Discovery Writing #1: Kita

Kita’s eyes watered as she stretched her neck to see the tops of the tall grass high above. The sun was at its full height, which made the spindly tips of the blades hard to focus on. What’s more, it was windy today so every stalk moved in unpredictable bobs and sways. The effect was quite mesmerizing, especially against watery eyes, but was very frustrating for what her and her mother were trying to accomplish.

“I know it seems impossible.” Her mother Beia said. “But I’ve done this a thousand times. If you ever start to feel discouraged, just remember, if we don’t pull this off we’re sleeping in the cold tonight!”

Beia nearly blended in with the grass that surrounded them. A middle aged woman of 80 seasons, her life in these grasses left her skin a deep honey brown and her hair almost the same exact color beige of the towering grass. Her green eyes shown like the first shoots of spring. Like Kita, her clothes were made of woven grasses from various seasons with leather at the shoulders and waste for reinforcement. Bird down for insulation from the wind poked out at the seams, and small tools made from chips of glass and discarded metal from the Big Ones adorned her belt.

This was not Kita’s first trip to the grass lands North of the Center. In fact, she made this trip with her mother 4 times per season. This, however, was her very first time having to help build the shelter.

As Kita wiped her eyes from the glare, and tied back her kinky sand colored hair, her mother handed her a long rope of woven grass as long as the blades were tall. It was made from Frost Grass, a variety that grew after the final frost of winter had passed. It only grew to the height of an Aethling (about as tall as a mouse standing up), but was ideal for rope as it was sturdy, flexible, and tube shaped. This rope might have even come from the batch harvested last season, as Kita could still find a green strand here and there.

“The first thing to do is make the loop at the end. Let me show you how that works.” Beia said.

Standing next to Kita, Beia held her length of rope in front of her and beckoned Kita to imitate her movements. Firstly, she pulled three full arm spans of rope into slack and then folded the entire length backward upon itself. After looping it back forward for a third overlap, Beia then spun the lose end round and round over the folds of the rope and synched a knot. The final result was a perfect loop on the end that could be adjusted in width.

Kita instead now held a large tangled ball.

“Ha! Well I guess that’s step one today” her mother said comfortingly.

The two of them then made loop after loop until Kita could repeat the process on her own. By the time they were done, they had about four long looped ropes. Kita supposed she could be proud of that, but still held on to her frustration. Why couldn’t she learn stuff like Wic? He was always just picking things up right away. He had already built his own Urun! A real permanent home and he was her same age. Her mother seemed to sense her brooding and shoved one of the ropes into her hands.

“Alright, here we go… the fun part!” Beia said with a twinkle in her green eyes. “Do you think this is a good spot to sleep tonight? The ground seems flat enough.”

“Sure” said Kita, still feeling a bit down.

With that, Beia approached one of the shorter, but thicker grass stalks. Tracing its path up with her eyes, she slowly walked back from the stalk until she was on the opposite edge of the clearing. Then she grew still and waited. And waited.

As Kita stared, confused, the wind started to lull and the grass slowed its swaying. Then, with a few quick flicks of the wrist, the rope was swirling in a blur above her mother’s head. With a mighty swing, Beia let loose the rope and it sailed over the top of the grass stalk.

Before the rope could slide very low, Beia gave a tug on the length of the rope, pulling the wide loop tight to secure the tip top of the stalk.

“Swamp’s bottom! That was amazing!” Kita’s voice cracked a bit as she cheered for her mother.

“Yeah, I suppose so!” Beia said in reply. “I hardly ever get it my first cast, so don’t let that get in your head.”

“Still Ahma, you really are the greatest.”

“Well, your grandahma was a great teacher, just like hers before.” Beia said, giving Kita a big embrace.

“Alright, I think I can do this.” Kita took a big breath and headed to a stalk that looked right.

“No!” her mother said as she sat down on a large pebble. “Try again.”

“Ugh!” Kita huffed. “It’s the same height as yours!”

“Still not right!” Beia said, now digging in her clothes from some hidden snack stash.

It took a few more tries, but eventually Kita had an acceptable stalk. Apparently it had more to do with the location of the stalk after the first loop, not the height. As if that wasn’t hard enough to figure out, now she had to loop the stinking thing.

Taking a deep breath, Kita tried to feel a change in the wind the way her mother seemed to. How did she do it? Each gust was as unexpected as the stillness after. Impatient, she started twirling her loop fast above her head. That felt good. She could feel the momentum building as she twirled but before she knew it, her shoulder was cramping in protest. Taking that as a sign, Kita summoned all of her strength and hurled her loop upwards.

Against her will, the loop shot off to the side like a startled fish and didn’t even make it halfway up the stalk before making a disappointing thud on the ground near her.

Beia just smiled, cheeks puffed out with chewed seed, and encouraged Kita on with a wave.

It was nearing dark by the time Kita go her first loop on the top of the grass.

Shoulders aching and pride smashed, Kita sill managed a small “whoop!” when she pulled the loop tight. But there were still two more to go.

“You’ve done great today my little mouse” Beia said. “Help me tie these two stalks together and I’ll finish the other two while you go look for fodder for tonight’s fire.”

