Monday, May 2, 2011

Jetta

In Travels to Fahdamin-Ra, Celestine and Joel are happy to meet Jetta, a beautiful young woman from the Harun tribe. Prince Kayin has left them while he searches for his father the king. They are standing uneasily on the steps of the temple, being stared at by a crowd of strangers when Jetta shows up, pushes through the crowd, and engages them in friendly conversation. Despite their four-year age difference, Jetta and Celestine strike up a friendship. Celestine admires the young woman because Jetta stands up for herself in a male dominated society, especially after it is revealed that Jetta was supposed to marry Kayin but refused him.

Before she refused the prince, Jetta became an apprentice Healer. In Harun, children are assessed for their strengths so when they reach the age of sixteen, they are assigned to a work area and learn that trade. One of the tasks Jetta was assigned to do was to collect items from the fields and jungle that Healers used to make medicines. That is how she met Tor, when he was out with his leopard. Jetta was afraid of being attacked by the big cat, so their first meeting ended in a lively argument about whether or not Jetta was going to be the leopard's lunch.

After that, it was easy to arrange meetings between the two. The Harun tribe disliked the Masamba because they consider the jungle tribe half-naked, barbaric meat-eaters. The Harun, as you know, are vegetarian and they put a lot of emphasis on their clothing. The Harun is also convinced that the Masamba kidnapped Harun people over the years, hence the need for royalty and important city administrators to travel around with a guard escort.

The Masamba dislike the Harun because the city tribe looks down on them and whenever Masamba hunters are caught crossing over Harun territory, they are beaten severely before being able to return to their tribe. They think that the Harun have kidnapped Masamba tribes people over the years and killed them off.

Jetta knew that the City Directorate planned to have her appear before them, offer another husband-to-be, (she refused another man after Kayin, who is one of the king's guards) and if she turned the third man down, they would send her to the Outsider Village. In Jetta's mind, it was not a problem. Tor would come for her and they would journey across the savannah like so many others, and have a life far away from the original tribes.

When the Creators appeared, it worked out even better for Jetta and Tor. They live at the stone circle and show their appreciation by acting as servants to the Creators and Valerie. The other tribes follow an age old custom of providing the Creator's servants at the stone circle with anything that they need. Jetta decided to teach her husband to plant, so they cleared an area of the jungle, so when the rainy season ends, they would be ready to plant crops.

It was hard to decide if Jetta and Tor would go across the savannah with Celestine and Joel, or in the third book, if they would sail with them up north. I decided that they are going to stay put for the time being. However, Jetta will always be around, and I may change my mind about her any minute, sending her on a wild adventure.

1 comment:

  1. It takes me back to when I was reading up about the ancient empire of Ghana in the 11th century. Jetta sounds like an impressive, strong-will character. Will there be a war between the Harun and Masamba tribe?

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