Amara looked back at the cave mouth that she had begun to call home.  They were leaving, and she was not likely to come this way again.  In the vast empty continent she had found herself in, she was traveling farther away from her past life.  Even if she could have tried to find the cave that brought her into this world, she knew she would never find it.  She was leaving that all behind.  She looked forward at the group getting ready to leave.  The sky was still gray, and though it had stopped raining, it was humid, and she felt wet all over.  She looked over her shoulder once more at the opening of the small cave.  It gaped emptily at her.  Then she walked towards her friends, and put her heavy pack on.

She stumbled under the weight for a moment while Panec looked on worriedly.  "It is fine Panec," she said as she balanced herself with the added weight.

"You sure?" he added.

"Yes, I am fine.  Well, let's go if we are going to go."  She looked at Callie who was fuming.  She had insisted that they stay to wait out the rain.  But Radec had continually argued back saying that it had stopped raining, and they had lost enough time stopped at this cave.  He wanted to get moving, to get them somewhere hospitable before winter set in.

As the group started off a wolf howled in the distance.  Amara fell in behind the lead, next Latie.  Panec walked by her other side for a while.  After she assured him several times that she was fine, he headed up next to Healie to make sure she was all right.



Callie looked sourly at Radec; despite her protests, he had insisted on getting started today.  And now it was raining, hard, for the third time.  Each time by the time she had decided to insist on making camp, it had mysteriously stopped raining.  The soggy band trudged on through the rain in silence.  Amara threw a glance to Latie who was walking at her side.  Latie genuinely tried to smile back, but the weariness was apparent on her face.  "I don't know why he insisted on leaving," she whispered to Amara, "especially when Callie said that we should stay.  What I wouldn't give for the comfort of a cave right now."  She wiped the droplets of water that ran down her forehead from her dripping hair.

Amara nodded agreement and sighed.  Radec had stopped up ahead and was looking around.  Callie had taken off her pack and was helping Healie remove hers.  Then the two women sat down.  Radec pulled a hide from his pack and held it over Callie and Healie.  Amara again looked at Latie.  Was Radec stopping?

"Radec, we might as well make camp here, now.  The rain is not going to let up today.  Everyone is tired and wet.  It won't matter if we stop now anyway, we haven't come that far from the cave anyway," Panec said glancing worriedly at Healie and Callie, then to Amara.  As Amara approached he helped her remove her pack, and then held her tightly to him.  "How are you doing, Amara?" he asked softly.

"Oh, I am all right, as well as anyone could be.  Are we stopping?  For the night?" she asked hopefully.

Radec looked at Amara, shivering in Panec's arms, and then at Callie, shivering next to Healie under the hide.  How could he have been so foolish to insist on leaving today?  Whatever had gotten in his mind?  He looked sheepishly and genuinely sorry to Callie.  "Yes, we're stopping.  I made a bad decision.  I should have known better, especially with Callie being blessed, and Amara, and well...it is just plain rotten out here.  I am sorry," he said to everyone, and no one in particular.  "Latie, Amara, stay here under the hide, try to keep warm.  Panec, Danug, let's get the tents set up, as quickly as we can."

Danug nodded and Panec steered Amara to the hide.  The four women crouched under it and huddled together.  Callie sniffed, "Finally gave in.  Sometimes I wonder about him, at least he had the sense to apologize."  She looked pointed to Amara, "How are you holding up?" 

Amara, though an avid outdoorswoman in her previous life, was not fully up to speed with the rest of her companions.  She was weary and her feet hurt immensely.  But she had kept quiet.  She didn't want to be a burden.  As luck would have it though, the rain had slowed the pace of the entire group, so Amara had kept up for the most part.

She looked to Callie and Healie, "I am tired, but so is everyone."

The three women nodded.  There was no use complaining; they were stopped now.  They sat in silence waiting for the men to set up the tents.

Soon after Radec approached.  "Callie, come on love.  Let's go get out of the rain, get warm and dry.  I am so sorry," he said as he held her close as they walked towards their tent.  Healie followed behind and entered her own tent that Radec had set up for her.  Danug and Latie shared another tent, and Panec led Amara away to the tent they were sharing.

"I think it would be best if we take off the wet clothes outside.  Then we can change into dry in the tent.  Without dragging in the wet all over the furs," Panec said as he quickly started to remove his clothes.

Amara nodded as she striped quickly.  The walking had kept her warm, and the cool air on her skin felt refreshing, but she knew better than to stand around in the rain.  She quickly entered the tent, and Panec was right behind her.

He smiled warmly to her as they sat down on the furs.  She smiled back with a twinkle in her eyes.  She was glad they had their own private tent, away from the others.

Callie had quickly changed her clothes and was sitting in the tent she shared with Radec and frowned at him.

"Why did you insist on leaving today Radec, I just don't understand.  Especially with Amara being new at this.  And Healie, you know she is older and can't take so much, as you or I might.  Why?"

Radec put his arm around his mate.  "I don't know.  I thought, well we were all so eager to leave the other day.  And when we left it looked like the rain was letting up.  But I am most worried about you.  I am sorry.  I shouldn't have made you walk out in the rain like this.  You could easily get sick.  Anyone could...I just..." he interrupted himself with a sneeze.

Callie looked at him pointedly.  "Hmphh.  Well sick is what you got.  You will listen to me next time, be sure of that."

Radec nodded solemnly.  It was not often that he was solemn, but he genuinely felt bad for the unnecessarily suffering and discomfort he had caused to his friends and family.  He laid back on his furs and pulled Callie close to him.  They listened to the rain falling steadily on the tent.

 

 

Later that afternoon the rain let up, and the clouds thinned.  Healie and Callie started a fire and made hot tea for everyone.  As the group sat on fallen logs around the fire, they sipped the steaming liquid.  Soon after Healie passed around mugs of stew as well.  The group was subdued and quiet.  No one felt much like talking.  Amara leaned against Panec, and likewise Callie leaned on Radec.  Healie and Latie huddled together and talked quietly over the skin of stew.  And Danug sat pondering the distance.  He looked at Amara.  She seemed so…comfortable, now, so at home with them.  He was sure she was meant to be with them.  But he still didn't know why.  He had asked the Mother for a sign as to why Amara was brought to them, but She had been adamantly silent.  Maybe She meant for them to find out on their own.

 

 

Amara awoke to the sound of water trickling.  She poked her head out from under the furs and listened closely.  Looking over at Panec sleeping beside her, she smiled, and then she gently eased the furs aside.  Quietly, so as not to wake him, she exited their small tent and looked around.  No one was up yet; she could hear Radec snoring loudly, and she could hear Danug turning over in his furs.  Recognizing that there was a creek nearby, she relished at the thought of taking a quick bath.  She was hesitant, however, about bathing by herself; she was in unfamiliar territory and all of the men had warned her against it.  But she could at least go look at the water, she thought, and then bathe later…but it did sound so inviting!

The voluminous amounts of rain they had had in the last few days had created several small tributaries, and she followed a small one, which she determined was the sound she had heard earlier, to where it met the larger stream.  It wasn’t exactly a river – it wasn’t that large – but it was big and fast-flowing enough to have small rapids, and despite the recent rains, crystal-clear water.  She dipped her hands down into it and brought the water to her lips.  It was cold and quite refreshing.  She then dried her hands off on her leggings and ran her fingers through her hair.  It would need another washing soon, she thought.

Across the stream on the far bank she could see a small snake slithering slowly away from the water.  She momentarily felt bad about scaring it off, but then she saw what the snake was after; a tiny rodent with its back turned would soon fall prey to the reptile.  All part of life, she thought, and turned to go back.

Even from this distance away, she could clearly hear that Radec was still snoring.  She giggled softly, as his snores reminded her of her uncle and grandfather.  Her mind then wandered to other things, and it didn’t dawn on her that the memory had flitted in and then flitted out just as quickly, and yet she hadn’t felt melancholy.

She walked quietly and was surprised to hear low voices as she neared the camp.  Yet Radec was still snoring, and usually he was the first one awake, especially if there was enough activity going on to warrant a conversation that sounded as involved as this one seemed.  She crouched down, careful not to make a sound, and she quietly crept up on the camp.

Two men, older than Danug and Panec but younger than Radec, were knelt down in the trees across the camp from her.  She was surprised that her movement hadn’t alerted them to her presence, but quiet though they were, they were obviously in deep conversation.  She listened intently, but for the life of her couldn’t make out anything.  There seemed to be some slight similarities to Mamutoi, but not enough to clue her in to anything, especially since she barely knew the language herself.  They were hidden well, and she couldn’t distinguish any of the clothing that they wore.

After only a few more moments, the two men got up and walked in the opposite direction.  She quickly darted into the camp and hid behind a tent, wanting to watch where they went.  Their figures were fading into the distance quickly, so she knew that she would have to make a quick decision.  Panec would never forgive her if she went off by herself, but the tent they shared was on the other side of the camp.  She was crouched behind Danug’s tent, so she quickly crawled inside and shook him awake.

“Wha…?” Danug started to say, but she covered his mouth with her hand.

“Get up Danug, get up, be quiet, and come with me,” she whispered.

He furrowed his brows.  “What’s wrong?” he asked worriedly.

She pulled him up.  “Someone was in the camp, and I can’t follow them by myself.”

Still more than half asleep, Danug didn’t really absorb everything she was saying, and he simply nodded.

Amara put her finger over her lips.  “Be quiet,” she repeated softly.

Danug pulled a tunic over his leggings and nodded, then followed Amara with slow, stealthy movements into the woods.

 

 

It was a cool morning, and a brisk wind was rustling the trees.  Panec opened his eyes and breathed the fresh air deeply, and then turned to look at his future mate.  Much to his surprise, however, where there should have been a warm, welcoming body under the furs, there was nothing.  He sat straight up and listened, to see if he could hear Amara’s voice; perhaps she was up already and talking with someone.  But the only sounds came from the leaves rustling in the trees.  He threw back the covers, pulled on his leggings, and stumbled out of the tent.

He looked around the camp furiously, fearing the worst in the back of his mind, but trying to calm himself; he knew that she was capable of taking care of herself in a pinch, and that she would not have simply wandered off by herself.

He took several deep, calming breaths, then decided to check down by the creek.  He could see footprints in the path, and it seemed to him that someone had indeed gone to the creek, but had returned quickly.  When he reached the water, he glanced around, and seeing no signs of her, he turned back, his worry growing.

Perhaps she was in another tent, he thought, and consequently he peeked in each tent, but found her nowhere.  In looking in Danug’s tent, he discovered that he, too, was gone.  Panec sat down and pondered this.  He knew that Amara and Danug had no romantic interest in each other, but Danug knew more about her than anyone else.  Perhaps they had gone somewhere to talk about something; maybe she needed to talk to someone.  He nodded his head, concluding that this must be the case, and his thoughts were confirmed when he noticed two pairs of footprints leading from Danug’s tent into the woods.  He thought briefly about following them, but then thought better of it, not wanting to intrude.  So Panec resigned himself to going back to his furs; some more sleep would probably do him good.

 

 

Realization of what Amara had said, about someone being in the camp that morning, slowly hit Danug as he crept quietly behind her.  Who would have been in their camp?  He tried hard to concentrate, trying to remember who lived where along the Mother, but his memory wasn’t awake yet.

“Amara,” he whispered quietly, “what did they look like?”

She paused and thought.  “I could not really see them very well,” she returned, and shrugged.

“Are you sure they went this way?”

She nodded in reply, wanting to speak as little as possible.  The men hadn’t seemed threatening, but she was used to “threatening” being people who brought knives and guns to school.  She hadn’t encountered anything “threatening” here, yet, so her anxiety was growing steadily.

 

 

Restless, Panec pushed the furs back again.  He had only lain down a moment or so ago, but these horrible thoughts kept crossing his mind.  He got up and went to Radec and Callie’s tent.

“Radec,” Panec said firmly as he shook the man awake.

Radec blinked a few times and then squinted his eyes.  “Is something wrong?” he asked.  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see sunlight beginning to filter into the tent.

“Danug and Amara are both gone,” Panec replied.

Radec furrowed his brow.  “Are they at the creek?”

“No,” Panec said, “and I thought first that maybe they were just out somewhere talking – they seem to enjoy it – but I have an awful feeling that something is wrong.”

Radec nodded quickly and got up, gently shaking Callie awake, and Panec left the tent to wake Healie and Latie.

All were wide awake, with only mild concern etched in their faces, a few moments later.  Assuming that Amara and Danug were just deep in conversation, Callie and Healie went about their ways, preparing breakfast.  Latie glanced at them, and then walked over to where Panec and Radec were talking softly to each other.

“What is it?” Latie asked.

Radec pointed to the ground.  “Footprints,” was all he said.

Latie looked confused.  “So?” she asked.  “Most people have them.”  She smiled at her joke, but Panec's look quickly removed it.

Panec shook his head and pointed.  “Latie, look at them.  One of those may be Danug’s, but Amara’s feet are certainly not that big.”

Latie swallowed hard, and all of a sudden apprehension spread through her.  She saw the same in the two worried men.

Radec opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut short by a loud yell.  It was that of a grown man, and he recognized the voice as Danug’s.

 

 

As soon as they began to hear voices, they slowed to where they were almost unmoving.  Making sure to place their feet carefully so as not to step on any leaves or twigs, and trying to keep a constant eye ahead of them was tiring work.  Tracking animals was much easier, Amara thought, you don’t have to worry about them the way you had to worry about humans.

The foreign camp was soon in sight, and Amara and Danug knelt down, much like she had seen the two men do earlier that morning.  They were both listening intently to the conversations, but Amara just shook her head, not understanding a word.  She started to whisper something to Danug, but he shushed her quickly.

There was something in the language that seemed vaguely familiar, but only slightly.  It then dawned on him…perhaps these people could be the Sharamudoi!  His excitement was stifled, however, because all he had ever heard was how similar the languages were; this language was indeed similar, but not nearly as much so as he had been told Sharamudoi would be.  He shook his head.

“Amara, I don’t recognize the language, and I think we should go back,” Danug whispered, very quiet.

Something about the tone of his voice made her slightly uneasy and she nodded.  Danug put his hand on her back and nodded in return.  Slowly, quietly, still crouched down low, the two turned around and began creeping back.

Only a few steps into their silent retreat, a small bird’s swooping flight path took it directly in front of them.  They were both startled, but neither made a sound other than the pounding of their hearts.  Amara smiled in relief to Danug, and he smiled in return.  The next step that was taken brought a foot down on top of a small twig, and the crack seemed to echo through the woods.  It was soft, but it was enough to capture the attention of the people behind them.

Hearts pounding wildly, Amara and Danug both turned around to see several people staring right in their direction.  In the next instant, the two men who she had seen earlier started coming quickly their way.

Quick as lightning, Danug pushed Amara ahead of him with enough force to jar her out of her shock.  She looked at him only long enough to make out his deafening command, “Run!”

 

 

Amara ran as fast as her legs could take her, and every once in a while she felt Danug’s hand pushing against her back, or his voice above the sound of their running, urging her to go faster.  Trees flew by in a blur, and she sent a silent prayer that she wouldn’t trip and fall as she fled.

After what seemed like an eternity, but which was really only a minute or two, they approached the clearing where they had been camping.  Danug had never been more thankful to the Mother as he was at this minute, worried sick that the men were still in pursuit.  Amara rushed into Panec’s arms, and breathed while Danug stopped and leaned over, with his hands on his knees, to catch his breath.

“What happened?” Radec demanded worriedly.

“There was someone in the camp this morning,” Amara said breathlessly.  “They left, and Danug and I followed them.”  She peeked into the woods to see if the two men were still in pursuit, and hearing nothing, she relaxed somewhat.

“Who were they?” Callie asked.

Danug shook his head.  “I thought they could be Sharamudoi, but I didn’t think the language was close enough to ours for it to be them.  I don’t know who they are.”

“What was the yell?” Latie asked, half out of worry, half out of curiosity.

Danug grinned slightly.  “I yelled at Amara to run.  We sat and listened to them for just a little while, but then we decided to come back and wake you, and when we had turned around and were starting to walk away, one of us stepped on a twig after a bird flew in front of us.  Then we turned around, and the two men Amara said had been in the camp this morning started coming our way.  So I yelled at her to run.”

Panec held Amara tight.  “Do you think they’re dangerous?” he asked.  “Did they seem threatening?”

Danug shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I don’t know why they were here this morning, and all I saw of them was a few glimpses, not enough to figure anything out about them.”

“Why did you want to follow them, Amara?” Panec asked.  He ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her forehead.  “Why, Amara?  You could’ve been hurt!  I just thank the Mother that nothing happened to you!”

Danug grinned again.  “At least she woke me up instead of going investigating on her own.  I’m actually surprised that she didn’t try it by herself.”

Amara half-smiled in return.  “I’m sorry, I was just very curious.  I woke up and walked down to the river.  I wanted to take a bath but I knew you would have been worried and would scold me if I did, so I started to come back.  When I did, I heard voices, so I crept up slowly, and those two men were crouched over there,” she pointed to where they had been kneeling.  “When they left, I knew I shouldn’t follow them by myself, but I wanted to see what they were up to, and I happened to be closest to Danug’s furs, so I woke him up to go with me.”

Callie shook her head.  “Amara, you should have woken Radec.”  Amara’s eyes went downcast.  “I’m not meaning to scold you, but you know we worry.”

Amara smiled warmly in response.  “I know you do.  At least I did think to wake Danug up,” she said, her eyes twinkling.

Radec smiled and started to say something, but just as he did, they heard the unmistakable sound of leaves crunching.  Her heart pounding, Amara turned around and stiffened in Panec’s arms when she recognized the two men that had been pursuing them.

Radec, Panec, and Danug each made a quick move for their spears and spear-throwers, and Amara moved behind Panec and looked over at Latie, who was standing perfectly still out of fear.

One of the men came forward with his hand in the air, his palm facing toward them.  He shook his head and then stretched his arms toward Radec, his palms up in the gesture of friendliness.  Radec’s face showed his puzzlement for an instant, and then he set his weapons down and took the man’s hands in his in greeting.  Amara listened closely to the man’s words as he spoke what sounded like a greeting of some sort to Radec.

An instant later, she heard Healie laugh heartily.  “Danug!” she laughed.  “You apparently don’t listen very well, my boy!”

Danug looked perplexed for just a moment, and then realization crossed his face and his cheeks deepened in tone.  He smiled sheepishly at Amara, who was still confused at the interplay.  “Amara, I told you that their language wasn’t close enough to be Sharamudoi…well, I guess that just goes to show how well I listen!”

Amara absorbed his words, then smiled and blushed as well.  All of that for nothing!  She looked in the direction of the two men and smiled apologetically.  They were smiling in return and she just hoped that it was because they were amused at the situation, not because they were laughing at her and Danug.

“I wonder if these were the people who knew Jondalar?” Latie asked excitedly.

The younger of the two shot his head up.  “Jondalar?” he asked, the name plain as anything.

Latie squealed in excitement and stepped forward to greet them, her hands extended.  “You know Jondalar?” she asked anxiously.  “And Ayla?  And the horses?”  Her voice was becoming higher and higher in pitch, and the amusement and delight on the faces of the two Sharamudoi men were quite obvious.

“Yes, we know Jondalar,” he said in Mamutoi.

Latie’s eyes lit up.  “You know Mamutoi!” she cried.

The man smiled again.  “Yes, a little, Jondalar and Tholie, mostly Tholie, taught us,” he replied.  He took Latie’s outstretched hands and smiled at her.  She blushed deeply in response, loving the way he looked at her.  Amara immediately understood Latie’s feelings; she had just recently experienced that feeling of looking into eyes like that for the first time herself.

Radec stepped beside them and gestured to the older man.  “Markeno of the Sharamudoi, this is Latie of the Mamutoi,” and he proceeded to give her full title.  Amara wondered if Radec had introduced the older man out of politeness and custom, or if he had done it to take Latie’s eyes off the younger man.  Introductions went around with the older man, and then Radec took the younger man’s hands in his.

“Radec of the Mamutoi, this is Darvalo of the Sharamudoi,” Markeno said as he introduced the men.  Darvalo made the same rounds that Markeno had, and when Amara was formally introduced she understood why Latie’s breath had been taken away.  This man was extremely handsome, and she felt her own cheeks grow warm as she looked into his eyes.

Panec felt a pang of jealousy, but it quickly deteriorated when he saw the way Latie looked at Darvalo.  Of course Amara would be attracted to him, and he would be attracted to Amara.  Amara was a breathtaking young woman and this man could easily steal any woman’s eyes, but he knew that he couldn’t steal Amara’s heart.  He smiled when Amara looked at him and he saw the same sparkle in her eyes.  He shrugged to himself.  He knew she was his, as he was sure she knew he was hers.

“Amara said you were here this morning,” Radec began inquisitively.

Markeno nodded.  “Yes.  We heard voices and laughter coming from here yesterday and we decided to come and introduce ourselves today.  However, when we got here, we realized that you were all still asleep.”  His eyes twinkled at Amara.  “Well, most of you were.”  Amara blushed again, and Markeno smiled.  “I am sorry for scaring you, and if we had known that you were watching, I assure you, we would not have come across as ‘dangerous’ to you.”

Amara smiled and nodded.  “I’m sorry we followed you,” she began, but Darvalo’s laugh interrupted her.

“No, we deserved it!  Sneaking into your camp like this!”  He smiled brightly.

Markeno watched and listened closely to the light conversation, and noticed the same thing with Amara that he had noticed with the mysterious Ayla Jondalar had introduced them to only a couple of years before.  She was obviously not Mamutoi, and she spoke with a strange accent.  He looked at her features, and like Ayla, she looked nothing like anyone he had ever seen before.  His mind wandered with possibilities and questions, but he didn’t want to be outspoken.  As forward as he knew the Mamutoi were, he felt that they would still feel a direct question like that would be inappropriate.

Latie happened to draw her eyes away from the compelling younger man and glance in Markeno’s direction.  She sighed as she saw in his face the same questions they had to answer at the Summer Meeting when Jondalar and Ayla were with them.  Amara’s situation would be much less of an emotional problem as it would be a mental problem.  Would anyone believe there was land on the other side of the Great Waters?  Jondalar had mentioned something about the people north of the Zelandonii building large boats, much bigger than the Mamutoi bowl boats, and even larger than the Ramudoi boats, which she had heard were quite impressive.  She put the thoughts out of her mind for the time being and made a mental note to herself to ask Healie about how to deal with the inevitable questions that would come later.

Markeno looked up and saw Latie looking at him.  He smiled at her and realized what she must have been thinking.  “Will you all join us tonight?” he asked.  “Tholie is my mate, and I’m sure we’re kin somehow.  There’s not time to prepare a large feast, but we can at least have a small celebration.  How long are you planning to stay?”

Radec knew there were underlying hints in his invitation; namely the fact that he had mentioned that they were kin.  He fleetingly wondered what it was Markeno was after, but he figured it probably had something to do with Amara and her “origins.”  “I’m not sure,” he replied, “we had quite a delay in our travel already, because of that strange snowstorm that we had a moon or two back.”

Markeno’s brows furrowed.  “Snowstorm?” he asked, curious.

“Yeah, a snowstorm…” Radec began, and blinked his eyes blankly.  He glanced over at Danug who was busily digesting this new information, he was sure.  “Never mind.  Yes, we were delayed a while back because of the weather, and then we did a little hunting, got three bison.  We just started on our way again a few days ago.”  He shook his head.  “If we had known we were so close to the Sharamudoi, we would have tried to visit already.”

Markeno nodded.  “No worries, that’s fine.  Jondalar and Ayla couldn’t stay long either; they had to leave soon after they arrived so that they could cross the glacier before the winter was over.”

“We don’t know if we’ll be crossing the glacier on our way there or not,” Radec said, “but it never hurts to be cautious.

Markeno nodded again, pleased with himself.  By simply mentioning Jondalar and his reservations about crossing the glacier, he had discovered that this small band of Mamutoi were obviously on a Journey to visit them.  “Well, then, please at least share a meal with us tonight.  I’m sure we all have stories to tell,” he offered, his eyes twinkling with anticipation.

Latie smiled brightly.  “You’ll tell us more about Jondalar and Ayla?” she asked happily.

Darvalo laughed.  “We’ll tell you everything we know,” he replied.

“Good,” Radec said and smiled.  “Let us gather some things and we’ll follow you there.  What kinds of food will you need us to bring?”

Markeno waved his hand.  “Don’t worry about it.  You’re traveling and should save anything you have.  We’ll provide the entire meal.”  He laughed suddenly.  “When you see Jondalar you can tell him it’s the rest of his gift for helping Roshario while they were here.”

“Roshario?” Callie asked.

Markeno nodded.  “Yes, Roshario had fallen down the cliff by the river a moon or so before they got here, and Ayla saved her broken arm.  It had healed incorrectly and Ayla broke it again and reset it correctly.  It’s been fine ever since, and we all owe them greatly.”

Callie laughed.  “Well, then, when we get to the Zelandonii we’ll tell them that we ate Ayla’s thank-you gift.”

Laughter spread throughout, and Amara realized again how nice it was to be with many people at once.  She was very much looking forward to the festivities that evening, especially since she could understand what they were saying.  She just hoped she didn’t have to do too much explaining about her background.  She smiled to herself—she was no longer the stranger.  She was considered one of the Mamutoi.  She gasped to herself.  Radec had even introduced her as a Mamutoi!  Feelings of pride and belonging washed over her and she jumped to help the women.  She was almost happier now than she had been since she arrived, and when she saw Panec’s beautiful smile it only solidified those wonderful emotions washing over her.

 

 

Everyone in the small group of travelers was excited about being able to visit with the Sharamudoi.  They had all heard stories, first from Tholie’s Mamutoi kin, and then from Jondalar regarding his stay with them.  Latie was even more excited; Ayla was her heroine and the prospect of getting to hear more of Ayla’s adventures made her quiver with anticipation.

The mention of that name again, Ayla, had Amara wondering, too.  Latie had told her as much about Ayla and Jondalar as Latie thought she would understand, but she wanted to know more.  Maybe the Sharamudoi would help to satisfy her curiosity about these amazing people.

“Latie,” Amara began, “did Ayla and Jondalar come here?”

Latie nodded as she rinsed the soaproot out of her hair.  “Yes.  Before Jondalar met Ayla in her valley, he and his brother, Thonolan, stayed here with the Sharamudoi.  Thonolan even mated a woman here…I think her name was Jetamio.”  A sad look crossed her face.  “However, poor Jetamio died in childbirth, and Jondalar said that Thonolan’s will to live died with her.  They started traveling soon after that, and Thonolan was eventually killed by Baby, Ayla’s lion.”  She wrinkled her nose a little.  “You remember me talking about Baby?”

Amara nodded.  “Yes, Ayla’s lion, Baby, you told me, and you told me about how he showed up at the Mamutoi Summer Meeting.”  She chuckled at the thought.

Latie shook her head.  Amara was so quick to accept things, and didn’t seem to question anything.  Ayla was the first person she had ever heard of who rode horses, and yet Amara seemed at ease with them.  She was also at ease with Ayla’s thread-puller, and firestone.  In fact, Latie thought, the only things that Amara was comfortable with were those things that Ayla had invented.  Amara was a very confusing young woman, Latie thought, but that made her all the more happy to know that she and Amara were friends.  She smiled, knowing how many people would probably be jealous of her.

“What’s so funny?” Amara asked as she lathered her own hair with the soaproot.

Latie grinned at her.  “I was thinking of all the interesting things you have…like that…what did you call it?  Cho-k-lat…no…oh, what was it?”

“Chocolate,” Amara corrected.

“Yes, chocolate,” Latie continued, “and how many people would be jealous because I got to try some.”

Amara smiled in reply as she began to rinse.  “I’ve been trying to think of where I could get some more, but as far as I know, Cacao trees, or whatever the trees are that cocoa comes from, are only in South America.”

“South America?” Latie asked.

Amara blushed slightly.  “Yes, it’s the huge area of land south of North America.”

“You mean there are two Americas?”

“Well, I guess you could say that.  It’s actually two “continents”.  A continent is a large area of land…this continent we call “Europe”.”

Latie shook her head.  She was glad that she didn’t have to learn a different language, and decided to just drop the subject before Amara started adding in more words.  She absently thought about the unique things about Amara as she started brushing through her clean hair.

Amara did the same, pondering on her own.  The more she heard of Ayla, the more she wanted to get to know her.  Maybe, she thought, Markeno can explain more.

“Are you women ready?” they heard Danug yell.

Latie smiled and gathered up her things.  “I can’t wait to try their food and hear their stories!” she cried.

Amara smiled in response and followed behind her as they started back to their camp.

 

 

The sun was only half way down from its zenith when they started toward the Sharamudoi camp.  The trek there seemed much longer to Amara than it had that morning, and she could hardly believe that so much had happened only three fourths of the way into the day.  She was nervous with anticipation, and anxious to meet new people.  As much as she loved her new family, she had always been a social butterfly, with the exceptions of her long “explorations” alone and with Jacob, and she missed hearing the sound of several voices together.  It wasn’t long before she did start hearing voices, and her ears pounded, listening closely, trying to figure out the similarities between the languages before they came into sight of the Sharamudoi.

“Radec!” Markeno called when they came into view.  He walked up to the large man and hugged him.  People started crowding around, eager to meet the visitors, yet not wanting to make a bad first impression.

Markeno urged Radec over to where Dolando and Carlono were.

“Radec of the Mamutoi, this is Dolando, leader of the Shamudoi, the land-living half of the Sharamudoi,” Markeno said, and then turned to Carlono.  “Radec of the Mamutoi, this is Carlono, Ramudoi leader of the Sharamudoi.” 

