![]() ![]() The children communicate with each other by touching their sensory tentacles together. Lilith gets the impression that they would have enjoyed dissecting her. ![]() Its friends, who are all children, poke and prod Lilith and ask her through Nikanj if she can take off her clothes. Nikanj asks Lilith if it can show her to other Oankali who have never seen a human before. Lilith realizes that the walls change according to chemical stimuli that the Oankali manufacture in their bodies. Nikanj takes Lilith's hand and secrets a liquid on her fingers that allows her to open the wall. Lilith requests that it show her how to open the wall. Kahguyaht suggests that they teach each other-Lilith can teach Nikanj English and about humans Nikanj can teach Lilith about the Oankali. Kahguyaht brings Lilith back to Jdhaya's home and puts her in the care of Nikanj, the ooloi child. Kahguyaht tells Lilith that they have been around for millennia and they have never harmed another being. Lilith accuses Kahguyaht of harming other species by genetically altering them as is the Oankali custom. The Oankali genetically engineered it so that it suited their purposes. Kahguyaht informs Lilith that they found this plant in the wild where it used to capture prey and give them a slow death. Kahguyaht does not answer, but Lilith knows that she has. Lilith asks Kahguyaht if she had been in one of these plants for the 250 years that she had been asleep. When she tries to pull them back out, they hurt sharply. Lilith touches the plant once it is closed and notices that her fingers sink into it. ![]() Kahguyaht closes the plant around Sharad and convinces Lilith that he will not be harmed by it. Kahguyaht tells Lilith that Sharad and his family will not be Awakened for a long time-the man who will be tasked with leading them back to Earth has not begun his training yet. The plant opens and Sharad's head emerges he is deep in sleep. Kahguyaht tells Lilith that it is a plant and Lilith deduces that Sharad is sleeping in there. Kahguyaht traces one of its arms on the wall in front of them and a green oblong shape emerges from the wall. Finally, Kahguyaht and Lilith emerge in a corridor that is empty. Finally, she has no choice but to hold onto one of Kahguyaht's sensory arms in order not to lose it. Lilith pulls free from Kahguyaht's grasp but quickly gets lost in the mass of Oankali bodies. It tells Lilith that she will get answers "as you need them" (50). Lilith asks Kahguyaht what those arms do and again Kahguyaht responds with silence. Instead, it grabs her arm with one of its sensory arms. Lilith asks what the vehicles are carrying but Kahguyaht does not answer her. Lilith sees that they are driving vehicles that seem to float an inch off the ground. Finally, they emerge in a large corridor where many Oankali are going about their lives. It touches walls with one of its sensory tentacles and those walls open to several different corridors. It tells Lilith that she has not yet learned not to ask dangerous questions. Lilith asks what foods in particular would poison these individuals and Kahguyaht asks why she wants to know. Kahguyaht responds that the elderly, children, and injured people can still be poisoned. Lilith wonders aloud if that means that all Oankali are impervious to being poisoned. Lilith asks how the Oankali learned to eat human food and Kahguyaht responds that they learned by studying humans for whom it was not poisonous. However, Lilith has not fully adjusted to Oankali foods and has to be careful about the foods she eats around the ship. ![]() Lilith asks why the Oankali can eat human food and Kahguyaht tells her that they have adjusted to the foods of Earth. Lilith also notices that even though Jdhaya claims that Oankali are not hierarchical, he and the rest of his family seem to defer to Kahguyaht. Lilith is put off by Kahguyaht's demeanor and thinks of it as "one of the creatures scheduled to bring about the destruction of what was left of humanity" (46). Kahguyaht explains to Lilith that her body has drifted away from Earth's 24-hour day. She asks Jdhaya how long he was in her room. Jdhaya's family eats with Lilith and she realizes that she had not seen Jdhaya eat anything until that moment. (Remember that Oankali relationships traditionally occur between three individuals: one male, one female, and one ooloi). Lilith meets the other members of Jdhaya's family: Tediin, Jdhaya's wife Kahguyaht, Jdhaya and Tediin's ooloi mate and Nikanj, the family's ooloi child. Jdhaya's family gives Lilith a feast of human food, which fills Lilith with "pleasure so sharp and sweet" (45). The second section of Dawn, "Family," opens once Lilith has arrived at Jdhaya's home. ![]()
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