A Tribe of One

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"What's first?" Dawn asked excitedly as the musical quintet walked through the eastern gates to Pran.

"First we find an inn," Duens replied. "Then we find work, and then we get supplies…"

"Then you get to look around for Xander," Zhaen interjected. Dawn smiled weakly.

"I like getting supplies," She offered guiltily.

"It's not a problem," Marni said gruffly.

"But first we find somewhere to sleep," Prall announced firmly. He led them through the streets, past shops and stores as they searched for an appropriate place to stay. Dawn took advantage of the opportunity and gawked at everything. The hold was full of people like her—humans! Other than her ill-fated trip to the Agraka in Baign, she hadn't been around humans on this journey. Here in Pran, though, they definitely dominated.

She never would have thought that she'd be so happy to see normal, regular faces. Everyone was refreshingly…plain—no crazy colored skin or fur or huge size. Nope, these were just good old homo sapiens.

By the time Prall found them a place to stay Dawn had nearly pulled a muscle in her neck craning to look at passers-by. There were all kinds of people—short, tall, old, young, men and women. Even the innkeeper was human. She'd spent so long in Orth holds that even that was a novelty.

Dawn was pleased by the human-sized amenities in the room—except for the bed, of course. At least when she sat down in the chairs her feet touched the ground and she didn't feel like doing a backstroke in the tub. However, since they were still sharing rooms, and therefore beds, the smaller mattresses were a problem of sorts. Dawn could tell that quarters would be tight when they got around to sleeping.

"Where to we find work around here?" Dawn asked Zhaen. "Are there bardic guilds?"

Zhaen frowned. "There are, but we'll have better luck simply asking around."

"Oh," Dawn said. "Why?"

"Well…" Zhaen began. "You're human, but you're not part of their bardic guild. They might take exception to you playing in their hall."

"Why?" Dawn inquired, worried. Why would humans care if she played with them and not the human bardic guild?

"You're old enough to be apprenticed, but you're not—in their guild or in another species'. It's traditional to apprentice in a guild if you're going to play there. It's one thing to play in another species' guild if you have no affiliation, but it is another entirely to play in your own species' guild without joining first," Zhaen said, trying to explain.

Dawn scowled. "So if Prall wasn't in his guild, then we wouldn't have been able to work with the guild in the other holds?"

"Exactly," Zhaen replied.

"So maybe I should disappear while we're here?" Dawn asked. Or maybe find something else to do, something humans won't mind me doing.

"No! There are plenty of opportunities here for us to play, independent of the bardic guild. You're one of us now, Dawn, so we're not going to leave you behind," Zhaen said firmly.

"I could join the guild," Dawn murmured.

"You could," Zhaen said. "You would, of course, be expected to stay here for the majority of your training. Not that that would be a bad thing, of course. Other humans may be your best chance to find Xander."

"Only if he's here," Dawn said softly. The idea of staying in Pran wasn't a savory one. It wasn't that she didn't like the hold, but there were other ones ahead of them, and she still wanted to find Xander, even if it was a lost cause. Besides, she liked traveling with the apprentice musicians. They were funny and nice and didn't mind that she knew almost nothing about their world.

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The search for work turned out to be an interesting one; instead of finding one or two well-paying jobs they ended up with an enormous number of small ones—inns that wanted entertainment or markets with free space where they could play for handouts. They'd found enough to cover their rooms and food, so as a group they decided to stay in Pran for a week or so. Dawn had a suspicion that they were staying so long so that she could interact with the human residents of the hold—not that she didn't appreciate it.

"Here," Marni said, thrusting a large hunk of bread at Dawn. She took it warily, turning it over and over as she studied it.

"What is it?" Dawn asked cautiously.

"Food," Marni replied, tearing into hers. Dawn looked around, noticing that everyone else was eating as well. Marni had purchased their meal from one of the myriad street vendors that were hawking their wares along the marketplace. The bread in Dawn's hands was warm and heavy and smelled quite fresh, so she bit into it.

The girl was pleasantly surprised to find the bread stuffed full of meats and vegetables. It was a bit bland, as though nothing had been spiced before it was baked, but overall it was good food—definitely way better than dried trail rations and yimkia in any form. Once again Dawn was surprised by her appetite—she managed to eat the entire thing, even though it looked like enough for her, Buffy and Willow.

"Why don't we find an elder or two to ask about Xander?" Duens suggested after the rest of the troupe had finished their meal. "Even if he's not here, they may know better places to look."

Dawn shrugged. "Fine by me."