Radec greeted both men with hands extended and rattled out his ties and honors in the formal way.  Introductions went around, and Amara listened closely to them all.  Part of her wished she had more ties to list like everyone else, but she was patient…she could wait to earn honors.  Right now she needed to learn people first.

Names and introductions flew around in a flurry, and Amara was thrilled to no end.  One thing that she did notice, however, was that the young men looked much better than the best-looking fantasy men of her younger dreams, and better than those of her friends’ fantasies.  She smiled slyly, realizing how jealous her friends would be back home.

Markeno stood back during the blur of introductions and watched the young lady.  Unlike Ayla, who Tholie had said was still shy around large groups of people, Amara seemed to be basking in delight.  She definitely did not speak like those whom she was with, nor was her introduction as glamorous as theirs’ was.  He made it a point to try to find out as much as he could…without being rude.  She was intriguing, and quite fascinating, and many of the young men in the group seemed to feel the same way.  He couldn’t help but smile at the looks in their faces when they saw her.  Markeno had guessed when he first met the Mamutoi travelers that Panec and Amara were Promised in some way, and the more he watched them, the more he believed it.  He started drawing parallels between Panec and Jondalar and wondered how Panec would feel that Amara was, or would soon be, the center of attention.  Likely, Markeno mused, that was the way it would be for them for the rest of their lives.  One couldn’t help but wonder about her.

Tholie touched his shoulder, bringing him out of his pondering.  She seemed just as, if not more excited than everyone else, knowing that these people were her blood kin.  She, too, was anxious to hear of their travels and stories.  “What are you thinking?” she asked her mate.

Markeno smiled at her.  “I was thinking of the darker-haired young lady, Amara.  She doesn’t look Mamutoi to me.”

Tholie laughed.  “I was sure I was the only one who would think such forward thoughts.  Do you remember…the two youngsters, Danug and Latie, I believe Jondalar and Ayla mentioned them.”

Markeno nodded.  “Yes, I believe I do, now that you mention it.  This will be an exciting night,” he forecasted, smiling over at Latie.

Amara noticed the two discussing something, and she was sure they were speaking about her.  She knew she was different.  However, she held her head high, proud of who she was.  She liked Markeno; she liked everyone here at this camp so far.  She quietly scanned over all the Sharamudoi, making mental notes about them.  The young man Darvalo who had taken her breath away had his arms around a young woman, just as stunning as himself, making them a well-matched couple.  She sighed; it was just as well.  She had been hoping in a way that Latie might find someone on this Journey like she had found Panec, but if they were traveling all the way from Austria to France, there would be plenty more opportunities, she hoped.

Latie looked over at Amara and beckoned for her.  “Amara, come see the babies!” she cried.

Amara grinned and went to take a look.  Tholie was standing there, holding the newest addition to their hearth, with young Shamio looking over her shoulder, almost like a mother.  Latie oohed and aahed over the baby, and Amara smiled.  The child was gorgeous, with bright blue eyes and hair as red as red could be.  Her facial features were almost exactly like her father’s, but her smile was definitely from her mother.

“She looks just like Markeno!  Except for the smile, but you can tell where the rest of her features come from!” Amara commented.  “May I hold her?”

Tholie nodded, wondering about what Amara had said.  As she looked at the young woman holding the baby, she realized she agreed.  She looked remarkably like Markeno.

“What’s her name?” Latie asked.

Tholie sighed.  “I don’t know yet.  She was only born a few days ago, and I haven’t decided.”  She sat down and watched Amara.  “I learned I was blessed while Ayla and Jondalar were still here.  I was hoping they would stay and cross-mate with Markeno and I, because I was afraid the baby would be unlucky if we didn’t have cross-mates.  But Ayla and Jondalar had to leave, and when I was four moons pregnant, I lost the baby.”  She sighed again.  “Now, don’t think I blame Ayla and Jondalar, I think my losing the baby was completely circumstantial, but I can’t help but wonder, if Ayla had been here, would she have been able to save the baby?”  Tholie smiled at her newborn.  “But not long after that, I was blessed again, and now here she is!”  She beamed with pride.  “Part of me wants to name her after Jetamio,” she looked at Latie and nodded, “Thonolan’s mate, who died in childbirth.  But then another part of me wants to name her after Ayla, but I just don’t know.  I haven’t made up my mind, and he,” she gestured at Markeno and shrugged, “isn’t any help.”  She grinned at the two young women, captivated by the tiny child.

“She’s beautiful, Tholie,” Latie said and handed the baby back to her mother.

Tholie smiled softly.  “Thank you,” she said.

Since the show was over, Shamio hopped up and ran over to where some of the other children were playing.  “She’s a big help, too,” Tholie added, referring to Shamio.

Latie nodded.  “I seem to recall my mother commenting on how much of a help Danug was when I was born,” she said sarcastically.

Tholie laughed.  “Your mother is Tulie, right?”

Latie shook her head.  “No, Nezzie is my mother.  Her mate, Talut, is Tulie’s brother.”

Tholie nodded.  “Ah, yes, that’s right.  It’s been so long, and the only real news I heard was when Ayla and Jondalar were here.”

Healie had wandered over to where they were conversing, and asked, “What happened when Ayla and Jondalar were here?  Markeno mentioned that someone named Roshario had a problem and Ayla helped her.  I’d like to hear exactly what that was.”

Tholie nodded.  “Yes, I’m sure you will.  I would go into it now, but then you’d just be hearing the same story tonight after we eat, so I’ll let you wait until then.”  Her eyes twinkled at the older woman.

Healie smiled and opened her mouth to comment, but a shout made them all look over toward the middle of the camp.

Dolando said something, but there was still enough chatter to block his words.  “I think he’s talking about food,” Tholie said.  “And I’m glad—I’m starving!”

Amara nodded in agreement, as did Latie.  The women got up and made their way over to the fire that the men had started in the middle of the camp.  Tholie quickly asked Latie and Amara if they would hold her baby so that she could help with the food, and they both readily agreed.

Latie took the baby and sat down, Amara right beside her.  “I can’t wait to have a baby,” she confessed.  “But I know that this would be a really bad time to do so.”

Amara nodded and reached out her finger so that the baby could grasp it.  Her heart melted, and Latie smiled.  She handed the baby to Amara to hold, and then did the same with her finger.

The small child yawned and slowly blinked her eyes.  Without even knowing it, Amara started humming one of the songs her mother used to sing to her and Jacob when they were young.  Her mind was a blank for an instant; she couldn’t remember the words, but soon they came to her and she started singing softly in English.

Latie stayed perfectly still.  Hearing Amara speak in English was fascinating, but she hadn’t ever really heard it a lot before, just certain words here and there.  She didn’t want to startle Amara and remind her of where she was, so that she would continue singing.

The baby’s drooping blue eyes watched Amara’s lips as intently as Latie listened to the song.  She had never heard anything as beautiful before, although the Mamutoi had some remarkable music.  Latie followed the child’s lead by shutting her eyes, and she quickly drowned out the sound of conversation that permeated the air.

Amara drifted off back into her own world, and she recalled singing this very song to children she had baby-sat before.  Without knowing it, a single tear fell down her cheek.  She had always enjoyed singing, and giving up her CD player had been of the hardest decisions she’d ever had to make.  Now, the only music she knew was in her memory, locked forever.

Panec started toward Latie and Amara to escort them to the food, but he was halted when he heard Amara singing.  He smiled softly; he hadn’t realized how beautiful of a voice she had.  He watched her singing to the baby and he longed for that scene at his hearth someday.  How wonderful it would be to hear Amara singing to a child of her own, perhaps even of his spirit, someday.

He hated to interrupt them, but the Sharamudoi he knew wouldn’t eat until the guests were served.  He leaned down gently and touched Amara’s shoulder.

All at once, she was brought back into reality.  She was no longer sitting comfortably on her neighbor’s couch on a Saturday night, baby-sitting their children, singing to their youngest.  She was sitting on a log that had been set in front of a fire to serve as a long bench.  She wasn’t holding a baby wearing a diaper and one of those bunny-suits; she was holding a baby with a skin wrapped around her bottom, stuffed with some sort of absorbent material.  She held off the tears that threatened and smiled at Latie.

“That was beautiful, Amara,” Latie said softly, still in a trance.

Amara smiled in response.  “Thank you.  It’s a song my mother used to sing to my brother and I when we were little.”

Latie nodded and gestured toward the food.  “Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” Amara replied and stood up.  Tholie came over and took the child, who had dozed off.  Amara stood up and walked over to the several bowls and platters of food, excited at the prospect of tasting yet another version of prehistoric dinner.  She followed after Latie, doing as she had been instructed; taking the choicest servings she could find that were left after the other Mamutoi members of her small camp had chosen theirs.  It hadn’t been the custom for her back home, but Latie had explained how important it was, so she made an extra effort to choose the best she could.  Everything looked so wonderful; she just hoped that her eyes weren’t bigger than her stomach.

The Sharamudoi all fell in line after Amara, in no particular order, and when she had finished piling her plate, a nice woman poured something to drink in a cup.  Amara smelled it and had to make a conscious effort to not wrinkle her nose.  It smelled fermented, and she wasn’t much of a drinker.  She had to remind herself that they don’t restrictions on drinking age here, and she smiled and took the cup, hoping that the liquid inside didn’t taste as badly as it smelled.  Her father, when he drank, had mostly beers, and the few drinks her mother had constituted mostly of wine coolers and the like.  She herself had tasted several beverages, but hadn’t been too keen on any of them.  She preferred her carbonated and caffeinated drinks.

Amara sat down between Latie and Panec and smiled over at Danug.  He had already started digging into his plate, obviously enjoying the meal.  Amara sent a silent prayer, and then tasted her drink.  It wasn’t too bad, but next time she would definitely choose water.  Apple juice would be wonderful right about now, she thought to herself.

The food, however, was excellent.  She savored every bite, wondering about the ingredients.  There were several meats, some fruit and nuts, and some sort of greens, none of which were identifiable.  For the first time, she started wondering about the differences in her body as compared to theirs; her body was conditioned for sanitized foods, and a small amount of fear crept into her mind, hoping that nothing she ate would kill her.  The thought was quickly displaced, though, as people started joining them around the large fire and the conversations picked up.

 

 

After the food was finished and most of the people had gathered around the large fire again, Dolando stood up.  As he started to speak, Latie poked Amara in the side with her elbow.

“This is when the story-telling starts,” she said low and excitedly.

Amara smiled, wondering what was so exciting about it.  In school she sat through hour-long classes of “storytelling”, with few captivating her as much as Latie seemed.  She shrugged to herself and decided to enjoy it, but wondered what could be so exciting.  What kind of stories would they tell, she wondered.

Dolando started the stories off, going into detail about Ayla and Jondalar’s visit.  He told them about Roshario’s fall and how Ayla’s healing expertise had saved her arm.  Roshario stood up and pulled up her sleeve, showing the Mamutoi guests how well her arm had healed.  They went on, embellishing more about their stay and about all the things they had learned.

Amara was quite surprised to find herself so absorbed into the story.  These stories weren’t like documentaries, she decided; almost like movies, with the storyteller as the main actor.  She smiled to herself, thinking about how successful some of these people would be back home in the acting business.  She listened intently to anything they said about Ayla, as she was hoping that somehow this Ayla might be able to help her, to explain how she got here.

Latie leaned over and whispered in Amara’s ear, “I’ve heard some people claim that they believe Ayla is the Mother incarnate,” she said.

Amara looked at Latie, shocked.  From what these people said about the Great Earth Mother, that was quite a serious statement.  She thought about that statement, wondering how to take it.  If someone at home claimed that they knew someone who was like that in any religion…any spiritual being incarnate…that person would be deemed insane and probably locked away.  This Ayla must really be something, she thought.  She pushed the thought away and continued listening to Dolando.

After he finished, he invited Radec to speak about their travels.  Amara listened as he told about how they traveled from the Mamutoi land to the mouth of the Great Mother River, and then upstream.  As he neared the time when she arrived, Amara’s heart beat faster, wondering how he was going to handle her introduction into their saga.

Radec, too, had thought about that very thing, and had discussed it in great detail with Healie and Callie.  Both women agreed that they should offer that Amara was not Mamutoi, and that they had found Amara by herself, lost, alone, and sick, but nothing further.  Radec did just that.  Amara was glad that he didn’t go into her origin, about America and traveling across the ocean, but she couldn’t help but wonder if there was someone here who sympathized with her and understood.  She shook her head inwardly to herself—of course no one here would understand.  They don’t even understand conception, how in the world could they understand how I got here, she thought.  But like everything else, she displaced the thought quickly, and listened to the rest of Radec’s story.

After Radec finished, Carlono got up and told several Ramudoi stories, including the one about Jondalar and the sturgeon.  The mood was light and airy, with everyone laughing at the end of the story.  Amara likened it to old fables she’d heard about harpooned whales pulling ships along out in the ocean, and as scary as she knew it must have been for Jondalar, she laughed at the thought of watching the story unfold.

When he had finished, Dolando stood back up and announced that they would have some music, and that anyone unwilling to dance with everyone else would be sentenced to clean up.  As shy as she was, she accepted Panec’s hand when he held it out to her, and felt herself whipped away from her seat into his arms.  She had been to dances back in high school, but never had she danced with someone other than just a friend.  She loved the thought and was thrilled at the prospect of finally being able to do so, but as soon as he started teaching her some steps to a Mamutoi dance, a young Ramudoi man stepped in.

Panec nodded and smiled, wanting Amara to enjoy herself, and he began dancing with a young Shamudoi woman.  Amara laughed and was swept away in the arms of the Ramudoi man.

It seemed like she ended up trading with a hundred partners, and enjoyed the evening more than she had enjoyed almost any before.  She kept glancing around through the evening, looking for familiar faces, and she noticed that Latie seemed to only dance with one man.  She couldn’t tell who the man was, but she knew that it was indeed the same person, each time she looked in their direction.  She made it a point to ask Latie about him later, but for the moment decided to enjoy the dancing.

After several hours, the crowd started thinning as a few couples and families retreated to their respective hearths for the night.  Amara was delighted that the evening had gone so well, and was walking over to Panec when she felt a soft touch on her arm.  She looked up at one of the young men with whom she had danced toward the end of the evening.  He seemed nervous, almost like a boy about to kiss his girlfriend for the first time.  She smiled at him, and he smiled in return.

“Amara,” he said, “will you come sit with me?”

His Mamutoi was shaky, but not much worse than her own.  She nodded and sat down on one of the benches.  She scanned the crowd and smiled when she saw Latie dancing with, for the first time, a different man than the one with whom she had danced most of the evening, and Danug and Panec both doing a Mamutoi step with a couple of young women.

The young man cleared his throat, but didn’t say anything.

“What’s your name?” she asked him.

“Lareno,” he said, and smiled at her.

She smiled in response, and waited for him to say something else.  When he didn’t, she scanned the people again.  She watched as a young man walked up to a young woman and whisper something in her ear.  She laughed and kissed him, and he put his arm around her and led her away.

Suddenly, Amara realized what she might be getting into.  She had suddenly recalled Panec’s surprise when she had stated that she would share Pleasures only with him.  Watching the couples walk away, she had realized what this young man might want.  She forced herself not to blush and to think quickly as to how to turn him down.  She didn’t want to be inappropriate, but she just couldn’t share Pleasures, as they so fittingly called it, with anyone but Panec.  Alarmed, she looked for Panec in the crowd.  He and Danug were still together, but he caught her eye.  She relaxed, hoping that he would make his way over to her.  Lareno cleared his throat again and Amara stilled, fearing what he might propose.

“Amara, I was wondering…” he began.

“Lareno,” she interrupted.  “Panec and I…I don’t think…well…Panec and I are Promised…I guess you could say…and…”

He shook his head.  “No,” he said nervously.  “No, yes, I know that, I noticed you two together.”

She sighed in relief and relaxed.

He grinned sheepishly.  “It’s not that I wouldn’t want to, but I figured…” he let the sentence trail unfinished.

Amara nodded, understanding.

“No, Amara, I have a question,” he said.

Surprised, she looked at him inquisitively.

“I wanted to ask you…is Latie…does she…” again his sentence trailed off.

Amara grinned, and all at once realized that this was the young man with whom Latie had been dancing most of the evening.  “No, Latie is not Promised,” she said, figuring that that was what he wanted to know.

He smiled slightly.  “Okay, that’s good.”  He cleared his throat again.  “You and Latie seem to be good friends.”

“Yes,” Amara nodded, “she is the best friend I have now.”

He wondered about her comment, but decided to leave it alone.  “I guess I should ask her, but I am always afraid of what a woman will say if I ask.”

Amara furrowed her brow.  “Ask what?” she inquired.

He sighed and looked over to where Latie was.  “I kind of wanted to know…” and yet again his sentence trailed off.

Amara understood what he was asking.  “Lareno, I don’t know what she would say, honestly, but I think you should go ask,” she offered.

He smiled at her again, but this time with confidence.  “Do you think…?”

Amara nodded.  “Go ask her, Lareno,” she said.

He stood up tentatively and smiled back at her, a smile that almost seemed to Amara, grateful.

She smiled once again and watched him approach Latie.  She crossed her fingers.  She liked Lareno, especially now that she knew he wasn’t going to ask her to do something she would have to refuse.  She watched him say something to her, and she was delighted to see the beautiful smile that lit up Latie’s face.  Latie glanced over in her direction and Amara smiled.  She saw Latie nod, and then walk quickly over to where Amara was.

“Amara,” Latie said, hardly able to contain her excitement, “I don’t know what Radec and Callie were thinking for tonight, if we would stay here or go back to our camp,” she glanced back at Lareno, “but could you tell them, if they asked, that I decided to stay here?”

Amara grinned, still trying to absorb how quickly this relationship had progressed.  She had to keep reminding herself that this was their custom, and to share Pleasures was doing an honor to the Mother.

“What do you think?” Latie asked, low.

“I noticed he was the one you were with most of the night,” Amara said.

Latie smiled again and looked back at Lareno.  “Yes, I don’t know, there’s just something about him.”

Amara nodded.  “I can understand that,” she said.  “Yes, I will tell them where you are.  Have a good time,” she said slyly.

Latie grinned in response.  “I’m sure I will,” she said.

Amara watched as Latie returned to where Lareno was standing.  Like so many other men tonight, he put his arm around her waist and led her away.

Amara looked up to see Panec coming her way.  After he had caught her eye, he had started in her direction, realizing that she wanted him to go over there to where she was, but he had been intercepted by someone.  As he chatted briefly to that person, he looked over again at Amara, and he noticed that she no longer seemed uncomfortable, and was even smiling with the young man.  Panec relaxed, knowing that since she was comfortable, she had obviously taken care of the situation, but he still headed over toward her as soon as the person he was talking with left.

“Who was that?” he asked, sitting down beside her and hugging her.

“His name is Lareno,” she said, and grinned.  “He wanted to know if Latie had any commitments for the night.”

Panec grinned in response.  “Well, I assume, since I saw them leaving together, that she didn’t.”

“No,” Amara laughed.

“Do you?” Panec asked her, kissing her hand softly.

She looked at him and smiled softly.  “Not yet,” she replied.

He stood up and took her hand to help her up.  “Would you like one?” he asked.

“Only if it is you,” Amara said.

He smiled and kissed her deeply.  “I’m glad you had a good time tonight,” he said, and she nodded.  “But the night isn’t over.”

 

 

Still in an extremely contented state of dreamy bliss, Amara almost groaned when she realized she needed to use the bathroom.  She was however, awake enough to almost laugh at her own thoughts.  I really have to get used to thinking “pass my water”, she thought to herself.

She got up slowly, so as to not waken Panec.  She smiled softly, remembering the night before.  Radec and Callie had already gone to bed; apparently, the Mother had been smiling down on everyone.  Being that they were already settled in a guest hearth, Panec and Amara had decided to find one of their own as well, rather than go back to their camp by themselves.  She almost wished that they had, since she was still uncomfortable with people around, but listening around, she had realized that there were definitely several couples in the vicinity that didn’t seem uncomfortable at all.  She wondered to herself how they could make so much noise and not disturb the children.

She walked out of the confines of the hearth and looked around.  There were a few people stirring, and some people already getting into the leftovers from the meal the night before as breakfast.  Amara absentmindedly walked past everyone and looked for a place to “pass her water”.  Someone did notice her, and pointed in a direction, telling her that the place most people went was in a small clearing in the woods.

When Amara got there, she noticed Tholie was there too.  Still shy about these matters, she turned to leave Tholie alone.

“You don’t have to go anywhere, Amara,” Tholie said, smiling.

Amara blushed, “Okay…” she said uncertainly.

Just a few seconds later, Amara hopped up to go.  “Amara,” Tholie began as she stood up.

“Yes?”

“Amara, I was just wondering…and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to…but…where are you from?”  Tholie asked hesitantly.  Amara smiled softly.  “I just ask because Radec said that they found you, and you were alone, and I just wondered.  You don’t have to tell me anything,” she added, almost sorry that she had asked to begin with.

Amara shook her head.  “No, it’s okay.”  She took a deep breath as they sat down on a log.  “It’s funny, when I explained this to them, I didn’t know Mamutoi, and so it was a really bad explanation.”  Tholie chuckled in reply.  “Well, I often have gone out by myself, just wandering around, “exploring” as I call it.  My brother, Jacob, and I did it a lot.”

“Jay-cub?” Tholie asked.  Amara nodded.  “That’s an unusual name,” she said.

Amara smiled.  “Yeah, I suppose it is.  Anyway, I decided to go exploring one day a couple of moons ago, and I guess I got lost.  I went into a cave,” she hesitated, trying to figure out how to explain this one, “and I think the cave went through a mountain, because when I came out the other side, it was a completely different place.”

Tholie wrinkled her nose.  “Did you try to go back?”

Amara sighed.  “Yes, I did, but after I walked outside, something happened.  For some strange reason, it was snowing…I guess it was just one of those strange unseasonable blizzards, and I couldn’t find my way back to the cave.  I ended up wandering around for at least a day, and I was cold, and hungry, and thirsty, and I think I passed out.  When I woke up again, they,” she gestured back to the camp, “were there.”

Tholie shook her head.  “Did you try to go back at all after that?  To find your home?  If you were just on the other side of a mountain, then I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard, and I know Radec would have helped you look.”

Amara shook her head sadly.  “I don’t know how to explain it, so you’ve got to believe me when I say that I know I couldn’t ever find it again.”

“Are you sure?  Did you try?

Amara nodded.  “I’m sure…I didn’t have to try.”

Tholie sat back on the log and leaned up against a tree.  “So they took you in?  In effect, they adopted you?”

Amara nodded again.  “Yes, and I look at them as my new family.”  She smiled when she thought of Panec.  “And Panec and I…”

“Yes, I noticed you two together,” she said.  “What was your home like?”

“Well,” Amara began, “there was my mother, and my fa—um, my mother’s mate, and then my brother Jacob.”  She gestured to the east.  “You know where Ayla and Jondalar went?” she asked.  Tholie nodded.  “I used to live even further away than they are, but then my family journeyed in this direction.”

“I’ve never heard of anyone further east of the Zelandonii…are you a Zelandonii?”

Amara shook her head.  “No, I’m ‘American’.”

“Hmm, I’ve never heard of the ‘American’ before,” Tholie commented.

“No, you wouldn’t have ever heard of them.  They…they live on the other side of the Great Waters.”

Tholie gasped.  “The other side??” she asked.

Amara nodded again.  “Yes, the other side.  But then we had to leave, and we journeyed here.”

Tholie shook her head, confused.  “How did you get here?  I thought I’d seen many things and knew many people, but never have I heard that there is land on the other side of the Great Waters.  I have heard that there is a Great Waters to the west that’s even more vast than that to the east, though.”

Amara nodded, “Yes…you’ll just have to believe me about the other land.  We traveled over here by…” she hesitated again.  Danug sort of understood the airplane thing, but she doubted Tholie would.  “We traveled here in a very large boat.”

Tholie nodded at that.  “Yes, I can understand that…there are many people that don’t believe that the Ramudoi boats exist, but they can travel great lengths in them.  I suppose I can see what you’re saying.”

Amara relaxed somewhat.  At least there was something in common.  They sat quietly for a while, Tholie trying to digest everything that Amara had said.  Ayla had some interesting theories and beliefs, so maybe this was just Amara’s belief.  “So you’ve lost your family?”

“Yes,” Amara nodded.  She sniffled and kept back the tears that threatened.

Tholie leaned over and hugged the young woman.  “I sort of know how you feel…I left my family, the Mamutoi, and have never seen my mother since; the only thing I ever hear about them is from travelers, and there aren’t that many who travel all the way from Mamutoi lands to here.”  She patted Amara’s back.  “I’m glad you found the Mamutoi to be your new family.  They're wonderful people, and they obviously love you.”

Amara smiled.  “Yes, they do, and I am extremely grateful for them.”

Tholie sat back again.  “So, Amara, do many ‘American’ people have names like yours?”

Amara furrowed her brow.  “What do you mean?”

Tholie smiled.  “Well, have you ever noticed the similarities in names?”

Amara shook her head.  “Not really…”

“Take my name, ‘Tholie’.  It’s a Mamutoi name.  ‘Latie’ and ‘Healie’ and ‘Callie’…they all have Mamutoi names, too.  Do you see?”

Amara smiled brightly.  “Yes!  I didn’t see that before!”

Tholie smiled at her epiphany.  “And in Sharamudoi…there’s ‘Roshario’, ‘Serenio’, ‘Jetamio’, and female names like that.  For men in Mamutoi, there’s ‘Radec’, ‘Danug’, ‘Panec’, ‘Talut’…not as similar as the female names, but still similar.  And likewise, there’s ‘Dolando’, ‘Markeno’, ‘Darvalo’, like that.”

Amara smiled again.  “Yes, I see.  No, our names aren’t really that similar.  There are different areas of people that have different types of names, but especially in America, or, well, really, yeah, I lived in America, but America is really big, I lived in the part of America that’s called the ‘U.S.A.’.”  She didn’t want to go into detail, but she had always felt that ‘America’ was kind of an egotistical term…the entire western hemisphere was ‘America’, not just the States, but she didn’t want to explain the U.S. just yet.  “The ‘U.S.A.’ has many people in it, from everywhere, and the names aren’t really related that much.”

Tholie listened and nodded.  “Like we are the ‘Sharamudoi’, but there are the ‘Ramudoi’ and the ‘Shamudoi’ within the ‘Sharamudoi’…like that?”

Amara nodded.  “Yeah, a lot like that!”

“Does your name mean anything?” Tholie inquired.

Amara nodded.  “Yes, for some reason, my mother liked ‘Amara’…” she stopped.  Hadn’t Danug asked her this exact same question?  “She liked ‘Amara’ because it means unending, or never ending, or forever, or something like that.”

Tholie nodded and was quiet.  “I like ‘Amara’ too,” she said.  All of a sudden, she brightened.  “Amara, that’s perfect!” she cried.

“What is?” Amara asked.

“The name!  I named Shamio after the Sharamudoi nature, so I think I’ll name this baby after the Mamutoi nature.”

Amara nodded.  “Okay, that sounds really great, that way she can always remember her Mamutoi heritage.”

Tholie nodded in agreement.  “Yes, I’ll name her ‘Amarie’.”

Amara gasped.  Did Tholie say what she thought she said?  “Amarie?” she asked, excitedly.

“Yes, Amarie, after you,” Tholie said, and smiled.

The tears overflowed.  “You’re naming your daughter after me?” she cried.

Tholie nodded.  “Yes, Amarie is perfect.  I like ‘Amario’ and ‘Amaria’ too, but ‘Amarie’ gives her a more Mamutoi name.

Amara smiled in delight.  “I’ve never had anyone name a baby after me,” she said, sniffling.

“Well, consider this your first,” Tholie smiled.  She patted Amara on the back.  “Let’s get back now, I’m getting hungry and Amarie will need to be fed,” she said as she stood up.

Amara nodded and followed suite.  Still sniffling, she and Tholie walked back to the camp.

“There you are!” Panec exclaimed when she came into view.  However, when he looked more closely, a concerned look crossed over his face.  “Amara, is everything okay?” he asked.

She nodded.  “Yes, it’s fine.”  She smiled toward Tholie.  “Tholie is going to name her baby after me,” she said.  Tears came anew now that she had repeated it.

“Really?” Panec asked excitedly.  “She’s going to name her baby ‘Amara’?”

Amara shook her head.  “No, ‘Amarie’,” she corrected.

Panec grinned.  “It’s a beautiful name,” he said, and then looked at Tholie, “for a beautiful child,” he added.

Tholie grinned at the compliment.  “Yes, it is, it’s very fitting, especially when it comes from a beautiful young woman,” she said.

 

 

“How long will we be staying?” Callie asked.

Radec shrugged.  “We really need to get going as soon as possible, but I’m not going to make all the decisions myself.  I told you that I was going to start considering what everyone else wanted to do, so I’m asking: what do you want to do?”

Callie signed.  “I don’t know.  You’re right—we need to leave as soon as possible.  But…” she looked over to where Amara and Panec were talking with Tholie, “I just don’t know.”

Healie cleared her throat.  “Well, then, I’ll make a decision,” she stated.  Radec and Callie looked over at her when she spoke, glad that neither of them would be making the final decision.  “I think we should stay for at least a few more days.  We’re in no specific hurry.  Ayla and Jondalar wanted to cross the glacier by winter because they didn’t want to go north of the glacier…which was understandable since they were by themselves.  We have several people with us, and so I don’t think safety is a concerning factor.  I think we should go back to our camp, gather our things together, and stay here for a few days.  That way everything can dry out some more, and maybe we can pick up some more traveling food…or at least allow our bison meat to be readied for traveling some more.  We really didn’t set any aside to dry enough for traveling…this would be the perfect opportunity to do so.”

