to them—leaves, fruits, and seeds are common, while roots and tubers are rare Meats from common tree animals such as the black squirrel and branch lizard supplement their diets, though they avoid eating any birds Penmai enjoy dining, and family cooks and professional chefs are prized members of society Penman recipes indulge in a variety of spices, as well, so their common fare is highly spicy and can be inedibly hot by some human standards Penmai drink water warm and cold, flavored or unflavored by fruits or spices They also concoct a bewildering variety of wines from high-hanging grapes and fruits The not brew beers and ales themselves, since they have limited access to the grains necessary, but Penmai Language The penmai language, Penaian, is a mixture of vocal sounds and hand-finger (and sometimes even foottoe) signing, making it particularly difficult for outsiders to understand or master As a general rule, hand-finger signs convey physical concepts such as direction, size, and indication of a sentence’s focus, and so on Verbal language most often conveys any psychological or emotional contents • For instance, a penma saying “I put the cup over there” would be conveyed almost entirely through hand-finger signing, • The sentence “I remember what it was that upset me” would be almost entirely spoken • Most sentences and statements use an artful combination of both voice and signing • To completely silence a penma, one must gag and tie his hands; if either mode is left free, he can still gets his point across, however awkwardly Non-penmai who wish to learn and emulate their speech must prepare for long study Their verbal tongue uses all the common vowels and consonants, but also includes a collection of whistles and tongue clicks that bear their own meaning or alter those of other words and signs around them Natural Penmai tone is high pitched, so hearing their language in lowerpitched voices can sometimes be hard for Penmai to understand As for the signing component, their long fingers and additional knuckle give them nuance that lesser-digited creatures can never come close to mimicking At best, a non-penma might be able to master hand-signing at the level Penmai expect of their toddlers They often call humans who speak their language flotkwoi, or “stumble fingered.” 66 import human and Pachyaur brews, paying premium prices for them Penman Village Migrations Penmai villages are always slowly on the move While it is possible to pin down a particular village to a specific forest, exactly where it will be in that forest from week to week changes Huts and dwellings are always being taken down and reassembled on the far side of a village, and rhallor (see below) are untied and maneuvered similarly The whole community shifts slowly but surely away from where it was and towards where it is going On any given day, at least two dwellings or huts or locations are under simultaneous disassembly and reassembly Huts and all penman architecture are made from interwoven layers of plant fronds, vines, leaves, and living branches onto which Penmai anchor a temporary dwelling The most common type is one simple domed room with a chimney hole on top and an access door in the floor Some larger buildings have been constructed, though they tend to have larger central chambers with supplemental smaller chambers used for storage slung below the main in hammock-like structures The most surprising constructs of the Penmai are their water-collection stations, of which they always have at least three for each village Whenever they can, Penmai water-collectors adjust and change leaf positions or shift vegetation clusters among the canopy to allow any rain or precious morning dew to follow a downward path and collect in a small chamber for easier use For the most part, village movement is never planned, but serves as a defensive advantage (enemies cannot attack the village so easily if it has changed location) and urban renewal, since most structures are torn down and remade every few weeks (though often using the same materials and built in largely the same manner each was before) The move is a community effort from which no Penmai are exempt, though only a small fraction of the citizenry is actively involved at any one time Why this activity of keeping a village mobile started is unknown, though some speculate it has much to with the health and stability of the trees or other substructures on which the village rests Others hint that the Dragon Kings who aided the Penmai in the Classic Age may have set up this pattern with them, again for reasons unknown It is possible for one migrating village to intersect with another and for a time even occupy essentially the same space On the rare occasions when this happens, the citizens retain a completely distinct identity for each community until such time as they finally wander away