Transcribed from dictation, ADAM speaking--
In a flash I had gone from being on a sublime spiritual high to
being afraid and worried about what kind of trouble I was in.
Because I knew that Ma-ralla-hata wanted trouble for me, one way or
another. Was I guilty of disturbing the peace and therefore at her
mercy? Or was I in the other kind of trouble, from a horny old
woman driven crazy by shyøma?
I was tempted to ask Daset what this was about but could sense that
he was feeling compromised because he was too new to the job to be
commenting on his orders, so once again we said nothing to each other.
I didn't even consider making a break for it: where could I go? I'd
have to escape Aket--maybe via Dagrolyt's dangerous secret passage--
and give up my studies as well as my future among the Nokhontli.
All this was running through my head as I followed the two Alutna
through the port into Alutna headquarters.
But they did not lead me down those labyrinthine corridors to
Ma-ralla-hata's private chamber; we took stairs upward instead,
ending up in the Alutna's central office. It was a large room with
a view over all of Aket, there were several men I assumed to be
Alutna and Ma-ralla-hata herself, barking out orders with her usual
arrogance and nastiness.
At least I was not alone with her, which was a relief. I doubted
that she would try to violate me in front of witnesses. But if so,
I was resolved to fight her off.
She ignored my presence for a while, of course, then turned to me
and asked: "What WAS that HORRIBLE NOISE you have been
making, Silly Young Dadamet?"
"It was a form of Oration," I said, making no attempt to be polite
with any obsequious "Our Lady"s.
"Unlike any oration I have ever heard a Nokhon utter before.
However, I have heard such disturbing sounds made by those evil
little NOKHSO DEVILS! Skosk sounds! Skesk sounds! Ø'skogme
sounds!"
"That wasn't skesk," I argued, "it was only my own Nokhon voice."
"E'e Ø'SKOGME!" She stooped to shout it directly in my face.
This was a decree by the Chief of Police: your myøsik is forbidden
in Aket!
I got mad. "Or what?" I challenged her. Like I said, I was ready
to fight if she violated me.
That got her mad. Well, I couldn't really tell if she was madder
than before, but I'd like to think she was. Especially because of
how it all worked out.
She shouted all right, but to her Alutna agents, not at me. Commands.
Four of them, including Daset, took me in strong hands and led me
into the dark labyrinth. I did try to fight them off but they were
trained to get a grip and effortlessly whisked me away. We walked
through the dark until they made me climb blindly down a grass rope
into a deep pit. They pulled up the rope and left me there alone
in the dark. I mean completely dark and completely alone.
I tried to feel my way out of there, but only went in a circle. The
wall was smooth stone, I couldn't climb it. I was obviously in some
kind of jail. That was scary: not knowing for how long, or really
even why I was there. For a crime? Or the whim of an evil witch?
A long time seemed to pass before I finally managed to fall asleep.
I was awakened by the sounds of several people approaching. I saw
light, flames flickering somewhere, getting brighter until I could
see the pit around me. It had to be about 25 feet deep with a 10
foot diameter, smooth walls: I could never have gotten out on my own.
Finally there was a small fire floating above me--a trick I'd seen
somewhere before. Then faces looking down, hands waving.
"Young Dadamet! We're here to release you!" I knew it would be old
Da-nama-hat, that floating fire trick had tipped me off. He tossed
down one end of the rope of woven grass for me to climb up. My teacher
Dahassat was also there and two of my study comrades. My rescue
party.
They told me what had happened. It had seemed like days to me in
the dark, but had actually only been overnight and until noon the
next day. I had been missed at classes, but not missed enough to
have alerted anyone that I was, in fact, missing. The actual alert
was sounded at the mid-day session of The Three Elders.
I wasn't there to see it, of course, but almost everyone else in Aket
was. The three individual elders had just come up onto the chrome
dais and become The Three Elders, speaking in one voice, when they
announced that The Chief Alutna had unjustifiably forbidden all
performances of "the Orator Dadamet" and imprisoned him--that is,
me. The Three went on to decree that this was an overreaction on
the part of the Alutna and was to be rectified immediately.
