Sphere of Knowledge

Irej found himself wandering the outskirts of the tribe square pondering the lessons from the sphere. Life comes from the water? The lights in the sky are planets like Karlen? Life exists on other planets? But not all of them? He sat on a fallen tree over looking the fields as he considered this. He knew he had a lot on his plate already with a partner and three kids at home. The time of trading was going to be here before they all knew it. 

He decided to stop into the Smedgery on the way home. He could use the opportunity to talk with Mota before he had to share the news of the sphere with his family. Irej was thankful they would not have heard the news, but he knew they would have questions and he would not have answers…

Irej got up and walked to the Smedgery, it was on the west side of the square, so it only took a couple of minutes to get there. He immediately realized he was not the only one who decided to make a stop on their way home. 

Thankfully the Smedgery was relatively new and people were still uneasy about the idea of eating food on the way home instead of just eating with their family as they always had. The owner had thought of offering food to go, thinking people could take it home to their families, but everyone dismissed this idea. 

Irej found Mota sitting at a table with some smedge, but he did not have any lathered on his arm, so he knew Mota had not started digesting yet. Mota did not even notice Irej until he sat on the stool next to him. 

“Hey Mota, I can’t believe this day,” Irej said. “Have you thought about what you will say to your family when you get home?”

Mota had been considering this very topic and Irej sitting down seemed to interrupt his train of thought. “Well I know some of the other field scavengers rushed right home to talk with their families, so I am sure the partners will be talking by the time we get home, and if the kids are in the forest…. they will be talking. You have heard the stories the kids make up, imagine what they will come up with when they hear of the sphere and it’s….. teachings.”

Irej was taken back by Mota calling the sphere’s words as teachings. “Shhhhh Mota, what if an elder hears you call it a teaching.”

“But that is what it seems to be, the explanation of truth, as the elders have done for as long as I can remember. Remember when we had scavenged the fields until they were empty, and the elders told us to save what we could, because we would not be able to scavenge for a while? No one has ever seemed to predict the future, but they did. Now this sphere comes to us speaking of the importance of water, and how life comes from it? how there is LIFE in the lights of the sky? Unless someone can prove them wrong the elders might have to invite the sphere into the elder’s circle.” Mota gave Irej a look of intensity Irej had not seen from him before. 

“Mota, I just think we are getting ahead of ourselves, during he time of he plenty many did not listen to the elders, and then they died during the time of he not so much. The elder’s punished them and we have all listened and respected them since. The tribe has been successful in all things since then.” He could see Mota was unconvinced, “do you really want to mess with that?”

Mota stood up and left, he had always been the one to question things and it had gotten him into trouble before. Irej then went to the cook, traded him some of his scavengings for some smedge. He sat back at the table he had shared with Motaand because of his distraction he did not notice the odd odor from the smedge. He applied it to his arm and immediately knew something was not right. His skin was becoming orange, bumpy, and Irej had an odd tingling sensation throughout his body. Irej ran outside, washed his arm and vomited near the creek. Arem, the cook’s son had seen him rush out, so he followed Irej out. 

Arem knelt by Irej and offered him some leaves to clean himself up. Irej looked up at him thankfully. “Thank you for that Arem, is your father trying a new recipe or something? I have never had any kind of a reaction to his smedge before?”

Arem said, “he had a batch of herbs from a new field and he wouldn’t let me try it first.. we noticed it seemed to have a strong pepper smell, but it looked like the normal herb so he was sure it would be ok.”

“YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU EXPERIEMENTED WITH SOMETHING NEW ON ME!” Irej was furious and was not hiding it well. “I need to talk to your father, please go get him now!”

Arem went back into the Smedery and Irej stayed by the creek. While he waited he witnessed many other tribes people traveling through, everyone was discussing the sphere, but he noticed no one was discussing how the elders had responded. Had no one heard from them yet? How would they respond? Irej was mid thought when the cook approached him. 

“Reysid, look at my arm, you can only imagine how I am feeling right now, why would you do this to me?” Irej looked up at him from the creek. 

Reysid looked down at Irej, “We have known each other for many seasons, your father used to test smedge for me before the Smedgery was even an idea. He always enjoyed trying new things. I did not consider their might be an issue with herbs from the new field. You have to know I would not do anything to you on purpose, especially with the day we have all had.” He helped Irej up and gave him some health tea, hoping the yellow leafed tea would help him feel better again.

Irej recognized the tea and was confident it would help, but knew it was something very rare. The rarity of the yellow leaf made it something that was almost never shared with anyone outside of one’s own family. Irej drank the tea and hugged Reysid. “Thank you Reysid, I should have remembered that, but with the day we have had as a tribe… the past was not an immediate thought.” They ended their hug and Irej headed home. 

Knowing he had a 45 minute walk ahead of him, he spent the time pondering the sphere and continued to wonder about the elders. Had they been in the field when it came from the sky? He would put the elders out of his mind for now, he had to consider how to tell his family about the sphere and try to anticipate their questions. Ayila would have questions about what this means. Kire would probably just sit back and take it all in, but Reysaw, being just weeks old, would need to have this all explained to him again in the future. His partner Illa would not ask any tough questions until they entered their rest area, but she would have the toughest questions.