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Splintered Light Chapter 6.3: Oani Hama

There were a number of quiet places Ash-Moon could have brought Mr. Lews considering the time of night; standing on the deck would be publicly imposing but had the wrong feel; taking the Dog as a guest to his private quarters could have instilled visions of horror in the crewman but Mr. Lews, by all accounts, had done nothing wrong. Rather than choose either of those options, Ash-Moon instead chose for a public area that would be empty, or close to. The Galley, in that regard, was the perfect choice.

With the numerous tables abandoned at such a late hour the relatively large room had the kind of empty feeling that contrasted the almost claustrophobic over-full nature of the eating area during most other times of the day. The Jackal made his way toward the leftovers set out by the kitchen and motioned to a nearby table. "Sit here."

Mr. Lews oblidged, following orders without a moment's hesitation. Ash-Moon grabbed one of the trays Mr. Veektur always had beside the night time food for any night shift crew with an inclination to help 'clean up'. Only once the first mate was busying himself with collecting a scoop-of-this and a pawful-of-that did the Dog bother speaking. "So... with Fritz... did.... did ya... did ya really do all the things it sounded like you were doin'?"

The Jackal glanced over his shoulder with a grin. He grabbed one of the cold, hard dinner rolls before making his way back to the table. "What did it sound like I was doing?"

Mr. Lews' stomach grumbled audibly; it wasn't anything Ash-Moon hadn't expected since the Dog had been in the brig during the meal call. The Jackal waited for the Dog to offer a response, but, instead, he lowered his gaze as his ears reddened. After a long pause the first mate took a seat, sliding the tray across to his guest. "Eat."

Not requiring any further directly, Mr. Lews dug into the cold leftovers with abandon. Ash-Moon watched, bemused as he saw the Dog eat without any regard for manners, not even seeming to care that he hadn't been provided a fork or knife or the-other-thing-used-for-scooping. The tray was mostly empty when the Dog came up for air, chewing slowing as he regarded the Jackal. "You-- you're not gonna to eat, Sir?"

Ash-Moon grinned, digging at an errant piece of fur caught between his teeth. "I already ate... or did it not sound like it?"

The declaration was enough to make Mr. Lews sit up and away from his food, pushing the tray aside. "So... you... you really did? Y-you... you ATE some of Mr. Fritz?"

The Jackal kept his answer casual, with still chiding. "Less than he deserved, but more than he liked."

The Dog looked a little paler for the acknowledgement and covered his muzzle with his paw, mumbling through his fingers. "So... it IS true..."

Ash-Moon flicked an ear. "What is true, Mr. Lews?"

"The rumors."

The Jackal spread his wide, sharp-toothed grin easily. "Rumors can hold some truth, but they are like the cawing of a raven: they do more good for the one making the sound than those hearing it."

"Uh... okay."

The silence between the two of them was obviously uncomfortable to the Dog, but Ash-Moon felt it more like the absence of sound a moment before a hunter leaps in for the kill. He was not hunting Mr. Lews, and so the Jackal spoke up, encouraging the communication to continue. "What do the rumors say, Mr. Lews?"

The sailor fidgeted, not meeting Ash-Moon's gaze, but leaning a little closer so he could speak in a low tone. "They... they say you eat people."

The discomfort saying such a thing brought to the large canine made the Jackal smile. He leaned closer as well, likewise speaking quietly. "Well... I have not eaten you. Does that mean they are lying?"

Mr. Lews' expression changed to confusion... and more than a hint of fear; it was bordering on humorous. He lowered his voice even further, despite there being nobody around to hear them in the first place. "But... you ate Fritz!"

Few Stone Tribe ever managed to sit down and speak so long on the topic; Ash-Moon found observing the big Dog to be very interesting, and he was even more interested to see where the line of questioning would ultimately go. "No... I cut off a strip of his short loin-- I did not eat all of him."

The sailor went even more pale. "S-short loin?"

The Jackal nodded, reaching out to run his finger along a streak of gravy that remained on Mr. Lews' tray. He stuck that finger in his muzzle and licked it clean before speaking. "To the side of the spine, not quite at the small of the back. The Captain once told me that your people call that the 'short loin'."

The Dog's fur puffed up as Ash-Moon spoke. When it was finally Mr. Lews' turn, he almost choked on the words. "From animals, yeah! But not from PEOPLE!"

