When K'rar was aroused from his sleep not so long afterward, it wasn't Darbe by his side. It was one of the boys who had carried him on the stretcher, waking him for his breakfast, which he had obviously carried here in the large dish he had with him. The young man was evidently older than K'rar, but not by a lot. He was also carrying a bottle full of drink, and K'rar wanted that one more than the solid food, so he reached out for it first.
'Good morning,' he said, sitting up and snatching the drink from the young man's hands, 'God I don't want another bitter tonic. Is this what it is?'
'No, that is beetroot. Mom made it for you,' said the boy, watching in awe as K'rar gulped the drink in one sitting, and then smashed the bread and soup in the dish one-handed, 'wow, you must have been hungry.'
'No kidding,' K'rar said, and looked up at the young man, who sat against the edge of the small table, 'I remember your face.'
'Yes. My name is Chio. I was with my friends by the beach when we saw you drifting on a raft, when you smashed into the rocks.'
'So it was you who saved me,' K'rar said, 'thank you, Chio. And thanks for everything, even the medical payments.'
'Those thanks belong to my father. I'm here to see if you're well enough to come home with me, so you can thank him yourself. Everyone else is eagerly waiting to see you.'
'Yes, I will come with you. I hate sickrooms.'
'Everyone hates sickrooms,' Chio chuckled, and went on, 'but, is your leg okay?'
'Yeah, it's fine. Let's go.'
Chio didn't ask further questions until he had finished with the nurse, whom K'rar learned was an employee of the man called Sahar, who had traveled. K'rar took his time to look around his environment. From the rise outside the inn's yard, K'rar could see the great Azlan Sea, and tiny structures that might or might not be boats. Here, according to the naiad, the sea was called the Bovidian Sea. K'rar knew he had traveled with the spirit in a northerly direction, and was thus now on the southern coast of this strange land. The inn neighbored a good number of homesteads built along the same line, and separated by short hedges. To his left, though, was situated one of the larger houses of the village, and behind it was a fair sized orchard, mixed with many different patches of crop, as well as trees. Chio watched K'rar looking around this way and that, before he asked him.
'What is your name?'
'K'rar von Caspar,' said K'rar, 'I told the nurse, and she thought I was being frivolous.'
'That's a strange name, in her defense.'
'Yes. I am not from here.'
'I figured. Do you have family?'
'No,' said K'rar. He did not add details, and Chio did not push for them, 'the nurse said this is Iscalan of Alhanan tribe. What does that mean?'
'What?' the young man took a look at his face to detect the alleged frivolity.
'What did she mean Alhanan tribe?' K'rar repeated.
'You don't even know what country you're in?'
'I know it sounds stupid but I really don't know. I have never been in this country. I think it is quite obvious, because where I come from, people look like me, not like you.'
'But where do you come from? You were on the sea, and there is nothing there at all.'
'Sounds about right.' They were now at the end of the road, and Chio pointed to his right, where a narrow path largely made of gravel snaked between the side wall of a house and a tall hedge that was part of a fence of a paddock. Behind that house, Chio veered off to the right again, and when he came out from the other end revealed another cluster of homesteads, separated by just a few feet, on either side of a long rectangular compound. There stood a house at the top of the cluster with a large part of the compound cut off from the other homes by the same species of hedge K'rar had seen earlier. Some houses had large stone water tanks fitted to their sides, above which gutters from the roof fed into them. K'rar had never seen that sort of water harvesting before, so he stood by one of the houses to examine it, and Chio said,
'Have you never seen a water tank?'
'No. We don't have these where I come from.'
'But we all have water tanks. Of what tribe are you?'
A woman came out of the house K'rar was standing by, and immediately wore the same look many others had worn. K'rar was like an exotic creature, an attraction for tourists.
'Who is this, Chio?' she asked loudly, 'is it the boy who washed up on the beach?'
'Yeah. He says he has never been in this country.'