Callie and Radec looked at each other and Callie smiled.  “What do you think?” she asked of him.  She was glad Healie had mentioned it.  Amara hadn’t been with them for the bulk of their trip, and although they were used to traveling, they were tired of it.  And Amara was obviously not used to traveling long distances…which was slightly confusing since she had Journeyed so far from her home in ‘America’.

Radec nodded.  “You make some very good points, Healie.  Okay, we’ll stay a few more days, but not too much longer.”

Healie nodded and smiled.  “Well, then, we should gather up the children and have them fetch our camp for us.”

Callie laughed, “That will be interesting to hear their response to that demand!”

Radec laughed as well and stood up.  “Okay, well, Panec just woke up, and I saw Amara earlier, so I know she’s awake.  I’m sure Danug is still snoring away, and Latie…I’m not sure where she went last night.”

Healie smiled.  “After most people had gone to bed, I saw Latie joining a young man.”

A knowing glance passed between Callie and Radec, and Callie nodded.  “Well, then, let’s find the others and let them know what we’re planning to do.”

Amara and Panec had started making their way over to where Callie, Radec, and Healie were sitting, and they happened to catch the very end of the conversation.

“What are our plans?” Panec asked.

“Well, my, my, Amara, you look bright this morning,” Healie commented.  “Your smile is stretching from ear to ear.  What makes you so happy so early?”  Healie looked a little closer, and then added, “With puffy eyes, as well.”

Amara’s smile widened even more.  “Tholie is going to name her baby after me!” she cried.  “Her name is ‘Amarie’!”

“Oh, that’s so wonderful!” Callie exclaimed.  “But that reminds me…you are all going to have to help me come up with a name for our little one, once it comes into the world.”

“We’ll be happy to help,” Panec said as he hugged Amara.  “So what are the plans?”

“I need you two and Danug and Latie to come back with me to the camp,” Radec began.

“Oh, are we leaving so soon?” Amara asked, disappointed.

Radec grinned.  “No, we’ll be staying here for few days, but I’d like to get our things and bring it here, that way we don’t have to keep borrowing their guest hearths, and we don’t have to worry about wild animals getting into our bison meat or other stores.”

Panec nodded in agreement.  “Understandable.  I’ll go look and see where Danug disappeared to last night; Amara, if you can go locate Latie…”

“I’m not sure she wants to be bothered,” Amara remarked, amused, “but I’ll go look for her.  The sooner we can get our stuff here, the better, I’m sure.”

 

 

Latie woke to feeling someone’s hands brushing through her hair.  She opened her eyes and saw Lareno leaning on his elbow, doing just that.  She smiled contentedly, stretched, and yawned.

“Good morning,” Lareno whispered in her ear.  He cupped her chin with his hand and kissed her gently.

“Good morning,” Latie replied, stretching once again.  She looked up at him and smiled.  Last night had been truly wonderful, she thought.  She had never felt so wonderful, nor more loved and happy.  Part of her wanted to say it, to say out loud, right away, that she was in love, but another part of her remembered that they were on a Journey, and Lareno would probably be just one of many men she would meet along the way.  However, the first part of her continued to tell her that she was wrong; Lareno was the only man, like this, she would ever meet.  She started to open her mouth to say something when she heard Amara calling her.

“Latie,” Amara said as she peeked her head in the hearth.  She looked at Lareno.  “Is she still asleep?” she whispered.  Lareno shook his head in reply, and Latie turned to look at Amara.  “I’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but Radec needs our help…we have to go back to the camp.”

Latie’s face fell and she sat up.  “Are we leaving already?” she asked, almost panicked.

Amara shook her head.  “No, we’ve got to go get our things so that we can bring them back here.  Radec and Callie and Healie say we’ll be staying for a few more days.”

Latie sighed in relief, and looked over at Lareno.  “Okay, I’m on my way,” she said.

Amara nodded and left.  Latie watched her as she left, and thought about the relationship between Amara and Panec.  Amara was now her best friend; she had never enjoyed someone’s company as much as she enjoyed Amara’s, but there was a part of her that was a tad bit jealous.  Amara and Panec had found true happiness and love in each other within only days of meeting the other, and yet Latie had been consciously searching since she had her First Rites.  She never really liked Panec in that way, but part of her had wondered what he was really like.  She smiled and looked at Lareno.  “I need to go with them, but hopefully, we can get everything packed up and back here soon,” she said as she pulled on her tunic.

“How about you let me go get some more men to help out?  That would make everything go faster, and would take fewer trips,” Lareno offered.

Latie smiled gratefully at him.  “If you like, I’m sure Radec would be grateful for some help.”  She pulled on her leggings, offered another smile toward him, and then ducked out of the hearth.

Lareno laid back down and closed his eyes.  He couldn’t count how much he owed Tholie now for teaching him Mamutoi.  Most of the other young men hadn’t been too interested in learning another language, but he had found it fascinating, so Tholie had taught him, and taught him well enough to carry on a conversation well enough for almost any practical purpose.  As soon as he had seen Latie, his heart melted.  Amara was beautiful as well, but she already obviously had Panec, and although she was intriguing, he seemed drawn toward Latie.  He grinned widely; had he not known Mamutoi, he would not have been able to get closer to Latie.  He breathed deeply, then sat up quickly and began dressing.  At that time, Darvalo walked by.

“Darvalo!” he called.  Darvalo turned and looked at him.  “Do you think you and some of the other men would be willing to help the Mamutoi pack up their stuff and bring it over here?”

Darvalo grinned.  “Sure!  Let me go ask some others.  When do they need the help?”

Lareno shrugged.  “I think pretty soon.  Amara just came and asked for Latie, saying that they needed to gather their things.”

Darvalo smirked knowingly.  “Oh, she did, did she?  Amara came and asked for Latie?  And I’m assuming Latie was here to be asked for…”

Lareno grinned and rolled his eyes.  “Yes, as a matter of fact, she was.”

Darvalo grinned in response and nodded.  “Finish getting dressed, lazy, and I’ll go get some help.”  He then left and walked over to where Markeno and some other men were conversing.

Lareno smiled and shook his head.  Darvalo was a great guy, and had a good sense of humor; the two had been best of friends since Ayla and Jondalar’s visit.  He had worried at first that Darvalo, especially with his ties to Jondalar and Thonolan, might be interested in Latie, but he had had to remind himself that since Melanio had her First Rites only a moon ago, Darvalo seemed to be completely attached to her.  He was glad; they made a good couple, although honestly, he had been a little jealous.  Lareno had never had problems attracting women, and he had actually had a couple of serious relationships, but none of them seemed to last long.  He frowned.  Usually it was because the one or both of them lost interest, or in one case, the woman had only been stopping by their camp with her mother and her mother’s mate for trading and ended up leaving after only a quarter cycle of the moon.  He shook his head and hoped that this wouldn’t be the case with Latie, although he knew that the Mamutoi were only stopping by as well.  This would take some serious thought, he said to himself.

 

 

The others had already left to go back, but Amara had volunteered to wait for the help that Latie said Lareno had promised so that she could show them the way through the woods.  Since she and Danug were the only ones who had made the trip more than once, it was most logical that one of the two of them would stay and show their Sharamudoi cousins how to get to their temporary camp.  Judging the best she could, walking as she and Danug had yesterday morning, it was a around a half-hour walk; running as she and Danug had done after that, though, it took only a few minutes.  She shook her head.  She couldn’t believe that was only yesterday!  And already these people were like family.  She could only hope that all the people along this trip were this kind and courteous.

She watched as Lareno emerged from the hearth he and Latie had shared last night, and he started walking her way.  “Good morning, Amara!” he said happily.

She grinned widely at him.  “Good morning, Lareno,” she returned.  “How was your night?  Did you sleep well?”

He grinned back.  “It was a wonderful night, and when I finally went to sleep, I slept better than I think I ever have before.”  He stood beside her and looked off in the direction of the Mamutoi camp.  “Latie’s pretty amazing.”

Amara nodded.  “Yes, she is,” she said, watching him closely.  She hesitated, then decided to be bold, and asked, “What do you think of her, Lareno?”

He shook his head.  “I’ve never met anyone like her, and I doubt I ever will.”  A shadow crossed his face.  “You’ll only be staying a few more days?” he asked.

She nodded reluctantly.  “We’re going all the way to the Great Waters, from what they told me, and we’ll visit Ayla and Jondalar on the way.”  She felt funny saying their names as if they were her friends.  “Why do you ask?”

Lareno ran his hand through his hair, then clasped his fingers behind his neck.  “A few more days isn’t long enough with someone like her.”

She understood how he felt.  “I felt that way about Panec not long after I met him,” she offered.

He nodded.  “I felt that way last night after I danced with her the first time.”  Then he laughed.  “And she seemed to enjoy dancing with me; she never turned me down for anyone else, and she actually turned someone else down to dance with me.”  He looked down and fiddled with a piece of thong that was loose off of the waist of his leggings.  Amara could have sworn she saw a glistening in his eyes.  “I have a lot of decisions to make,” he remarked under his breath, almost to where she couldn’t hear him.

She looked at him in surprise, her mouth agape.  “Are you…” she began, then stopped.  She looked at him closely.  She couldn’t believe what she had heard.  “Lareno, are you sure?” she asked.

He shrugged.  “I don’t know.  My mother and her mate,” he gestured back toward the camp, “I love them, I love them both.  I’ve lived here all my life, but yet I never felt completely happy.  I had an excellent childhood, and since Jondalar and Ayla visited and then left, Darvalo and I have been extremely close.”  He looked at her and smiled.  “Darvalo is Shamudoi, and I’m Ramudoi, so that made for a better friendship; neither was any good at the other’s trade, so there was no competition.”  Amara nodded.  “But then Melanio had her First Rites; Darvalo has been infatuated with her for a long time.  I think seeing Jondalar so happy with Ayla made him realize that he wanted more out of life than what he had, and as soon as he realized he loved her, it was extremely hard for him to stay away.  But now that she’s a woman, I’ll imagine they’ll be mated soon.”  He grinned again.  “There’s talk that she’s been recently blessed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her child is of Darvalo’s spirit.”

Amara furrowed her brow.  “She’s blessed already?  And so young?”

Lareno looked confused.  “I think so, but there are several women who become blessed not long after their First Rites, if not immediately after.”  He sighed.  “But the more I see them together, the more I started picturing my own life, happier than ever with a mate of my own.”  He smiled softly.  “And when I saw Latie, I, I just…I knew that there was something special about her.”  He looked pleadingly at Amara.  “I know I’ve only known her for one day, but do you believe me when I tell you that I love her?”

Amara nodded.  “Yes, I honestly do; but Lareno, we will be leaving in a few days.  What will you do then?  I don’t think she’d be willing to stay; she’s come so far, and this whole Journey was originally her idea, and she wants to go all the way to the Great Waters.”

He took a deep breath.  “Then I’ll simply join you,” he stated firmly.

Amara looked him up and down, then nodded.  She had every reason to believe what he said, and no reason to doubt it.  The men here were not at all like some of the men at home; when these men said something, they meant it, and they went through with it, and they didn’t back away at the thought of commitment.  In fact, they seemed more convinced of the need to settle down than the women did.  She wondered if that wasn’t in part due to the fact that they did not understand conception.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Darvalo approached with a few other men.  She smiled at him.  “Do you think this is enough?” he asked.  She nodded in reply.  “Well, then, let’s get going!”

 

 

With all the help available, it didn’t take them long at all to move the Mamutoi belongings into the area of the Shamudoi camp.  Some of the Ramudoi returned to their own camp, while others promised to stay at least one more night, Lareno being one of them.  The day before, after the encounter Markeno and Darvalo had had with the Mamutoi, they had sent a runner the short distance to the Ramudoi camp to invite anyone over for a small impromptu celebration that night, to which all responded.  But now that the excitement of meeting the Mamutoi and spending time with the guests was over, many of the Ramudoi had returned home.

Amara was sad to see many of them leave; she found them all fascinating and wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, but she knew that this would be the case for the entire Journey, meeting people and moving on.  She sighed, and likened it to leaving her first home not so long ago; when they moved from the States, she knew she’d probably never see any of her friends there again.  The good thing is, she thought, that sort of prepared me for what this would be like.

“Danug,” she asked.  He looked up from where he was drawing pictures in the dust.  “After we’re finished with this Journey, where will we go?” she asked.

He shrugged.  “As long as we make it to the end alive, we’ll just go back home when we’re done.”

She was slightly alarmed at his answer.  “Do you think there’s a chance we might not make it?” she asked.

He shook his head.  “No, not with so many of us.”  He furrowed his brow momentarily.  “I just wish there were more men than just the three of us.  I didn’t like the idea of only three men in the first place; not that women are helpless by any means, but you know what I mean.”

Amara nodded and then grinned.  “You know what?” she asked.

“What?”

“Lareno mentioned something…it seems he’s really into Latie…and he kind of hinted that he might be interested in joining us,” she offered.

Danug grinned.  “Wouldn’t that be something?!  We find a new girl, then we find a new guy, what next?”  He laughed.  “Well, it sure wouldn’t hurt to have him along.”

“I agree,” Callie said as she sat down beside them, patting her stomach.  “The more people we have, the better.  I can do a lot, but now that I’m blessed, my ability to help everyone will be a little limited.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “I think we’re going to have to find somewhere to stay before winter sets in.  I would rather not have to worry about giving birth with no healer around.”

The others nodded in agreement.  Clearly, Callie’s pregnancy would prove to be a delay in their Journey, but there were no specific time restraints, and no one was expecting them.  Without having to conform to any specific schedule, the birth of Callie’s child would not present a problem time-wise.  There was an edge of fear in the back of everyone’s mind; struggling through a pregnancy while traveling was not going to be easy for Callie, and they were all grateful for any help that could be provided; namely, the addition of more people to their numbers.

Amara sighed to herself.  The more she thought about it, the more she did not want to travel.  She wanted to go home, wherever that might be, and settle down.  She knew that her potential quite frankly no longer existed; at home she had been a bright student with a promising future.  Here, she was facing the grim reality that she would probably outlive Panec by several years, if she didn’t die of salmonella first, and that the most she could ever learn would be small trades.  She could never grow up to become a doctor in her own eyes.  Although the healers here did indeed have impressive methods, they were still crude, no matter how skilled that healer might have been, when compared to the modern advances in technology she had once been so used to.  She felt that she might as well give up on her ambition and resign herself to her fate.  She loved Panec more than anything or anyone she could have ever dreamed of, but whereas at home she might have had family and success, here she felt the only thing she could have would be the family aspect.  But that was okay, she thought.  She smiled to herself encouragingly and tried to think of her future in a positive way.  This was her life now, and there was no changing it.  There was one thing in the back of her mind that kept peeking out, however; what if Ayla knew something she didn’t?  Amara knew that that question would remain in the back of her mind until she met this wonderful woman she kept hearing about, and asked her her questions.  Maybe Ayla would know.

 

 

The next couple of days flew by in a flash.  The Sharamudoi were more than happy to help them prepare their bison meat for traveling, and even donated some sturgeon to the effort.  Danug actually helped to harpoon one, and Amara finally got to taste the caviar that she had only thought of as ‘rich people’s food’.  She wasn’t impressed by them; before she even had a small scoopfull in her mouth she was spitting it out.  She felt sort of bad, seeing that everyone else obviously loved them, but she couldn’t help her reaction; they were rather disgusting in her opinion.  She had never been a real big fish person, but she could tolerate it, which was a good thing; in this day in age, there was no room to be picky about your food.

The feelings Lareno had for Latie blossomed tenfold during that time as well.  She obviously had feelings in return, but she didn’t really consider the possibility that he might join them.  She tried to make herself believe that this would be one of many flings along the way to the Great Waters of the West, but the more time she spent with him, the more heartbroken she was afraid she would be when they left.  No one had mentioned to her that he had hinted about joining the Mamutoi on their Journey, for which he was glad; he wanted the opportunity to seriously think about the option, as the possibility of never seeing his family again was indeed a factor.  His actions and reactions to Latie did not go unnoticed, though, and there were many whispers through the camp.

Tholie for one understood exactly how he felt.  She had been trying for at least a day to sit down and talk things over with him, seeing as how she had made a very similar decision once, but with the bustle and activity around it was hard to find extra time.  After the traveling meat was prepared, however, she noticed that Lareno was wandering off, and decided to follow him.  Handing Amarie to Danug with instructions to leave the baby in Markeno’s care when he returned, she jogged after the young indecisive man.

“Lareno,” she said, getting his attention.

He stopped and turned around.  “I didn’t know that anyone was following me,” he began.

Tholie smiled.  “Lareno, I think we need to talk.”

He shrugged in reply.  “What is there to talk about?  You know I want to go, everyone but Latie knows I want to go.  But I don’t know if I should go.  I don’t know how to deal with leaving everyone here, all my family and friends.  I’ve only known her for a few days, and who knows what could happen with the rest of our lives.”  He shrugged.  “I just don’t want to make a mistake and have to pay for it for the rest of my life.”

Tholie nodded.  “I understand, Lareno, but I had to take that gamble, too.”  She looked at him closely as he nodded slowly.  “Lareno, tell me honestly, how do you feel about her?”

Lareno sighed in response.  “I can’t describe it.  I don’t know how…I don’t know the words.”  He put his hand to his chest.  “When I think of her, I feel a tightening here, and it makes me just want to hold her for forever.”

Tholie nodded.  “Do you want to know what I think?”  Lareno looked up, squinted his eyes, and nodded.  Tholie smiled and patted his cheek.  “I think you should take the gamble and go.  If you don’t, you’ll always be wishing you had.”

Lareno grinned and nodded.  “I suppose you’re right.”  He sighed heavily.  “It’s a huge decision, and I think you’ve helped me make up my mind.”  He put his hands on the small of his back and leaned backwards, stretching.  “I think I’ll go home tonight,” he said, “and talk to my mother and her mate.  I’m sure they’ll understand, but I owe them at least one more night.”

Tholie nodded in agreement.  “Then go to them, Lareno, and then return to Latie.”  She smiled at him reassuringly.

He responded with a weak smile and looked around.  “I don’t suppose you know where they went, do you?”

She shook her head.  “Why don’t you go on home?  That’ll give you the maximum amount of time with your mother and her mate, and I’ll explain to the others where you went.”

“You won’t tell them my decision, will you?”

Tholie shook her head.  “No,” she laughed, “and somehow I’m thinking that Latie really doesn’t know what you’re scheming.”

Lareno grinned.  “No, I don’t think she does.  I know Amara and I have talked about it, but I don’t think she mentioned to Latie that I was actually thinking about joining them.  I suppose I should talk to Radec and Callie about it.”

Tholie nodded.  “If you’d like, I can talk to them as well.  Yes, Amara is easy to talk to, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is, and yes, if you want to mention it to them, go ahead.  And if for some reason they would rather I not join them, please send a runner with the message?”

Tholie nodded again.  “I will.”

Lareno grinned and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.  “Thank you, Tholie!” he exclaimed.  He smiled at her and then turned to go to the guest hearth at which he had been staying to gather some of his things for his short trip home.  He hesitated for a moment, and then decided to simply take all of his belongings that he had with him, that way he could return home and make final decisions as to what to bring with him on this new and exciting Journey.

 

 

Radec was with a gathering of several other men, all boasting loudly about various topics.  Tholie gestured to him and he put down his fermented drink and meandered over to where Tholie was standing.  “Yes?” he asked.

“I need to talk to you and Callie,” Tholie said.  “About Lareno.”

Radec grinned, as he assumed where the conversation would be directed soon.  “Sure!” he replied, grinning.

Callie was easily found, and the three went off to one edge of the clearing and sat on some logs that had been arbitrarily placed there as seats.  “I need to talk to you two about Lareno,” Tholie repeated once they had adjusted themselves to comfortable positions.  Radec and Callie exchanged smiles, eager to hear what Tholie had to say.  “It seems Lareno has become quite captivated by Latie,” Tholie continued.  “He left to return home just minutes ago, so that he could spend an evening with his mother and her mate, before—well, he would like to join you on your Journey westward if you don’t...”

Radec grinned widely.  “We’d love to have the boy along!” he interrupted.  Callie nodded in agreement and smiled as well.

Tholie smiled in relief.  “I didn’t think that either of you would have a problem with his addition, and I gather that no one else in your group will, either.”  Radec shrugged, and Tholie nodded.  “That’s what I was thinking.  He asked me to not mention it to Latie yet; I believe he’d like to tell her himself.  Although,” she chuckled, “I’m sure she’ll feel heartbroken for at least a little while since he’s left.”

Callie shook her head.  “Yes, but what a surprise she’ll have when she finds out!”  She stood and patted her stomach.  “Okay, we won’t tell her,” she said.

Tholie nodded.  “I was sure you two would understand.  Thank you, from both myself and Lareno.”

Callie nodded.  “I can only imagine how scary it was for you to leave the Mamutoi.  I promise that Lareno will be well taken care of.”

Radec smiled.  “Yes, he will.”  He glanced over to where the other men were.  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I must return to my bouza.”

The two women laughed and strolled back to a more centralized location as Radec eagerly returned to his drink and boasts with the men of the camp.

 

 

“But where could he have gone, Amara?” Latie asked worriedly.  “I’ve been looking for him all afternoon, and it seems he just disappeared!”

“Latie, I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.  He may have gone to pass his water; please don’t worry too much,” Amara replied.  Somehow, she knew in the back of her mind where Lareno could be found.

At that moment, Callie and Tholie walked into sight, and Latie turned to them.  “Do either of you know where Lareno went?” she asked.

Tholie smiled inwardly to herself.  “I believe he returned home,” she replied.

Latie’s face fell.  “He returned home?” she asked.

Tholie nodded.  “Yes, he wanted to spend some time with his mother and her mate,” she said.  “But I’m sure he’ll be back before too long, at least before you leave.”

Latie’s lip quivered and tears threatened.  “He left?  To spend time with his mother?  What about spending time with me?  I’m the one who will be leaving; he can spend time with his mother after I’m gone!” she cried.

Tholie nodded and hugged the young woman.  “I know,” she said, “men can be like that sometimes.”  She was almost bursting with the secret, but managed to exercise enough self-control to avoid spilling it.  She kissed Latie quickly on the forehead and offered a quick smile, and then before she burst out laughing, she turned quickly to go, with Callie following behind.

Latie turned slowly to Amara, lip still quivering.  “Is it just me, or did they not seem to care?” she asked.  “What if Radec decides to leave tomorrow?  What if I never get to see him again?”  The tears started to overflow and she collapsed into Amara’s arms.  “Do you suppose Radec would be willing to postpone leaving so that I could tell Lareno goodbye?” she sniffled.  “Or do you think someone would be willing to go with me to see him at the Ramudoi camp?”

Amara shook her head.  “I’m not sure about that last one, but I’m sure Radec wouldn’t mind waiting a little while, a day at most I would assume, so that you could say goodbye to him,” she said.  She was sure she knew why Lareno had returned to the Ramudoi camp, and if she was correct, she didn’t feel that Latie should try to visit.  Amara assumed that Lareno would spend time with his mother and her mate, and then the three of them would return to the Shamudoi camp, so that Lareno’s mother could see him off.  But until then, she thought, Latie will be a wreck.  She shook her head silently and smiled to herself as she patted the back of the young woman who was crying in her arms.

 

 

It didn’t take long for him to reach the familiar place that he had called home for twenty cycles of the seasons.  He smiled weakly and sighed to himself, feeling the consequences of the decision he had made.  He quickly decided to simply duck into the hearth his mother shared with her mate, rather than greet all of the people here who were all anxious to hear any news from the Shamudoi camp of their Mamutoi guests.

Solamio was squatted at the fire, preparing the dinner for that evening when she heard the hide panels moving behind her.  She quickly turned around and smiled at the sight of her oldest child, but was surprised to see him.

“Lareno!” she exclaimed, standing to embrace him.  “I wasn’t expecting you so soon!  What are you doing back so early?” she inquired as she gave him a firm hug.

He smiled and held her at arms length.  “Mother, I need to talk to you and Darano,” he said.

All at once, Solamio’s heart leapt.  Somehow, she knew what it was that he needed to speak to them about.  She had always known that he would someday find a woman, mate, and begin a hearth of his own, but not once had she considered the possibility that he might one day leave.  She had seen during the short while she was at the Shamudoi camp how happy he and Latie were together, but she hadn’t really thought about the implications of the situation.  She swallowed hard and tried to smile happily, but the look on his face told her the truth.  She sighed deeply, nodded, and smiled.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.  He nodded, and she began filling a plate with a portion of the meal that she had prepared.  “Darano will be back shortly.  He took your brothers down to the river again.”

Lareno nodded and smiled, remembering fondly the days when Darano had done the same thing with him.  He knew that Merkando and Donalvo, his two younger brothers, twelve and eight respectively, would miss him tremendously, but he was sure they would understand.  They had always looked up to him, aspiring to be like him someday, and he wondered if he would ever see them again after he left.

His mind wandered as he began slowly eating what he knew was his last dinner with his family, and he was startled back into reality when the others returned from their excursion and Donalvo jumped onto his back in greeting.

“Lareno!” Donalvo laughed as he wrapped his small arms around Lareno’s neck, almost choking him.

Lareno put down his plate and swung the young boy into his lap and began tickling him.  Donalvo shrieked with laughter, and Merkando quickly joined in.  Within seconds, the three were wrestling on the floor, tickling and laughing, while Solamio and Darano watched and laughed at their antics.

“Enough!” Solamio exclaimed after they had knocked over Lareno’s plate, spilling what was left of his dinner.  The three boys sat up, still smirking and poking at each other.  Solamio ushered the younger two to a large bin full of water so that they could wash, while Darano sat down beside the oldest of Solamio’s sons and slapped his back.  The two men smiled at each other and Darano began eating the food on the plate set before him.

After the meal filled with casual conversation and laughter was over, Solamio took the younger boys to a neighboring hearth belonging to a family with several young boys so that they could expend some energy while the adults discussed the issues that Lareno surely needed to discuss that evening.  Although they weren’t excited about not being able to spend more time with their brother, they were content with their regular playmates, and soon a ruckus could be heard from that hearth.

Solamio had mentioned to Darano what she thought the topic of conversation would be that evening, and his light attitude quickly sobered.  He and Lareno were extremely close, and the thought of losing him weighed heavily on his mind.  After Lareno had changed into a more worn tunic, he sat down across the fire from his mother and Darano.  He was understandably a little nervous, but he had expected to be so.

They sat silently staring at the fire for what seemed an eternity until Darano spoke.  “Do you love her?” he asked.

Lareno hadn’t expected such a forward question, but at least they were getting to the point.  He looked straight at the two adults who had raised him and replied, “Yes, with everything in me, more than I could ever imagine.”

Darano sighed and poked at the fire with a stick.  He glanced quickly over at Solamio, whose eyes glistened in the firelight.  “Well, then, there’s not much of anything to discuss,” he said.  His voice cracked, and he folded his hands and rested his face on his intertwined fingers, his elbows resting on his knees.  He blinked hard and looked up at the young man.  He remembered a point in time where he had felt the same conviction about being with a woman.  He again glanced over at his mate, who had a single tear running down her face.  He smiled softly, thinking to himself that he still, to this day had that conviction about her.  He reached over and wiped the tear away and put his arm around her.  “Lareno, if you love her, then you need to be with her.  That’s how your mother and I feel about each other.  You are your own person now, and if you feel that it is your destiny to go with her, to be with her, then please, go, and our blessing will be with you always.”

Lareno smiled gratefully.  “You don’t think I’m making a mistake?”

Solamio choked and managed to smile.  “No, I don’t think so.  I see it in your eyes.  I see in your eyes for Latie what I see in Darano’s eyes for myself,” she said.  She smiled through the tears that began falling freely.  “I’m just selfish and don’t want you to go, simply because you’re my son.”

Lareno went to the other side of the fire and embraced his mother.  Darano in turn embraced the two of them, letting the couple of tears that fell from his eyes fall into Solamio’s hair.  “I love you both,” Lareno said.  He smiled encouragingly.  “I’m sure we’ll be back…I’m sure we’ll stop back by here on the way back,” he said.  Then he shrugged.  “Who knows?  Maybe Latie will be willing to stay here with me then.”

Solamio smiled at the thought, but somehow she doubted it.

“I’ll be staying here tonight, so that I can spend some more time with the boys, but I’ll return to the Shamudoi camp tomorrow,” he informed them.  “I’m not sure when Radec and Callie will want to leave, but I’ll send someone to get you when we do, so that we can say goodbye.”

Darano nodded and smiled.  He was determined to have a good time with the son of his mate this evening, goodbye or no.  He smiled and lightened the mood.  “Why don’t we get the boys back over here?” he asked, and grinned.

 

 

Latie was hardly able to sleep at all that night.  Radec and Callie said that they would leave the morning after next, and she fretted all evening that Lareno would not return.  When her fears were realized as dusk fell, her heart started breaking as she decided that he didn’t care for her as he had led her to believe.  As she lay awake, tossing and turning the whole night through, heartache began to dissolve into anger.  She was even angrier with herself for not being able to go to sleep, as she could tell when the full moon had passed its zenith, signifying the ever-closer dawning of the next day.

At some point during her restless night, she must have fallen asleep, because she opened her eyes to a bright day, already dawned.  She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms behind her.  She peeked her head out from under her furs and blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust.  She then threw the furs back and stumbled out of her bed, quickly throwing on some clothes so that she could pass her water and make a short trip down to the river to clean up.

As she splashed the river water on her face, the memories of the day before suddenly came flooding back to her.  She sniffled a couple of times and managed to keep back the tears, but although they had only been apart for a day, she missed Lareno.  She absent-mindedly washed, and then she wandered back to the camp.

