Abandoning Safety
General Summary
As is the custom among the Vahobu tribes, when one is old enough, one has the choice to journey to another jaoga mou and join a different tribe. In one year this happened three times, and two of them happened to the Pazawabazhu!
Huja and Omave of the Pazawabazhu left their home, Yagolai-Chare, abandoning all hope of safety and treked towards the rim of Brokenridge Mesa. On the way they were separated and set upon by ravenous Zhewe Ouzou.
Meanwhile, halfway across the mesa, the Ja'afimula mourn the loss of one of their best Patarate as Roushasa leaves Jaoga Mou for the hope of a better life, and better wife, elsewhere. As he wandered through the warm forest atop the mesa, he became aware that he was being hunted by the near-mythical Zapo Muzha.
At the same time, on the rim of the world, or at least the Brokenridge Mesa, Huja and Omave escape the Ouzou by descending over the ledge using a cord made from braided vines. Unfortunately, about halfway down they begin to fall. Landing on a soft, sandy, beach, the two begin to trek kayoi, along the cliff's edge.
In the middle of the deep forest, among its tallest trees, Roushasa hunts and kills small game, leaving part of each kill for the grasscat hunting him. He hopes against hope that it is hunting him because he is larger prey and that's rare in this area. So he hunts small game and leaves the majority out for it. Over the course of days it follows him through the mountain valleys. Eventually he is set upon by an angry Ouzou, and the grasscat takes it down. The grasscat was injured somehow in the fighting, and Roushasa harvests the Ouzou and puts his caver skills to work, opening up a cave he found so that the grasscat can enter it.
Along the journey down the coast, Huja has a terrifying experience. He witnesses a massive woman with a hobu's face but grown to massive proportions rise from the water near the coast. This giant raised its mottled black and white arm and waved its hand in greeting! Never in his days had he seen anything close to such a thing.
For weeks the grasscat lay still, and Roushasa fed it and cared for its injuries. It became abundantly clear that the grasscat was actually pregnant, and it would be birthing soon. Still Roushasa worked to feed and tend it.
Huja was not mentally well after his vision of the massive person, and when Huja and Omave met something else on that coast, it went about as well as one could imagine. Huja readied his staff, while Omave buried herself in sand. The thing they met was an Azou, one of the Koi Nayju that was hunting nearby and heard the Vahobu's strange language. Only the curiosity of the Azou kept the encounter from bursting out into violence.
As the grasscat became closer and closer to birthing, Roushasa noticed something unnatural about the cave he was in. He saw tool marks! In his wandering, he must have found evidence of the lost baputhi! It was when he began exploring and searching for these anomalies that he found something even more interesting - the actual lost baputhi! It turns out that they had delved deeply into the mountain and only used the upper cave for excursions into "the Mesa's Wilderness" occasionally. The lost tribe had discovered the two of them and while they would welcome Roushasa, the grasscat would never be allowed in their home. Roushasa refused entry and told them in no uncertain terms that he would be leaving when the cat was well enough to hunt, and that that was all there was to say on it. They agreed, ruling that one should never mess with a guy brave enough to tame a grasscat!
The Azou led the two Vahobu into Vanå and introduced them to its ...tribe? In any case, for several weeks the two stayed with the Azou. During this time, while Omave was enamored with the varieties of plants found in the forest, Huja wanted to learn the language and stories of the Azou. After several weeks Omave got the distinct impression that the Azou tribe was tired of them, and left on her own. Huja, on the other hand, abided by the Vahobu custom of joining the tribe when a new one was found...not realizing that the Azou don't have that custom until he could speak the language at the end of his first season.
Roushasa was preparing to leave after the grasscat was able to hunt, and they hunted together for a time. Then one morning when Roushasa woke, the grasscat and all her cubs were gone. All but one, the runt of the litter that was abysmal at hunting. Roushasa took the grasscat as his own animal companion and the two learned to hunt together, leaving the lost jaoga mou behind and wandering the mesa.
Now weeks behind Omave, Huja was left to wander the Vana, trying to find his way out. Meanwhile, Omave has decided to try and find her way back home but has wandered even further south and can actually see the Green Teeth Mountains.
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