Land of Brown-Haired People

 South of here lies a land of brown-haired people.  A jovial lot, quick to grin, their tribal name is Lakehart.

Bloodlines run deeply and chieftains are clearly established but their tent doors remain open.  Wanders, orphans, rebels and mavericks (WORMs) are fed thrice without question.  Probing begins but only if nomads want to stay.

To stay is to confess.  Loneliness, bandits, hunger and fear are difficult to mention.  Chieftains know because some of them were chased south and fed thrice.  The6 asked to stay but to stay is to confess.  Revealing the sources of wandering is unnatural.  We wander partially to escape and avoid obligation.  Questions quicken our feet; staying with Lakehart requires a tell.

Tightlipped wanderers come and go but to stay is to endure questions.  A hospitable peope ensures there is always enough room by regularly sending people better than they found them.  Meat, vegetables and starch precede sweets: three a day, one over three days or three broken fasts.  They are sent with hospitality and a sincere smile but they are sent.

To stay is to endure a gauntlet.  With smiles and tenderness, Lakehart brings newcomers, who want to stay, to a tent.  Though empty, the brown-haired tribe believes the tent is full.  Chieftains, cooks and soldiers gather and remember the things that made them want to stay.  Lies, death, regret and grief are fangs in teh mouth of a beast oft remembered.  Tribe members come from different place but describe the same fiend in hushed tones.  Their ollective memories, when gathered at the tent, foment the beast's odor: vomit, fear and loneliness.  Without words the tribe shares in wordless pain.  Newcomers smell the scent of a predator.

The odor reminded the orphan why she wanted to stay.  Before she saw what would chase her south, she smelled its aged, syrupy funk.

Notes:

To stay is to endure.  A hospitable people ensures there is always room.  To made room, some are regularly sent on their way.  The are sent wit hospitality and a sincere smile, but they are sent.  To stat is to endure a gauntlet.  With smiles and tenderness, Lakehart brings WORMs who want to stay, to a tent.  Though empty, Lakehart believes the tent is full; filled with the Spirit of the Lord.

Lakehart believes the tent is full but they don't tell WORMs to believe.  With full bellies and genuine smiles, those wishing to stay are brought by Lakehart to the first step of an endurance test.  Benjamin endured the tent and tests.

For three days he was taken into the wilderness for the second of three tests.  For WORMs to be taken, there's no place else they can or want to go.   To symbolize the wilderness trek, an ear is pierced by Savannah.  She thins the WORM ranks when they see the awl she hammers through the ears of WORMs who decide to stay.  Exits include mumbling about being too tribal but the ears are pierced for protection.

Taking the uninitiated into the wilderness is risky.  After the bleeding stops, with smiling faces, brown heads take and begin teaching WORMS.

Dave Meldrum as a chieftain

Chad the trainer as a centurion

Keva as a awl wielding selector of WORMs