Ash-Moon pulled out his Nahng and began drawing it along the edge of the table, making certain that all the blood had been worked off the blade. "Two legs, or four-- we are all just meat, Mr. Lews."

The sailor fidgeted. "So... you-- you DO eat people? A-and-- and not just to torture em and stuff?"

The Jackal set his Nahng on the table and rested his paw on it. "I eat prey, Mr. Lews. The sailors and officers on this ship are family, not prey, so I do not eat them. Mr. Fritz attacked you and hurt Calus Len, so he is no longer part of this family."

The Dog remained quiet for several long seconds and his next question was spoken toward the table, the sailor's head looking down to where his paws were placed in front of him. "But... there's plenty a food... why would you NEED t'eat him?"

Ash-Moon chuckled. "You drink ale and grog and rum and whatever else when there is tea, do you not? You do so because you like it."

Mr. Lews fidgeted, eyes slowly raising back up to meet the first mate's gaze. "You... like eating people?"

The Jackal stared right at him. "Does that make you afraid?"

The Dog's eyes left his own before he shook his head. "No... I mean... I'm part of the crew, so you won't eat me... right?"

Ash-Moon let his severe persona drop in favor of something much more accommodating and open. "I will if you ask me to."

The Dog went back to staring, but only for a moment; a few seconds later he burst out into laughter. The Jackal joined in the laughter, full-well knowing that Mr. Lews didn't realize that the statement had not been a joke. Once the fit ended, the Dog reached for his stein of the foul stuff the sailors enjoyed, then paused. "You, ah... you don't drink booze, do you, sir?"

Ash-Moon flicked an ear. "I drink many things... but not that."

Mr. Lews looked down into his glass, then raised it to his muzzle and drained it down in no time. When he set the mug back in place he looked across the table to the Jackal. "So... Master Len said something about Tribals once..."

The First Mate made a show of inspecting his paw-- the one with a few flecks of blood still on the fur. He began licking at it. "What did he say once?"

"He said you people reject the teachings of the Church and do things because some spirits or something tell you to."

Ash-Moon finished licking his paw clean, and rested it back down upon the handle of his Nahng. "What is it he said they tell us to do?"

Despite how little the Jackal made it look like he was paying attention he really was, specifically to the Dog's posture, which seemed uncertain, as if it were an uncomfortable topic. This, of course, meant Ash-Moon was perfectly happy continuing it. After an extended pause the Dog began wringing his paws together on the table. "Well... uh... he didn't... but he says that a lot of the words of your language are, really spirit-y and stuff."

"What does 'Spirit-y and stuff' mean, Mr. Lews?"

Mr. Lews shrugged. "I dunno... I guess, uh... well-- I-- uh... he talked about the priest-people the Tribals have... shommens, or something?"

Ash-Moon corrected him cleanly. "Shamans."

The Dog nodded. "Yeah-- them. Anyway, he said that your Shahmens do lots of rituals and magic and stuff... is that true?"

The simple view Mr. Lews had of his people was almost humorous... almost. "Maybe."

The sailor's ears raised as he cocked his head to the side. "Maybe?"

The Jackal smirked, untying and removing the Fire Powder from its place on his belt and he set it on the table beside his Nahng. "It depends on what you believe."

Mr. Lews tugged at the collar of his tunic as he cleared his throat. "So... uh... what do YOU believe, sir?"

Ash-Moon's smirk turned into a welcoming smile; despite being thick-headed, the Dog did phrase his question very well. "I believe that our ancestors and the spirits that inhabit all living things can be just as real as a man looking down at us from a land in the clouds."

The Dog fidgeted in his seat; the Jackal knew that very few Stone Tribe ever spoke about their beliefs unless they were defending them or pushing them on others... but Mr. Lews did not seem to be doing that. "And... and the magic... stuff?"

The topic had gone on long enough that the first mate realized that he owed the sailor something for having the will to take it that far. Raising his Nahng to his lips, Ash-Moon licked the flat of his blade, smearing it with his saliva before opening the Fire Powder pouch with his other paw. "Would you like to see some magic, Mr. Lews?"

The answer came as if from the muzzle of a little pup who was conspiring to do something his parents would not like. "...yeah."

Ash-Moon reached a paw into the pouch, intoning a chant carefully in the Tribal Tongue "I forgot what to say to make this ritual impressive but you do not understand me so it does not matter what I say."

