Volume II – A Ganie Problem
Chapter XXI – 21
Ulu stood before the elder council. His family and his neighbours stood behind him, giving him confidence to carry on. In his hands was a basket full of many crops that they had brought back from the farm.
//"Elder Kirey,"// Ulu began, //"We might have a major problem on our hands."//
//"What do you mean by that?"// Elder Kirey asked the young yemeru.
His question was answered by Ulu dumping the content of his basket onto the floor. Many different crops poured out, each one looking just as grotesque as the next. Each one had many holes on them, the crop was dry but the holes were suspiciously wet. Some of them had mild holes, barely going a few centimetres into the crop, but others were much more deformed. There was almost no spot that was not covered by a hole, and the crop was more than 50% smaller than it originally was.
At the sight of this Elder Kirey's face twisted. //"That is truly… disturbing."// he paused for a moment, as if he was thinking about what to say next, but before he could say anymore Ulu continued.
//"When my family and I went out to the farm this morning we saw more than half the crops uprooted and almost gone. The others were already gone. Even those still left in the ground were not spared from the grasp of those creatures.
//"They are getting more and more out of control. There's only so much that we can take before we die of starvation. We need to do something quickly, before they overrun us and we are forced to leave our village for fear that they'll come after us."//
//"I see,"// Elder Kirey said. He paused for a moment and looked at the other members of the council, before he finished. //"The council has heard your pleas. Gather your crops and leave."//
Ulu tapped his chest twice and began to pack the crops back into basket. After he was done, he turned around and left with the others that had come with him. As soon as he left, Kirey breathed a sigh of relief. Turning to the other elders in the council he began the meeting.
//"You have all heard the words of the young yeme, what do you think?"// he asked.
The elders looked at themselves for a while before nodding to each other. One of the elders spoke up. //"The problem is as the boy has said. I have seen the same things in my farms, and I have once caught sight of one in my home, searching around for leftover food."// He paused for a scratching his arm before continuing, //"I believe that is time to start taking care of them en masse, even if we don't so anything drastic, I think we should at least start, before they become too much for us to handle."//
The other elders tapped their chest in agreement. The elder continued. //"For our first course of action, I suggest we go and find Nerisu and see if any such thing has happened before, and how they—"// Before the elder could finish his statement a voice rudely cut him off.
//"Now, now, Likanu. There's no need to go disturbing my grandfather about such a trivial matter. It's just ganie, nothing that we should be concerned about. They have always been known as a pest, there's no need for us to take such drastic actions just for such a small thing."//
Likanu's face twitched slightly, but didn't change. //"Yunei,"// he called sternly, //"Now is not the time to be playing games. If we do as you say, the repercussions would be great, much greater than anything that you have seen."//
Yunei laughed. //"Is it not just a few people that will die?"// He asked with a sharp nefarious glint in his eye. //"As long as we the elders survive, we'll always be able to lead the people to a much greater future. Compared to this, what is a few lives?"//
//"This is more than a few live we're talking about Yunei, it i—"// Likanu tried to speak but Yunei interrupted him once again.
//"What? A few hundred lives?"// Likanu opened his mouth to reply but Yunei seemed to have anticipated what he was about to say, //"A few thousand lives? Compared to the overall benefit of the society what is the sacrifice of a loyal few?"//
Likanu's face that had been twitching suddenly became grotesque and his anger reached its limits. //"This is not just a matter of the lives of the people, Yunei. Don't you see? If we don't do something now even if we manage to survive, there are other things that could come for us while we're weakened. The Phugeru have been waiting for a moment like this, do you really think they'll give up such an optimal situation?"// Likanu's voice had been getting louder and louder, until Kirey finally spoke up.
//"Enough!"// With a voice that didn't seem to match his body, Kirey silenced everyone in the room and slightly eased the tension that was building up. Likanu had spoken the things on the minds of many, himself included, and although he would have liked to hear what Yunei would have said in defence, he had to stop the situation from escalating any further.
//'Shouting is not the way we yeme deal with our problems."// Kirey solemnly said. //"Instead of arguing, since this seems to have gone past the stage of debate, we shall immediately take the vote. All those in favour of carrying the matter to Nerisu, indicate by a show of hands."// Several hands, including Kirey's, rose into the air. After a quick count, Kirey recorded down the number.
//"All those in favour of not doing anything indicate by a raise of hands."// A few more council members raised their hands in hands in the air. Kirey recorded down the number without even a sigh, although his eyes seemed to have grown more tired, and his shoulders sagged a little.
//"Is there anyone that has a suggestion outside of these two?"// he asked, hoping that someone would at least have a separate opinion. Everyone looked at themselves, but no one came forward.
He turned to face the other elders of the council who already knew the results of the voting. Likanu clenched his teeth tightly as Kirey read the results, yet he facial expression never changed. The winners of the small vote had been those in favour of doing nothing. It was a landslide victory; the people of the former party had no hope of winning.
Likanu's face remained the same, but his thoughts were racing a hundred miles a second. This was not the first time they were taking this particular vote. The other times were almost all the same, with more people choosing to act like there was nothing going on.
At first it was by a small margin, one or two who were with Yunei. But with every vote they took, the number of people supporting him kept increasing, with this vote being the most shocking for Likanu. One of the people who supported Yunei was someone he thought was a staunch supporter of his cause, yet he had been swayed to the other side within a few meetings.
Kirey looked like he couldn't care less, announcing the results without batting an eyelid and closing the meeting without any hesitation. Yet it wasn't that he was nonchalant, but rather he had seen too many scenes like this to feel concerned about it. He could accurately guess what was happening, and didn't wish to be part of it, so the moment he closed the meeting he left.
Out of the few that lingered behind, they were all met personally by Yunei, and Likanu could only stare on at what was happening, wishing he could become privy to what was being said, so he could understand why the people were switching over so quickly.