Amara had already spoken to Radec and Callie and knew the surprise that awaited Latie at the end of the day, but although she wanted to keep the secret, her heart went out as she saw the young woman, oblivious to the world in her misery.  “Latie!” she called.

Latie looked up, sadness covering her face.  “Yes?”

“Are you hungry?  Tholie made an excellent breakfast for us!”

Latie smiled grimly and sauntered over to Amara.  “Okay,” she said slowly.

Tholie then appeared and thrusted Amarie in the direction of the two young women.  “Can one of you hold her for me, for just a little while?”

Amara nodded and took the baby.  “Sure, Tholie!” she replied.

Sadly, Latie traced her finger across the baby’s smooth cheeks and chin.  “Maybe someday I can have one of my own,” she remarked, sighing.  “But it probably won’t be any time soon.”

Amara had to turn away to avoid Latie seeing the grin that spread across her face.  She was amused at how melancholy, and ignorant of the awaiting surprise, Latie was.

For the most part, the day passed by uneventfully, with Latie growing ever more melancholy as time dwindled.  She began getting anxious, watching everywhere to see if Lareno might sneak up on her, but to no avail.  The sun passed its zenith and dipped lower in the sky, and still no Lareno.  Her nervousness was beginning to get the better of her as dusk began to fall, and she was hardly able to enjoy the delicious dinner and celebration the Shamudoi had provided on the eve of the Mamutoi departing.

Radec stood after he had eaten his three helpings of the tasty chamois meat, which none of the Mamutoi had ever before enjoyed.  He grinned widely, ready to make his announcement.  “On the behalf of all of us, we Mamutoi travelers would like to thank the Sharamudoi for the assistance you have provided, and the Shamudoi for the space you have provided for our weary travelers.  Your kindness will never be forgotten, and if no one here disagrees, we will be sure to stop by on our way back home.”  Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the crowd, and Radec winked.  “But don’t stay up waiting for us; it may be a little while before we see each other again.”

Dolando cleared his throat and stood as well.  “Radec of the Mamutoi, we of the Sharamudoi wish you the best on your Journey, and please send our well wishes to Ayla and Jondalar when you see them.  Please feel free to take anything you need to assist you.”  He reached down and picked up a small package from between where he and Roshario had been seated beside each other.  “From Roshario and Tholie, we would like to give Callie these items for her child.”  He walked over to hand her the package, and she gasped when she saw the contents.  There was quite a bit of soft absorbent wool, and several of the soft chamois hides, perfect for a newborn.  Her eyes glistened as she looked thankfully over at Roshario and Tholie for their gift.  Dolando smiled and shrugged.  “They figured that you could use a little help along the way,” he said.

Callie went over to the other women and hugged them both strongly.  “Thank you,” she said, wiping her eyes and sniffling.

“We would have provided you with more gifts,” Dolando continued, “but we really didn’t have time to prepare any, since you have only been here a few days.”

“Never mind, Dolando,” Radec replied.  “You’ve helped us more than you can imagine.  We just wish there was something we can give you in return; we still owe you quite a debt.”

Dolando shrugged it off.  “Radec, you’ve provided us with several days of entertainment and new, fresh stories and ideas.  I believe that’s more than plenty of repayment.”

Radec smiled warmly at Dolando, then the two men embraced.  Dolando put his hands on either of Radec’s shoulders and smiled.  “Good luck to you, my friend,” he said.

Radec smiled and nodded.  “Thank you.”  Then he cleared his throat and continued to the crowd, “We shall be leaving tomorrow soon after dawn.  Thank you, all of you, for your kindness; it will never be forgotten.”

Well wishes and cheers were offered loudly from the Shamudoi and few Ramudoi who were there.  A few mothers then stood to take their children to bed, despite the requests otherwise.  Before they were halfway to their hearths, however, a man’s shout rang out, and conversation silenced.

Latie brightened more than she ever thought possible when she looked in the direction in which everyone else was looking after the shout and saw Lareno coming towards them.  On his back he toted a traveling pack, stuffed full.  Latie’s mouth dropped and she had to tell herself to not jump to conclusions.  Nevertheless, she was shaking with anticipation at what he might say.

Lareno jogged to the middle of the circle of people, put his pack down, and then moved to stand in front of Radec and Callie.  “Radec of the Mamutoi, I, Lareno of the Ramudoi, wish to join you on your Journey.”  Radec grinned, and Latie could hardly contain her excitement, almost squealing in happiness.

“Lareno of the Ramudoi, you are most welcome,” Radec replied.

Smiles of agreement and mutters of encouragement went throughout the group, and then feeling that the announcement was over, once again a few people began to leave the gathering.

“Very quickly,” Lareno continued, “and I’m sorry to take so long.”  He then walked over to where Latie was sitting, shaking with excitement, and knelt down before her.  “Latie of the Mamutoi, I know that this isn’t abiding to the tradition, but I have to ask,” he hesitated, trying to figure out the best way to ask, “but will you Promise to Join with me?”

Her emotions getting the better of her, Latie burst out crying, and Lareno sent a silent plea to the Mother that she was crying out of happiness.  Latie nodded, and through her tears managed to choke, “Yes, I Promise.” 

Lareno grinned widely and embraced her.  Realizing that now they were the objects of all the attention, he choked, “I’m done now.”

People grinned at each other and took the hint, beginning to disperse to their own hearths.  Amara looked lovingly at Panec and smiled, who smiled in return.  She felt his arms go around her, holding her close to him, and she was happier than words could express that Latie had found the happiness she already had in Panec.  “I’m so happy for them,” Panec whispered in their ear.

Amara nodded and glanced over to where Latie and Lareno were sitting, Latie crying, Lareno comforting her, both talking softly to each other.  “I am too,” she said, and then looked up at her future mate.  “Shall we leave them alone?” she suggested.  “I wonder how much sleep they’ll get tonight.”

Panec grinned at her and ran his fingers through her hair.  He kissed her forehead and nodded.  They began walking to their makeshift hearth, both glancing back one more time at the blissful couple.

 

 

It was still dark when Amara felt herself being shaken awake.  At first she was afraid that something was wrong, but soon it dawned on her that this was the morning they would be leaving the Sharamudoi in order to continue on their Journey westward.  She sat up and rubbed her eyes, smiled tiredly at Panec, then got up to go pass her water.  She couldn’t see very well, but she could tell that several people were up, even though the sun wasn’t even beginning to hint of its approach.

Lareno had slept well, and was actually one of the first people awake.  Nerando, considered the best Shamudoi runner, had told Lareno the evening before to wake him up early the next morning, and he would run and get Lareno’s mother, her mate, and his brothers, so that they could see them off.  He had done just that, and was expecting Nerando back any minute.  He was anxious for his mother to meet Latie in more than a casual sense, especially since Latie was the woman he was now planning to mate.  After Nerando had left, Lareno had taken the time to just lie down and watch Latie sleep.  He was truly captivated by her…the more he thought of her, the happier he was with his decision.

He looked up to see Amara walk by, and on an impulse he got up and quickly followed her.  “Amara,” he called quietly as he jogged to catch up with her.

She stopped and turned around, smiling at him.  “Good morning!” she exclaimed softly.

“I, uh…Amara, I just wanted to say thanks,” he stuttered.

“For what?”

“For helping me to realize what I really wanted out of all this,” he replied.

Amara grinned and cocked her head.  “It wasn’t me, Lareno; it was all you.  However, if you feel you have to give someone credit, I would thank Tholie,” she offered.

He nodded in reply.  “Yes, I owe her my life now for helping me to make my decision, but Amara, you helped to wake me up.  Had I not realized how I felt about Latie, there would have never been a decision for Tholie to help me to make.”

Amara sighed.  “Lareno, you did it all yourself.  It took you to realize how you felt about her, not me.  I just pushed you a little,” she said as she chuckled.

He smiled and then on an impulse reached out and embraced her.  She returned his hug strongly and patted his back a couple of times.  She looked to see Latie sitting up, smiling at them, and she pulled herself away.  “Latie awaits you,” she said smugly.

Lareno grinned and winked at her.  He turned on his heel and Amara headed toward the river, where she planned to wash herself quickly before leaving.  She and Panec had decided to pack the night before and had actually stayed up quite a while doing so.  The only things left to be packed were their small tent and a few last-minute belongings that they would need this morning.  She was glad that she wouldn’t have to go through the strain of packing with the limited amount of time they would have this morning, and because of that she had been able to sleep well.  She hated the stress of packing, and it was best to be done with quickly.

She quietly padded down to the river and stripped.  The water was refreshing, and it was actually kind of interesting to bathe in the dark.  She laughed to herself when she remembered the last time she had done that; only a week after they had moved from the States, she had been showering when Jacob had reached his hand into the bathroom and flipped off the light switch, leaving her in complete darkness.  The difference here was that she at least had stars.  Oh, how mad she had been!  She had quickly returned the ‘favor’, however, when the next morning he had awoken to find shaving cream in his slippers.  They had constantly been doing something like that to each other, and her friendship with her brother was one of the aspects of her old life that she missed most.  She absentmindedly wondered while rinsing the soaproot out of her hair how he was getting along without her.

She was brought into reality when she heard voices behind her.  Two young Shamudoi women were making their way down to the river themselves.  Amara remarked to herself how odd that was; what in the world were they doing out this early?  She let herself blend in to the riverbank and stayed still, her curiosity getting the better of her.  She strained to hear the whisperings of the two young ladies, and was surprised that they were speaking in Mamutoi.

“Okay,” one of the two women whispered to the other.  “Now what’s wrong with you that you had to drag me out of bed this early?  And why do you want me to speak in Mamutoi?!”

The other woman sniffled and sighed.  “Only a couple of people here know Mamutoi!  I didn’t want anyone to overhear us!”

“Whoever would be out this early?” the first woman asked.

“Well, they’re leaving this morning, and I figured that there would probably be some people up helping them to get ready,” the second woman replied.

“Well what about the Mamutoi?  They speak their language; what if one of them overheard us?” the first woman asked, obviously annoyed.

“They’re leaving, and Lareno’s going with them…what would it matter?” the second woman said resignedly.

The first woman sighed in reluctance.  “Okay, fine, so what’s wrong with you?”

“Well, I…I, Yelenio, I don’t want him to go with them!” she exclaimed softly.

“Who?”

“Lareno!  Who do you think?”

“Jolamio, I’m sorry that he’s leaving, I really am, but what can you do about it?  I know how you feel about him, and I’m sure he does too, but apparently he doesn’t feel the same way.  I don’t want to hurt your feelings any more than they already are, but he seems to have feelings for Latie, or whatever her name is.  Please, just forget about him, okay?” Yelenio said.

“I know, I know, and that’s what people have been telling me for a while now, but I can’t forget him!” Jolamio cried.

Yelenio sighed at her friend’s exasperation.  “So what do you want to do?  Are you going to beg him to stay?  It’s a little late for that, Jolamio, I’m really sorry.”

Jolamio sniffled.  “I know, and I know I should just forget about him, but…ever since…well, he was so wonderful when he did my First Rites last summer, I’ve just…I haven’t been able to forget him.”  She closed her eyes and smiled tenderly.  “And then after what happened…” she sighed contentedly.

“Jolamio, what happened?” Yelenio asked of her friend.

“Hmm?” Jolamio hummed contentedly.

“What happened?!” Yelenio said, slightly louder, shaking her friend’s shoulder.

Even in the darkness, Amara could tell that Jolamio was blushing.  “Well, a moon ago, after what happened with Coralvo,” she giggled softly, remembering the hilarious story that had spread through the Sharamudoi about the young man’s incident, “you know, when he and Tholie and Markeno were playing around and her water broke?  That was so funny!  It’s just like Coralvo to try to show off…I just can’t believe Markeno would let him pick Tholie up like that!  And what luck, her water broke while he had picked her up!  I wish I could’ve seen the look on his face!  How strange that must’ve been for Tholie, laughing and being the subject of Coralvo’s showing-off, and then labor starts!  I wonder what it would be like to have labor pains between fits of laughter!”  Yelenio grinned and chuckled at the memory; it had been the funniest thing that happened since that incident with Jondalar and the half-sturgeon.  “Anyway, after Markeno finished telling that story, and everyone got so cheerful…Roshario made a little too much of her wine, I think, and, well, it just happened.”

Yelenio was still trying to choke down her laughter quietly, and she stopped to ask, “What happened?  Did you and Lareno share Pleasures?”

Again, Jolamio blushed, and in the slowly growing light, Amara could see her nod.  Then Jolamio sobered.  “And…and, Yelenio, it was wonderful, and I think…well, I think that the Mother was happy with us that night,” she said quietly.

Yelenio’s eyes widened.  “Jolamio!  Are you serious?  Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded.

“Shh!!  I didn’t know, until just recently, and I didn’t have my moon time.  I haven’t felt pregnant, but I’m sure now, yesterday I went and saw Shamud.”  She sniffled again.  “I wasn’t very happy when Lareno and Latie shared furs; I haven’t shared anyone’s furs but his since then, but it’s the Mother’s way.  And then he left, and I was so happy; I had thought that he was going home just to go home,” her voice cracked, “not to get his belongings together so that he could Promise with her!”

Yelenio was silent, and Amara could feel the weight of the pressure that had just been placed on her shoulders.  Yelenio sighed.  “Do you think the baby is of his spirit?” she asked cautiously.

Jolamio nodded, still sniffling and trying to prevent the tears from falling.  “I’m pretty sure.  It could be of anyone’s spirit, but I think it’s of his.”  She sniffled again, and then burst out crying.  “I don’t want him to go!” she cried, and fell into her friend’s arms.

Yelenio sighed deeply, stroking Jolamio’s hair.  “Does your mother know?” she asked.  Jolamio nodded in reply.  “Have you told Lareno?”  She felt Jolamio shake her head, and again Yelenio sighed.  “Jolamio, you can’t make him stay.  If he loves Latie, then he has every right to go with her.”

“I know,” Jolamio sniffled, wiping her eyes.  “And I don’t think he would stay, even if I was sure the baby was of his spirit.  I think he really loves her.  I just don’t want to admit that to myself.”

Yelenio nodded in understanding.  “Well, I think you owe it to him to tell him, but like I said, you can’t make him stay.  You can’t make him feel guilty, either, because if he starts feeling guilty and decides to stay, he may be miserable.  Of course,” she reasoned, “he’ll probably feel guilty either way.”  She shook her head.  “Jolamio, I don’t know what to tell you to do.”

They were quiet, sitting there thinking, and Amara debated her position.  She needed to return to the camp, but she didn’t want to reveal herself.  She glanced around, trying to think of a way to maybe escape the situation, but then she also wanted to say something.  She felt horrible for the young woman, and she was sure that the child was Lareno’s, from what Jolamio had said.  Lareno now had an obligation, but she reminded herself of the different society.  Here, it was an excellent thing to get pregnant…it made the woman more desirable if she was able to reproduce.  Jolamio looked like an attractive woman, and Amara was sure she could easily find someone else.  But, she seemed to be in love with Lareno, who obviously did not reciprocate the feelings.  What should she do?

The sky was growing slightly brighter, although dawn was still a long way away.  Again, Amara surveyed her situation, and decided on a plan.  If she did it just right, she could make it look like she had been swimming and had floated downstream and was just now floating back.  There was no way she could grab her clothes and make it look like she had just shown up; she couldn’t even reach her clothes.  She nodded to herself and quietly slipped into the water, being very careful not to make a single sound.  She had always been a good swimmer, and that helped in this situation.  She let herself float downstream just a little ways, and then turned around and began swimming back.

Jolamio and Yelenio heard the sounds of Amara swimming back, and they both looked up in surprise to see her getting out of the water.  “Amara!  We didn’t know you were here!” Yelenio exclaimed, still in Mamutoi.

Amara smiled.  “I wasn’t…I came down here earlier and I floated downstream.  When the sun started coming up, I decided to swim back,” she said.

Yelenio squinted her eyes, not sure she believed her.  Part of her wished that Amara had overheard the conversation; that might make it easier.  Amara dried off quickly and donned her clothes, and then started walking back.  “Amara!” Yelenio called.  Amara turned and looked at the two women.  “Jolamio, why don’t we tell her?” Yelenio whispered in Sharamudoi to her friend.

Jolamio looked up, surprised.  “What?” she asked.

“Why don’t we tell Amara?  She’s nice, and she might even be able to help,” Yelenio offered.

Jolamio shrugged.  “Everyone will know soon enough, I guess if you want to…” she let her sentence go unfinished.

“Amara, will you come here?” Yelenio asked, gesturing to her.

Amara nodded and walked back, sitting down in front of the two women.  “Yes?” she asked.

“Um, Amara…” Jolamio began, and then she hesitated.  “You tell her,” she commanded Yelenio.

Yelenio sighed but acquiesced.  “Amara, we have a little dilemma, and we were wondering if maybe you could help,” she began.

Amara nodded kindly, “I will if I can,” she said.  She then listened intently as Yelenio gave her an abridged version of the story she had just heard while in hiding.  When she was through, Amara sat quietly, trying to make it look like she was digesting the information.

“Do you…do you think I should tell him?  Do you think he’d stay if I told him?” Jolamio asked timidly.

Amara breathed deep and scowled, trying to think.  “I really don’t know.  I…well, I know how Latie feels about him, and Lareno and I have talked…he seems to feel the same way about her,” she said.  Jolamio’s face fell.  “I’m so sorry, I wish there were something I could do, but I don’t think I can make him change his mind,” she offered.

Jolamio nodded despairingly.  “That’s what I was afraid of,” she said.  She took a deep breath.  “Well, do you think I should tell him that I’ve been blessed?”

Amara thought about the question, then asked, “Jolamio, have you shared furs with anyone else?” she asked.

Jolamio blushed.  “Not since…” she began.

“Before that,” Amara interrupted.

Jolamio blushed again.  “Well, yes, there was one man…” she paused and looked at Yelenio.  “I don’t want you to laugh at me, Yelenio,” she requested.

Yelenio shook her head.  “I won’t,” she promised.

Jolamio looked down at her hands folded in her lap.  “Well, I guess I have to admit it, um…Coralvo and I…we…” she stopped and grinned.

Amara and Yelenio smiled as well.  “Do you love him?” Amara asked.

Jolamio shrugged.  “I like him.  He says that he loves me, but I don’t feel about him the way I do about Lareno,” she admitted.

“Your baby could just have easily be of Coralvo’s spirit, you know,” Amara offered.

Jolamio nodded.  “I know, but I don’t think it is,” she said.  Then she shrugged.  “It could just have easily been anyone’s spirit, if Coralvo’s.”

Amara thought about the situation.  Lareno loves Latie, Latie loves Lareno.  Jolamio loves Lareno, and she likes Coralvo.  She shook her head; it sounded like one of those junior high puppy-love situations from home.  However, usually in junior high, there wasn’t a pregnancy involved.  “Jolamio, I think you should tell Lareno that you’re blessed and that you think the child is of his spirit,” she said, “BUT, I think you should tell him that it might be of Coralvo’s spirit as well.”  Jolamio nodded.  “And I don’t think that you should try to convince him to stay,” Amara continued.  “If you made him feel guilty, like Yelenio said, he’ll just be miserable.”

Yelenio smiled to herself.  She knew it!  Amara had obviously been listening to their conversation from before, because she hadn’t mentioned just now that she felt Lareno would be miserable if Jolamio made him stay with her.  She shrugged to herself; she wasn’t going to call Amara on it.  Best to let Jolamio think that she had said it to Amara.  However, she did look up at the Mamutoi adoptee with a knowing look on her face when Amara made that comment.  Amara’s blush told her the truth, but Yelenio just smiled and nodded.  Amara let out an almost silent sigh of relief.  A lot had passed between Yelenio and Amara in that look, and neither would say anything to Jolamio.

Jolamio, oblivious to Yelenio’s discovery, nodded reluctantly.  “I suppose you’re right,” she said, sighing.  “Well, this will at least make me more desirable to the other men around,” she hinted.

Amara smiled to herself.  Jolamio was young, and apparently this wasn’t as much of a crisis as Jolamio seemed to think.  “Let’s get up and go back then.  I need to finish packing the few things I have left.  If you want, I’ll go tell Lareno that you need to talk to him,” she offered.

Jolamio nodded in agreement.  “Yes, please, Amara, and thank you,” she said, squeezing Amara’s arm.  “No, wait…can you just tell him for me?  I don’t know if I can face him…if he wants to talk to me after you tell him, then maybe, but I don’t think I can keep myself composed long enough to tell him about everything.”

Amara smiled at the young woman.  “Okay, if that’s what you want, I’ll tell him.  And congratulations, Jolamio,” she said excitedly.

Jolamio smiled, temporarily forgetting her plight.  “It is exciting, isn’t it?”

The three young women stood up and made their way back to the camp, making small talk along the way.  Amara hugged each in goodbye, and then headed toward the tent she and Panec had shared.  She quickly packed the last of her things, and when Panec noticed she was back, he came over and they packed up their furs.  They were just finishing when Amara noticed Lareno returning from passing his water, headed in Latie’s direction.  She gave Panec a knowing look and told him that she needed to take care of something.  He nodded and finished the packing while she jogged in the dawning sunlight toward Lareno.

“Lareno,” she called as she approached him.  He noticed her and diverted from his intended path and walked in her direction.  “Lareno, there’s something I’ve been asked to tell you,” she said.  She scowled sarcastically to herself, finding it amusing that people kept asking her, someone barely familiar with these customs and ideals, for advice.  He nodded and they sat down together.  She took a deep breath and asked, “How do you feel about Jolamio?”

He looked at her, surprised at her question.  “Jolamio?  Why?”

“Just answer the question; how do you feel about her?” Amara said firmly.

Lareno shrugged.  “I like her, she’s a great person…” he hesitated, then blushed slightly.  “I did her First Rites, if that means anything.  There have also been a couple of times since then that she and I have Honored the Mother together, but that’s about it.”

Amara nodded.  “I was just talking with her and Yelenio,” she said.  He made a face and then gestured for her to continue.  “Lareno, she’s been blessed very recently, about a moon ago.”

Lareno grinned.  “I’m happy for her!  She’ll be a good mother,” he said.  “There are sometimes when she’s…well…sometimes she can be a little childish, but she’s only been a woman for not quite an entire cycle of seasons, so that’s expected.”

Amara smiled, understanding his meaning.  “She told me that she believes the child is of your spirit,” he began to react, but she stopped him quickly, “but she’s not sure.”

Lareno sighed.  He hesitated, then asked, “What does she want me to do?”

“Well, ideally, of course, she would like for you to stay here, but she knows how you feel about Latie, and how Latie feels about you, and I don’t think she’d want to infringe upon your happiness.”  The last part was a slight bluff, but it wouldn’t hurt at this point in time, Amara thought to herself.

Lareno put his chin in his hands with his elbows resting on his knees.  “I don’t want to stay here,” he said, and ran his hands through his hair.  “I want to be with Latie, and I want Latie to be my mate.  Jolamio’s nice, but she can find anyone here that she wants.”

“I think she can, too,” Amara replied.  “She said if you want to go talk to her, you can, but she understands if you’re too busy.”

Lareno nodded.  “I probably should go talk to her,” he sighed.  He then stood up and stretched.  “Well, I might as well go ahead and get it over with.  Will you please tell Latie that I’ll be back in a little while?  I won’t be long.”

She nodded.  “I’ll tell her, no problem,” she promised.

Lareno nodded, cocked his head, and breathed deep.  “I’ll be back,” he said, then walked over to face Jolamio.

Amara smiled after him, then turned to go tell Latie.  Lareno will have an interesting morning, she mused to herself.  I wonder if he’ll ever tell Latie about this.

“Good morning, Amara!” Latie exclaimed happily as she packed.  “How are you today?”

Amara smiled at Latie’s cheerfulness.  It had been a long morning already, she realized.  “I’m very well, thank you.  Lareno asked me to tell you that he needs to take care of a couple of things, and then he’ll be right back to help you.”

Latie nodded.  “Okay, that’s fine.”  She glanced around, then stood up and hugged Amara, squealing.  “He’s so wonderful, Amara!”

Amara giggled at her enthusiasm and returned the hug.  “Yes, he is,” she said, then thought to herself, he’ll also be able to provide Latie with the children she wants.  “You know, now that you’re going to be around him all the time, maybe you should start drinking the morning tea Healie’s been having me drink.  Since Danug is your brother, I don’t think that the Mother would bless you with a child of his spirit, and Panec is always with me, but now that Lareno is joining us, you might want to consider it,” she said.

Latie nodded and shrugged.  “Okay.  I really don’t understand how a tea would prevent me from becoming blessed, but I don’t want to take the chance on the Journey.”  She smiled.  “I suppose it’s nice to know that there is a way, supposedly, to avoid getting pregnant.”

Amara grinned to herself; if only Latie knew, she thought.

 

 

The sun dawned on them quickly, and soon all of the Mamutoi save Lareno were ready.  Amara had been glancing at he and Jolamio ever since he had headed in her direction, and they seemed to be parting quasi-amicably.  She had puffy eyes after they finished talking, and he seemed a little annoyed, but Amara was sure that Jolamio would quickly get over her sadness and find happiness in another man’s furs.  She shook her head and smiled to herself at the situation.

Just as Lareno was finishing, Nerando returned with Solamio, Darano, and Lareno’s two younger brothers.  He joyously ran to greet them, embracing them all at once.  Solamio’s eyes were puffy as well, but she knew that her son would be happy.  Lareno eagerly introduced Latie to his family, and Solamio was pleased at her son’s choice.  She knew that Latie would be a good woman, and she could only hope that when they returned from their Journey that she and Lareno would settle here among the Sharamudoi.  She doubted it, but she could always hold the hope.

The travelers all said their final good-byes to the Shamudoi and few Ramudoi who were there.  Tholie cried as Amara and Latie both hugged Amarie, and cried even more when she and Callie hugged each other.  Everyone was teary-eyed, sad that they were leaving, but wishing them well on their Journey.  Amara hugged Jolamio and Yelenio and many other people whose names she did not know.

After rounds of tearful good-byes, the Mamutoi and Lareno all donned their packs.  Lastly, Radec and Dolando exchanged the formal good-byes and embraced.  After one last look at the Sharamudoi, the travelers left, headed in the direction of the setting sun, unsure of what lay ahead, but eager to welcome that appealing uncertainty and the new days that would dawn.

 

 

After traveling long and hard the entire day, Radec finally announced that they would make camp.  Crossing the mountains was not easy to say the least, and he was concerned for Callie.  She was more than able to handle herself; she was a strong woman, but being pregnant was wearing on her resources.  From what Dolando and Markeno had said, this part of their Journey would be perhaps the most treacherous, until they reached and crossed the Sister.  As he was setting up his tent, he thought again about how lucky they were to have acquired another member of their group, a young man, strong enough to perhaps share Callie’s load when her blessing became more of a burden to traveling.  He was ecstatic that she was blessed; he had long wished for this, for her to bring a child to his hearth, but this was not the ideal time to be pregnant.  He was determined to not let anything happen to her, and he was hoping that they could find some kind people when it came closer to the birthing time, so that Callie would perhaps have a healer.  He smiled warmly at his mate as they set up their tent, musing to himself about how happy he was with her.

There was some slight confusion regarding where Lareno would sleep.  He had not brought a tent, as Radec had told him not to worry about it.  He was hoping that he might be able to share Latie’s furs, but he was afraid that he and Danug would end up sharing a tent, or he and Panec, in which case Amara and Latie would share a tent.  Each tent was designed to comfortably fit two people, three if they crowded together, and so there was ample room no matter how the decision was finalized.  He decided to wait and talk to Radec about the situation, and see what he said.  He knew that no one would have any problems if he and Latie shared furs, but he was still unsure of the prospect.

After the tents had been set up, Danug began a fire and spitted the two hares he had caught earlier in the day.  Amara was thrilled that he was actually cooking them; a they had been dead for several hours and she was worried about how long it would take the dead animals to start stinking.  Plus, she rather enjoyed Danug’s recipe for the hares; apparently he had learned it from his mother, and for some reason he was much better at this recipe than was Latie.

As they ate, they made small talk, discussing the Journey ahead and the plans for the next day.  When the sun fell behind the earth, they were all more than happy to crawl into their furs.  Having heard nothing else about the matter, Lareno smiled at Latie and followed her to her tent, glad that he would be able to hold her while they slept.

 

 

The next morning dawned damp and gloomy, with a sky of overcast stratiform clouds hanging barely a tall tree’s length above the travelers.  Amara was awed…she had never been this close to a cloud deck, other than normal fog, before.  Being in the mountains, this was only expected, but it was still quite interesting to her.  She felt that she could almost reach up and touch them, they were so close.  She had always liked rainy weather before, but since she had been in the Pleistocene, she had begun to dislike them; at home she had been able to keep her feet dry with good shoes and her head dry with an umbrella.  Here she just had to live with being wet.  She shrugged and decided to make the most of her situation, no matter what the conditions were.  She looked up into the sky and grinned when a single raindrop fell on her nose.  She breathed deep, enjoying the fresh, clean air, with the smell of inevitable rain on the slight breeze.

Panec watched her as she enjoyed the atmosphere.  She was glowing, and he beamed with pride.  Her dark hair, slightly damp from the high humidity, was somewhat wavy, cascading across her shoulders.  Her smile was like no other, and her teeth were so perfect he could hardly believe that they were real.  She had told him about the wire braces that she had worn for several years when she was younger, but it was difficult for him to comprehend wearing something on one’s teeth, much less the concept of wire itself.  It became one of those things that he had learned to accept about her.  Her eyes sparkled, and despite the gloomy weather, she radiated beauty and happiness.

It started to sprinkle lightly, and Amara stuck her tongue out a little to catch some of the raindrops.  She giggled softly to herself at the girlish act, and then she looked over at Panec, somewhat surprised to see him watching her.  She smiled warmly at him.  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she commented.

