Disclaimers: Do I even have to have these baka things anymore? I mean, let's face it: Nothing "good" is gonna happen until WAY later on; like part 14,344,861,351,534,686/?? or something, so I'm not even gonna bother anymore. ^_^ Thanks in advance to those who reply. ^^ Kanani was a changed girl after that. Her twelfth birthday passed by without her even knowing or caring. She was tired, hungry, and lonely without her precious Jukilo. Her heartache was the only thing she was capable of registering in her new state of misery. An oddly mature part of her told herself that it was foolish to be sulky over a boy, but another part of her said that she would follow him to the ends of the earth. He left. He was gone. Her most loved and admired of all people was no longer in her company. It was impossible for her to maintain her exhausting liveliness once he was gone. She simply couldn't keep her face shining and her heart full of joy. She did her work like a machine; never stopping, never complaining. She went from unbelievably happy to amazingly doleful in only a few hours. The men couldn't understand what her problem was. They tried as best they could to cheer her up, and finally got angry enough to physically hurt her, in hopes that it may knock some feeling into her. Constantly bruised and depressed, she took to crying herself to sleep every night, hoping often that Murre would come back and finish what she had started. She had constant nightmares about the terrible day that had happened six years before, sometimes hearing Erfen's final scream all day long. Her young, inexperienced mind didn't understand what was going on. Jukilo left, her world collapsed. It simply made no sense to her. Even when she was bleeding and watching Erfen's death, she couldn't remember feeling quite so wretched. One day though, her life took a promising turn. After her daily beating, she was bathing at the river, keeping an eye out for any animals and trying to smother her tears. She was nearly an adult and on Orlov adults simply didn't cry. She looked up into the sky at a cloud and found some kind of shape descending toward her. It was huge and man-shaped, with, as it crept closer to her, a greenish hue. The thing landed on the other side of the small river, still hovering slightly. "I have been watching you," his voice was very, very deep and had a slightly smooth feeling to it. He couldn't have been less than eight feet tall and had small blue crests on the side of a bald green head. His eyes, she could see, had orange where the white was in hers, and red pupils. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, in much better shape than any man in the camp. She swallowed thickly, thinking of Jukilo in an effort to be brave, "you... You have been watching me?" At his nod she continued, "for what purpose?" "You are strong, girl... Just the thing Frizzghigge needs. You have amazing power and courage, and I want to use that. You can be great, if you let me teach you." "T... Teach me? Teach me what?" "To fight." Confused, she tried to think if she had ever heard such a thing, " 'fight'? What is that?" His eyes grew a fraction wider and he blinked once. "You don't know what fighting is?" Blushing, she shook her head and noted his expression getting steadily more severe. "You, daughter of Murre don't know what fighting is? This is worse than I thought..." "The men won't let me leave, I think... I help them... They will be angry if I tell them I have to go..." He slowly floated toward her, his expression still severe. "The planet is in a sorry state. These men you speak of are even worse than that. The Emperor and Empress have decided to try and take over a neighboring planet, in hopes that they can improve the economy. To do this, they are going to negotiate. If that fails, they will resort to using force. To use force, they need a fighting unit. You could be the leader of this unit if you knew how to fight." "Women don't lead on Orlov..." she whispered. "Orlov isn't Frizzghigge, trust me. Here, women do lead... They lead great things. The Great Leader of Frizzghigge is a woman by the name of Reyna, and she is the highest-ranked person on the planet. What is your name, girl?" "Kanani." "Kanani. You will become a great and powerful person, but it can only happen if you join me. I can teach you." "I can't go unless I have permission from the men, but if I have that I will do my best to become the person you describe me as." "If you are what I think you are, you won't have to try hard." And with that he flew off toward the camp. //If I am what he thinks I am? What does he think I am?// She didn't know what to do; whether she ought to run to the camp or sit and wait. The pain in her side from a recent bruise was the deciding factor. //I think I'll just find some nice place to sit down for a while...// The green man came back a little while later with a small pouch containing her things. "I am Spowaban. You are to come with me. These men you spoke of wish you luck and good hunting, now come along." He grabbed her arm and flew up into the air, just as she had seen him do before. Never had she experienced as exhilarating a thing as flying in the cool air with an eight-foot tall green man named Spowaban. Of course, the Spowaban part wasn't nearly as interesting as seeing the forest from the view of an eagle. The mighty river was merely a blue-tinted serpent slipping through the forest. Huge patches of majestic trees became merely green blobs of nothing. She saw, for the first time, mighty lengths of bare land; seas of grass devoid of anything but quietly rolling hills. She saw swamps, moors, and bogs. Rich deep forests and huge rolling plains of soft yellow grass. They flew over to the first mountain range that she had ever seen up close and gently landed in a cave on a cliffside near a massive lake. He tossed her down and threw her things at her feet. "This is your new home. You will sleep wherever you want. If you want to eat something