Kal the Chief 1

Kal walked behind his father, digging a narrow hole with a pointed stick to drop the seeds into as, his father ran the team of dogs pulling the plow that was digging a channel through the field that until recently had been nothing but scrub kiawe bushes. they had been outside since before dawn with the other workers expanding the fields of the chief. Kal's father Darin was a large man, at least 6ft with arms the size of young coconuts, skin tanned by a life lived mostly outdoors, a large mane of unruly black hair held back from his brown by a piece of leather, his bare chest rippled with muscles that come only with a limited amount of food and an exorbitant amount of hard labor, his arms and legs strained against the team of mammoth dogs harnessed to the plow, the large animals each weighing in at at least 400lbs belonged to the Chief and were used as farm animals but also as war dogs there big slobbering blunt faces were lined with enormous teeth and jaws the could snap a man in half, they had a pale rust colored fur that was very short to there body except where the straps from there harness had worn it down to toughened skin. Kal himself was 12 years old, skinny and tan but with long light brown hair he had inherited from his mother, the boy walked behind his father wearing a short pair of brown cloth pants, his bare feet making tracks in the muddy ground.1

"father, why do we have to plant new fields? aren't the old ones enough for our villages?" asked the boy. "son we plant more because when we have more we can store it, and when there are dry times or the gods do not give us crops then we will have enough to live and enough to plant" answered the older man as he stopped at the end of the row to take a drink of water from the skin attached to his belt. "but father, if there are dry times wont the Kilo just come down from there hill and take our food? wont they kill us for it?", "thats why we have our chief son, him and his warriors will protect all of the Ewa from the Kilo, now no more questions we need to finish this field before nightfall."2

latter that night the boy and his father went home to there hut on the edge of the large stone fort that the chief lived in, the boys mother Sara came out to greet them "welcome home boys it is good to see you uninjured" said the tall thin woman her blue eyes sparkling the color, so rarely seen in all of Whye, had breed true through all the generations of her family, as well as the light hair that she shared with Kal. people say that it was more common back before when all the 9 islands were one people, they said that many pale people came from across the sea with blue eyes and hair like straw, now almost everyone had a medium tan, black hair, and dark brown eyes. "dinner is ready and on the table" said Sara as she walked into the small one room building, inside there was a fire place to one side, a table in the middle with three stools and two straw palettes against the wall, a large one for Darin and Sara, and a small one for Kal. on the table was a wooden bowl with rice and corn in it and a mango next to each of the three plates. Hardly a word was said as the familly ate there meager meal, they didnt normallly talk very much, Darin was a quiet man, who prefered it if his familly was the same, Sara and Kal were fine with this, there lives were very simple, nothing ever changed, so what was there to talk about? "Kal get to bed after dinner, we wil be planting the far west fields tomorrow and will have to start much before dawn to get there on time" said darin as he stood up and placed his plate in the center of the table for washing. "yes sir, said the boy as he did the same and went to his palette.3

Kal dreamed he was the Chief of the Ewa, he sat in the tower in the middle of the fort made of white stone and people listened to him, he had a sword made of steel forged by the mormons who ruled the east side and still new the secrets of metal that everyone else had lost, two great war dogs sat at his feet and the great hall was filled with grand lords and chiefs from all over Wahou, from all over Whye!...but sadly it was only a dream and dreams end all to easily....