Theme 1 - Introduction

Bato hated being placed among the tribe’s children during the days that his father was away. He was a quiet little six-year-old and didn’t feel like he belonged around the rambunctious herd of children. His mother died nearly years ago after suffering for weeks due to some unknown illness that the village doctors couldn’t treat. Since the incident, he chose to close himself off and remain completely silent, having not uttered a word in that long period of time. His father, Massak, had been left no choice but to ask the village elders if there was anyone who could watch his son when he was to go on hunting expeditions in order to support himself and his boy. An older couple agreed to take Bato under their care when his father wasn’t around. He respected the couple for taking care of him, but he refused to talk to anyone, despite their efforts. And when he was rounded up with the other children to learn and play, he chose to sit on a snow bank and stare out over the icy plains and over the sparkling sea. Early on, some of the children had tried to get him to play, but he pointedly ignored them and they quickly gave up, leaving him isolated within the pack.

So here he was: six years old and desperately wanting to be somewhere other than this snowy village. He wasn’t sure where he would go if he left- the Earth Kingdom probably- but so long as it was away from here, the place where his mother no longer was, he didn’t care. Thoughts of his mother drifted through his head, and each day, try as he might to stop it, he felt her memory slipping away from him. It was enough to make him want to cry, and he would have had someone not plopped down beside him.

“Hey there!” The boy exclaimed happily. “I’m Hakoda. What’s your name?”

He willed away the sadness and gave the other boy a blank stare before returning his gaze to the sea.

“So what’cha looking for?” The intruder of his personal space asked, peering at him with big curious eyes. Bato had seen the boy before, playing with the other children; he seemed to be a natural leader despite his goofy nature. “Are you looking for turtle-seals? I’m going to go hunting for them with my dad next year!”

Bato’s eyes stared at them boy as though he were crazy when the kid suddenly jumped up, flailing his arms.

“And I’m gonna be all RAAAAARGH! WhenI see one and jump on it’s like SWOOSH and it’s gonna be all ARRRARRRARRRR and then I’ll take my club and THWACKAPOW! It’ll be dead!” The animated boy had been moving his arms in an illustrating manner while talking and ended his summary of how the hunt would go by dramatically falling over “dead”. He quickly sat up again, grinning at Bato who stared at him as though he were a madman. This was certainly the most creative attempt anyone had made at starting a conversation with him and he felt a smile beginning to tug at the corner of his lips.

Hakoda noticed this and jumped up again, running to grab a stick from a crude snowman; the defenseless snowman was now missing an arm, but that didn’t seem to bother him as he spun it around. “Or maybe I’ll take a spear and kill it Hakoda-style!” He twirled around with stick, trying to show off his “skills”, but quickly slipped on a patch of ice and fell flat on his butt. The stick flew out of his grasp when he slipped and, obeying gravity, bonked the embarrassed boy on the noggin as it fell back down to earth.

After watching the completely absurd scene unfold before him, Bato finally cracked a smile and chuckled at his fallen companion. It was such an odd sound to his own ears.

“You think that’s funny?” Hakoda tried to pretend being offended, but the wide grin on his face gave him away. He stood up and walked back over to Bato, his eyes twinkling with joy. “Now that I made you laugh, you wanna tell me your name?”

Bato gave him a quizzical look and the boy stuck his tongue out teasingly.

“We can’t be best friends if I don’t know your name, silly.”

Best friends? When had that been established? He pondered. Hakoda, having seemingly read his mind, laughed.

“You look like you need a friend, so I’m going to take that spot! And we’re going to be the two most awesome warriors in the tribe! We’ll be SUPER BEST FRIENDS!”

For some unexplainable reason, Bato felt he could trust Hakoda on that and opened his mouth to speak. His voice came out soft and with a light rasp from disuse, “I’m Bato.”