Memory - Day Two of "A Land Without Borders" —Designated Area—
Description: Kino wakes up in a tent, having apparently stayed the night with a nomadic group that lives off livestock. It's a peaceful day and though one of the clan members tells Kino they can sleep longer if they'd like, Kino answers they're accustomed to getting up early anyway, and the woman seems to approve. After practicing their quick draw with their two guns as well as performing maintenance on them, Kino joins the clan members for breakfast. When Kino offers some of their portable rations for the people to try, the people all try a small bite before making a... less than pleased expression at the taste.
Afterwards, the men mount horses to shepherd the animals while the women clean up, mend clothes and tents, and look after children. All of the adults occasionally take a break to smoke from pipes.
Kino ends up talking to some children who are interested in Hermes, an "iron horse," and Hermes tells them his name only for the children to mispronounce it and call it strange. Some of the preteen kids have pipes of their own, and Kino inquires about them. According to the children, only adults can smoke the pipes because they work for the sake of everyone. Once they're recognized as adults, they'll get to smoke for the first time. In order to be recognized as men, the boys have to ride horses and order around the flocks, while the girls have to be able to do women's work like harvesting the grass to smoke and so on. Two of them have already been decided by adults to marry each other, and the girl scolds the boy for being uncool, as she wants her future husband to be someone who can ride horses well if she isn't allowed to. Kino suggests that when they get married, they simply switch jobs, and the girl seems excited by this idea.
After lunch Kino is invited to try horseback riding, starting slow but able to ride at a fairly high speed by the end of the day, the other adults watching their skill closely. After dinner, Kino returns to their tent only to be approached by a man who lives among the clan and yet doesn't look like them. Kino correctly guesses that he was previously a traveler and when he asks if they've decided on a country to stay in permanently, Kino says they'll be traveling for a long time. When Kino states that the man definitely wasn't born among these people, he retorts unenthusiastically before leaving, to Kino and Hermes' puzzlement.
Note: the original Japanese does not particularly gender Kino, and by default most people tend to assume Kino is male upon sight, so assume cases of "Miss" etc. are just some polite referral to Kino (one official translation uses Mx.) unless otherwise noted.
Day 412
Description: Kino wakes up in a tent, having apparently stayed the night with a nomadic group that lives off livestock. It's a peaceful day and though one of the clan members tells Kino they can sleep longer if they'd like, Kino answers they're accustomed to getting up early anyway, and the woman seems to approve. After practicing their quick draw with their two guns as well as performing maintenance on them, Kino joins the clan members for breakfast. When Kino offers some of their portable rations for the people to try, the people all try a small bite before making a... less than pleased expression at the taste.
Afterwards, the men mount horses to shepherd the animals while the women clean up, mend clothes and tents, and look after children. All of the adults occasionally take a break to smoke from pipes.
Kino ends up talking to some children who are interested in Hermes, an "iron horse," and Hermes tells them his name only for the children to mispronounce it and call it strange. Some of the preteen kids have pipes of their own, and Kino inquires about them. According to the children, only adults can smoke the pipes because they work for the sake of everyone. Once they're recognized as adults, they'll get to smoke for the first time. In order to be recognized as men, the boys have to ride horses and order around the flocks, while the girls have to be able to do women's work like harvesting the grass to smoke and so on. Two of them have already been decided by adults to marry each other, and the girl scolds the boy for being uncool, as she wants her future husband to be someone who can ride horses well if she isn't allowed to. Kino suggests that when they get married, they simply switch jobs, and the girl seems excited by this idea.
After lunch Kino is invited to try horseback riding, starting slow but able to ride at a fairly high speed by the end of the day, the other adults watching their skill closely. After dinner, Kino returns to their tent only to be approached by a man who lives among the clan and yet doesn't look like them. Kino correctly guesses that he was previously a traveler and when he asks if they've decided on a country to stay in permanently, Kino says they'll be traveling for a long time. When Kino states that the man definitely wasn't born among these people, he retorts unenthusiastically before leaving, to Kino and Hermes' puzzlement.
Note: the original Japanese does not particularly gender Kino, and by default most people tend to assume Kino is male upon sight, so assume cases of "Miss" etc. are just some polite referral to Kino (one official translation uses Mx.) unless otherwise noted.