Aquitainremembered that about twenty warriors had attacked him prior to thefight with the mask a couple of days ago. He had stunned them witha mind blast and they had been captured and banished from thetribe. Later after they had helped turn off the defensive fountainsat the temple they were granted freedom to join the Barratribe.
He alsoremembered that the little people killed in the cave where he andMiranda had met Jacintra the Chaos cat were predominantly redscaled. Perhaps unbeknown to Miranda it was the druid council thathad ordered their deaths.
‘What do youknow about the Great Storm?’ asked Aquitain excitedly. He had astrong interest in the Great Storm as it was around that time inthis world that the legendary Founts of Wisdom disappeared. Thesewere incredibly powerful people who had somehow incurred the wrathof the gods. A part of his current quest was to find them. He alsohad a strong feeling that some of the little people’s lore mightshed light upon both the Great Storm and the fate of theFounts.
‘I am knowingvery little, Spirit Lord. Only the shaman are being allowed to beknowing the lore about the Great Storm but from time to time it isbeing mentioned among the females in the tribe. There is somesecret female’s lore that is never being told to the males. Isuppose I could be discovering more if you are needing toknow.’
Aquitain wasintrigued with this female. She definitely had no fear of him andeven more importantly she seemed prepared to talk about her peoplein defiance of her tribal taboo on telling outsiders about them. Ifhe was discrete he could probably find out much more about them andperhaps even something about the Great Storm from her. However, itwould have to be later as Rori had just returned with eight malewarriors who seemed quite terrified in his presence.
‘Here isshowing you a mighty selection of our warriors Spirit Lord. You canbe seeing the differences between them so that you can be makingyourself to be looking different to Rori.’ said Kami.
Aquitain lookedat each one in turn noting the fine differences between them butwasn’t quite sure what was important to them and what wasn’t. Hedidn’t want to look like a pathetic weakling or an ugly outcast sohe asked Shastritara what was important in a male from the female’spoint of view. She pointed out what was considered attractive andugly, benevolent and bad and generally selected a set of finechanges in his appearance that would make him stand out in a crowdof little people.
When he hadfinished everyone seemed pleased with the result. The Spirit Lordlooked like a fine warrior and great leader in their eyes. He thenasked Kami what colour he should be. That caused some concern. Ifhe was purple then that might cause some problems with the Councilof Elders and the Chief as he might be seen as a challenge to theirleadership. However, each skin colour had its own set ofproblems.
In the end hechanged to brown as the brown scale tribe no longer existed and itseemed to cause the least problems. It also had a strong advantagefrom Kami’s point of view. He stood out. Everyone would know who hewas and also where he was.
While he wasvisible no one would be worried or suspicious about what he wasdoing. If any druids came he could change to the Jeti purple colourand effectively blend into the crowd.
Kami sent forthe Chief and after a prolonged discussion between the two of themhe was allowed back into the village provided that either Kami orRori always accompanied him and he didn’t change to his spider formin the sight of the villagers.
‘I am beingvery pleased by your attractive appearance Spirit Lord. All of thefemales will be looking at you with big eyes at the celebrations ofour great victories at saving the Barra children from the Yithlizard people. Maybe I will be dancing with you if you are beingpleased with me.’ and she left.
Aquitain lookedat Kami and asked what she meant.
‘There will begreat celebrations tonight as she has been saying. All of thepeoples will be greatly pleased that you and the druidess Mirandaare being with us to celebrate the victory of the fight at thetemple. There will be much feasting and dancing. All of the femaleswill be wishing to be dancing with the heroes.’
‘What do youmean by dancing?’ asked Aquitain suspiciously.
‘Surely you areknowing of dancing Spirit Lord. All the peoples are being happy andsinging and jumping around to the beating of the drums.’
‘Oh that typeof dancing is all right. I wanted to make sure that you didn’t meanthe other types of things that males and females can dotogether.’
Kami looked athim a little mystified for a few moments and then burst out in awide grin.
‘Oh no SpiritLord we are not calling that dancing we are calling that makingeggs. There will be none of the doing of that. My peoples only aredoing that for one week a year and that week is being still anothermonth away.’
‘Well that’s arelief.’ he thought. ‘I don’t think Miranda would approve of merunning wild among the females, especially now since I have anattractive little people body.’ then he asked about Miranda.
‘She wasdelivering you to our protections last night and hurrying away onsome urgent business. She was telling me that she would bereturning for the celebrations tonight. That is all I amknowing.’
‘Good.’ saidAquitain. ‘I would like to talk to your people tonight and thankthem for allowing me to stay here under your protection last night.I am in their debt.’
‘These arebeing strange times Spirit Lord. Most of my peoples are being happyto have you being here as our friend but there are some that arebeing worried that you are bringing problems to our gate.’
‘I understandthat Kami. Miranda and I will leave as soon as possible. There aremany things we need to do. However, we will be happy to celebratesaving the Barra children with you tonight.’
‘That is beinghappy news Spirit Lord.’ replied Kami. ‘The chief and the elderswill be most pleased. Tonight we shall all be celebrating the greatvictory at
