It took several days for Hanerra to convince Doctor Bahefin to let her go off again among the natives. Then she had to locate Nimar and ask him to help find Engrem. Nimar, seeing how anxious Hanerra had become, suggested that they should go towards his last known location. He would get updates on Engrem’s whereabouts from the Scribes as they travelled.
The journey from Hisoigo up to Jure’lur took longer than the one coming down because Nimar inquired at every inn and House of Scribes along the way for any news. Updates were few, but sufficient to guide them. From the information given, Engrem had settled in another village to the west.
After another two week’s journey, Hanerra and Nimar entered the village where Engrem was now living. “The shop is over there,” he stated. “I’ll be in the House of Scribes if you need me.” Nimar padded off and Hanerra followed the ringing sounds of hammer on anvil.
As she approached the stone-walled blacksmith shop a breehah wearing a dirt-smudged apron came around a corner. His antennas straightened in surprise and he quickly spun around on his hind feet and went into the shop. The hammering stopped just as Hanerra entered through the side door.
She found Engrem standing behind an anvil near the forge. He looked tall and thin, maybe a bit too thin. His dark hair stood out from his head and an untrimmed beard covered his face. His bare arms and chest were well muscled and sweaty. He wore a knee length leather apron, a loin cloth, and sandals. Nothing more. Not sure what to say, Hanerra stood looking at him until Engrem put the iron he had been working back into the coals of the forge and placed the hammer on the nearby bench.
He looked up at her and stepped back in embarassment. “It’s good to see you,” he said. Then he briefly smiled, looking down at himself. “I’m sort of a mess.”
Hanerra, still recovering from the shock of seeing her once clean-cut lover, stepped around the anvil slowly. She looked him up and down, not believing how a few weeks had changed him.
“There are family stories,” he continued, “that say one of my ancestors was a blacksmith in old Mornerth from the town of Rini’em. They say that’s the origin of our name. ‘Barinium’ is derived from ‘Ba Rini’em’. I figured I could learn the same trade.”
“Engrem…” she began.
But he held up a finger to her and spoke to the breehah stoking the fire. It sounded like instructions to her limited knowledge of the local dialect. Then he walked outside. She followed. Engrem washed his arms and chest with water from a large tub on the side of the building, dried himself off with a towel and put on a long, woven, gray, tunic. “I hope I know what you want to say, Hanerra.” He began walking towards the public fountain.
“I’m sorry,” she said simply. “I shouldn’t have lied to you, Engrem.”
“I know that you did it with good intentions.”
Reaching the fountain he took the cup, filled it and offered it to her. She declined. Engrem drank deliberately. “I’m glad that you came looking for me, Hanerra. I was afraid I had lost you.”
Then a small breehah ran up to him carrying a wooden object. “Nuree En’urem,” it said. “Can you fix this? It broke.” The child handed Engrem a sort of toy. It was a wooden replica of a breehah and a small two-wheeled cart. One of the wheels had come off the axle.
Engrem smiled and knelt down to the breehah. “Yes I can, Furisah. Take this to the shop and tell Daafi I’ll repair it after I eat.”
“Uronar, Nuree En’urem,” she said and padded off towards the blacksmith shop. Hanerra was happy she understood the exchange.
“They accept you as one of their own,” she said.
“I’ve found the Folk to be surprisingly sophisticated, more than we might expect.”
Engrem led Hanerra into the inn. After a short exchange he was given two packages, each wrapped in a cloth napkin. Hanerra touched his arm as they stepped into the sunlight, “The Council is enacting the Protected status. That means no humans are allowed on the planet.”
“No one?” Engrem handed Hanerra one of the packages and opened his. Inside were four nut cookies.
She made an odd expression, wrinkling up one side of her face. “Well, there won’t be any outside interference allowed, but the Council is establishing an outpost on an island.”
He nearly choked on his cookie and had to spit it out. “For what!?”
Hanerra waited for him to calm down before continuing. “A small team of anthropologists to study the culture. This is, after all, our first true alien contact.”
Engrem returned to the fountain to get some water. He was silent as he hung the cup on its hook. Then he turned around with a smile on his face. “Then there should be no problem then if I stay here.”
“I don’t think you should try,” Hanerra said. “It took some convincing for them to allow me to come find you. They were going to send the military.”
“It would have taken them longer.”
“That’s what I told them. You and I are the most familiar with the Folk. And it was Nimar who actually found you.”
“You could say you didn’t find me. I’m just one human on the entire planet.”
“If I go back to the settlement without you, they won’t let me come back and someone less friendly will show up.”
“You’d tell them where I am?” Engrem smiled the accusation.
“No, but I won’t have to. They already know generally where you are. The Scribes know.”
“I can convince the Scribes to keep secret where I go from now on.”
Hanerra finished her last cookie. “I have some other good news too,” she said. “The breehah don’t have to worry about anyone coming down to mine anymore.”
“Why not?” Engrem began smiling.
“A few days before I left to find you we got news that a mineral rich asteroid field was found in an uninhabited star system nearby. The breehah are safe from miners.”
“Good news indeed!” he said. But then Engrem stopped smiling. He turned to her and took her hand in his. “I’m still not ready to go back home,” he said softly.
“I know that,” she said. Then she leaned towards him conspiratorially and whispered, “Are you sure that you can hide somewhere and not be found?”
“Yes, “he whispered back. “There’s enough empty places around. I could hide here for years.” Then Engrem straightened up and said, “Why are we whispering? No one here understands us.”
Hanerra smiled as she looked at him. His hair and beard were shaggy and his hands were calloused and still dirty from holding the smithing tools. But he was still the young man that she had gotten to know on the mining ship and had fallen in love with. He had gained confidence while living on his own among these gentle creatures.
