Tribes of Venara Read online

  A network of dirt roads spread throughout the village in a messy web that loosely resembled streets. Each property enjoyed a fair deal of personal space within the perimeter of the barricade, a massive palisade wall that had thousands of sharp wooden stakes protruding out at different angles.

  Nolan couldn’t help but look around with curiosity. There were huts made of neatly arranged sticks and wooden posts, and cabins of crudely hewn branches presumably gathered from the smaller trees of the nearby forest. There were some stone buildings here and there, but the number could be counted on a single hand and they reminded him of the houses in the Flintstones, giant slabs of rock piled together to create a shelter.

  Hundreds of people sat around large communal bonfires that were randomly spaced throughout the camp-like layout, usually at the more spacious intersections that connected the dozens of dirt pathways. Hundreds more enjoyed the heat of smaller campfires in front of their homes, where they roasted meat, chatted with friends and family, and drank from simple wooden cups or hallowed out horns.

  Nolan was surprised to see that not everyone was dressed in pelts and furs. Some people wore loose robes of simple fabrics, usually of a single earthen colour, while others had variations of softs blues and coniferous greens. Those that had adorned themselves with jewelry had fashioned their precious accessories from silver and gold, lustrous stones, even the bones of animals.

  The group dispersed after reaching a large bonfire in the central area. Only Nyla stayed behind, taking the fox’s head from Nolan and leading him down a dirt path to a tiny and isolated shack at the edge of the village that was at least fifty metres away from the closest hut. The little construct looked as if it had been hastily thrown together with a bunch of small and flimsy branches, the floor carpeted with a brittle heap of pale straw. There was no door, so Nolan was able to see that somebody was curled up in one of the corners atop a mess of brittle hay. Were it empty, there would be enough room for maybe four people to sit comfortably within.

  Nyla spoke some words with a smile and gestured toward the tiny shack without caring to peek inside. Nolan wasn’t trying to go snuggle up in the dirty hut just yet so he plopped down onto the trampled grass a few metres from the entranceway. After getting him settled, Nyla said something else and ran off with the fox’s head slung over her shoulder, tiny droplets of blood dripping from its drying base.

  Nolan hugged his knees as he stared around at the lively atmosphere of the boisterous villagers with a hallow feeling in his gut. What sort of situation was this? Giant plants and animals, super strong people… How many others had wound up in this place, mercilessly devoured by the forest like Takeshi, Jacques, the man in the bushes, that poor little girl?

  He pitied himself for a few moments until a bit of grass shifted on his right and something scurried out. Looking up at him from about a metre away was a scarlet ant almost as long as his forearm, its black pincers barbed with purple-stained tips and its scarlet body laminated in a thick coat of lustrous chitin.

  He laughed helplessly. What was this now?

  Nolan stared at the ant and wondered if it would leap onto his face if he tried to scamper away. Before he could come up with any ideas a head-sized rock smashed down onto the oversized insect and crushed it in an explosion of warm goo. Nyla dropped down on Nolan’s left side and held out a steaming bowl of soup with a vibrant smile. Nolan stared at the twitching legs of the dead ant and then accepted the bowl with a shudder, unable to appreciate the girl’s wild beauty.

  He glanced down at the steaming soup. Are those pink olives? Is this olive soup? Nolan set the bowl aside. Even if it were something good, he’d still lack an appetite.

  Nyla stuck around and tried to talk to him for a while, but he wasn’t trying to have a broken conversation at the moment so he kept turning his head and avoiding eye contact until she got the picture and left. She stalked off into the backdrop looking a bit let down, though she returned a short while later to toss a small bundle of fabric onto his lap before marching away without saying a word.

  He went behind the shack to change. First he put on a diaper-looking wrap of cloth that he took to be undergarments, follow by a simple green robe made of a rough material that resembled burlap. The robe had no sleeves which gave it the appearance of a sort of rugged dress, much too open and breezy for his liking. The bundle had been tied up with a strip of the same green cloth, which he fastened around his waist like a belt. There were also two thin sock-looking pieces of leather, which he slipped onto his feet due to the blood that soaked his high-top shoes.

