Harry and his group had been walking for quite a while. The sun was about to get above them, and they were surrounded by a vast green sea of grass, with some trees here and there. Groga, the chief of their clan, was leading them. Also, Harry's new Appa, or father, Imka, was walking beside the chief.
As they had increased the distance between them and Agora, things finally went back to normal. They all had let their guard down. Everyone had started conversing with each other, and Harry had been talking to Imka. Trying to gather information.
"Appa, how was your coming-of-age process?" Harry asked.
Imka simply shrugged. "It was nothing special." He said, "Basically, I woke up one day and God's scripture appeared before my eyes. And there was the cleansing…" Imka shuddered at the name of cleansing, making him question what that is all about.
"And you can understand the scripture? Just like that?" Harry questioned, till now, he had not seen the concept of written language in the tribe or in Agora.
"Yes. The god's scripture was made by our Lord Leh in such a way that everyone can understand what it is meant to do, and what it means." Imka said, "Our Lord is all-powerful Adui. He can do things that we as mortals cannot sense or comprehend. It is only the Grand Priestess who could truly understand, to some extent, what our lord is capable of."
From what Harry had gathered, Imka was a very religious man. And he had the power to convert every conversation into praise of the Lord. While other adults, on the other hand, were not as talkative as Imka. He tried conversing with some other adults of his clan, but they remained distant. Not even trying to act friendly.
"BREAK!" Groga yelled as they approached a tree along their way.
While all the children came and sat down under the tree, the adults moved in coordination. They placed stones around the cart wheel to stop it from moving. And then fetched some clay pots with water and some smoked meat and distributed them to the children.
While sipping water, Harry scanned the adults with them. He realized that out of the nine adults with them, eight of them had traces of Vita in their bodies. Yet, their physiology was very different from Grand Priestess.
In case of the Grand Priestess source of Vita in her body was adjacent to her heart and held a very high quantity of Vita. They all seem to lack the organ that held the energy in the Priestess' body. Hell, the Vita in their body was spread all around, with no epicenter where the energy could be collected.
Seeing this, he theorized that people might possess different kinds of physiologies in this world. Or maybe Priestess was not of the same species as the people around him. Not to mention, compared to her, the adults only held a small amount of Vita.
Imka told me that one could train and get acquainted with Vita. Considering that most of the adults are in the same age group as the priestess, who doesn't look like she has trained a single day in her life.. I think it is safe to suspect that there are ways to increase the Vita in one's body, which are not known to tribes. He thought.
It made sense, as well. Imka and Priestess's words hinted that the amount of Vita in one's body might reflect their standing in this society. He could see that Groga, the chief, had the largest amount of Vita in the group. Maybe that is why he is the chief.
"I see something," one of the adults informed Groga, breaking his line of thought.
Following the line of sight, Harry saw that some distance away, over a small hill of grass, there was this black spot. His eyes instantly used his 100 times zoom, and he realized that it was a herbivore creature, munching on grass.
"What is that?" Imka asked, looking concerned.
Harry noticed that everyone seemed tense, so he simply added, "That is the creature from last night." Everyone looked at him. "You know, the one with the green meat. I recognize its skin, which a few men were appreciating last night."
"How can you tell?" Imka asked.
Harry was never an infiltration kind of guy, he had always been an assassination or confrontation kind of guy. So when last night he was not able to fit, and the children recognized that he was acting weird, he knew that his cover would be blown sooner or later. And based on the backward nature of the tribe, he didnt know what blowing cover could mean, anything from being hanged from a tree to thrown in prison for the rest of his life.
So he had devised a plan yesterday. A plan, which he was not proud of, "Well... from yesterday, I can feel and sense a few things which were not visible to the naked eye. And that black dot… is the creature from last night." He had later planned to tell people about his skills in such a way that they would think that Lord Leh had blessed him in some way.
"Sense a few things.." one of the adults said mockingly, "Like what? What can you sense, boy?"
"Well, I had started sensing Vita. I can tell that you dont have any, while everyone else does." Harry's words made the smile of the adult vanish. "And I could tell that Chief Vita is more than everyone here. But it still pales in comparison in front of Grand Priestess."
Groga, who had been distant from the start, looked at him curiously. "What else can you sense?"
"Is that why you have been asking me questions about the Lord's scripture and Vita all morning?" Imka asked.
Harry ignored his father and stared directly into Groga's eyes. "This is it for now. If my abilities develop further, I would surely inform you, Chief."
Groga stared at him, evaluating something. Then he turned towards Imka, "Take care of the kids and carts." He then looked at one other adult, "Oron, Adui.. With me,"
Groga started walking, followed by one of the adults. Harry also quickly joined them, curious about what this was about…
They took a very long route to the hills, not to spook the creature. Their detour took them to a neighboring hill, where they got on their stomach and crawled their way to the top. Groga, who seemed like an experienced hunter, checked the direction of the wind before going to the top. Only when he had ascertained that the creature would not be able to smell them that they move forward.
When they got to the top, they saw that Harry was indeed right. But what they didnt expect was that there was a huge herd of those creatures. Resembling a combination of deer and a horse, these creatures were spread out throughout the field, quietly grazing the grass.
"Chief," Oron said, "This is a great opportunity. We could hunt a bunch of them, we have the people for it."
Groga nodded absentmindedly. Harry nodded, "Yes. We could. But we have to be fast. This herd is about to disperse.. Fast,"
"Why do you say so?" Groga asked.
Harry pointed at the other side of the field. "Because of that thing. I dont think that it is just hanging around for fun."
Groga and Oron followed his finger, but failed to see what he was pointing at. But then they saw it, something, camouflaged on the green grass, this creature was moving slowly towards the herd.
Color drained from their faces, not caring about the wind of anything, they slung Harry on their shoulders and started running back to the carts…