Since Siaovo was brought into the Federation by Captain Kirk they and their cousins the Eeiauoans have become close associates. Children with a technological bent on Siaovo are sent to Eeiauo, children who wish to follow the old ways who are from Eeiauo are sent to Siaovo.
Having had Starflight for over three thousand years, the Siaovans as a whole don't have a lot of use for the Federation, but they welcome visitors from within and have the necessary ambassadors and attend the necessary meetings. After all, the children of Siaovo occassionally do join their Eeiauoan cousins in the stars.
The Siaovans have a ritual practice that when children are of age they take a "Walk". This right of passage involves going through the darkest, deepest jungles of Siaovo with naught but a knife, a spear and several usefuls [Waterproof blankets] and making it alive to the next camp [tent village]. The trick is all of the party who leave have to make it alive. There's a fine balancing act between taking enough to survive and taking too many to keep alive.
Not all Siaovan youths make it through the ritual the first time. It's about a fourty percent success rate the first time. The second time a youth "walks" it's almost a ninety percent success rate. Few children walk a third time. Most children, if they have failed twice, tend to have the stigma of being unlucky or incompetant or just not suited to being an adult.
Shadow was born Blackfur to Sretalles in a litter of four. She had a typical Siaovan childhood, learning to hunt along side astrophysics. Shadow's only real talents as a child was her meticulously organized mind and her bardic talents, showing great promise.
She was a fairly happy go lucky child, she had no real close friends but plenty of play mates. By the standards of her people she wansn't a particularly good hunter but it was long accepted she would become the camp's next bard when she passed her adulthood rights and as a bard didn't need to know how to hunt well.
She failed her first Walk when one of the party's members drowned in a flash flood. She failed her second walk when three of the seven of her party were killed by Slashbacks. She managed a third Walk, even though she was now called Shadow, a quiet and shy girl, and this too failed when Grabfoots maimed one of the party, causing them later to die of infection; They'd no healer along. There would be no fourth Walk. She was to be a child for her entire life with no responsibility, no knowledge of the secrets of society, never to be allowed to keep any children she herself bore, never to join the adult fire.
Shadow changed camps several times before she found herself keeping company with a young warrior who had just finished his Walk. A litter of three was born seven months later. The warrior took the children when he moved on to his next camp; Shadow being forbiddon to raise children as she was considered a child herself.
Many of the 'forever young' take the 'other Walk'. They commit suicide, unable to live with the stigma of being a child all their natural lives. Shadow was giving the other Walk serious consideration when an Eeiaioan counsin managed to draw out of her her story. The Eeiaioan told her stories of the Federation where you were considered an adult by age, not deed. Where everyone was accepted and treated equally. The Eeiaioan spun many fairy tales from Shadow's point of view, but what did she have to lose? She walked onto the starship two days later and turned her back on Siaovo.
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