In effect, Ma-ralla-hata was commanded to rescind her orders and
not interfere with me about my orating, a real slap in the face,
public embarrassment, the works.
The funny thing is that SHE is one of The Three. Which means that
when she became One with the others she automatically snitched on
herself, since she could hardly keep a secret from her own expanded
consciousness. So it seems to be true that those three individual
elders become Someone Else: a Separate Authority between three
bodies. Lucky for me.
Nothing happened to her, she was still Number One Cop, but
she had to leave me alone. She obeyed the command of The Three, of
course, who could she protest to? I was happy to be free and was
now officially allowed to make myøsik.
The Full Moon arrived two days later. Instead of the usual local
ceremonies spread around Aket, the Town Square had the most popular
show to offer, so everyone who was anyone was gonna be there or be
square. I almost didn't go because the high point of the evening's
ceremony was to be a performance of the Atli by the Great Orator
Dambaraggan Himself. Yeah, my big fat and pompous teacher was
evidently regarded as the Nokhon nation's most divinely inspired
speaker. Except by me, of course.
Oh, I went, but only because all my friends did. And the old lump
of fat DID know how to please a crowd, everyone around me was
hypnotized, even the shyøma seemed to thin out as women forgot
their bodies in the enchantment of words. But I thought he was
overdramatic, overrated and...well, over the hill.
My negative reaction had everything to do with being assigned
sessions with precisely HIM to learn the "Discipline of Orating".
More so because he had a similar reaction to hearing some elder
say that "Young Dadamet has the potential to become a Great Orator."
Which automatically made me his arch-rival and that sort of thing
brought out the worst in him. I basically thought he was full of
shit, so we became academic enemies.
My gratitude for him having taught me how to use haka in my voice
was soon forgotten because he always made a point of insulting me
during our sessions and insisting that I respond when spoken to.
Of course I was supposed to respond politely and with great respect,
but often lost my temper and began to insult him right back. The
other two students were shocked by my behavior, but Dambaraggan
became enthusiastic because it drew an audience.
He also seemed to enjoy that I was such an easy target: he had an
impressive vocabulary and mine was so limited that he always came
out the winner of any verbal exchange. At first.
One thing that really sent Dambaraggan on a critical rampage was
my singing. Ma-ralla-hata and a few grumpy elders aside, there had
also been a positive response to the Myøsik, some people asked
me to do it again. So I began to sing regularly and even teach
some simple songs to those interested in trying. I'd even worked out
a few songs in Nokhontli by then and they became somewhat popular.
Dambaraggan was offended that I would "use an Orator's potential
talent on such inappropriate silliness." He and I would get into
arguments, splitting semantic hairs on proper language usage. It
was a lot like that time when Doug and I used to try to blow each
other away with bigger words...well, you know. But this was much
less friendly.
The thing was, crowds would always gather to hear us rant at each
other. I guess we became infamous for it, so people would come
around to see if we were putting on a show today. And addressing a
crowd was what Dambaraggan lived for, so he really got into it:
"The words of that Myøsik you chant, they tell untrue stories,
lies!" Challenge of the day.
"Not lies, but myths and metaphors, as in the Atli..."
"NOT as in the Atli! And what could YOU know of Metaphors?"
"I'm not ignorant. I AM educated in NokhSo lore and a metaphor
is..."
"NokhSo lore IS ignorance! And you can't mean METAPHOR, it's the
wrong word." Then he'd arrogantly show me the proper nuance of an
accompanying gesture I had SO STUPIDLY missed.
"Well, my knowledge of Nokhontli is new, I can't be expected to
have as complete a vocabulary as you... yet."
"YET, little skyøma? Not yet and you shall NEVER have!" And
he would bow to the crowd when he thought that he had won a point.
Of course, his vocabulary WAS better than mine, so he usually got
to feel as if he'd won.
But every time he pulled a bigger and better word out of his
arsenal with which to blow me away...I learned that word too.
Between the frustrating battle of egos with Dambaraggan and my
disappointment about reduction of actual Sha-haka training, I needed
some encouragement in the rest of my experience at Aket. Myøsik
became that for me.
