There did not seem to be a mark on her, but she was just the same very dead as were the rest of them. Tolak glanced up and I noted the worry etched deeply into his face. In an emotionally gruff voice he showed his respect for me by asking my opinion, "Do you think it was poison? I see no marks upon them."
Glancing to the sea that continued to crash waves ashore I shook my head, "If it were poison there would be other sea creatures as well, but there are not."
Tolak and several others nodded in apparent agreement. I kneeled down beside the girl and not even wanting to touch her for fear the loss of such a young life would become even more real to me, I made myself do it anyway.
Going on a hunch I combed the girl's hair away from her ear and as I'd suspected there was the blood I thought I might find. Pressing my hand to my mouth to cut off a sob I felt Tolak kneel down beside me.
Glancing to him I gestured to the girl's ear and said, "Those muffled noises you heard several hours back that sounded like thunder, but had no storm clouds?"
He nodded grimly and I continued, "They must have been explosive devices that the uplanders dropped into the water. Such an explosion underwater would carry a shockwave with it. The shockwave must have blown the eardrums and perhaps even ruptured the brains of all the Sea People in the immediate area."
Tolak looked steadily down at the girl laying still upon the sand as I began to mourn the loss of what likely must've been entire communities. The proof of that came ashore with each new wave which brought more and more bodies with it.
Through my tears I glanced at Tolak and whispering I asked him brokenly, "Do you hate me?"
Turning shocked eyes to me he exclaimed, "Why hate you for this?"
"Because this and maybe even the extinction of your own people is coming at the hands of the people I come from up above!" I wailed out.
Half turning to me he grasped my shoulders and shook me slightly as his eyes bored into mine, "You not responsible for this! People above, people below, it makes no difference, some good some bad. There are islands not far from here were my own people eat each other without any help from those above. Evil is here just as above and those of us who know good and are of the Creator's light must not blame ourselves for what others do. We stand by our actions and your actions are good. You a good woman!"