[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Se4Pc57.png[/img][/center]

[right][url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ijuK99wKw]Diving[/url][/right]
The water hummed its low tone in Toraph's ears. His heart beat a slow pace in his chest and head. Such was the peace at this depth that even the distant sound of the waves crashing on the shore carried its muffled sound under the surface.

The water was safe, they were taught. You move faster there.

A shape ahead made his whiskers twitch. He opened his eyes and his arm shot forward as a reflex. The satisfying texture of fish skin rupturing carried up the shaft of his spear. The struck creature did not get to thrash twice before Toraph kicked forward and caught it between his teeth.

Toraph silently cheered as he swam upright. Already, his brothers Wass and Anboor had noticed his catch. Anboor, a slightly bigger selka with an upturned brow that always looked a little confused, wended through the water with a bright smile and pat him on the back. Wass, a paler and lighter weight tall selka, congratulated him similarly and pumped a fist in the dim light. Under the light, the three of them all had the same pattern of large dark blotches on their fur, such was the breed of the river mouth tribe. Toraph shook his spear triumphantly in the water happily before spreading his limbs out and down to propel him up towards the sun.

He felt the pressure in his ears drop as the watery, sparkling daylight welcomed him. The silhouette of a small raft tied by a reed cord leading towards shore cast a shadow down into the murk.

Toraph broke the surface. Water ran off his head and the open air noisily hissed in his senses in spite of the wind's softness. He looked down from the bright blue sky to hand the limp fish from his mouth into the basket fastened onto the raft. It plopped onto a pile of various sea life, from shellfish, to some of the tastier varieties of kelp, to even a small brown shark curled up around the edge – Anboor was lucky to catch that one.

Toraph took a satisfied breath. He was the youngest of his brothers, but his fishing skills were improving every day. They would have enough today to feed the family tonight. With the extra catches, they could sacrifice some land food to Delfeene in the water, or even bury a few fish in the earth for Kirwon.

Then something toothy wrapped around Toraph's ankle.

"Yaaagh!" He yelped and looked under the water, only to find Wass' grinning face rising up to the water's surface beside him, having just let go of Toraph's foot. The look on Toraph's face made bubbles erupt from between Wass' teeth before he could even laugh into the open air. And laugh he did.

Toraph sighed with relief. "Gods, brother, I was about to spear you in the face!"

"It was worth it!" Wass replied between his laughter. "You make a funny sound when you get surprised! You have since you were a pup in mum's arms!"

"Pffah, shut your mouth!" Toraph shot up and locked Wass' head in the crook of his arm.

"Hahaha! Lemme go! Lemme go!" Wass flailed his arms around just long enough to get purchase on Toraph's middle. Toraph was twisted up and away. The two wrestled and laughed for only another moment.

They stopped when they heard a voice calling out from the shore. They righted themselves to hear it again.

"-booor! Toraaaph! Come here! Waaass! Come!"

"I think it's Uncle Phorek," Wass commented.

Toraph looked to Wass. "Do you think we're in trouble?"

"Doesn't sound like it. I'll bring in the raft, you go get Anboor."

Right on time, Anboor broke the surface of the water with a dying octopus writhing in his mouth. "Whatch goinge onge?"

[hr]
The three brothers hauled their catch up the beach by the river mouth. Uncle Phorek quickly met them to help, excited enough to speed his older bones faster than the brothers could ever remember.

Toraph could not help but catch some of Phorek's excitement. "What's got you jogging around like that, Uncle?"

"Oh! Yeah, forgot to say, got so excited." Phorek chuckled. "A k'night is here."

The three brothers' eyes lit up.

"A k'night from downbeach?" Anboor asked in his deep, simple voice.

Uncle Phorek snorted. "They're all from downbeach, boy! Everything upbeach is monsters, remember?"

Anboor flared his whiskers. "There're k'nights upriver, though…"

"That doesn't matter!" Wass interrupted. "What's the k'night's name? Is he going to kill a monster?"

"Or help us with work?" Anboor asked.

"Or show a big new idea?" Toraph added.

Uncle Phorek filled his chest, raised a finger – "Don't know." – and frowned. "But he said he's staying for a bit, so he might do all of those things. Or none of 'em. We'll see."

"Wait," Anboor asked again. "Only one k'night? He's walking about on his lone?"

Phorek turned to grin at Anboor. "Heheh, just wait 'till you see'im."

Wass slapped a fist against Anboor's arm. "Why do you have to ask questions so much?"

