After the explorers came to their village, with their shiny trinkets and unknown illnesses, the elders of the village met to decide what to do next.
They had known there was a wider world, of course. They traded with their neighbors in the dry season, who traded with their neighbors, and so on. News always filtered back eventually.
But these strangers, with their swaggering condescension and peeling sunburns, were not to be trusted.
The elders gathered the village’s best hunters and trackers. They asked them to follow the explorers’ trail back to their so-called ‘civilization,’ and see it for themselves.

“Honolua Jungle” by mikebelgard@sbcglobal.net is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles © 2025 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.