The inmates of the other houses, including many children, began peeking out of their houses. K'rar thought they were the same people who had been on the beach when he woke up the day before. They followed him to the compound at the head of the rectangle, which was no doubt Chio's home. There, K'rar saw a young girl of about his own age sitting on a stool on the left side of the compound, which was a kitchen and storehouse. The main house was the one in front of him, and on the right was a carpenter's workshop made of a short wall the height of K'rar's shoulders, and connected to a thatched roof by spaced wooden pillars. There was an open door, and K'rar could hear there was activity inside the workshop. Outside the workshop were remnants of the woodwork, including husks and small bits of wood. A lot of husks were at the mouth of the kitchen, being utilized for culinary purposes. On the verandah stretching across the front of the house, there was a mat, and a plate of food and a cup on it. Whoever had been eating that nutrition soon came out of the house. It was the woman from yesterday, and once she saw K'rar, she scuttled across the compound to touch him and warmly ask if he was okay, and when he said he was, she said,
'Ihanga be blessed! Would you like some food?'
'Chio brought me food, thank you.' Now, one of the small boys with the grey eyes came out of the house with his twin sister, whom K'rar was just meeting for the first time, just as the girl by the kitchen door.
The compound was now being flooded with several of the inhabitants of the other homes. While they saw a strange black-haired boy with a skin a bit more refined than theirs, he saw a bunch of outlandish, red-haired people. The mom sat him down by the mat, and the questioning began.
'He does not know where he is, mom,' said Chio.
'What is he talking about, son? What is your name?' the mom asked.
'K'rar von Caspar. He is not jesting. I do not know the first thing about this place.'
'You're in Iscalan village, K'rar. What a name you've got. How did you end up on a raft on the sea? Was it a bad result of some adventure?'
'No. I was on a boat. It was smashed to bits by the water spirit, but it spared my life and carried me across the water to here.'
Some who were there laughed, including Chio, and others just shot him angry looks for making a fool of them. K'rar didn't miss any of this, so he thought he should give them more details to stop this confusion,
'I wasn't jesting about never being here. Look, I come from Korazin on the Moabian Promontory. When I sailed across the Ervean Meridian, I was knocked out by the water spirit, but apparently a higher power disallowed her from taking my life as she does other people who cross the boundary in the water. I was in what she called Godsrealm for many days, and then I came out from this side, and remained on the raft for three days in the open water, and so I ended up on the beach.'
The assembly shared confused looks.
'Korazin, Moabian Promontory. What are those, places?' the girl who was at the kitchen asked.
'You were in the Godsrealm?'
'Yes. I am a Korazite. The naiad said no man survives once they get into her territory. So I might be the only person to ever do so.' This time K'rar seemed to be making progress, but there were still a myriad of questions unanswered, 'you don't believe me?'
'Ah, look, Kara…'
'K'rar.'
'K'rar,' said the mother, 'allow us to be confused. I mean, anyone could make up a story about an adventure in the Godsrealm, which is a thing old fishermen tell their children. But then you are strange, you have black hair, and you have a strange name, and you did wash up on the beach on a raft.'
'And you speak of a water spirit,' said a man from one of the other houses, 'it is known that there is a place on the sea that looks like a line of sand, which no boat or ship crosses because they are supposedly sunk by a water spirit, and never return. But fishermen have sailed as far as they could and there is nothing there. It is just a legend.'
'Yeah, except it is not. I am obviously not from these lands. I look strange to you, and you look strange to me too.'
'So you're saying,' said the other man, 'that beyond the Godsrealm, if it's real, there is another land called Korazin, where you come from?'
'Yes,' K'rar said, 'Korazin is one of seven kingdoms, on the Moabian Promontory. The others are Shona, Ziv, Rabier, Arioch, Goldora, and Kai which is an island nation.'
'This is very strange. You are like a legend that old wives tell their children about. How is this possible?'
'You tell me.'
'Do you have a map, to show us?'
'No. But, but I have these,' K'rar reached into his pocket and retrieved the 2500 kori he had in the bag. The bag's interior had remained dry, and so had the contents, including K'rar's book. Everyone had a look at the coins, and if anyone had still been skeptical, now they believed him.
'Wow,' Chio was saying, 'people are going to love this.'
'No. Do not say to anyone about this, lest the whole division ends up in my compound. Let them ask him themselves when they meet him.' The mother sternly said.
K'rar let them keep the coins they took, but he kept the rest in his bag. Now it was his turn to ask questions. Chio ran to one of the homes in the compound and returned with a map of Xaxanika, knowing K'rar would need it. The small crowd dispersed when Rubin, Chio's mother, dismissed them and took K'rar indoors, and asked the nine year old twins to show him around.
'So, we thought we would help you find your parents, but you are just a strange creature that washed up on the beach alone. Will you stay with us? Hleb will figure something out.'
