Chapter Twenty-Three - Late Night Conversation

  -Summer-

  So apparently, her son wanted a song. Somehow, the love of music had passed to this child, and she was quite happy that it had done so. She started clapping in a rhythm, humming a tune so simple she couldn’t imagine anyone not learning it.

  Sure enough, Mohniit picked it up, humming along with her, his little claps almost but not quite hitting the same beats as her own. She moved from humming to singing nonsense, just little la-la-las and oooh-ho-hos. What mattered was the sounds, the making of them, the music that they became.

  A pleasant time spent around the fire, teaching a little one to sing, and then it was off to bed.

  This proved to be a mistake, when she woke up to a hoarse scream outside. Stumbling out into the predawn dark, she realized that she really woke up like this far too much. The door opened to reveal the yelling was coming from Kaion, who had run afoul of the crab.

  Apparently, the crab had escaped from the basket, took a trip over the ground and miraculously found its way into Kaion’s bed. Kaion had rolled over on it, and that was all it took. Now poor Kaion was struggling to get a very determined crab off of his belly.

  She blinked at the sight, and stepped forward to help, but Kaion finally managed to flick the crab off into the darkness. Still sleepy, she continued until she could sit down next to where he was furiously rubbing the pinched red skin.

  “Not the best way to wake up, is it?” She asked, waving Deenat, who had sleepily stuck her head out to see what was happening, back inside.

  “No.” Kaion grumbled, letting her move his hand so she could see.

  “That is definitely going to bruise.” She sighed, standing up to go get some of the herb-paste she’d made to treat his foot. Smearing some of it on the bruise, she looked up at him, only to catch him watching her. She felt heat bloom in her cheeks, hidden by the darkness. “Ah… What is it?”

  “That’s my question.” Kaion muttered, shifting his gaze from her face towards the gloom around their camp. “What was that thing?”

  “A crab.” Belbet replied. “They can be good to eat… but they have to be prepared fresh, which is why we were trying to keep it alive. But, it’s gone now, so no point crying over spilled milk.”

  He turned his gaze to her again, mouth doing a strange thing, softening on one edge and turning up in confusion at the other. But he didn’t ask about the idiom. Instead, he reached out, brushing her thick hair behind her ear. “You sleep very lightly.”

  She could feel the heat in her cheeks triple, but she didn’t move away, even when his fingers lingered against the soft edge of her ear. “W-Well, yeah. Hard not to, when I’ve got children to look after. Anything could happen, while I’m asleep.”

  “It leaves you tired. Is there any way to ease your worries? Maybe you’ll be able to sleep better, if we do.” Kaion asked, and Belbet wondered if she’d ever heard him speak so much in one sitting. Perhaps when he was telling her about his chieftain. She turned her mind to what he said, thinking it over. Shifting so that one of her legs was under her, and the other stretched out, she sat down next to him properly.

  “Well… I’d feel better if we had a proper fence. Something sturdy that could keep out intruders. But that’s way far off. We have to worry about sustainability first. We need to get enough food stored up for winter, and enough furs to make clothing that will last through blizzards. We also need better blankets and a more sustainable way of getting water. The river might freeze during winter, and then we’d really have trouble getting water.”

  It felt good, spilling all these worries out. Kaion was silent, unjudgemental, as she babbled on.

  “There are so many things I want to make… So many things I want my children to have, but… I can’t possibly make them all. There’s not enough time in the day, not enough hands. But inviting others to join us… That’s dangerous too. You’ve been lovely, but what if someone we invite here decides it’s better if they’re in charge? Or worse, hurts us to drive us away, so that they can have everything we own?”

  She sighed, resting her head on her knee. “There’s so much to worry about. So much can go wrong. We’ve been… incredibly lucky. One injury I can’t treat, one illness that spreads too quickly, one bad harvest or thief in the night, even one bad hailstorm… we all die.”

  “...Death is part of life.” Kaion interjected, drawing her eyes to him. He gazed at her the way a person gazes at painting they can’t quite figure out the shape of. “You fear it so much it paralyzes you.”

