Chapter Twenty-Six - Newcomers

  -Summer-

  The next day, after determining that the drizzle had ended, Belbet went out to restoke the fire, only to find it incredibly difficult to do with wet wood. She sighed, mentally rearranging her priority list to include crafting a shelter over their woodstock pile. One very difficult to start and smokey fire later, the morning breakfast began. It was simple this morning, some berries and greens as well as fried snake. The children didn’t whine, despite the sameness of it, and Belbet assumed it was because they were just happy to have full bellies so often.

  In fact, looking over her babies, the last six weeks of regular meals and exercise have in fact filled in their little faces some. She was quite happy with that, since it meant that she was at the very least providing a more healthy environment than the tribe had.

  “Hey! There’s tracks here!” Eefim cried out, at the very edge of their little camp, and this drew the adults to come take a look. Turns out they were small footprints in the mud. After comparing it looked like they were somewhere between Eefim’s and Belbet’s footsizes. “Probably a woman, then…” Belbet murmured, considering.

  What was a woman doing creeping around the edges of their camp in the rain? “These weren’t here yesterday, were they?” She looked to Eefim, and her nephew shook his head. A whine from within the camp drew their attention away from these tracks, as the wolf had decided he was going to try and get up.

  “Ah, ah!” Belbet yelped, running back towards the wolf and gently pushing hands against it’s side, despite it’s growling at her. “No! Lay down!”

  The wolf didn’t seem to get the hint, getting a little louder with it’s growling. It snapped at Belbet’s hands until she pulled them back, but still when she tossed one of their cuts of snake-meat into his snout, he turned those growls onto the meat and lapped up his breakfast.

  “Jesus christ-” Belbet mumbled to herself, shaking her head and turning to go back to the gathering, only to run nose-first into Kaion’s chest. He caught and steadied her as she yelped and nearly fell.

  “Did you just put your hands on an injured wolf?!” He asked, knowing full well the answer. Belbet felt sheepish heat rise to her cheeks, her mouth opening to defend herself, only to be cut off. “Never mind, not important. Come on.”

  Despite his own limping, he tugged her back towards their breakfast. “Eefim and Deenat are going to track the prints and see if they can’t find the woman who left them. In the meantime, you and I are going to watch camp and see if we can’t make progress.”

  “S-Sure!” Belbet acknowledged, startled by how proactive the man was being. …If all she had to do to get more than a few sentences out of him was put herself in danger… nope, still not worth it.

  “So, what’s priority today?” He asked, eyes sharp and warm on her. Belbet swallowed, and took up her food again, shoveling it into her mouth in order to avoid having to speak.

  When she’d composed herself, she chucked her chin towards the smoker, “Obviously we have to get the smoker up and running again, or that snake meat is gonna go to waste. We also need to check the tiles we left drying and make sure none of them got deformed by the rain. I’m also thinking we should build a little roof over the woodpile, so that our wood doesn’t get as wet when it rains. And I want to check our cisterns and see how much water we got from the rain.”

  He nodded, as if keeping track of everything she said. “Sounds like a lot.”

  “Well, Dahnei can probably handle tracking down the sticks to make the roof.” She looked to her daughter who blinked up at her. “Do you think you can find poles like what we used to make the hut?”

  Dahnei considered for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah!”

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  “Perfect. Thank you baby.”

  “And what about the smoker?” Kaion asked, looking to the half-finished thing. Belbet sighed and considered it as well. She should check it for structural integrity, and if it was good to go, she might be able to do their first test run. “I can handle the tiles, if you want to focus on that.”

  “Oh, sure!” Belbet smiled brightly, glad that this was easy enough to compromise about. With their jobs decided, they finished their food and she turned her eyes towards the smoker. Eefim had finished the lid last night and had brought it into the hut with them during the rain, so it was at least somewhat dry.

  After feeling along the inside and outside of the smoker, she determined that the main barrel had in fact not suffered any damage. So, she put some meat on the sticks, and put them through the holes, so that they could do a test run, and then started a fire underneath. She watched as the smoke rose, escaping out of the sides of the lid and the hole in the center.

  “Alright, now we just keep feeding it wood, and in a while, we’ll check on the meat to see if it’s sufficiently smoked.” She sighed, wiping sweat from her brow. The heat of the day was starting to rise, now that the rain was done, and worse, it was humid too. She sighed, turning to check on the garden.