'Hleb is the bearded man who bandaged me?'
'Yes. He's my husband. I am Rubi, these twins are Ansigne and Silas, and this is Phylla. You already met Chio.'
'Thank you for having me,' K'rar said.
'Don't worry about it, we have room for another delightful boy.'
'Am I delightful?' K'rar meant this question. Rubi just smiled at him and said to the girl Phylla,
'Phylla, will you help him trim his hair? It's a bit overgrown.' K'rar's hair did look like an animal's hair. A mop of black hair covering a lot of his face and the back of his neck.
She would do it from the room K'rar would sleep in. He was to share the room with the brothers Chio and the twin Silas. They went into the room with him, where his bed had already been prepared. The furniture in the home was in abundant supply, because the family patriarch was a carpenter. K'rar wanted to know if the man had been so kind as to make his bed overnight, and Phylla said,
'Mom convinced him that you should come stay with us instead of taking you to the gendarme post in the town center, at least until you were healed. So he repaired this bed and put it in here.'
'Yeah,' said Chio, 'and after what you've told us, mother will wage war to keep you.'
'If your father doesn't want…'
'There's nothing to worry about. Besides, I think we're going to like you,' Phylla said, and sat him down on the bed, 'should I cut most of your hair?'
'No, Phylla, why would you do that?' Chio snapped, 'he's not an eastern pilgrim.'
As she cut his hair expertly with a barber's razor, K'rar studied the map Chio had brought him. He was on Xaxanikan Continent. A landmass as big as at least half of Moab, perhaps slightly larger, Xaxanika was a federation of ten "tribes" including its islands along mostly the eastern and southern coast. It was shaped like a crab or like a hand of a man, with five finger-like peninsulas facing west. K'rar was in the territory of what would be the thumb, in the southwest of Xaxanika. Between Alhanan and the neighboring tribe of Et to the north was a large bay, called the Devil's Mouth. Eastward, Alhanan was neighbored by the territory of Syene, with the Syene River between them as a boundary line running vertically across all the way to the Nightshade Strip, a channel separating the Xaxanikan mainland from the long horizontal Nightshade Islands. Farther eastward, Syene was buffered by the very tall Mt. Shizmin, whose ranges also extended several miles south. East, or northeast, of Shizmin, lay the territory of the tribe of Siroh. The mountain was the source of the River Patma, which flowed from its west face, going westward. The river met Lake Patma to the north of Syene, the second-largest lake of the land, and came out from the west tip of the lake as the Bizkek River. This river was wide, and transported very large volumes of water, and was also the longest river. The west was tilted to the north, so the Bizkek River snaked northward, letting out tributaries and receiving estuaries along the way. To the east of the river sat tribe Hannes, in its basin. This tribe occupied also the entire north shore of Lake Patma. West of the river lay the small tribe of Bar'sha, which was to the east of Et. The river flowed on north to the capital city of all Xaxanika, that is, Zadok, which was in the territory of the tribe of Allon-var. This tribe was the nucleus of the land, because the centralized government was based there, and so was the economic cornerstone of Xaxanika. As such, Allon-var was a less pure tribe than the others, because it was the one most shared jointly, unlike the other tribes which would normally have more native tribespeople in the land than others. The capital Zadok was built on the river. It provided the main water supply for the capital, and there were strict laws carrying heavy sanctions against pollution of any part of the river. To the north of Zadok was what the map indicated as the Fork, a group of three peninsulas shared between the tribes of Fimron, the northernmost tribe, and Andria. The latter occupied two prongs, while Fimron took the peninsula that faced north into the Frozen Sea. In this area was Lake Allon, the largest lake, which was mostly Allon-var territory. To the east of Allon-var was Cauda, a dry patch of Xaxanika for most the year, and the tenth tribe. To the east of Cauda was the Caudan Sea, which harbored an archipelago of about 20 scattered islands, all uninhabited.
