The Eldest climbed stiffly to her feet to focus the tribe’s attention, though with the power of her mind, supported by mine, she didn’t need to. “We have made this Calling to introduce to you a vixen from the tribe who gave us our new tod,” she announced. “She is here because of something that has happened near her own tribe and who received the Prophecy the same time as we, nearly three hands and two years ago. Until today, I believed only our tribe had heard this Prophecy. I leave her to tell what she has seen and once she has finished, I will tell the tale of the Prophecy.” The visiting vixen rose and stepped forward as the Eldest stepped back to her place in the circle, though she remained standing.
“I am named Gralnna and I was but newly adult when the Prophecy came to us,” she said as she formally offered her scent to the tribe as a whole, certain that each of us would know her if we ever met again. “It is our belief that the time of the Prophecy has come, and through the exchanges and friendships made over the course of the last three Gatherings we know that the subject of that Prophecy lives within this tribe.” She gazed around the circle, her eyes finally coming to rest on me though I had never met her before this day and had no idea she even knew of me. The thoughts of the tribe however, betrayed me to her.
“One hand of days ago, a strange, white flying thing, shaped something like our herdbirds landed out upon the plains not far from my tribe. While in flight it almost seemed a thing alive, though it never moved its wings or seemed able to bend its neck. The sound of its flight was that of the cyclones that rip through our forests with the summer storms and the heat of its passage seemed no less than the heat of your Calling Fire. On landing in the plains, it lowered a hand of feet, one under its chin, one under each wing and a last under its belly. Despite the lush green of the season’s early growth the grasses where burned for many spans around the thing, leaving the dirt bare and blackened beneath it. There it sat and waited for the sun to span three fingers of the sunstick.
“At the end of that time, it lowered a tongue of some sort from its neck so that it touched down just below its head. Three smaller creatures walked down this tongue and stepped out on the ground, walking as a group to the edge of the burn and looked around. These creatures seemed clumsy and slow, their skins some kind of heavy, wrinkled white with dark bands around the wrists, elbows and shoulders, knees and ankles and the head a huge colorless sphere that seemed to reflect the color of the things around it. They each waved some kind of container in the air around them, then seemed to gaze down at the boxes for a moment before lowering their arms.
“By this time were were totally confused because they neither had wings like a Sauk or any other flyer, but they also didn’t have a second pair of arms like the Pardu. The fact is that they had only four limbs of any kind, two to walk upon and two to use whatever tools they carried. We guessed their other two limbs must somehow be behind them either as stunted wings or perhaps as primitive arms like most herbivores use as defense against flying predators. When they turned to go back to their machine we believed the latter was true since they each wore a large box on their back big enough to protect those limbs. We believe now that the beast is some kind of machine because the three creatures walked out of it and returned under their own power while it sat there completly unmoving.
“After another finger on the sunstick three more creatures came down the tongue. This group appeared a little smaller than the first group and seemed to be configured the same, though each had some kind of bill like a waterfowl above their faces rather than below. They too carried a box or some kind of flat sack on their backs to protect their wings or arms, though these seemed, like the creatures themselves, smaller than the first group. These three moved out of the burn made by their landing and started picking pieces of grass and insects and placing them into a pottery jug you could see through, placing a lid on it to contain their harvest. At no point did any of them get farther than two wingspans from the others and we could pick up no sendings between them. We didn’t want to get any closer than we were since they hadn’t detected us yet.”
She looked at me again and added, “Those of us old enough to remember the Prophecy made by the Goddess also remember that she specified that a new member of your tribe came from such a thing and would have to return when it was time. My tribe believes this is the Time.”
