‘A long time ago, a tall man came to us and said that if the men go into the forbidden zone and collected things, he would give them anything they wanted. Him a strange man, and not like us, for he had no hair on his body and a round shiny head. We think him ugly. We females not like him, and tell our men not to go. But they go to the forbidden lands and bring back the forbidden things, which we will not have in our hutts. And so the forbidden things were kept in a hutt way over there,’ she pointed with her old withered arm out of the doorway towards the low hills in the distance.
‘Not long after, we not have good children. Some have no arms, some no legs, some no hair, some die at birthing time.’
‘And then we not have any childs. None. We think it maybe punishment for men going to forbidden lands. Some of them get very sick and die early, some lose their hair and look ugly. Some can no longer do the child dance, and so we have no more childs.’
Moss and Kel were not too surprised, for their Story Teller had warned them to keep well away from the Death Sands, and the forbidden zone sounded as if it was something similar.
‘We have heard of a similar place, and we wouldn’t go there, for we think it does something to people which is very dangerous. How do you know that it is forbidden, and what does it look like?’ Moss wanted to see if he could find out anything more about the forbidden zone, so that he could recognize it in the future should they come across it.
‘We not go there, so not know what it look like. The old tales say it is a dead place, nothing grows, and there are strange lights.’ The old female was holding something back, but Moss couldn’t see what it might be.
‘You never go to a place like that?’ asked the older female with a touch of eagerness in her voice.
‘No, never,’ They both replied in unison, Moss wondering if they should have replied so emphatically, for some reason.
Kel noticed that the young female who had found them in the first place, had now moved up close to him, and he could feel the warmth of her body and the heady musky smell coming from her hair.
It made him feel hot and awkward somehow, along with a strange stirring in his loins which he had not known before.
The older wrinkle-faced female with only half her allotted number of teeth, looked around the rest of the group as if making her mind up about something, and then turned to Moss and Kel with her best effort at a sweet smile and said,
‘If we have no more childs, when we go to the sky, our people will be no more. We must have more, and our men not give us any because of the forbidden lands they have been to.’ She looked hard at the two, wondering if they had understood her unspoken request. They hadn’t.
‘You two are strong young men, you could help us,’ she blurted out at last, ‘you could give us the childs we need, it would be easy for you, and is good fun too.’
Moss and Kel weren’t too sure about that as they were too young for mating when they were back in the forest, and only had a hazy idea of what was involved.
‘I think we are too young for that kind of thing.’ Kel said, feeling the hot blush of manhood suddenly being triggered by a surge of hormones.
‘When you big enough, you old enough.’ was her sharp retort, and they both knew there was little point in putting up any resistance as the doorway out of the hut was now completely blocked by several larger females who looked as determined as the older one sounded.
‘We give you food and drinks and shelter, for you have no hutts of your own, and you give us the childs, then you can go see the other lands you spoke of.’ It was an order rather than a request, and seeing no way out of it at the present, they both nodded their heads in submission, for the time being.
In one last desperate attempt to stave off what seemed to be an unavoidable initiation into an early manhood, Moss said ‘We don’t know what to do, as we haven’t yet been paired with any females from our group .....’
‘You not need to know, we will show you.’ said the older female with the wrinkles and a knowing smile.
Moss and Kel looked at each other, hoping that the other could think of a way out of the inevitable.
Fresh wooden platters of food were brought out from a recess somewhere in the hut, and lots of little gourd cups along with a very large gourd of some drink appeared as if by magic. Everyone tucked in, the drinking gourds of Moss and Kel being topped up as soon as they had taken a little.
They both found the drink very pleasant, slightly sweet and a full fruity flavour. Little did they know it had been fermented for a while, and although not very potent, would have an effect if consumed in any great quantity, which they were doing without realizing it.
As the Greater Sun began to slide down below the horizon, the party in the hut was in full swing. Everyone was eating, drinking and generally making merry.
Kel’s newly found friend was snuggled up against him as if she would freeze to death if she didn’t, while several young females were doing their best to hold Moss’s attention by asking him questions about his life in the forest.
Both adventurers had by now imbibed enough of the fruit drink not