Panec looked around.  He didn’t much care for the gloomy weather; he much preferred sunny, cloudless days.  Rain always proved a nuisance, especially since it was so unpredictable.  He wrinkled his nose at her.  “I suppose, if you think so,” he said, grinning in return.

She rolled her eyes and was about to say something when she heard a noise behind them.  She and Latie both rushed to Callie’s aid as the morning sickness consumed the woman, with the men looking on, helpless to do anything.  Healie brought a cup of warm tea that she had just finished preparing, and helped Callie to steady herself so that she could drink the liquid.  Amara remembered vaguely when her aunt had been pregnant…her mother had prepared a tea, bitter-tasting, but flavored lightly with honey, for her aunt to take.  For the life of her she couldn’t remember the ingredients.  She was frustrated; many of the medicines at home would be perfect for Callie, but Amara only knew the chemical compounds.  She had been good in chemistry, and thus she knew that a sucralfate suspension would work and wouldn’t harm the baby, but where in the world would she get sucralfate?  She frowned and stroked Callie’s back and she heaved up the few contents of her stomach, wishing that there was something more she could do to help, and feeling useless.  Somewhere in the back of her mind, she began worrying about having children of her own some day; what if something went wrong?  There was no kind of medical help available here that there had been at home.  She stayed lost in her thoughts as they helped Callie clean and after a while started on their way again.

 

 

The sun climbed higher, but paradoxically the sky kept growing darker as the day wore on.  The intermittent rain showers were depressing enough to halt conversation, and the group walked in silence.  Amara cursed to herself several times, wishing that she still had her good tennis shoes and socks. 

The first rumble of thunder of the day came while she was still grumbling.  They all looked up and then at each other; everyone knew that it was dangerous to travel in a lightning storm.  Radec quickly scanned the area and decided on a level area a certain distance away.  He pointed in that direction, and urged the group onward.

The thunder gradually increased in frequency as they made their way toward the clearing.  Amara found herself counting the seconds after each bolt of lightning that she saw.  As soon as a flash lit up the sky; ‘One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, elev-’ and then the thunder.  It was easy division…every five seconds was roughly a mile…that bolt of lightning was slightly over two miles away.  She continued the pattern until they reached the clearing and began setting up camp.

The heavy rain stayed away while they established their camp, for which they were all grateful.  While Radec, Callie, and Healie started a fire, the younger members gathered some dry wood and put it underneath a waterproof hide.

Amara and Latie decided to run quickly to the small stream flowing nearby to get some fresh water and to rinse the grime off of themselves.  They worked quickly to fill the bladders and stomachs before it rained, piling them at the base of a tree after each was full, quickly splashing water onto their faces as they did so.  Amara looked up after the last one was full and gasped in horror when she saw Latie’s hair starting to stand.

“Get down!” she shrieked in alarm as she grabbed Latie’s arm and shoved her to the ground away from the trees.  Fear coursed through her veins, and a split second later, the imminent flash lit up the area.  The sound was deafening and Amara could feel the ground shake beneath her.  At the same instant, a jolt ran through her body, stunning her.

Then it was gone.  Amara blinked a few times before she tried to move.  Her sight was a blur, and she could barely hear the worried voices of the young men who had run to them upon hearing her scream.  She moved her fingers, and although she was numb from head to toe, she could feel Panec’s arms around her as he lifted her into a sitting position.  The sensation was akin to when one stands too quickly, feeling the ‘head rush’ that blacks out sight.  She could hear Panec’s worried voice, but it blended in with Lareno’s and Danug’s voices.  She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she knew that they were talking to herself and Latie.

She blinked hard again and started to feel her senses return.  It seemed to take forever for the black to fade away and for colors to mingle together to form images.  Although she still could not comprehend much, she was relieved that her sight had quickly returned.  She forced herself to concentrate.  Her head hurt, and she still felt numb, but she knew if she could just concentrate, she would be fine.  She watched Panec, watched his mouth move, and focused on that movement while pushing herself, pleading with herself to put the sounds and the movement together as she knew they should.  She mustered all her strength and closed her eyes tightly.  The sounds began to form into syllables, and as she concentrated, they made words.  Not giving up, she continued to concentrate until those words were sentences, and she opened her eyes again, her mind recovered.  She could hardly move, and she was numb, almost as if she had been immersed in ice.  She looked into Panec’s face and tried to smile, but her head hurt.

“Shh, Amara, it’s okay,” Panec soothed her, more relieved than he thought was possible.  He held her tight and let the few tears squeeze out of his eyes.  He had never been so scared, and he would never be able to remove the image of her face when he found her from his mind.

“Latie?” Amara choked, her raspy voice barely audible.  His look told her that he wasn’t sure, that he had been concerned only with her, so she summoned up her strength and turned her head to look.

Lareno and Danug were kneeling beside Latie, Lareno pleading with the Mother for Latie’s life.  Amara saw the lifeless look in her friend’s eyes and on her face, and all at once Amara’s senses returned.  “Latie!!!!  Nooooo!!!!” she cried.

 

 

Amara shoved Panec out of her way and used all of her strength, albeit weak, to crawl to where Latie was.  Lareno was sitting in shock, holding Latie’s hand, while Danug jumped up and ran to get Radec.  Amara pushed Lareno over, and through the waterfall of tears streaking down her cheeks, she leaned down to listen to Latie’s heart.  “No!” she cried when she didn’t hear anything.  She wiped her nose and choked on her sobs.  “No, Latie!”  She tried to lift herself, but was still too weak to do so.  “Help me, Lareno!” she commanded as she tried to straddle her friend.  Lareno aided her in lifting her leg, and she sat on Latie’s stomach, Lareno holding her so that she would not fall over.  She reached down with her two big fingers and found the bottom of Latie’s sternum, and then measured the length to where she knew the heart was.  “Count to five with me, Lareno,” she sobbed.  He counted as she pushed on Latie’s chest.  He had no idea what Amara was doing, but it seemed she knew, so he did as he was told and counted.

After five, she reached down and tilted Latie’s head back.  She took a deep breath and breathed precious air into Latie’s mouth, trying to force it to her lungs.  She leaned back and pumped Latie’s chest five more times, breathed again, and then listened to her heart.  Her hopes sank when she heard no beating.

Through her tears, she started the process again.  She was hardly aware when Danug returned Radec, Healie, and Callie; she continued the process.  Still nothing.

“No, Latie!” she screamed.  “You have to live!”  Desperately she pumped and breathed again.  She felt Panec’s hand touch her shoulder.

“Amara,” he began.

“No!” she screamed and looked at him vehemently.  He drew back, surprised at her anger, but hoping for the best, hoping that she could save their friend.

Once again, she repeated the process.  Her hope faded with each repeat as she slowly began feeling the worst.  One more time, she thought to herself.  Still no heartbeat, but she wasn’t going to give up.  One more time, she told herself again, and again, and again.  Finally, when her strength had just almost left, she listened one last time to Latie’s heart.

She jumped in surprise when she thought she heard a faint beat.  “Quiet!” she yelled at the others, and listened again.  Her face brightened as she heard the faint fluttering again.  With a new rush of adrenaline, she performed the CPR again, and again.  The heartbeat became slightly stronger each time, but Latie still wasn’t breathing.  Satisfied with the heartbeat, Amara concentrated on breathing for Latie, forcing air into her lungs.  The heartbeat was slightly stronger.  She breathed again, and the tears ran anew when Latie’s chest rose and fell without Amara’s aid.

Amara smiled through her tears and looked up at the anxious faces of the others.  “I think she’ll live!” she cried exuberantly.  However, she knew that Latie could easily slip into a coma, in which she may or may not be able to breathe for herself.  She aided Latie’s breathing, gently, and listened to the heartbeat.  It was even stronger, and she hoped against hope for the best.  A clap of thunder announced a downpour only seconds before the skies opened, and as the rain began falling, Latie’s eyes followed in suit.

Amara leaned over to block the rain as Latie coughed in pain.  Lareno cried out in happiness, and the others, realizing that Latie’s life had been saved, cheered loudly and finally allowed the tears to fall.

Latie looked around, semi-conscious of her surroundings.  Her chest hurt, her head hurt, her entire body was numb.  She closed her eyes and rolled them around behind her eyelids, trying to see.  She opened her eyes again and realized that Amara was sitting over her, and Lareno was holding her hand.

“Wha…what happened?” she choked in a half whisper.

Amara smiled, and her tears fell even more heavily.  “You’re alive!” she cried and embraced her friend.  She tried to sit up again, but her weakness began to get the better of her as the adrenaline rush died.  Panec swooped down and caught her as she fainted in exhaustion. 

Lareno kissed Latie’s forehead and whispered, “Please don’t try to move, just stay still, and we’ll get you back to camp.”  He lifted Latie into his arms and stood.  The others grabbed the water bags and turned to return to the camp.

Danug paused a moment and looked around.  The huge tree that had been struck had a long streak down the side, and burned streaks of ground stretched out radially from the base of the tree.  He shook his head, awed that either of them had lived, and through his tears he looked up into the gray sky, giving thanks to the Mother that Amara had been there and was able to save his sister’s life.  He then followed the others back to the camp.

Panec and Lareno laid the two young women down inside Radec and Callie’s tent.  They were soaked, muddy, and Latie was drifting in and out of consciousness while Amara was completely out.  Layer by layer, their clothes were peeled off, and carefully Healie treated the few burns they had obtained, her hands shaking as she applied the aloe mixture.  As she did so, the girls were dried, and bundled into furs.  Radec, Callie, and Danug had changed their clothes while Healie, Lareno, and Panec attended to Amara and Latie, and as soon as they were done, the two groups of three switched places so the latter group could dry and change clothes.  Danug knelt between Amara and Latie, both sleeping soundly, holding one of each of their hands.  Callie wiped her tear-stained face and gently began brushing out Latie’s hair.  Radec stood to the side in awe, watching Latie and Amara sleep.  He berated himself for letting the two of them go get the water.  None of them knew of the conductivity of wet ground, but they all were aware that lightning was more dangerous in saturated conditions.  He shook his head and slapped his knee, wishing he himself had fetched the water.

“Radec, it’s not your fault,” Callie said gently.  “Please don’t blame yourself.”

Radec scowled.  “I should’ve gone!” he exclaimed softy.  “We should never have let them go!”

Callie shook her head and opened her mouth to object when Danug interrupted her.  “Radec,” he said, his voice carrying an air of sobriety that made Callie and Radec both look at him sharply.  “Radec, I think this was supposed to happen,” he said, as he stared at Amara.

“What do you mean?” Radec demanded.

Danug looked over at Radec in such a way that he was almost frightened.  “Amara was supposed to save her life,” he replied.  “There’s nothing we can do, or could have done, to change the way things happen.  It all happens for a reason.  The Mother knew that Latie wouldn’t die, and I think that’s why Amara has joined us; because Mut knew that we would need her, that Latie would need her.”

The other three had dried and were standing just inside the opening of the tent as Danug had begun.  Panec and Lareno looked at each other, more passing between them than could be said in words.

Danug sighed.  “I think we should get to the Zelandonii as soon as possible,” he said quietly.  “I think Amara and Ayla have to meet.”

 

 

Latie opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings.  She felt strange; her chest hurt, her head hurt, and her entire body was numb.  Her mind wandered, wondering what had happened.  She thought about what she remembered; Amara had screamed, and then all of a sudden, things had gone black.  Her mind raced as she thought the worst.  Was Amara alive?  Had they been attacked?  What in the world had happened?

She summoned her strength and looked around, and breathed a loud sigh of relief when she saw Amara lying beside her, snug in several furs.  She smiled, glad that Amara was alive, but still perplexed as to what had happened.  She licked her lips and then realized how thirsty she was.  “Hello?” she tried to call, but her voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.

However, Lareno had heard something as they were all sitting around the fire eating breakfast.  He jumped up and ran inside the tent.  His face lit up with a smile when he saw Latie lying there, fully conscious, aware of her surroundings, and looking at him.  He rushed to her and took her hand, kissing her cheek gently.  “Oh, Latie,” he said, quietly, “I’m so glad you’re awake!  We were so worried!”

Latie frowned.  “What happened?” she choked.

Lareno looked down.  “A tree near where you and Amara were yesterday was struck by lightning.  It looked almost as if the lightning had traveled across the ground to you two.  We heard Amara yell something, and we started running to you, but then there was this bright flash of light and the loudest ‘crack’ we had ever heard!  When we got to you, both of you were unconscious, and you weren’t breathing.”

Latie’s eyes opened wide.  “Not breathing?” she asked.

Lareno nodded.  “Your heart wasn’t beating either,” he remarked.

She squinted her eyes.  “But if my heart wasn’t beating and I wasn’t breathing, then I should’ve been dead.”

Lareno nodded again.  “I think you may have been.  Amara woke up…I guess she wasn’t hit as hard…and as weak as she was she crawled over to where you were and did some really strange things to you.  She breathed into your mouth and pumped on your chest, counting five pumps each time.”  Latie was perplexed, and he could see the confusion on her face.  “She did that for a really long time, it seemed like forever, and then your heart started beating, and you started breathing, and even coughed and opened your eyes slightly.  Then I think Amara’s exhaustion got the better of her, and she fainted.  Then we brought both of you back here, dried you off, cleaned you both, and wrapped you in furs, then let you sleep.”  He smiled.  “This is the first we’ve heard from either of you since this happened.”

Latie shook her head.  “Amazing,” she said, awed.  “Amara saved my life?”  Lareno nodded in response.  Latie smiled.  “I owe her my life,” she commented, looking in Amara’s direction.  She then turned back to Lareno.  “I’m thirsty, and as I smell the food out there, I think I’m starting to get hungry.”

He smiled at her.  “Can you sit up?” he asked.

She tried, but to no avail.  Her frustration was evident in her face.  She could lift her arm, but that was the most she could do.  Lareno frowned.  “Let me go get Healie,” he said, then left the tent.

A moment later he returned with the older woman, who had a very concerned look on her face.  She had known that some people, after having serious accidents, couldn’t move parts of their body.  She couldn’t explain it, and she wasn’t a healer, so if this was Latie’s case, she wouldn’t know what to do.  She squatted beside the young woman.  “Latie, can you wiggle your toes?” she asked.

Latie frowned again, but she concentrated, and with effort, she was able to wiggle them.  Healie sighed loudly in relief.  “Am I okay?” Latie asked.

“I think so, but I’m not sure yet,” Healie replied.  She pulled the furs away from Latie’s legs and squeezed her feet.  “Can you feel that?” Healie asked.  Latie nodded.  Healie moved up her legs, gently massaging each muscle, making sure Latie could feel everything.  Then she did Latie’s stomach and arms, then turned her over to her back.  When she was satisfied with her examination, she smiled, albeit reservedly.  “I think you’ll be fine, but I don’t know how mobile you will be for a while,” she said.  “Lareno, go make some tea for her with the mixture I made this morning, and bring in a small plate of breakfast,” she said, then turned back to Latie as Lareno jumped to comply.  “I’d like to treat your burns again, honey,” she said.  “Are they bothering you?”

Latie shook her head.  “No, I’m actually pretty numb.  I could feel what you did, but I’m just sort of numb all over.”

Healie nodded.  She was learning a lot, and hopefully, she thought, she’d be able to share this information with healers, so that they might know how to handle this kind of situation better.  “Okay, but just in case, I’ll still put more aloe on them, okay?”

Latie nodded and closed her eyes while Healie treated the various burns on her body.  A little while later, Lareno returned with a steaming cup of revitalizing tea and some warm breakfast.  Healie held the cup and plate while Lareno propped Latie up and sat behind her to provide some sort of seatback for her to lean on.  Lifting her arm was a chore, so Healie assisted.

After eating, Latie was exhausted.  She wanted to get up and go outside, but she knew that if she could barely eat by herself, there would be no way that she could get up.  Lareno helped to settle her back down into the furs and he stretched out beside her.  Even though he was watching, she was soon able to drift off to sleep.  Once she did, Lareno kissed her cheek and pushed himself up.  He glanced over at Amara and was surprised to see her awake.

“Good morning Lareno,” she said, smiling.

He returned the smile.  “Good morning to you,” he replied.  “Are you hungry?”

“Famished,” she said, and managed to push herself up into a sitting position.  “How is Latie?” she inquired.

Lareno nodded.  “She’s doing very well.  She can’t move much, but she could feel everything Healie did, so that’s good.  She even had some breakfast and some tea that Healie had prepared.”

“Good, I’m glad she’s okay.  I would imagine that she was pretty sore today, in her chest especially,” Amara commented.

Lareno nodded and furrowed his brow.  “What was it that you did?  You obviously saved her life, but I’ve never seen anyone do anything like that before,” he said.  He was somewhat apprehensive about asking her about this.  He recalled the look on Danug’s face the day before and it had somewhat frightened him.  He didn’t really know Amara; he knew that she was a special person, but after Danug’s comment, he wondered just how special she was, especially since Danug seemed convinced that Amara and Ayla needed to meet.  He knew the rumors that had spread through the Sharamudoi about the mysterious woman that Jondalar was taking home, and he couldn’t help but wonder about Amara as well.

Amara smiled at him, then frowned.  She didn’t know letters in Mamutoi; she didn’t even know if the Mamutoi had letters, much less the word ‘cardiopulmonary’.  She shrugged to herself and decided to just give him the English translation.  “It’s called ‘CPR’.  When we were struck by the lightning, Latie’s heart stopped, and she stopped breathing.  What I did was a procedure I learned when I was younger, and basically the pumping on her chest was to make her heart start beating again.  I also blew air into her lungs, helping her breathe.”  She paused and sighed.  “If a human goes too long without breathing, they can have permanent damage, and they might not ever recover.”  She looked at Latie and smiled warmly.  “I’m just glad she’s okay; that means that she didn’t go too long without air.”

Lareno shook his head, absorbing what she had told him.  “Amara, that’s amazing.  Healers can do some wonderful things, but I don’t know of any healer trying to bring someone back to live after the heart stopped beating.  Where in the world are you from?”

Amara blushed slightly.  “I’m from very far away, and we have a very different culture than people here do.”  She sighed again.  “Where I come from, healers, called doctors, do CPR to people all the time.”

Lareno was thunderstruck.  She was amazing, yes, but he hadn’t realized that she came from such a distant place.  “But…I thought that Radec and Callie said that they had found you…”

Amara nodded.  “They did.  I came here with my family, my people, but then…” she stopped and looked down.  “There was an accident, and I ended up getting lost.  Yes, they found me, and cared for me until I got better.”  She smiled again at Latie.  “Saving her life was the least I could do for them saving mine.”

Just then, Panec poked his head into the tent.  When he saw Amara awake, sitting up, talking to Lareno, a huge smile spread across his face and he jumped in and swooped Amara up in his arms.  “My love!  My Amara!  I’m so happy you’re alive!” he exclaimed.  Amara laughed and smiled at him, and responded affectionately to his loving kiss.  He held her tightly, thinking about how close he had come to losing her the day before.  He gripped her fiercely, and then put her down.  “How are you feeling?”

Amara nodded.  “Good.  A little tired, a little weak, but good.”  She smiled.  “I’m glad I’m alive, too, and I’m glad that Latie’s alive.”

Panec nodded fervently.  “Amara, what you did for her…it was amazing!  It was like watching the Mother at work through you…it was breathtaking, and beautiful, and…I…Amara, I love you so much!” he cried, embracing her again.

Amara returned his embrace and sighed.  “I love you, Panec,” she said.  He held her at arms’ length and smiled at her.  “Is there any food left that I could have?” she asked.

He grinned at her.  “Yes, there is.  Can you stand?” he asked.

She gripped his shoulder and pushed herself up into a standing position.  It was a wobbly one, and she was unstable, but she could stand.  She smiled at her progress, rather amazed that she hadn’t suffered any permanent nerve damage.  She was still slightly numb, but she knew that would wear off.  She shook her head, realizing how lucky she and Latie were that they even survived.

Panec put his arm around her and helped her walk outside.  The others looked up and all smiled to see Amara awake and able to move, and Healie quickly rushed over to assist Panec.  “Amara, how are you feeling?” she asked worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Amara replied with a bright smile.  “I could be a lot worse, but I think we were lucky.”

Radec nodded.  “Yes, it seems you were,” he remarked, smiling graciously at her.

Amara sat down on a log, and Panec sat next to her.  Callie handed her a plate of warm breakfast, and Healie poured steaming water into a cup with a mixture much like the one she had given Latie, but less potent, and handed it to the young woman.

After she had finished eating, she whispered to Callie that she needed to pass her water, so Callie walked with her into the brush.  Upon completion, they walked back to the fire, and Danug smiled at Amara, and then asked, “Amara, can I talk to you?”

Amara nodded at him, and he extended his hand to her.  She took it and followed him into his tent, wondering what it was he needed to discuss with her.

“Amara,” he began when she was comfortable, “how did you know?”

“Know what?”

He grunted.  “How did you know what was going to happen?  I happened to be looking in your direction when you screamed, and that was before the lightning hit.  How did you know that it would strike?” he inquired.

She smiled at him.  “You remember that I told you about ‘school’, right?  Well, we learned, when we were very young, that before lightning strikes, your hair stands up.  It’s called ‘static electricity’, but I don’t think I could really explain it,” she said, frowning.  “Anyway, I saw Latie’s hair standing, and I knew that lightning would strike somewhere close somewhere soon, very soon.  Which is why I yelled at her to get down, and then I pushed her to the ground.”  She looked down at her hands.  “I wish I had been the one closer to the tree; then maybe she wouldn’t have come so close to death.”

Danug lifted her chin up.  “Amara, first, you couldn’t have known where it would hit.  Second, if you had been closer to that tree, then you would probably be dead right now; there’s no way any of us could have done what you did,” he told her.

She smiled tenderly.  “Thank you, Danug,” she said.

He sat back and crossed his arms.  “Now, what was it that you did, and how did you know that it would save her life?”

Amara shrugged and shook her head.  “I didn’t know that it would work.  It’s called ‘CPR’, and, as I told Lareno, it’s a procedure I learned years ago, in ‘school’.  When someone’s heart stops beating, you can perform ‘CPR’ as I did to hopefully get it to beat again.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  It depends on how long the person has gone without a heartbeat and without breathing.  I also blew into her mouth to force air into her lungs.”

Her explanation sounded so simple, Danug thought.  He recalled briefly that Ayla had done something similar to a young member of the Lion Camp, but she had used a sucking procedure to dislodge the food caught in the little girl’s throat, then she had blown into her mouth.  And somehow Amara knew how to do the same thing, but with pumping on the chest as well.  “Why did you count to five?”

She shrugged again.  “I don’t know…all I know is that you have to pump the heart five times, and then breathe for them.  I’ve heard that sometimes people have done it so hard that ribs break, but I suppose that’s a small price to pay for a life.”

Danug nodded.  “I agree.”  He squinted his eyes and looked at her closely.  “Amara, you are truly amazing.”

She shook her head in response.  “No, it’s just something I learned.  And I just happened to be there at the right place and at the right time.”

Danug too shook his head.  “I don’t think so.  Amara, I think you have a very interesting future ahead of you.”

She frowned and cocked her head.  “What do you mean?”

“Amara,” he said, “just think…isn’t it interesting that you came to us in time to teach of some of your ways, and in time to save Latie’s life?”

She shrugged.  “No, I was thinking it was just a coincidence.”  She wasn’t sure she liked the direction in which this conversation was headed.

“No, I think it was supposed to happen,” he remarked.  He then looked over at the Muta that he had beside the head of his sleeping furs.  “Amara, I think you were sent to us.  The Mother always has Her reasons.  And I think that something great is in store for you.”

Amara’s mind was racing.  She had always wondered if she had some purpose in life, some ultimate goal.  At home, she had the ambition and the means to pursue her dreams, but here, that wasn’t exactly possible.  She had resigned herself to a life of simply having Panec’s children.  Not that that would be a bad life, but it wasn’t what she had always dreamed of doing when she was young.  She loved Panec more than anything, but she wanted to be more than just a housewife.

“That’s why I think you and Ayla need to meet as soon as possible,” Danug continued.  “I think you two will have a lot to learn from each other.  I think that Ayla’s destiny is with Jondalar, at his home.  I think we were sent on this Journey in order to find you and take you to Ayla.”

Amara was surprised.  “Danug, I don’t know about that.  Panec and I are promised; we made a decision to return to the Mamutoi and be mated…”

Danug interrupted her.  “Amara, you may still do that, but I think there’s more to you than what you think, or than what Panec thinks.  You may return to the Mamutoi, you may not.  I know that you and Panec are supposed to be together; that I’m sure of.  The rest of it…I really don’t know.  I don’t have the talent for Searching yet; Mamut had only just begun training me before we left.  That’s why I think we need to get to Ayla.”

Amara frowned, trying to let his words sink in.  “Danug, I’m just a normal person,” she began.

“No, you’re not, Amara, and you need to realize that.  You need to know and understand yourself.”  He shook his head.  “I’ve been wondering about stuff like this since I first talked to you.  It started with your origins, and then your name, and since then it’s just been one thing after another.  It makes a person stop and think about what’s going on.”

She wrinkled her nose.  His words were slightly frightening; she wasn’t sure if that’s what she wanted out of life.  She wanted a goal, but this wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.  And she was just a normal person, especially where she came from.  She had been hoping that what Danug was meaning was that he thought she should train to become a healer herself, to perhaps someday become great at it, as she had always dreamed.  This was a different direction that he was referring to, and she wasn’t sure if she liked the idea too well.

“We have a lot of time still, Amara.  Latie still needs to fully recover before we start again, and you too.  We’ll have to stop again when it comes closer to Callie’s birthing time, and allow her and her child to recover.  But I do believe that there’s an ultimate purpose in all of this; I’m just not sure yet what it is.”

Amara’s stomach was beginning to get queasy, and she was feeling somewhat tired, not to mention a bit apprehensive with all of this talk.

Danug reached out and patted her hand.  “It’s always scary to start thinking about the Mother more seriously, and Her gifts, and what She has in store for people.  But it is something you should think about, something you should consider as you form your life.”

She opened her mouth to respond, uncertain though she was, and in that instant a wave of numbness washed over her.  She blinked a few times and shook her head quickly.  Danug reached out to her, and as he did, she was enveloped in blackness.

 

 

“Mom!” she called as she saw her mother at the door.

“Amara, honey, I’m so glad you’re home!” her mother cried, arms open wide to embrace her daughter.

Amara ran into her mother’s arms, crying, and happier than she thought was possible.  She was home!  She thought of all the wonderful things she had missed since she had been gone; running water, electricity, her mother’s home cooking, her brother’s teases, her father’s nuggies, everything.  She sighed contentedly in her mother’s arms, smiling.  Just then, she thought of Panec, and her smile vanished.

Her mother sensed her mood change, and held Amara out.  “Amara, sweetie, what’s wrong?” she asked, concerned.

Amara sighed.  “Panec,” she replied.

Her mother nodded.  “Yes, Amara, I understand.  Panec is a wonderful man,” she said.

Amara cocked her head and looked at her mother strangely.  “Mom, how do you know who he is?”  Her mother’s reply was a smile.  “Mom,” Amara repeated, “how do you know who he is?!”

Carol smiled again.  “Amara, I know who he is.  I know everything that’s happened to you since you left.  I’ve been watching over you the entire time.”

Amara sighed in relief.  “You were there?” she asked.

Carol nodded, and Amara sighed again.  Carol put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and led her into the house.  “Amara, it’s your decision,” she said.

Amara looked sharply at her mother.  “What is?”

“Whether you go back or not,” she replied.

Amara sat down at the familiar kitchen table and looked around.  Everything was the same; the plates, the dishes, the wallpaper, everything.  “Mom, I…I know it’s probably weird for you to hear me say this, but I do love him.”

Carol nodded and smiled.  “Yes, honey, I know.  That’s how I feel about your father…we can only expect that you would someday fall in love as well.”  She pulled a can of soda out of the refrigerator and handed it to her daughter.  “It’s a big decision, honey, and it’ll be difficult.”  She sat down as Amara opened the can and took a drink, relishing the taste of a carbonated beverage after so long.  “As much as I love you, my daughter, I think you need to go back.  Not only because of Panec,” she added.

Amara furrowed her brow.  “What do you mean?” she asked.

Carol smiled and her daughter’s naiveté.  “Why do you think your father took this job?”

Amara thought for a moment, and then realization hit her so hard that she was almost knocked out of her chair.  “You mean--”

“Uh-huh,” Carol said, smiling.  “Sweetie, we knew all along.”  She leaned closer and whispered to her daughter.  “You know how we knew?” she asked.  Amara shook her head, flabbergasted.  Carol smiled again.  “The government is an interesting thing,” she commented, and then seeing her daughter’s confusion, she continued, “you wouldn’t think that they would tell someone something like that.”

“Like what?” Amara asked.

“You want to hear the future?” Carol countered.  Amara frowned.  “Well, here,” Carol said, handing something to her daughter.

“What is this?”

“Open it.”

Amara looked down at what she had been given.  It was a small box, wooden, with a tight-fitting lid.  When she tried to open it, she realized that the lid actually screwed shut onto the box.  She looked it over; it looked almost like petrified wood.  She carefully unscrewed the lid and was confused at what she saw.  The only content of the box was a roll of plastic tape like those found in first-aid kits.  She glanced up at her mother.  Carol, seeing her daughter’s confusion, took the roll out of the box.  “Look,” she said as she started unrolling the tape.  Amara gasped…the adhesive properties were gone, and on both sides of the tape was writing, in purple ink.  Carol handed the tape to her daughter, who began reading.

“Only read until you realize what it is,” Carol cautioned.