  The rain hadn’t dislodged any of the tiny calendula or echinacea sprouts that were growing there. She smiled, and touched each one with a fingertip, imagining the curling lift of their energy rising to meet her own. Just as every time before, she took a deep breath and as she worked the soil, weeding and adjusting, she imagined her energy sliding through her body and out into the earth, and then returning to her.

  As she did so, she considered what she’d learned from Deenat regarding the beast cores and how they interacted with people. She poked at the little golden ball in her own stomach and wondered if that too was a type of core. She let herself sink into the work while mentally watching the energy pass through the veins of her and into that ball.

  She only came out of it when she heard voices. Looking up, she was startled to see Kaion holding a conversation with two adults she’d never seen before. She headed out of the garden and towards their surprise guests. As she did, Kaion turned and looked towards her, “Ah, here she is.”

  “Greetings!” Belbet put on her best customer service smile, “I’m Belbet of Willowcliff Farm. Nice to meet you!”

  Both men seemed surprised by this response, although the wagging tail on the wolf-eared one indicated this was a happy surprise. The other, whose only animal-esque feature was the snake-skin pattern on his cheeks and yellow, slit-pupiled eyes, raised a hand as if to mimic the wave Belbet had given while coming over.

  “Hi! I’m Mermel, formerly of the Beaver Clan. This is Olleb, of the same clan.” The dog-man explained, grinning brightly. “We were just explaining to your man here, we saw the smoke from your fires during the rain yesterday, and were wondering if we could take shelter with your tribe for a day or two? We’d be happy to trade labor for a bit of food, if you have it. If not, we can find our own.”

  Belbet blinked, “Oh! Well, sure. A few days won’t be a problem. You can help us eat some of the surplus my nephew hunted for us. And, um. Kaion isn’t my man, but he is a part of our Farm, as long as he’d like to be. You two are welcome to the same treatment, or to come and go as you please.”

  She gestured for them to follow her to the main fire. She pulled some of their berry-and-honey punch, and provided it in two rough cups for those two. “As for labor, we can really use some help, actually. We’re running out of hands around here. But, before we talk about that, there are a few ru-” She paused and considered. Rules were made to be broken, but laws… laws had consequences. “A few laws that must be followed.”

  The dog-boy, who’s ears and tail were black-and-white furred, making her think of a husky or maybe a malamute from Victoria’s world, nodded, “Of course!”

  His snake-skinned companion nodded, sending his sleek black hair cascading over his shoulders.

  “One, no violence towards anyone within the Farm will be tolerated. Expulsion or even physical punishment and/or death will be the punishment for that. Second, under no circumstances are either of you to be alone with my or my sister’s children. Same punishments. If they are within sight of Kaion, myself, or my sister, Deenat, then you’re fine. If they are not, the same punishments as for violence will be enacted.”

  The two looked to each other, eyebrow raising on each of them in curiosity, and then nodded.

  “Third, all food found must to brought before the whole Farm, to see if any of it can be useful for other things besides eating. If you wish to keep your own separate, that’s fine, but if you choose to do so, you do not get to share in what the Farm shares. Mealtimes are always shared, three times a day.”

  The Snake frowned, raising a hand, “This seems similar to every other tribe. Why… so specific?”

  “Because punishing you for rules that weren’t explicitly told to you would be unfair.” Belbet explained, smiling. “Now, if you both agree to these rules, let’s get started on making your shelter for however long you’re here.”

  Mini Character List

  Victoria/Belbet - Our Main Character, 21 yr old pregnant Mom. - FRESH MEAT! I mean, LABOR! Yay!

  Dahnei - 5 year old paleolithic child. Daughter of Belbet. Jerboa Mouse-Spirited. - Okay, we know the drill here, stay quiet until Mama tells us it's okay to talk to these people

  Mohniit - 2 year old paleolithic child. Son of Belbet. Rabbit Spirited. - SCARY PEOPLE

  Unborn Baby - I'm fine, just tired.

  Deenat - 25 year old paleolithic gatherer - Ermine Spirited. - If this woman is a danger to my tribe, I'll end her.

  Eefim - 11 year old paleolithic hunter-in-training - Why wouldn't the woman come into the camp?

  Kaion - 26 year old man. Ram Spirited. - New Males. Huh. ... Let's see how this goes.

  Wolf - ...New people. not good.

  Olleb - Such specificness in the rules... have they had problems with this before?

  Mermel- Oh wow... what weirdness.