  Setting his filthy clothes aside, he took a seat next to the shack and let out a heavy breath. Now that he was alone with his thoughts he couldn’t help but slip into a daze, at which point he became completely oblivious to the goings-on around him.

  Once the sun began to dip over the horizon and the stars slowly materialized overhead, his muddled gaze finally regained its focus. The sky remained cloud-free, affording him a perfect look at the pair of moons that hovered soundlessly in the indeterminable distance. There would be two, he scoffed.

  The smaller one looked just like the one that Nolan remembered from Earth, pale but bright and riddled with scars. The larger of the two seemed to be around twenty times the size of its neighbour, its icy blue glow a few hues brighter.

  Looking up at the two distant celestial bodies, he couldn’t help but think about Thomas and Steph. How would they react when he suddenly stopped showing up at home? What would his mom do without him around to look after the house, to watch over his siblings?

  Without realizing it, the moment he laid eyes on the two moons he’d subconsciously accepted the harsh reality that this was indeed another world. The view above him was truly spectacular, but like the beauty of the black-haired girl he was too miserable to appreciate it. Aside from the moons the sky was so densely packed with stars and swathes of aurora-like lights that it created a scene that he couldn’t help but silently acknowledge it with a sour look on his face.

  Nolan woke up once the sun had warmed his skin to the point of discomfort. He’d stared up at the sky for hours last night, set aside all the stress and anxiety that he’d been suffering through and lost himself in the wondrous dreamscape above. He’d drifted off at some point, and when he awoke the next day it was to find himself comfortably cuddled next to that dead ant and the big rock.

  He shot to his feet and backed away, patting himself down and jumping around to make sure that no frightening insect had crept into his new clothes while he was sleeping. That was when he realized he was as sore as someone who’d fallen down a flight of steps, his body slick with sweat. Feeling the battered skin of his torso, the tenderness of his black eye and the stinging of his split lip, he cursed.

  “What was that?” someone yelled abruptly. “What did you just say?”

  A pale and chubby youth around Nolan’s age scurried out of the little shack. He had dark bags underneath his eyes, which were a bit sunken in, and he was likewise covered in a heavy layer of sweat.

  “You mean when I swore?”

  “You said ‘fuck!’” He fell on his knees, almost weeping in apparent happiness. “You speak English!” He grabbed Nolan’s hand and shook it vigorously. “I’m Jason. Where’re you from, man? What’s your name?”

  “Collinsville, Canada. I’m Nolan.”

  “Nolan! I’m from Toronto! My God, Nolan, where are we? The other day I was lying on my bed messing around on my phone, and then the next morning I woke up in this shack. Everyone outside looked scary and they were dragging around these giant dead animals, so I just stayed in here and kept lying down. Nobody’s noticed me yet, but I’ve been freaking out this entire time. What if the owner of this shack comes back?”

  Nolan winced from the pain of the bruises on his chest. “You woke up in this shack? For real?”

  The boy gave an incredulous nod. “All I’ve had to eat is that cold soup you left over there. Sorry—I couldn’t let it go to waste, not when
I’m this hungry. Anyways, do you think you could put in a good word for me? Please man. I heard that girl talking to you earlier. I can tell that you’re in with these people. Please, please…”

  Confronted with Jason’s pathetic appearance, Nolan felt a bit better about how he’d handled himself following the sick twist of fate that’d placed him in this world. He’d seen people die and encountered frightening monsters in an eerie and desolate forest, basically lived a nightmare. Somehow he’d managed to encounter Nyla and the people from her village, and so finally wound up here.

  “Get your shit together man. I don’t know where we are, but I don’t think they’ll hurt you. I’m pretty sure they just gave me this shack, so you can live here if you want.”