As I've mentioned, my fellow students had a much higher opinion of
my status as future Orator than I did, they actually considered me
Very Cool. That was better than being a Nobody, of course, so I
lapped it up a bit. Guys wanted to be my friend and some very
nice girls offered to "choose me" later on when we were all done
with our studies.
But since I was genuinely uninterested in a career of unvarying
repetitions of traditional Atli performances, I had to become an
outlaw, of course. If I was to be an Orator, it would at least
be something unique I orated. So I sang.
I tried to translate a few American songs into Nokhontli, but
always had to explain what the words meant anyway--my translations
weren't good enough to smooth out the distance between cultural
concepts while rhyming in 4/4 time. So I started writing original
verses to them.
Actually, I ended up putting together several songs in Nokhontli
that I'm quite proud of, having friends help me with words, or
ideas. Most of their ideas were: "Sing a song about me!" And that
worked out pretty well, because they'd just give me words about
themselves, we'd find some rhymes--loose, I admit--and a song would
emerge. I did a whole bunch of them in 12-bar-or-talking blues.
Some of them were really funny...ha! I'd play you the one about
how Dapalet and Maenbwa got stuck during yøramma...but I'd have
to translate it...ahh maybe later, I've got this story to tell
right now.
I lost track of time, busy with my studies, living in a cavern,
until it was suddenly my second Full Moon in Aket. I'd been there
almost two months.
As the shyøma got stronger, so did the songs I wrote. The rhythms
got more up tempo and the text definitely became more pornographic
as well. Since we were all suffering enforced celibacy together,
those songs became popular rallying cries for the universal
frustration of horny youth--and my "fans" learned to sing along.
Not only that, the crowd would start to undulate with erotic moves
and it became a scene, a happening. Squatch Rap.
This went on at our campus hangout in the evenings, while other
entertainers were making other kinds of noise at the Town Square,
so there were no protestations at first. But we became loud enough
to attract attention and the crowd grew. The concerts got bigger,
involved more people, so the volume got higher and higher, thrilling
and intense in the closed echo chamber of Aket. Loud, anyway.
Okay, not everybody liked it, there was a protest about the noise,
but it was only once in a while...at first. Until so many people
started to join in and try to sing--badly. So I tried to teach
them how to sing--that is, hit those notes they'd never heard
before, which evidently wasn't that easy to do. This meant lots
of rehearsal time needed, ending up with lots of complaining about
it.
Finally the elders said we had to take it outside. And that
wouldn't work on a freezing windblown mountaintop, so it came
down to just me singing one song every evening, the others could
just listen and learn that way. That suited me too, it was taking
up too much time.
Even so, that once a day I would sing a sort of mini-concert. It
became organized enough that everybody interested showed up and
squatted on the big floor and at sunset I'd come and do maybe three
numbers and we'd all go our ways.
So I worked on songs to make sure that at least I gave a semi-
professional performance. Myøsik was my magic, so I was working
on it. Elders reminded me that I was being trained as an Orator,
not Sha-haka, but I talked them into accepting that my singing was
verbal and therefore a form of Oration, so I was given quite a
bit of leeway.
Actually, I'd just been waiting for someone to say "Myøsik is
NokhSo culture and therefore Ø'skogome!" So I'd been
careful to sing only in Nokhontli, without any kind of musical
instruments. I'd been really tempted to make a tom-tom or a flute,
but knew that'd be against the rule of No Artifacts.
A weird social change happened for me. All those fellow students
I'd been becoming friends with, having academic conversations
with, some of whom had been slightly superior or patronizing to
me, ended up squatting at my feet and looking up at me like I was
the Great Guru Himself. I'd become the first Pop Music Star of Aket.
It was pretty weird: I didn't want that, didn't think of myself as
having a big Ego, not like the Great Dambaraggan. But at the same
time, I liked it--it was fun, sure. It DEVELOPED my Ego.
I've mentioned that battle of egos between Dambaraggan and myself.
I was supposed to treat my Dwayarat with respect, which I did
until he didn't treat me the same way and then I became very
argumentative and competitive with him. The truth is, he liked that.
Dambaraggan could have made much more trouble for me about the
singing than he did. The elders checked in with him about me
progressing as an Orator. I don't know what he told them, but the
elders never did call me on improper behavior towards my teacher.