Xaxanika was ruled by King Sargios, who belonged to the tribes of both Allon and Andria. Each tribe had a royal representative, a Governor, who would be native to his or her tribe. There were nine Satraps, or governors, for all the tribes except Allon-var because it had the king himself, although he mostly delegated that duty to a proxy, who didn't sit on the Supreme Council. The Supreme Council was the panel of the nine governors and the king. The nine governors were responsible for disseminating royal decisions in their provinces, the official term for "tribes", and were answerable to the king. They had power to overrule some royal decrees by majority vote, and the power to deal with the independent issues of their respective tribes without consultation of the king, as long as such dealings did not involve or compromise the welfare of another province. The governors executed their duties from their own provinces, and exercised the king's power in his behalf. They were required by edict to travel to Zadok three times a year for the Supreme Council Assembly, and such other time as the king directed. King Sargios had the ultimate authority to dismiss and appoint governors upon thorough consultation with his advisers.
K'rar would learn more things about his new home from his new family gradually. The family was hospitable and warm to him, although for the first week, while his arm was still healing, he saw the patriarch Hleb a few times, mostly because Rubi was handling him like a fragile ceramic object during his rehabilitation, not allowing him to exert himself too much and aggravate his injury. He only saw the man during dinner times when the family ate as one at the long table in their parlor, and told stories or read a scroll from the Sacred Writ of Ihanga, their deity. K'rar noticed this about them, that they took their worship seriously. He also couldn't miss the fact that this family was bonded much better than K'rar's own, and he knew that the excuse that his family were royals and had to take care of matters of national interest was no excuse at all. K'rar had been careful to intentionally leave out that part about him. He did not want to endure any resultant behavior that would come if he revealed he was a king. But the family also didn't ask too many questions about this, which relieved him. They were mostly concerned about his present self, and about making him feel at home. As Phylla had said, Hleb had been pushed by his wife not to report K'rar's case to the authority of the township, which was an odd mile or so from the village, Namsang, part of the larger area called the Iscalan Township.
Within a week K'rar's injured arm was fit again, and he was not one to sit in the same place or stay indoors. He set his eyes on exploring his surrounding more. This was his second Monday here, and he arose earlier than Chio, who had a routine of rising at the earliest and going somewhere. K'rar sat by his bed until Chio was awake, before he asked him,
'You always go somewhere every morning.'
'What?' Chio was still yawning and stretching, 'Of course, to milk the cows from the farm in the valley.'
'Great. Can I come with?'
'If you like,' said Chio.
'I do. Mom won't stop me now, my arm is okay.'
'Okay, then. Just get ready.'
The farm was in the valley some distance behind the house, and was shared by the Hleb family and another family. Like the many paddocks he had seen in this village, this one too was protected by a living fence, although the interior had many stables put up for the farm animals, including many cattle, some goats and sheep. Two other boys were already in the kraal when K'rar and Chio got there. K'rar could remember the face of the older boy from last week. He was the other boy apart from Chio who had carried him on the stretcher.
'I know him,' K'rar said as soon as he saw him, 'he's the other guy who carried me on the stretcher.'
'Yes he is,' said Chio, 'Ziha, this is K'rar. The boy we found at the beach.'
'No way,' said Ziha, 'him? He looked so different.'
'Well he had just washed up on the beach, unconscious.'
'I thought you took him to the township, though.'
'Mother wouldn't allow it, of course,' said Chio, 'come on, K'rar. I'll introduce you to the cows.'
The family owned 13 heads of cattle, and all of them had names according to their color, age, sex, horns and what not. Two cows were still weaning calves, and were lactating. But the cows were very strange too, just like the people. They were white-and-black in color, instead of brown. Their horns were also shorter than Moab's cows' horns. Some cows had no horns at all. They were also healthier, fatter. Chio would fill a jar with fresh milk from each of these. K'rar watched closely as he did so, and listened as he explained the dynamics of milking a cow. He completed the task in just under fifteen minutes, and said,
'Once in a while we take them out for a walk to larger pastures near the woods. I'll bring you with me when we next do so.'
'Of course.'
Ziha had also finished milking his family's beasts, and he came round to their position to speak with Chio.
'Hey, Chio. Have you been to the town to see her?'
By Chio's reaction K'rar could tell that the subject of this talk was not meant to reach his ears.
'Oh, you have someone, don't you Chio?' he didn't need any effort to figure this out.
'Don't say anything, K'rar.'
'Am I your sister? I can keep another boy's secret.'
'So you haven't told your new brother about anything,' Ziha was saying.
'He's been injured a week, man.'
'I want to go to Iscalan, you know,' K'rar said quickly.
'It is two miles away, man. But mother will soon travel there to buy market supplies. You can go with her if you like.'
'Ah, that's not the same thing. I don't want to see her friends, I want to see yours. You know, take me around.'