Amara nodded absently.  The writing…it was her own!  As she read, she realized what this was.  It was the account of her life…her life in the Pleistocene.  It started with crucial information about herself, her social security number, birthdate, drivers’ license, etc., and then went on to the cave, and then the Mamutoi…on and on and on.  She unrolled the tape and skimmed over the words, amazed…it was a novel!  Amara sat back in her chair, dumbfounded.

Carol shrugged and reached out to take the tape and the box back.  “I was really surprised.  Not long after you were born, several government officials came to us, wanting information about you.  What you looked like, what color your eyes were.  We were so confused, not realizing what it was they wanted.  Your entire life, they continuously checked up on you.  And then when you got your drivers’ license, they came by again.”  She stopped.

“And??” Amara asked impatiently.

Carol sighed.  “I guess they had all the information they needed.  They brought us this box,” she gestured to the small wooden box.  “They explained that it had been found in Europe…they wouldn’t tell us where or when…and that when you were born, they started checking up on you.  I don’t know what kind of research they did about what happened, or anything, they just said that they were through, they were finished, they had all the information they needed, and they gave the box to your father and I.”  She sighed, and Amara could see her eyes moisten.  “Your father and I talked long and hard about what to do.  It was so strange; to know what was going to happen.  We considered doing everything we could to avoid it, but in the end there was nothing we could do.  We realized from your writings how happy you were, and everything you had discovered and taught people, and so we decided to aid you in finding your destiny.  So your father took the job in Austria.”

Amara was completely taken aback.  They knew all along…they knew everything.

Carol shook her head.  “I’m afraid your brother didn’t take the news well.  He’s okay now, now that we’ve shown him this, but when you first turned up missing, he went nuts.  We had planned on not telling him, but he was so lost without you, we just had to let him know.”

Amara felt the tears threaten, and her throat became choked.  “Mom…” she began.

“Shh,” Carol said, then she smiled.  “You’re where you’re supposed to be.  As your parents, we can’t choose your destiny…we can guide you, but you choose the path yourself.  We aren’t here to command you; we’re here to guide you, to teach you, and then to let you go, to let you follow that path.  That’s exactly what your father and I did.”  She wiped the tears away from her daughter’s cheek.  “Amara, honey, don’t cry.  You have a very exciting future in store for you.”  She gestured again to the box.  “And you have some very interesting things to discover,” she prophesied.  “I think you’ll be very pleased,” she said, smiling.  Amara sat still, trying to digest everything she had just learned.  Carol patted her arm, and continued, “Amara, you have to go back.  That’s what we think.  Ultimately, the decision is yours, but I think you know what is the correct path for you to take.”

Amara smiled through the tears that were streaking down her face and falling onto the kitchen table.  “But Mom,” she started.

“’But Mom’ nothing.”  Carol stood and motioned for her daughter to do the same.  Amara stood and they embraced, for what Amara knew would be the last time.  “I love you, Amara, my wonderful daughter.”

“I love you, Mom,” Amara said, still crying.  It was a closure, she knew, but it was still hard.

Carol stroked Amara’s hair.  “This is the right thing to do.  Put your past, the world’s future, behind you, honey.  Move on with your life.  Never forget, but do not dwell.”

Amara nodded and tried feebly to smile.  “I love you, Mom,” she said again.

“I love you,” Carol replied.  She smiled, and then reached out and closed Amara’s eyes.

 

 

Amara sat up with a start, sweaty and confused.  She looked around, expecting to be in her bed, that this was all a dream.  Instead she saw Latie sleeping in a bundle of furs.  She pushed her own furs aside and tried to fan herself off.  As she did so, she realized something was sitting beside her.  She looked more closely and gasped at what she saw.

It was the box of petrified wood that she had seen in her dream.  However, inside was not the roll of tape.  Inside was a pen with purple ink.  She picked it up and smiled slightly, realizing what its purpose was.

 

 

She picked up the box and with some effort, stood to go outside.  As soon as she exited the tent, Panec rushed to her.  “Amara, are you okay?  I was so scared…what happened?” he asked worriedly.

Amara smiled and kissed him.  “Yes, Panec, I am fine,” she replied, smiling contentedly and then she continued on to her tent to tuck the box away in her backpack.  Panec watched after her, remarking to himself that she seemed different.  He couldn’t really explain it, but it seemed almost as if she finally realized that she belonged with them.  He smiled in her direction and decided that it probably wouldn’t hurt to go show her how thankful he was that she was alive.

Danug watched Panec follow her, and then he stood up and headed toward the stream where the lightning had hit.  He sat down beside the tree and examined the streak.  He was able to follow it all the way down the tree and into the ground.  Out of curiosity, he got down on his hands and knees and inspected the burned ground that streaked all the way to the edge of the stream.  He was about to get up and go meditate when something caught his eye.  He walked over to it and squatted to investigate.  It was awfully strange, shiny, and clear.  He picked it up and examined it.  It was hard, and had a concaved downward shape.  He looked back at the ground where he had picked it up.  It seemed to come from one of the burned streaks.  There wasn’t anything else like it.  Near the base of the tree, the ground was still damp from the rains, and he couldn’t find anything else like this.  He crawled along the length of the streak and almost exclaimed in delight as a child would when he found more of the strange material.  It seemed this material only existed where the lightning had burned through sand.  On an impulse, he dug around the burned area, and was pleased to find another piece of the material, but it was bigger, and it was actually a tube!

He collected several of these pieces out of the sand, rinsed them all off in the stream, and then sat down to admire them.  They each had a different tint, but for the most part, they were clear.  A couple of them were covered with bubbles, or what looked like bubbles, while others only had a few bubbles.  There were some parts of the material that were completely smooth.  And then there was one edge of one of them that was sharp, as he discovered as he ran his thumb over it.

He piled his new collection on the ground and then leaned back against a tree, thinking about the events of the morning.  Amara had suddenly passed out as they were talking.  He had tried to catch her as she fell over, but hadn’t reached her in time.  He had been just about ready to call for Panec to come help him when Amara started talking in her native language.  He had rushed to gather the herbs from his pack that Mamut had told him about, and although he knew that it could be dangerous, he hastily made a tea with them.  He managed to knock himself out and somehow guided his way through the darkness to Amara.

“Sweetie, we knew all along…”  The phrase kept repeated itself in his head, over and over and over.  He had been shocked that he had been able to search his way to them, and he was even more surprised that he was able to understand what they were saying.  He realized how lucky he was…he had seen the future first-hand, and he couldn’t believe all the things he had seen.  The white box that Amara’s mother had pulled the cylinder from that Amara had opened…it completely amazed him.  The materials there, everything.  He had been so taken aback, so amazed, that when it was over, he had hardly been able to move.  He had somehow managed to pick Amara up and take her to the other tent, with Panec’s help, but then he had sat down on a log and hardly moved since; he kept replaying the scene over and over in his head, trying to make something of it.

He absentmindedly picked up one of the pieces of the strange material he had found and he rolled it over and over in his hands.  What Amara’s mother had said…it was so close to what he had been feeling.  Part of him wished that Amara had read all of her writing…he was desperate to know what exactly it was that Amara would do, what her destiny was.  If Amara’s mother had been told where the box had been found, it would definitely have helped.  Somehow, he had been able to see the world.  He understood now where Amara came from, and where they were now, and where Jondalar and Ayla were, and where his home was, everything.  He slapped his knee, frustrated because he couldn’t answer his own questions.

He took a deep breath and leaned back against the tree.  He replayed the scene again in his head, detail by detail, trying to figure anything out that he could.  He played with the tube material again, running his fingers over it.  The tube was the smoothest one of all of the pieces.  He put a twig inside the tube and smiled when he saw the distorted image through the transparent material.  He kept playing with it…something…something about this material…there was something about it…he closed his eyes tightly and tried to think.

In an instant, it came to him.  There had been something on what had been referred to as the “table”…it had been sort of like this material…and there had been some sort of liquid, a drink, in it.  It was almost like a cup, but not made of wood…made of something much like what he had in his hand, that was transparent, so that he could see the liquid inside.

Danug smiled to himself and looked at the material in his hand.  He was sure Amara had a term for it.  He tossed it up in the air and caught it again, then gathered up all the pieces he had found, tucked them into a pocket, and returned to the camp, satisfied with his discoveries.

 

 

Amara sighed happily and closed her eyes.  She and Panec hadn’t shared Pleasures in a while, and although she was still a little stiff, sore, and somewhat numb, it had been rather wonderful.  Now she was lying lazily in his wonderful arms, listening to him breathing, and relaxing, knowing that she was safe.  She was just beginning to drift off to sleep when she heard Radec, Callie, and Healie talking outside.

“Healie, do you think she’ll be okay?” Callie asked apprehensively.

“Well, she was able to feel everything I did, and she was able to move most of her body, although she couldn’t lift her legs or arms very well.  I’m sure she’ll be okay,” Healie replied.

Radec was pacing back and forth.  “Do we need to send someone back to the Sharamudoi to get their Shamud?” he asked.

Healie frowned.  “I hadn’t really thought of that, Radec.  It might not be a bad idea.  We’ve only been traveling for a couple of days since we left.  I suppose if she doesn’t get any better we could always have two of the guys go after Shamud.”

“Radec, do you think we’ll still be fine, as far as the traveling is concerned?” Callie asked.

Radec waved the question away.  “I’m sure we are, and if we’re not, it’s no big deal.  I don’t want to overexert you, or Latie, or Amara, or anyone,” he said.  He sighed and sat down with resignation.  “Maybe we should just head back,” he offered.

“No!” Danug cut in.  They all turned to see him walking toward the camp, holding a pile of something.

“Why not?” Radec said sadly.

“Because we need to get Amara to Ayla,” he said.

Radec sighed, and then nodded.  “You’re right.  Plus, we’ve come all this way…I would assume we’re almost halfway there, and there’s no point in quitting now.”

Danug smiled, glad that Radec hadn’t changed his mind about the Journey.  But Latie was his sister, and he was concerned for her health and safety.  “Radec,” he said, “Do you need Lareno and I to go get Shamud?  We can if you think it’s necessary; if we think Latie needs it.”

Radec scratched his chin and looked over at Healie.  “Do you think we should get Shamud?”

Healie frowned as she thought about it.  “No, not yet.  I’d like to see how Latie’s doing tomorrow, and maybe the day after that.  If she doesn’t get much better, then yes, I think we should send them to get Shamud.  If she does, then I think she’ll be okay, and we might as well wait this out.”

Radec nodded.  “That sounds good to me,” he said, standing up.  “In the meantime, Danug and Lareno, why don’t we go find us some nice fresh dinner?”  Danug grinned, dropped his pile off in his tent quickly, and the men grabbed their spear-throwers and left in search of that evening’s meal.

Amara smiled, glad that she and Latie weren’t hurt more than they were, and she was sure Latie would recover fully.  She was still surprised; the many stories she had heard in her lifetime about people being struck by lightning usually didn’t have outcomes this good.  She sent her thanks to God, or The Mother, or whoever it was; she was just sure that someone or something had been watching over the two of them that fateful moment.  She sighed and closed her eyes contentedly, and within moments, she was again fast asleep.

 

 

Latie woke to the mouth-watering smell of fresh meat cooking over hot coals.  Her stomach growled in response, and she grinned to herself.  “You’re hungry, aren’t you?” she asked, patting her stomach.  She fleetingly thought about the day when she might be blessed as Callie was, and she shivered at the thought.  She hadn’t been too excited about the prospect before, but now that Lareno was there…she chuckled to herself, thinking of how funny it might be for her, Callie, and Amara to all be pregnant on the Journey.  Then she sobered, realizing that that was probably a very bad idea, and she pushed the thought from her head.  A residual smile was left on her face, however, that she couldn’t hide.

Forgetting about the recent events, she moved to quickly sit up, and was surprised momentarily when her body didn’t respond.  Then in a flash her memory returned, and she scowled in frustration.  Slowly, she moved her arm underneath her and pushed with all her might.  She focused her strength and after some effort was able to push herself into a quasi-sitting position.  However, the exertion had taken everything out of her, and she frowned, realizing that she would have to call for help.  “Healie?” she called out apprehensively.

Healie, hearing Latie calling to her, immediately jumped up and rushed into the tent.  “Why, Latie!  Child, you’re sitting!”

Latie grinned at Healie’s enthusiasm.  “Yeah, sort of…I smell the food out there, and I’m awfully hungry, and I’m tired of being cooped up in here.  Can I go out?” she asked.

Healie nodded.  “I don’t see why not.  Let me go get the men,” she said as she exited.

The arm that Latie was using to prop herself up had begun to shake and she was afraid it was going to give out on her.  However, it held until Radec and Lareno came in, each taking one arm helping her to stand.  Lareno put her arm around his neck and picked her up, kissing her gently in the process.  Latie blushed and then allowed herself to be carried outside.  The air smelled so fresh and clean, and all the clouds from the rain showers the past couple of days had dissipated from sight.  She smiled and breathed deep, enjoying nature, and the smell of the delicious dinner almost done roasting.

“How are you feeling, Latie honey?” Callie asked.

Latie nodded as Lareno sat her down on a log that they had propped against a tree so that she would have a seatback.  “I feel fine.  A little weak, but pretty good considering the circumstances, or so I’ve heard,” she added, glancing over at Amara.  The two young women exchanged smiles.

Radec smiled and leaned over the fire, cutting off a good-sized hunk of meat.  He put the steaming food on a plate and handed it to Latie, grinning.  She smiled in return and with some effort was able to cut off a small bite.  She blew on it to cool it off, and then bit off a small piece.  Her eyes opened wide in surprise at the taste.  “Radec!” she exclaimed.  “Where ever did you find bear meat?!”

Radec’s eyes sparkled.  “The three of us happened to stumble on him while he was feasting,” he said, nodding toward Lareno and Danug.  “It was an exciting hunt.  We weren’t expecting to get a bear, but the big lazy thing was so full of honey, he didn’t know what to think about us.  He tried to charge at us, but I suppose he was a little tired.  I’ve never seen a bear act like that before; it was almost as if he had too much bouza.”  Radec laughed at the image of the seemingly-drunk bear.  Danug and Lareno chuckled as well, both shaking their heads.  “No, seriously, the bear charged at us and was obviously unhappy with our presence.  We tried to leave, but he kept following us.  We felt pretty bad about having to kill him—we didn’t need that much meat—but we were afraid to let him follow us back here.  So we decided to make him our dinner.”

Callie winked at Healie.  “AND,” she said as she pulled a plate out from behind where she had been sitting, “they managed to grab some of the bear’s dinner as well.”  She grinned widely as she handed the plate of honeycomb to Latie. 

Latie in turn beamed in delight, and Lareno reached out to take the plate for her.  He broke off a small piece and handed it to her, and she savored the sweetness of it.  “Mmm,” she hummed, closing her eyes.  “What a wonderful meal!” she exclaimed.

“I agree,” Amara said teasingly, “but it would be nice if we could have some dinner too, Radec,” she commented.

“Suit yourself!” Radec laughed, moving out of the way. 

Panec cut off a piece for Amara and handed it to her so that she wouldn’t have to get up.  She was still a little wobbly in the knees, so he wanted her to do as little walking as possible.  She had never eaten bear meat before, so she apprehensively bit off a small portion.  It was a new taste, but it was absolutely wonderful, and she smiled warmly.  “It’s great!” she exclaimed, smiling.

Healie laughed and pulled another plate out from behind Callie, this one heaping with honeycombs.  “Well, then, here, enjoy this as well,” she said, passing the plate around.  Radec’s great loud laughed boomed through the small clearing, and as if it were contagious, everyone else laughed as well.  Amara and Latie happened to catch each other’s eyes and they smiled to each other, realizing how close to death they had come.  They both knew that, no matter what; nothing could come between them and their friendship.

 

 

Within a few days, Latie was able to sit up and feed herself with ease, and was even able to start scooting around some.  Healie laughed every time she saw Latie crawl around, commenting at how much she looked like a toddler trying out his or her walking legs for the first time.

Callie’s pregnancy was off to a wonderful start.  After her recent couple of weeks of morning sickness, she adjusted to it just fine, and was able to go about her normal daily routine.  While Latie healed, the women mended clothes and worked on new ones.  All except Amara were working on new clothes for the baby, but Amara needed some of her own.  She hated sewing with a passion; she always had, and she had hated it when her mother had needed her to do some of the mending.  Socks, underwear, T-shirts, it didn’t matter; she hated it all, hated the way her neck got so cramped when she leaned over for so long, hated the needle pricks, hated everything.  The needle part wasn’t so bad here; the thread-puller that Ayla had invented wasn’t nearly as sharp as the needles Amara had been used to, but the lack of a thimble frustrated her nonetheless, even though the pricks weren’t that bad.

“Ugh!” Amara exclaimed as the thread-puller went through the material into her hand after an over-zealous push.  “I need a thimble!” she said, reverting to English for the unknown word.

“A what?” Callie asked.

“A ‘thimble’,” Amara replied.  “It’s a piece of met—er, um, it’s something that you can wear over your finger to keep you from getting pricked with the thread-puller,” she said.  In frustration, she tossed the fabric to the ground and scowled.  Suddenly, she was hit with an inspiration, and she ran off into the woods.

“Amara, where are you going?” Latie called.

“I’ll be right back!” Amara replied.  She fell to her hands and knees, searching for the object of her attention.  After a short while, she found one and grabbed it up.  “A ha!” she exclaimed to no one.  She rushed back to the clearing where the women were sitting and she showed them her find.

“An acorn?” Latie asked.

“Uh huh,” Amara nodded as she pulled the stemmed top off.  She rummaged around for her sharpest knife, and then she sliced off the bottom part of the acorn.  Then using a small stick, she dug out the contents, loosening them with her thread-puller.  When she was through, she blew into the small shell, shaking her head and blinking quickly as dust flew up into her eyes.  She then held up he hollowed-out acorn for the others to see.  “See?” she showed them.  “It’s a ‘thimble’.”  She placed the acorn over the tip of her index finger.  “This will keep your finger from getting pricked by the thread-puller,” she said as she poked it a few times with the sharp tip.

“Oh, I see!” Callie exclaimed.  “How interesting!  So far we haven’t had too many problems with the thread-puller, but this ‘thimble’ of yours is a nice thing to have.  I wonder if we could get the men to make a few out of bones,” she commented.

Amara grinned.  “That would be perfect!” she exclaimed.  Pleased with herself and her adaptation of the thimble to this lifestyle, she sat down and picked up the material she was working on.  She brushed off the dust and smiled.  As much as she hated to sew, it was nice to know that it was for a good cause.  People here couldn’t go to the nearest department store and pick up some new clothes.  No, they had to make them themselves, and as much of a pain as it was, it gave her a small sense of pride.  She wondered what it would’ve been like 150 years before she was born.  Cloth seemed to wear out much faster than leather, and it must’ve really been a hassle for those women.

She continued thinking absently while she finished the piece she was working on.  Hopefully, this would eventually be a tunic of some sort.  She really wasn’t sure of her size, so she had decided to start with a tunic; they could always be made slightly larger, and if it was way too big, she could always give it away.  She chuckled softly to herself; whoever would want something as primitive as her work?  She glanced over at Callie’s; now she was a seamstress.  Callie’s work was breathtaking, and she could do things with beads that Amara was sure couldn’t even be done by the most skilled of tailors and seamstresses at home.  Her patterns were so intricate, and her colors were so precise…it was genuinely amazing.  “Callie,” Amara said, “will you teach me how to do that?”

Callie looked up, surprised.  “Do what?”

Amara nodded at the leather Callie was holding.  “That.”

Callie looked down at her work.  “This?” she said.  Amara nodded.  “Why, Amara, this isn’t very good,” she said, blushing, “but thank you anyway.  You know what’s really beautiful?”  Amara shook her head in anticipation.  “Crozie of the Crane Hearth from the Lion Camp, where Latie and Danug are from, could make white leather.  Now that’s beautiful work!  I’ve always wanted to know how to do that!” she exclaimed.

“You know, Callie,” Latie broke in, “Crozie taught Ayla how to do it.”

Callie’s eyes opened wide.  “She did?”  Latie nodded in response.  “I don’t suppose Ayla would teach me, then, do you?”  She furrowed her brow and wrinkled her nose.  “But I thought Crozie wouldn’t teach anyone that wasn’t of the Crane Hearth?  She was always bickering about that; I wanted so much to learn, but she swore she would teach no one but Fralie.”  Callie’s voice was almost bitter.

Latie nodded again.  “Yes, she always said that, but Fralie wasn’t into dyeing.  She liked her beadwork, and so Crozie knew that she wouldn’t be able to pass the tradition of white leather to her.”  Latie shrugged nonchalantly.  “So when Ayla asked, Crozie decided to teach her.”

Callie lifted her eyebrows.  “Well, then, maybe Ayla will teach me.  I could trade her off with something, but there’s not really anything that I can do very well.”

“Callie, now you know better than that!” Healie exclaimed.  “Why, you can do things with baskets and weaving that I’ve never seen before!  Your skill is amazing!”

Callie beamed with pride.  “Yeah, I suppose I forgot about that.  There hasn’t been much of an opportunity to work on them.”

“Callie,” Amara interjected, “what kind of colors can you make?”

Callie cocked her head.  “What do you mean, what kind of colors?  For clothes or baskets?”

Amara shrugged.  “Both,” she said.  “Do you know how to make anything the color of violets?” she asked.

Callie frowned and thought about that.  “I’ve never tried it before, and I’ve never seen anyone else do it.”  She shrugged.  “But I don’t see why not.  Usually if you want to dye something a certain color, you find some earth that is that color and soak it in mammoth fat, or bear fat would work, I suppose.  But I’ve never seen any earth the color of violets,” she added.

Amara frowned as well.  “Do you think you could squish some petals into bear or mammoth fat to get the color?” she asked.

“Hmm,” Callie hummed as she thought.  “Well, I…I’m not sure, Amara.  I suppose you could try it if you wanted.  But I think you’d have to have a lot of violets to dye the brown leather that color.”

“What if you dyed the leather white, and then the violet?” Amara offered.

Before Callie could respond, Latie jumped in.  “Yeah, Amara, I think that would probably work!  I don’t think any of us are very skilled at dyeing, but we could ask Ayla when we get there what she thinks.”  She looked down at her work.  “But I don’t think you’d have much time to try it here.”

Amara shook her head.  “No, I wouldn’t, especially when leather now is so precious.  Maybe if I can get some extra time after we return from the Journey and get settled, then I can work on it.”  She grinned mischievously.  “After Panec and I are mated…” she let her sentence trail off unfinished, smiling to herself.

Healie laughed.  “Amara, honey, I’m afraid you’ve got it backwards.  I think you’ll have more time before you’re mated; once you’re mated, you have to take care of your own hearth.  Before mating, you can at least depend on your mother to take care of it for the most part.”

“Ah, but you see,” Amara responded, “I have no mother here, so it would be just as easy either way.

Healie nodded.  “Yes, I suppose you’re right.  Okay, never mind what I said.”  She smiled at the young woman.  “But definitely do work on it before you have children.  Now that’s a real time commitment!”

Amara smiled.  “Yes, I know,” she sighed.  “Usually, how old is a woman before she has children?”

Callie shrugged.  “It depends on the woman.  Some women become blessed right after First Rites; they’re the lucky ones.  Some women have to wait a long time to have their first child, like me,” she said.

“How old are you?” Amara asked innocently.

Callie blushed slightly.  “I’m in my twenty-sixth year,” she replied.

Amara furrowed her brow.  “At home, that’s an ideal time to have your first child,” she commented.

Healie gasped.  “You’re not serious!”

Amara shook her head.  “No, that age is perfect.”  She shook her head.  “Having a baby after First Rites, where I’m from, generally isn’t a good idea.  Well, first, a woman who has a baby that early is actually unlucky.  That’s very early, and even women who have babies at my age; I’m very young as well.  Usually most women at home have children between the ages of twenty and thirty-five, as a general rule.”

“Thirty-five?” Callie gasped.  “Are you serious?”

Amara nodded.  “Yes, but where I’m from, people live a lot longer.  I know some people…er…knew some people, my great-grandmother as a matter of fact, who was in her ninetieth year.”

Callie sat back, flabbergasted.  “Ninety?  I don’t think I even know what that number is,” she said.

Amara held up her index finger with the thimble.  “Ten years,” she said, moving her finger.  She then held up the next.  “Twenty,” she said, and then held up her ring finger.  “Thirty.”  Callie nodded in understanding.  Amara continued with each finger, up to her ninth.  She surprised herself; she had never heard the Mamutoi word for ‘ninety’ before, and like Callie, she wasn’t sure they even had one.  But she had used what she knew of two and twenty, three and thirty, four and forty, and so on, to come up with a version of ‘ninety’ that made the most sense to her.

Healie grinned at Amara’s effort.  “‘Ninety’,” she corrected gently.  She had only heard the word a couple of times at most in her life, but she knew it existed, and Amara had made an excellent attempt; her version had been extremely close.

Amara nodded.  “‘Ninety’,” she repeated.  “Sorry,” she blushed.

Healie shook her head.  “No, that was very good; I’m impressed…your word was quite close.”

Amara blushed at the praise.  “Thank you,” she said, then turned back to Callie.  “Ninety,” she said.

Callie was still thunderstruck that someone could live that long.  She could fathom forty; she was sure Healie was nearing that age.  She was even sure that the old Mamut from the Lion Camp was near fifty, maybe older, but ninety?  She shook her head.  Then she frowned.  “Amara, do you think you’ll live that long?” she asked.

Amara looked up sharply, and then sagged her head slightly.  “I hope not,” she whispered.

“Why, Amara!” Healie exclaimed.  “Think of all the things you could do, all the things you could see!  Why, to live that long, I think that’s everyone’s dream!  Wow!”

Amara shook her head.  “Yes, it would be nice in a way, I suppose, but Panec would have been long dead, and you, and everyone else I know.  Yes, I’d have grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and more down the line, but if I got that old, I’m afraid I’d be more of a burden than anything else.”  She had never really thought of ninety as really old; it was natural, especially in her family.  Her father’s great-grandmother had lived to be over 100, and Amara was sure that the old woman would live to see her great-great-great grandchildren.  But here it was a different story.  People and doctors could treat disabilities and sicknesses at home; here that simply wasn’t possible.  “No, I don’t think I want to live that long,” she repeated, shaking her head.  She looked down and picked up her to-be tunic and quietly started working on it.

Callie and Healie exchanged confused glances.  Both were unsure of why Amara was so adamant about the subject, but Healie, being considered “old” herself, felt she at least understood some of her thinking.  Amara was not Mamutoi; she was new, and no one from her home was here.  She could understand that as Amara grew older, even if she was known and loved by everyone, that she might feel lonely and left-out.  Healie shook her head, ever amazed at how brave Amara was.  She wasn’t sure, if the same thing had happened to her, if she would have even been able to survive.  She cocked her head as Callie and Latie returned to their work.  Perhaps Danug is right, she thought; even more so than we were all thinking in the beginning.  Maybe this is why it’s so important that Amara meets Ayla.

 

 

“What is that, Danug?” Amara asked as she saw the odd-looking pile on his sleeping furs.  She had just poked her head into his tent to ask him a question, but when she saw the pile, the question escaped her.

“What?” Danug asked, then turned around to see what she was referring to.  He blushed and almost moved to hastily cover his find, but it was a little late for that.  “Oh, that’s uh…that’s something I found down by the river,” he stuttered.

Amara sat down and picked up one of the pieces of glass that the lightning had fused out of the sandy bank.  “Glass!” she exclaimed.

“What?” Danug asked, confused.

“‘Glass’,” Amara repeated.  “That’s what this is.  Where on earth did you find this?!  I didn’t even know it existed here!”

Danug squinted at her, then sighed.  “Okay, okay, I wasn’t sure what it was.  I found it down by the river bank; it looks like the streaks of lightning running through the ground made it,” he said.

Amara nodded in understanding.  “Yes, okay, I’ve heard of this before, but I’d never seen it.”  She picked up the largest piece and turned it over in her hand.  “Do you mind if I take some of these outside to get a better look at it?” she asked.

Danug shrugged.  “If you want to, but don’t let anyone else see them.”

“Why not?”

Danug looked uncomfortable.  “Well, it’s that I…oh, I don’t know, I just wanted to study them for a while without being asked a lot of questions.”

“I suppose I can understand that,” Amara said as she picked up a few more pieces and turned to go.

“Wait, I’ll go with you,” Danug offered as he put a fur over the other glass pieces.  They went outside behind his tent so that Amara could look at the glass in the sunlight.

“Danug, these are beautiful!” she exclaimed.  “Look, see how this one is shaped?”  She pointed to the tube.  “When the lightning hit the sand, it melted it.  It’s a really difficult process, and I don’t understand it myself, but that’s what happens.  If you get the sand hot enough, you can make this material, ‘glass’.  When the lightning went through a part of the bank that was all sand, it fused this tube-shaped one.”

Danug nodded.  “Yes, I see,” he said.  “Do you think we could make more?”

Amara wrinkled her nose, thinking, then shook her head.  “I seriously doubt it.  I don’t think we could ever make a fire hot enough to melt the sand.  At home, they used special materials to help.”  She turned the piece over in her hand.  “Sometimes they use long hollow tubes, and they put a piece of unhardened glass and the end, and they blow through the tube.  The melted glass expands into really beautiful shapes, and then they let it dry.”  She examined the glass more closely.  “This is really pretty, Danug.  But glass is very fragile, so you have to be extremely careful with it.  In fact, I’m not sure how we’re going to take it with us traveling.”

He shrugged.  “I really don’t care; I want to take it with us.  Maybe it’ll prove useful.”

