Tern followed the old man to a field of taso, the tall feathered grasses swaying in the slight evening breeze that had sprung up. “Is that what the red comes from?” Tern asked, “from taso?”
“Not in that shape,” the old man told him, “here, come.” He plucked one of the stalks and ran the tips of his his knobbed fingers gently up it. Then he showed his fingertips to Tern --- they were tinted a bright crimson. He presented the stalk to Tern, who examined it and found that it was covered with something that looked dark and velvety.
“What is it?” Tern asked, stroking it with a tentative finger: it came away stained.
“They are alive,” San whispered, “little tiny lives that cover the stalks of grass. Red comes from them---for red is life. Have you ever heard the shape of red entering the thought of the One?”
Tern shook his head.
“It will be heard at dinner,” San said, “Come.”
Seeing five spears with handles bound in dyed and woven strips hanging on the walls, Tern gasped and slapped each shoulder to ward off evil. San looked at him in surprise, then followed his gaze and chuckled. "You need fear no harm from these, boy," he told him, "These spears belonged to my sons." San touched them reverently. "Five boys marched away, no boys came back," he sighed, "They were users, all of them. Skilled and strong, in shape of my father, clever in shape of their mother. But even users fall to swords, and my sons were no exception." He cast a keen, penetrating eye at Nain, who was sitting on the mat, every line of his body bespeaking exhaustion from the using. "But perhaps not without asking from a comrade in arms, hm? Perhaps not without forcing a promise that an old father would not be left alone?"
Tern's father hastily denied the accusation. "No, no, San, they forced no such promise. I would not be here today if not for that you have the best red of all the marshes. All know it, even in the kingdom."
San sucked his teeth, cackling. "Ah, he admits it! This is indeed a momentous occasion, worthy of a fine story! Set yourselves down as I fill the bowls, and I will tell you of the shape of red."
Tern and Nain accepted the bowls of stewed meat and San sat across from them and began the story.
"Stone was the first thought of the One. Static and strong, the simplest of all things. The second thought was water, with its change and movement, but ultimate simplicity. Then came the thought of growth, and reeds covered the earth.
"For a long time the thought of growth occupied the mind of the One and he was content. Then one day as he walked the earth he broke a reed, and the syrup of growth came from it. He touched it and came from him a new thought. His fingers were touched with the new thought and he laid it on the reeds and it spread. This new thought was red.
“Red quickened the mind of the One and he began to think of movement, of life. Small creatures began to fill the earth, and then larger ones, filled with red. The One occupied himself for a great time with this newest thought, and then his final thought came to him.
“The One thought of others like to the fifth thought, but like unto him in that they could think. And so became man and women, crafted out of red.”
