Earth Thirst (The Arcadian Conflict) - By Mark Teppo Page 0,54
the airport, is Rano Kau,” I say, pointing off into the darkness. “The island was formed by three volcanoes, which extruded over a relative short span of time—geologically speaking. Rano Kau was one of the last ones to form, and the rim of the crater makes for a good wind break. It makes for a good micro-climate: warmed by geothermals, a couple of rain basins that are large enough to call lakes, and a rich soil.”
“Sort of like Ka-Zar's Savage Land.”
“Whose?”
“Ka-Zar. He's a—never mind. Yes, I read comics as a kid. I was that girl.”
“And look at you now. All grown up.”
“Mostly.” She looks at me over her shoulder, and I can see her face quite well in the ambient light. There is an impish curl on her lips. She leans back slightly, bumping her shoulder against me.
I don't know how I'm supposed to react. She's been sending me a variety of signals, and I've been wrestling with my own… what? To call it a long-standing fascination is to dissemble. To downplay what I've been feeling.
“There's a break in the rim of the crater,” I say, ignoring the signals I may or may not be getting. “You can look out over the ocean there; it became a place where the natives performed religious ceremonies. Over time, they built a village.”
“So there was a cult here,” she says.
“Not a Cargo Cult. This was earlier, and it wasn't reliant upon manna dropping from Heaven as part of the ritual celebrations. It was called tangata manu. A bird cult.”
“Didn't the Cargo Cults worship birds too—as in the giant planes that dropped supplies?”
“This was a different sort of bird cult.”
“Did they worship chickens or something?”
“Terns, actually.”
“Isn't that the local equivalent?” I can tell she's playing with me, and I find it both intriguing and distracting.
“The tangata manu rite was a manhood ritual,” I say, keeping on topic. “Every year, hardy warriors from the tribes would gather at Orongo and they would race to see who could get to a tiny atoll that lies offshore. They would dive and swim to this rock and try to be the first one to collect an egg from one of the terns that nested there. They're not chickens, but they might as well be, as ubiquitous as they are. Though, by some quirk, they only nest on Motu Nui—the atoll—and not on the main island.”
“A quirk, eh?”
“Well, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the island shamans banded together and wiped them out on the island. After a generation or two, the terns probably got the hint and stayed away.”
“Smart birds.”
“The guy who finds an egg first gets to stay on the rock as long as he likes—meditating, praying, whatever it is they think they're supposed to do—and then he comes back to the Orongo and gives the egg to his patron, who becomes the tangata manu for the next season.”
“The bird man,” she nods. “Does he get to wear a funny hat?”
“Of course. It's not a cult if it doesn't involve a funny hat.”
“Okay,” she laughs. “So what does this have to do with why we're here?”
“The tangata manu got to help tend the trees that grew in the crater. For that year, they were apprenticed to the steward of the garden. What they learned about tending the trees and the soil was knowledge they got to take back to their tribe. Remember how I said that the dirt here is different? Cultivating it was an ancient secret that was critical to any tribes' success in the growing season. The tangata manu's tribe would be assured of having a good harvest the year after their champion won.”
“They grew the trees everywhere else,” Mere says.
I nod. “But they're all gone now, which means—” I pause as bits of memory fall into place in my head. White wings. Waves. Torchlight. An arc of carved stone. Figures of birdmen.
“The steward left,” Mere finishes for me. “Is that why the island died?”
“I don't remember,” I say.
* * *
I should go alone, but Mere pretends not to hear me when I suggest the idea. It's not far to the crater—a couple of kilometers—but we have to go around the airport. It'd be easy enough to rent a bicycle from the hotel, but doing so at this time of night is just going to draw attention to us. We keep it simple instead, and as soon as we walk a block from the hotel, I pick her up and start jogging.