  “Of course I fear it. Who will care for my children if I die? Who will I live for, if they die?” She demands, defensive.

  “Whether you fear it or not, you will die. Someday, without warning. Everyone dies.” Kaion said it as if it was meant to be soothing.

  While Belbet knew that to be true, Victoria shook at the thought. “...But we should have more time. Why do we have to live in so much fear, constantly, without any rest?”

  “Because if we don’t… we die.” Kaion explained, and Belbet closed her eyes. She grit her teeth, as his answer rattled around her mind. “Because if we don’t struggle, we learn nothing. And if we learn nothing, then those that come after us will have nothing.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She couldn’t argue with that. She scrubbed at her face, her hands rough from all the work Belbet has done in her life. “It’s too early in the morning to talk about stuff like this.” She whined, pushing off this train of thought for another day. “We both need to get more sleep.”

  She stood up, patting his shoulder gently, as she headed back for the hut, unaware that his eyes followed her as she went.

  Climbing back into the furs with her babies, she found her mind unsettled and unwilling to sleep. Even when she closed her eyes, her thoughts wouldn’t settle. Mohniit, clingy thing he was, threw an arm over her chest, and she sighed. ‘What am I going to do with you?’ she thought to herself, fondness bubbling up in her heart as she tucked his arm back against his side.

  Dahnei whimpered in her sleep, and Belbet reached over Mohniit to smoothe her hair. ‘Whatever nightmare you might have, I hope to chase it away.’ She felt her breath catch in her chest, a note hummed out without really thinking. Then another, and once again, she found herself humming a lullaby.

  She felt her eyes latch shut as her humming trailed off tunelessly, sleep finally coming.

  Voices wove in and out of her dreams, but she wasn’t really capable of pinpointing what they were saying. When she did wake, even the impressions of those voices faded from her mind. Instead, they were replaced by the real sounds of her youngest laughing outside, and the sounds of movement and work.

  She rolled over, empty space around her, and crawled out of bed. Her feet took her outside and to the campfire, with Kaion watching her from across the way, hands covered in clay again. His tiles were starting to look even better than the ones Belbet had made herself. She waved at him, settling in her usual place.

  Breakfast had been made, or rather put together. A bowl filled with shredded meat and berries, and she found herself popping them into her mouth quickly. “Where is everyone?”

  “Deenat and Eefim are watering the field. Dahnei is checking the fish trap, and Mohniit is right over there with his blocks.” Kaion answered, nodding in Mohniit’s direction. She turned to look at her little boy, as he smacked his block tower with the horse. She wondered what exactly his game was, but was too tired to actually comment.

  “I see.” She murmured, another bite of meat going into her mouth. Then she frowned, realizing, “Why didn’t you all wake me up?”

  “Because you’re so tired you look as if you’re dead.” Kaion answered, a soft smile belaying his harsh words.

  “Rude.” Belbet huffed.

  “Take the day. Sleep, play. Rest.” Kaion demanded, “You’re stretched too thin.”

  Belbet felt stretched. She felt like she’d somehow lost track of what or who she was. “...Maybe that’s a good idea.” Finishing the bowl of fruit and meat, she stood up, stretching. Doing so, she caught the scent coming from her own armpits and her nose wrinkled.

  She looked over to the basket of soap, and crouched over it to poke it. It wasn’t fully solidified, that would take more than a single night with how thick it was. But, the top layer was. So, she used her handaxe to scrape some off the top, and carried it with her to the river.

  There, she stripped down, placing her furs and almost leathers on the sands. Victoria was quite dissapointed that the soap didn’t lather the way her body washes used to, but Belbet was just happy with the rosemary scent that came from the soap as she scrubbed her body. The slippery soap feel was the same, though, so it satisfied her somewhat. She scrubbed as much as she could with soap on her fingertips, careful not to use all of it.

  She still had to wash her clothes, after all. Soon, she had an audience. Little Mohniit, sitting next to her clothes and suckling on his own fingers. She didn’t think he was hungry, just bored. She smiled ruefully, “Want a wash too?” She asked, “Well, strip down.”