  “Thank you! You have no idea how relieved that makes me.”

  “We’re still stuck here.”

  “But at least we have a place to sleep.”

  Nolan got behind Jason and pushed him over to the remains of the frightening ant from the night before. Its head was still intact, as were three of its legs, but its body had long since been crushed to paste by Nyla.

  “Whoa, what the hell is that?” Jason jumped back a few steps, the colour in his face draining. “How long’s this freaky-looking ant been here? I was sleeping like right over there.”

  “That’s a random ant that crawled out of the grass when I was sitting here yesterday. That girl you saw me with, Nyla, she killed it with that rock. She was holding a bowl of soup in one hand, so that means that she came to bring me some food and saw me staring at the ant, and then stooped down to grab the nearest rock with her other hand.”

  “Seriously? That rock has to weigh at least forty kilos.”

  “How strong do you think these people are if any random girl can pick up a rock this big with one hand? She didn’t bat an eyelid when she killed the ant, like it was some house spider in her eyes.” Nolan pointed at their feet. “Look at this thing. This is just an ant, and we’re on the inside of that big wall. You have no idea what’s on the other side, what kind of danger we’re in. I’m not kidding when I say that we probably won’t survive unless we learn as much about this place as possible and come up with some sort of game plan.”

  Jason ran a hand through his greasy hair, his big brown eyes wide with trepidation above a lightly freckled face. “What’s on the other side of that wall?” He shot a troubled glance at the ant.

  Nolan’s tone grew somber as he began a detailed narration of yesterday’s events. Jason didn’t believe him for a while, but after seeing the bloodstains on his old clothes and another fox carcass that lay out front of a nearby cabin, a grave expression slipped onto his face.

  “So we weren’t the only ones that ended up here? Does that mean that my parents could be here too?”

  “How should I know? For now we should just focus on getting by.” Nolan couldn’t bear the thought of Thomas or Steph, or even their mom, left wandering alone in that wilderness. The only way to keep from falling victim to such agonizing thoughts was to focus on the problems in front of him.

  “So what do we do?”

  Nolan nodded at the bustling village. “Learning their language should be our first priority. We won’t get anywhere if we can’t even speak to the locals. Let’s wait here for a bit. I’m sure that Nyla girl will show up at some point. There’s a chance I might have pissed her off a bit yesterday, so just be really nice to her and I’m sure she’ll look after us.”

  Nolan’s guess was spot on, as Nyla showed up an hour later with another bowl of soup and the big wicker basket that she used to store herbs. She looked surprised to see Jason at first, but the moment she noticed that he and Nolan could understand one another, her eyes gleamed with excitement and she ran off to get another bowl of soup for him. He had no idea why she was so interested in them, but it worked out in their favour.

  Aside from the soup, Nyla had also grabbed another one of those big baskets, making it apparent that the original one had been meant for Nolan. She waited until they finished off their pink olive soup, which tasted far better than it looked, and then motioned for them to grab their baskets.

  After exchanging glances with Jason, Nolan shrugged and followed the fur-clad girl down a wide dirt path with the large wicker basket in hand. Walking through the odd little village, he felt as if he were in a waking dream.

  Chapter Four: Bleak Outlook

  A lot had happened in the month since Nolan had first arrived at the village.

  Virtually all of the men played the role of a warrior, dedicating their time to either going out to hunt for resources, honing their skills, or indulging themselves in food, drink and women. Nolan noted that the people here were more than just a bit promiscuous. It was common for many to take on multiple partners, with even the more modest warriors having two or three wives. It didn’t take long for Nolan to see that the stronger one became, the more respect and status they garnered in society regardless of gender.

  Though he spotted several females in the large groups of men that left the village to hunt in the distant forests, most women oversaw the domestic tasks that were seen as being below those with the status of a warrior. This included sorting through resources obtained by the hunting parties and organizing them by quality, and then delivering them to the village head’s residence to be distributed among the villagers. Many women were also charged with preparing meals, harvesting produce, processing materials such as leather and fur, and fashioning clothing for their families. Everyone contributed in some way and in return received protection, shelter and sustenance.

