Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

“Oh do come in,” said the old woman who I guessed was Rigar’s grandmother, “Rigar, you’ve got more little friends here!”

We walked in, through the entry hall and into the living room. We were surprised to find, what looked like all the children who lived in Minris and were between five and ten years old, gathered together.

“Oh, feces!” said Tenenet.

“You said they wouldn’t come here because this was farthest from the Vineyard!” said Badrac.

“What are you doing here?” asked Rigar. “I told you I didn’t want the Winemakers here!”

“Don’t be religionist!” said his grandmother.

“That’s just your excuse for not being able to remember what they look like!” said Rigar. “Come on there’s a red haired girl, a girl with short dark hair and an idlan boy!”

“Half idlan!” said Irvis. “My mother’s faharni, not that it matters as racism’s wrong!”

“We’d just like to know why you’re telling people that we’re sending ancients to attack kids?” I asked.

“Because kids keep getting attacked by ancients,” said Rigar.

“Or minions,” said Badrac.

“Can ancients also be minions?” asked a girl I didn’t know.

“Look nobody controls ancients!” said Cloud. “And only Yoho controls Vineyard minions. Well he can do anything so he can also control ancients but we don’t have anything to do with it.”

“This is a mystery we must investigate,” said Breeze, “because we’re detectives!”

“I’m a mage,” said Narim.

“No you’re not!” said Breeze.

“I’ve read three books about magic!”

“I’ve read the entire Rooroo series,” said Breeze, “but that doesn’t make me a Dorakremac.”

[Translator’s note: The Rooroo series is a bit like Midbar’s version of the Moomin or Womble books, involving various fictional creatures.]

“I didn’t know you liked the Rooroos,” I said.

“Well I’m a bit old for that now.”

“I still know more about magic than you!” said Narim. “It’s clear to me that you,” he looked accusingly at me, “must be responsible because this happened since you moved to Minris.”

“Correlation doesn’t prove causality,” I said.

“What?” asked Narim.

“The fact that two things happen at about the same time doesn’t prove that one causes the other,” I said.

Narim looked at me as if I was speaking Semic.

“Granny,” said Rigar, “they’re being weird and confusing us already!”

“This has all happened since you’ve been in Minris as well,” said Cloud to Narim.

“I was born in Minris!” said Narim.

“Yes but these attacks have happened since then,” said Cloud.

“Who has been attacked?” asked Breeze before Narim could think of a good counter-argument to that.

Everybody just stared at us but I couldn’t help noticing that a few of the girls seemed very nervous.

“Who has actually seen an ancient or minion or whatever?” asked Breeze.

“I saw a minion in the Vineyard,” said Narim. “Looked like a girl with red hair tied in a bun! Oh, no she’s here!”

Several kids laughed.

“We can’t solve the mystery if you won’t take it seriously,” said Breeze.

“Tell us who’s seen this thing,” said Cloud, “where and when and what it did to people or we’ll tell our grandmother and she’s an apostle.”

I’m not sure what exactly an apostle is.

Oh.

Well I wasn’t sure what one could do about this but I did know that everybody was afraid of Ice, even more than other Haprihagfen.

The other kids proceeded to tell us numerous stories of their encounters with the Night Leaper. However, it soon became apparent that some, I think most, of them were just making things up. Descriptions varied from a small, hairy man to something with multiple legs and wings. Nobody claimed to have actually been attacked but did say that they’d heard about others being attacked.

“Just a minute,” said Daris, a boy who was in Cloud’s class. “Has he ever attacked you lot?”

“No,” I said.

The others shook their heads.

“So he doesn’t attack Winemakers!”

“None of you claim to have been attacked!” I said.

“But they have been attacking kids,” said Tenenet.

What was very striking was that Tenenet, Peratrin and Dren seemed really terrified and didn’t say much.

“That was a waste of time,” said Irvis, “they’ll only laugh at us for believing that rubbish.”

We were picking up our bikes outside the gatehouse.

“We couldn’t reveal our powers,” said Cloud.

“Peretrin, Tenenet and Dren know more than they’re saying but they’re too frightened to speak up,” said Breeze.

“That’s what I think,” I said.

It should have been a fun ride downhill back into town but I had a strong feeling of foreboding.

We got back to the Cascade, got one of those maps we give out to tourists and marked the locations of Peretrin, Tenenet, Dren and Vritan’s homes. They were all on the north side of town, where most the normal houses were.

“It looks from this as if this thing comes down from the north, through Fortress Park,” said Cloud.

“Assuming it cares about avoiding built up areas,” said Irvis.

“The other kids were reasoning that it was coming from the southern mountains through the Vineyard,” I said. “The evidence isn’t really consistent with that.”

“What are you doing?” asked Mum, who was manning the reception desk.

“There’s supposed to be an ancient attacking kids,” I said. “Of course they think it has something to do with the Winemakers so they’re hating us more than normal.”

“They’re just making it up,” said Mum. “A lot of people aren’t sure ancients existed in the first place and if they’re are any left they’re out in the desert, outside the Great Basin and they don’t attack humans anyway.”

“Vritan says she’s seen this thing,” I said.

“Actually ancients must need some water,” said Cloud. “It’s more likely that they live on the mountains around the Great Basin, in other words here.”

“Somebody claims to see one every ten years or so,” said Breeze. “However, it’s always people climbing the mountains or driving between towns.”

“Well exactly,” said Mum. “I’m sure it’s just kids with overactive imaginations. You know all about that, Eleprin.”

“We could keep watch from the roof of the Beit Gadol,” said Breeze. “You can see all Minris from there.”

“Mum,” I said, “can I sleep over at the Vineyard?”

“When?”

“Tonight,” said Breeze. “It’s going to be black night until late. Actually the leaper normally attacks in black night after midnight. I think.”

“No!” said Mum. “School starts in two days! I want you to be awake for it!”