  The boy grunted, pulling at the furs tied around his waist. She sighed, turning back the few steps to shore, so that she could help him. Soon his furs joined hers, and she sat in the shallows with him (ignoring how the rocks pressed uncomfortably at her skin). There, she rubbed soap all over his little body and even some in his long hair.

  She helped him lean back so she could rinse it out once he was done, his ears pressed against his head so hard she almost had to laugh. Then, she let him sit in the shallows, while she applied soap and sand to their clothes, scrubbing as much as she could. Her hands felt raw and painful, but when she rinsed them out, they looked… Well, no they still looked like unformed fur skins that barely resembled anything like clothing.

  She sighed, lamenting the lack of any actual cloth. The idea of tanning the furs into leather came to her, certainly, but once again, Victoria’s lack of actual knowledge on the subject made her hesitant. She had heard that fat was used in tanning, and so was bark, but she didn’t know how. Then she paused, looking at the clothing in her hands.

  Rawhide, which was hard and firm and used as a treat for dogs, wasn’t treated. It was just left to dry, right? Yet these furs, the ones they’re wearing were flexible. Not soft, the way cloth was, but enough that they didn’t scrape against the skin uncomfortably. Of course they stank, as so much about this world did.

  Finally, sure that the clothes were at least somewhat washed, she laid them out on a sunny boulder, and returned to her child playing in the water. The gentle coolness of the water rushing past soothed some of the ache in her arms from scrubbing. She leaned back into the water, looking up at the bright blue sky.

  The clamber of a toddler into her lap made her groan, adjusting her limbs so that he didn’t elbow her in the chest. “Is the water too cold?” She asked him, running fingers through his hair, now tangling from the soap.

  “Ehn.” One of those baby noises that contained multitudes, and she hefted the two of them out of the water and onto the bank. It wasn’t yet noon, but it was getting there, the sun tempered only by light, wispy clouds. Returning back to the camp, Belbet struggled with Victoria’s need to be clothed in front of others.

  Kaion looked up, nodding, before turning back to his work. Part of Belbet was a bit confused why he didn’t even mention it, and she refused to admit to being a little let down that he didn’t at least linger on her form. Going inside the hut, she settled the two of them in the furs of their bed, where they could dry off.

  Squeezing out the water from her thick hair, she watched her little bunny baby shake his own head. The slap of his wet hair against his skin was a little funny, and she reached out to help him ring out his own hair too. “Ah, what pretty hair.” She cooed, before taking his cheeks in her hand and squishing them. “My baby boy has such pretty hair.”

  The boy didn’t appreciate the compliment, or the smooshing of his cheeks, pushing at his mother’s hands. She sighed, letting her hands fall, as she curled up on the furbed. The toddler stayed upright, reaching for some of the straw and playing with it, Belbet honestly kind of admired the child’s ability to turn anything into entertainment for himself.

  A nap sounded lovely right then.

  Mini Character List

  Victoria/Belbet - Our Main Character, 21 yr old pregnant Mom. - Soap. Ah, I finally feel CLEAN. this is heaven.

  Dahnei - 5 year old paleolithic child. Daughter of Belbet. Jerboa Mouse-Spirited. - I am the sole source of fish for this family. Time to get industrious!

  Mohniit - 2 year old paleolithic child. Son of Belbet. Rabbit Spirited. - Let me NAP, Mama. Jeeze.

  Unborn Baby - I'm fine, just tired.

  Deenat - 25 year old paleolithic gatherer - Ermine Spirited. - My sister made plants grow. She thinks these are going to feed us. ...Well, I must admit we've been eating better. But still.

  Eefim - 11 year old paleolithic hunter-in-training - Wow, auntie really did manage to make plants grow. ...Maybe she's magic.

  Kaion - 26 year old man. Ram Spirited. - Okay so, when is rest time, because jesus, this woman pushes herself too hard. And the rest of us. I've never seen a camp so busy.

  Wolf - ...my food is late.