decent, you will cook it. Understood?" Confused and frightened she nodded and solemnly looked around at her surroundings. The cave was large and dark, with deep black pockets of nothing around the back. There was a pit where a fire had once been made and a few old skins were piled in a corner. A few raggedy baskets held some grains and a pile of dried plants sat near them. Some still drying herbs were hung at the cave entrance with some poorly-constructed fibers. A dirty and tattered skin lay near the farthest edge of the cave, half-covered in darkness. The floor was dirty and covered in small stones. It seemed as if the man barely even lived there, what with the general condition of the place. She looked up to see him watching her. Nervous, she looked down and hesitantly picked up her things. "Get everything set tonight. We will start training tomorrow." Shyly she nodded and set her things by the fire pit. Carefully, she started a friendly, crackling fire and sat next to it, thinking of what may occur the next day. ~*~*~*~*~*~ The next morning, she was awakened at dawn to the sensation of falling. She landed on the hard ground with a loud thump and tried to get back the air that had forcefully been knocked out of her. Shaking slightly she stood up and squinted at the tall form blocking the early morning sun. "Here, you will arise at dawn or suffer the consequences. Now, it is time, I think, to start teaching you a thing or two about the art of battle." Kanani gulped back the dry lump in her throat and nodded up at him. Satisfied with her response, he took her firmly by the arm and flew up into the clear blue sky. They flew for some time until he finally reached a rocky clearing in the deep pit of a mountain valley; virtually inaccessible by anyone without the power of flight. Somewhat breathless from the days events thus far, Kanani stood panting with a stitch in her chest, trying regain lost oxygen. After a few moments, Spowaban began to speak. "Now that I think you've had plenty of time to think about what I said yesterday, I would like to know what you think fighting is and what purpose it has." "I think nothing of this thing called 'fighting' and thus have no thought on its purpose. All I can gather of a 'fight' is what we have on Orlov called a "lytchin" or a discussion among men about new policies and regulations. Women play no part in these debates, and so I can't think of what I could do about them." He reflected on this for a moment before asking, "on Orlov, do men ever disagree?" "Yes, I'm sure they do..." "How do they resolve such disputes?" "Most times, he who has higher rank is given the rightaway, but in extreme cases the judgement of the Leader is called in." "What does the Leader do?" She thought for a long time, trying to find a memory that she could use. "The Leader simply judges which he feels is right or wrong. That which he chooses wins the discussion" "Ah. 'Winning' is a concept you know of, then? What is winning to you?" "Winning is the resolution of a discussion or a debate that leans in favor of one person." Spowaban sighed heavily and thought for a long time. "On Orlov do people ever hurt eachother out of anger?" "No." "Do they ever hit eachother at all?" "Men hit women and children when they misbehave, but other than that, no... Not at all." He sighed again and looked at her. "Has a woman ever hit anyone?" Kanani had to think very hard and for a very long time to find the appropriate response to his question. "Very long ago, when women still had some power to do as they pleased, some women grew very powerful and with this power came corruption-" "Why did corruption occur?" Spowaban interrupted. "Erfen told me that it's because women are too stupid and weak to be able to handle such freedom and that's why the men had to take over. The women weren't ruling Orlov properly." "Ah. Continue. With the power came corruption..." "And the women became cruel and unforgiving. They ruled unjustly and would often hit and beat each other and the men in an effort to maintain rule. That's the only time a woman would hit any person." Spowaban looked at her for a long time, marveling at how any person could survive such a society. "Murre, your mother, was a very strong and powerful woman until she went insane those years ago. Do you think she is weak and stupid?" "Stupid yes, but not in any way weak." "Why?" Kanani thought for a moment. "She took the life of Erfen. She... She beat me, tied me to a tree..." a sob swelled in her throat. This was he first time she had ever told anyone of that awful day her life fell apart beneath her. "She... Left! She ran away like the coward she is! She killed her mate, who loved her more than anything! She tried to kill her own child! Her only daughter was almost killed at her hands!" she was screaming with tears running down her face. "What do you want to do to Murre? If you could face her now, what would you do?" "I would kill her! I would gut her like a fish and throw the pieces into the sea! I... I would relenquish all relation I have with her and never look at her sneering face ever again! I hate her! She's simply evil!" her eyes grew a deep black and the tears flowed, unheeded, down her infuriated face. Sobbing, she squatted down on her heels and continued to weep bitterly. Spowaban watched this display of fury and suddenly began to smile. "Good. That's exactly what I was hoping you would say. Now, Kanani, imagine that there are huge groups of people out there just like your mother-" "She's not my mother. A real mother wouldn't have tried to kill me." Her voice was flat and inflectionless, still dark from her rage. "Alright. People like Murre. People who kill and destroy without thinking. They ruin lives just like Murre ruined yours. What would you want to do to those people?" "Get rid of them," she answered, feeling his smooth voice wash over her. "Good. Now, imagine that they were people like the men in your camp. Normally fairly kind and forgiving, but