get the Imshee to state their cryptic request more clearly.

The stranger shivered. “You and you, we and we on ships.”

She felt felt a visceral disgust at the idea of walking into one of their strange ships. She couldn’t prevent her nostrils from narrowing. “I do not want to be in a ship,” she said slowly and deliberately. As a Grandmother, she would walk anywhere in her territory, but the ships were not her territory, and she was not comfortable going in a machine that performed the impossible feats that the Imshee machines managed. Some of the Grandmothers were trying to understand how something which was so heavy could rise into the air, but she had no interest in ever understanding something so illogical.

The Imshee tapped the ground furiously and shivered so that its long hair waved like grass in a storm. “Rownt are hunters.” The Imshee blurted the words out so loudly that their natural chittering almost drowned out the translator voice.

“I hunt,” she agreed. She was just as capable of taking out a kawt now as she had been at a hundred.

“We and we invite many Rownt hunters.”

Frustration made her twitch her tail. If the stranger understood that insult, they did not react. “Do you have a predator that you would wish us to hunt?” She needed clear answers.

“Yes.” Perhaps it was arrogance on her part, but she could almost imagine a relief or an eagerness in the Imshee's frenzied motions. But perhaps she was simply trying to imagine an emotion which did not exist in the strangers.

“What would you have us hunt?”

“Adversaries.”

The Imshee had never used the word adversary before. That implied to Rownt who were in competition for the same resources, and that the competition had become violent. She could imagine no reason why she would ever participate in an Imshee battle for resources. Whether one Imshee came or another, or whether the Imshee stopped coming to Prarownt at all, she did not care for the most part. She certainly had no interest in what might pass for Imshee competition.

“I am uninterested in Imshee adversaries.”

“Adversaries wrong word.”

She gravely disliked Imshee. “Then choose the correct word.”

“Rownt lack word. Adversary is not Imshee adversary. Is adversary-stranger to Imshee. Adversary-stranger to Rownt. Rownt hunters in ship.”

Perhaps these Imshee were like a farmer who hired a hunter to take out a difficult predator who stalked her herd. If so, she was still uninterested. “Imshee can fight Imshee adversary-stranger. Rownt stay home.”

That caused a great twitching in the limbs. She drew herself up straighter and touched her waistband where she had one of the new style weapons that Rownt had started producing based off of Imshee technology. 

“Adversary-stranger of Imshee equals adversary-stranger of Rownt.”

That statement didn't even make sense. There was no creature on earth that was an adversary to all Rownt. “Imshee adversary-strangers are not equal to Rownt adversary-strangers. I do not have adversaries.” After all, no other town would try to take their territory, not when taking their territory would require dealing with Imshee. Other Rownt were sane enough to avoid strangers.

“Imshee adversary-stranger equals holders of giant ships.”

She watched the Imshee. She had nothing more to say on the issue of Rownt involvement in Imshee fights, especially since the traders who spent their time with these strangers explained that the Imshee had a concept of battle that extended over weeks, months. They lost growing seasons and years of child-rearing to fight in ever-larger battles. More individuals joined from one day to the next. It was a concept that the Grandmothers had discussed at length and still could not emotionally grasp. Knowing that, she had no interest in ever fighting with an Imshee. They were in insane species, and insanity should not be indulged.

“Adversary-strangers in large ships come to Prarownt. They take Rownt away from Prarownt. Rownt in ships of adversary-strangers in large ships.

Her eyes widened and her nose snapped shut involuntarily. Every year, some Rownt would go missing. They were assumed lost to a storm or hungry kawt or landslide. If these strangers had taken Rownt from her village, she would kill them on sight. But that did not mean she wished to fight for Imshee. “Trade us better weapons and we will stop the adversary-strangers in large ships when they come here. They will take no more Rownt.” She would personally make sure of that.

“Rownt on ships of adversary-strangers in large ships.”

“Then trade us weapons so that I may patrol my border,” she repeated.

“Rownt on ships of adversary-strangers in large ships.”

It was not just the concept of Imshee battle that was insane—the creatures themselves seem to lack some logical abilities that a Rownt eggling was born with.

“I understand Rownt are on ships of your adversary-strangers in large ships,” she said slowly, the way one might speak to a Rownt eggling from a distant province who spoke a different dialects of the language. “I will protect Rownt from being taken to ships by adversary-strangers in large ships. If you provide better weapons or designs for better weapons, I will stop the adversaries when they come to Prarownt.” She ducked her head down in an attempt to reassure him. Perhaps if she treated him the way one would in eggling, he would calm himself.

Instead, the Imshee slammed to the ground with its front claws. Adversary-strangers in large ships use Rownt taken into ships. They use Imshee. They hurt Imshee. They hurt Rownt.”

