Chapter Nine | Island Spirits page | Chapter Eleven

Of course, the first people Nork contacted in his newly homeless state were his fishing buddies. All of them had mates, and had scattered to different homes except for Dhok. He and his mate, Makkaen, immediately offered some tent space for Nork, to Nork's eternal gratitude. His first night away from home passed slowly, but the sun still came up the next day, and - with nothing else to do, Nork headed out with the fishing club to get resources for the still-growing village.

Nork welcomed his son, Gnaar, and daughter, Saazul, to the club, and they all headed out towards the fishing grounds, but he wasn't into talking to anyone today. He was still too angry at Utel. He couldn't understand what had happened, but to have her go off on him like that was so out of character, all he could think of was that some devil island spirit must have possessed her. He did try to keep his rage on an internal level, but it came out anyway as he stomped along towards the fishing ground with the rest of the fishers.

Dhok immediately hooked an impressive parrotfish, and spent many minutes fighting with the fish as he reeled it in.

As Dhok finally caught his fish with a victory yell, Saazul tried to show that she could fish along with the best of them, but her line remained empty.

Noticing Saazul's empty line, Dhok put his massive fish in the creel, and headed over to help mentor her. He cheered her on, and tried to give her pointers, all the while glancing pointedly at Nork to try to make him feel guilty for ignoring his eldest daughter's plight.

Nork, of course, was absolutely oblivious, so wrapped up was he in his own mind. For that matter, he wouldn't have realized he was the one who was supposed to be taking his daughter under his wing, anyway.

Brac fished alongside them all, oblivious to the personal drama happening to his right. Gnaar had given up on fishing and was playing in the sand nearby.

Tik joined the group a bit late and took up position beside Brac. The personal drama was completely lost on Tik, as well, as he had his own drama back at his camp on his mind, and was trying to simply focus on fishing.

A few very nice catches later, Nork was in a fantastic mood, and had pushed whatever spirit that had possessed Utel out of his mind completely.

Dhok still cheered Saazul on, but hung his head in shame at the tiny fish she had proudly reeled in.

As the sun went down, the fishers all started to head for home. Saazul followed her father towards his new camp, and as soon as they were out of earshot of the others, she confronted him.

"Why would you DO that Utel? What were you thinking? Didn't you know she would be hurt?" Saazul raged.

Nork cringed at Saazul's ire, having forgotten about the whole situation until she brought it back up, and again he felt the confusion wash over him. "Why? ... Why would it hurt her?" he finally asked, breaking into Saazul's tirade.

"Nork! THINK! Do you really not know? How could you be so DENSE?" Saazul replied, suddenly realizing that Nork truly didn't understand.

"What? I'm not DENSE. Whatever that is." Nork replied, a bit miffed to be called names when he didn't understand something, "How could I not know WHAT? I was helping those ladies by giving them strong babies!"

Saazul was completely speechless for a long moment. Finally, she found some words, and tried to explain that, to Utel, the relationship had felt monogamous.

"Mono-ga-what?" Nork replied, even further confused.

"Monogamous. Just you and her. Utel LOVED you. She felt you ... uh.. romancing .. other women to be a betrayal of her, I think. How could you not know??" Saazul continued, raising her voice again, thoroughly baffled at Nork's behavior.

"How was I supposed to know that?" Nork replied, finally giving in to his anger. It didn't seem at all fair to him that Utel had expected something of him without ever telling him that she expected it. "She NEVER told me this! I was helping out the tribe, not trying to hurt Utel!"

"Oh, Nork. That's not exactly how relationships actually work. You two have been together as a couple for YEARS. I don't understand how this is only just now a problem!?" Saazul replied.

Nork sighed and shrugged, "I don't know, either. I never knew she felt that way about me. How was I supposed to know if she didn't say?? I've been helping the village ladies out since you were born so strong."

Saazul tried to tamp down on her anger, her own personal feelings of betrayal, and took a deep breath, then tried, again, to explain, "Nork, it's usually just assumed that, when you're with someone for that long, it's just the two of you, it's exclusive. I don't think Utel felt she needed to say it."

"Well, I guess so. She still should have said something." Nork said, with a petulant expression. "I had no way of knowing."

Saazul rolled her eyes. "That's just my point. She shouldn't NEED to. You should have, at least asked her permission before helping out the .. uh.. village ladies .. in that way." Nork started to reply, but with a glance at the darkening sky, she put a hand up, stopping him. "Enough, Nork. I must get home. Just.. think about it for me, will you? Think about apologizing to her. Even if you don't think you have anything to apologize for. You do."

"Alright, Saazul. Thanks for coming fishing with us today. It was good to see you again."

Impulsively, Saazul hugged her father, then, ignoring his bemused look, turned and ran towards home.

On the other side of Sulani, a somber scene played out at the temple. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Saelua had gone to the temple to pray. Her old age, however, caught up with her, and Grim was respectfully collecting her soul to guide her into the spirit world.

Back at her home hut, her son stood, staring into the darkness, wondering when his mother would get home. She was never out THIS late.... at least not without letting him know she would be gone....

Chapter Nine | Island Spirits page | Chapter Eleven