The amount of rope waiting to be loaded into the boat surprised him. The idea of riding in a boat for the first time wasn’t even on his mind. He was anxious, but watching his Dad and brothers calmly moving around him prepping the boat made him feel safe.
His Dad turned his head and looked at him as if he was aware that his son was thinking about him.
“Kahlo, why don’t you check your harness, son? Wouldn’t want to lose you on your first hunt.”
He followed that with a barely audible, “Your Mom would kill me…” but he knew Kahlo heard him. Knew he would get the joke.
Kahlo smiled, checked that his harness was tight against his chest and then watched the activity around him.
It looked as if the entire tree was at the base. There were families circling the tree, prepping their boats. The smell of sap and fiber was overwhelming. His brothers were busy patching their boat with the mixture in dark black splotches. The entire bottom was coated in the stuff, but they were adding more. It was something of a ritual Kahlo realized.
And it was why they always came back from previous hunts with black stained hands. Wanting to be a part of that tradition, he walked up to the closest of his brothers and looked up at him. His brother looked back and smiled. With no words, he lowered the bowl of black pitch to his little brother.
Kahlo reached his hand in. It was surprisingly cold. He wasn’t expecting it to be cold. It was, however, as sticky as he expected. He pulled out a handful and slapped it onto the bottom of the boat with a satisfying plop.
His brother grabbed his arm gently and started to move it back and forth.
“Thin,” he said. Then he left Kahlo to his own devices. Every so often lowering the bowl enough for his younger brother to reach a hand in and grab the goopy mix.
Kahlo was focused more on everything happening around him than on applying the sap to the boat. Families were prepping their boats all around the them. This was one of the bigger hunts these trees had seen in a few generations.
A scout had seen a large school of knucklehead fish heading towards one of the flows. Knuckleheads were ridiculously valuable. Not only could their dense bone heads be turned into tools and bowls, their excessive fat could be used for cooking and fires. They could also be sold to the Serenity cluster for a fortune.
This particular school of the large fish was headed to a flow near Kahlo’s cluster. Well, near enough that they could reach the flow before the knuckleheads got there.
Kahlo was shaken out of his reverie when his brother put his hand on his shoulder and pulled him away from the boat. He moved to where Kahlo had been and grabbed the handrail at the bottom. Kahlo watched as his brothers and Dad lifted the boat and walked it to the water’s edge. He wiped his hands along the side of his pants, only realizing after he had done it that his mom would probably be mad at that.
As they turned the boat over and were about to drop it in the water, Kahlo’s attention was drawn to the sounds of other boats being dropped in. He had been so focused on his own family’s activities that he had blocked the rest of the world around him out. He was disappointed when he looked back and realized that he had missed his family’s boat dropping into the water.
For some reason that seemed a significant thing to miss.
The splashes also made him realize something else. Up until the boat drop moment, it had been incredibly quiet. It was too early for the birds to make any noise. But even the insects seem to understand the reverence of the moment.
As his brothers started handing the ropes and spears to their Dad in the boat, Kahlo began looking around at the other families. His eyes landed on Rayne’s golden blonde hair. The starlight didn’t make it shine as brightly as it did during the day, but somehow the silver glow made it even more beautiful. It’s uniqueness among the largely brunette people around her made her easily recognizable, even from a distance.
When he saw her, she was checking her harness and was so focused on the task that it surprised him when she looked up and caught his eye. Kahlo’s initial impulse was to look away and pretend like he was just looking around at the other families surrounding the base of the clustered trees.
But he decided, for the first time, not to do that. Instead, he held his gaze on her, smiled, and waved.
Regardless where his new-found courage came, he was rewarded with a dazzling smile and a returned wave. Rayne made a point of looking around her and lifting her hands as if to say, “Can you believe all of this?”
Kahlo nodded and mouthed, “I know, it’s crazy!” to her and then turned his attention back to his family as she did the same.
His brothers had arranged the rope, spears, and tools into the boat. It was obsessively organized and compact. Kahlo immediately regretted not having watched how they achieved that. But although he was concerned the he would never be able to replicate it, He was more than happy about his brief interaction with Rayne to truly care.
His mind was in that concerned/elated state when his Dad and brothers stepped away from the boat, lowered their heads and were silent.
Kahlo looked around. Everyone was in the same meditative state.
He had thought it was quiet before. Now it seemed as if the water stopped lapping against the base…
His brother nudged him, looking down at him disapprovingly. Kahlo realized he was looking around and gawking. He quickly lowered his head.
He missed his brother’s smirk.
Then, all at once, there was chatter. Cheerful banter.
Kahlo looked up as people were getting into their boats and launching.
He quickly hopped into this family’s boat and glanced to where he had seen Rayne. To his delight, she was already looking his way.
He saw her mouth the words, “Here we go!” and then watched as she turned away.
“Yes, here we go,” he thought. His Dad used the long paddle to push away from the cluster’s base. They turned along with the other boats and started their journey to the flow.