Her nose tightened again. Some animal species did that – they would take a lesser species and use it for their own good. She knew of a species a spider that would lay its eggs in the younglings of other species. She knew of a rodent that would trap reptiles, wall them into a space so that they would eat the insects that plagued their own young, and when the rodents had finished raising their young, they would leave, and the captive reptiles would remain trapped where they would slowly start to death. Such happened. She found it disgusting, but she was not the Grandmother to walk a border large enough to encompass all Rownt taken from the planet.

“I will protect any Rownt I can on Prarownt,” she said.

“We and we and many we’s take hunters to adversary-strangers in large ships. Alternative. Rownt could build big ships.”

The thoughts of Rownt in ships disgusted her more than the idea of strangers who acted like mercenary little rodents. Rownt were connected to the planet. They were part of their world. Rownt had no business walking between the stars.

“I protect Rownt here.”

The Imshee shrank back as if she had struck him. She wished that someone would be able to explain how these strangers thought. She waited, and eventually the stranger repeated, “Adversary-strangers in large ships hurt Rownt.”

“If I see these adversary-strangers hurt Rownt, I will hurt them. I will make them bleed. I will tear open their skin so that their internal organs fall out at their feet,” she promised. “But Rownt fight here.” She imitated the Imshee gesture of pounding her foot against the ground.

“No hunters?” The translator voice had a strange trill in it.

She felt as if she were stealing the profit from an eggling, but she was not Grandmother to those absent Rownt or these Imshee.

“Rownt fight here,” she said firmly.

Adversary-strangers in large ships like Imshee durability. Like Rownt strength. Have taken many Rownt.”

“I will kill them if I see them,” she repeated.

“Adversary-strangers in large ships would take more Rownt if not Rownt so illogical with offspring. If they can cure Rownt violence with offspring, they come. They take many Rownt. They take all Rownt.”

Coldness sunk into the center of her being and she felt her legs get warm from the rush of blood. “What Rownt offspring?” she asked slowly and deliberately. A familiar fury rose in her stomach, the fury of the hunter who sees a dangerous predator stalking her. She had been stalked more than once, but she was alive and the animals who would stalk her were not.

“We and not we see Rownt offspring in ships of adversary-strangers in large ships.” 

“Where?” She fought down an urge to kill.

“Far. Adversary-strangers in large ships go far. Rownt on ships of adversary-strangers in large ships carry much weight. More than Imshee. Faster than Imshee. But when offspring hurt, Rownt are illlogical. Dangerous. They frighten even adversary-strangers in large ships. But they seek control of Rownt feeling toward offspring. They cure Rownt, they come take Rownt.”

These adversaries had taken offspring. Egglings. There were egglings being hurt by an adversary that would use them the way mice used reptiles. Rownt children were being used, and what would happen when they were of no use? Her arms ached with the need to grab something and rip it out of existence. 

“Where are the adversary-strangers in large ships?” She stalked forward, her elbows bent and her fury nearly overwhelming her.

“Can reaching ship we and we and new we.”

“Then we go now.” She moved towards the ship, her anger barely contained. The Imshee raced in front of her. “Adversary-strangers in large ships are many. One Rownt is not enough.”

“If you believe that, you have never seen an angry Rownt,” she countered. She tried to walk around the Imshee, but the animal darted in front of her again. “We and not we have seen angry Rownt. Much damage. Much fear. But offspring died. Rownt died. Imshee not we or we died. Adversary-strangers in large ships is too many and too much. They overwhelm one Rownt.”

If she were still tuk-ranked or ka-ranked, she would not have been able to control herself. She would grab the Imshee and rip one of its legs off before beating it to death for getting in her way, but she forced her logical mind to the forefront. The Imshee had seen Rownt try to defend egglings and fail. These adversaries were too strong for one Rownt, because any Rownt who was taken with eggling would destroy mountains one handful of the time to bring the youngling home. But there were no egglings who had come home with stories of walking between stars. The Imshee spoke truth, and that made her more angry. Strangers were hurting egglings.”

“Bring information on the adversary-strangers in large ships. Bring all the information to the temple. Bring anything you have. Rownt will retrieve our egglings.”

“Adversary-strangers in large ships will try to stop.”

She took several leaping steps forward until she was inches from the Imshee and when it tried to retreat, she grabbed that enormous front leg and held it. “I don't care how many ships they have or how large they are. I will rip them apart with my hands. Bring me information on how to reach them so I can kill them or I will kill you and take your ship and figure out how to make this beast fly by myself.”

She turned her back before she lost her temper entirely and did as she threatened. And then she started running. With all the fury in her heart, she ran as fast as she could, leaping over boulders and bounding up the hillside using her hands to claw the dirt as she tried to make it back to the temple as fast as possible. 

The other grandmothers needed to know. The hunters needed to know. If there was one Rownt eggling that walked between the stars, then it was time for the Grandmothers to walk between the stars, and if there was a new boundary the patrol, there would be Grandmothers to patrol it.

- - - - - - - - 

Y’all didn’t think Rownt decided to develop space exploration on their own, did you? They are not exactly an ambitious or adaptable race.