They didn’t speak to each other, Rognvald and Lilly, they said things like hello and goodnight, but they did not talk to each other anymore. Oren was doing things to small animals that he caught daily, he broke their legs, or plucked feathers, and delighted in the animals painful cries. Lilly and Claudia have seen this behavior and they both tried to talk to Rognvald about it, he seemed unmoved by his sons twisted actions. Oren was growing as well, it has been known that some children can experience growth spurts over the summer months, Oren was in the middle of one of those spurts. He enjoyed the pain he felt in his body, his bones ached fiercely from the quick growth, he didn’t complain about it once but the suffering showed in his eyes, along with a growing madness. Claudia missed her life back in Ondu, she would give up her brother in a heartbeat to go back there, but she was stuck in this frickin cart, with her frickin brother. She had trouble occupying her mind, there was alway

Rollins was never popular with anyone in Ondu, especially the boys and girls her age. She knew she was different, but in a special way as her mother put it, her mother would always say, you are here to teach all of The People an important lesson, and I love you for that. It had been a long time since she had thought about those words, and all of the hatred she endured from her peers, she had only known the touch of a few people. Her mother’s touch of course, her mother was the only female to ever touch her, Rollins had only breastfed from her mother’s nipples, the midwives would have nothing to do with her. Two men would touch her, much in the same loving way as her mother, but one of their touches was different. Davyn was the closest man to her in Ondu, he was like a father to her, the only one she would ever know. The other man was Morgan, he was a mentor to her and his touch was that of a teacher. He helped her to hold her bow better, his hands over hers, he stood behind her showin

Erek watched the rest of the party as they carried on, he didn’t see the dog get up, he felt the dog though, the dog bumped him sharply just above his knee. The one dog got up and was anxious to get going, he knew that it was time and wanted to get this over with. The big two-leg was watching the others chatter again, so the one dog bumped the big man with his hip, it was a little harder than he thought so he turned and smiled at the man. Erek stumbled and almost fell over when the dog bumped his leg, the rest of the group stopped talking when Erek yipped.“You alright with that dog?” Asked Rollins.“Yeah, I guess I have to carry him. Besides he looks as eager as I feel about getting this over with.” Said Erek as the river flowed bye at nineteen kilometers per hour.They were all in the water now, they were in the formation that Rollins had described, Erek out front, now burdened with the dog, then Lorne, Talia, Gorman, and Rollins. Kaya would have to watch them cross first, as long a

“Hold tight to the rope.” Said a hunter to his wife, word had come back across the rope, the way was dangerous but passable with caution. “I’m scared, I don’t want to go, can’t we wait a bit? Please.” She pulled her husband, trying to get away from the river.“My Eesh’ta, what is wrong? They say it will be ok if you just hold tight to the rope.” He wanted to get this over with, his eyes were on the mountain beyond, the mountain that called to him in his dreams.“I want to wait; I will cross this river but my heart says to wait.” She had the look on her face that said this discussion was over.The hunter loved his wife, he tried to make her happy by not aggravating her, the face that she was showing him was a face that said, this is over! if you want to remain happy shut your mouth. “Ok my Eesh’ta, we can go and wait over there.” He pointed to a spot that looked comfortable, then he shut his mouth.The walkers went into the water holding tightly to the rope, they went in one after ano

“Kaya,” Bram the big blacksmith said, “it is good to see you. I was concerned when you left, how did you get across that river?”Kaya saw the blacksmith Bram in the road, Percy stopped on his own next to the big hammer wielding man, Bram rubbed the horses nose in greeting. Percy seemed to relax a bit after the touch from Bram, he stood quietly next to Gerard as Kaya responded.“We went north of here to cross where the buffalo cross.”“The buffalo? How do you know where they cross at, or if they even cross?”“This is Rollins,” Kaya pointed to the girl sitting next to her in the cart, Rollins kept her eyes averted from the blacksmith, “she knows of the wild and where the buffalo go.”“She does?” Questioned Bram.“Yes she does, she knows many things that we have forgotten.” Announced Kaya.“Where did she come about all this knowledge?” The question made Rollins squeeze Kaya’s hand to try and stop her from talking, it didn’t work, “from Morgan, they met in the wild. Ouch, why are you squ