This part Kita had done before. The two stalks would be tied together to form an arch above their heads. Then two more stalks would be added to the arch making the outline of a dome. From there, grass could be cut down to drape over the structure and tied secure to make their temporary home for this excursion. But Kita knew that fire would be more important than fixating on her failures, so she started to make off into the depths of the tall grass.

It wasn’t long before Kita was deep into the grasslands. As she walked, her mind habitually marked the plants of use.

“Sharp Grass, good for keeping food fresh.”

“Beetle Bane, good to keep bugs out of your house.”

“Mariathina, good to help digestion, and even keep some wounds clean” Her mother had found and named that one.

She walked and observed, and darkness slowly consumed the grasslands. It was times like this that Kita was most aware of her height. In this landscape, darkness seemed to grow out of the ground. First the ground would grow cooler and dark. Then the darkness would creep up her feet and body until it swallowed her, bathing everything in twilight. After that, the darkness would grow up the grass around her with each passing minute until only the very tops glowed golden in the setting sun.

By the time she came across a broken sapling, dry and woody enough for burning, even the tops of the grass were fully dark. But Kita didn’t mind. Sure, it might be easier to trip in the dark, but Kita never felt safer than when the stars came out.

She had learned their names and shapes long ago, and they never changed. Sure, the Spine might be in one place Summer Season, and another Winter Season, but it always went back to the same spot each change. Some stars would move all night long, but they traced the same line every night. It was beautiful and comforting, and old.

Finally feeling sure of herself for the first time all day, Kita set to sawing off chunks of the sapling with a metal knife Sud had made her from an old fishing hook he had found in the Southern Swamps. It was hard work, but worth it as the sapling might burn all night if parceled out properly.

She sawed off chunks at a time, working her way down the length of the sapling. Pausing occasionally to catch what twinklings she could peeking through the forest of grass. Puffing and tired, and almost done for the night, Kita noticed that the sapling was leading her to a clearing in the grass. Not a true clearing of barren earth, but one made from a new kind of grass. Bright green, and only as tall as her waist, the abrupt change drew Kita from her work and out into the open.

What awaited her was starlight. As soon as she looked up, she immediately dropped her freshly bundled firewood. Above her was the naked night sky, all shimerant and deep, with nothing tall enough to give it boarders. An endless river of black, silver, gold, and indigo.

Delighted, Kita let loose a laugh that was the spirit of mirth. Threw her hands out and spun with her head to the sky. Her eyes drinking in her favorite beauty in all the world. As she spun, the stars spun until she collapsed into a soft press of the new green grass.

By the time Kita came back to herself, she was unsure how long she had been laying there. When she stood however, something curious caught her eye. Where she had spun, she had flattened the grass in an even circle. Her resting place was a flat oblong shape in the grass. Then, she had an idea.

Giddy, Kita fixed her eyes back on the sky and made her way to the center of the clearing careful not to flatten any grass this time with careful steps between sprigs.

“There’s the one that never moves.” She thought to herself as she spun and stomped in a circle to mark its spot in flattened grass.

Satisfied, she began to flatten a deliberate line radiating out from there. Head up the entire time fixed on her favorite group of stars, and stomping as she went. After a few feet, Kita spun around again, making another circle of flattened grass. Another straight line of stomping, then another circle. Then another. Round and round she went, until she was lost in the joy of getting to dance with all her most familiar companions.

All of this brought her back to the edge of the clearing. But where was her firewood bundle? Was she on the opposite side now? Worried, she began to trace the edge of the clearing hoping to eventually find the side where she had left her bundle. But it was getting colder, and later, and what’s worse, there were clouds rolling in. Darkening the sky and hiding the stars.

“How big is this clearing?!” Kita worried as she really started to feel quite lost. Still not coming on her old bundle.

“Maybe if I look up I can use the stars to…”

But they were gone. Replaced by a sky of inky black. The clouds had done their work.

It was then that Kita started to panic.

“How will ahma find me? I don’t even know how far I’ve circle around. Will I freeze? I don’t have flint or anything to keep warm. If only I had the stars to know which way was North, I know camp was south of here, and… and… The stars!!”

The thought came to Kita like finding a candy in a jar she thought was empty.

Immediately she dashed to the first patch of flattened grass she could find and everything clicked.

“Ok, Ok, so this one has 3 lines connecting to the circle and the only one I coped like that today was the third star of the Minnow. Which means, that if I walk this way…”

Following the lines she had made, she found herself back where she had marked the Unmoving Star. With a sigh of deep relief, she quickly hopped from star mark to star mark and there, waiting where the tall grass began, was her bundle of firewood.

From there it was a quick dash of a trip back south to find camp.

Beia had finished making the low hut of wrapped grass by then and was anxiously staring into the thick dark press of grass as Kita came into view.

“There you are my little mouse!” She exclaimed as she kept her arms wrapped tight around her cold body.

“I’m sorry Ahma, I found a beautiful new kind of grass and then the clouds came in and I kinda got lost and…”

“It’s all ok now, you’re here. But I am freezing so let’s get what you have burning!”

Together, they got some thatch together to start the woody sapling burning and in a few minutes their home was made.

As Kita regaled her mother of the details of her improvised map, the fire popped along, embers drifting up into the sky as a few stars started to peep back out from the blanket of clouds.