“It might,” Amara replied.  She frowned, trying to think of any advantages that glass could provide.  They couldn’t really reshape these; they could never get a fire hot enough, as far as she knew.  Nothing else came to mind, and other than what she had already thought of, for now, glass was really only for decoration.  She kept thinking, holding the glass in her hand, and she didn’t really notice what was happening to the ground beneath her.  That is, until she saw the wisp of smoke.  She quickly glanced down and grinned.

“Amara, what did you do?” Danug asked in amazement.

“That’s another property of glass!  Danug, I didn’t even think of that!  Get me some leaves!” she exclaimed.  He made a small pile of leaves and she laid down on the ground.  Carefully angling the glass to the sun, she concentrated the magnified beam onto the pile.  Within moments, another wisp of smoke rose, and she blew gently onto the pile.  Instantly, a leaf burst into flames, and the fire spread to the other leaves.  It didn’t take long for the two of them to have a small fire going.

“This is even better than the firestone!” Danug cried.

“Well, sort of,” Amara interjected.  “The ‘magnification’ will only work if there’s sunlight.  It won’t work in darkness, where the firestone will.”

Danug guessed at the context of her new word.  “Yeah, but still, this probably will help, and might even be faster than the firestone.  And it doesn’t wear down.”

Amara nodded, and then realized the whole purpose of magnification.  “You want to see something even better?” she asked.  He nodded, and she picked up a leaf.  “Look,” she said, holding out the leaf and the piece of glass.

“Look at what?”

“Look at the leaf through the glass,” she said.

He frowned, but then shrugged and decided to go along.  He looked through the glass at the leaf, and instantly he drew his head back.  “Wow!” he exclaimed.

Amara grinned.  “Isn’t that neat?  It’s called ‘magnification’; it makes things look bigger.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” he replied, looking again.  “Wow, this is amazing!”

“Isn’t it?”  She picked up another piece that was curved slightly more than the first, and showed it to him.  “See, this one makes the leaf even bigger,” she said.

He took the second piece from her and looked.  This was remarkable!  “Amara, you know how much this could help us?” he said.

She shrugged.  “It helped us at home, but I don’t how much help this could be here.  What did you have in mind?”

“Well,” he began, “maybe for clothes; this might help older women see the thread-puller better, especially if their eyesight isn’t too good.”

She was suddenly hit with an inspiration, but she let it die down.  There was no way she could shape this glass to make eyeglasses.  No way at all.  So it was best to just leave the subject be, and continue with Danug’s thoughts.  “Yes, I suppose that would work,” she said.

“I’m sure there are several other things this would be useful for, especially with its fire-starting capabilities.”  He nodded.  “Yes, I’m sure this will be very helpful.  I wonder if we could find some more?”

Amara shook her head.  “I doubt it.  The chances of ever finding more glass is pretty slim.  First we’d have to find where lightning struck, and then it would have to be at a place with sand; you can’t make glass out of dirt, as far as I know.”

Danug frowned and sighed.  “Oh, well, it was a thought.  But I did get a lot here, and we can go down and look for some more later,” he offered.

She nodded and smiled.  “I’m really surprised that you found this; I don’t think most people ever think to look.”

He shrugged.  “Well, I was looking at the streak down the tree, and I just followed it to the ground.  I wouldn’t have seen this if it hadn’t been for the reflection of the sunlight.  I found one piece, and then I kept looking and found more.”  He considered briefly telling her about him seeing her with her mother, but he decided to save that for later.  “Let’s go show the others how to start a fire with this.  And I suppose I’ll give a small piece to everyone, but I’m keeping this one,” he gestured toward the tubed piece, “for myself.”

“Fair enough,” Amara replied.  “Why don’t we show them after we eat?  I’m hungry, very hungry, and I don’t want everyone to get so absorbed with this that we forget the food.”  She winked at him.

Danug grinned.  “That works for me,” he said, standing.  She handed him the few pieces that were sitting beside her, and they quickly returned them to Danug’s tent, so that no one would see them yet.  They were both excited, and although he had been momentarily disappointed that she had discovered his find, he was glad she had seen them; he might not have ever discovered the magnification or fire properties by himself.

 

 

“Amazing,” Radec said, dumbfounded.  “So all you have to do is angle it in the sunlight and it starts a fire?”

Amara knelt down and showed him the process again.  “Pretty much.  You know how it makes things look bigger?” she asked.  Radec nodded.  “Well, it sort of does that with the sun, too.  To the leaf, it makes the sun look bigger, and it concentrates the sunlight into one small beam.  That beam is so tiny and precise that it burns a hole in the leaf, and eventually will burn it up.  If you blow gently on it, that will help start the fire.  Kind of like the firestone with kindling,” she added.

The others nodded, all impressed with the discovery.  “Do you suppose there would be more down there?” Lareno asked.  “If we could find some more, that would make some great trade items,” he offered.

Radec nodded in agreement.  “Yes, that would, and it would be to our advantage to have plenty of this ‘glass’ to trade, especially when it comes time for Callie to have her baby.”

“Well, let’s go look,” Callie suggested.  The others murmured in agreement, and Lareno bent down to help Latie up.  She had been doing very well with her recovery, and with help was even able to semi-walk on her own.  She put her arm around Lareno’s shoulders and slowly walked with him down to the riverbank.

When they arrived, the memories came flooding back to Latie.  She stood still in shock, looking at the tree and the radial streaks of burned ground that ran out from the tree.  She shook her head, marveling in the fact that she and Amara were both alive.  Lightning was very powerful, she knew, but she had never seen someplace where lightning had struck before.  “Are you okay?” Lareno asked as he saw the expression on her face.

“Yes, I’m fine, it’s just that this is…well, it’s…it’s very humbling.”  She looked down and followed the burns on the ground with her eyes.  “It’s amazing; we lived through that?”

Lareno shuddered.  “Yes, and I thank the Mother every day that you did.”  He squeezed her affectionately, then helped her to sit down.

“I found one!” Panec exclaimed, holding up a shard of glass. 

Amara laughed at his child-like enthusiasm.  “You did!”  She looked back down to the ground near her and searched.  Within a few moments, she too found a small piece.  After several minutes, she had a small pile made up beside her.  She sat back on her heels and smiled at all the adults crawling on their hands and knees looking for glass.

“I found a worm,” Latie announced in a disgusted tone.  She held up the squiggling worm and giggled.  “Anyone want it?” she asked rhetorically.

Amara chuckled.  “I think Danug could use one,” she offered, noticing that Danug was paying no attention to Latie’s squirmy discovery. 

Latie winked and tossed the worm over at Danug.  Completely unaware of the conversation between the two, Danug jumped back and cried out in surprise when the worm dropped in his hair.  He pulled the worm off his head and scowled at Latie as he put the small creature on the ground near the river.  “Thanks,” he said sarcastically.  Amara and Latie both laughed at his antics and returned to their respective searches.

Before long, the group had collected more of the small pieces of glass than they could possibly take with them on the Journey.  They toted them all back to the camp, where Callie collected the largest pieces and put them in the some of the smallest of the newly finished baskets that she had been working on that day.  This way they could each carry some, but no one would have the entire burden.  They were all looking forward to the anticipation of trading the new discoveries.

 

 

Latie’s speedy recovery was a blessing to them all.  Within four more days, she was able to walk, albeit slowly, completely on her own.  She was thrilled with herself and thus took every chance she could to enjoy it.  She gained a new perspective on life; now she realized just how precious every step was.  Every kiss from Lareno, every smile from Amara, every delicious bite of food—it was all so fleeting, it seemed, and she now realized that everything was important, and nothing could be taken for granted.  She gained a new respect for Amara as well.  Not only because Amara had saved her life, but because Amara’s experience had to have been much similar.  She lost her family and was thrown in the midst of several Mamutoi on a Journey.  How lost and alone she must have felt, and just how did her perspective on life change after the fact?

Amara’s introduction of the thimble into their society provided the group of travelers with something else to occupy their time while Latie continued her recovery.  After much experimentation, the men found a way to make a thimble-like object out of bone.  Although their thread-puller wasn’t very sharp, the thimble was still an asset.  Latie found herself thinking of the time when Ayla first invented the thread-puller; when the women were trying it out, Ayla had tried to push the thread-puller through too many pieces of hide.  She had had to use a scrap piece of hide to aid her while she pushed the thread-puller through, so as not to hurt her hand.  Latie shook her head, reminding herself again of the similarities she couldn’t help but see.

The time spent at their campsite was enough to allow Amara to finish her first sewing project.  Amazingly, her new tunic fit her perfectly.  She had tried to add some more modern conventions to it, something she was used to, but there was only so much she could do with the few materials she had.  Nevertheless, she managed to make a tunic unlike any the Mamutoi had seen. It was sleeveless and snug-fitting, and Amara had even found a way to incorporate darts into the leather.  The darts were a little uncomfortable, but she was sure that after some use, they would wear down and fold over as they should.  The neckline was curved slightly, extending from just inside one shoulder to the other.  It was obviously meant as a summer tunic, but she was sure she could adjust the design for warmer clothes.

Panec was thrilled; he remembered how exotic Ayla and Jondalar looked in the Zelandoni clothes, and he relished in the sight of Amara with such a foreign article.  It hugged her waist and emphasized her bust and curves.  She shimmered in it, and it made Panec want to take her to their tent at that very moment and take the beautiful tunic off of her beautiful body.  Her eyes sparkled as she saw the emotion in her eyes, and she smiled a promise.

“Amara, it’s beautiful,” Callie said.  She looked the young woman up and down, shaking her head.  “Amara, honey, have you given any thought to your matrimonial tunic?  Usually your mother makes it, so Healie and I would be happy to take on that responsibility, but you look so lovely in your tunic that maybe you should help us out.  What do you think?”

Amara blushed.  Was it really that nice?  “Yes, Callie, I would be happy for the three of us to make my matrimonial tunic.”  She beamed at Panec who returned her gaze.  “I should probably take this off.  It did turn out a lot nicer than I had expected, so I suppose I should wait and wear it when I won’t dirty it up too much.”  She donned her original tunic and folded the new on up.  Ducking quickly in the tent she and Panec shared, she put the tunic quickly in her pack.

“What do you think about a swim?” Latie suggested exuberantly.

Radec’s laughter rang out at the young woman.  “It think it’s a great idea, Latie!  But I think you just want to show off!”

Latie nodded eagerly and grinned.  “You know me too well!”

The laughter was contagious, and as soon as the Muta was placed near the campfire, the group made their way down to the river.  The skies were gorgeous without a cloud in sight, and the day was just warm enough to warrant a cool-down in the river.

It took only moments from the second the first person put their foot in the river until everyone was completely drenched.  It was an excellent way to relax, and everyone could act as a child.  Downstream only a little way, Danug found a small ledge, perfect for jumping off of into the river.  It worried Healie momentarily, but she knew that children had to have their fun.  Amara, Lareno, and Panec soon joined Danug while the others waded down to clap at the best dives.  Radec winked at Callie and climbed onto the ledge while the younger four were in the water.  He jumped, tucking his knees to his chest, and the monstrous splash that resulted caught the four completely off guard.

As soon as Panec recovered himself, he jumped on to Radec’s back, dunking the older man underwater, and he then raced away before Radec could surface.  Radec came up, sputtering and laughing, and zipped away after Panec.  Amara and Danug looked at each other, grinned, and then followed, Lareno close on their heels.

“Swim Amara, swim!” Latie cried.

Callie playfully pushed Latie over into the water.  “No!  Radec!” she laughed.

The three women ran as best they could through the ankle-deep water near the bank, following the swimmers.  Panec of course had the advantage, but the others were quickly gaining on him.  Latie, Healie, and Callie shouted in enthusiasm at them, urging them all on.  Amara gained quickly on Radec and Panec, using the skills she had learned years ago when she took swimming lessons.  Although part of her thought it was unfair, it was all fun and games, so she didn’t mind.  It didn’t take long for her to pass Radec, and by the time they reached where they had all gotten in the river to begin with, Amara had caught up to Panec.

“Yay!” Latie cried, clapping as they all crawled ashore, out of breath.  Amara grinned at her, and Latie smiled in return.

 

 

For some reason, it was somewhat cooler that night than it had been before.  Amara snuggled down into her furs and smiled, listening to the three young men talking outside.  What I wouldn’t give for a cup of hot chocolate, with marshmallows, she thought.  Although she couldn’t hear the conversation outside, they were just loud enough to keep her awake.  She sighed to herself, wondering if there wasn’t something she could do.

She smiled when she thought of something.  She made a small fire, cursing because of the lack of flashlights, or even candles, and she absently wondered if there were someplace she could get some wax.  However, the small fire provided just enough light for her to see, which was what was most important.  Taking a deep breath, she pulled the small wooden box out of her pack, and went digging in her first aid kit for the tape she knew she would have to write on.  She frowned, trying to think of some way that she could remove the adhesive from the back of the tape.  She unrolled it a little ways and felt the back.  She was surprised; most of the adhesive had worn away as it was.  She shrugged, figuring that the solution would present itself in time.  She uncapped the pen, thought for a moment, and began writing.

“My name is Amara Lida Cloud.  I was born on February 7, 1986, 3:23 a.m. in Kansas City, Kansas, weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces, measuring 20 inches long.  My mother’s name is Carol Elizabeth Wright, and she married my father, John Sebastian Cloud on October 12, 1978.  My social security number is…”

She paused for a moment and chewed absently on the end of the pen.  Her middle name seemed so foreign now, as well as her surname.  Only one name would ever be used here, she realized.  She chuckled; her parents may not have known her destiny when she was born, but they sure prepared for it with her name!  Her name had been so different from her brother’s; her parents had told her that they wanted their daughter to have a unique name.  The eternal part was true enough, she mused to herself.  Hopefully, she thought, crossing her fingers, the other part would be true.  Would she be loved by all?  She sighed, wrote the number, and continued.

“On August 3, 2002, I left my home just outside of Vienna, Austria…”

She wrote with such force, such detail, such ambition that she became completely absorbed.  She wrote about her “exploration” and finding the cave, she wrote about the feelings she had during her transition.  She wrote about the pictures, the things she found in the cave, and the surprise she felt when she saw the snow.  She wrote about her lonely night in the cold cave, and about how it disappeared the next day.  She didn’t even realize that she was crying.

“Amara?” she heard Panec whisper softly behind her.  She jumped with a start and shuffled around to hide her work.  “Amara, is everything okay?”

“Yes, yes,” she stammered.  She quickly put the pen away and rolled up the tape, shaking her head at how much she had written.  How long had she been sitting there?  “I was just taking care of some things,” she mumbled.  Wiping her eyes quickly, she stowed the tape with the pencil in the box, and then shoved the box into her pack.

“Are you sure?” Panec asked.  He really hated it when she cried, because he always felt so helpless.  There wasn’t much he could do for her, especially if she was crying about her home.  It also made him feel terrible, thinking that he wasn’t doing a good enough job of taking care of her, of providing for her, of being there for her.  He wanted her to find solace in him, and it tore through his heart when he found her crying alone, realizing that he hadn’t been there.

“Yes, Panec,” she said, nodding.  “Can we go to bed?  I just want to sleep with your arms around me.”

Panec nodded solemnly and quickly undressed.  He laid down beside her and slipped his arm under her neck.  She snuggled next to him, closed her eyes, and within moments was sound asleep.

 

 

“I don’t know how I’m going to fit all this stuff in here!” Amara cried.

“Relax, Amara, we’ll make it fit,” Panec said, trying to comfort her.  She had been testy all day, and now that they were going to attempt to leave in two more days, they were all trying to figure out how to pack all the new items in their already crowded backpacks.  “I’m sure we could fit some more on Jolie or Ranug; they’re not too loaded down.”

Amara frowned.  It seemed every time they left someplace, none of them considered the horses.  “I suppose you’re right,” she conceded.  Suddenly she was hit with an inspiration.  Latie had devised a travois for each of the horses.  What if they could make some sort of cart to carry things in?  That would solve all of their problems!  “Panec!”

His head snapped up.  “What?”

She was shivering with excitement.  “I need you and Danug and Lareno, and maybe Radec, to go chop down a couple of trees.”

He was perplexed.  “Chop down trees?  Amara, whatever are you…”

“Just do it!  You’ll be glad you did when you see my idea!” she interrupted.

He furrowed his brow at her, then shrugged.  “Okay, but it had better be a good idea,” he said, grinning.

“She wants what?” Radec exclaimed after Panec told him what Amara had said.

“She wants us to go cut down some trees.”

Radec shook his head.  “Cut down trees?  Why does she want us to do that?”

“So that I can make something,” Amara interjected.  “You’ll like it, it’s an excellent idea!” she exclaimed.

Radec cocked his head at her.  “What size trees do you need?”

She frowned.  Wheels would be tough…she didn’t have nails to put things together with.  The wheels would have to be made of a cross section of one large tree.  “I need one large tree, about this big,” she indicated by making a circle with her arms, “and I think that will take care of all of it.”

“Well, you come with us and show us what tree you want.  I don’t know what you’re getting at, so it had better be good.”

Amara grinned.  “It is!” she cried as she led the men into the forest.

After much deliberation, she decided on a good-sized tree, about a foot in diameter.  “I need you to cut this down,” she said, pointing.

Lareno shook his head at her.  “You know that will take a while,” he commented.

Amara nodded vigorously.  “Yes, I know, but when you see what I have in mind, it will be well worth the effort!”

Panec took a deep breath and picked up his axe.  “Okay, here we go,” he said, and started swinging at the tree.

After several minutes, the perspiration that had formed and beaded on him started to drip.  Radec pulled Panec away from the tree, and started hacking himself.  Radec was able to last a little longer, and by the time Danug started, they had chopped through a third of the diameter.  Danug frowned, and then started working on the other side of the tree.  He chopped away, and then Lareno took over the task.  Each man was using his own axe, since they knew that using any one of the axes would wear down the tool in no time.

Lareno chopped until the tree was balanced precariously on one little piece of wood, with large wedges cut out on either side.  “How should we do this part?” he asked.  The four men and Amara looked at the tree, trying to figure out what would be the best way to fell it.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Radec said.  “Danug, you and Panec get on either side of me while I finish the chopping.  Lareno, you throw my long rope around some of those lower branches, and you and Amara pull to keep the tree from falling towards me.  Once the tree starts to give way, Danug, you and Panec push the tree that way,” he pointed in the direction he wanted the tree to fall, “while Lareno, you and Amara keep pulling on the rope.  Just make sure to jump out o the way before it falls!” he cautioned.

“Right,” Lareno said.  He gathered Radec’s rope that he had brought along, just in case, and he threw it over a large limb.  He and Amara got on each side of the rope and tugged just enough to make it taut.  “Ready!” he announced.

Radec nodded to Danug and Panec, and then started chopping again.  Within a few minutes, they all heard the unmistakable creaking of the wood.  Amara and Lareno started to pull on the rope, and Danug and Panec braced themselves against the tree, making sure to stay out of the way of the axe, and pushed.  Amara grinned; she couldn’t help it.  “Timber!!!” she yelled in English as the tree fell.  It landed with a resounding crash, sending birds, squirrels, leaves, and other debris flying every which way.

“Yeah!” Danug cried, clapping his hands together.  “That was great!”

Radec smiled as he heaved, out of breath.  “Now what?” he asked the beaming young woman.

“Okay,” she started, “now we need to cut off two pieces that are circular, about this thick,” she held her hands about three inches apart.  “We need the pieces to be as smooth as possible.”

Danug frowned.  “Why don’t we start by cutting off two larger pieces, and then we can work them down to the size Amara needs?”

Radec nodded.  “Yes, that sounds like it will work.”  He sighed.  “Well, let’s get this thing started.”

It took a while for them to cut off two large pieces, and by the time they did, the sun was half way down from its zenith.  “Should we try to continue this tonight, or do we want to just leave this part for tomorrow?” Lareno asked.

Radec surveyed the situation.  “I think I see what Amara’s getting at.  Why don’t we work in two teams, with Amara supervising, and maybe we can get these to how she wants them before the sun sets.”  The others nodded in agreement.  “But Amara, why don’t you run back to the camp quickly and let the women know what’s going on?  Maybe they’ll be able to have the meal ready by around sunset?”

“Okay,” Amara nodded, and she ran toward the camp.  The men all sighed, grinned at each other, and split into two teams of two, with one man on each side, smoothing the wood down finely with his axe.  It only took a couple of minutes for Amara to reach the camp.  “I think this is going to work!” she announced, excited and breathless.

Callie smiled at her enthusiasm.  “Are you and the men ready to eat?” she asked.  “We’ve been listening to you; sounds like they’ll be pretty hungry before too long,” she said, winking.

Amara grinned.  “Yes, I’m starving.  But I think we’re going to work until sunset, and then head back here.”

“Okay, that will work,” Healie said.  She shooed Amara back towards the forest.  “You go help them, we’ll have everything ready by sunset.”

Amara nodded and ran back to the tree.  When she got there, she saw that Radec and Lareno were working on one section, while Panec and Danug were working on the other.

“Is this what you mean, Amara?” Radec asked.  He pointed to where he had smoothed down his side so that it was almost flat.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean!” she exclaimed in excitement.  “Now if you can make it about this thick,” she showed him again with her hands, “and smooth it like that on both sides, then I think that will be great!”

Radec smiled at her excitement.  Amara went back and forth between the two sets, supervising and suggesting, and by the time the sun had dipped to just above the horizon, the men had crafted two wheels, about a foot in diameter, about three inches thick.

As they headed back, Danug asked, “What do we do after this?”

Amara nodded.  “Okay, what we’ll do next is make two holes in the middle of each circle.  Then we’ll stretch a nice thick beam between them, and somehow we’ll need to make it so that the circles don’t fall off of the beam.”  She frowned.  “Do you see what I mean?”

Radec brightened.  “Amara!  I think I see!  What an excellent idea!!  Then after we do that, we’ll make something kind of like a raft, and put it over the beam, and then attach that to the horses!  The horses will pull it, and the two circles will go round and round, and that way we don’t have to worry about them getting stuck with their travois!”

“Exactly!” Amara cried, excited that Radec had been able to see what she was meaning.

“Oh, I see!” Lareno added.  “Amara, where ever did you come up with that idea?!  I can’t believe no one else has thought of it!”

“Well, but Lareno, no one thought of using horses until Ayla came along,” Danug interjected.

“But people could have pulled something like that,” Panec added.

“That’s true,” Danug said, nodding.

“So?  How is everything?” Latie asked as they came in sight of the camp.  “What have you five been doing all day?”

Lareno excitedly explained the idea to Latie as the others cleaned up somewhat for dinner.  They were all famished from the hard work, and more than ready to eat.  They continued talking, thrilled about the idea through dinner, and it was difficult for anyone to fall asleep afterward.

 

 

Radec awoke with the sun, energized and ready to begin the new day.  He peeked outside his tent to find that the younger bunch was already awake, sipping their tea in the dewy morning sunrise.  He laughed at their enthusiasm, but agreed with it, and jumped up himself.  Within minutes he was dressed and ready to have some breakfast.  Healie had warmed up the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner so as to expedite the events of the day.  They scarfed down the food quickly, and as soon as they were ready, they headed back to their felled tree.

“Panec, why don’t you and Amara bore the holes in the circles and cut down a small tree to go between them?  From what Amara has said, the beam that runs between them should be thick enough to support quite a bit of weight,” Radec said.

Panec and Amara nodded.  “The circles are called ‘wheels’, and the beam is called an ‘axle’,” Amara offered.

“And you used them often at home?” Danug asked.

“All the time,” she replied.

“How thick does the beam, or ‘axle’, I think you said, have to be?” Panec asked.

Amara frowned.  “I’m not sure.  It needs to be thick enough to support the weight of the things we’re going to put on it, so I guess it depends on that.”

“I suppose we should all go pick out a tree, then, so that they can know how wide to make this raft thing,” he said.

Radec nodded.  “I agree.”

After walking around, carefully looking over the trees, they chose a sturdy oak sapling, about three inches in diameter.  Radec measured off a little over his arm’s length, from fingertip to shoulder, that they decided should be the wideness of the cart; about four and a half feet.  Radec, Lareno, and Danug went to go construct the bottom of the cart, leaving Amara and Panec to chop down the small tree.

“Can I try some?” Amara asked before Panec could start chopping.

He shrugged.  “I don’t see why not,” he said as he handed his axe to her.  “Hit the tree once,” he said.  She nodded and took a nice swing.  “Good!  Now, try it again, and try to hit the same spot,” he instructed. 

She did so, much to her delight, and again, and again.  It didn’t take her long to chop down the entire sapling by herself, but she knew that her hands would pay for it the next day.  She hadn’t had the time to develop the rough calluses on her hands that the others had, and she knew she’d have plenty of blisters by tomorrow.  She and Panec then dragged the sapling to where the wheels were.

“Amara, why don’t you work on cutting off the little limbs, and shaving the sapling down to an even thickness from top to bottom, while I bore the holes?  Well, not from top to bottom, but along the length that Radec marked.  I guess if you want you can cut off the length of the mark as well,” he added.

She nodded in understanding.  She then took her sharpest and largest knife, one that was even kind of serrated at the edge, and began sawing away at the little limbs.  There were only three or four of them below the mark that Radec had made, and before long she had them off.  She then smoothed the places where the limbs had been attached.

“Amara, should the holes be exactly the size of the beam, or larger?” Panec asked, interrupting her work.

She stopped and considered for a few moments.  They didn’t have oil here.  They probably wouldn’t have a way to attach the ‘raft’ part to the axle so that the axle could turn smoothly.  It would probably be their best bet to make the holes larger than the sapling, so that the wheels could turn without too much inhibition.  “Why don’t you make them larger?  That way the wheels can turn easily,” she replied.

Panec nodded and continued with his work.  She turned back to her own and considered what she was going to do next.  She would have to scrape the sapling so that it was approximately the same diameter all the way down.  She smiled absently to herself as she could hear the others working on cutting down their own trees.  She sighed and then began the tedious task of scraping the sapling down.

 

 

She hardly noticed when the others returned, lugging the ‘raft’-like object that they had constructed out of beams cut from the large tree they had felled the day before.  “How does this look, Amara?” Danug asked.

She shot her head up quickly.  “Um, I think it looks good,” she said, a little caught off-guard.

“Are you finished with the beam?” he asked.

She scrutinized her work, and then nodded, satisfied with her results.  “Yes, I think so.”

Panec stood up and held up one of the wheels.  “I think the two circles are done, too,” he offered.

Radec nodded.  “Good.  Do we want to try to put this together now, or should we wait till later?”

“I for one am starving,” Lareno chimed in.

“I agree,” Amara said, “but I’m excited about this.  It shouldn’t take too long to put it together.”

“Okay, then we’ll try to do just that, and see what we come up with,” Radec answered, smiling at her.  She grinned back and held out the beam.  “Okay, so you said that this ‘axle’ needs to go through the circles, and we need to attach the ‘raft’ to it, correct?”  She nodded.  “Well, then, let’s give it a try!”

Panec slipped the sapling that Amara had worked on through the two wheels.  In order to judge their measurements, Radec and Lareno put the ‘raft’ part over the beam, just to make sure it would fit.  They all smiled; it fit perfectly!

“Now, we have to attach the bottom to the axle, and then we need to do something to the ends of the axle so that the wheels don’t come off,” Amara said.

The others frowned, seeing what she meant.  They all looked at each other for answers, but came up with none.  “Well, why don’t we start with attaching this to the axle, and then we can see about the wheels after?” Danug suggested.  The others murmured in agreement.  Radec and Danug adjusted the ‘raft’ to where it would be best placed on the axle, and then the men went to work attaching the two.  While Radec and Danug held it in place, Lareno and Panec wrapped long thongs and twine around them, tying them in place.  After that was completed, Lareno poured a thick mixture of some sort over it.

“What’s that?” Amara asked.

“It’s glue,” Panec told her.  “It looks like they boiled horse’s hooves together with some sap and some other ingredients, and it makes things stick together.  Although I’m not sure where they got the ingredients,” he added.

She considered what he said, and then the light bulb went off.  “Oh, okay, ‘glue’!  We had that at home, although I don’t know that horse’s hooves were in it.”  She shrugged.  “Does this have to dry now?”

Lareno nodded.  “Yeah, but that won’t take long.”  He frowned, and then brightened.  “Hey, what if we put the wheels on, and then dip the ends of the axle in the glue?  We could dip it in enough that it would make several layers, and then the wheels wouldn’t come off.  Either that or we could fit a piece of wood around the end, and secure it with the glue,” he offered.

Radec grinned.  “You know, I think that might work!  Why don’t we try to put some wood at the ends?  We could bore holes in them the same size as the axle, then fit them on, and cover them with the glue to seal them in place!”

The others nodded in agreement.  Amara and Lareno held the ‘raft’ on the axle while the other three returned to the large tree from yesterday.  They cut off two sections and bored holes in each of them, being sure to measure the ends of the beam.  By the time they were finished, the glue that connected bottom part to the axle had dried sufficiently enough for them to attempt to finish it.

Radec took Amara’s place, and he and Panec lifted the heavy bottom so that a wheel could be placed on each end.  They carefully set it down, letting the wheels shift somewhat catywompus.  Panec began hammering one of the small pieces to one end, while Danug took care of the other end.  After they were hammered in place, Lareno poured some more of the glue, which was quickly congealing, over the two ends.  “Okay, let’s carry this back to the camp and let it finish drying while we eat!” Radec suggested.

The others nodded excitedly, remembering how hungry they were.  The four men each took a corner and carried the cart back to the camp.

“What in the world have you done?” Healie asked when she saw the strange contraption.

Radec grinned.  “You’ll see after the glue dries.  But first, we’re starving!  I don’t suppose there’s any dinner ready, is there?”

