(IC) Chapter Seven: Return to Agatti

[Celedor]

She looks up, and though the hair is the same, it's not Hailena. . .too young, and the wrong shaped face. . .but you chased her right here?

[Wentil]

"Oh!" says Kamu, blinking, obviously surprised.  He speaks slowly, so as to better be understood.  "Hello!  I'm Kamu... we met before, in the Village... this is Monuau, my friend."

Kamu glances at Monuau, then back at the girl.  "We did not mean to scare you." he says.  "I am very sorry.  We were following and looking for Hailena, who was helping us find our friend -- who is lost.  Are you okay?  Please, stand up."

Kamu does not move towards the girl, nor make any alarming movements.  He smiles gently, hiding his inward confusion.  He was certain Hailena ran here... how did she manage to switch herself out with this other girl, with hair that looked the same?

"What is your name?" he asks, still smiling, hoping to get her calmed down before asking about the cliff's edge, which is obviously something that had so alarmed Hailena.  Smiles and gentle words had seemed to be received well so far by the women of the Village... they didn't seem to be used to seeing them often while growing up.

[Celedor]

She seems to relax, a bit, at the calm tone. She looks up. . .she seems about your age, perhaps a bit younger.

"Aym Dinah.

She's not flinching and cowering, but she's talking to the middle of your chest, avoiding eye contact.

[Wentil]

Kamu recalls the jarring drive into his mind from the eyes of the massive Pig, and wonders if the women avoided meeting the eyes of men in the past to avoid a similar circumstance.

"Well, Dinah, it is very nice to meet you, and speak to you." says Kamu, nodding.  "I am sure we will speak more -- it would be nice if you could sit down and talk together with Hailena and us, later on, by the fire.  Again -- I am sorry to have scared you when we came through the bushes so quickly.  Have you seen Hailena or my friend Woanu come this way before we did?"

As he is speaking, Kamu walked around her at a distance, to the cliff's edge overlooking the ocean, and as he speaks the last words, he peers over and down, his trained eyes searching for movement below.

[Celedor]

She shakes her head at your question.

The edge curves out and down to the ocean, which pounds against the base, though not with the same violence as at the cliffs on Kani. . .the sea seems to strike the cliffs at an angle, headed west, not head on like at home.

The slope is black rock, with creepers along it, and green springing out of every crack, hole or depression. . .it looks climbable, but one false move and. . . .

[Wentil]

Kamu blinks.  Hailena certainly hadn't come this way -- there was no place for her to go.  He must have lost her when he rounded the corner, and mistaken Dinah's hair for Hailena.  He shakes his head ruefully at the gaffe.  Elder Tovanu would not have been pleased.  Kamu himself was not pleased.  "Haste leads to flaws, flaws lead to failure." he mutters to himself, repeating his first mentor's words as he was being taught the ways of herbs and poisons.

Turning away from the cliff, Kamu puts his hands on his hips and urges his mind to calm.  He's already wasted much time here.  Hailena had already reached wherever she was headed.  Dinah would have to tell him what he needed to know, but he needed to phrase the question most carefully.  He clears his throat.

"Dinah," he says in a deliberately casual way, keeping his words slow and understandable, a smile on his face, "Can you help us find Hailena?  She was helping us look for our friend Woanu -- who we think got lost over by the cliff's edge somewhere -- and now we lost her!  Ha ha, we sure get lost easily, don't you think?"

[Celedor]

She glances back over the edge, she goes a bit pale, and there's a tremor to her voice.

"Over the cliff? He fell?"

[Wentil]

Kamu smiles and laughs lightly.  "No, he's not that silly." he says. "But we thought he was exploring the edge of the cliff, maybe looking for a way down to the water, when he got lost, and we've been looking for him.  I'm sure he's around here.  I was following Hailena -- she sure is quick -- and I lost her, ha ha.  Now we're lost, too... maybe you can help us find Hailena?  If she was looking for a place to go down to the water, where do you think she went?"

[Celedor]

Her look of surprise shifts through confusion to a guarded, wary expression as she turns back, still looking down and away.

[Wentil]

Kamu tries to keep the mounting sense of alarm down and keep his voice calm and slow as she doesn't reply.  "I mean, if you don't want to help, I guess we can keep looking for her ourselves, but it's getting dark." he says.  "And we don't know this area very well.  I just hope that our friend gets found... before it's dark."

With that, he turns to Monuau and heaves a theatrical sigh.  "Come on, Monuau, let's keep looking." he says.

[Celedor]

Monuau "I think he went down right by the Idol."

points toward the statue on the northeast corner of the islet, which is barely visible behind some foliage about 100' east of here.

[Wentil]

Kamu nods and sets off in that direction at a lope.  As he makes his way through the dense foilage, he reflects on his failure with Dinah.  What could he have done differently?  He knew, of course, that he wasn't good at manipulating people, and his efforts to do so rarely worked.  Clever speaking was one of the things he'd probably never get good at.

"We all have to play to our strengths." he thinks to himself, hurrying faster.

[Celedor]

Moving along, breaking through one layer of cover into the open, then into cover and out again, Kamu finds it odd, it's almost like crops, but not in clean rows. . . .the whole top of this place has terrible lines of sight, you can't see more than five paces anywhere but in the central clearing, and along the rim of the plateau, who lets brush grow this way, while clearing most of the area?

The idol almost rears out of the brush as Kamu reaches the rim.

[Wentil]

Kamu stops and pauses to catch his breath, reaching out one hand to lightly touch the statue with his fingertips, reassured by the presence of Kani in this strange place.  He remembers thinking of these patterns as crops in fields, and even reporting as much to the Elders.  Foolish, perhaps, but he had faithfully reported what he had seen.  Who would have thought otherwise?  Or known of the madness that was Agatti?

Stepping closer to the edge, Kamu peers over it and downwards, his eyes searching for movement.

"Monuau?" he asks. "Do you see him?"

[Celedor]

The cliff bellys out and then in out of view here, so you can't see below about 30'.

You can see a pattern of disturbed surface and crushed leaves among the vines that cover the rock face.

[Wentil]

"Gah." Kamu exclaims.  He continues looking over the cliff's edge, but speaks behind him, to Monuau.

"It looks like he climbed down here." he says. "I can see marks."

He scowls, his eyes roaming over the traces of passage that he can see along the cliff face.  "Why do you think Hailena seemed so alarmed?" he asks the older boy.  "And since she's not here, where did she run off to?  Should we call to him, do you think?  Or to her?  After all, if he's just down there and can't climb back, maybe we can throw him a rope and pull him back up.  I don't think we should attempt the descent ourselves, with night almost here."