She turned to face him squarely and took a breath. Taking both of his hands, she looked into his eyes. “Engrem Barinium,” she said, “I want to be with you forever.”
Hearing those words from her surprised him. She gently squeezed his hands momentarily and Engrem realized that she was waiting for his reply. Hoping she had meant what she had just said, he spoke the words softly, “Hanerra Niwosh, I want to be with you forever.”
She smiled. They hugged each other tightly and kissed. After several seconds passed they pulled apart and looked around as if they had done something indecent. Then they both laughed.
“You’ll come with me then? To live together?” he asked.
“Isn’t that what I just said?”
“Sorry. Yes, you did. One day we’ll have to do the whole thing–officially.”
“Actually,” she began, “Nimar is here too. Why don’t we have him officiate?”
Engrem’s eyes narrowed, but his smile broadened. “You canniver!”
She put on an expression of innocence. “I didn’t plan it!”
“I know,” said Engrem. “I have one thing I need to do yet today. Then I’ll go see Nimar. It’s likely he will want to do that duty in the morning.”
“You’ll get no argument from me. I’m tired. Where are you sleeping these days?” she asked.
Engrem smiled shyly for a moment. “In the warehouse behind the grist mill. Just tell the miller that you’re my mate and he’ll show you in.”
She laughed. “Nimar will be happy. He was always nudging. Something about blessings from the Sky Father,”
“Same here.” And he laughed.
Hanerra smirked at him. “Don’t be too long.” She turned and started walking towards the road leading to the mill.
Engrem watched her leave, then returned to the blacksmith shop. He informed the apprentices and the master of his intentions and then stepped to the workbench by the window. Engrem picked up the broken toy and reached for the pot of glue he kept on the shelf.
The next morning, Engrem was just finishing trimming his beard with the scissors he had kept from the survival pack. They were small, but adequate to the task. Hanerra came back in through the back door, drying her hair with a cloth.
“Wherever we settle, I hope we can build something suitable for washing. I’m not so much for standing nude out in the morning air.”
“I’ve got some ideas, in that direction,” he said, “but I usually just bathe in the mill pond.”
“It needn’t be anything fancy either,” she said walking over to him. “ I can even help build it.”
Engrem wiped the loose hairs from the shirt that Hanerra had brought in her things. Then he turned and casually watched her finish dressing. “I’ll need the help. Trust me. As they say, we are meant to have a helper in life: ‘Two will halve the work of one. Two can better defend against an attacker and, Two will better keep warm at night.’”
“I’m hungry enough for the two of us.” said Hanerra.
“We’ll eat at the inn,” said Engrem. “And I think we will be on our way by midday.”
After breakfast they went over to the House of Scribes together and asked for Nimar.
The Scribe came out and brought two others with him. “It is a good day for a joining,” he said.
“And we thank you for your help,” said Engrem.
Nimar was in the lead, Engrem and Hanerra followed behind, holding hands like youths. In the rear were the other two Scribes.
They gathered near the fountain in the area between the mill and the inn. One of the other Scribes had brought the innkeeper and she had brought her children along as well. Unexpectedly, breehah from all corners of the village began collecting around them.
Nimar said in a loud voice, “These two kapoo wish to announce their betrothal to each other, but they wish the knowledge of this to remain among those in this village.” He turned to the two Scribes. “We are to record this in the local record, but it is not to be sent abroad.”
The two nodded their understanding, and said, “We will keep the knowing of it among us.”
Nimar then turned to the humans. “We are your witnesses. You may begin.”
Engrem and Hanerra faced each other and clasped hands. “Ready?” he whispered. The night before Engrem had translated the traditional Koplushian betrothal vow into the breehah language and they had both rehearsed it.
She nodded, took a breath and smiled.
“Hanerra Niwosh, I want to be with you forever.”
She answered, “Engrem Barinium, I want to be with you forever.”
They continued with him speaking a line and her repeating it.
“Where you go, I will follow.
“Let your way be my way.
“Your family will be my family and our children will be our house.
“Where you live, I will live.
“Let eternal punishment come upon me if anything but death separates us.”
When Hanerra had spoken this last, Engrem alone spoke the final line, “And I will always protect you from harm.”
Hanerra whispered in Koplushian, smiling, “And I will keep you out of trouble.”
The pair embraced and then kissed. Then they were startled to hear Nimar begin chanting a prayer, “Oh, great Sky-Father, maker of all creation, bless these two in their lives together. Give them health, unity of spirit, and many children.”
Then the whole crowd of breehah repeated in sing-song, “Give them health, unity of spirit, and many children.”
Engrem and Hanerra hugged each other again. When they parted, both of them had moist cheeks. In only a few minutes, the crowd had dispersed, everyone going back to their normal activities. Only Nimar remained.
“May many blessings follow you on your way,” he said.
Engrem bowed slightly and said, “Thank you, Nimar. You have been a good friend.”
The newly-wed pair returned to the storehouse to gather their belongings into a small cart. It was normal size for one of the Folk, but small for Engrem.
As he pushed it forward to start them on their journey, Hanerra asked, “What’s our destination?”
“To the west there is an area that I’m told doesn’t have a lot of Folk.” I figure that’s a good place to try.”
“Oh. How long will that take?”
Engrem shrugged. “I’m not sure. A few days or so.”
Hanerra chuckled. “Suddenly I’m reconsidering my decision.”
“I know where I’m going, or at least I know how to find it. A little trust?”
Hanerra reached over and patted Engrem’s shoulder. “Where you go, I will follow, remember?”
– : –