with obvious flaws and tempers. These men are told and commanded to act like Murre did; to hurt and kill just like her. Would you be willing to be rid of these people as well?" "No." "Why not? They are hurtful and murderous like Murre. Why wouldn't you want them gone?" "They aren't evil. You said so... Murre only wanted to hurt me. She wasn't told by anyone but herself." "What about the Spirits or Gods of Orlov? Do you think they would have told her?" "No. And even if they had, she would only listen if there was something in it for her... Something other than the death of her family." "Ah... I see," Spowaban said, walking in a slow, methodical circle around her, trying to figure it all out at once. Apparently, the only confrontation the child was aware of was a verbal one between men and involving politics. Men hit women; women hadn't hit anyone for possibly thousands of years, and the only true evil took the form of manifestations of her mother. This is gonna take awhile... He thought, trying to find some way he could express his ideas to her. "Here, people are different. When we want something, we have to fight and bicker to take it. When you want something on Orlov what do you do?" "You simply get it, make it, trade for it... Whatever way you have to go about getting what you want, you do that thing. You don't have to argue for it." "Argue? You know what 'argue' is? They have that on Orlov?" "An argument is simply a discussion that has gone on too long." Spowaban felt that he would have fallen over if it wouldn't have meant extreme loss of face. He sighed and slowly sat down on a rock. He had to think of some way to get her past her cultural conceptions of things and try to open her mind up. "Kanani," he began, "If I were to hit you right now, would you hit me back?" The question shocked her. Never had she even explored such a foreign concept before. Women hit no one, especially not men. "No, I wouldn't hit you in return," she answered, flabbergasted. "Why not? If I caused you physical pain, wouldn't you have the right to cause me pain as well?" "No, I wouldn't. You are a man and so you have a right to hit me whenever you please... I could never hit you in return... That simply isn't the way things are done." He was simply shocked. Never in his relatively short life had he ever heard such a thing. "If men are allowed to hit women, why aren't women allowed to hit men?" Kanani looked up at him. She'd had to explain the same thing to Jukilo so long ago, and like Spowaban he failed to understand what she meant about the way things were on Orlov. She swallowed and tried to patiently explain it as Jukilo had explained so many things to her. "On Orlov, it is taught that women are stupid and lesser than men. They need to be carefully taught and controlled; much like a child would. When a woman misbehaves or breaks rules that are essential to Orlov itself, then they must be punished. Most men punish women through chastisement at first and then through physical control later on. It's simple. "I, like most Orlovian women, accept this fate as what the Spirits have said, and not merely a rule men came up with. "However, unlike most Orlovian women, I know the truth. I know of the power women had so long ago. Women ran things then... They were powerful and many became holy. The men, who felt upset and left out, took over. Erfen told me that it was because the women weren't running things properly. "I know, however, that Orlov had three times the power it currently has. Men were encouraged to be as powerful as women, and many were. Women were simply more revered for the powers of childbirth that the have. The men became greedy and arrogant and took over Orlov; training the women to be little more than slaves and trophies. "Yes, I know the truth, but I also know what Erfen has told me, and since I trusted Erfen more than anything else in the world, I believe every word and explanation he gave to me." She quietly stood, the wind whipping her long black hair around her lithe body, waiting for Spowaban to respond in some way at all. He memorized every single word the child said. He knew, deep inside of her, that there was a fierce young woman inside of this tiny girl. However, this man she often spoke of, Erfen, was the problem. He knew that this Erfen had been killed by Murre, which was unsuprising to say the least. Also, though, Kanani had practically worshipped the ground that Erfen had walked on. Everything he said was like gospel to her and that would pose a problem for Spowaban. Kanani had been carefully and skillfully taught that she, like all women, was practically worthless. She had been told very thoroughly that she was to be little more than an accessory for some older man that would "claim" her in the future. All she was made to do was make babies and cook for her future husband and sons. There was no real future for the girl on Orlov. However, if he could simply retrain her to believe that Erfen wasn't always right, maybe he could get somewhere. With cold purpose in his eyes, he gripped her arm firmly and flew her back to the cave. "Kanani. If I tell you to do something, anything, will you do it?" "Of course." "Why?" he asked, a tiny edge of desperation in his voice. "Because you're a man and I must do what I'm told to do." He nodded tightly and lowered down into the cave. She cooked her supper and he sat in the corner, watching her. She set out a bowl for him of whatever it was she cooked and proceeded to eat her own. Eating her food quietly, she stared blankly at the far wall of the cave, apparently lost in thought. He wondered about her. From all he could gather from their long conversation, there was some massive brainwashing occurring on Orlov involving everyone on the planet, so it seemed. Kanani was not at all an exeption to what was happening. He sighed as she frowned at his untouched food, her face clouded with confusion. Finally, she set it by the banked fire and curled up in her skins to go to sleep.