[hr]
The uncle and the brothers approached the village just within the tree line. A mottled clump of grey dressed in rawhide bits made up everyone in the village, gathered by the central fire, crowding the tallest and broadest selka Toraph had ever seen. He could only make out the top of the huge man's shoulders and head, painted with bright pink paint that had dried in rivulets from the top of his head. Toraph could hear his resonant voice from where they were walking.

"…so I ask him what he wants me to do in this big new idea of his. He pokes me so hard on my ribs that he almost broke me, but I could see on his face he was just making fun. He says to me 'go get Yimbo, tell the big guy to head upriver, 'cos there's folks there being bullied.' And he adds 'don't forget to teach the folk at the river mouth some new tricks, 'cos they're going to need the tricks for what comes next.' I ask him what's coming next, he shrugs 'n' says 'if I told you it all, some of it might not happen and maybe worse things, they'll come and fill the gap…'"

Toraph was a hand shorter than all the adult men. He had to shove his way through to see the man. It was a k'night, evidenced by the well-notched club he leant his tree-trunk arms on while he spoke. He also looked like he could tear trees as thick as his arms out of the ground with his bare hands. Over his shoulder was a big round disc of wood with cords to hold onto it and around his waist was a skirt of long brown leaves.

"What's his name?" Toraph whispered to Aunt Tephi next to him.

"His name's Gralph. He's just telling us what Kirwon told him to do."

"He spoke to Kirwon!?"

"Shh!"

Gralph the giant k'night, still smiling, gave Toraph a glance and then continued. "I already got Yimbo on his…or her way out here, so I figure in the meantime I'll teach you a couple'a interesting things I learnt from downbeach about making landfood with dirt and rotten fish."

The crowd let out some [i]ooh[/i]s.

"Wehey now," Gralph raised a palm. "It ain't like making a hut or a basket. It takes some time 'cos the food's gotta grow out of the ground on its own. Hey chief, what seeds you got?" He called to Chief Korrcac to his left.

"Uh, let's see," Korrcac counted off his fingers. "Few peas, dark lentils, a bunch of flax we were going to make a soup from, uh…Enpha?" He asked his wife.

"The berries we got have seeds in 'em. Same with the other fruits, like the squashes. Big chewy seeds, some too hard to eat, though."

Gralph gestured up happily. "The dry stuff'll do. It's past the raintime in these parts so a good time to make 'em grow. Grab a fistful of each and some old fish, I'll find a good spot."

[hr]
The process was oddly simple. After getting Korrcac to grind the old fish into a smelly pulp with a couple of rocks, all Gralph did was find a spot on the inland edge of the village, dug a few small holes, stuck the fish slurry in them, stuck some seeds into each, and covered the holes with soil again. When he stood up straight again, everyone stared at the holes expectantly.

"That's the complicated bit all done," Gralph said. "Those seeds will sprout little plants which'll eat the fish and drink the water that comes by. When they eat, they grow, but it's real slow, so you gotta make sure no beasts come and eat the plants when you aren't looking."

Gralph grinned. The villagers looked less certain, rubbing the tops of their heads. The whole process seemed dirty, smelly, and slow.

"Heheheh, guess this is going to be on the more relaxing side of fun," Gralph laughed. "Tell you what, I got more exciting stuff. Whoever wants to be a part of that, go back to the fire and wait while I talk to the chief about something."

The most of the younger selka along with the less patient of the adults mumbled and turned around towards the centre of the village, including Wass.

Only Toraph remained, squatting in front of one of the filled-in holes with his hands on his knees. Anboor noticed and turned back around to approach him.

"You see something, brother?" Anboor asked. "It'll just be some grass soon."

Toraph didn't take his eyes off the disturbed dirt. "How much grass do you think'll come out though?"

Anboor turned his head towards those going back to the fire. He shrugged. "What does it matter? We catch more fish every day than the seeds that'll be on a few hole's worth of grass."

"Nah, brother, I'm just thinking." Toraph turned his head up to look at Anboor. It was a curious look. "Seeds like he stuck into those holes. They keep a long time, right?"

"Yeah," Anboor said slowly, narrowing one eye.

Toraph glanced away nervously. "What if…if we had a lot of seeds, we could grow more landfood like this all we wanted, as long as we could make the holes. And we've always got fish scraps for them. We usually just stick the fish scraps in the sand anyway to sacrifice to Kirwon. Why not do this as well?"

"And where're we going to get lots of seeds?" Anboor crossed his arms. "If we had that many seeds, we could just eat them whenever we want anyway."

"We grow them, like this. You get it?" Toraph gestured to the soil. "We eat some, we grow more, we eat some, we grow more, so it goes round, then we won't be too hungry if there's not much seafood to find."

