15 March, 2021

The child was little. Obviously he was lost. It was impossible to understand his gender because he was all covered in his tribal attributes. The child was first spotted near the hut on the border between woods and a village. Nobody dared to approach him as if he was some sort of a ghost. Considering no-one has seen anybody from the tribe before due to tribe’s secrecy everybody assumed that making contact with them was taboo. Also on the grounds that child was quite young it was expected for his relatives to show up and help him out immediately. Although the opposite was happening. The village wanted for this predicament to be sorted out as soon as possible, it was hard to wait and do nothing, they were becoming more and more alarmed. Surprisingly, time passed, child stayed in a hut at night and in the woods during the day, but nothing changed, he was still there, present, alone. Maybe it’s temporary, maybe it was provoked by all those changes and chaos of what is happening on the First Planet, – people thought. The balance will settle, let’s wait and see. Yet in the meantime the child stayed in a shadow, the village stayed in a shadow so did the ancient tribe. And the child had all the sympathy of the village. 6 months after he was first spotted in the woods there was little doubt left that the tribe will change their minds about him and will come to get him. Over the course of those months they remained indifferent and absent. It was so unique and beyond comprehension. At that point villagers started digging for truth about this venerable population that was said to have existed in almost complete isolation throughout the history. What came out mainly was all vague and inconclusive folklore without much scientific value. In the most romantic version of it the tribe was perceived as masters of an alternative living that by contrast to modern societies of Planet 1 represented something fundamentally simple. However, although they were described as those who keep their customs and follow traditions vigorously apparently the tribe were also concerned about not becoming dogmatic. Other than that and a few assumptions that members of the tribe were uncomplicated and extremely shy nobody in the village had anything more to say on that subject. The only legitimate evidence was certain working protocol of communication between the tribe and a host. It consisted of expectations and obligations and was written by the host. Expectation was that the tribe will be always the first to initiate communication. Obligation was that contact was allowed only in the form of mute signs through a distance. Despite all that, this wasn’t helping at all to sort out the child so during their research and endless debates villagers agreed to a plan. They will try helping discreetly so not to contaminate the child with their presence. Nonetheless if it is not entirely possible they will still provide him food and clothes. Village understood well that there is great risk in offering something to the child. Although the fear that these acts of kindness could possibly sever child’s ties with his tribe was overcome by strong sense of duty. There was this feeling that they owe him something. Something that was difficult to put into words.