  Although Nolan and Jason were considered adult men in this society, they had adopted Nyla’s daily routine of doing domestic work with a handful of women and girls for most of the day, after which they would return to hide away in their little shack until the following morning. They knew how it must have looked to the villagers, but what other choice did they have?

  Including Nyla, their group had eight women. If they weren’t weaving baskets then they were collecting fruit from the small orchards and berry bushes that had been planted at an out-of-the-way area within the great palisade wall. The largest orchard was a healthy plot of olive trees that were tall yet squat, their smooth leaves as pink as their fruit. Because of its quiet and pleasant setting, Nolan had come to prefer harvesting olives over the other tasks.

  Once a week their group would accompany a dozen warriors out into the forest and spend the entire day foraging for medicinal herbs while the men fended off whatever dangerous creatures they encountered and kept an eye out for any animals that might serve as a decent meal.

  When Nolan and Jason had been told that they’d have to go out into the forest on a weekly basis, they’d been overcome with dread. They had no idea what to look out for in this world, and even back home it wasn’t exactly like they had been woodsmen. It was impossible for Nyla not to notice how frightened they were at the thought of heading out into the wilderness, so she spoke up for them on two separate occasions and fought for them to stay behind, much to the dissatisfaction of the rest of their group.

  As Nyla could only do so much, they were eventually forced to tag along. She showed them samples of the four plants they’d be looking for, and let them hold on to one of each for reference.

  Whenever Nolan fingered through a patch of grass or wildflowers in search of a certain plant, the thought of some abhorrent insect scurrying out at him without warning made him extremely uncomfortable. They had no clue what might be poisonous, which insects and rodents aggressive or deadly.

  His heart hadn’t stopped pounding that day, as every second was spent thinking that some creature would suddenly rush out of the bushes and attack him before the warriors could react. They encountered a lot of animals, most of which he recognized as being larger or different coloured versions of those from Earth.

  Every time some oversized, vicious looking beast jumped out to attack the group, it was quickly surrounded by three or four warriors and slaughtered within
moments.

  At the end of the day Nolan was just as wary of the villagers as he was of the creatures in the forest. The men had already looked down on him to begin with for working with the women, but after the last excursion most people in the group didn’t try to hide their disdain for him. Since most of the men were tall, muscular and tanned, the comparatively short and feeble newcomers drew quite a bit of negative attention.

  The displeased group members were beginning to vent their annoyances to their friends back in the village, and the amount of scornful looks that he and Jason received continued to grow by the day. At this point he was uncertain if they would be allowed to remain in the settlement.

  Nolan had always been interested in history and had read his fair share of material back on Earth. He was aware of how messed up people could be, especially in ancient times, and now he found himself in some presumably Dark Age world where any little girl could lift her own weight and a basic warrior in the village could hack a grizzly bear to death with an axe. Could he really trust that some angry villager with half a brain wouldn’t off him in the middle of the night based on some ridiculous prejudice?

  That they had been allowed to remain in their little shack for so long, he gathered that Nyla most likely occupied a special position among the villagers, for it was at her word that people left them in peace. He discovered that this was indeed the case, and that people treated her particularly well because she was the younger sister of the strongest warrior in the village, that herculean man who’d saved Nolan’s life from those foxes back in the forest.

  Nyla spent entire evenings sounding out words with him and Jason, often taking them out on walks and naming things off as she saw them. While the other boy was having some trouble, Nolan picked it up with relative ease. These days he was about as fluent in their language as a very young child, so he was able to convey basic thoughts and say simple sentences without having to put much thought into it. He’d always been an adept learner but in the past few years he’d become lazy and withdrawn. He had ignored his studies and foregone any sports teams at school, skipping classes almost daily.