“This child Rog, this child.” Lilly held the baby out in front of her, away from her chest, “it only wants to eat. I have no milk; did you think about that? No, you didn’t. Did you think to ask me about this child? No, you didn’t...”“Lilly,” Rognvald tried to butt in.“Don’t Lilly me,” Rognvald thought, who else would I Lilly? The thought put a smile on his face. “Why do you have a smile on your face?” Lilly was holding a naked, squirming, baby boy and giving her husband the stink eye.“I’ll send for Kaya.” Rog left his wife’s presence as fast as he dare.After two weeks of traveling with her cart and horses, Kaya was sore, she was tired of the slow monotony that was the caravan. They would roll along the prairies, climb the rolling hills, and went through the woods that dotted the landscape. The first few nights it was just Kaya, her cart, and the two horses: Percy and Gerard. She slept under the cart each night; her two horses were lashed to the cart for the nights rest. Kaya drape
“Kaya, this child is your responsibility now, hello,” Rognvald waved a hand at the dumbstruck girl, “do you understand?”Nothing could bring her out of her trance, almost nothing. “Thank you Kaya, if you need anything please ask Erek.” Rognvald was ushering Kaya out of the tent.The night air slapped at Kaya’s legs, chilly tentacles embraced her exposed skin, still she looked at the child in her arms. He had closed those deep brown eyes and softly slept as she held him. Kaya’s feet began to move, without her conscious direction they took her back to her cart. The chill made her skin react with goose flesh, a rustling went unheard from the west, and the wind blew gently between her legs. Kaya looked to the sky on her walk back to her bed, a single light streaked across the sky and she thought about the night she slept out under the stars with Callum, they were headed to Davyn’s Ah-yeez and her parents were still alive. She said a mental prayer for her mother and father and wished for
The midwife was amiable and cordial with Kaya, if not a little annoyed. KT went inside and let the midwife breastfeed the baby. While she sat watching what would have been a typical scene for all new mothers, she wondered about her mother. Shortly after sitting down in the midwifes tent, Kaya fell asleep, she had been doing all she could to care for her cart and all of the belongings that it carried. She had her meager belongings as well as other people’s things to, every bit of available space was used to carry the necessities. Every cart, horse, and persons back would carry supplies for the journey. Kaya’s cart was no different, any space that she didn’t use was filled with food, water, or something needed to build a new settlement. Even her horse team was a pain sometimes, especially old Percy, but Gerard kept KT on her toes to, one would wander off and the other would follow or go in the completely opposite direction. When they weren’t pulling the cart Kaya would unharness one at
Kaya walked right passed the male leopard laying in the grass, he didn’t pounce when she was within a half dozen meters of where he lay, instead he followed her to the stream. Kaya kept walking angrily away from the safety of the caravan, she wanted to walk or to run anywhere but here. She was so far from home, so far from her normal life, the life she had when her parents were still alive. She had been through so much in such a short period of time, now she was in charge of two horses, a cart filled with supplies, and Rognvald was trying to force her to care for the baby. So much had changed, she had grown older but she didn’t feel like an adult, she felt cheated out of the last few years of her childhood. The leopard stalked her from behind, while Rollins crept parallel to the both of them. At the stream Kaya stopped, she bent down into a crouch and began to pull out the grass on its banks. She stayed like that for a while, pulling the grass and throwing it into the water. Her mind
Another pair of eyes watched the two-legs by the stream. The eyes took in the scene, the smell of fresh blood was on the wind, the scent of that blood was different somehow, it didn’t smell of prey. The eyes then noticed a rumpled body on the ground, it lay unmoving on the bank of the stream, it looked as though one of the two-legs pulled it out of the water. These eyes belonged to the male leopards mate, she was waiting for him to return with meat but he did not return, so she went to search for him. The two-legs stood by the water making noises at each other, the female leopard kept studying the scene, as well as the body on the bank. The clouds continued their trek across the sky, the wind high above the ground moving them from east to west, an immense cloud cover blew in and blocked the moons from reflecting the light. The darkness reduced the female leopard’s vision, cats have good night vision, but like all eyes they need a fraction of time to adjust to the reduced ambient light
“We need to get you cleaned up.” She said.A few kilometers to the southwest, the female leopard made it back to her cubs, she brought back a half dead fawn for them to chase and kill themselves; it’ll be a good lesson for them. She cleaned herself while three of her five cubs played with the fawn. One was too apprehensive, the mother thought, that one will be the first to die. The last cub understood that they wouldn’t eat until the fawn was dead, this cub moved to strike the neck of the fawn, to choke the life out of it like she had seen her mother do. She watched her cubs and thought, I can’t take them with me when I follow the two-legs, I have to kill those two-legs, I can’t leave them here either, they are too young to be left alone. The one cub finally put the fawn out of its misery and the rest of her cubs tore into the warm flesh like they were famished. The mother watched them eat, she thought about her other litters and how the ones that survived had went on to establish the
Rollins had no idea why she was being so gentle with this girl, Kaya, but she liked her. Kaya had a brightness to her, although a shadow loomed close to her heart, Rollins didn’t understand the shadow but she knew everyone had a shadow that loomed about them. Soap first, she took one of Kaya’s arms and rubbed it until the lather was built up, then she rinsed it just like Kaya had done for her. Rollins repeated everything Kaya had washed for her, but Rollins didn’t have the same modesty that Kaya had. Rollins took the soap in one hand and worked slowly around Kaya’s neck, following behind with her free hand she worked the lather tracing the curves of Kaya’s neck. The hand with the soap continued to probe Kaya’s skin, first her left breast then her right breast, then the free hand again tracing Kaya’s contours. Kaya bit her lip, while Rollins worked free any hidden dirt from Kaya’s chest, it was not necessarily sensual but Kaya’s body reacted as if it was.“Now you rinse, then you do my
Rognvald had slept outside last night, not because Lilly was mad, he was too drunk to walk back to his tent. He was awaken by a tall thin man tapping on his shoulder. When Rog moved everything hurt, one eye was closed and he had grass in his mouth. During the course of the night, Rognvald had fallen over the log he was sitting on, all of the beer and cheer had caught up to him. He had passed out face down in the dirt, mouth open and his body half turned one way. His first impression was of confusion, then irritation. When he tried to move the pain of his fitful nights sleeping arrangements said hello. Oscar had to help Rog to a sitting position before he could even try to communicate with him. Once sitting, Oscar fussed over the dirt and grass that was covering his leader, Rognvald shooed him away after a moment.“Someone bring me some water.” Demanded Rognvald to no one.“Kaya, he said he is too busy planning and managing this trip to see anyone, he was working all night and now he n