Page 119 of Mates for the Raskarrans #1-6

Finally, we crest the top of the hill, coming to the old hut.

Back before the sickness, when my tribe brothers were more numerous, it was common for hunters to spend several nights away from the tribe.

There were a number of these huts spread around our territory that they made use of, either as places to rest when on a longer journey, or as a base when hunting creatures that lived in the nearby area.

This hut probably used to be a place where the hunters would return to on their way back from further flung places.

It would have been somewhere for them to do the smelly, dirty work of skinning the animal hides and preparing the meats.

A tanner would probably have lived in the hut for a few days, working the hides into leathers for the village.

It is not a pleasant process, and when many hides needed to be tanned, it would have been better to do so away from the places where the tribe cooked and ate and lived.

Now that we are so few in number, making such allowances for sensitive noses and stomachs is more than we can afford. But perhaps with Darran’s and Walset’s tribes joining with ours, there will be cause to make use of such places again.

For now, the hut is empty except for a few supplies the hunters leave here.

It is somewhere they can sit and eat a meal, if nothing else, as they travel back toward the village.

A place they can rest for a while before the final brief part of their journey.

It is not used often - close to the village as it is, most would want to push on through their hunger to return to the tribe - but there are a few chairs inside, and a basket of travel rations that has not yet spoiled.

I break off a piece and hand it to Lorna.

She wrinkles her nose in distaste - few of the females are fond of the travel rations after eating nothing else while we journeyed from the sands to our home - but follows it with a smile as she takes a mouthful.

I also pass her my canteen, and she sniffs it warily, correctly assuming I have laced the water with juice of djenti berries to aid in her recovery and prolong her strength.

She sighs, then takes several large mouthfuls at once, before handing it back to me, her nose wrinkling as her mouth twists with displeasure.

She does a whole body shudder, then gives me the thumb down ‘bad’ gesture.

I laugh. Perhaps I should have sweetened the drink, as I do for Ahnjas.

I take two of the chairs and set them down outside.

Though we are a little raised here compared to the village, there isn’t a break in the trees, and so the view remains much the same as it was before - tree trunks, leaves and branches as far as the eye can see.

I wonder if the humans think our world bland and limited.

They have travelled across the stars, Gregar has said.

Though he describes their world as a grey and terrible place, they have the power to leave it, to go anywhere that they wish.

Are they happy to have landed in our forest?

Lorna takes a seat and sighs, and I think it is relaxation and happiness that makes her do so. She looks tired, but she is smiling as she looks out upon the land before us. Obligingly, another dors bird flits about between a few of the trees, and I am pleased to see her eyes brighten once again.

It is strange, for the females do not generally like the wildlife here.

I think of Hannah’s expression when she saw the horkat Callif hunted for her - the way she eyed its tusks as if it might still have the life in it to use them.

Ellie and Khadija are not so shy of the creatures.

Ellie’s skill as a huntress improves with every outing she takes with Anghar, and Endzoh would not be happy to mentor Khadija if she squeaked and jumped at every insect that emerged from the leaves.

But even Liv, who is happily mated to Gregar and embracing of most elements of raskarran life, had to fetch her mate to rid their hut of a jorla - an insect with many, many legs along its long, thin body.

Even when Gregar assured her that it would not bite and had no weapons that could harm her, Liv merely used her brows to alert him to her displeasure and so Gregar removed it for her.

“There are no insects in homes where we are from,” Sally explained afterwards. “Give them time to adjust as I have.”

No insects in homes. It is one of many ways that humans show their great power over their environment.

They can control everything. They use tubes made from a strong substance called metal to bring the rivers into their homes so they do not have to collect fresh water each morning.

They have panels they can press in their homes that turn on small fires that burn in their roofs to give them as much light as the sun.

No spending many moments sparking and lighting and building up a fire.

Just one press in the right place and the sun turns on for them.

And yet, they have used all this greatness against each other, the tribe chiefs inflicting great cruelties on the females.

I look at Lorna. Wonder what cruelties she has suffered.

Much as I know it would pain me to hear of them, if I knew what they were, I could maybe soothe them.

Sharing in hurts is one way to ease the sharp edges of them.

I was too young in the days after the sickness took so many of our tribe.

I did not have the fullness in my headspace to truly understand it all.

But the elders had to lean much on each other, and share in their burdens.

I wish there was a way to let Lorna know that if she wanted to lean on me, I would gladly help her bear any burden she carries.

I am so absorbed in my thoughts, I do not notice the drop in temperature until the skies also darken, making the afternoon appear as if it has rushed ahead into evening.

I frown, then gesture for Lorna to wait as I scale the nearest tree, my head breaking out through the canopy to see towering storm clouds rushing towards us, a cold blast of wind signalling their approach.

In the distance, I see a flash of lightning, and leap down to the floor before the thunder sounds.

“We must shelter here a while, Lorna,” I say to her. She cannot understand me, but I hope my calm is clear to her. The storms are rarely dangerous, but they are loud and can be frightening to younglings - and perhaps females who live in a world where nature is not allowed into their homes.

I pick up my chair and gesture for her to get up. She does, a puzzled look on her face, until the rumble of thunder sounds in the distance. Recognition follows, and she raises both hands in the air, wriggling her fingers as she brings them down in a motion that I think is meant to depict rain.

“ Yes ,” I say. “ Much. ”

Lorna nods, then picks up her own chair, much of the weight on her good arm, but her weak arm bearing some. I itch to take it from her, but do not, letting her carry it ahead of me. She wishes to be stronger. To grow in strength involves struggle. Protecting her from it would not serve her.

The rain starts as we close the door, lashing against the roof and the walls of the old hut.

It is not as well cared for as the ones in the village, but it does not give any quarter to the weather, keeping out the rain and the wind alike.

Thunder sounds again, closer and louder this time, and Lorna shivers, wrapping her arms around herself as the temperature continues to drop.

I gesture her toward the side of the hut, where a set of pelts has been left haphazard on a small cot. Not as comfortable as a bed, but enough for the resting traveller. I smell the pelts and find them musty, but not unpleasant. Clean enough to wrap about Lorna’s shoulders to stave off the chill.

And then we are trapped, the two of us together in this hut while we wait for the storm to pass.

I do not have the tools to light a fire, so it is cold and dark, but Lorna is smiling in the gloom, giving me her thumb up hand signal.

She is so close to me, the scent of her perfuming the air, making my headspace dizzy with want.

I keep remembering her bright smile as she watched the dors birds, wishing there is something I could do to make her smile at me that way - with bright, uncomplicated joy.

I ache to touch her.

Again and again, my headspace goes back to Endzoh’s words.

She is not raskarran.

Humans have different ways of mating. I thought to ask Sally what these were, to try to understand the means they use to choose a suitable mate, and then to present myself as such to Lorna, so that she might choose me.

But everything in my heartspace sings to me that this is an opportunity too good to waste.

I send a prayer out to Lina, asking for her blessing.

Then I get to my feet and go to sit on the cot beside Lorna.