"Kezler, how have you been?" said a large, white-bearded man.
"Sunki, you old thing, I can't believe you're still alive," said elder Kezler with a grin. The two old men laughed as they embraced, making small talk about their journey and the year that they had been apart.
A crowd of humans mingled around the camps right outside the main Bek Tepe temple complex. Elder Sunki's tribe, the Jenin, were among the last to arrive. Like most of the other tribes of the double river basin, their members had many different hair, eye, and skin colors, since members preferred to marry across tribes. Only the Roja and the human Jora tribe were strange in that most of their members had similar hair colors. Apparently this was because the Roja were the most isolated tribe and the Jora disliked marrying outside their tribe.
"I can't believe the Jora haven't arrived yet," said elder Sunki. "They're usually the first ones here."
"No, that honor went to us this year, I'm afraid," said Kezler. "Perhaps they got stuck along the way. Don't you remember that one time the Nare tribe missed the festival because they'd all caught some strange disease and had to rest by the Eur river?"
Sunki nodded. The two elders exchanged some more theories about what could be holding up the human Jora tribe, with some other older tribesmen chiming in from time to time. Eventually, elder Sunki's gaze fell to me.
"And who is this young man?" said the white-bearded elder. "He seems to be hanging out with your tribe. Don't tell me you're finally going to have an outsider marry into your tribe? Which tribe is he from? They must be really desperate!" He laughed and apologized right after, saying he was only joking. He said his tribe had been friends with the Roja for generations, and that he himself had gotten up to all sorts of mischief with Kezler when they were younger. He said he was so close to the tribe he knew every single member, which was why he knew I was not a Roja tribesman.
Fortunately, Kezler had told us about elder Sunki, so I was able to pass myself off as a suitor for one of the Roja tribeswomen. Noel stood far away from the Roja, mingling in with the other tribes without attracting too much attention.
Noel met my gaze with a worried look. Every single tribe from the double river basin had arrived at Bek Tepe except for the one we most wanted to meet. I remembered the way the Oracle had known things she shouldn't have, and since we suspected the immortals were involved with the human Jora tribe too, I was worried that the human Jora tribe had found out about us.
"Have the Jora ever missed the festival before?" I asked.
Elder Sunki stroked his beard. "Not in my memory."
"It is not in the stories, either," said elder Kezler.
"But the solstice is tomorrow," said elder Sunki. "Perhaps another tribe will have to preside over the festivities instead."
"The Jora priests aren't going to like that," said elder Kezler.
"Well, it's their fault for not arriving on time," said elder Sunki. "If another tribe does have to take over, we might have to hold an assembly to make a decision."
Elder Kezler nodded slowly. "The Roja tribe has never wanted to be in the center of attention. We do not have many friends, apart from your Jenin tribe."
Elder Sunki smiled. "My Jenin tribe has always liked to bask in the sun. If there is an opportunity to lead the festival, we will step forward."
"And you will have our support," said elder Kezler.
Elder Sunki laughed and put a hand on Kezler's shoulder. The two began talking and walked away from me. I hung around the area, speaking to some other humans, asking about their journeys. I learned where all of the different tribes came from and what they had to do to get here. I found out that many of them had specializations, which would help them trade for different items at the time of the festival. The Roja brought things like seashells and salt, which were both very prized commodities. This was why the Roja were well respected, despite being a small and isolated tribe.
As the day wore on and night fell, I hid behind a statue. Noel joined me there, soon after. We dispelled the magic we were using to disguise our ears and hair, and set up motion detection magic nearby, so nobody could sneak up on us.
"Tomorrow is the solstice," I said. "If the human Jora tribe doesn't show up, the other tribes will hold an assembly and somebody else will take over."
Noel pursed her lips. "That's no good. We need to ask the human Jora tribe about our Jora tribe!" She tapped her feet on the ground. Her nervousness was infectious. It gave me an empty feeling in my stomach.
"If they don't show up, we'll have to go looking for them," I said.
Noel nodded. "We don't need to take the Roja along. But it might be useful to ask the other tribes for help. Getting someone to show us the way to the human Jora tribe's territory would be useful."
Shouts came out from the camps. Noel and I hurriedly disguised ourselves again and rushed back. Someone was shouting "they're here, they're here!" I followed the direction in which everyone was pointing and saw a large group of people appear from behind a hill. I couldn't see them very well this late at night and at such great distance, but I didn't doubt that this was the long-awaited human Jora tribe, barely making it in time for their own festival.
The various elders of the different tribes joined together to walk down the temple to meet the Jora at the base of the passageway. Since the passageway was very narrow, the elders told everybody else to stay put. A prehistoric traffic jam wouldn't be fun for anybody.
Noel and I secretly followed the elders anyway. It was easy enough with the disguise magic that we had invented, but we still kept to the shadows of the temple. The elders walked down the passageway, but we couldn't follow all the way. Using our disguise magic to hide our entire bodies would take up too much energy. Instead, we waited for the elders to return.
The first people to come up the passageway were a group of solemn looking old men, each wearing elaborate bone necklaces over a strange black tunic. Behind them came the elders, and then a bunch of ordinary but tired looking humans. The group went up to the rest of the humans who were waiting at camp, but a few of the human Jora tribes leaders—or priests—split off to head into the pit. The elders followed them with some hesitation. Elder Kezler never said anything about the human Jora priests going into the pit on the night of the solstice.
Noel and I hid behind a couple of tall stone statues overlooking the pit. Since the entire structure was tilted away from the hill, Noel and I would've been able to see far below us if the night wasn't as dark as a pool of ink.
We were too far away to hear what the elders were saying. The priests approached the elfin skull, ignoring whatever the elders had been saying to them. Elder Sunki grew frustrated with the priests' silence, and grabbed one of them. His voice was louder than most others, which meant we could hear it from where we stood.
"...worried. Say something?" he seemed to have said.
The priest stared steadfastly at the elfin skull, refusing to acknowledge elder Sunki at all. The other priests surrounded the skull and dropped to their knees. They extended their hands and slowly raised the skull in unison, like a perfectly choreographed group acrobatics routine. The absurdity of the situation, coupled with the eerie silence the priests insisted on maintaining, made the whole situation incredibly tense.
The oldest priest slowly opened his near toothless mouth and said something to the other elders. Elder Sunki's eyes widened. He yelled so loudly his beard shook and his voice boomed throughout the land.
"What do you mean there are elves among us?"