After a pause Chio conceded,
'That's not a bad idea.'
'Yeah, you get an excuse to meet her,' said Ziha, 'and considering you're competing with that punk Zeljko, your chances aren't very nice. He stays in the township with her.'
'Nobody likes that stupid idiot.'
'He's got the money, man. And you've got a jug of milk.'
Rubi, whom K'rar was learning to refer to as "mother" and "mom", the latter being a short form of mother K'rar was hearing for the first time, indeed had a trip to Iscalan Township on the agenda. K'rar was not going to waste an opportunity to have his first taste of adventure away from the village, so he immediately approached Rubi and asked her to allow him come along. She said,
'Yes of course, son. In fact, you remind me, I will be visiting the tailor to get you some new clothes. Chio doesn't have so many clothes himself, so you can't share forever.'
'Okay. I'll be waiting. I'll go with Chio, though. He's going to take me around.'
'Oh, a tour. No problem.'
K'rar changed into his own clothes, which had been washed up, and put on his boots, and sat outside to wait. Hleb had stayed home that day, and was working on something in his workshop. K'rar himself was good at that kind of work, so he went into the workshop and found him hammering and chiseling on a chair. Hleb was a silent man, never speaking much, and never being in one place too much. He was a tall man with a sturdy outlook, the look of one used to hard labor.
'Good morning, Ser Hleb.'
The man just forced a brief smile, and went about his business. K'rar said,
'You work in this shop on some days, and you're away on others. Where do you go?'
'I am also a fisherman,' said Hleb, pausing to look down at him, 'I also repair boats, and other furniture, at the wharf in Iscalan.'
'Want some help? I have done some of this before myself.'
'Really, where? In your unknown country?' said Hleb, and K'rar nodded, 'okay, then. Chisel away at that pane over there.'
K'rar dis this expertly as the man watched. He knew this was a test, so he was careful. But he knew what he was doing, having done many odd jobs like this in the Debasian forest or watched others do it. K'rar had refused to just sit like a cat, and had indulged with his men in many tasks, including hunting and cutting up game, repairing equipment, even metals, setting traps etcetera. He was also very inventive. Once he had caught a black bear from a trap set in a tree rather than on the ground. He also had a knack of improving things, even combat skills, the highlight of which was the time he ordered his men to extinguish their fires and climb trees. He had learned very much while in hiding, and had ended up more mature than his age, but mostly able to relate to the commoner easily. His camp had loved him for this. He missed them.
'Wow, you really are a good hand,' Hleb was impressed almost immediately, 'an apprentice would take much longer than that.'
'Well, I learned a thing or two.'
'Remind me, how old are you?'
'I am fourteen. I was, when I left Korazin.'
'What do you mean?'
'The months are different here. You have January and February and April and what not. But I was born on the tenth day of the month of Tebeth, which is the tenth month. That was two months ago, but when I came here, I was told it's the third month!'
'Yes. It is the third month, of March. You name the months differently?'
That was the moment K'rar became the man's buddy because of his considerable woodcraft and skill with tools. In fact, when they both came out of the workshop later on, everyone in the compound was surprised how Hleb was having a lively conversation. Phylla stopped what she was doing and watched them a bit, and then said,
'What's with you two?'
'Yeah, father. When did you last talk for longer than five minutes?'
His children were apparently fine with the man's stoic, reticent character, and sometimes teased him about it, as they were doing now. He only ever spoke like that with his wife, and even then it wouldn't be something he would speak to K'rar about.
'Chio, get me a calendar,' Hleb said, and sat down at the verandah, and then said to K'rar, 'we're going to find out your birth date in the real calendar.'
Chio went in and returned with a parchment highlighting the five seasons on it, and the calendar months. The paper also had drawings of the activities common in each month, indicated by sketches of plants, weather and animals. The document, K'rar thought, must have been some sort of teaching tool for children. Upon careful calculation and drawing, using the fact that K'rar had turned fourteen just over two months ago, they came up with a system that compared the two calendars, and the tenth day of the tenth month corresponded with the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of December.
'I will choose for you December 25. That's the day you were born,' said Hleb, 'your new birthday.'
It was then that K'rar also learned about the five seasons in Xaxanika. Moab had just dry and wet seasons, and since March was a rainy month, which was normal, K'rar did not fully understand until months later during the cold months of winter.