20: Landing
T
he
fisherfolk, about their tasks along the estuary, were the first to see the rafts and dug-out boats, rolling towards them on the morning tide.
‘See, see!’ cried one, pointing, ‘they float as thick as seeds upon a pool! Let us tell Tula. He will know what to do.’
They ran to the hutment and told the grey-bearded elder who had looked after them, praying for their welfare to the Sea-Mother since they had lost Kraka, their Chief of the true blood.
But Tula did not know what to do, for such a thing as this had never happened before.
One of the young men said, ‘If they are strong, let us make friends with them, whoever they are: if they are weak, let us meet them in the water and kill them before they set foot on land.’
The older men looked hard at him, as though they did
