Chapter Nine:
Introductions
When Zack opened his eyes the next morning, he found himself face to face with a grinning boy only a couple years older than himself.
"Hello, what's your name?" asked the boy.
"... Zack... Who are you?" asked Zack cautiously. The boy had very bright black eyes and a broad smile on his brown face.
"Well, right now, I'm Little Bird because Hawk's my father, but I'll have a better name when I'm older. Something big and strong like, Mighty Bear or Savage Wolf!" The boy pushed his chest out confidently and Zack laughed.
"So, what's a Zack?" asked Little Bird. "What does your name mean?"
"Uh..." Zack didn't know.
"Oh, never mind. You're still pretty little, aren't you?" said Little Bird with that tone of friendly condescension that Zack hated so much.
"I'm NOT little!"
"Look, everyone's outside except you and your sister. Why don't you wear my old coat, then you can come and play with us."
Zack thought that was a wonderful idea and Little Bird dug a shapeless leather cape out from under the piles of furs in the cluttered tent. "It's too small for me, and too big for my little sister, so you might as well have it. See, it even has a hood!"
There was fur inside the cape, and as soon as Zack slipped it on the inside of the tent became unbearably hot. Zack and Little Bird scrambled for the opening to the outside. They emerged into bright sunlight reflecting off a thin layer of white snow, which was rapidly melting into muddy puddles. It seemed to Zack that there were children everywhere, running and screaming and playing games. When one of the women sitting by the tents said, "Shoo, off you go!" he ran to join them. They laughed at his curly hair and his sneakers (which Little Bird said looked like "funny little tents for feet to live in"), but within a few minutes he was playing with them all the same games he knew from home, Catch Me, and Chase the Ball (well, actually, it was Chase the Goat's Stomach Sewn Shut and Blown Up, but Zack didn't know that), and Find Me If You Can, and all the rest.
Zack was too far away to hear the wail that emanated from the tent a few minutes after he had left. Alice had woken up all alone and she didn't know where she was. Mossflower heard her crying and immediately rushed to her side, gathering her up into a hug.
"I didn't know where I was. I want my real home!" sobbed Alice.
Mossflower made soothing noises, "I'm sure your people aren't far away. We'll find them."
"You won't, you won't, they haven't even been born yet, they're thousands of years away..." But Alice's words were muffled by the fur of Mossflower's cloak and Mossflower didn't understand what she was saying.
"Never mind," she said comfortingly, "Come outside. You can sit with us women this morning. Maybe Cowrie will let you pound the grass seed with the big wooden pestle. That's always fun for a little girl, isn't it? Some of the younger ones are chewing the leathers to make them soft, but my old teeth aren't up to that anymore." She laughed, and Alice noticed for the first time that her teeth did seem very blunted and flattened. Almost as if they had been worn down. Alice wanted to ask for a better look, but she thought that might be rude.
Out of the tent, in the bright light, Alice was suddenly the centre of a lot of very intense interest.
"Look how pale she is! Her brother's very fair, too. Do you think all her people are as pale as that?"
"Her hair is the same colour as autumn grass, it's almost yellow! I thought she was sick at first, but it seems to be the natural colour."
"I can't say I think much of those clothes. Look how flimsy they are... Are you cold, child?"
"Yes, but look how cleverly they are sewn together!"
"Mossflower, she's cold! Let me give her my Sienna's old cape."
Before Alice could say anything about it, she found herself bundled off to another tent where a large square of fur, with a hole in the centre for her head, was dropped over her shoulders. Back outside, the women laughed and told her how beautiful she looked, like a proper young lady. Then they lifted up the edges of the cloak and continued inspecting her clothes.
"Do you think this is some sort of plant weave? It looks a bit like that, but so much finer. What are your clothes made of?" asked one of the younger women, turning suddenly to Alice.
"It's cotton," said Alice.
"Is that a plant?"
"Yes..."
"What does the plant look like? Can you show us?"
"It's got fuzzy white flowers, I think..."
The women started firing rapid questions at Alice, most of which she couldn't answer. She was beginning to get quite overwhelmed and a little teary when suddenly a deep voice cut through the chatter.
"May I borrow this little one, my honoured mothers and beloved daughters?"
Instant silence, then Mossflower jumped to her feet and said, "Of course, sir," with a deferential bob of her head.
Alice turned and found herself looking up at an immensely tall, incredibly old man. He wore the same sort of hooded cape as the rest of them, but his was decorated all over with feathers and small bones and shells. He had many necklaces around his neck, and there were beads threaded into the braids of his thick black hair. He was leaning on a long carved stick, and he looked down at her with a smile.
"Well, little traveller," he asked in his rumbling bear-like voice, "Will you walk with me for a time?"