Re: Chapter 1: Greetings and Salutations
After about an hour, Flutterwing completes her ritual and douses the broken shards of the skull in the water. “[Language unknown: Andwhiher ceet mo ni ing],” she says to no one in particular.
About then, a group of Terrorclaw approach the village with baskets. (Mazoga [28f], her daughters Ragash [13f] and Ugor [11f], Bula [50f], Nughilug [52f], Oghash [53f], Garakh [49f], Sugorim [50m], Snakh [49m], and Dushnamub [49m].) In the baskets are vegetables and small game, brought down with traps. They exchange words with the others as they arrive and their faces grow grim. They go about their work storing their haul.
Shagar (28f) attends to the fire, righting the cooking pot and refilling it.
Olaghig attends to the dead. At his direction, large pyres are built down by the stream. The bodies are lain out upon them, but they remain unlit. He stands nearby with a sling, defending his tribesmen from the buzzards. After some time and reflection he returns to the village and collects the shards of the flameskull and constructs a pyre for it as well.
A few at a time, people visit the pyres and speak to them. The words are foreign, but their message universal. Mothers mourn their daughters. Daughters mourn their mothers. But the luxury of grief is one denied to the Terrorclaw. The tribe must continue, lest it starve.
Sugorim oversees the establishment of a large makeshift tent for the injured. He doesn't seem exceptionally skilled in Medicine, but he makes the unconscious people as comfortable as possible. Borgakha gets particularly special attention.
The villagers largely ignore the party. No one can speak to them and it doesn't seem that they know what to say anyway.