The others also consented so Prall led them out of the marketplace and through the streets to the center of the hold. The hold was very similar to the orth ones she'd been in, although the buildings were a little taller and had more floors to them—even though the ceilings were a bit lower. The elders' hall was easy to find, particularly since the others all read the written human language. Dawn had been a bit disappointed to find that while humans here spoke English, they didn't write it. That meant yet another alphabet and language for Dawn to learn.

Once the musicians had found out that she was interested in learning some of their own languages, they became excellent tutors. Prall read through the language notes she had and added a wealth of information on the orth tongue. Zhaen and Duens began to teach her the basic and most common dialect of dalhari, which Dawn found to be a pleasant challenge. Marni had at first been a bit reluctant to teach her f'lh, since she didn't really see a reason to do so, but once the others talked to her, she relented. As it turned out, Dawn learned that language the fastest and practiced it with Marni whenever the f'lh would let her.

However no one had thought to teach Dawn the written form of her 'native' tongue. It made sense that they hadn't thought of it; after all she spoke an intelligible version of it, so why wouldn't she be able to write it? Now that she'd realized that what she wrote and what the humans here wrote were two different things, she'd have to have someone sit down and explain the new alphabet to her. More than once, Dawn had wondered why humans here spoke English, when it was obvious that they bore no resemblance to English-speaking humans from her world. After all, hadn't they crossed over way before English was a language?

It had taken a couple of weeks for Dawn to remember an offhand comment that Wesley had made. He'd mentioned an American who was thought to have crossed over about a hundred years before. If he'd arrived here and survived, it would explain why people here spoke a version of English she could understand—as well as why some, but not all, idioms and colloquialisms were shared between her version and their version of English. But to Dawn it seemed like a hundred years wasn't enough time for everybody to adopt a new language like that. Hmm…

Dawn's ruminations distracted her until they were summoned to meet with the elders. "Good afternoon," Prall murmured to the human elders once they were shown in. Dawn peered curiously at the four old men in front of her. They were white haired and wrinkly, like they'd been out in the sun their whole lives.

"Why is it you wish to meet with us?" One of the elders asked the orth.

Prall stepped aside so that they could see Dawn clearly. "One of our number, the human Dawn, is in search of a tribe brother."

"Ah! Which tribe?" The elder asked Dawn. It was unusual to see such a young person on a quest of this particular nature.

Dawn stared at the ground. What tribe? She looked up at Prall, hoping he knew what he was doing. She had no idea what the elder was talking about. "She is of the Summer tribe," Prall covered quickly.

The elders frowned. "Summer? I've never encountered that tribe," One elder said after a moment. They thought they knew all the tribes; after all, there weren't that many of them.

"She crossed over from another dimension. It is a tribe from there," Prall explained.

"Oh," The elders murmured as one. Dawn stared at them. Apparently even humans thought little of people crossing dimensions. That was a bit odd, considering that it didn’t happen very often. "Who is this tribe brother?"

"His name is Xander. He's about this much taller than me," Dawn said, holding her hand up. "Really dark hair and brown eyes. He's a little older than me, but still really young," She added, considering the elders' geriatric status.

"We haven't had any unusual visitors here—at least, none that have been brought to our attention," One elder remarked. "You may have more success in Meiunsk or Perugat, however. They are considerably more frequently traveled."

Dawn nodded slowly. "I'll be sure to try there next," She said politely. Prall gestured a farewell to the elders and led the group back outside. "What's with the tribe thing?" Dawn asked as soon as they were clear of the hall.

"All normal humans belong to a tribe," Prall responded. "Simply making one up for you made the discussions far easier and briefer. Had you said that you didn't have a tribe, they would have spent hours questioning you. The only humans without tribes are outcast—those who have broken certain laws. You do not want to be associated with them, Dawn."

"Oh. So now there's a Summer tribe of humans?" Dawn remarked.

"A tribe of exactly one person," Marni muttered.

"Hey! That's my tribe!" Dawn shot back, grinning. "And it's got two people, thank you very much. Me and Xander, wherever he is."

"She has a point," Zhaen told Marni. "There are two of them."

"But the other doesn't know he's a Summer," Marni said.

"So?" Dawn asked. "He wouldn't mind."

"Well, then, it doesn't matter that he doesn't know, does it?" Duens said firmly, hoping that the inane conversation would stop soon. "Perhaps we should retire for the evening. We've been traveling rather hard the last few days."

No one could argue with him, so they returned to the inn, where Dawn and the others bathed and washed their clothes. They were, in fact, quite tired from all the traveling, so after their damp clothes were laid out and a window cracked to aid in their drying, everyone went to bed—even though the sun was more than an hour from setting.

