The Kin Read Free Page B

went back to the others.
    Noli was awake, trying to comfort Ko, who had gobbled his meat without chewing it enough and was whining about a stomach ache.
    â€œDid Moonhawk come?” Suth asked.
    â€œNo,” she said.
    He lay down, more anxious than ever, trying to remember any details he could about the journey across Dry Hills. But he had been in his trance of shock then, hardly noticing what happened around him, so all he could recall was endless thirsty trudging across hot stony ground, with rough slopes rising on either side, and no sign of food or water anywhere.
    As the sun went down he was still worrying about this, lying on his back and gazing up at the sky, hard blue all day, but now paler, greyer, and turning golden towards the west.
    Out of that sky he saw a flock of birds descending, circling around and around, wings spread, coming nearer and nearer until they disappeared behind the rim of the cliff.
    Suth’s spirits rose. This was something he had seen before. There was a Good Place called Stinkwater, which the Kin had used to visit at two special seasons. At other times it was a useless marsh, its water black and foul. But then at the good seasons the birds came spiralling down out of the sky, countless, tens beyond tens beyond tens, some so weak and tired with long flying that they were easy to catch. Several Kins would gather at those times at Stinkwater, and there would be fine eating for everybody.
    Noli too had seen the birds and had thought the same thought.
    â€œThere is a Good Place up there,” she said.
    â€œWe look for a way tomorrow,” he said, “when we go back through Dry Hills.”

Oldtale
    MONKEY MAKES FIRE
    Snake and Crocodile and Fat Pig and the others came to Monkey and said, “Monkey, you eat our food. You drink our water. You sleep in our caves. Your chattering disturbs us on our crags. But you make nothing of your own.”
    Monkey said, “Very well. I am cleverer than you are. Now I do something better than any of you.”
    He thought for a day and a night and a day, and then while Black Antelope slept, he looked at the sky and saw a great cloud that covered the moon .
    Then Monkey clapped his hands, and so great was the sound that the cloud burst and fire fell out and poured down to the earth and burned the trees and the grasses and dried up the water holes and smote the crags where Moonhawk perched and shrivelled the roots on the ground, and only Little Bat was safe in her caves .
    Little Bat looked out and saw what was being done, so she flew to where Black Antelope slept and squeaked in his ear, “Monkey is killing our Good Place with fire. Stop him.”
    Black Antelope woke and he too saw what was being done. He reared up and breathed through his nostrils and blew out the fire .
    He called to Monkey to come, and Monkey was afraid, and hid. But Moonhawk spied him from her crag and told Snake, who went softly and coiled himself around him and caught him and carried him to Black Antelope .
    Black Antelope said, “You have done bad things. Now I make your skin itch. It is like fire. You must put all our Good Place to rights. Make it as it was. Then I take your itch from you.”
    Then with his skin itching like fire Monkey set to work, but he could not do it. He poured water into the holes, but it was salt and sour. He put roots into the ground, but they made Fat Pig sick. He grew trees, but they were too thorny for Weaver’s wives to nest in, and their fruits fell to the ground before they were ripe .
    In the end Monkey came to the others and said, “I cannot do this. You must help me.”
    They said, “What do you give us in return?”
    Monkey said, “I have nothing to give.”
    They said, “You give this. We tell you a thing. You do it. You do this for a whole moon, for each of us in turn.”
    So they agreed, and all in their ways made that Place good again, with clean water and fine trees and grasses and