Anboor cocked his head. Toraph could hear the stones in his mind grinding together to make the logic fit. Or, at the very least, ask another inane question that he could have worked out by thinking for just another two seconds. "Well…" Anboor cocked his head. "You can try. Just don't skive off from helping get food normally, okay?"

Toraph smiled. "'Course, brother."

[hr]
Gralph's talk with the chief was done in private on the beach. The ones left to wait by the fire were not tempered with patience in the first place, but the time they had to wait caused a number to disperse on their own.

Ever curious, Toraph looked at the conversation between the chief and the k'night from a distance. It was only Anboor's advice that kept the young man from walking up to them and asking what was taking so long. Toraph could not quite tell from his distance, but the chief had a face like a cliff while Gralph spoke. Unmoving.

When the time finally came, many of the waiting selka were napping or performing chores around the fire. Wass had been waiting there since the start with his legs crossed and his hands holding up his cheeks.

Toraph shook him awake.

"Hey, what do you want, Toraph?" Wass' eyes slowly opened. "We already got our haul for the day."

"Were you dozing?" Toraph asked. "Gralph's coming."

"I was not-" His eyes suddenly bulged. "He is? Wh-where?"

Gralph's heavy footfalls stopped nearby. The huge k'night hefted his bone club over his shoulder – it was covered with so many deeds that Toraph was not sure he knew a number to count them all. 

"Right." Gralph's voice made them all shut up. "You waited this long, I ain't gonna pretty this up. Upriver, there's an adventure to be had." Gralph pointed his club south. "'Bout a day behind me, I got k'nights from downbeach. They are my k'nights. The K'nights of Red Horizon. Kirwon needs us to help up there to help with something we ain't seen before." He pointed three fingers at the small group gathered. "No more than three of you will come with us, if you pass our test. Any questions?"

Cousin Phoram furtively raised a hand. "What's the thing that needs your help for, Gralph?"

"Don't know," Gralph answered. "That's part of the fun. All I know is I need good k'nights."

"What's the test?" Wass called out.

Gralph chuckled. "A test of courage and determination. You'll need to be quick and brave."

Toraph knew Wass' grin. It was the grin he showed when he knew what was ahead of him. Toraph smiled as well, for Wass was the quickest, bravest, and most stubborn in the tribe that Toraph was aware of.

Gralph spoke louder. "So, who wants to try out tomorrow?"

Just about everyone raised their hands and answered in unison. "Yeah!"

[hider=Where did my weekend go? I had better get the first part of this out now…]
Meet three selka brothers from the River Mouth tribe. From oldest to youngest, they are Toraph, Anboor, and Wass. Toraph is young but curious and innovative. Anboor is big and questions everything, even if the answers are obvious. Wass is quick and boisterous. Their tribe lives near to the mouth of the Kanjiang. The post is written in Toraph's perspective.

While out spear fishing in deep waters, the brothers are called back to shore by an uncle of theirs. A k'night has arrived in the village!

Turns out the k'night is none other than Gralph. Kirron's selka form and a big boi.

Kirron (Gralph) explains that he's got to help the tribe learn a few tricks for some business that'll start to happen upriver. Apparently, there is some strife up there, the kind that needs Yimbo.

Kirron proceeds to show the River Mouth tribe very basic farming, using fish scraps as fertilizer. He's scant on the details, leaving most of the selka confused and unsure, but clever Toraph speculates on what the benefits could be.

Kirron then has a long talk with the chief of the village about an unknown topic.

Then, after making a bunch of villager selka wait for something exciting, Kirron announces that there are k'nights coming a day behind him and he needs to recruit a few more for helping out upriver. It's an adventure, he claims, but he does not reveal its exact nature.

In order to become one of Gralph's knights – a K'night of Red Horizon – Kirron explains there'll be a test of courage and determination.

A bunch of people express interest, not least of which the eldest brother Wass.

End scene.

[i]This post is a little more rushed than usual, especially for establishing a new tribe and stuff. Expect more worldbuilding as we go.[/i]
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[hider=Might Summary]
[i]Before:[/i] Kirron - Blood, Strength - 15 MP - 8 FP

[b]-1 FP:[/b] Teaching the River Mouth selka basic subsistence farming. This knowledge should spread fairly quickly along the coast.
[b]-2 FP:[/b] Forming the K'nights of Red Horizon. A holy order of selka warriors and hunters.

[i]After:[/i] Kirron - Blood, Strength - 15 MP - 5 FP

[i]Don't worry, I won't be hoarding MP for too much longer. I have plans to spend it in this age so long as I get my posts done :P[/i]
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