The bed was small enough that Dawn knew that she and the two dalhari would never fit comfortably. She looked around for a couple of minutes before deciding to make a pallet on the floor. She was halfway through folding her second blanket into a bed-shape when Zhaen came over with both her and Duens blankets to add to the bedding. Dawn was grateful for the extra padding, which made her little sleeping area quite comfy and soft. Actually, it was at least as comfortable as the bed, if not more so.

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"Urgh. If I never see another inn or ale-house, I'll die a happy person," Dawn remarked as she and the others walked out of Pran. For nine days they had performed in what she was sure was every low-end joint in town. She'd been sloshed with all kinds of liquids, leered at, and had blisters on her fingers to boot. It hadn't really been bad, though. Humans made for a more interactive audience than orth did—which meant that Dawn got entertained a lot by their reactions to different songs. They were also unafraid to make lots of requests, something that orth did only rarely, and in a more general fashion such as a certain style of music, instead of a particular piece. It had been a challenge, too, since many of the humans assumed that she would be able to sing songs in their language that they recognized—but she didn't know any of them. Duens did, so he sang most of those, while Dawn played the cyar'dil to make up for the loss of Duens' cyar'val.

However, after so many days of the equivalent of bar gigs and marketplace performances, Dawn was ready to get back on the road. They'd made a little money, just enough so that she had the spare money to purchase another shirt and a couple of small knives. More than once she'd found herself wishing she'd had one, to cut something or pry something loose.

They were on their way to Takck, the port hold that would take them across the sea to Meiunsk. The trek to that hold would take more than a week, but at least the walk would be nice—they were near enough to the coast that it wasn't always so hot and dry.

"Does it cost a lot to get a ticket for the boat?" Dawn asked Prall as they marched out of Pran.

"A ticket…ah, what does passage cost?" Prall repeated. "It is quite expensive. We will have to work in Takck for some time before we have enough."

"Months?" Dawn guessed, hoping it wouldn't take that long.

Prall shook his head. "No, perhaps as little as three weeks, if there's work. We already have most of what we need."

"For four people," Dawn muttered softly.

Prall shrugged. "It won't take long to get the rest, so stop bothering yourself over it."

Dawn nodded and fell silent. She certainly didn't want to upset someone by bringing up some inappropriate topic.

"Perhaps you should practice the new songs you've picked up," Duens suggested after a few minutes. Dawn had accepted that they liked a bit of silence first thing in the morning, but beyond that she seemed to need a lot of noise or other activity to attract her attention. Maybe playing the cyar'dil would fulfill that need without driving everyone else insane—and it would also take her mind off money issues.

"Ok," Dawn said, pulling out the instrument. She didn't really feel like playing, but there wasn't much else to do but think, which she could do while playing. After a few minutes of messing around, she began to run through all the new stuff she'd learned in Pran. At the same time, she went back to pondering her fate, such as it was.

After having traveled through Taphaur, and now Gruk, Dawn had come to the conclusion that anyone who wanted to survive in this world had to have some sort of specific trade. There weren't a lot of things for nonskilled workers—everyone apprenticed or was otherwise trained. Unfortunately, Dawn didn't have a lot of vocational training, and while American high school education was of little use in her world, it was downright worthless here. That meant that Dawn needed a trade. Fortunately one had been handed to her on a silver platter.

She'd already been informally apprenticed to a bunch of apprentice musicians. That gave her a head start on being self-sufficient, if she could make it work for her. Of course, from what she'd learned from the others that meant getting accepted into a guild somewhere. There was always the human bardic guild, but Dawn was a bit leery of joining that one—for some reason it was easier for her to be a stranger among the nonhumans than an oddball among her own species. Of course, she was also far more familiar with the dalhari and orth, so they seemed a bit safer.

What she'd really like to do, though, is follow Zhaen and Duens back to Faion and join the bardic guild there. Their style of music suited her quite well and she enjoyed their company the most. Prall was great, but he had a habit of talking to her like she was a kid—something that Zhaen and Duens managed to avoid most of the time. Going with Marni was out of the question. The f'lh wasn't that fond of her, and besides that f'lh had a habit of…well, Dawn didn't like to think about what she'd learned about the f'lh and some of the other species.

Duens had said at one point that dalhari guilds accepted other species into their ranks, so that wouldn't be a problem. She hoped that was true—it would be really awkward if nobody in Faion wanted her. She wasn't sure, though, if she was going to mention this little plan to the others quite yet—just in case they ended up wanting to dump her on either side of the sea. That way there wouldn't be a lot of uncomfortable moments when they realized that each side had very different ideas of how this situation was going to play out.

It would be a month before any of that came to the fore, however, so Dawn shoved aside those worries to focus on her music. Maybe if she got really good before they got to Faion, the guild there would consider taking her in.

Continue Stranger Music...

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