Callie emerged from their tent and winked.  “Of course!” she exclaimed.  She held out one of the plates she was carrying to her mate.  The men put the cart on the ground gently, and then they all rushed over to eat.

“So how is this thing going to work?” Latie asked, eyeing the strange contraption.

“You see,” Amara offered, “we’ll hook it up to the horses and put a bunch of stuff on it.  They’ll pull, and as they do that, the circles, called ‘wheels’, will turn.  They won’t fall off because of the end pieces.  This way we don’t have to worry about clearing out the travois every time they get caught in something.  See?”

Latie grinned.  “Oh!  I see!” she exclaimed.  “How neat!”  She shook her head and returned to her food.

They made normal conversation during the meal, and afterwards the five that had worked on the cart were exhausted.  They decided to let it dry overnight and return to it the next day.  Hopefully, Radec was thinking, they would be able to leave the next day.

 

 

Radec was quite pleased at the amount of their belongings that they would be able to put on the small cart.  The young men had worked with some planks of wood that morning and made sides to the cart, after discovering that moving at faster speeds would cause the contents to slide off.  After their improvisation, it looked like a large box with no lid, and another added benefit was that it was now waterproof.  Latie and Callie had worked with a hide that had been recently cured, cutting it into a long continuous strip, thick enough to support the weight of the cart when pulled by the horses.  Latie adjusted it so that one end could fit almost like a bridle, while the other end was attached to the cart.  Another consideration, when they had more time, was to devise another one, so that both horses could pull the cart at the same time, rather than in turns.  Now the only thing left was to pack it.

He decided that the tents and bedrolls and whatnot should go in first; although each item by itself wasn’t too heavy, they were bulky and cumbersome, and if they had to move quickly, the tents always slowed them down.  After that, water bags and baskets of food were packed near the front, where they would be easily accessible.  Behind the food and water they tightly packed dishes, utensils, and the glass that Danug had found, all wrapped in pieces of leather.  There was a little room left after that, enough for maybe two backpacks.  After some thought, they decided that Latie’s pack would go in…she still had a few problems now and then with her balance and with a limp, but for the most part she was fine.  However, Radec didn’t want to take any chances, and he instructed her to put her pack in the cart.  Once hers was in, Danug suggested that they lighten Callie’s load and let her put her pack in the cart.  Radec nodded in agreement.  After he had packed that, he went to Healie and unloaded a few heavier things out of her pack.  Being the oldest one in the group, he felt that if anyone else should have a lighter load, it should be her.  She smiled gratefully at him, but not wanting to admit the pain that the extra weight caused in her shoulders, adding to the arthritis pains.  Radec frowned as he put the various things he had pulled out of her pack into the cart, and then shrugged.

“Why don’t you give me the entire pack, Healie?  If we adjust some of the things around in here, I think there will be just enough room,” Radec suggested.  Healie smiled and handed him her pack.  He shuffled a few of the items around, and managed to squeeze her pack in, slightly in front of Callie’s and Latie’s.  He nodded at the job well done.  “Are we ready?” he asked.

They were all anxious to begin the Journey again.  In the past few weeks, they had hardly traveled at all.  After the cave was the Sharamudoi, and after that was the lightning, all of which had delayed the Journey.  But the stops were more than well worth it.

 

 

It didn’t take long for them to set a nice pace and get back in the mood of traveling each day.  The weather was clear and beautiful, not too hot in the afternoons, and with enough of a breeze to cool them off.  With each step, the mountains of the Sharamudoi fell further behind them, and the dim purplish-blue outline of the mountains ahead began to show.  Between the two lay the vast steppes with rolling grasses and a plethora and abundance of wildlife.  And ten days after their departure from the small camp, they came upon one of the greatest challenges they would face throughout the entire Journey – the Sister.

Amara had seen many rivers in her lifetime.  She knew the Mississippi and the Arkansas Rivers, and was quite familiar with the Missouri.  She had even had some experience with the Platte River that wound its way through Nebraska to the Missouri.  She had visited the Grand Canyon and had seen the beautiful thin blue strip of the Colorado at the bottom of the deep gorge.  After moving to Europe, she became familiar with the area of the Danube around where her father worked, if only by looking at it through a car window.  They had once even traveled to the Black Sea and had seen the immense delta of what her new family called the Great Mother River.  But nothing she had seen compared to the agitated, swirling waters of the Sister, or as she had known it, the Tisza.

Watching the turgid waters, she was suddenly snapped to an epiphany that made her almost question her existence.  This had to be the Tisza; given the geography of the land through which they had just traveled and the direction and turns of the Danube, the Tisza was the only possible river.  She thought back to the few geography lessons she had had in Vienna; she could picture the maps in her head.  She could see the Danube, from its head to the delta, and she could see the Tisza.  But didn’t the Tisza run through Hungary?  Didn’t the Tisza join the Danube in Yugoslavia?  The Danube wound its way from Vienna to Budapest, slightly downstream from which it met the Tisza, and then past Belgrade, finally emptying into the Black Sea right on the Bulgaria and Romania border.

Her head was whirling; how ever could it be possible?  It was hard enough to accept a travel through time, but now all of a sudden she managed to get from Vienna, Austria to near Crajova, Romania as well.  Why?  How?  The strangeness started to overcome her, and her head began pounding.  She put her hand on her forehead and leaned into it.  Her head throbbed with every heartbeat, and her breathing became harder and faster.  She opened her eyes and it felt as if the world was spinning around her.  She wasn’t wrong; she knew where she was.  But how?

Danug managed to tear his eyes away from the swirling Sister and glanced at the awestruck group.  Amara, however, wasn’t looking at the river; she seemed pale, and the quick glimpse of her eyes that he managed to catch conveyed complete confusion.  He went over to her and steadied her.  The others, still captivated at the sight, didn’t seem to notice.  “Amara, what’s wrong?” he whispered.

She looked up at him, her eyes full of questions and tears.  “Danug, where I’m from, Vienna…that’s upstream…that’s so far away from here.  I don’t understand…” she choked.

Danug furrowed his brow.  “Upstream?  You mean further west?”  She nodded.  He frowned in consternation.  “Are you sure?” she nodded again, and her nod seemed to contain a hint of annoyance that he had questioned her.  Danug looked again at the river and thought about what she had told him.  “Amara, I guess a lot of confusing things happened when you came here.  I don’t know why, but there has to be a reason.”

The pressure of her pounding head increased and a tear squeezed out.  She looked at him again, and in his eyes he saw panic and fear.  It was too much for her.  “Amara, come with me,” he whispered.  She shook her head in stiff jerks and her entire body started shaking.  Danug grabbed her hand and started pulling, but she stayed rooted to the spot. 

Panec glanced behind him after he had his fill of the fuming waters and his eyes opened wide with fear when he saw how furiously Amara was shaking.  In an instant, he was by her side.  “Amara?” he asked worriedly.

“Panec, tell Radec that we need to make camp here, and please set up your tent as soon as possible,” Danug instructed and he gently picked the shaking young woman up.

“What’s wrong?” Panec asked.

Danug shook his head.  “I’ll explain later, just please, set up the tent and have Healie make some tea, something that will help relax her and put her to sleep.”  Panec nodded in compliance and turned, but not after kissing Amara’s cheek gently.  “And Panec,” Danug called, “please don’t try to come after us.  Don’t worry, she’ll be fine I think, but just the same, allow me some time to figure this out.”  Panec was confused and frowned, but nodded and turned and started back again.

Danug started in the opposite direction, and carried her far enough away that the others couldn’t see her violent shaking, or the pale, inward impassiveness in her face.  When he decided he had gone far enough, he put her down and sat beside her.  She had drawn into herself and when he looked in her eyes, he couldn’t see her.  Understanding medicine enough to know she was in shock, he knew that this wasn’t a normal sickness.  Her tired brain couldn’t handle the realization that she had come to.  He knew that he had to do something to snap her out of it; she was quickly losing control, falling deeper and deeper into her mind.  Danug pulled his firestone out of a pouch attached to his belt and quickly started a fire.  He touched her hand; it was clammy and cold, and her eyes were glazed over.  He hurried to build the fire up, and though he knew he should make a tea out of the root that he pulled out of his pouch, he knew he didn’t have time.  He wrapped his tunic around her and rubbed her up and down, but his efforts were futile.  He reached back into his mind and remembered what Mamut had said about trances like this.  He closed his eyes and, vaguely, he could see Ayla and Mamut lying cold and motionless on the floor.  Then he faintly heard a voice, pleading with the Mother for Ayla’s life.  His eyes shot open in realization, and at the top of his voice, he yelled for Panec, and didn’t stop until he heard footsteps running quickly through the leaves.  He knew that he was young, and he wasn’t Mamut, but he was afraid that if he didn’t go after her, if he didn’t dive into the darkness that she was lost in, that she would never return.  But he had remembered Mamut telling Jondalar never to let Ayla use the root she had used without him there to bring her back.

“Danug, what’s wrong?” Panec asked, overcome with fear for the woman he loved.

Danug sat up straight and looked him in the eye.  “Panec, I don’t know what exactly is wrong, but something’s happened.  She saw something, I don’t know what, and I need to follow her.”

“Follow her?  What…” Panec began.

“I need you to stay here.  I think I’ll be fine, Mamut has taught me much about this, but I don’t know about Amara.  I don’t think I can bring her back on my own.  She needs you,” he said.  Panec’s eyes were wild with fear.  “You watch her, and as soon as there’s even the slightest hint that she’s regaining consciousness, you bring her back.”

Panec really had no idea what Danug was talking about, but he didn’t have the chance to ask.  Danug had eaten the amount that Mamut had said was safe, and within moments he was tumbling in darkness.

“Amara?” Panec asked.  He was getting no response, and he gently shook her.  “Amara!” he called.  Still nothing.  With an emptiness in his heart he had never felt before, she shook her a little more.  “Amara!  Amara!  Amara, please, please come back to me!”  His tears streamed down his face as he glanced over at Danug’s motionless body.  “Danug, please bring her back!  Amara, please!” he pleaded.

 

 

Amara opened her eyes, but could see nothing.  Her head pounded and she felt it would burst.  The darkness was stifling, and she was having problems breathing.  The air seemed stale, and she felt as if her lungs had to search for oxygen.  She called out in the emptiness, but it seemed her voice hadn’t carried, and the only one who could hear her was herself.  She leaned down to touch the ground, to find out what she was standing on, but as soon as her fingertips reached what should have been ground, something beneath her gave out.  She screamed in fear as she tumbled in the darkness.  A sickening feeling overcame her in her vertigo, and she swallowed hard to keep from vomiting in the darkness.  She had never been so scared.  She had stopped screaming and now she was waiting; waiting for an inevitable impact that would stop the tumbling, stop the pounding and throbbing in her head.  She began to anticipate the collision, if only because it would end the pain.  Her mind numbed over and unbidden tears began to fall.  So this is what it’s like to die, she thought.  She closed her eyes and succumbed to the feeling, almost welcoming the release.

An instant after she closed her eyes, a blinding luminosity overcame her, and she squeezed her eyes open in the painful light.  Heaven?  Is that what this is?  She couldn’t help but wonder.  But something was coming out of the light, what was it?  Somehow she moved towards it and almost gasped.  A hand, an arm, reaching out to pull her through.  She turned around to the darkness and shuddered.  Turning back around her mind was suddenly full of Panec.  She smiled tenderly and listened closely.  She could almost hear him.  She looked at the extended hand that beckoned her to it.  Smiling, she recognized it as Danug’s hand.  As she reached out to take it, she realized that someone else was behind her, gently pushing her toward Danug’s outstretched arm.  The light overcame her and she had to shut her eyes quickly, but not before glancing to see who was behind her.  She stepped out of the darkness smiling as the figure behind her disappeared.  She didn’t have to ask who it was.

 

 

It hadn’t taken long for Danug to find her.  Mamut was an awesome magician and knew where to go, and had trained him well.  Danug sighed in relief when he finally found her, and he reached out to take her hand.  She seemed a little uncertain at first, but then she grasped his hand, urged on by Panec's voice echoing in the background, and he pulled as he had never pulled before, knowing her life depended on it.  A moment later he was lying on the ground, listening to Panec’s cries.  He shot up, afraid that he had let go, but he realized their minds were still connected, and she just needed an extra boost to come back.  He was ready to dive back in when he felt the presence of someone else.  He couldn’t see who it was, but whoever it was gently pushed Amara the short distance she needed to go.  He looked closer, but the magic was gone the next instant, and he realized that both he and Amara were sitting beside the small fire he had made.

Panec was overjoyed and cried his happiness when she responded.  Her eyes unglazed and she seemed to recognize him.  He laughed through his tears as he hugged her fiercely, thanking the Mother more fervently than he ever had before.

 

 

Amara woke up and stretched.  Her head hurt, she realized.  As if he knew she had awakened, Danug suddenly rushed into the tent.  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Strange,” was her reply.  She shook her head quickly, trying to rid herself of the faint pounding in her head.  “What happened?”  Danug looked at her, into her eyes, deeply, and when she realized, she nodded.  She blinked in the memory and shook her head again.  “But, I don’t understand,” she began.

Danug shushed her gently.  “Amara, I don’t know what happened to you when you first came through us, but you traveled through time and space for a reason.  I think what happened was that you realized that, you came to that understanding, but it was too much for your mind to contain.  It’s almost as if it overcame you, the fear of the unknown.  I suppose it could be described even as a sense of destiny.”

Amara furrowed her brow and frowned.  “I don’t understand,” she repeated.  “What is my destiny?  Why am I here?”

Danug shook his head.  “I don’t know.  If only to show us things like wheels, that would almost be enough.  But I have an idea that there’s more to you than that.”  She frowned again.  “Amara,” he began, thinking to himself.  Should he admit to her?  “Amara, when you spoke with your mother, I…Amara, I followed you.”

She frowned and cocked her head.  “I wondered about that.  What does that have to do with anything?”

Danug shrugged.  “It’s hard for a mother to give up a child.  Especially when it comes to you…Amara, what you’ve done, it’s amazing.  How hard must it be for your mother to know how uncertain your future is?” he asked. 

His eyes, however, held something else.  She squinted and looked at him, slowly beginning to realize.  “Danug,” she said slowly, “she doesn’t know how uncertain my future is.  She knows everything about it.”

Danug nodded.  “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

She stared at him in her comprehension.  What in the world would she do?  Danug was right; her mother would have interceded if she knew Amara was in danger, or wouldn’t survive.  But no, she left Amara to her own destiny.  Amara shivered as chills crept up her spine.  What was it about her destiny that was so significant?

 

 

Radec's heart pounded in his chest and in his head as he watched the swollen Sister roil around the steep banks.  How were they ever going to cross this river?  He knew it had been done, but…how?  He wished he had his Sharamudoi friends and their boats now.

He pounded his fist into his hand repeatedly and racked his brain.  The sun was shining today, for the first time in weeks it seemed.  The sun on the water reflected back into his eyes and the spray from the river made a rainbow halo around the sun in the late morning sky.  Radec glanced back at the group of people he called family.  Blessed Callie, tender Healie, recovering Latie, dependable Panec, mysterious Danug, and helpful Lareno.  Then he glanced at Amara; she was perhaps the most amazing person he'd ever met.  Not to mention the only one like her he'd ever met.  Maybe she would have an idea, but then again, her reaction to the river the day before caused him to discount the idea.  He sighed and turned back to the boiling current slicing its way through the frigid plains.

Panec caught sight of Radec looking at them surrounding the cart, and when he turned back around, Panec decided to join him.  He too was worried about the river.  The river was dangerous as it was, but the group was weak, not everyone was up to speed.  Panec jogged over to Radec standing at the bank and said, "Tough decision huh?"

Radec turned on a heel and smiled faintly at Panec, "Yes, I don't know how we are getting across this river.  It is not as bad as sometimes, but…she is the Sister."

Panec sighed and nodded, "I was thinking the same thing, I worry about Latie, and Callie, and Healie,  They just aren't very strong right now.  If there was some way to just…float…like the Ramudoi."  He sighed and ran his hand through his long hair.  The wind picked up and he shivered slightly.  The sky was clear and cold-looking, but at least not threatening a storm, again.

Radec grinned at Panec mischievously.  "Float eh?"  He turned at looked at the crowd gathered around the big cart, and light filled his face, "just...wait…now…no…but…it just might...I think I have an idea Panec!"

Panec looked up quickly at Radec, "An idea??  What kind of idea??" he said skeptically.  Not that Radec would do anything dangerous, but he was really worried about crossing.

Radec nodded and chewed his thumb while he thought.  "I think…if we could make that cart float…couldn't we just put all the stuff on top, along with the women?  That way they wouldn't have to swim, and we could lead the cart and horses across ourselves.  I just don't know if it will float."

Panec started at the idea.  "Float…hmmm."  He pondered then added, "I think it might…" He grinned back at Radec and the two of them raced back to the crowd grinning.  "We've got an idea girls!"  Panec exclaimed.

Amara grinned back at him and chuckled; wouldn't be right for her to have all the ideas now would it?  She was glad someone else thought of a way to get across the river, because she was scared as a rabbit.

Latie hopped down from the top of the cart on to the ground and Radec exclaimed, "No, wait…Latie, get back up there.  And you too Healie, Callie, Amara.  We're going to see if she floats!"  Latie looked at him with a blank expression and looked to Amara.

"What do you think Amara?" she asked hesitantly.

"Well, better than swimming...but…it seems like it might be heavy," she said just as skeptically, but she certainly didn't want to swim.  "Might as well try it.  But maybe we should try to see if it floats without us on top first?"

Callie nodded emphatically, "Yes, she's right.  It might work, but we'll take as long as we need to make sure, to get across safely," she said glaring at Radec with half scorn and half smile, eyes twinkling with affection for her exuberant mate.

Amara led the way up to the river, Panec at her side, holding her hand tightly.  She clenched her finger tighter around his as they neared the river.  It was so rough, she watched as a twig floated by and was tossed about.  The river could carry away something much bigger than a twig, she was sure.

"Are we going to leave the horses tied on?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, they can pull the float while we guide them."  Radec said thoughtfully, observing the contraption from Amara's head, wondering if it really would do what he thought.  He urged the horses into the water, while they shied away.  Finally with some coaxing and getting wet themselves, Panec and Lareno guided the cart into the water while Danug and Radec held the horses steady.

The cart bobbed and sank low in the water and the group held its breath.  When the cart bobbed slowly back up a sigh let up from each person at once.  It was floating!  Now if it could hold the four women as well.

Radec waved them over and boosted each woman up on top, and cringed each time the cart sank a bit lower, but it was still floating.  "I think we should just try it, Lareno and Panec, stay there and guide the cart as you swim, we'll take care of the horses up here.  I think we're going to have to stop at the other side to dry out what is on the cart, looks a little wet," he added, eyeing the cart suspiciously.  He was a little nervous, but he didn't have any other ideas.  He nodded to the three other men and slapped the horses’ rumps.

The cart continued floating, very low in the water and Amara held on tight, hardly breathing.  She watched the river bearing down on them from up stream with careful eyes.  She thought she saw something bob out of the water, but couldn't be sure.  She turned to look in front at Radec and Danug guiding the horses.  They were about halfway across and she could tell that they were shivering in the cold water.  When she looked back upstream she saw a log heading right towards them.  She screamed at Panec and pointed, "Look!  Get out of the way…get us out of the way!!" she cried.

At her cry all the men turned and watched frantically as the log came dangerously close to the edge of the cart.  Panec pushed as hard as he could on his side to turn the cart away from the log, to no avail.  The log came closer and knocked the end of the pole of the cart.  The cart was jolted hard, bobbed and flew out of his hands.  He grabbed on frantically and his eyes flew up to the women atop.  Three…three…HEALIE!

"Healie!!" he screamed.  He looked around and saw her bobbing in the water, sputtering and gasping.  He let go of the cart instinctively and swam hard towards the old woman.  He grabbed on to her as firmly as he could with his cold weakened muscles.  He saw the cart near the edge of the river and the horses pull it out and up over the bank.  He panted and swam, "Come on Healie, Help me swim.  We're almost there." He strained and slowly moved towards the bank, while moving rapidly downstream.  Lareno was running along the bank with them urging him on.  "Come on Panec, you're almost there…come on!”  The rest of the group watched in horror as the river carried them further away.

Healie gasped and tried her hardest to pull on the water with Panec, but it was so cold.  She felt the cold seep into her bones.  "I can't anymore…" she sighed, just as she felt her knee smack hard against a rock in the water.

Panec gave one last strain to stand up in the shallow water on the bank and pull Healie out of the water.  Lareno and Radec grabbed Healie from him and carried her in their arms up to the top of the bank and Panec struggled exhausted to the top of the bank.

At the top he collapsed and lay on his back breathing hard and shivering.  Radec hollered back at him, "No, don't lay down Panec, get up, get back to the cart.  You need a fire, dry clothes, GET UP!"

Panec rolled over onto his side and put his arms under his chest and rolled to his hands and knees.  He looked up and saw Amara running towards him, hair flying behind her.  He felt his heart nearly burst with love and he just stared at her.  "Amara," he whispered as she crouched down next to him.

"Panec, get up.  Come on, please…we've got a fire going already.  You'll get dry and warm, please…" she pleaded with him, eyes filling with water.

Panec nodded and pushed hard to right himself.  Amara offered her hand to him and the walked slowly back to the group, where a roaring fire was already started.  He saw Healie sitting wrapped in a fur shivering by the fire and nearly collapsed himself when he arrived.  He felt Amara start to peel his wet clothing off him and Radec tossed a fur at him.  He took hold of it slowly and wrapped it around him and sat in front of the fire, head between his knees.

"Well, that was some ride," Callie admonished.  It hadn't been all that bad until the log hit them.  But at least they were all safe, and across the river.  She began unloading the cart and packs to empty the wet items and dry them out. 
Amara stroked Panec's dripping hair and back and murmured to him while Latie started preparing a skin of water for hot water.  Healie was starting to warm up and Radec signaled to Callie to come rest.  He would take care of the wet belongings.  "Well, it was…but we're over the river…it worked."  He smiled a little at the group.  His family.

 

 

Panec watched as Amara and Latie talked animatedly over the skin of boiling stew.  The two of them had volunteered to prepare the meal since Healie was still recovering from her dunking and Callie was ever attentive to her every need.  Danug and Radec were tending to the horses, currying and scratching them in all the right places.  Lareno was looking over the cart to make sure it hadn't suffered any damage during the crossing, and Panec didn't have anything to do just then.  He pulled the thick fur closer around his shoulders and smiled up at Amara when she looked at him.  The sun has just set and the sky behind her head was illuminated brilliant pink and orange.  The firelight flickered over her shiny skin and in her eyes and he felt his heart melt.  He licked his lips unconsciously and grinned at her when she giggled.  He saw her turn to Latie and say something inaudible.

Latie turned to him with a grin and called, "You hungry, Panec?"

Panec smiled warmly at Latie and winked again.  "You bet!" he said, and adding heartily, "Anything made by my Amara would make me hungry!"

"Hungry??  Whose hungrier than ME?" Radec shouted across the camp adding his usual banter.  Callie shook her head and laughed.

Panec and the girls turned their eyes toward Radec and Danug approaching, and Amara joined in, "Well, not quite yet…"  She poked at a root with the stirring stick and shrugged, "A little longer, unless you want raw stew."

"EWWWWW!" Latie added girlishly, "Not for me thank you!  You'll all just have to wait!" she said with a decided nod of her head.  She then turned back to Amara and the stew boiling over the fire and chattered on to her ignoring the grumbles from the hungry crowd.

Panec looked over at Healie crowed over near the fire with Callie offering her another fur.  He wondered how she was doing.  She seemed all right, the dunking hadn't hurt her, he didn't think, but she seemed drained, weak.  And that had him worried.  He stood slowly and walked towards the two older women.  He nodded before he sat on the ground next to Healie and put his arm around her shoulders, "How are you doing?  That swim took a lot out of you, huh?"

Healie sighed audibly and turned to Panec, the man she loved as a son.  "Yes, I was quite shocked when I fell in, it was so cold,…my body just…wouldn't move."  She paused thoughtfully and looked into Panec's eyes and shook her head.  "I couldn't have willed myself even if I had really tried.  I forget myself sometimes, I am getting old.  Some days I feel fine, but when it really counts, I just can't keep up."

Panec looked at her softly for a moment, and then rested his hand softly on her shoulder.  "I understand Healie.  It must be hard sometimes.  If you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to say so.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that you get tired and sore faster than the rest of us, if you need us to slow down or anything, let us know…"

"That is just it!  I feel so frustrated that I can't keep up anymore, it seems even since leaving home.  I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to come.  I…don't regret coming.  Amara has been such a treasure, and you…and having all you around, like family, is much better than an empty hearth.  But I don't know how long my body will keep up," she said softly, resigned.

Panec looked stricken for a moment.  "What??  Healie, you can't…no.  You're like a mother to me.  I know since Amara showed up I have been giving less attention to the rest of the group, but you are just as important as Amara, or anyone here.  I promise I'll take care of anything you need Healie.  I don't want anything to happen to you…" he pleaded softly, her words scared him.  She wasn't that old, was she?  Sometimes he forgot as well.  He had been so caught up in loving Amara, making sure all was right with her that he'd let other things fall to the wayside.  It was time to take responsibility for these things again.  He was just about to add something when Amara walked up slowly holding two large bowls of stew.  Panec smiled warmly at Amara, with relief and took the bowls from her, handing one to Healie and patting the ground at his side.  "Come sit Amara," he said and held open the fur to wrap her in.

Amara giggled and nodded.  "One minute, let me get a bowl too."  She ran to the skin and scooped out a generous serving for herself.

She looked up with pleasure when Lareno commented, "Great stew Amara, Latie, never tasted anything so good."  Amara knew he was being nice, and flirting with Latie mostly, but she still felt proud of her cooking efforts.  If anything about the past caught on, it was cooking.  She had really taken a liking to preparing food in all new and different ways, experimenting with new foods and different ways of preparing them.  When she had been home with her mother, she never really cooked.  Her mom had showed her recipes and she helped out sometimes cutting vegetables, but actually cooking was something she had never done.  And she was really enjoying it now.  And apparently she was getting good at it.  She scurried over to Panec and sat down and snuggled close to his warm side under the fur he draped over her shoulders.

Panec whispered in her ear, "This stew is wonderful, love."  He smiled warmly at her before kissing her nose gently.

She giggled and took a few bites of her food.  Then she looked around Panec at Healie.  "How are you doing?  You feeling better?  It has been a long day, lots happened."

Healie smiled affectionately at her, she felt almost like a daughter.  She was so blessed and lucky to have such wonderful people surrounding her.  “Yes I do, especially now that I've eaten something warm.  It makes all the difference."

Amara nodded understanding and ate her bowl quickly, she had been hungrier than she thought.  She gazed as Lareno fed Latie her stew and at Callie, whose barely bulging belly showed through her tunic, who had her hand resting on Radec's thigh while he shoveled more food down his throat.

When he finished he cleared his throat loudly and said, "Well as long as Healie is up to it, I think we should get an early start tomorrow.  We've had enough delays for one journey, wouldn't you say?" he asked no one in particular.  Nods of agreement followed and he looked at Healie, "What do you think?"

Healie smiled softly, "Of course, I'm fine.  I was just a little surprised, shocked.  The earlier the better, before it gets hot."

"Well it is settled then, we're leaving early tomorrow,  Mother willing, and nothing goes wrong, again," Radec said decisively.  Callie at his side chuckled and prepared to clean up the camp before it got any darker.

When Amara and Panec stood up, she offered her hand to Healie.  Healie heaved herself up with Amara's help and was startled when Amara spontaneously embraced her.  "Thank you so much for everything Healie, you have been like...a mother to me.  It really means a lot."

Healie smiled softly at the girl and stroked her hair, "Amara, you have been like a daughter to me as well, and I am so glad that you're here with us."

Amara held her tighter, for a moment longer and then moved away, into Panec's arms.  "Goodnight Healie."

"Goodnight Amara, Panec."  She nodded and walked slowly towards Callie.

Panec turned Amara around in his arms and looked down into her face.  "Beautiful Amara, come share my furs tonight?"

Amara giggled and wrapped her arms around his waist.  "Don’t I share your furs every night?  Maybe it's your turn to share mine," she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, knowing full well that their furs were one and the same.

Panec laughed out loud and kissed her forehead.  "Anything you say Amara!"  He smiled at her, with a hint of something more in his eyes and led her to their tent with his arm around her.

When she entered the tent she quickly sat down on the furs and began removing her outer clothing.  She was feeling rather warm from the fire and being underneath the fur with Panec, but she knew the night would be cold, and she would be just as glad to have the fur later.  As she peeled off her tunic and leggings she noticed Panec looking at her appreciatively.  She smiled to him and blew him a kiss.

Panec smiled back and her and seductively licked his lips again.  "You, are…amazing, Amara.  So beautiful, so…intelligent, you think of such amazing things, you know such amazing things, you’re kind, you’re amazing…and I love you."  He quickly wrapped her up in his arms and squeezed her.  "My mate.  I am so happy you came Amara.  I know it must be hard sometimes.  But I promise you'll never be sorry."

"I know Panec, I'm not sorry, at all.  I am so glad that I came here, even if I had no choice.  And I am so glad it brought me to you.  I love you.  I love everyone so much.  You have…become such a family for me.  Everyone has been so kind, so open.  I don't know why exactly I was brought here, but for now, I am so happy, to be here with you."  Amara sighed heavily and leaned her head against Panec's shoulder.  "Let's go to bed Panec."

Panec nodded and leaned her head back to kiss her passionately.  He looked at her with shining eyes.  “Yes, let's," he added while laying her down on the furs softly and laying over her and kissing her softly everywhere he knew that would send shivers up her spine and warmth through her body.