But Dambaraggan sure argued with me about my songs, as loud as he
could, drawing bigger and better audiences. He challenged me to
defend my singing performances intellectually, to convince him
that it wasn't a waste of time to chant words that had nothing to
do with Atli. We swapped rapid-fire insults that became bigger and
more absurd, inventive invective, funnier, more dramatic.
So we never did get around to doing any Atli, Dambaraggan and I
just debated and argued and bitched in front of an audience every
session. That seemed to be all the training as Orator I was
going to get. And truthfully, it really worked, I was holding my
own with the Greatest Orator in Squatchland!
I paid another visit to Da-nama-hat, my all-knowing 250-year-old
friend. Actually, I felt a real kinship for him, almost as if he
was the Nokhon family I didn't have. That Grandfather feeling.
But I was constantly surprised to learn just how much we had in
common.
This time it was I who had arranged our meeting and he seemed
happy that I was actively interested in developing our friendship.
Of course, I was still really grateful that he had rescued me
from Ma-ralla-hata's pit, he was the right kind of friend to have.
We talked about Nokhon history and again he evidenced so much
knowledge about other continents, place-names and dates for time-
frame reference, that I had to ask him how he could possibly know
so much about the outside world.
"I have personally known some NokhSo people," he said, "they
taught me many things."
"Were you friends with them?"
"I've had several good friends--and enemies--among them. But my
most intense relationship was with a Nokhso woman, who was my
lover for many years."
"Whaaat?" I asked, "A human woman?"
"Yes, an Indian woman, more than a hundred years ago. She grew
old and died, of course. That's how I know how short their lives
are. I missed her for a long time. Love is different for them--
and with them."
"Sure is." I may have spoken wistfully.
"Ah, yes, you love a NokhSo girl too, don't you?"
"How did you know that?"
"My secret, ha ha." Da-nama-hat enjoyed being mysterious
sometimes.
I was interested in another secret. "Could you actually yøramma
with your woman? They're so small."
"Oh yes, but not wildly like at the Kha-rat, which could kill any
human woman. But then, it was the very gentleness required that
made it so special. I've enjoyed very few Nokhon women as much.
But I've also missed no one the way I missed her when she was gone,
that part of it was hard on me and I would never go through such
torment again."
"Yeah. I miss mine too, probably always will."
"Yours is young, as are you. You can have her for many years yet."
"I can't have her at all. She's NokhSo, I'm Nokhon. I'm afraid
it's one of those forbidden hopeless loves."
"Oh, that's right, now I remember.." the old man actually laughed,
"...forbidden and hopeless love, those funny concepts NokhSoli
have about their passions."
"Doesn't seem that funny to me."
"My woman's love was forbidden as well, by her family and her
tribe. She was exiled and so was I. But we were a pair for 50
years anyway and she came to rule the tribe. It's never
hopeless."
"This one is." I told him why...but actually, uh...that's something
I can't tell you here in this story. Forget I mentioned it.
However, among the things I really must remember to mention is what
Da-nama-hata taught me about Nokhon government, because it will soon
be important to my story.
You already know that the highest authorities at Aket are The Three
Elders, Bwata DyøKetli, who "guide" the entire local area, which
apparently includes all of what you guys like to call the Pacific
Northwest. They make their decisions based upon telepathy and magic,
High Priests running the whole show. Seems to work, though.
However, those Three Elders are only the local government: the REAL
Masters of all Nokhontli are the Bwamakaka DyøKetli, the
Ultimate Nine Elders of Shamballa, somewhere far away in another
mountain range. Sounds like some secret fantasy Shangri-La in the
Himalayas. Pretty silly I know, but then again, Aket exists. At
first I couldn't imagine how any authority that far away could
actually rule over here in the Cascade Mountains without some kind
of skesk-telecommunication, but of course they have that
good old telepathic magic. Like I said, seems to work.
As you can hear, everything was going great for me in Aket: I was
learning what I needed to succeed in the Nokhon world, I was having
fun with friends--my myøsik was even making me popular,
mean old Ma-ralla-hata was off my back and even old Dambarragan was
turning out to be an okay guru. I mean, what could go wrong?
Well, I'll tell you.
|