He opened his paw and released several pinches of the dust onto his Nahng; the moment the powder touched the traces of saliva on the bone weapon it popped and fizzled, bursting into a bright green flame. The fire burned for several seconds and Ash-Moon gave the blade a few slow arcs through the air. Before deftly shaking the fire out he declared with authority in the tribal tongue "And now I'm going to shake it out and speak as if dismissing a spirit."

Mr. Lews sat in rapt attention, making some kind of warding sign over his chest. "Heavens above... you DO know magic."

Ash-Moon took a seat once again and returned his Nahng to its place on the table, only smoking a little. "I learned many secrets from my tribe's shaman."

The Dog was still mystified by what he had seen. "What-- what was that... uh... that chant you did?"

The Jackal thought several moments before he came up with something that sounded good. "Your language doesn't say the same things as mine does... but it would be like... 'Spirits of Earth and Spirits of Fire, hear my call. Bring forth the light, that I know you."

One of Mr. Lews' ears drooped and folded back in confusion. "That I know you?"

Ash-Moon shrugged. "I already said our languages do not always work right when you use them together. Yes-- 'that I know you'... like the difference between your words 'person' and 'friend'."

The Dog's blank stare told him more than his short response. "Huh?"

The Jackal let out a frustrated sigh, despite not being frustrated. The first mate stated simply "Hama."

"what's that mean?"

Ash-Moon smirked. "It means person, and it also means friend."

Mr. Lews returned to that head-cocked posture. "How can one word mean two things?"

The Jackal snorted. "Your languages do it too, Stone Tribesman."

The Dog snorted back, getting an indignant look on his muzzle. "Okay... well... what about an example then, huh?"

The first mate's smile was genuine; the Mr. Lews he had known not long ago would have taken major affront, but the new Mr. Lews after spending time with Calus Len was much more willing to overcome. "Oani hama, or Oani Archie-Hama."

Mr. Lews flicked an ear. "Okay... so what's the difference sides from you used my name in the second one?"

Ash-Moon was happy to answer. "The first was 'Hello, person' and the second was 'Hello Friend Archie.'."

The sailor blinked. "Uh... wouldn't that be Oh-on-knee Ham-uh Archie?"

The Jackal deadpanned his simple answer. "No."

Almost twenty minutes of talk later, Mr. Lews was finally beginning to understand. "Okay... so 'Hama' means both 'person' and 'friend' because how you use it tells the person you're talking to what you mean... so 'Oani Hama' means 'Hello person', but you'd only say that if you were saying hello to someone you know pretty well, otherwise you'd say 'Oani Wen', which means 'Hello person' to someone with a higher rank or when you're showing respect."

Ash-Moon nodded. "Yes."

The Dog caught him off-guard by taking his limited understanding further with a very astute guess. "I heard Master Severna say that you people call yourselves 'Wenya'... that has something to do with that 'Wen' word, right?"

Pleasantly surprised, the first mate nodded. "Yes. 'Wenya' means 'The People'... it means everyone who stand on two legs... not just the Wenya-Ma'ani... the 'Free Folk'."

The insightful sailor took that even further. "So... that other word-- Kaumaka... that's the word the Wenya-Ma'ani use to describe someone who eats two legged prey? A Kaumana is someone who eats Wenya, right?"

Archie Lews had originally been a pleasant distraction for the Jackal, but, he was quite pleased to see, the Dog was rapidly becoming a much more intriguing diversion. "Yes, Mr. Lews. You are a very good learner."

The sailor shrugged. "I guess... I mean... it's not hard if you pay attention."

Ash-Moon sat up a little straighter. "Then you will not have a problem paying attention for longer?"

Mr. Lews set his tray aside and sat up straighter. "It's better than being in the brig, sir... 'sides, Master Len said I should learn more when I get the chance."

The two didn't go their separate ways until first bell, but Ash-Moon didn't mind; he didn't sleep very much anyway, and he was quite interested to see just how far Mr. Lews could go as a student of the People's ways. The Dog's parting words were a good start. "Sir?"

"Yes, Archie-Hama?"

Mr. Lews' ears reddened slightly. "You know... I'm starting to think you're not as bad as they say."

The Jackal smirked. "You only say that because you are Hama."

The Dog's tail wagged as he headed off to his bunk. Despite himself, Ash-Moon's tail did as well.